Simon Green - The Man with the Golden Torc

He stared at me blankly for a moment, and Solomon Krieg stirred ominously. And then Truman laughed, a big open cheerful sound, and Solomon relaxed again. Truman shook his head slowly, still chuckling.

"I know; I do tend to go on a bit once I get started, don’t I? But people expect a big speech from the big man, so…Damn, it’s good to have someone in here who isn’t intimidated or overawed by me! Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to have a normal conversation around here? It’s hard to just chat with other people by the watercooler, when everyone’s ready to agree with every word I say, as though it was holy writ…Come and join us, Edwin, if only so I can have someone around me who isn’t afraid to tell me when I’m talking crap."

He grinned at me, and I couldn’t help grinning back. I liked him rather more now, even if I still didn’t entirely trust him. First rule of an agent: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. Truman turned his smile on Molly.

"How’s my little fellow traveller? Still spreading chaos among our enemies? Good, good…You’ve done well, Molly, in bringing Edwin to me. I know how badly you must have wanted to kill him. I’m not blind to the history you two have. But rest assured, having him here changes everything. The time is coming when we will take Drood Hall by force, and you have my word that you will be with us on that day and wade in Drood blood up to your ankles."

"You know what a girl wants to hear," said Molly.

Truman smiled at Mr. Stab and Girl Flower, if a little more distantly.

"Be welcome here, my friends. There is good work here for you to take up, should you choose to accept it. If not, go freely and of your own will." He looked back at me, his smile broadening again. "Tell me the truth, Edwin. Now that you’ve seen Manifest Destiny, what do you think of it?"

"You have a very impressive organisation," I said carefully. "But doesn’t it all strike you as just a bit…Aryan?"

"Hell, no," Truman said immediately. "That was the past. We’re only interested in the future. We have military discipline here because you can’t get anything done without it. And everyone is expected to achieve their full potential. But we are all dedicated to the cause first, and ourselves second."

"I’m still not clear on the philosophy behind your cause," I said.

"Freedom is a marvellous concept, but a bit nebulous in practice. Overthrowing my family is one thing; but what do you propose to replace them with? What, exactly, is Manifest Destiny for?"

Truman sat back in his chair and considered me thoughtfully. He wasn’t smiling anymore. He knew set speeches wouldn’t work with me. Tiny sparks manifested briefly among his halo of steel rods, like passing thoughts. When he finally spoke, he chose his words carefully, directing them only at me, ignoring everyone else in his office.

"Man has gotten soft," he said flatly. "Under Drood rule, he’s lost his courage and his pride. The Droods have used unfair, nonhuman advantages to keep us in our place, like sheep. They maintain a bland status quo that allows alien and magical forces and creatures to run freely in what was always supposed to be our world. Man’s world. The Droods’ control over us must be broken, by any means necessary, so that these inhuman beings can be driven out of our world and man can be free to forge his own destiny at last."

"And yet," I murmured, "some of these beings are your allies. The Loathly Ones. The Lurkers on the Threshold. Some might call these beings…evil. Certainly they have no love for humanity."

Truman spread his hands. "I’m fighting a war, Edwin, against the greatest conspiracy this world has ever known, against a powerful and implacable enemy. I have to take my allies where I can find them. We work together, in common cause, to bring the Droods down. Afterwards…things will be different."

I took a step forward, and Solomon Krieg tensed. I leaned forward over Truman’s desk so he could see his own face reflected in my golden mask.

"If you want me on your side, tell me the truth, Truman. The whole truth. And don’t hold anything back. This close, the armour will tell me if you lie, even by omission. Tell me everything, or I walk out of here, right now."

I was bluffing about my armour being a lie detector, but he had no way of knowing that. When my armour can do so many amazing things, what’s one more? I was gambling that Truman was so desperate to get his hands on my secrets and my armour that he’d tell me things he wouldn’t tell anyone else. Truman smiled slowly, his eyes bright with the glee of someone who knows something you don’t know and can’t wait to impress you with it. Once again he spoke only to me, ignoring my allies.

"Why not?" he said. "I knew you’d be someone I could talk to. Someone I could trust with…everything. Science came from man’s mind. It is ours. We created it and we control it. Magic…is a wild thing, unnatural and uncontrollable, and it always has its own agenda. We make use of it when we must, but we can never trust it or those who use it. When we come to power, science will replace magic. It’s the only way man can be truly independent. The Droods are just our first and most important enemy. Once they have been thrown down, we will stamp out every other form of magic, and every magical creature, and mankind shall be free at last."

I glanced at Molly. She was shocked silent, her face drained of all colour. This was obviously all news to her. I laid a golden hand gently on her arm, signalling her to hold in her anger till we’d heard it all. I could tell from Truman’s face that there was more to come.

"Eliminate all undesirables?" I said. "That sounds like a huge undertaking."

"Oh, it is," said Truman, still smiling. "But we’ve made a good start. Would you like to see?"

"Yes," I said.

"Yes," said Molly.

Truman chuckled. "Why not? Let me show you the future, Molly. You’ll find it…educational. Come with me, all of you," he said, but looking only at me. "I’ve waited such a long time for someone I could share this with, Edwin. Someone who’d understand. Come with me, Edwin Drood, and see what Manifest Destiny is all about."

Solomon Krieg wasn’t at all happy about this, but Truman overruled him, speaking quite sharply in the end. So Krieg led us down into the levels below the bunkers into caverns they’d carved out of the bedrock themselves to hold Manifest Destiny’s most important secret. Something hidden from the rank and file. Krieg and Truman led the way, and I followed, with Molly and the others behind me. At last we were heading into the true heart of the labyrinth, where the final truth was waiting to be revealed.

We descended down bare stone stairwells, in single file, in silence. Whatever was ahead of us, we could all feel it drawing closer; and it felt very cold. Molly stuck close to me, her face a rigid mask. Truman breezed along, happily humming some tune under his breath that made sense only to him.

We finally emerged into a great stone cavern, much of it in darkness. The air was cold and damp, and the smell reminded me of the sewers. It was a sick, rotten smell, full of filth and pain and death. Even Mr. Stab wrinkled his nose. None of us said anything. We all knew we’d come to a bad place, where bad things happened. All except Truman, who was still humming his happy tune. He turned on all the lights at once with a grand gesture, and the cavern’s contents lay illuminated below us. We were standing on a narrow walkway halfway up the cavern wall, looking down on long rows of cells, each with its own beaten-down inhabitant. It reminded me of Dr. Dee’s establishment in Harley Street, except there were no cages here. Only long rows and blocks of concrete stalls, with bare concrete floors and cold iron gates. No beds or chairs, not even straw on the concrete floors; just iron grilles to carry away some of the wastes.