Roarke:

"I just don't see it, Boss." Lawrence wiped the sweat off his forehead with a bare hand, then wiped that hand on the pinstriped trousers I'd had tailored for him. I made a mental note to buy him a handkerchief. "This guy, Dresden. I don't know what you see in him. He's a rat."

My habitual smile grew a little wider at Lawrence's thoughtless insult to rodents. "He may be, Lawrence," I began, stepping out of the limousine and handing Lawrence my coat. "But I've always thought it a shame mankind never domesticated vermin. Like all things, they can have their uses." Sniffing out another man's cheese. Carrying plague. "From a business standpoint, I have decided that if Mister Dresden has resolved to involve himself, I should make the best use of his efforts I can without openly allying myself with him."

The clouds refused to part, as they had for the last week. I had recorded murders occurring on the dates of storms in my personal notebook, and surges of ThreeEye sales following in the days thereafter. Coming to the conclusion that storms were related to the magic my adversary was using allowed me to set a timetable on my actions and tentative projections for the future.

That's why the matter was quickly becoming urgent. I sped up my pace almost imperceptibly with the exigencies of it. I could not spare the time for Dresden's dawdling, charming as I found it. As I had seen within his gaze at our first meeting, he had the naive soul of an indolent child underneath his bravado. I had to spur him into action. I needed to make him believe that he was next. It was time to make Harry into a man.

I could not quite quash the endearing tenor to my voice as I continued giving Lawrence his orders. "I have told you all often that one must not take half-measures. In business, war, and love, one must put forth the greatest effort possible from the beginning. Whether one is a schoolyard boy seeking a lock of his sweetheart's hair, or a business man protecting his interests." Or both at once, I left unsaid.