Simon Green - Live and let Drood

I looked at Crow Lee. Don t run, I said. And something in my voice made him flinch. Stay right where you are. I ll get to you. Once I ve finished with the traitor.

I gave Adrian Drood my full attention. He stood his ground, staring defiantly back at me.

All these years, I said, killing your own flesh and blood, so you could replace them undermining and destroying your own family from within.

Why not? said Adrian. It was mine to destroy. Mine to do with as I pleased. I made it! I made the Droods possible!

But we moved on, I said. We became something better and greater than you ever intended. We became something you never even conceived! With your limited, barbarian mind All the years you ve lived, and you ve learned nothing! And when you finally realised we would never sink to become what you wanted, that we d never settle for being something so small, you threw a temper tantrum like a threatened child, and ran away to Crow Lee to get rid of us. You petty, spiteful little turd.

You let me down, said Adrian. You disappointed me. Every damned one of you. It doesn t matter. I can always start again. Make a new family.

Without the Heart? I said. Without Ethel? You have no armour.

Then I suppose I ll just have to take yours, said Adrian. He lifted his hand, and in it was the monkey s paw made over into a Hand of Glory. The bloodred flames were burning steadily again. He laughed briefly at me. You didn t really think you could destroy something as powerful as this just by stamping on it? It was easy for me to call it out from under your foot while you were busy puffing up your chest and boasting. You don t live as long as I have without learning a few useful tricks. Now, let s try this again.

He thrust the monkey s hand at me and spoke a single Word, and just like that the rogue armour ripped off me, and all my pain and injuries returned. I cried out, but I didn t fall. Adrian cried out at the cold shock of what it was like to wear Moxton s Mistake. And then he stood before me, powerful and proud, in the golden glory of Drood armour. He started to say something and then he cried out again in horror as the rogue armour constricted suddenly about him. It shrank in sudden spurts, falling in upon itself, crushing Adrian inside it as it compacted itself in sudden rushes. The limbs were sucked inside the trunk, which collapsed in on itself, while Adrian screamed and screamed until the screams cut off abruptly. And still the armour shrank in upon itself, until nothing was left but a golden box, a cube barely three feet in diameter, sitting quietly on the carpet before us. Crow Lee looked at it in silent shock, and then looked at me.

Don t look at me, I said. I didn t know it could do that.

The golden box exploded back into human shape again and stood facing me. Moxton s Mistake, regarding me with its featureless golden face.

He put me in the Maze, it said, in its rasping inhuman voice. Left me there to run wild for centuries. Did he think I d forgive and forget? Your torc has no authority over me, Eddie Drood. I serve you only because I choose to.

We made a bargain, I said steadily.

So we did, said the rogue armour. I haven t forgotten. Take this as a sign, a warning of what might happen to you if you were to turn against me.

It hunched its back, which split open to allow out what remained of Adrian Drood. A hot and steaming cube of compacted meat and splintered bone burst out of the armour s back and fell, stinking and splashing, to the floor in a rush of bodily fluids. And while I was looking at that, the golden armour flowed forward and wrapped itself about me. I shuddered, and not only from the familiar cold. I felt strong and well again, free from all pain, but I also felt the armour s presence watching me thoughtfully. I looked at the bloody steaming mess on the carpet. Not a bad end for the greatest traitor the Droods had ever known. I just wished I could have done it myself. It occurred to me that the armour could have done the same thing to me any of the times I wore it. And still could

I turned to consider the Plymouth Fury. Mr. Stab was still trapped beneath it, still struggling to break free. He rocked the heavy car back and forth with his more-than-human strength, but he still couldn t lift the thing off him. The Plymouth Fury settled itself more firmly, like a duck upon its eggs, quietly humming

Rock n Roll Is Here to Stay. I stopped down, picked the monkey s hand up off the floor and slipped it through my armoured side and into my pocket dimension. Because you never knew and because I didn t want anyone else to surprise me with it.

I moved over to the car and knelt down beside Mr. Stab s protruding head and shoulder. He d worked one arm out from under the car, and suddenly there was a blade in it, shining bright. I grabbed his hand and squeezed hard until he dropped the knife. And then I picked it up and snapped it neatly in two. The bright glow was quickly gone, leaving just two pieces of broken steel. Mr. Stab glared at me sullenly as I threw the pieces aside.

It s all right, I said to the car.

You can get off him now.

Are you sure? said the car. I can run back and forth over him a few times, if you like. No trouble

Thanks, I said. But that won t be necessary.

The car sniffed loudly, reminding me irresistibly of Molly for a moment. People just don t know how to enjoy themselves.

The Plymouth Fury backed slowly away, reversing steadily till it was halfway out the jagged hole it had made in the wall when it arrived. Mr. Stab rose slowly to his feet, brushing the dust off his Victorian finery in an unfussy way. His eyes never left mine.

You ll never stop me, he said coldly.

I can recover from anything you do to me. You ve seen that for yourself.

Maybe no one ever tried hard enough before, I said. Maybe no one was ever motivated enough before me. This new armour really is very versatile. The things it can do You saw what it did to the traitor Drood.

Crush me. Put me in a box, said Mr. Stab.

I ll still bounce back. Like the worst jack-in-the-box you ever saw.

He held up his hand, and there was a new shining blade in it. He swept it back and forth before him, smiling coldly.

I am never without a blade. This, too, was given to me.

But all the other attacks were from outside, I said. I m thinking about inside.

And before Mr. Stab could react, I stepped quickly forward and punched him in the mouth. The golden armour didn t stop at his mouth; it carried on, flowing down his throat, filling up his insides. I held him firmly with my left hand as he struggled wildly, my right hand pressing down on his mouth. The golden metal flowed off me and into him, inside him, filling every space, every little nook and cranny. He couldn t scream, but his eyes were full of a terrible horror. He still couldn t die, despite what was being done to him. So I sent a final command through my torc, and the golden metal inside Mr. Stab exploded. The blast tore him apart, blasting him open from inside, every bone and organ reduced to fragments and less than fragments.

I d got the idea from watching Molly s protein exploder.

A familiar pink mist rolled and roiled in the air, but this time there were no bones. The bloody mist fell slowly out of the air to soak and stain the carpet. I could feel the rogue armour s presence at the back of my mind. Felt its satisfaction.

I just felt cold.

For you, Penny, I said. And for all his victims down the years. And especially for six poor women in Whitechapel, who never wanted to be part of a legend.

The Plymouth Fury whistled loudly. Way to go, Drood! Let s see the evil little scrote come back from that!

I ignored the car and turned to look at Crow Lee, who was standing very still, exactly where I d left him. He smiled briefly.