A sudden silence fell across the grounds. I carefully withdrew my arm, stepped around to the side of the cab, ripped the door right off and threw it away. I beckoned to Chapman to get out. He dropped down onto the ground and stood shaking before me. His face was bloody from where it had smashed against the windshield, for all the inflated airbag had been able to do to protect him. He looked at me with wild, shocked, startled eyes.
What are you? he said, in a cracked, almost hysterical voice. You re not human! Look what you did to my boys! Look what you did to my truck! Nothing human could have done that!
Yes, said Molly, coming forward to join us.
How do you feel about that, Eddie? About what you did to his boys?
I looked around me at the broken, bloodied bodies. They had it coming. I didn t kill any of them.
Oh, well, then, said Molly. That makes it all right, then.
I frowned behind my mask. What are you so upset about? I ve seen you do far worse in your time!
Yes, but that s me. Not you.
Are you defending these scumbags? After what they came here to do? What they would have done to you?
No, said Molly. They had it coming. Deserved everything they got. I m just interested in how you feel about what you did. Because I am reminded of what you did in another place. In the Wulfshead, not so long ago.
I didn t lose control here, I said.
I didn t Oh, hell. It s the armour, Molly. It s affecting me.
Is it? said Molly. Or is that what you want to think?
I don t have time for this, I said. I turned my featureless gold mask to Chapman, and he scrunched up his face as though he wanted to cry. Pick up your boys and leave here, Road Rat. And don t ever come back. If you meet any more of your kind along the way, tell them what happened here. Show them what I did to your boys. Because if I have to do this again, I ll make a real example out of the next bunch.
Don t think you ve stopped me, said Chapman defiantly. We re a big organisation. A big family. I ll set an army against you, if I have to. You can t stop an army, just the two of you.
He doesn t know us very well, does he? said Molly.
And there s still the scarecrows, I said.
We ve got weapons for things like that! said Chapman. There s all kinds of good stuff waiting in the Hall, and we re not giving up on it!
No one steals from my family and lives to boast of it, I said. I stand between the Hall and all who would violate it.
And, for all my many reservations, I stand beside him, said Molly.
Thank you, dear, I said.
You re with him, said Chapman. And they re with me!
I looked beyond him at a small army of Road Rats hurrying up the drive towards us. Dozens of them, with more weapons and magically charged things. They must have been kept in reserve until Chapman could work out the lay of the land and call them. They all looked pretty annoyed at what I d done to their fellow Rats.
I looked at Molly. Since I am clearly far too violent to be trusted with this encounter, perhaps you d like to
Love to, said Molly.
She reached down and pulled up her dress just enough to reveal the gold charm bracelet around her ankle. And for a moment, I actually felt sorry for what was about to hit the Road Rats army. I d seen Molly pull charms off that bracelet before and make highly destructive use of them. Everything from a Vincent motorbike to a full-sized dragon. Molly pulled one delicately carved charm off the bracelet and held it up for everyone to see. It was a charming little silver monkey. Chapman looked from Molly to me and back again. He couldn t work out why we were both smiling.
Molly threw the charm onto the ground before her. There was a puff of dark smoke (for purely dramatic reasons), and when it cleared, the drive now held a massive, monstrous killer ape. A good fifty feet tall, and muscular with it, the ape roared once and then charged down the drive at the advancing Road Rats. It was in and among them before they could get their wits together enough to run, and then the huge ape set about them, picking them up, crushing them and throwing them away. Beating them into the ground with huge fists and trampling them underfoot. Punching them so hard they travelled twenty feet and more through the air before they hit the ground. Road Rats tumbled end over end through the air, making piteous noises of distress. Before plummeting to earth with enough impact to make even me wince. The huge ape charged back and forth, doing horrible things to Road Rats and enjoying itself immensely.
It was all over quickly. The ape looked around at the piled-up broken bodies and sniffed loudly, in a satisfied kind of way.
All right! All right! said Chapman, miserably.
Call it off! We surrender!
Molly snapped her fingers, the ape disappeared and a small silver charm reappeared in her hand. She delicately reattached the charm to her ankle bracelet and smiled sweetly at me.
A big ape, throwing his weight around, I said.
Were you by any chance making a comment there, Molly?
Perish the thought, sweetie.
I looked around me. There were bodies everywhere, scattered across the grounds. Some moving, some not. It was all very calm and peaceful, apart from some quiet moaning and whimpering here and there. The threat was over. I forced my armour back into my torc. I could remember the savage satisfaction I d taken in reducing the Road Rats to bloody ruin, but it seemed like something that happened a long time ago, to somebody else. I looked at Chapman. He was crying.
You brought it on yourself, I said. I gave you every chance to walk away.
What am I going to say to their mums and dads? said Chapman.
Don t mess with the Droods, I said.
Pick up your boys and get out of here. You make the place look untidy.
If we d known the place was this well protected, we wouldn t have come here, Chapman said bitterly.
We were promised the Hall would be empty and abandoned.
Spread the word, I said. Drood Hall and its grounds are still protected. Be grateful you didn t get to meet the scarecrows.
But the Hall s a ruin! Chapman said wildly. Look at it! What s left inside might as well do someone some good! It s no use to anyone just sitting there! All right, all right. I m going.
Not quite yet, I said. I still want to know who sent you here. Who made you all these promises? Who knew the Hall was a ruin, and provided you with a bloody sat nav?
Crow Lee, said Chapman. It was Crow Lee, the bastard. He swore this would be an easy one, quick in and out, no problems. He lied.
Well, that s what you do, said Molly, when you re the Most Evil Man in the World.
But Chapman was already walking away, calling out to his less-damaged boys to help load the others into the back of the trucks. I was a bit relieved to see I hadn t done quite as much damage to them as I d imagined. Molly looked at me thoughtfully.
There were an awful lot of the little shits, and I have no sympathy for them. But
Yes, I said. But. I am an agent, not an assassin. I do what s necessary to take control of a situation. I was never that bloodthirsty before, when I put on my armour. Moxton s Mistake was in my head. I couldn t hear it, but it was there.
Can you learn to control it? said Molly.
I ll learn, I said. I have to. Because I really can t do the job without it. Not if Crow Lee s involved.
We walked back up the drive to the wrecked and burnt-out Hall. Knowing it wasn t my Hall really didn t help much. It was still Drood Hall. Part of me was listening to the trucks revving up and departing my grounds at speed, but I was thinking more about Crow Lee. The Beast. The Devil s Own. The Most Evil Man in the World and there s a lot of competition. Everyone in my line of work has heard of Crow Lee. He hadn t joined the Great Satanic Conspiracy because he thought they weren t extreme enough. He dealt in death curses, human sacrifice, human trafficking, blackmail on a small and large scale and in slaughter and suffering just for the fun of it. He d run any
