He moved forward, and Harry took him in his arms, and they stood together, holding each other.
“I do so love a happy ending,” I said after a while. “If Molly was here, she’d be in tears. Really. You’re not listening, are you?”
They finally turned to face me, standing casually arm in arm. Harry was smiling broadly, while Roger favoured me with a small, only slightly sardonic smile.
“Thank you for not interfering,” he said. “Now do me a favour and get Harry out of here. Get back to Drood Hall with the rest of your people. While you still can.”
“I’m not going without you,” Harry said immediately.
“You don’t get it,” said Roger. “This is still a trap for all of you. The army outside was only the beginning— expendable troops to hold your attention. And a chance to try out their precious new plastic armour. The real army is on its way. Thousands of them, armed with powerful new weapons. Strong enough to blow the armour right off you. They will kill you all and tear the torcs from your agonised corpses. The only reason they aren’t already here is because they wanted to watch you fighting, see what you’re capable of. Now that they know, they’ll be here any minute. So you have to go now. I’ll shut down the blocks on the Merlin Glass, and you can retreat back to Drood Hall.”
“Come with us,” said Harry.
“I’m sorry,” said Roger, and I could see he meant it. “I can’t. Someone has to stay here with the machines, prevent the conspiracy from reestablishing the blocks and shutting down the Glass again. My superiors already know I’m not going to be what they wanted me to be.” He glanced at the display screens. “They’re watching now. Everyone watches everyone in the conspiracy. They know by now that I’ve betrayed them. By choosing you, Harry, I’ve signed my own death warrant. So you have to go; you have to live, or everything I’ve done will have been for nothing.”
“I’m not going,” Harry said stubbornly. “I’m staying here with you. Eddie, go tell the Droods what’s happening, and get them all safely home. Then put together a real army and come back here and save the day.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” I said.
“You’re not ready to face the army that’s coming!” said Roger. “They have weapons beyond your worst nightmares! Harry, you have to go!”
“You think I’d leave you here to die alone?” said Harry.
“I’m going,” I said. “I have to get my people out of here. Harry, link your torc to the Drood War Room, so it can broadcast real-time images of what’s happening here. Hold the fort, boys; I’ll be back with reinforcements before you know it.”
“Of course you will,” said Harry. “That’s what you do, Eddie.”
I ran back through the hotel corridors as fast as my armoured strength could drive me. The walls blurred, the floor cracked and shattered under the pounding of my feet, and the world became just so many smearing colours until I burst out of the hotel and into the car park and slammed on the brakes. The Sarjeant-at-Arms looked up sharply as I seemed to materialise right in front of him. I had to pause for a moment to get my breath back, and the Sarjeant gestured easily at the dead bodies piled around him, broken and bloody.
“All dead,” he said. “Poor bastards never stood a chance. Good training for the troops, though.”
“They were expendable,” I said. “The real army’s on its way.”
I ran quickly through the situation, and the Sarjeant got the implications immediately. We both looked at the Merlin Glass, and a sharp sense of relief ran through me as I saw a clear view of Drood Hall and its grounds on the other side of the mirror.
“Get everyone back to the Hall,” I said. “Then make me an army so big it won’t matter what the conspiracy is sending.”
“For Harry and Roger?” said the Sarjeant.
“They’re Droods,” I said.
“Of course they are,” said the Sarjeant. “Anything for family.”
He rounded his people up and drove them through the Merlin Glass with barked orders and harsh language. I waited right till the end, hoping I’d come up with some last-minute desperate plan, but I didn’t. Sometimes there isn’t anything you can do. Molly stayed with me, and in the end I had to go, because she wouldn’t go without me. We passed through the Merlin Glass, and I shut it down so nothing could follow us through.
I ran through the Hall to the War Room, leaving raising the army to the Sarjeant. I needed to see what was happening with Harry and Roger. When I got there, they already had the transmissions from Harry’s torc up on the biggest display screen. We could see them in the hotel function room, hear every word they said, but there was nothing we could do to help. We could only watch, and wait for the Sarjeant to tell us the army was ready.
Harry Drood and Roger Morningstar sat quietly together, watching their own display screens showing endless scenes of an empty car park. They seemed easy, comfortable in each other’s company.
“We’ll see Hell’s army when they teleport in,” said Roger. “Actually, it’ll be pretty hard to miss them.”
“Thousands of them?” said Harry. “Really?”
“Oh, yes. No shortage of soldiers in the satanic conspiracy. It does tend to attract people who like obeying orders. And killing people.”
“With terrible new weapons? More powerful than Drood armour?”
“Unfortunately, yes. It had to happen eventually. The Droods couldn’t stay cutting-edge forever.”
“Can’t you . . . do something, with your infernal powers?”
“No,” said Roger. “Everything I had was stripped from me the moment I chose to side with you and embrace my human heritage.”
“I still have my armour,” said Harry.
“It won’t help you,” said Roger. “The army that’s coming will strip it off you like an old coat. I told you: They’ve been planning this for a long time.”
“Isn’t there anything we can do?” said Harry.
“The hotel still has all its protections, provided by these machines,” said Roger. “And as long as I’m here to keep changing the passwords, they can’t override the defences from outside. If we can hold them off long enough, maybe Eddie will get here with reinforcements. Though he’d have to bring the whole family with him, and every weapon in the Armoury. I hope you’re listening to this, Eddie.”
“So we do have a chance?” said Harry.
“No,” said Roger. “I was being optimistic. It’s a human thing.”
Harry thought for a while. “The conspiracy can’t stay here long—not with an army that big. They’d be noticed by the authorities.”
“Harry, dear, they own the authorities,” said Roger. “They could perform a mass slaughter of the innocents, right here, with flamethrowers, and it would all be covered up.”
Harry made a brief frustrated sound. “Talk to me, Roger. What have your leaders promised the world governments to get them to go along with the Great Sacrifice?”
“What Hell always promises: power. And the indulgence of secret needs and pleasures. Everything you think you want. They have been promised they will be kings of the world to come. The fools.”
“So,” said Harry, “answer me this, at least. Who are the leaders of this new satanic conspiracy? Who’s in charge?”
“Just one man, really,” said Roger. “And it’s a name you’d know. And, I think, one that would surprise you. It’s always the little men, the quietly resentful, secretly ambitious little men you have to look out for. But I can’t say his name. Not even now. I’m under a geas, a compulsion laid down by Hell itself, never to use his name outside the conspiracy.”
“I’d know the name . . .” Harry said thoughtfully. “It’s not a Drood, is it?”
“No,” said Roger. “That much I can say.”
Harry looked about him. “Can’t say I feel very secure in here. Couldn’t we barricade the room?”
“Yes, if you like,” said Roger.
“You think that would help?”
“No. But it’s something we could do while we’re waiting.”
