Simon Green - Property of a Lady Faire

“So, this is good-bye, Eddie. I wish I’d had more time, to get to know you better. Time to just . . . sit down together, and talk. But you always think there’ll be more time, for things like that, until suddenly there isn’t. I would have liked to tell you and Molly . . . everything. But a lot of it wasn’t mine to tell.”

The corpse turned its dead gaze away from me, and looked at the gap where the door had been.

“This isn’t the end I saw for myself, but I can’t say it comes as any surprise. Agents rarely die in their sleep. Be sure your sins will find you out . . . I hope they don’t think I’m going to beg for my life. I will sit here, with my faithful old gun, and see how many of them I can take with me. Before they drag me down. I wonder if I’ll know them, when they break down my door. Whether I’ll recognise the face of my killer . . .

“I don’t know where Charles and Emily are, Eddie. They’re not here. They never made contact again, after they left Casino Infernale. Find them, Eddie. Find the traitor inside Uncanny. Find the people who did this. Avenge all these . . . good people.”

And then the corpse gave up its ghost, and was still and silent again. The last words my grandfather would ever say to me had reached their end.

“He only spoke to you,” said Molly.

“He knew I’d come,” I said. “He knew I’d want to avenge him.”

“Why should I help the man who murdered my parents?” said Molly.

“Because this isn’t all about you,” I said. “It’s about my parents, and avenging all the people who died here. Men and women who just wanted to do good in the world. I can’t do this without you, Molly.”

She nodded, slowly. “Where do we start?”

“Damned if I know,” I said.

And then we both stood very still, as the phone started ringing. The sudden sound was almost unbearably loud in the quiet. I checked the Regent’s desk, but the phone wasn’t there. In the end I had to get down on my hands and knees, and I found it on the floor. It had been smashed to pieces. The ringing wasn’t coming from the phone. So I got up again and addressed the office at large.

“Hello? Eddie Drood speaking. Who is this?”

The ringing stopped, and a Voice spoke out of nowhere. Something in that Voice was enough to make both Molly and me wince. Like fingernails scraping down the blackboards of our souls.

“I destroyed the Department of Uncanny,” said the Voice. “And everyone in it. Because they got in my way. They didn’t have what I was looking for, so you’re going to find it for me.”

“And why would I do that?” I said.

“Because I have your parents,” said the Voice. “Dear Charles and Emily. Your father and mother are in my keeping. Quite safe, for the moment, but I will kill them slowly and horribly if you don’t do what I want you to do. I knew you’d come here, Eddie. Good little Drood that you are. And the wild witch herself, Molly Metcalf! I couldn’t hope for better helpers.”

“What do you want?” I said. “And who are you?”

“I want the Lazarus Stone,” said the Voice. “You’re going to find it for me, and bring it to me. Without alerting anyone else in the Drood family. If you talk to anyone, I’ll know, and I’ll kill Charles and Emily. I will know when you have the Stone, and then I’ll contact you and tell you where and how to make the delivery. Let’s hope you’re as good as your reputations, Eddie Drood and Molly Metcalf.”

The Voice fell silent. Molly and I looked at each other.

“What the hell is the Lazarus Stone?” I said. “I’ve never even heard of it, and I’ve at least heard of most things.”

“Same here,” said Molly. “Especially if they’re valuable. But that name doesn’t mean a thing to me.”

“There’s bound to be a reference to it somewhere in the Drood Library,” I said. “But we can’t talk to the Librarian . . . Can’t talk to any of the family. I may be on the outs with them just now, but they’d still insist on getting involved. And I won’t put my parents’ lives at risk.”

“Eddie,” Molly said carefully, “they gambled away your soul at Casino Infernale!”

“I know!” I said. “But I can’t let them down too.”

I didn’t look at the body of my grandfather. I didn’t have to.

“All right,” said Molly. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going back to Drood Hall,” I said. “We’re going to break in, without anyone knowing that we’re there, and then we’re going to talk to the one Drood that no one outside the family even knows exists. The Drood in Cell 13.”

“All right,” said Molly, in her I am being very patient here but you’d better believe I am going to take a lot of convincing voice, “how are we going to get back into Drood Hall without being noticed? How are we going to sneak into the best-protected and -defended location possibly in the entire world? I mean, yes, we did do it once, all those years ago, but we had all kinds of help then that we don’t have now. And your family are bound to have filled in all those loopholes anyway.”

“No problem,” I said cheerfully, and perhaps a little more confidently than I actually felt. “After all the trouble we had breaking in last time, I decided to make life easier for myself in the future. So I could come and go as I pleased without having to bother anyone.”

“And because you don’t trust your family,” said Molly.

“Exactly!” I said. “So I had the Merlin Glass set up an emergency back door. A very subtle hidden entrance, built around the Glass itself, completely undetectable by any of the Hall’s shields and protections. Just in case I ever felt the need to come visiting without an invitation. The Door doesn’t exist until the Glass decides it does, and then we step through into any part of the Hall, without anyone knowing. Theoretically.”

“What?” said Molly.

“Well,” I said, “I’ve never actually needed to try it until now.”

“I like it!” Molly said approvingly. “Very sneaky. And you never told me about this before because . . . ?”

“Because I never needed to try it before,” I said.

“Also very sneaky,” said Molly. “Well done. Hanging around with me has clearly widened your moral horizons. But . . . why do we have to go visit this person in Cell 13? Why can’t we just drop straight into the Old Library? There’s bound to be something in there about the Lazarus Stone.”

“It’s not that simple,” I said. “Nothing happens in the Old Library that William doesn’t know about. He’s a lot sharper these days. The Voice said no help from my family. We have to assume that whoever’s behind the Voice is still watching.”

“But isn’t the Drood in Cell 13 . . .”

“Technically, no. Because he isn’t a member of the family any longer. The Voice shouldn’t be able to observe us once we’re safely inside the Hall’s many shields and protections, but I don’t feel like taking the chance. It’s bad enough we’re going to the Hall at all; I’m not prepared to put my parents’ lives at risk by talking to anyone we don’t have to.”

“I could always ask my sisters for help,” said Molly. “They’re not Droods.”

“You’ve got a point there,” I said. “There are all kinds of really powerful people who you or I could go to for help. Why did the Voice specifically rule out just my family?”

“Because the Voice has a specific reason to be scared of Droods?” said Molly.

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” I said. “A lot of people have good reason to be scared of my family. Though that would seem to imply that . . . whoever the Voice is, he knows my family. And they know him. Interesting . . . Doesn’t get us anywhere, but it is interesting . . .”