Business came first. Always.
But I have rules.
I looked up at Justine.
"She's a child," I said quietly.
The air in the room snapped tight with tension.
"Ms. Gard," I said, "please dismiss the contractors for the day, at pay. Then raise the defenses."
She pocketed the whetstone and strode quickly out, her teeth showing, a bounce in her step.
"Mr. Hendricks, please scramble our troubleshooters. They're to take positions across the street. Suppressed weapons only. I don't need patrolmen stumbling around in this. Then ready the panic room."
Hendricks nodded and got out his cell phone as he left. His huge, stubby fingers flew over its touchscreen as he sent the activation text message. Looking at him, one would not think him capable of such a thing. But that is Hendricks, generally.
I looked at Justine as I rose and walked to my closet. "You will go with the child into the panic room. It is, with the possible exception of Dresden's home, the most secure location in the city."
"Thank you," she said quietly.
I took off my coat and hung it up in the closet. I took off my tie and slipped it over the same hanger. I put my cuff links in my coat pocket, rolled up my sleeves, and skinned out of my gun's holster. Then I slipped on the armored vest made of heavy scales of composite materials joined to sleeves of quite old-fashioned mail. I pulled an old field jacket, olive drab, over the armor, belted it, holstered my sidearm at my side, oppo
site a combat knife, and took a military-grade assault shotgun--a weapon every bit as illegal as my pistol in the city of Chicago--from its rack.
"I am not doing it for you, young lady," I said. "Nor am I doing it for the child."
"Then why are you doing it?" she asked.
"Because I have rules," I said.
She shook her head gently. "But you're a criminal. Criminals don't have rules. They break them."
I stopped and looked at her.
Justine blanched and slid a step farther away from me, along the wall. The child made a soft, distressed sound. I beckoned curtly for her to follow me as I walked past her. It took her a moment to do so.
Honestly.
Someone in the service of a vampire ought to have a bit more fortitude.
This panic room looked like every other one I've had built: fluorescent lights, plain tile floor, plain drywall. Two double bunks occupied one end of the room. A business desk and several chairs took up the rest. A miniature kitchen nestled into one corner, opposite the miniature medical station in another. There was a door to a half bath and a bank of security monitors on the wall between them. I flicked one switch that activated the entire bank, displaying a dozen views from hidden security cameras.
I gestured for Justine to enter the room. She came in and immediately took a seat on the lower bunk of the nearest bed, still holding the child.
"Mag can find her," Gard told me when we all rendezvoused outside the panic room. "Once he's inside the building and gets past the forward area, he'll be able to track her. He'll head straight for her."
"Then we know which way he'll be moving," I said. "What did you find out about his support?"
"They're creatures," Gard said, "actual mortal beings, though like none you've seen before. The fomor twist flesh to their liking and sell the results for favors and influence. It was probably the fomor who created those cat-things the Knights of the Blackened Denarius used."
I twisted my mouth in displeasure at the name. "If they're mortal, we can kill them."
"They'll die hard," Gard warned me.
"What doesn't?" I looked up and down the hallway outside the panic room. "I think the primary defense plan will do."
Gard nodded. She had attired herself in an armored vest not unlike my own over a long mail shirt. Medieval looking, but then modern armorers haven't aimed their craft at stopping claws of late. Hendricks, standing watch at the end of the hall, had on an armored vest but was otherwise covered in modified motorcyclist's armor. He carried an assault shotgun like mine, several hand grenades, and that same broadsword.