But a few did get away, I said. Because they just deserted their own kind and ran, like rats deserting a sinking ship. I walked up to the teenage Immortal, who flinched but didn t back away. So, I said.
I thought the few of you who survived had gone to ground, hiding in squalid little bolt-holes in the armpits of the world. What brought you out of hiding to do something this dumb?
You did, said the Immortal defiantly. Your family s dead and gone, Drood, just like mine! I thought it was finally safe to show my face again, to start up my life again and make the world march to my tune, as it should! And then you turned up, the Last Drood, alone and vulnerable. How could I resist? How could I resist the chance to avenge my murdered family?
One, I said, your family spent centuries exploiting and enslaving Humanity, just because you could, hiding behind your ever-changing faces. You tried to wipe out my family when we tried to stop you. Your family deserved everything it got, and then some. And two, a Drood is never vulnerable.
Why a bus? said Molly. And why this bunch of underachievers?
The Immortal shrugged quickly. Money was limited. I had to go with what I could afford. I took the Time Distorter with me when I left the castle. All of us took something, just grabbing whatever came to hand. There was just enough energy left in the Distorter for one last time seizure. So I put together the best wild bunch I could, and came looking for you. He glared about him.
I should have chosen more carefully. I ll do better next time.
There isn t going to be a next time, said Molly. I really don t believe in killing in cold blood, but for an Immortal I ll make the effort. Some enemies are just too dangerous and too treacherous to be allowed to live. Don t look at me like that, Eddie. There isn t a cell that can hold a shape-shifter like him, and you know it. And any word of surrender he gave you would be worthless. He ll never stop coming after you.
It s not just me! There are lots of us out there! the Immortal said defiantly. Not just the few Immortals who escaped your massacre; all the people you ever fought, Drood! Everyone whose lives your family has ever interfered with or tried to stamp out! All your enemies, all the ones with good reason to hate you, come home to roost at last! The word is out and we re all coming for you. To wipe out the Last Drood. To take our revenge on you for everything your family did. We ll never stop coming for you!
Unless we send them a message, I said, and something in my voice shut him up.
What kind of message did you have in mind? said Diana.
I was thinking about sticking his severed head on a spike and leaving it somewhere prominent, I said.
Eddie, you can t! said Diana.
Pretty sure I can, I said.
Sounds good to me, said Molly.
Diana stepped forward to look right into my face. Her gaze was cold, her voice flat. It s in your file, Eddie. That you always said you were an agent, not an assassin.
Yes, I said. Even now, after everything that s happened, I still believe that. But sometimes you have to do something bad to prevent something worse. I have to put the fear of Drood into my enemies to keep them off my back while I get my family safely home again. You heard the little shit; they re all out there, watching, waiting for me to show some sign of weakness. They think if they can drag me down, they can put an end to the Droods forever. And they might just be right. I m the last hope my lost family has. If his severed head will hold them off, buy me some time
Diana was already shaking her head fiercely. This isn t the Eddie Drood I heard so much about. The man whose career I followed for so long. The man I wanted so much to meet
Oh, my God, said Molly. She s a fan.
Please, Eddie, said Diana, staring earnestly into my face mask. Don t do this. There are other ways.
Such as? said Molly.
Hand him over to me, Diana said steadily.
I ll deliver him safely to the Regent, and he ll hand the Immortal over to the Hush Squad. Those telepaths could get answers out of a stone. He ll tell them everything he knows about everyone he s met, and what they re planning.
No! said the Immortal. No! You re not handing me over to them!
He produced an oversized pocket watch from somewhere and cranked the handle quickly. The Time Distorter. He thrust his hand forward, aiming the thing right at me, and a huge blast of time energy shot out of the watch, shimmering in the air with a hundred different possibilities. Like a distorting heat haze generating glimpses of a hundred alternate Futures. The time energies hit my armour and immediately rebounded, unable to get a grip. They blasted right back at the Immortal and sank into him, suffusing his Immortal cell structure with concentrated temporal energies. And just like that, he began to age.
He became a young man and a middle-aged man and then an old man, all in the space of a few moments. The Immortal raised a shaking wrinkled hand in front of his sunken face and let out a low, sick cry of horror. Because the one thing Immortals can never do is age. They can change their shape to any appearance, young or old, but always with the knowledge that they can change it back again. They can die, but always as a teenager. It s the way they re built. Or cursed, depending on how you look at it. Either way, enforced aging was a hideous thing for an Immortal.
He threw the Time Distorter on the floor and stamped on it, but it didn t break and it didn t change the way he looked.
He glared at me with his old, shrivelled face, and for the first time there was something else in his eyes apart from hatred. He turned away, grabbed the nearest gun, put it to his head and pulled the trigger. The whole back of his head blew away, spattering across the window. His body slumped to the floor and lay still. The gunmen stared at him silently. Some of them had blood and brains on them, but none of them wanted to be noticed just then.
This is the second time that s happened to me today, I said. I wish I could say I m getting used to it.
Damned fool! said Diana. They wouldn t have hurt him at Hush; that s the whole point. She broke off, unable to continue.
He didn t want to betray his family, I said. I can understand that.
He knew something he didn t want us to know, said Molly. Probably something really unpleasant that the rest of your enemies are planning, Eddie. Something really bad, to be worth dying over.
What do we do now? said Diana.
We cut off the Immortal s head and stick it on a spike and leave it somewhere prominent, I said. Or, at least, what s left of his head. Waste not, want not.
You re serious, said Diana, looking at me like she d never seen me before. You re really serious.
Of course, said Molly. You heard the scumbag; something bad is coming. We need to send them a hard message, now more than ever. Throw a real scare into them. They won t know he shot himself.
Diana shook her head slowly. I d forgotten how cold Droods can be.
She turned her back on Molly and me, walked into a shadow and was gone.
Molly looked out the side windows of the bus. Traffic s started up again. The Time Distorter must have broken when it went up against your armour.
The Immortal threw his pocket watch on the floor, I said. But I don t see it anywhere.
I ll bet you Diana took it with her, said Molly. You heard Patrick in the Armoury: The Regent s agents are always picking up useful items and taking them home.
The Regent will send more agents to look after this lot, I said, glaring about me at the assorted gunmen. So stay put, all of you. Don t make me come after you.
There was much general nodding and mutterings of complete agreement.
We need to get out of here, said Molly. Before someone official turns up and starts asking questions. I m really not in the mood to deal with official questions.
Right, I said. I looked at the dead Immortal.