Dresden Files Reread - Fool Moon Chapter 17

Photo by Emiliano Bar on Unsplash

Harry's plan is to get into holding and put up a greater circle around MacFinn. Apparently, you only need the gold and gems and fancy stuff when you don't have a full understanding of the underlying principles, although based on what we're told in Ghost Story about how thaumaturgy usually works, it's likely that the proper materials help, even for an experienced wizard. On his way up to holding, he passes Murphy and Carmichael, the former scolding the latter for failing to apprehend Harry when he went to his apartment. I don't think Carmichael was actually there, although if he was it raises some interesting questions, since I don't think he'd have gotten distracted by Tera. Harry resists the impulse to stop and listen to their conversation, hurrying past them to his actual destination. 

He only has a little difficulty getting into the guard station that separates the holding cells from the rest of the building, but things rapidly start going more wrong from there. When he finds MacFinn's cell on the security monitors, it's empty - our werewolf transformed, broken out of his cell, broken into the neighboring one, and started eating some guy named Matson. 

I really appreciate that MacFinn's victims in this scene get names. The fact that they were arrested, as indicated by their presence in holding, doesn't make them meaningless canon fodder. There isn't even a throwaway "no one deserves this" to acknowledge that the reader might feel that way. Unfortunately, this doesn't do much to mitigate the fact that Clements, the second guy MacFinn kills, is the first black character introduced in the series, and he's literally only here to get eaten by a mildly outdated PTSD metaphor dressed up as the Big Bad Wolf. Why Jim Butcher, what big subconscious racism you have! 

Harry's efforts to draw the guard's attention to the carnage on the monitors are severely hampered, first by the blending brew, which turns his cries of "My god, people are dying, look at the screen!" into something boring and socially acceptable, and then by his own magic, which responds to his distress by turning to CCTV feed to snow and static, so that when the guard finally does look, all he sees is that there's something wrong with the monitors. Eventually, influenced by the potion, he figures he should buzz Harry through so he can clean. This makes the horrible screams audible, so he finally realizes that something is very, very wrong. 

Photo by Chris Ensminger on Unsplash

Unlocking the door lets MacFinn out, although realistically he was gonna get out eventually anyway. We get the full description of what he looks like in wolf form, albeit in grayscale, and then he goes after the guard, who was trying to help Harry keep the door closed. For a vanilla mortal who has no earthly idea what's going on, Mr. Unnamed Guard Guy makes a decent showing here, dodging out of the way, starting the alarm, and emptying his gun at Macfinn's head before being cornered behind his desk and devoured. This takes a while, and Harry starts trying to get out of the antechamber, using his staff to apply the force of his will to the bars on the door, multiplying the physical force he can bring to bear. 

He manages to bend them enough to squeeze through, at right around the same time that MacFinn finishes with the guard and turns his attention to Harry, finally letting us see him in full color, and thereby giving rise to the deeply unfortunate "scarlet smeared wash of brown streaked with wet scarlet". Seriously, did Butcher have to hand this to the publishers with a final round of edits still unfinished? It clearly was revised, and just as clearly wasn't revised enough. This, like the bizarrely self-contained Chaunzy chapter, is the kind of issue that develops in the second or third draft out of four or five. 

The door that took Harry several minutes, a tight squeeze, and the loss of a shoe to get through... isn't much of a barrier to a Loup Garou, He casually swats Harry into a wall, and Harry pretty much figures he's had it, but Murphy steps in and puts herself between him and the werewolf. 

Hey, check out how I actually got this one up on the day I was supposed to. Stay tuned for Chapter 18 on Saturday. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read All The Things!