Axis and Allies
Sunday
Chapter 1
The sign on the door read simply Harry Dresden, Wizard. For a business office that declaration seemed to me more than enough to explain to those seeking assistance just what types of services were available. Unfortunately, to the average citizen of Chicago the sign served more to confuse than to actually enlighten.
See when you use the term wizard, many people commonly mistake that for the term magician which brings to mind a balding, pointy-bearded man with bad jokes and a top hat filled with rabbit droppings. On the other end of the spectrum are the small group of individuals who love everything they call New Age, which for some reason includes ancient religions and mysticisms such as astrology and fortune telling, and consider wizards as one of the various groups who subscribe to their lifestyle so wish to invite us to tea to chant with them. Let me be firm in explaining that a wizard is neither of these things nor do we enjoy the comparison.
Wizards are not merely an occupation like an accountant. While there are places that purport to teach magic if you stay up late enough to catch one of their commercials on television, and then only from a distance since electronics have this tendency to fail in the presence of true practioners, none of these 'schools' that I know of accomplish more than swindle money from their clients while teaching them to meditate in order to become one with the universe. It seems obvious that many of those New Agers must have a significant amount of disposable income because of all those ready to help them dispose of it.
A wizard is perhaps a little closer to a traditional blacksmith in that to become a true master, you must start out as an apprentice and be taught the necessary skills and pass tests over time. I look upon my own apprenticeship as hardly a pleasant memory since my master seemed to delight in tormenting me at every opportunity and pointing out the smallest of errors. But that is getting a bit ahead of myself. Let me say that while the master-apprentice relationship is followed by true wizards that is about as close as a normal working profession comes to my own.
If I had to define it in simple, understandable terms I would offer that a wizard is most like a concert musician. First you must be born with an inherent talent, for without that a masterful level. Second, to be good, I mean very good, you actually do have to acquire all the practice in the world or so it seems. Did I already mention how unfair life is to give me a master who thought that practice and personal torment were synonymous? So of all the professions you are aware of a world class musician is likely the best comparison, except of course a true comparison would grant musicians the added ability to blast musicians into flaming cinders which all in all most would agree likely make concerts in the park far more interesting to the younger generation.
A wizard is a man or woman (we do not go for sexist titles much in my line of work) with the natural gift to call upon magic. Yes I could spend another ten minutes trying to explain just what I mean by 'magic' but let's just skip over that and agree that it is merely another type of energy. You probably do not handle nuclear fission on a daily basis, so put magic in the same category and we can get on with the story.
Anyway I was in the office, yes the one that said 'Harry Dresden, Wizard' on the door, cleaning the place up a bit when I noticed Mouse raise his head in warning as if someone was headed to the door. Despite his name, Mouse is a two-hundred pound lap dog wannabe that is smarter than almost all of my friends, not that I have a lot being a wizard and all. The fact that Mouse alerted is something that usually grabs my attention for the dog senses things that others cannot. I shook out my small bracelet of shield charms and turned toward the door noting that Mouse appeared focused and ready for trouble if it happened to come a callin, but for right now was content to stay right where he was. The fact that this placed him squarely between me and the door was not lost on either of us.
A shadow moved across the glass, looking like one of those old private eye movies from the black and white era of television that my father enjoyed. The movement had been too fast to make out any features and seemed to pass right on past the door without stopping. I waited a second and would have returned to my cleaning chores if Mouse's continued stare did not inform me that the visitor was not gone yet. Normally a wizard carries a blasting rod to aim at the door for insurance during just this type of situation, but I did not have such a thing handy at the moment. I would have to rely solely upon my shield bracelet and my own skills if it came down to a fight. Well my skills and a two hundred pound dog. All in all that was not a bad combination; in fact I had been in a situation or two in the not so distant past where this mix had saved me from some really bad things.
The shadow appeared outside the door once again, this time more hesitant in its movements than last time as if trying to decide its course of action. The office was not a home, so the natural protections offered by a threshold would not apply as well as it would where I lived. I saw a dark object rise up and then strike on the frame next to the glass, making the pane rattle. Three distinct knocks, neither too hard to show anger or too soft to show despair. Okay, something in between; which left by definition everything else.
I ran through my mind quickly if I had posted all the utility payments on time this month. Having the electric company show up to shut off the office power hardly proclaims 'expert consultant on all things magical' to prospective customers. On the flip side that is far more acceptable to the other businesses in the building that having the door ripped from the hinges by something that should be confined solely to nightmares. That had happened at this very door a few years ago and the repetition of this event was to be avoided if at all possible. Again, Mouse's mostly calm demeanor made me confident that this was unlikely.
