"You heard me," the girl snapped. "Stand down!"
"Who are you?" Morgan asked.
"Morgan," Ramirez said. "Dresden was telling the truth. This is Captain Luccio."
"No," Morgan said, shaking his head, but his voice lacked his usual absolute conviction. "No, it's a lie."
"It's no lie," Ramirez said. "I soulgazed her. It's the captain."
Morgan's lips worked soundlessly, but he didn't release the strike he held ready in his hand.
"Morgan," the girl said, quietly this time. "It's all right. Stand down."
"You aren't the captain," Morgan mumbled. "You can't be. It's a trick."
The girl, Luccio, abruptly put on a lopsided smile. "Donald," she said. "Dear idiot. I'm the one who trained you. I am fairly certain that you do not know as much as I do about who I am." Luccio lifted her arm and showed Morgan the silver rapier she'd carried before. She took it in her hand and whipped it in a circle, eliciting a steady, humming power, as I'd felt before. "There. Could another so employ my own blade?"
Morgan stared at her for a moment. Then his hand dropped, suddenly limp, the power he'd held draining away.
My heart started beating again, and I leaned heavily against Sue's flank.
Ramirez holstered his gun and helped the new Luccio over to Morgan's side, then lowered her gently to the ground beside him.
"You're hurt," Morgan said. His own face had gone white with pain. "How bad is it?"
Luccio tried a small smile. "I'm afraid I aimed too well. The wound has done for me. It may take some time, that's all."
"My God," Morgan said. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I saw Dresden shoot you and… while you were bleeding. Needed help."
Luccio raised a weak hand. "No time," she said gently.
Ramirez had bent over Morgan, meanwhile, and was examining the gunshot wound. The bullet had caught Morgan in the back of one leg, and it looked messy. "Dammit," Ramirez said. "It hit his knee. It's shattered." He placed his fingers lightly over Morgan's knee, and the older Warden abruptly twisted in pain, his face gone bloodless. "He can't walk."
Luccio nodded. "Then it's up to you." She looked over at me. "And you, Warden Dresden."
"What about Kowalski?" I said.
Ramirez paled. He glanced back at the apartment building and shook his head. "He was sitting on the floor when the specters rose out of it. He never had a chance."
"No time," Luccio said weakly. "You must go."
Butters came marching over to us, drum still beating, his face pale. "Okay," he said. "I'm ready. Let's do it."
"Not you, Butters," I said. "Sue just needs to be able to hear the drum. She'll hear it over there just as well as if you were on her back. I want you to stay here."
"But- "
"I can't afford to spare effort to protect you," I told him. "And I don't want to leave the wounded here alone. Just keep the drum beating."
"But I want to go with you. I want to help. I'm not afraid to"-he swallowed, face pale-"die fighting beside you."
"Look at it this way," I said. "If we blow it, you get to die anyhow."
Butters stared at me for a second, and then said, "Gee. Now I feel better."
"I believe that there's a cloud for every silver lining," I said. "Come on, Ramirez."
Ramirez's grin returned. "Everyone else who lets me ride on their dinosaur calls me Carlos."
I climbed back up into the first saddle, and Ramirez settled into the second.
"God be with you, Harry," Butters said, marching in place on the ground, his face worried.
Given whom I had chosen as my ally, I sort of doubted that if God went with me it would be to assist me. "I'll take whatever help I can get," I said aloud, and laid my hand on Sue's hide. She lurched up from her crouch, and I turned her toward the site of the vortex.
"You're hurt," Ramirez said. He kept his voice pitched very low.
"I can't feel it," I said. "I'll worry about the rest if there's a later. You've got great timing, by the way. Thank you."
"De nada," he said. "I was right behind Morgan. I heard you trying to talk to him about Luccio."
"You believed me?" I started Sue forward. It would take her several steps to pick up speed.
Rodriguez sighed. "I've heard a lot about you. Watched you at that Council meeting. My gut says you're okay. It was worth checking out."
"And you soulgazed her. That was some fast thinking. And good shooting."
"I'm brilliant as well as skilled," he said modestly. "It's a great burden, all of that on top of my angelic good looks. But I try to soldier on as best I can."
I let out a short, rough laugh. "I see. I hope I won't embarrass you, then."
"Did I not mention my nearly godlike sense of tolerance and forgiveness?" Sue gathered speed and I turned her down the street. "Hey," he said. "The bad guys are back that way."
"I know," I said. "But they're expecting an attack from that direction. I'm going to circle the block, try to come in behind them."
"Is there time?"
"My baby can move," I told him. Sue broke into her run, and the ride smoothed out.
Ramirez let out a whoop of pure enjoyment. "Now this is cool," he said. "I can't even imagine how complicated this must have been."
"Wasn't complicated," I told him.
"Oh. So summoning up dinosaurs is actually very easy, is it?"
I snorted. "Any other night, any other place, I don't think I could have done it. But it wasn't complicated, either. Lifting up an engine block isn't complicated. It's just a lot of work."
Ramirez was silent for a moment. "I'm impressed," he said.
I didn't know Ramirez very well, but my sense of him told me that those were words he was not in the habit of uttering. "When you do something stupid and die, it's pathetic," I said. "When you do something stupid and survive it, then you get to call it impressive or heroic."
He let out a rueful chuckle. "What we're doing right now…" he said. His voice softened and lost its edge of brash arrogance. "It's pathetic. Isn't it?"
"Probably," I said.
"On the other hand," he said, recovering. "If we survive it, we're heroes. Medals. Girls. Endorsements. Cars. Maybe they put us on a cereal box."
"Seems the least they could do," I said.
"So we've got two of them left to take down. Who do we hit first?"
"Grevane," I said. "If he's holding a bunch of zombies as guard dogs, he isn't going to have a lot of attention to spare for defensive spells, or for throwing anything else at us. We hit him fast, hopefully put him down before he can try anything. He handled a chain like he knew how to use it when I saw him fight Corpsetaker."
"Ugh," Ramirez said. "Nasty. Anyone who knows their way around a kusari is a tough customer."
"Yeah. So we shoot him."
"Damn right, we shoot him," Ramirez said. "This is why so many of the younger members of the Council like the way you do things, Dresden."
I blinked. "They do?"
"Oh, hell, yes," Ramirez said. "A lot of them were apprentices when you were first tried after Justin DuMorne's death, like me. A lot of them are still apprentices. But there are people who think a lot of what you've done."
"Like you?"
"I would have done a lot of those things," he said. "Only with a lot more style than you."
I snorted. "Second one we'll hit calls himself Cowl. He's good. I've never seen a wizard stronger than he is, and that includes Ebenezar McCoy."
"A lot of guys who hit hard have a glass jaw. Bet he's all offense."