The Regent jumped to his feet, staring slack-jawed at me. And I jumped to my feet, grinning broadly. I glanced apologetically at Molly, who rolled her eyes and gave me a Go on, then, if you must look.
The ruined Hall isn t our Hall, I said to the Regent. It s another Hall, another Drood family, from a different dimension, with a different history. Our Hall was rotated to another Earth by Alpha Red Alpha. You do know about that? Of course you do. I m pretty sure it was operated from outside, by remote control, taking our family by surprise. They probably never knew what hit them, until it was far too late. And now they re trapped in that other place, unable to get home. But they re still alive! I m sure of it! The dead Droods in the ruined Hall were just left there to distract us, to keep us from looking for the real thing! I m working on a way to get our family back, but I need help and resources. That s why I came here.
Showing off in front of Grandpa, muttered Molly.
The horror, the horror
But I wasn t listening, because the Regent gave a great whoop of delight and burst out from behind his desk to grab me by the arms and dance me round his office, hollering away happily. I laughed helplessly along with him, dancing just as wildly. It felt so good to have someone else to share my good news with. Molly knew, but she wasn t a Drood. She wasn t family, with all that meant. So she stood to one side, smiling painfully, waiting for the Regent and I to wear ourselves out. And eventually we did. The Regent dropped back into the chair behind his desk, flushed bright red, breathing hard, grinning. I slumped into the stiff-backed visitor s chair, fighting to get my breathing back under control. Molly sat down beside me and wouldn t look at either of us. The Regent and I grinned at each other.
If Alpha Red Alpha got rid of our family, he said, finally, how in hell are we going to get them back?
I m working on that, I said.
The Regent laughed breathlessly. Everything I ve heard about you really is true.
Oh, it is, said Molly. Believe it.
Now, you said someone must have activated Alpha Red Alpha by remote control, said the Regent. Who do you think was behind that?
I m pretty sure it was Crow Lee, I said, and then had to break off as the Regent slammed his fist on the desktop.
Of course it s him! Has to be him! Only he d have the brass nerve Cheeky bugger! I was talking to him just the other week, and he never so much as hinted at what he was planning. He must have known I d have thrown this whole organisation against him if I d known.
Would you? said Molly. Would you really? You d have risked everything you ve built up to save the family that threw you out?
Once a Drood, always a Drood, said the Regent.
Right, Eddie?
Unfortunately, yes, I said. You have to understand, Molly, despite everything, it s always going to be Anything for the family. It s bred in the bone.
Trust me, I had noticed, said Molly.
Crow Lee said the Regent, rubbing his hands together briskly. I ve been searching for some way to bring down that arrogant little shit for years. They don t call him the Most Evil Man in the World for nothing. But as I m sure I m not the first to say he s always been too well connected for me to touch. I couldn t even get near him because of his powerful friends in high and low places.
Molly looked at me. If the Droods knew what Crow Lee was, why didn t they take him down? Connections in high places shouldn t have been any obstacle to your family.
Crow Lee s connections aren t just with the Thrones of this World, I said patiently. We re not just talking about the everyday movers and shakers of politics and big business. Though he certainly has enough of them by the balls No, Crow Lee made compacts with Above and Below, long ago. With the Houses of Pain and the Shimmering Plains, trading them something they wanted in return for power and protection. And, no, we don t know what the deal involved. I looked at the Regent hopefully, but he just shook his head briefly.
I have heard rumours, the Regent said slowly.
And I feel I should make it clear that I have no actual evidence rumours that Crow Lee had some kind of hold over the Droods. Enough of a hold to keep them at bay all these years
A hold? I said. What kind of a hold are we talking about here?
Like I said, all I have are rumours, most of them contradictory. But to keep Crow Lee off the Drood agenda for so long, it would have to concern some of the highest people in the family.
Blackmail, Molly said succinctly.
Could be, said the Regent. But if it was, I ve never been able to find out who or what was involved. And believe me, I ve tried. You were head of the family for a while there, Eddie. Did anyone ever say anything to you?
No, I said. I m only just beginning to discover how much they managed to keep from me. And given all the terrible and sometimes downright appalling things my family has cheerfully admitted to down the years what could Crow Lee know about that s bad enough to give him a hold over us?
What if he lost this hold? said Molly. After all the changes your family s been through of late, maybe what he knew just didn t matter anymore. What if the ones being blackmailed were finally in a position to tell him to go to hell? That might have been enough to provoke his attack. If the Droods were finally getting ready to go after him, maybe he decided to get his preemptive strike in first.
Or maybe he just saw the family in a weakened state and decided to take them off the board while he had the chance, said the Regent. After all your recent wars, the Hungry Gods and the Loathly Ones, the Immortals and the Great Satanic Conspiracy the family s lost a lot of good people, Eddie. You ve never looked so vulnerable.
And then we all looked round sharply as the door banged open and Miss Mitchell strode in. She wasn t carrying a tea tray this time.
I didn t call you, Miss Mitchell, said the Regent. And this really isn t a good time.
Crow Lee sends his regards, said Miss Mitchell, the pleasant and plain middle-aged woman in the cheap dress. She raised the Luger at her side and shot the Regent three times in the chest. I cried out as the impact of the bullets threw him right out of his chair. I was up on my feet in a moment and then froze as Miss Mitchell brought up her other hand to show me the clicker she was holding.
Crow Lee gave me this. He got it from someone in your family. Something to hold your armour in your collar, so I can kill you. And I will kill you, Edwin Drood, because that s what Crow Lee wants. He wants your whole stupid family dead and gone. And I will do anything for Crow Lee because he loves me.
She smiled brightly at me and hit the clicker. I called my armour and it came, sweeping over me from head to foot in a moment. Miss Mitchell looked blankly into my featureless golden face mask and hit the clicker again and again. It had clearly been programmed to affect my old strange-matter armour; not the new rogue armour. Miss Mitchell fired her gun at me, shooting me at point-blank range again and again, and the bullets just ricocheted away harmlessly.
It s not fair, said Miss Mitchell.
It s not fair! Cheater!
I took a step towards her. She fell back a step and then raised the Luger and pressed it against her head. She looked at me defiantly.
Crow Lee loves me!
She shot herself, and the Luger blew half her head away. She crumbled bonelessly to the floor. I armoured down, and looked at Molly.
You could have stopped her, said Molly. You could have slapped that gun right out of her hand, with your speed, before she could have pulled the trigger.
You could have stopped her, I said. You could have made her gun disappear or turned it into a flower. But you didn t.
She was a traitor, said Molly. And neither of us have ever had any time for traitors.
She killed my grandfather, I said. And she would have killed me.
Molly moved forward and put her hands on my chest. Oh, Eddie. I m so sorry about your grandfather. You d only just found him again.
I will avenge him, I said flatly. I will kill Crow Lee and everyone who stands with him. I ve always been able
