number of cults just because he could.
He worked as a magical assassin for a while, as much for the experience as the money. Killing the rich and the powerful by order. He had mastered necromancy, the magic of murder, and could make the living and the dead do his bidding. These days he worked mostly from the shadows and was often accused of atrocities and abominations but nothing had ever been proved. Crow Lee, the man who could do anything, anything at all.
Why have the Droods never done anything about the Most Evil Man in the World? said Molly.
Because he s protected, I said. And I don t just mean because he s made pacts with Hell, though he has. He has connections inside every political party, every religious organisation, and he has powerful friends, or, perhaps more properly, allies, in every circle you can think of. The whole family would have had to go to war against Crow Lee and his people, with no sure knowledge of how it would turn out. He s been stopped, defeated, many times, by us and others but he just disappears and turns up somewhere else, as powerful and protected as ever. His front men and his allies go down, but he never does. The decision was made in the family, sometime back, to just let him grow old and die. Because he s just one man, and the family goes on forever. If we can t take him down, we can always outlive the bastard. And we ll settle for stopping his various schemes until the evil old scrote grows weak and falls apart. At least that was the plan. It would seem he decided to get his retaliation in first.
You re sure he s the one? Molly said carefully. The one who took remote control of Alpha Red Alpha?
It has to be him! Only he would have the power to do it and the arrogance to get away with it! The moment I heard his name, I knew. So. Now my enemy has a face and a name. That helps. And so will the Regent of Shadows, one way or another. This informant of yours; you re sure they can put us in touch with the Regent?
Almost certainly, said Molly.
Good, I said. But first, we have to go to Egypt.
CHAPTER THREE
Egypt? said Molly, a bit dangerously. And just why do we have to go to Egypt so damned urgently? What could there possibly be in Egypt that s so important we have to go there right now?
Something we need, I said. Something that will help me track down my missing family. Something that the Armourer once told me about, in an unguarded moment, in strict confidence so rare and secret and important that it should only ever be sought after in a real emergency. I m pretty sure this qualifies.
What, exactly, are we talking about here? said Molly.
A particularly useful item that my family put to one side and hid somewhere very remote and very safe, for just such an occasion as this, I said. You have to understand, Molly; my family has plans drawn up for every conceivable emergency that might ever arise.
You re saying your family even had a plan in place for something like this?
Oh, especially for something like this. Even when everything seems lost and all hope gone, you can be sure the Droods still have something in hand to fall back on. When a family has been around as long as ours has, we have time to consider all the possibilities. So we always have one last ace up our sleeve to confound our many enemies. A hidden weapon, one last dirty trick, or an unexpected ally waiting in the wings. Or in this case, a very useful item, hidden away.
I might have known, said Molly. Your family is too sneaky and underhanded for words. But even assuming this hidden item can help us, why do we have to go to Egypt, of all places?
Because that s where it is.
I hate it when you go all cryptic, said Molly severely. You re never more smug than when you re being cryptic.
The item in question is tucked away safe and secure in Egypt, I said patiently. So that even if the entire family was abducted, snatched away, disappeared without trace or fell through some hole in space and time as long as one of us remained, there would still be a chance to get the family back. A way to locate them, wherever they were.
Molly sniffed loudly. She didn t seem particularly convinced. How are we supposed to get to Egypt, with every bad guy and his dog out looking for us? We can t just book a weekend in Cairo in some backstreet bucket shop and just hop on the nearest plane. We should go to Brighton and talk to my friend. See if she can get us in to see the Regent of Shadows.
The Regent can wait, I said. What good will it do to have the Regent s support if we ve no way of finding my family? Besides, who needs a plane when we have the Merlin Glass?
I retrieved the hand mirror from the pocket dimension I kept it in and held it out before me. The silver frame shone almost supernaturally bright in the sunshine. Molly looked at the Glass and then back at me, and if anything, looked even more dubious.
I don t know, Eddie. That s not our Merlin Glass. It s from a whole different place. You really think we can trust it?
I m still not convinced we could trust the original, I said. But it s not like we have much choice in the matter. Unless your teleport capabilities have improved a hell of a lot since the last time we had to use them
My teleport capabilities are deliberately limited, Molly said sternly. You ve never understood the risks involved in travelling through the spaces that connect spaces. The farther the trip, the more you open yourself up to all kinds of dangers. Physical and spiritual. There are things that live in the places between places, and they re hungry. You have no idea how powerful the Merlin Glass must be to keep you safe as it transports you back and forth.
We have to go to Egypt, I said patiently.
To pick up the special little something my family hid there. We need it, Molly. Think of it as a form of insurance, put aside for a very rainy day. And before you ask again, Why Egypt? my family wanted it hidden as far from the Hall as possible, where no one would ever think to look for it.
You have moved beyond cryptic into seriously annoying, said Molly. What is it? A weapon of some kind?
Something far more useful, I said.
Something useful, hidden in Egypt, said Molly, thoughtfully. I used to be so good at crossword puzzles. Is it contained in a mummy s sarcophagus? Or perhaps an old oil lamp that needs cleaning? An ancient flame that bestows eternal youth? Tana leaves?
You re just being silly now, I said.
Wait, wait don t tell me. I ll get it! Is it a special kind of torc connected to all the other torcs?
Nice try, but no. We changed all our torcs remember? when we replaced the Heart with Ethel. My ancestors always knew that might be a possibility someday. Even if they were very careful never to mention such a thing anywhere, the Heart might overhear them. No. My family decided, quite rightly, that we needed something more basic.
Other families have skeletons in their closets, said Molly. Your family has whole boneyards. All right. Say we go to Egypt and pick up this thing. Will it enable us to go get your family?
Think of it more as a compass, I said. Something to point us in the right direction.
It s not strong enough to get us there on its own? Molly considered the question for longer than I was comfortable with. Is there anyone else that you know of who has anything like Alpha Red Alpha? A dimensional engine powerful enough to take us where Alpha Red Alpha took your family?
Not that I know of, I said. There are all kinds of dimensional doors and hellgates scattered around that can give you access to all kinds of other worlds and far-off realms some of them in the hands of friends, like the London Knights, some in the hands of enemies, like the Crimson Brotherhood of Peng Tang, and a hell of a lot more in the hands of private individuals with more money than sense. But we can t approach any of them without revealing why we want them, and we can t have the whole world finding out what s happened to the Droods. Looters would be just the start of it. And, anyway, I doubt very much anything out there would be as powerful as Alpha Red Alpha. It s always been thought of as unique, because no one else would be crazy enough to build something that dangerous. And then live over it. Alpha Red Alpha was designed to send you beyond space and time, into dimensions and realities we don t even have proper names for. That s why we never used the damned thing until I persuaded my