I was really in one of those positions of circumstance though where there was truly no reason for me to open the door. It's not like the office of Harry Dresden, Wizard was looking for business clients at the moment. In fact, I came up with half a dozen good reasons just in those few seconds why answering the door was a bad idea entirely. Almost every one of those reasons also looked like something from out of a horror movie, or at least a bad rendition of a Twilight Saga book. I figured I could just stand here quietly and whoever was on the other side of the door would give up and go away right? Well it seemed like a good plan at the time.
Another three knocks rang out on the door, as if the individual beyond though that perhaps anyone in the twenty by twenty foot room would have failed to hear the first set. This time though it was accompanied by a voice, a female voice. "Mr. Dresden, are you there?" She asked with an obvious nervousness in her tone. "I need to talk to you." Another long pause passed as she built up her resolve for the final statement I just knew was coming. "It's a matter of life and death."
I should tell you that life and death mean different things to a wizard than it does to other people. Life to a normal person is a happy family with a spouse, two kids, and a host of pets on some nicely manicured law and friendly neighborhood. Yeah, we wizards do not really understand what you people call Life. On the other hand Death for us usually entails something from out of your deepest nightmares that yanks small yet vital parts out of your still living body and slowly devours them before your eyes. See Death to a wizard is not really something regular people spend much time thinking about. Therefore, the claim of life or death meant as much in urgency as peanut butter and jelly as a reason to open the door.
"Mr. Dresden, are you in there?" The voice asked one more time almost pleadingly. Thankfully, I was through proper genetics mostly immune to women in distress.
All was going according to plan when my 'partner' literally blew it. I am not sure what had prompted me to buy Mouse a philly cheese steak sandwich on the way over here, but his digestion track chose this moment to make its grand announcement of enjoyment from his opposite end in a noise that was half enraged city cabbie on the horn and half novice tuba player with too much lung power. I will spare you the vivid description of just what the smell reminded me of. I looked at Mouse who somewhat sheepishly looked over his shoulder at me as if to communicate "Hey, you bought me the sandwich" and said between clenched teeth so I could breath as little as possible "Traitor!"
Knowing my attempt at stealth had been blown out the window, I had to answer the door, though whether the woman outside still wanted to speak to Harry Dresden or not now was questionable. Such introductions hardly make for good first impressions. I scooted past Mouse, flipping open the window, then went to the door and opened the two locks and a chain and pulled the door toward me.
The woman on the other side was momentarily shocked by my appearance and I took this instant to get a good look at her. She was tall, taller than me even, with blonde hair, and crystal blue eyes. She wore a prim and proper gray business suit that accentuated she was a woman, without over accentuating this fact the way some would with a typical low cut blouse, high slit skirt, or five inch heels. She probably could have been a model, and I was happy not to sense anything 'other worldly' about her that might mean she was a vampire, faire, or a thousand other lovely and deadly creatures we wizards deal with regularly.
"Harry Dresden?" She said in obvious confusion. I of course could understand this confusion as I certainly look nothing like a Harry. Mom said the moment I was born that I looked like a Molly and that name has served me pretty well for the approximate two decades of my life so far. Harry Dresden was my wizard master, and apart from his constant tormenting of his faithful, obedient, and undeserving apprentice, he was a great guy. I was certainly not Harry Dresden, though I must admit my mother said since becoming his apprentice I seemed to think and speak like him more and more. Of course I think she is just nuts.
I guess I should also mention that there are many types of wizards just like there are many types of musicians and we each tend to specialize on those gifts where our strongest potential lies. For the real Harry Dresden that tends to be the confrontational magics that involved a lot of explosions, fires, and screaming. I on the other hand, being a far more enlightened and gentle soul, have been gifted with emotional related magics tied to senses and feelings. While not nearly as flashy as Harry, I have found subtly often can work just as well as brute force if one knows how and when to apply it.
Therefore, being fairly empathic by magical nature I could sense the confusion in the woman standing across from me. That confusion seemed to be slipping away into full fledged despair with every breath as the silence continued between us. I had failed to answer this woman, who I now noted was likely close to my own age though appeared more mature at first glance from her choice in wardrobe. Her hopes had seemingly been dashed by my appearance and the remaining shards of them were grinding completely away to powder with every passing second.
"I am sorry to disturb you." She said. "I was looking for the wizard Harry Dresden from the phonebook. I thought only magic might be able to help me now."
