Fic: City of Delusion 8/?, Dresden Files/Sherlock [PG-13]
Title: City of Delusion
Author: Aeron Lanart
Fandoms: Dresden Files (tv verse) and Sherlock (BBC)
Characters/pairing: Harry Dresden, Connie Murphy, Bob, Greg Lestrade, Sherlock Holmes, John Watson
Rating/Spoilers: PG. References to the Dresden Files ep The Boone Identity, no other spoilers.
Warnings: Sherlock and magic in the same fic has to be a bit cracky, right?
Summary: Greg Lestrade has an unexpected encounter in Chicago - he isn't the only one, either - and discovers there are worse things to deal with than know-it-all consulting detectives.
Disclaimer: The BBC, Mr S Moffat and Mr M Gatiss own this version of Sherlock Holmes though ACD invented him. Jim Butcher owns Harry Dresden and his universe (although Lionsgate/sci-fi own the tv series).
No copyright infringement intended, no profit made.
Title from the song by Muse
A/N: This is the first time I've written anything completely new in far too many years and I'm so happy I have! Watch out for Dresden bookverse cameos...
Chapter 1 on LJ
Chapter 2 on LJ
Chapter 3 on LJ
Chapter 4 on LJ
Chapter 5 on LJ
Chapter 6 on LJ
Chapter 7 on LJ
(also available on AO3)
~*~
The term ‘glacial blonde’ could have been coined with Ms Gard in mind. Harry was fairly certain that she never had to threaten anyone, she probably just had to cast her disapproving and icy glare in their direction which would be enough to terrify most normal people into submission. As Harry wasn’t either normal or most people, he seemed to have a degree of immunity though he suspected that she might have given him the benefit of the doubt and not used it at full strength on him. Whatever the reason, they’d learned to at least tolerate each other and develop an uneasy truce with - on Harry’s part if not hers - a degree of respect for the others talents. She also took her job seriously, despite being part of the magical world, so anything that would potentially compromise the safety of her charge was something in which she would be very interested if she was unaware of it - or so Harry hoped. He stared at the disconcertingly bland - and blank - door in front of him that was the entrance to Marcone’s legitimate business enterprises and headquarters of his security detail and took a deep breath. He was about to find out about Ms Gard’s views one way or the other.
To Harry’s surprise he managed to get in to see Ms Gard with a minimum of trouble, in all probability because it WAS Ms Gard and not someone else. He was left in no shadow of a doubt that her talents were well known, respected and possibly even feared. Harry got that, though he didn’t share the fear. She gave him a curious glance as he shambled into her offices, with only a hint of ice around the edges.
“What do you want?” She asked, managing to sound so bored as to be only one step from falling asleep. Harry gave her a lopsided smile and shrugged.
“Information; though if you can’t be direct, or can’t help, any pointers where to find what I need would be appreciated,” he replied. There were many reasons she might not be willing or able to help, including her genuinely not knowing anything about the situation. She frowned at him.
“And what makes you think I’d give you any information even if I had it?”
Harry’s smile widened. “Because of my irresistible charm,” he said, then held up his hand to stop her less than polite reply in its tracks before it was uttered. “Seriously, Ms Gard, there’s something very definitely not of the normal world about the latest case I’m working on with the police.”
“I thought that was your stock in trade, so how is this any concern of mine?”
“Well, put it this way, if I’m right it has the potential to adversely affect ALL the business dealings of your employer and more importantly from your point of view it could be a massive security risk.”
As he’d suspected they would the words ‘security risk’ garnered him Ms Gard’s full and not inconsiderable attention.
“Go on.”
“Two things; first, we think someone has been working on magically enhancing the properties of mundane items such as magnets. This would make their properties stronger in relation to their size than would occur in the normal world. Magnets strong enough to easily support the weight of a full grown man could be concealed in the palm of a hand. I don’t think I have to tell you to use your imagination to realise how this could be used.”
