The Law (The Dresden Files #17.4)(19)

“I’d owe you a favor,” I said.

Max arched an eyebrow at me, his gaze sharp. “I’m not sure being owed a favor by you is any safer than being in an inflammable building with you,” he told me.

“Maybe not,” I said.

“Have you been out there on the street much lately?” he asked me.

I shook my head.

“Lamar has. So have several good officers I know. Folk of your persuasion… well, let’s say that they aren’t in good odor since the ‘terrorist attack.’ It’s going to get ugly for your people. And it could get ugly for anyone close to them, too.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Scared people can do things they’d never do in normal times.”

“Do you think I’m scared people, Mister Dresden?”

“I think after the battle, it’s reasonable to be afraid.”

“It certainly is.” He glanced from me to my gear in the corner and back. Then he said, “Everything I hear about you says you fight the good fight when you can.”

“Everyone should,” I said.

Max sat back in his seat slowly, his eyes glittering. He took off his spectacles, withdrew a spotless white cloth from his waistcoat, and began polishing them with it, staring down at the spots on his hands as he did. After a long moment, he put the spectacles back on, folded the cloth neatly, and put it away.

“Yes,” he said, and for the first time he smiled at me. His teeth were small and very white. “We should.”





Chapter Twelve





The next evening, I showed up at the nameless son’s office with Maya and Maximillian Valerious in tow. Ms. Lapland, dressed in a grey knit outfit just a little too tight to be entirely professional, looked up as I came in and gave me a look that told me she wanted to grind my bones to make her bread.

“Oh,” I said. “Tripp Gregory must already be here, huh? Because I know how much you like me.”

She glared while smiling at me. “Mister Inverno and Mister Gregory are waiting for you in the meeting room.”

Max was dressed in a linen suit in a number of shades of beige with some light brown oxfords in place of his sandals. Maya looked good in a blue dress. I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt with a Death Star on it made of a Star Wars word cloud (mostly ‘I’ve Got a Bad Feeling About This’), my leather duster, and carrying my staff.

The recent down time combined with more resources than I was used to meant I’d had time to start rebuilding my magical arsenal. I had my force rings back, four on each hand, braids of silver that were made to store kinetic energy, as well as a proper shield bracelet again. I had them all out in plain sight, since now I knew that both Inverno and Lapland were practitioners. They’d know I had walked in armed for bear.

Lapland got up and sashayed to the meeting room performatively. Even Maya noticed, probably. She opened the door for us and asked politely if any of us wanted coffee. We didn’t and filed in to sit in a small meeting room, its walls again filled with books and filing cabinets, a long table in the middle with three chairs on each side. The bookshelf had the occasional oddity on it: a stand holding a cruel-looking curved dagger. The white skull of an enormous bear. What looked like a walrus tusk carved with heavy scrimshaw of a Viking warrior fighting some kind of serpent.

Talvi Inverno, in his all black suit, sat in the center seat, and his eyes narrowed as Maximillian Valerious entered.

Max stopped in the doorway and beamed at him. I’d told Max who Talvi was, in the spirit of full disclosure, but if the old lawyer was nervous, it didn’t show on his face. I’d also spotted half a dozen protective charms on him on the way over, a couple of them actually bearing enough power to make a difference against someone serious. For a guy who didn’t want anything to do with the supernatural, he’d evidently been able to prepare himself against it better than most.

“Who the hell is that guy?” blared Tripp Gregory. He sat next to Talvi in a suit of his own, looking like a respectable businessman.

“That,” the nameless son said, “is Maximillian Valerious, Esquire.” He inclined his head to Max, a fencer’s gesture, and Max returned it in kind. Then Max stepped forward and seated himself in opposition to the nameless son, his movements brisk and businesslike.

I held out a seat for Maya so that she wouldn’t have to sit across from Tripp Gregory, and then I settled down in front of the guy myself.

“I’ve looked over the contract in question,” Max said to Inverno without preamble. “You have a case, but not an unbeatable one.”

Inverno smiled with his lips alone. “I will have experts lined up to establish damages who will convey otherwise.”

Max smiled as hollowly in return. “Do you honestly think any judge is going to look at the particulars of this case and rule in favor of your client?”

“It lies firmly within the four corners, and I believe my experts will lend us weight. But I think that isn’t the question at hand,” Inverno replied. “I think the question is whether or not your client can afford the depositions and fees for experts of your own to counterbalance me.”

Maya glanced nervously at Inverno and then at Max.

Max patted her hand reassuringly without ever looking away from Inverno. “I wouldn’t worry about that, if I were you,” Max said.