Simon Green - Live and let Drood

I was still fighting through a growing crowd of soldiers. They were throwing everything they had at me just to slow me down.

I saw Molly try to get up, anyway, and the major hit her again, slamming the heavy wood into the side of her head with calm efficiency. I heard her cry out again. I heard the sound the staff made as it hit her head. I saw the blood leap from her torn scalp and rush down one side of her face. Molly went down on one knee, staring dazedly at the grass before her as it turned red with her blood. And then she forced her face up again to glare at Major Browten.

Don t embarrass yourself, Miss Metcalf, he said calmly. You have no magic now, remember? I took it all away with my Witch s Hammer.

I ll see your Witch s Hammer, you son of a bitch, said Molly. And raise you a protein exploder.

She brought up the small box in a steady hand and pointed it at his groin at point-blank range. She hit the button, and I swear I actually saw the major s testicles explode in slow motion. He sank heavily to his knees before Molly, and clutched desperately at the gaping wound between his thighs, blood spurting thickly past his hands. Molly looked at him with her bloody face and then put the protein exploder away. She forced herself back up onto her feet, now with the Witch s Hammer in her hands. She hit Major Browten over the head with it, a blow so hard the staff broke in two. The major fell forward, dead before he hit the ground. Molly laughed at him breathlessly and threw the broken pieces of the staff aside.

I d finally fought my way through the last soldiers and caught up to Molly. I was reaching out to her to make sure she was all right when another tree dropped its disguise, to become another mercenary soldier. Molly and I both turned to confront him, and then stopped abruptly as we saw what he was holding. It was a monkey s paw made over into a Hand of Glory. Very illegal, very dangerous, completely bloody foolhardy. In some countries you can still be executed just for admitting you ve heard of such a thing. The flames rising from the tiny wrinkled fingers were bloodred and didn t tremble at all. Molly and I stood very still. A monkey s paw is hideously dangerous in its own right, able to alter reality itself. But to add to that the gifts and power of a Hand of Glory? That s like deciding a thermonuclear device isn t dangerous enough and giving it leprosy. The soldier smiled at us and waggled the monkey s hand in our faces.

You don t need to use that, Molly said carefully. Throw it away. You risk damning your soul just by holding such a thing.

I m a professional soldier, the mercenary said easily. Major Mike Michaels. To a soldier, a weapon is just a weapon; they re all just killing tools at the end of the day. Now, armour down, Drood. Make that nasty metal suit disappear, or I ll have the monkey s hand do something really nasty to your girlfriend.

I pulled my armour back into my torc, and the mercenary soldier watched, fascinated, as the gold vanished and I appeared. I stood stiffly beside Molly. Blood was still dripping steadily off one side of her face. I wanted to hold her, but I didn t dare move while Major Michaels was watching me so closely. He wanted an excuse to use the hand. I could tell. I felt naked and very vulnerable without my armour. I could feel it stirring resentfully inside my torc, disturbed by the power it sensed in the monkey s hand. Moxton s Mistake might or might not have been able to withstand the power contained in that nasty little object, but I couldn t risk finding out while Molly was still in danger. The Witch s Hammer had taken her magic, but the staff was broken now. So did she have her magic back? She wasn t doing anything. I had no choice but to play along, and hope I could find a way out of this mess.

Major Michaels held up the monkey s hand so Molly could see it clearly. Give me that trinket you re wearing round your throat, Miss Metcalf. The ruby pendant.

Molly reached up slowly, removed the Twilight Teardrop s chain from around her neck, and handed it over. Either because the monkey s hand was affecting her, or because she had no power left to deny him what he wanted. The moment the pendant left her hand, she swayed and almost fell, as though the last of her strength had gone out of her. Without the Twilight Teardrop to power her magic, she was as helpless as I was. The major smiled, and what I saw in that man s face as he looked at Molly was enough to send me surging forward, calling for my armour.

I d barely got moving before Major Michaels thrust his monkey s hand at me, and just the power of it was enough to force the armour back into my torc. I summoned it again and again, but even though I could feel the rogue armour s presence at the back of my head, raging and desperate to get out, it was trapped. The major laughed softly and took his time pointing the monkey s hand at Molly.

Behave yourself, Drood! Or do you want to see this nasty little object do something really unpleasant to your girlfriend? Maybe I ll have it turn her into something really revolting. That was always one of your favourite tricks, wasn t it, Miss Metcalf? Perhaps I ll fuse your legs together so you can play mermaid. Or I could melt off both your arms. Or just take away your eyes and your mouth, your ears and your nose, and leave you trapped in the dark inside your own head.

Please, I said. Don t. There s no need for this. We surrender. Take us to Crow Lee. You know he s going to want to talk to us.

Oh yes, said the major. He s just dying to have words with you. That s all that s keeping you alive. After all my men you killed

Run, Eddie, Molly said dully. Get out of here. Get help.

I can t leave you, I said.

You picked a fine time to get sentimental, said Major Michaels. I always thought you field agents would be more professional. I am a professional soldier of long standing. Like the man you just killed, girl. Major Browten was a good soldier and a fine officer. Not a friend, as such, but a colleague. Kind of man you could depend on to keep his head in a firefight and do his job. Dead and gone now because of you. So don t look to me for sympathy.

You stood by and let it happen, I said.

He shrugged. Orders

More uniformed soldiers appeared out of nowhere and hurried forward to join the major. He looked at them scathingly.

Where the hell have you been? I had to take care of business on my own! Don t look at them like that; they re just captives now. Quite harmless. Search them, secure them and then escort them in to see Crow Lee. He looked down at the dead body of Major Browten and shook his head briefly. Bad way to go. Not that there are many good ways. He turned to Molly and punched her hard in the face. Her head snapped back, blood flying on the air. I threw myself at the major, and the other soldiers beat me to the ground with their gun butts. I curled up into a ball, as I d been trained, trying to take the blows on my tensed muscles, but there were just too many of them, hitting me from every direction at once. One rifle butt got through to my head, slamming in with vicious force. My head filled with pain and then the world just went away for a while.

When I came back, I hurt so much I couldn t move. Blood was drying on my face and seeping out my split and broken lips. My face felt like it had been pulped. One eye had swollen shut. My muscles jumped and spasmed as I tried to move, and I groaned at the pain despite myself. I could hear the soldiers laughing.

I wasn t dead. Crow Lee had given orders not to kill me. I clung to that thought. There was a limit to what they could do to me. They couldn t risk killing me. That was something. They d hurt me, but it didn t feel like they d broken anything important. If I could just get my armour around me, it would make the pain go away and make me strong again, and then, and then