six,” took a file folder from beneath her chair, and passed it to me.
“You wish,” Thomas drawled lazily.
I eyed him and opened the folder. There were multiple pages inside, color aerial and satellite photos of the ruins.
“Good grief,” I said. “How did you get these?”
“Internet,” Murphy said calmly. “We’ve got an idea of where they’re setting up and what security measures they’ll need to take, but before we can talk about an approach, we need to know where we’re going to arrive.”
I stroked a thumb over my mother’s gem and consulted the knowledge stored there. Then I went through the maps until I found one of the proper scale, picked up a pen from the table, and drew an X on the map. “Here. It’s about five miles north of the pyramid.”
Thomas whistled quietly.
“What?” I asked him. “You can’t do five miles?”
“Five miles of sidewalk, sure,” Thomas said. “Five miles of jungle is a bit different, Dresden.”
“He’s right,” Martin said. “And at night, too.”
Thomas spread his hands.
“Have done a little jungle,” Sanya said, coming over to study the map. “How bad is the bush there?”
“Tougher than the lower Amazon, not as bad as Cambodia,” Martin said calmly.
Sanya grunted. Thomas wrinkled his nose in distaste. I tried to pretend that Martin had given me some kind of tangible information, and idly wondered if Thomas and Sanya were doing the same thing as me.
“How long, Martin?” I asked him.
“Two hours, bare minimum. Could be more, depending.”
I grunted. Then I said, “We’ll see if Lea can’t do something to help us along.”
The room went still.
“Um,” Murphy said. “Your psycho faerie godmother? That Lea?”
“Harry, you told me she was dangerous,” Molly said.
“And I still have the scar to prove it,” Thomas added.
“Yes,” I said quietly. “She’s powerful and by any reasonable standard she’s insane and she’s currently pointed in the direction of our enemy. So we’re going to use her.”
“We’re using her, are we?” Sanya asked, grinning.
“He told us what Toot said about Mab, Harry,” Molly said softly.
There was a long stretch of quiet.
“You made a deal,” Murphy said.
“Yeah, I did. For Maggie, I did.” I looked around the room. “I’m me until this is all over. That was part of the deal. But if there’s anyone here who wants to bail on me and Susan, do it now. Otherwise, feel free to keep your mouth closed about the subject. My daughter doesn’t have time for us to debate the ethics of a choice that isn’t any of your goddamned business anyway.”
I looked around the room and Sanya said, “I am going. Who else goes with us?”
Mouse sneezed.
“I figured that,” I told him.
He wagged his tail.
“Me, obviously,” Martin said.
Murphy nodded. Molly did, too. Then Thomas rolled his eyes.
“Good,” I said. “Lea will probably have something to speed the trip,” I said.
“She’d better,” Thomas said. “Time’s short.”
“We will be there in time,” Sanya said confidently.
I nodded. Then I said, “And I have a favor to ask two of you.”
I put the bag down and pulled Fidelacchius from where I’d tied it. The ancient katana-style Sword had a smooth wooden handle that perfectly matched the wood of its sheath, so that when the weapon was sheathed it looked innocuous, appearing to be a slightly curved, sturdy stick of a good size to carry while walking. The blade was razor-sharp. I had dropped a plastic drinking straw across it as an experiment once. The rate of fall had been all the exquisite weapon had needed to slice the straw neatly in half.
“Karrin,” I said, and held out the Sword.
Sanya’s eyebrows climbed toward the roof.
“I’ve . . . been offered that Sword before, Harry,” she said quietly. “Nothing’s changed since then.”
“I’m not asking you to take up the mantle of a Knight,” I said quietly. “I want to entrust it to you for this night, for this purpose. This sword was made to fight darkness, and there’s going to be plenty to go around. Take it up. Just until my girl is safe.”
Murphy frowned. She looked at Sanya and said, “Can he do this?”
“Can you?” Sanya asked, looking at me.
“I was entrusted as the Sword’s guardian,” I said calmly. “Exactly what am I supposed to do with it if it is not my place to choose the Sword’s bearer to the best of my ability?”
Sanya considered that for a moment, then shrugged. “Seems implicit to me. They gave you the power of choice when they entrusted you with the Swords. One of those things they seem to tell