This is one of those moments where commonsense says speak the truth. Anyone who proclaims that their only hope is magic is either a nut job or in some actually serious trouble. Neither of these situations lends themselves to the rationale person jumping into with both feet. Of course, Harry probably would not think twice. Not that he would be swayed by this mysterious blonde's beauty. Oh no not my master Harry! No, he would be swayed by her appeal for help alone. I mean I might understand if his plans involved a little seduction on the side, I know my own life could certainly be enlivened by this, but not Harry. He would simply jump in the deep end without looking to help because he had been asked to. What an idiot!
And of course because Harry's last words to me before he left on some sort of secret business were "take care of the place while I'm gone" I suppose I had a moral obligation to do what I could for her. I suspect this means in the grand scheme of the universe that I am an even bigger idiot!
"I'm Harry Dresden." I said trying to offer a cool demeanor to my declaration. As I said most of my magical gifts center around emotions and senses and while it is illegal under the laws of magic for me to purposefully manipulate the mind of another through my gifts, I had learned that my abilities had a passive element to them as well that made people around me more likely to sense the emotions I was offering and accept them with less skepticism than they normally would otherwise. I had inadvertently been using this on my parents for years, which explained how I got away with some things such as sneaking out to go to concerts that should have left me busted and grounded for a year.
Now, exuding a sense of confidence that I really was not feeling I continued. "My father wanted a son and Harry sounds more believable as an investigator than Harriet when potential customers stop by looking for help." I smiled to evoke the confidence vibe to enhance my own lying ability. "Besides it saved me paying for two additional letters on my door!" I laughed and she smiled politely.
"But a woman investigator?" She said as if she had just stepped out of the 1950's.
"Hey it worked for Remington Steele." I said remembering the show from TVLand when I would come home way past curfew. She seemed confused by this reference but I opened the door wider and invitingly. "Why don't you come in Ms. …?"
"Brown." She said nodding and stepping past me and through the door. While the window was open, the few moments had hardly been enough to cover up the lingering smell and in fact only likely circulated Mouse's aroma. This caused Ms. Brown to look at me askew.
"It wasn't me it was the dog." I said with a smile without turning to point to a bare spot where Mouse had been sitting only moments ago then from her reaction looked also. Of course there was no sign of the two hundred pound beast for me to see, and more importantly neither did Ms. Brown. Not even my passive manipulations of emotions can overcome what other senses seem to indicate as a bold faced lie. I resigned myself to this and pointed her to the couch and said 'traitor' once more under my breath. This is hardly the start to a beautiful friendship I might have hoped for. "So tell me." I said sitting on the edge of the desk, looking confident in my jeans and t-shirt. "Why do you need a wizard?"
"I have to find someone immediately." She said. All in all hardly an abnormal request, though one that did not immediately cry out for the services of a wizard for hire.
"I think you need to go to the police." I said
"No." She replied. "He made me promise never to involve the police." She seemed torn on this issue like she knew the police were a good option but that her promise meant more.
"Well then a private investigator." I replied. "It's not that I am not looking for work…" Actually I wasn't but I did not want word to get around that Harry did not need customers. If anyone could use some extra money to live a little better it was certainly him. "..it's just I do not see why you think a wizard is the answer to your problems."
She bit her lip as if debating on telling me anything further and I stretched back and patiently waited. Actually, if this is all there was to being a wizard for hire I might paint my own name on the door as well. Of course I would use a more stylish letter font and probably pink to jazz it up, but hey Harry is just old school.
"Eric is in a cult… or a coven... or whatever you magicians call a group of yourselves these days." She answered then looked guilty for saying so in a condescending tone.
"First of all we call ourselves wizards." I explained. "Yes, even the women." I cut off her obvious question. "Second cults are religion based and mostly for people in Hollywood who feel bad about making so much money. Covens are historically for those of us with the gift, but the name fell out of vogue when we started getting burned at the cross for being members. You can just say he hangs out with others who are gifted, if that is what they truly are." I said calmly trying to reel in her desperate emotions quite subtly. "The odds are that what he is actually part of is a scam to take his money."
"Eric does not have much money, he is an immigrant from Brazil." She explained.
"Legal?" I asked. She looked at me without answering which served to answer the question well enough and also explain just why the police were not to be involved in this.
"Look I know what I saw and these guys he is with are dangerous." Ms. Brown continued. "I watched them focus on a guy and make him step out into the road right in front of a truck."
