Dresden Files Reread - Fool Moon Chapter 28

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This is an entire chapter about getting over a wall, and it pretty much works. 

Jim butcher once again shows his experience with tabletop games, establishing the spooky mood with a few clear visuals, and laying out the tactics of the immediate objective at the same time. They're behind Marcone's estate, and they need to get over this wall. It's tall, and smooth, and there are no tree branches or other convenient features to help. 

While Tera goes looking for another spot where they can get through, we flash back to a few minutes ago, with the Alphas engaging in a little public nudity as they tumble out of the van and shift into their wolf forms. When Harry asks if they really have to get naked in the middle of the street, Billy makes the point by shifting with his robe still on, getting tangled in it for several seconds, which is adorable. We also get our first look at curvy, red-haired Andy, although she isn't named. 

Back in the here and now, Billy is getting bored and restless waiting for Tera. After a disagreement with Georgia, carried out entirely by means of lupine body language, he makes to head off on his own, and several of the other boys start to follow him. Dresden reminds them that the Alphas' presence is contingent on following his orders, and before it can turn into even more of a power struggle, he has them gather around so they can go over tactics. 

Dresden's ability to interact with magical young people apparently leveled up as soon as they found Kim Delaney's body, because there's no weirdness or condescension here, and he's clearly considering how these early experiences, and the example set for them by more experienced practitioners, will affect what they go on to do with the limited power they've been given. So he tells them how the hexenwulfen are basically just people - people who got in over their heads with something they don't understand and could never hope to control, and which is now controlling them. He tells them to avoid killing if they can, to go for the belts, and that maybe once they're off, it will be possible to reason with them. That's...optimistic, I think, but it creates the right mindset, and provides a direct counterbalance to Tera's insistence that they destroy anyone who hurts one of the pack. Harry wants them thinking of human adversaries as people first and enemies second, to consider the nuances of situations with victims on more than one side, and to make killing a last resort. 

Tera returns having found a place where the wall is crumbled. I don't think we ever get a reasonable explanation for this - Marcone wouldn't leave this kind of extremely literal hole in his defenses for longer than he had to, and I can scarcely imagine how he would have failed to be aware of it. That suggests to me that this is probably the result of deliberate, recent sabotage, but I don't think we're ever told who was responsible, and there are several plausible candidates. However it came to be, the crumbled place is a ways from their location (the estate occupies an entire city block) and they'll have to run if they want to get there in time. Harry absolutely cannot do that and be in any shape to fight. He's not sure he can do it at all without collapsing. He's going over the wall here, or not at all. 

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Hexing down the security cameras is more work than it ought to be, and it physically hurts, and ache that starts in his head and quickly spreads to the rest of his body. But he can do it, and he's less relieved by that and he's less relieved than he probably ought to be, given that just a few chapters ago, he was worried his magic might be gone forever. When he's worked up the energy, he throws it at the cameras, shorting them out. He describes himself doing this "like a grade school girl throwing a baseball wrong-handed", and I have no idea why that needed to be gendered. Ugh. 

Anyway, Tera helps him climb up, and he makes it down the other side in one piece. He's supposed to wait where he lands until the others catch up with him. He gets out his gun, and his unspecified "ace in the hole", which I don't remember what it is, and then basically sits there in the dark and the rain meditating, until he realizes that too much time has passed without even hearing anything from his allies. Something has gone wrong. 

I keep having impulses to write short, non-reread posts, and then running out of enthusiasm a few paragraphs in. I don't know if any of them will eventually come to anything, but for the time being, take any claim that I'm planning an advice post with a grain of salt. I think I am finally close to ready for another Wheel of Time reread post, but the next post after this one will almost certainly be Chapter 29. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read all the things.