So here we are, one of my favorite chapters in the book, and indeed the entire series. Yes, even more so than the climactic confrontation at the end of the previous book - that's the stuff of legends, true, but this is different. Harry's not rushing out to battle his enemies, he's setting his will against his allies, with an innocent-ish life hanging in the balance. It's a battle he can't win with copious amounts of fire magic, but will require diplomacy, something we know by now he isn't nearly as skilled at. So though the stakes aren't as high, it's a more tense struggle than seeing Dresden ride out to throw down with dark mages for the nth time, which while entertaining-
Oh. My mistake, I picked up my copy of Proven Guilty instead of The Invaders Plan. Soltan Gris, not Harry Dresden, right. So we're... uh, doing paperwork, as opposed to dealing with rogue wizards.
Gris wakes up in his office in Government City, where we meet a new minor character we hopefully will never see again once this godforsaken narrative gets off this miserable planet - Bawtch, a stooped old bureaucrat with a sharp nose and tufts of hair above his ears, who of course hates Gris' guts. He complains about Gris sleeping at work, and the huge piles of paperwork Gris has let build up, and there's one line I like from this chapter, which is "[Bawtch] doesn't talk, really: he bites."
Well, maybe "like" is too strong a word. It's okay, I guess. But moving along.
So Gris stamps things with his identoplate, such as the "customer expenses" (a.k.a. hooker bill) of the Apparatus' man in Turkey, as well as renovations for the Section 451 offices (which Gris has forgotten about what with Jettero Heller coming into his life). This gives him an idea... uh, the renovations, not the prostitutes.
Seeing that there's still some funds left in the office renovation budget, Gris calls up some contractors and eventually finds one who doesn't hang up when he tells them his name. Gris shows the guy his office bathroom, with its view of the River Wiel five hundred feet below. He wants a "silent-break" window put in, as well as a false wall concealing a ladder to the roof. So if anyone attacks him in his office, Gris can fake out a suicidal window escape while climbing to the roof. And yes, he explains his secret escape plan to the builder. And he doesn't even add "kill contractor who knows my secret escape plan" to his to-do list. Weird.
Anyway, all of this was simply an attempt to get Gris some milk money through a kickback from the contractor. But alas, the builder has heard of the Apparatus' reputation, and won't grease any palms until after his company's finance office gets the funds. So... there's probably no point to this chapter at all, really. Gris certainly doesn't get what he wants, the plot's still sitting in the hangar with Tug One, and I doubt Bawtch is an important character. Maybe the secret passage is a Chekhov's Gun that we're expected to remember when it goes off in book 7 or 8 or whatever. Though I guess it's possible that it pops up again in this book, because lord knows most of the stuff between now and the ending are a big bland blur.
In other words, RIVETING, SUPERBLY PLOTTED INTRIGUE. Tune in next time and thrill as Soltan Gris experiences starvation-induced hallucinations!
Back to Chapter Two
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