“Hmm, no you don’t. I’ve heard nothing about such a thing being developed either.” The thinning of her lips as she frowned expressed how unhappy that made her; it was her job to hear things - and then guard against them if needs be - so NOT having heard something that could be significant was received about as well as Harry had suspected it would be. She took a deep breath and crossed her arms over her black clad body before she glanced back in Harry’s direction. “So, that’s the first thing. You said there were two, I believe?”
This was crunch time in Harry’s opinion, it was the aspect that worried him the most both by what it implied and the fact that he had no idea who could be behind it whatsoever. He perched on Ms Gard’s desk.
“It looks like someone - and at present we have no idea who, or even WHAT - has found a way of casting a veil on a person with no magical ability,” he said. She glared at her computer screen for a few seconds as if it was personally responsible for some major misdemeanour, Harry was glad she wasn’t looking at him like that.
“I don’t like the sound of that one iota,” she said, then her glance flicked upwards at him. “Have you discovered anything that could point you in the direction of the caster?”
Harry took a deep breath and mentally crossed his fingers. “Only that hieroglyphs are involved.”
“Hieroglyphs. As in Egyptian Hieroglyphs?”
“That’s right.” Ms Gard had a poker face to beat all others but even so Harry was fairly certain he’d detected more than a flicker of interest in her steely gaze. He decided to take a gamble. “I can’t go into details but it’s all to do with the homicide of a young woman and at the moment normal channels haven’t yielded anything to point us in the direction of who might be behind it.”
“The homicide was committed by someone using magnets who was then hidden by this non-magical veil that has to do with hieroglyphs, I presume.”
“I believe so, yes.” Harry dug out a copy of the sketch John had done. “This is our murderer. Bob helped me to get the likeness.” She knew about Bob so he didn’t see the point in denying his involvement but he wasn’t going to mention the others, just in case.
She shook her head. “I don’t recognise him. May I?…” She gestured toward the copier.
“Murphy will probably kill me if she finds out, but yeah go ahead. It can only help in my opinion.”
“Quite so,” she agreed as the copier whirred and hummed in the background then she passed the original back to him with a slight smile, which he presumed meant thank you.
Harry shoved the sketch back in his jacket and let his fingers linger over the other item in his pocket. He took a deep breath, decision made. Murphy really would kill him, and slowly too, if she found out. He drew out a photograph of the victim and laid it on the desk. He felt vindicated when Ms Gard didn’t - quite - disguise her slight start of recognition.
“Our vic. You obviously recognise her, but do you have a name to go with the face?” He knew the name her brother had given them, but it was entirely possible that she was going by something completely different if she was involved with Marcone’s interests in some way.
“We knew her as Kate Ellison.She’s a… consultant of sorts, I suppose.”
The name wasn’t the same, but it was close enough to her given name of Kathryn Ellis that she wouldn’t have had issues with remembering them both. As for her being a consultant, Harry wanted to know just why a history student would be a consultant for one of Chicago’s foremost crime lords. Despite the circumstances of Kathryn/Kate’s death, his curiosity was piqued.
“Of sorts?” he queried.
“She has a very specific skill set - a talent for ancient languages and a low level paranormal ability - that makes her an excellent curse detector, something that was discovered in circumstances that were beneficial to Mr Marcone.”
Harry resisted the urge to grin; now he was getting somewhere. Hopefully the result would be worth being verbally flayed alive by Murphy. Again. “If the circumstances benefited Marcone, they sure as hell would have done the opposite for someone else. Interesting. It also gives us a potential motive if one of those ancient languages just happens to be ancient Egyptian.”
“It does,” she confirmed.
“One more question, Ms Gard. If you have an ID for her, would I be able to have a copy of it? Just her photo and name, no more.”
“You know I shouldn’t, but considering your information has been of more benefit to me and mine than I think you realise, I can probably manage something that might help, though of course you didn’t get it from me if anyone asks.”
“Of course.” Harry had expected no less and hadn’t actually been certain that Ms Gard would agree, so he was more than happy to accept anything he got from her that could move the case forward. Once he had that ID it would be time to make himself scarce, just to be sure that Ms Gard didn’t change her mind.
