Wont be long, she promised.
Dammit, I said, dancing from one foot to the next.
Dresden? Grey asked.
What?
A chorus of moaning wails echoed through the vault as if from a great distance.
Grey pursed his lips. Should that Way be standing open like that?
I whipped my head around and stared at the Way. The only light on the other side came from the Way itself, but that was just enough to show me a huge figure step to the Way. Its hairy kneecap was level with my sternum. Then it knelt down, and a huge, ugly humanoid face with a monobrow and one enormous eye in the center of its forehead peered hungrily at me.
I gripped my staff and drew together my will. Just once I want something go according to plan, I snarled. Disperdorius.
Energy left me in a dizzying wave, and the outline of the Way folded in on itself and vanished, taking the cyclops with it. I turned from the collapsing Way back to the vault door, even before the light show had finished playing out.
There was a little phunt sound, followed by a hissing, and I turned to find Valmont holding a miniature welding torch of some kind, hooked to a pair of little tanks by rubber hoses. She passed a steel-shafted screwdriver to Grey and said, I need an L-shape.
Grey grunted, took the thing in both hands, and narrowed his eyes. Then, with an abrupt movement and a blur in the shape of his forearms, he bent the screwdrivers shaft to a right angle.
Slide it inside the socket where he broke it off, here, and hold it, she said.
Grey did. Valmont slid a strip of metal of some kind into the hole, held a little square of dark plastic up to protect her vision from the brilliant light of the torch, and sparks started to fly up from the door. She worked on it for about five hundred years that probably fit inside a couple of minutes, and then the torch started running out of fuel and faltered.
Hold it still, she said. Okay, let go.
Grey released the screwdrivers handle, which now stuck out of the original fitting in approximately the same attitude as the original handle.
Do it. Lets go, I said.
No, Valmont snapped. These materials arent proper and Im none too sanguine about that braze. Weve got to let it cool or youll only break it off and I havent the fuel for a second try. Sixty seconds.
Dammit, I said, pacing back and forth. Okay, when we get out, Im heading for the house as fast as I can get there. Michael, I want you to get to a phone and
Im going with you, Michael said.
I turned to face him and said in a brutally flat, practical tone, Your leg is hurt. Youll slow me down.
His jaw clenched. A muscle twitched.But he nodded.
And youll need to help the others get clear of the bank. Hopefully without getting shot to pieces on the way. Get clear, find a phone and warn Charity. Maybe shell have time to get them to the panic room.
Hell burn the house down around them, Michael said quietly.
Like hell he will, I said. Follow along as quick as you can.
He nodded. Then, silently, he offered me the hilt of Amoracchius.
Cant take that from you, I said.
Its not mine, Harry, he said. I just kept it for a while.
I put my fingers on the hilt, and then shook my head and pushed it back toward him. The Sword had tremendous powerbut it had to be used with equally tremendous care, and I had neither the background nor the disposition for it. Murphy knew she shouldnt have been using Fidelacchius, but last night she drew it anyway and now its gone. Im no genius. But I learn eventually.
Michael smiled at me a little. Youre a good man, Harry. But youre making the same mistake Nicodemus always hasand the same one Karrin did.
What mistake?
You all think the critical word in the phrase Sword of Faith is sword.
I frowned at him.
The world always thinks that the destruction of a physical vessel is victory, he said quietly. But the Savior was more than merely cells and tissue and chemical compoundsand Fidelacchius is more than wood and steel.
Its gone, Michael, I said quietly. Sometimes the bad guys win one.
Sometimes they seem to. But only for a time.
How can you know that?
I cant know, he said, his face lighting with a sudden smile. Thats why they call it faith, Harry. Youll see.
Grey, I noticed, was staring at Michael intently.
Time, Valmont said. She reached up and braced the shaft of the screwdriver with her fingers. Then, very gently, she turned the handle.
The vault door let out a heavy click, and swung open.
Lets get moving, I said.
Assuming Binder lets us, Grey added.
We pushed out of the vault and into the secure room, and found the place absolutely wrecked. The exterior of the vault had been pocked with dents half an inch deep. More dents and smears covered the security boxes on the other two walls. The wall that had contained the mines was simply gone, bared to the concrete beneath, and that had been chewed and mangled by ricocheting ball bearings, some of which were still visible, buried in the wall. The floor was covered in gravel and debris.
