Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files #8) - Jim Butcher Page 0,17

one plain, homemade wooden shelf, which held only candles at either end, four romance novels, a Victorias Secret catalog, and a bleached human skull.

A long table ran down the middle of the room, leaving a blank section of floor at the far end kept perfectly clear of any clutter whatsoever. A ring of plain silver was set into the floormy summoning circle. Underneath it lay a foot and a half or so of concrete, and then another heavy metal box, wrapped with its own little circle of wards and spells. Inside the box was a blackened silver coin.

My left palm, which had been so badly burned except for an outline of skin in the shape of Lasciel's angelic symbol, suddenly itched.

I rubbed it against my leg and ignored it.

My worktable had been crowded with material for most of the time it had been down in my lab. But that no longer was the case.

At that point I felt I owed someone an apology. When Murphy had asked me about the money from the Council, the answer Id given her was true enough. Theyd set the pay rate for Wardens in the fiftiesbut even the Council wasnt quite hidebound enough to ignore things like standard inflation, and the Wardens paychecks had kept pace through discretionary funding inmy God, Im starting to sound like part of the establishment.

Long story short. The Wardens have sneaky ways of getting paid more, and the money I was getting from them, while not stellar, was nothing to sneeze at, either. But I hadnt been spending it on things like fixing up my apartment.

Id been spending it on what was on my worktable.

Bob, I said, wake up.

Orangish flames kindled wearily to life inside the open eye sockets of the skull. Oh for crying out loud, a voice from within complained. Cant you take a night off? Itll be finished when its finished, Harry.

No rest for the wicked, Bob, I said cheerfully. And that means we cant slack off either, or theyll outwork us.

The skulls voice took on a whiny tone. But weve been tinkering with that stupid thing every night for six months. Youre growing a cowlick and buck teeth, by the way. You keep this up and youll have to retire to a home for magical geeks and nerds.

Pish tosh, I said.

You cant say pish tosh to that, Bob grumped. You dont even know what it means.

Sure I do. It means spirits of air should shut up and assist their wizard before he sends them out to patrol for fungus demons again.

I get no respect, Bob sighed. Okay, okay. What do you want to do now?

I gestured at the table. Is it ready?

Ready? Bob said. It isnt ever going to be ready , Harry. Your subject is fluid, always changing. Your model must change too. If you want it to be as accurate as possible, its going to be a headache keeping it up to date.

I do, and I know, I told him. So talk. Where are we? Is it ready for a test run?

Put me in the lake, Bob said.

I reached up to the shelf obligingly, picked up the skull, and set it down on the eastern edge of the table.

The skull settled down beside the model city of Chicago. Id built it onto my table, in as much detail as Id been able to afford with my new paycheck. The skyline rose up more than a foot from the tabletop, models of each building made from cast pewteralso expensive, given Id had to get each one made individually. Streets made of real asphalt ran between the buildings, lined with streetlights and mailboxes in exacting detailand all in all, I had the city mapped out to almost two miles from Burnham Harbor in every direction. Detail began to fail toward the outskirts of the model, but as far as Id been able to, I modeled every building, every road, every waterway, every bridge, and every tree with as much accuracy as I knew how.

Id also spent months out on the town, collecting bits and pieces from every feature on my map. Bark from trees, usually. Chips of asphalt from the streets. Id taken a hammer and knocked a chip or two off every building modeled there, and those pieces of the originals had been worked into the structure of their modeled counterparts.

If Id done it correctly, the model would be of enormous value to my work. Id be able to use various techniques to do