of a threat in some ways. I know how to handle it when some slime-covered horror from the pits of Hell jumps up in my face. But it would be easy to let down my guard for someone nearly human.
Speaking of which, I told myself, I was agreeing to help him and taking a job, just as though Thomas were any other client. It probably wasn't the smartest thing I'd ever done. It had the potential to lead to lethally unhealthy decisions.
He fell silent again. Now that I wasn't running and screaming and such, the car started to get uncomfortably cold. I rolled up the window, shutting out the early-autumn air.
"So," he said. "Will you help me out?"
I sighed. "I shouldn't even be in the same car with you. I've got enough problems with the White Council."
"Gee, your own people don't like you. Cry me a river."
"Bite me," I said. "What's his name?"
"Arturo Genosa. He's a motion-picture producer, starting up his own company."
"Is he at all clued in?"
"Sort of. He's a normal, but he's real superstitious."
"Why did you want him to come to me?"
"He needs your help, Harry. If he doesn't get it, I don't think he's going to live through the week."
I frowned at Thomas. "Entropy curses are a nasty business even when they're precise, much less when they're that sloppy. I'd be risking my ass trying to deflect them."
"I've done as much for you."
I thought about it for a moment. Then I said, "Yeah. You have."
"And I didn't ask for any money for it, either."
"All right," I said. "I'll talk to him. No guarantees. But if I do take the case, you're going to pay me to do it, on top of what this Arturo guy shells out."
"This is how you return favors, is it."
I shrugged. "So get out of the car."
He shook his head. "Fine. You'll get double."
"No," I said. "Not money."
He arched an eyebrow and glanced at me over the rims of his green fashion spectacles.
"I want to know why," I said. "I want to know why you've been helping me. If I take the case, you come clean with me."
"You wouldn't believe me if I did."
"That's the deal. Take it or leave it."
Thomas frowned, and we drove for several minutes in silence. "Okay," he said then. "Deal."
"Done," I responded. "Shake on it."
We did. His fingers felt very cold.
Chapter Two
We went to O'Hare. I met Brother Wang in the chapel at the international concourse. He was a short, wiry Asian man in sweeping robes the color of sunset. His bald head gleamed, making his age tough to guess, though his features were wrinkled with the marks of someone who smiles often.
"Miss sir Dresden," he said, breaking into a wide smile as I came in with the box of sleeping puppies. "Our little one dogs you have given to us!"
Brother Wang's English was worse than my Latin, and that's saying something, but his body language was unmistakable. I returned his smile, and offered him the box with a bow of my head. "It was my pleasure."
Wang took the box and set it down carefully, then started gently sorting through its contents. I waited, looking around the little chapel, a plain room built to be a quiet space for meditation, so that those who believed in something would have a place to pay honor to their faith. The airport had redecorated the room with a blue carpet instead of a beige one. They'd repainted the walls. There was a new podium at the front of the room, and half a dozen replacement padded pews.
I guess that much blood leaves a permanent stain, no matter how much cleaner you dump on it.
I put my foot on the spot where a gentle old man had given up his life to save mine. It made me feel sad, but not bitter. If we had it to do again, he and I would make the same choices. I just wished I'd been able to know him longer than I had. It's not everyone who can teach you something about faith without saying a word to do it.
Brother Wang frowned at the white powder all over the puppies, and held up one dust-coated hand with an inquisitive expression.
"Oops," I said.
"Ah," Wang said, nodding. "Oops. Okay, oops." He frowned at the box.
"Something wrong?"
"Is it that all the little one dogs are boxed in?"
I shrugged. "I got all of them that were in the building. I don't know if anyone moved some of them before