Simon Green - From Hell with love

"If it's all over," I said, "what do you care about your files? You're not here to destroy them; you're here to destroy all the computer records, to strike back at the Immortals."

"Oh hell," said Molly. "A bright one. What were the odds? Too bad for you…"

She got up to face me, and she'd never looked more beautiful, or more dangerous.

"The Drood was here before you," I said. "Edwin. Too stupid to get what he needed from our computers."

"Don't you talk about him," she said. "Don't you talk about my Eddie! He's a better man than all of you put together!"

"I know," I said. "But it's good to hear you say it." I used the Chameleon Codex to change my shape, and took on my own face and body again. I smiled at Molly. "Hi, sweetie. Miss me?"

"You bastard," she said, and her gaze and her voice had never been colder. "You bloody bastard Immortal. How dare you take on my Eddie's face? I'll kill you for that!"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," I said, retreating rapidly as she advanced on me. "It's me, Molly, it's really me!"

Something in my face and voice stopped her. She looked at me for a long moment, with a cold, unwavering and quite deadly gaze.

"Prove it."

"You're convinced your left tit is smaller than your right one, even though I keep telling you they're the same."

"It is you! Eddie!" She stepped forward and slapped me hard across the face. "That's for pretending to be someone else, to test me! Oh Eddie, my Eddie…"

I took her in my arms and we hugged each other tightly, clinging together like we'd never let each other go, like the whole world couldn't pull us apart, now we'd found each other again. She buried her face in my shoulder, and I hid my face in her hair. We were both breathing hard, as though we'd run a long way to get here, to this moment. Our bodies pressed tight together, as though we wanted to touch every part of each other at once.

"I thought I'd lost you," I said finally. "Oh God, Molly, I wanted to die. I didn't want to go on living, without you."

"I'm sorry," said Molly. She pulled back a little, so she could look me in the eye. "I'm so sorry, but I couldn't let you know I was still alive. I had to keep you in the dark, for your own protection."

We let go of each other, but still stood close together, face-to-face. I could feel her breath on my mouth, and her gaze was like a caress.

"How?" I said finally. "How did you survive, Molly? I saw the blades… and the blood…"

She put her fingertips on my mouth to stop me talking. "I did tell you once, but you clearly weren't paying attention. I'm a witch, Eddie. We all keep our hearts separate from our bodies, safely stored and hidden in a protected place. As long as they don't actually cut my head off, I can survive anything. I always come back. Isabella got me out of the Hall, and then watched over me while I slowly healed myself."

"But… why didn't you come back to the Hall?" I said. "Why couldn't you at least contact me, tell me you were still alive?"

"I had a lot of time to think, while my body was repairing itself," said Molly. "Everything that had happened only made sense if the Droods had been infiltrated. And the only ones who could do that, were the Immortals. And that meant I couldn't trust anyone, anymore. It was safer for both of us if our enemies thought I was dead. So I came here, to break into their computers and search out a list of everyone they've replaced inside your family."

"Hold everything," I said. "You knew about the Immortals? Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"You never asked. I know all kinds of things, Eddie."

"We will come back to that, at a later date," I said. "For now, how did you get into the Castle?"

"I made a deal with these people, remember? And while I was here, I was allowed to come and go as I pleased; so I took the opportunity to set up my own little back door teleport. Just in case I needed to come back again, without their permission. It never even occurred to the smug little bastards that I might not be as completely taken in by them as they thought I was. How did you get in?"

I smiled. "The Armourer makes the very best toys."

She grinned back at me. "I should have known you'd been here before me. Look at this mess. You never were the most subtle of secret agents."

"Don't know what you're talking about," I said loftily. "I am a thing of mists and shadows."

"How were you able to look like one of the Immortals?" she said abruptly. "That wasn't an illusion; I would have Seen through that."

I explained to her about the Chameleon Codex, and the Gemini Duplicator, and she grinned wickedly.

"So… you can make two of yourself, or even more? You can change to look like anyone at all… Including celebrities? Male and female? Oh, Eddie… we are so going to give these toys a workout in your bedroom when we get back!"

"How well we know each other," I said.

The computer made a polite noise, to let us know it was done doing what Molly had told it to do, and we both looked round, and leaned over the monitor to study the long list of names scrolling down on the screen.

"You don't look happy anymore, Eddie. In fact, you look like you want to kill someone. I know it's a lot of names, but is it really that bad?"

"So many names," I said. "Past, and present. People I've known all my life. Trusted faces. I can't believe we were infiltrated this badly, and never knew. And from outside. We should have spotted them, we should have noticed something… But we were too arrogant. We just couldn't believe it was possible…" And then I saw one particular name. "Damn. I know now. I know who killed the Matriarch. I know who murdered my grandmother, and how."

"Who?" said Molly, peering past my shoulder at the screen. "Who was it?"

I set the computer to downloading the list onto a disc, and turned away from the screen. "It doesn't matter now. That's family business. It can wait. We have work to do, Molly. I don't know if you've been keeping up with everything that's happening here, but we only have eight hours or less to get to Area 52, and deal with the Apocalypse Door, before some poor fool opens it."

"Damn right," said Molly. "The old team, back in action again! I've missed you, Eddie."

"I missed you, Molly. More than life itself."

"All right, you're pushing it now…"

We hugged each other again, but broke apart almost immediately as we heard a whole crowd of people approaching, at speed. Molly grabbed the disc with the list, and tucked it away about her person.

"Must have set off a silent alarm, this time," I said. "You've got better long-range senses than me. How many are coming?"

Molly concentrated briefly, and then frowned. "At a conservative guess, I'd have to say… all of them. If I'm reading the signs right, and I am, every Immortal in the Castle is up in arms, loaded for bear, and headed this way with vengeance on their minds. All right, Eddie, what have you done this time?"

"Why is it always my fault?" I said innocently.

"Because it is always your fault!"

You can't argue with logic like that. "How far to the nearest exit?"

"Eddie, they've blocked off every exit, including half a dozen I didn't even know existed until now. And I'm very thorough about things like that."

"So," I said. "You and me, up against the whole family of Immortals. Not good odds…"

"Can't you just open a doorway for us, with the Merlin Glass?"

"It won't work inside the Castle's protections. Nothing living can pass through their defences. What about your teleport spells?"

"Same problem," said Molly. "We're going to have to fight our way out."

"Works for me," I said. "Don't suppose you happened to bring any really nasty and powerful magical weapons with you, by any chance?"

"I don't normally need them," said Molly. "I take it you can at least armour up?"