Turn Coat (The Dresden Files 11)

"They always have good coffee here," Ebenezar said a few moments later.

"And they don't call it funny names," I said. "It's just coffee. Not frappalattegrandechino."

Ebenezar snorted and sipped from his cup. "Nice trip in?"

"Got tripped up by someone's thugs on the Winter trail."

He grimaced. "Aye. We've had our people harassed several times, the past few months. How are you, Hoss?"

"Uninformed, sir," I said.

He eyed me obliquely. "Mmmm. I did as I thought best, boy. I won't apologize for it."

"Don't expect you to," I said.

He nodded. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think?"

He shook his head. "I won't take you on the strike team, Hoss."

"You think I can't pull my weight?"

He turned his eyes to me. "You have too much history with Morgan. This has got to be dispassionate, and you're just about the least dispassionate person I know."

I grunted. "You're sure it was Morgan who did LaFortier?"

His eyes returned to the fire. "I would never have expected it. But too many things are in place."

"No chance it's a frame?"

Ebenezar blinked and shot me a look. "Why do you ask?"

"Because if the ass is finally getting his comeuppance, I want to make sure it's on the level," I said.

He nodded a couple of times. Then he said, "I don't see how it could have been done. It looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, odds are it's a damn duck. Occam's razor, Hoss."

"Someone could have gotten into his head," I said.

"At his age?" Ebenezar asked. "Ain't likely."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"As a mind grows older, it gets established," he said, "more set in its ways. Like a willow tree. Supple when it's young, but gets more brittle as it ages. Once you've been around a century or so, it generally ain't possible to bend a mind without breaking it."

"Generally?"

"You can't push it that far," Ebenezar said. "Push a loyal man into betraying everything he believes in? You'd drive him insane before you forced him into that. Which means that Morgan made a choice."

"If he did it." I shook my head. "I just keep asking myself who profits most if we axe Morgan ourselves."

Ebenezar grimaced. "It's ugly all the way around," he said, "but there it is. I reckon you 'gazed him, Hoss, but it ain't a lie detector. You know that, too."

I fell silent for a while and sipped coffee. Then I asked, "Just curious. Who holds the sword when you catch him? It's usually Morgan who does the head chopping."

"Captain Luccio, I reckon," Ebenezar said. "Or someone she appoints. But she ain't the kind to foist something like that off on a subordinate."

I got treated to the mental image of Anastasia decapitating her old apprentice. Then of me, taking Molly's head. I shuddered. "That sucks."

Ebenezar kept staring at the fire, and his eyes seemed to sink into his head, as if he had aged twenty years right in front of me. "Aye."

The door to the War Room opened and a slender, reedy little wizard in a tan tweed suit entered, lugging a large portfolio. His short white hair was curled tightly against his head and his fingers were stained with ink. There was a pencil tucked behind one ear, and a fountain pen behind the other. He stopped and peered around the room for a moment, spotted Ebenezar, and bustled right on over.

"Pardon, Wizard McCoy," he said. "If you have a moment, I need you to sign off on a few papers."

Ebenezar put his coffee on the floor and accepted a manila folder from the little guy, along with the fountain pen. "What this time, Peabody?"

"First, power of attorney for the office in Jakarta to purchase the building for the new safe house," Wizard Peabody said, opening the folder and turning a page. Ebenezar scanned it, then signed it. Peabody turned more pages. "Very good. Then an approval on the revision of wages for Wardens-initial there, please, thank you. And the last one is approval for ensuring Wizard LaFortier's holdings are transferred to his heirs."

"Only three?" Ebenezar asked.

"The others are eyes-only, sir."

Ebenezar sighed. "I'll drop by my office when I'm free to sign them."

"Sooner is better, sir," Peabody said. He blinked and seemed to notice me for the first time. "Ah. Warden Dresden. What brings you here?"

"I thought I'd come see if someone wanted help taking Morgan down," I drawled.

Peabody gulped. "I... see."

"Has Injun Joe found anything?" Ebenezar asked.

Peabody's voice became laced with diffident disapproval as he answered. "Wizard Listens-to-Wind is deep in preparations for investigative divination, sir."

"So, no," I said.

Peabody sniffed. "Not yet. Between him and the Merlin, I'm sure they'll turn up precisely how Warden Morgan managed to bypass Senior Council security." He glanced at me and said, in a perfectly polite tone, "They are both wizards of considerable experience and skill, after all."

I glowered at Peabody, but I couldn't think of a good dig before he had accepted the papers and pen back from Ebenezar. Peabody nodded to him and said, "Thank you, sir."

Ebenezar nodded absently as he picked up his coffee cup, and Peabody bustled out again.

"Paper-pushing twit," I muttered under my breath.

"Invaluable paper-pushing twit," Ebenezar corrected me. "What he does isn't dramatic, but his organizational skills have been a critical asset since the outbreak of the war."

I snorted. "Bureaucromancer."

Ebenezar smiled faintly as he finished his cup, the first couple of fingertips of his right hand stained with blue ink. Then he rose and stretched, drawing several faint popping sounds from his joints. "Can't fight a war without clerks, Hoss."

I stared down at my half cup of coffee. "Sir," I said quietly. "Speaking hypothetically. What if Morgan is innocent?"

He frowned down at me for a long moment. "I thought you wanted a piece of him."

"I've got this weird tic where I don't want to watch wrongly accused men beheaded."

"Well, naturally you do. But, Hoss, you've got to underst-" Ebenezar froze abruptly and his eyes widened. They went distant with thought for a moment, and I could all but hear gears turning in his head.

His eyes snapped back to mine and he drew in a slow breath, speaking in a murmur. "So that's it. You're sure?"