Live and Let Drood

out recent side trip to foreign parts, the Glass returned us to the exact moment in time and space that we left from. Therefore…”
    “Hold everything,” said Molly. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
    “Time travel!” said Diana, clapping her hands together excitedly. “You’re talking about time travel, aren’t you?”
    “I was going to say that!” said Molly, sulking. She glared at Diana. “Don’t you have somewhere else you ought to be?”
    “Wouldn’t miss this for the world,” said Diana.
    Molly glowered at me. “Since when did you start discussing family secrets in front of strangers? You might trust the Regent, Eddie, but we’ve no reason to extend that to his whole damned organisation. If Crow Lee has people inside your family, you can bet he’s planted even more inside the Department of the Uncanny. Probably back when they were just Shadows.”
    “I suppose that is always possible,” said Diana, in an entirely reasonable tone of voice she must have known would put Molly’s teeth on edge. “I wouldn’t put anything past Crow Lee. The treacherous little shit. But you can trust me, Eddie. The Regent specifically chose me to come here and talk with you because he had no doubt that you could trust me. Do you trust me, Eddie?”
    I looked at her. I knew I shouldn’t trust her, that I had no good reason to, but somehow I did. Molly could see what was happening on my face, and made a point of tutting loudly and rolling her eyes.
    “You always were too trusting, Eddie Drood. And always far too ready to be impressed by mutton dressed as lamb. All right, what’s the plan with the Merlin Glass?”
    “Simple,” I said. “I’ll arrange the arrival coordinates so that although we enter the Glass here and now, we’ll arrive at Crow Lee’s estate twenty-four hours in the future. That should give him more than enough time to become worried about all kinds of things—where are we, why haven’t we arrived yet, what we’re planning. It should also provide enough time for his private army to get tired of standing guard for a threat that never comes, and get bored and complacent and sloppy.”
    “I don’t know,” said Molly. “This is Crow Lee we’re talking about.”
    “It gives us an advantage we wouldn’t otherwise have and that he won’t suspect,” I said patiently. “Unless you actually want to drive all the way down to Surrey. Arriving worn-out in the early hours of the morning, having driven all through the night, being nagged all the way by the sat nav?”
    “I heard that!” said the sat nav.
    “You were meant to,” I said.
    “Why only twenty-four hours into the future?” said Diana.
    “Because I don’t trust the Merlin Glass any further than that,” I said. “There are far too many things that can go wrong with time travel. And, besides, I just can’t stand the thought of Crow Lee having any more time than that. I am going to destroy his house and his grounds and everything he owns, bring his whole world crashing down abouthis ears and then…I’m going to make him bring my family back. Whatever it takes.”
    “I’ll help,” said Molly.
    “Couldn’t do it without you,” I said.
    We smiled at each other, and just like that everything was all right again between us.
    “I hate to be the wet blanket here,” said Diana, “but won’t Crow Lee detect you approaching through the Merlin Glass? I mean, that thing gives off a hell of a lot of magical energies, and he’s bound to be looking for it. If we know you’ve got it, you can be sure he knows.”
    “He’ll be looking for spatial travel through the Glass,” I said just a bit smugly. “Not time travel. He doesn’t know the Glass can do that. No one does.”
    “You’re so sharp you’ll cut yourself one day,” Molly said admiringly. “Death from Above, via the Timestream! I love it!”
    And she did a little jig of joy, right there in the street.
    “He’ll never see it coming,” I said solemnly.
    And then all three of us looked up sharply and round as a big red double-decker London bus came thundering down the street towards us. It was really travelling, moving much faster than any London bus should, and it took me only a moment to realise all the windows were darkly tinted, so no one could see in. I couldn’t even see the driver at the wheel, never mind any of the passengers. The bus roared right down the middle of the road, its engine making a hell of a racket as it struggled to