Live and Let Drood

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.
    “People…can always surprise you. Have to say, Eddie, I didn’t think you had it in you.”
    “I didn’t,” I said. “He had it in him. And I did it for the victims.…”
    “No,” said Crow Lee. “You did it for yourself. I know about these things.”
    “Why didn’t you run?” I said. “I was…distracted. You might have got away.”
    “Where could I go that you wouldn’t find me? You’re a lot more than I thought you were…I’m bad, Drood, but you’re the biggest monster in this room. So, better to stay and work out some kind of agreement that will get you off my back.”
    “You took away my family and my Molly.”
    “The least of my many crimes, but let’s not dwell on the Past. I still have something to bargain with. Something you want.”
    “Can you bring back Molly and her sisters?”
    “No…I’m not exactly sure where that particular spell sends people. Not that I’ve ever given a damn, as long as they disappeared from my life. It can’t be that bad; no one ever comes back to complain! Little joke there…No. All right. I can help you recover your lost family! I still have the remote control I used to send Drood Hall away. It still contains the exact coordinates of the dimension I had Alpha Red Alpha send them to. A place so remote and distant you’ll never find them, Eddie, never track them down. Not without the exact coordinates contained within my remote control.”
    “You still have it?” I said.
    “Not here,” Crow Lee said quickly. “Not actually on me…but it is somewhere near. Somewhere safe. We can make a deal, Drood: I give you the remote, and you agree to let me live.”
    “Let you live?” I said. “Let you go unpunished after everything you’ve done?” I remembered the major hitting Molly, his fist smashing into her face over and over, saying, This is Crow Lee’s orders.… I shook my head. “I don’t think I can do that.”
    “Isn’t it worth it? To get your family back? Immunity for one man, to have the mighty Droods back in the world again?”
    “But you’re not the only game in town,” I said. “I have the monkey’s hand. It can find anything. It can make changes in reality. Put that together with my Merlin Glass, and what do I need you and your remote for?”
    “Well, yes, technically speaking,” said Crow Lee. “But, unfortunately,I know more about these objects than you do. So I know it’s already pretty much used up. It can only hold a certain