Author: Aeron Lanart
Fandoms: Dresden Files (tv verse) and Sherlock (BBC)
Characters/pairing: Harry Dresden, Connie Murphy, Bob, Greg Lestrade, Sherlock Holmes, John Watson
Rating/Spoilers: PG. References to the Dresden Files ep The Boone Identity, no other spoilers.
Warnings: Sherlock and magic in the same fic has to be a bit cracky, right?
Summary: Greg Lestrade has an unexpected encounter in Chicago - he isn't the only one, either - and discovers there are worse things to deal with than know-it-all consulting detectives.
Disclaimer: The BBC, Mr S Moffat and Mr M Gatiss own this version of Sherlock Holmes though ACD invented him. Jim Butcher owns Harry Dresden and his universe (although Lionsgate/sci-fi own the tv series).
No copyright infringement intended, no profit made.
Title from the song by Muse
A/N: This is the first time I've written anything completely new in far too many years and I'm so happy I have! Watch out for Dresden bookverse cameos...
Chapter 1 on LJ
Chapter 2 on LJ
Chapter 3 on LJ
Chapter 4 on LJ
Chapter 5 on LJ
Chapter 6 on LJ
Chapter 7 on LJ
(also available on AO3)
~*~
The term ‘glacial blonde’ could have been coined with Ms Gard in mind. Harry was fairly certain that she never had to threaten anyone, she probably just had to cast her disapproving and icy glare in their direction which would be enough to terrify most normal people into submission. As Harry wasn’t either normal or most people, he seemed to have a degree of immunity though he suspected that she might have given him the benefit of the doubt and not used it at full strength on him. Whatever the reason, they’d learned to at least tolerate each other and develop an uneasy truce with - on Harry’s part if not hers - a degree of respect for the others talents. She also took her job seriously, despite being part of the magical world, so anything that would potentially compromise the safety of her charge was something in which she would be very interested if she was unaware of it - or so Harry hoped. He stared at the disconcertingly bland - and blank - door in front of him that was the entrance to Marcone’s legitimate business enterprises and headquarters of his security detail and took a deep breath. He was about to find out about Ms Gard’s views one way or the other.
To Harry’s surprise he managed to get in to see Ms Gard with a minimum of trouble, in all probability because it WAS Ms Gard and not someone else. He was left in no shadow of a doubt that her talents were well known, respected and possibly even feared. Harry got that, though he didn’t share the fear. She gave him a curious glance as he shambled into her offices, with only a hint of ice around the edges.
“What do you want?” She asked, managing to sound so bored as to be only one step from falling asleep. Harry gave her a lopsided smile and shrugged.
“Information; though if you can’t be direct, or can’t help, any pointers where to find what I need would be appreciated,” he replied. There were many reasons she might not be willing or able to help, including her genuinely not knowing anything about the situation. She frowned at him.
“And what makes you think I’d give you any information even if I had it?”
Harry’s smile widened. “Because of my irresistible charm,” he said, then held up his hand to stop her less than polite reply in its tracks before it was uttered. “Seriously, Ms Gard, there’s something very definitely not of the normal world about the latest case I’m working on with the police.”
“I thought that was your stock in trade, so how is this any concern of mine?”
“Well, put it this way, if I’m right it has the potential to adversely affect ALL the business dealings of your employer and more importantly from your point of view it could be a massive security risk.”
As he’d suspected they would the words ‘security risk’ garnered him Ms Gard’s full and not inconsiderable attention.
“Go on.”
“Two things; first, we think someone has been working on magically enhancing the properties of mundane items such as magnets. This would make their properties stronger in relation to their size than would occur in the normal world. Magnets strong enough to easily support the weight of a full grown man could be concealed in the palm of a hand. I don’t think I have to tell you to use your imagination to realise how this could be used.”
