Live and Let Drood

him first with the Torc Cutter.
    He looked a very different man as the Armourer. His lab coat was impeccably white and clean, which was more than Uncle Jack had ever managed, but James looked tired and stooped. He looked…older. More weighed down by long service and hard grind and responsibilities he could never trust to anyone else. His hair, which had always been proudly jet-black for as long as I had known him, was mostly grey now. His eyes were deep set, and heavy lines had been driven deep into his face. This Uncle James had known hard times, and it showed. He seemed to look straight at me as he spoke, and his manner was harsh and strained, as though he knew he didn’t have much time left.
    “Eddie, you’re here at last. About time, boy. I’m leaving this message for you because…there’s no one else. Listen to me, Eddie, for once in your life. We have been betrayed by one of our own. The Hall’s defences are down, the Hall is under siege and the family is under attack. Our ancient enemies have finally brought us down. Avenge us! The Immortals can’t be allowed to get away with this!”
    Molly started to say something when he used that name, but I shushed her fiercely. I needed to concentrate on what Uncle James was trying to tell me.
    “The Matriarch Penelope is dead, along with her husband, Nicholas. Jack is out there somewhere, organising what defences we have left. He always was the best field agent this family ever produced. I’ve sentmy lab assistants out to back him up, armed with whatever we had lying around, but the odds are I’ll never see them or Jack again. They took our armour away from us, Eddie. Sabotaged us from within. I can’t even activate the self-destruct systems for the Armoury. I’ve destroyed the key to the Lion’s Jaws; I can do that much. At least now they’ll never get their hands on the Forbidden Weapons. But they’ll probably get everything else.”
    He stopped for a moment and then smiled at me. “All these years in the Armoury, producing weapon after weapon for the family to use to bring down the world’s enemies…and in the end it’s one of our own that’s brought about our ending. There’s no way out for me. All that’s left…is to die fighting and deny the Immortals as much as I can. I don’t know where you are right now, Eddie. We tried for so long to find you and bring you home. We should never have driven you out, driven you away.…I don’t know where you’ve gone to ground, but you must have dug yourself a really deep hole if even the Heart can’t find you.…Listen to me, Eddie. Please. If you’re listening to this, odds are you’re the only one of us to survive. The Last Drood. The Immortals have made it very clear they’re not interested in taking prisoners. Just…bodies, for dissection. I’m asking you, begging you, to forget the Past, forget everything that came between us, and do whatever you have to do…to avenge the family and bring down our enemies: the Immortals. Don’t let those bastards win.”
    The image disappeared abruptly, and a cold deathly silence fell across the Armoury. Tears burnt my eyes. He wasn’t my uncle James, but he was close enough. His words tore at my heart. Why wasn’t I there when they needed me? I realised Molly was all but jumping up and down at my side, and turned to look at her.
    “What?”
    “Don’t you get it, Eddie? This wasn’t your family! This isn’t your Hall! This is some other Drood Hall, from some other dimension! And that means your family and your Hall are Somewhere Else, probably safe and alive!”
    “I had worked that out for myself,” I said. “So many of the details inwhat he said were wrong.…No wonder the entrance to the Armoury wasn’t where it should have been.”
    “Is that all you’ve got to say? Your family is still alive! All this happened to some other family!”
    “They were still Droods,” I said. “And that was still my uncle James. I may never have known the Droods who lived in this Hall, but they looked a lot like people I did know.”
    “I didn’t know them,” said Molly, practical as ever. “Concentrate on what matters, Eddie!”
    “Yes,” I said. “My family is still alive somewhere. Finding them and bringing them home has to take precedence. Vengeance can wait.”
    Molly shook her head in exasperation. “Sometimes I really don’t understand you, Eddie. All this time we’ve been grieving, under the belief that everyone you knew was dead. Now