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| Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash |
This chapter opens with Harry, cornered and bleeding where Mr. Beckett shot him in the hip, using the broom to Sorcerer's Apprentice the scorpions down into the living room, substantially leveling the odds of this fight, especially since the Beckets still haven't gotten their guns working.
Victor starts throwing fire again, and informs Dresden that fighting back won't make a difference because all he, Victor, has to do is keep Dresden there until the house burns down. Dresden points out that this approach will, at minimum, kill them both of them and destroy all the 3-Eye in the house, which is enough to get Victor back to seriously trying to kill him. No time at all is spent on how odd it was for Victor to say that in the first place. He's neither an idealist now, as far as we know, sworn to any greater force with a claim on his loyalty sufficient to get him to die for the cause. He's in this for the money, and the power, and he can't make use of either one if he's dead. Even if we give some weight to the idea that he's in this because he wants a better life for his wife and kids, he has no reasonable way to ensure that they keep getting their cut after he dies, and even if he could, I don't think this little operation can actually continue without him - if it could, the Beckets would have gotten rid of him by now. So this sudden willingness to die if it means taking Harry down with him doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Especially because like two seconds earlier he was all "Surrender, I'll let you walk about" (I mean, presumably he was lying, but still), and what gets him off the "Then we'll both die!" train is Harry pointing out that if they let the house burn, the 3-Eye will burn with them. The progression of this scene very much implies that Victor values the drug over his own life, and not in an "I don't care if I OD, I need this fix" kind of way, and for the life of me I cannot think of any reason why this should be the case. Longtime readers will know that I deeply dislike attributing anything to sloppy writing, but if we discount that possibility, it leaves open the question of who or what Victor was working with, that he's apparently willing to die to protect a few shipments of a magical narcotic. This impression is reinforced when he orders the Beckets out, with instructions on how to get to their car without passing through the scorpion-infested living room. I'm almost sure Victor doesn't give a shit about their well-being, although he's had sex with both of them, so you never know, but it seems more likely that this is about the survival of the business, making sure that someone remains who can keep making and distributing the 3-Eye. Why?
Awkwardly, this is never followed up on, and I don't think it ever will be. Harry could ask Helen what was going on there, but he's probably not going to. He's got this whole evening neatly filed away, a two bit sorcerer with more power and ambition than was reasonable, first noted instance of Nemesis's meddling. Unless something happens to bring it up again, like one of the Sells kids resurfacing, we're never likely to find out the whole of what was happening.
Once the Beckets are safely out of harm's way, Victor summons the toad demon again. Unfortunately, he's not anything like as clever as he thinks he is, and in doing so, he gives Dresden its Name, allowing the real wizard to break his hold over it. Harry could have seized control himself, but that's illegal and he's validly counting on it to be more interested in getting vengeance on the man who's been commanding it against its will than in going after a random victim who got away from it a couple days ago. When Harry basically explains this to an increasingly panicked Victor, the sorcerer responds by trying to throw Harry at it. There's also a bit in there where he does this whole monologue about how the strong survive and the weak get eaten, which feels as weird and off as the rest of his behavior in this chapter.
The tussle takes them over the railing, where they both dangle above the smoke-filled death pit the living room has become. Harry uses Murphy's handcuffs to secure himself, and is then able to pull Victor and the demon off the railing and down into the scorpions. Then he just kind of hangs there, watching Victor get devoured and waiting for his own death by smoke, heat, poison, or pointy claws. Compared to later books, Dresden puts remarkably little effort into not dying. He just hangs there, thinking about how he's hungry, and how he's hallucinating Warden Morgan coming at him with a sword...
Wouldn't be my blog if the second to last post weren't late, I guess. We're gonna do the final chapter on Wednesday, and a retrospective on the whole book the Wednesday after. I'm not sure yet whether I'll need another week after before we pick up with Fool Moon. Until like, tomorrow, Be Gay, Do Crimes, and Read All The Things!
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