“Hmm, no you don’t. I’ve heard nothing about such a thing being developed either.” The thinning of her lips as she frowned expressed how unhappy that made her; it was her job to hear things - and then guard against them if needs be - so NOT having heard something that could be significant was received about as well as Harry had suspected it would be. She took a deep breath and crossed her arms over her black clad body before she glanced back in Harry’s direction. “So, that’s the first thing. You said there were two, I believe?”
This was crunch time in Harry’s opinion, it was the aspect that worried him the most both by what it implied and the fact that he had no idea who could be behind it whatsoever. He perched on Ms Gard’s desk.
“It looks like someone - and at present we have no idea who, or even WHAT - has found a way of casting a veil on a person with no magical ability,” he said. She glared at her computer screen for a few seconds as if it was personally responsible for some major misdemeanour, Harry was glad she wasn’t looking at him like that.
“I don’t like the sound of that one iota,” she said, then her glance flicked upwards at him. “Have you discovered anything that could point you in the direction of the caster?”
Harry took a deep breath and mentally crossed his fingers. “Only that hieroglyphs are involved.”
“Hieroglyphs. As in Egyptian Hieroglyphs?”
“That’s right.” Ms Gard had a poker face to beat all others but even so Harry was fairly certain he’d detected more than a flicker of interest in her steely gaze. He decided to take a gamble. “I can’t go into details but it’s all to do with the homicide of a young woman and at the moment normal channels haven’t yielded anything to point us in the direction of who might be behind it.”
“The homicide was committed by someone using magnets who was then hidden by this non-magical veil that has to do with hieroglyphs, I presume.”
“I believe so, yes.” Harry dug out a copy of the sketch John had done. “This is our murderer. Bob helped me to get the likeness.” She knew about Bob so he didn’t see the point in denying his involvement but he wasn’t going to mention the others, just in case.
She shook her head. “I don’t recognise him. May I?…” She gestured toward the copier.
“Murphy will probably kill me if she finds out, but yeah go ahead. It can only help in my opinion.”
“Quite so,” she agreed as the copier whirred and hummed in the background then she passed the original back to him with a slight smile, which he presumed meant thank you.
Harry shoved the sketch back in his jacket and let his fingers linger over the other item in his pocket. He took a deep breath, decision made. Murphy really would kill him, and slowly too, if she found out. He drew out a photograph of the victim and laid it on the desk. He felt vindicated when Ms Gard didn’t - quite - disguise her slight start of recognition.
“Our vic. You obviously recognise her, but do you have a name to go with the face?” He knew the name her brother had given them, but it was entirely possible that she was going by something completely different if she was involved with Marcone’s interests in some way.
“We knew her as Kate Ellison.She’s a… consultant of sorts, I suppose.”
The name wasn’t the same, but it was close enough to her given name of Kathryn Ellis that she wouldn’t have had issues with remembering them both. As for her being a consultant, Harry wanted to know just why a history student would be a consultant for one of Chicago’s foremost crime lords. Despite the circumstances of Kathryn/Kate’s death, his curiosity was piqued.
“Of sorts?” he queried.
“She has a very specific skill set - a talent for ancient languages and a low level paranormal ability - that makes her an excellent curse detector, something that was discovered in circumstances that were beneficial to Mr Marcone.”
Harry resisted the urge to grin; now he was getting somewhere. Hopefully the result would be worth being verbally flayed alive by Murphy. Again. “If the circumstances benefited Marcone, they sure as hell would have done the opposite for someone else. Interesting. It also gives us a potential motive if one of those ancient languages just happens to be ancient Egyptian.”
“It does,” she confirmed.
“One more question, Ms Gard. If you have an ID for her, would I be able to have a copy of it? Just her photo and name, no more.”
“You know I shouldn’t, but considering your information has been of more benefit to me and mine than I think you realise, I can probably manage something that might help, though of course you didn’t get it from me if anyone asks.”
“Of course.” Harry had expected no less and hadn’t actually been certain that Ms Gard would agree, so he was more than happy to accept anything he got from her that could move the case forward. Once he had that ID it would be time to make himself scarce, just to be sure that Ms Gard didn’t change her mind.