“All that knowledge makes the Archive powerful—and it was created as a repository of learning, a safeguard against the possibility of a cataclysm of civilization, a loss of all knowledge, the destruction of all learning. It was bound to neutrality, to the preservation and gathering of knowledge.”

“Gathering?” Murphy said. “So…the Archive reads a lot?”

“It goes deeper than that,” I said. “The Archive is a magic so complex that it’s practically alive—and it just knows. Anything that gets printed or written down, the Archive knows.”

Hendricks said a bad word.

“Sideways,” I agreed. “That’s what Nicky and the Nickelheads have taken.”

“With that kind of information at their disposal,” Murphy said, “they could…My God, they could blackmail officials. Control governments.”

“Launch nuclear warheads,” I said. “Stop thinking so small.” I nodded at Michael. “Remember, you told me that Nicodemus was playing Armageddon lotto. He makes big plans, but he plots them out so that he can make an incremental profit along the way. This was just one more scheme.”

Michael frowned. “He was after the Archive all along? He deliberately came here and provoked a confrontation to get you to call her in to arbitrate?”

“That isn’t much of a plan,” Luccio said. “You could have chosen any one of a dozen neutral arbiters.”

Murphy snorted. “But it’s Dresden. He’s lived in the same apartment since I first met him. Drives the same car. Drinks at that same little pub. Favorite restaurant is Burger King. He gets the same damned meal every time he goes there, too.”

“You can’t improve on perfection,” I said. “That’s why it’s called perfection. And what’s your point?”

“You’re a creature of habit, Harry. You don’t like change.”

There wasn’t much use denying that. “Even if I hadn’t called Ivy, Nicodemus still could realize some gains. Maybe recruit Marcone. Maybe kill off Michael or Sanya. Maybe ditch some deadwood within his own organization. Who knows? The point is, I did call Ivy in, he did get the opportunity to take her down, and it paid off.”

“But the Archive was created neutral,” Sanya said. “Constrained. You said so yourself.”

“The Archive was,” I said. “But Ivy wasn’t, and Ivy controls the Archive. She’s still a child. That child can be hurt. Frightened. Coerced. Tempted.” I rubbed at the spot between my eyes. “They want to make her one of them. Probably hoping to gobble up Marcone along the way.”

“God help us if they’re taken,” Murphy said quietly.

“God help them if they’re taken,” Michael murmured. “We have to find them, Harry.”

“Not even Mab could locate the Denarians with magic,” I said. “Gard. Could your firm do any better?”

She shook her head.

I glanced at Michael. “I don’t suppose anyone’s drawn a big flashing arrow in the sky for you two to see?”

Michael shook his head, his expression sober. “I looked.”

“Okay, then. Barring divine intervention we have no way of finding them.” I took a deep breath. “So. We’re going to make them find us.”