Dammit, I said, dancing from one foot to the next.
Dresden? Grey asked.
What?
A chorus of moaning wails echoed through the vault as if from a great distance.
Grey pursed his lips. Should that Way be standing open like that?
I whipped my head around and stared at the Way. The only light on the other side came from the Way itself, but that was just enough to show me a huge figure step to the Way. Its hairy kneecap was level with my sternum. Then it knelt down, and a huge, ugly humanoid face with a monobrow and one enormous eye in the center of its forehead peered hungrily at me.
I gripped my staff and drew together my will. Just once I want something go according to plan, I snarled. Disperdorius.
Energy left me in a dizzying wave, and the outline of the Way folded in on itself and vanished, taking the cyclops with it. I turned from the collapsing Way back to the vault door, even before the light show had finished playing out.
There was a little phunt sound, followed by a hissing, and I turned to find Valmont holding a miniature welding torch of some kind, hooked to a pair of little tanks by rubber hoses. She passed a steel-shafted screwdriver to Grey and said, I need an L-shape.
Grey grunted, took the thing in both hands, and narrowed his eyes. Then, with an abrupt movement and a blur in the shape of his forearms, he bent the screwdrivers shaft to a right angle.
Slide it inside the socket where he broke it off, here, and hold it, she said.
Grey did. Valmont slid a strip of metal of some kind into the hole, held a little square of dark plastic up to protect her vision from the brilliant light of the torch, and sparks started to fly up from the door. She worked on it for about five hundred years that probably fit inside a couple of minutes, and then the torch started running out of fuel and faltered.
Hold it still, she said. Okay, let go.
Grey released the screwdrivers handle, which now stuck out of the original fitting in approximately the same attitude as the original handle.
Do it. Lets go, I said.
No, Valmont snapped. These materials arent proper and Im none too sanguine about that braze. Weve got to let it cool or youll only break it off and I havent the fuel for a second try. Sixty seconds.
Dammit, I said, pacing back and forth. Okay, when we get out, Im heading for the house as fast as I can get there. Michael, I want you to get to a phone and
Im going with you, Michael said.
I turned to face him and said in a brutally flat, practical tone, Your leg is hurt. Youll slow me down.
His jaw clenched. A muscle twitched.But he nodded.
And youll need to help the others get clear of the bank. Hopefully without getting shot to pieces on the way. Get clear, find a phone and warn Charity. Maybe shell have time to get them to the panic room.
Hell burn the house down around them, Michael said quietly.
Like hell he will, I said. Follow along as quick as you can.
He nodded. Then, silently, he offered me the hilt of Amoracchius.
Cant take that from you, I said.
Its not mine, Harry, he said. I just kept it for a while.
I put my fingers on the hilt, and then shook my head and pushed it back toward him. The Sword had tremendous powerbut it had to be used with equally tremendous care, and I had neither the background nor the disposition for it. Murphy knew she shouldnt have been using Fidelacchius, but last night she drew it anyway and now its gone. Im no genius. But I learn eventually.
Michael smiled at me a little. Youre a good man, Harry. But youre making the same mistake Nicodemus always hasand the same one Karrin did.
What mistake?
You all think the critical word in the phrase Sword of Faith is sword.
I frowned at him.
The world always thinks that the destruction of a physical vessel is victory, he said quietly. But the Savior was more than merely cells and tissue and chemical compoundsand Fidelacchius is more than wood and steel.
Its gone, Michael, I said quietly. Sometimes the bad guys win one.
Sometimes they seem to. But only for a time.
How can you know that?
I cant know, he said, his face lighting with a sudden smile. Thats why they call it faith, Harry. Youll see.
Grey, I noticed, was staring at Michael intently.
Time, Valmont said. She reached up and braced the shaft of the screwdriver with her fingers. Then, very gently, she turned the handle.
The vault door let out a heavy click, and swung open.
Lets get moving, I said.
Assuming Binder lets us, Grey added.
We pushed out of the vault and into the secure room, and found the place absolutely wrecked. The exterior of the vault had been pocked with dents half an inch deep. More dents and smears covered the security boxes on the other two walls. The wall that had contained the mines was simply gone, bared to the concrete beneath, and that had been chewed and mangled by ricocheting ball bearings, some of which were still visible, buried in the wall. The floor was covered in gravel and debris.