That revelation brought me up short. There were certainly spells able to make people do what she had just described, but these were all powers like my own; ones that caused manipulation of the mind but on a much deeper and stronger level like hypnotism. This action she was describing also meant the spells were black magic and completely forbidden by the White Council that rules over all wizards.
"Are you sure they did not just take credit for an accident?" I asked, hoping it would be so.
"No." She answered. "They talked about what they planned to do hours ahead of time. They even picked the target. A guy they said was an undesirable and therefore not worthy of life anyway. Then they tracked him down from the museum where he works and followed him until they made him walk in front of the truck."
"Dammit." I thought to myself. I have so far failed to mention that I had a bit of a history with the White Council, those same lords who make the laws and sit in judgment over those of us born with the gift. You see not all that long ago I saved the life of my boyfriend by invading his mind in a similar manner to what Ms. Brown described. I admit this is not the smartest thing I have ever done, and it certainly put me in bad with the White Council; bad as in death sentence bad. But damn it I saved his life! Why can't they see the good I was able to do even if I broke one of their tiny laws in the process? And of course to reverse the execution order they placed upon me that Harry was to carry out, Harry had promised to train me and to accept my execution fate as well if I broke another such law. Yeah, Harry is an idiot most of the time, and really annoying as a master, but I do love the guy.
Of course this whole thing put me smack dab in the middle of another quandary. When the death sentence was suspended, part of my oath was to agree to live under the rules of the White Council. Well one of those rules is to hunt down anyone found violating those rules. With Harry out of town it was just possible that someone on the White Council might have created this whole situation merely to see if I would do what I had sworn to do and turn in someone who was probably not all that different from who I had been. If I did not, even if the whole thing was a setup, they would still have the grounds to execute Harry and me.
"Alright I will start by looking into it by talking to a friend of mine on the police force. Don't worry I will not mention any names, just see if this hit and run actually happened the way you said it did." I said trying to mask the conflicting emotions now running through my own mind so as to not confuse her even more. "If your story checks out and the guy's autopsy does not show he was hopped up on Meth or something, then I will agree to look for Eric and we can meet again and you can give me a picture of him and any other useful information you might have to help me search."
She merely nodded. "How much is this going to cost me?" She asked a bit timidly.
"It's five hundred dollars a week, in cash, and in advance." I said making up what I thought was an outrageous number. I expected to have to come down to about two hundred but it seemed good to negotiate.
"Oh thank God." She said and immediately opened up her purse and pulled out a fist-sized roll of hundred dollar bills. She counted off ten and laid them on the desk. "Two weeks in advance should be agreeable?" She asked and I merely nodded. I was so mesmerized by a quick thousand that I looked once more to the door and could really picture pink letters saying Molly Carpenter right underneath Harry's name.
"That will be just fine." I said rolling them back up and hiding them where women the world over place their valuables like this. In the process my necklace and cross fell out and hung in front of me, catching Ms. Brown's eye. It was not like one of those vampire moments where the creature sees a crucifix and screams, but rather she saw it and seemed to actually relax.
"You are a Christian?" She asked amazed.
"Roman Catholic actually." I said. My mother would do terrible things to me if I even thought not to admit proudly what faith our family was. I must admit I still found it comforting at times.
"I thought wizards were a religion." She said.
"No. Well actually some see it that way. But for the rest of us our choice in faiths are completely our own." I answered.
She paused again and bit her lip as she came to another decision. "You should know that Eric and his friends see themselves as religious too." She said hesitantly.
"Like I said, that is not a problem." I answered. "What we choose to believe has nothing to do with our occupation. If you are worried about the whole Exodus 22:18 Thou Shall Not Suffer a Witch to Live thing you should know this is one of those laws that changed in the New Testament." I explained quoting one of Harry's lessons.
"Maybe that explains why Eric's friends have such an issue with Jews." She said. "They don't follow the new laws."
I thought about this statement for a moment as Ms. Brown gathered up her things to depart. "I'm staying at the Airport Hilton if you need to get in touch with me." She said and I merely nodded making a mental note of this. In truth my mind barely registered her departure by the closing of the door, or Mouse's return from lying under Harry's desk while she was here. Instead I was focused on the dozens of ways I could screw up and get both myself and Harry executed for violating White Council law. I shuddered at the thought until Mouse sat next to me and laid his big head on my lap looking for scratches. His big eyes looked up at me as if to say "Molly, everything will be alright, if you just scratch my ears for a bit." I smiled at him and hoped he was correct and then did just as he asked. It seems there is a new wizard in Chicago town…and her name is Molly Carpenter.