Live and Let Drood

Boys,” I said. “And look what happened to them.”
    Hollis just smiled his easy smile. “Got to say, I’m just a bit surprised to see you here, Eddie Drood. Little bird told me you and all your family were dead and gone.”
    “Rumours of our destruction have been greatly exaggerated,” I said.
    Hollis grinned at Molly. “And a Metcalf sister! Ah, the stories I’ve heard about you girls…Molly, Molly, quite contrary, how does your body count grow? I thought I was bad till I read your file. A Drood and a Metcalf…Just for the record, how the hell do you have the nerve to claim you’re the good guys? I’ve fought actual wars for queen and country and I haven’t killed nearly as many as you.”
    “I only kill people who need killing,” I said steadily.
    Hollis sneered at me. “Yeah, that’s what they all say, squire. They’ve always got their excuse ready. It wasn’t me, your honour. It was the voices in my head. Read it in the Bible; I answer to a higher calling! I’ve heard it all before…and it always comes down to bodies on the ground and blood on the hands. At least I’m honest enough to admit up front I’m only in it for the money. I’m a professional soldier, because that’s what I do best. I fight strictly for hard cash, not some nebulous cause.…”
    “Bit chatty for an ex-squaddie, aren’t you?” I said. “But then, I never met an ex-soldier who didn’t feel the need to justify himself for how far he’d fallen. Look…Hollis, was it? You can still step aside. We’re not here for you. We’re here for Crow Lee.”
    “Well, you can’t have him,” said Hollis.
    “You work for him, and you have the brass nerve to lecture us?” said Molly. “Or did no one explain the whole Most Evil Man in the World bit to you?”
    “You say potato , I say hard cash ,” said Hollis. “His money will spend as easily as anyone else’s.”
    “But the things he’s done…” I said, but Hollis cut me off before I could go any further.
    “Compared to what you Droods have done, he’s just a beginner.”
    “It’s not what you do,” I said. “It’s why you do it.”
    “Oh, come on!” said Hollis. “That’s your justification? The terrorists’ favourite excuse? That the end justifies the atrocities?”
    “You really don’t know my family,” I said.
    “Don’t argue with him, Eddie,” said Molly. “He doesn’t really care. He’s just making conversation to hold us here while Crow Lee escapes out the back door.”
    Hollis flashed her a quick grin. “You’re smarter than you look, girlie. Come on. Let’s do it. You know you want to.”
    I armoured up, the golden metal surging out and over me, and Hollis snapped upright out of his slouch and actually fell back a step. He frowned uncertainly.
    “There’s something…wrong with your armour, Drood. I’ve seenDrood armour before, and it never looked like that. I don’t like the look of it.”
    “That’s all right,” I said, through my featureless face mask. “It doesn’t like the look of you.”
    “No, he’s right, Eddie,” said Molly, and there was something in her voice that made me turn to look at her. She was staring at me as though she’d never seen me in my armour before. “Something’s wrong, Eddie. Your armour looks different. It looks…tarnished.”
    I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just shrugged and looked back at Hollis. Just in time to see him raise his right hand and make the shape of a gun with it, pointing the finger at me the way children do when they’re pretending. And then he shot me in the chest. The impact sent me staggering backwards and left a great crater in the centre of my chest. But the armour protected me from the impact and repaired itself in seconds. I quickly recovered my balance and started forward. Hollis was using a conceptual gun, shaped and focused psychokinesis. I’d heard of it, but never encountered it in the field before. Hollis took careful aim and fired again, three times in swift succession, his pointing finger jerking each time with the recoil. But I just strode forward into the invisible bullets, my armour booming loudly with each impact, shrugging the conceptual bullets off increasingly easily.
    Hollis looked distinctly put-upon. He opened his hand, dismissing the conceptual gun, and gestured sharply with his other hand. A bottomless hole opened up directly beneath me, carpet and floorboards disappearing in a great circle to reveal a long drop with shimmering