Live and Let Drood

working in the field. And this…is almost exactly the same time. We’ve been back a few minutes, and my watch says this is just a few minutes after the last time I looked at it. The Merlin Glass brought us back to the exact moment in time and space that we left.”
    “Okay,” said Molly. “That…is spooky. If we returned to the exact moment we left, then right now…we’re also deep underground in the Valley of the Kings.”
    “Yeah…” I said. “That is spooky.”
    “Could the old Merlin Glass do time travel?” said Molly.
    “I never tried,” I said. “I don’t think so, but then, I never did get around to reading all of the instruction manual Uncle Jack gave me. There was an awful lot of it.…I think we should be very cautious about how we use this otherworldly Merlin Glass, from now on.”
    “Suits me,” said Molly. “Can we go to Brighton now?”
    “I should think so. Why do you want to go to Brighton?”
    “So I can look up my old friend. Brighton will make a nice change. I can cope with Brighton.”
    “And there are no mummies there,” I said.
    “Lot you know,” said Molly.

CHAPTER FOUR

    When the Seas Give up Their Dead
    A nd so we drove down to the coast in the Rolls Royce Phantom V, heading for that famous seaside place called Brighton, and its famous pier. The Phantom was another of the Armourer’s lovingly restored classics, made over into death on four wheels for family use. A very smooth ride, very quiet. There used to be an old story about the Rolls Royce range, that when you were driving one of their cars the loudest noise you’d hear would be the clock on the dashboard. To which a Rolls Royce engineer is supposed to have said, “Yeah, we’re going to have to do something about that clock.” This being one of the Armourer’s cars, the dashboard clock was probably a timer for something explosive. I drove the Phantom in my usual fashion, everything forward and trust in the Lord.
    I knew for a fact that the Armourer had built in more than enough shields to ensure no one would be able to detect our presence, let alone track our journey, and to give any speed camera that tried to lock on to us a nervous breakdown. Droods go unseen in the world. It’s the only way we can get things done. Let Crow Lee look in vain for my torc or my new armour, and let him worry about where Molly and I were going and what we were up to. I needed him off balance until I had some kind of plan to throw at him.
    I sent the Phantom V charging down the motorway, speeding pastthe slower-moving vehicles and weaving in and out of the rest, leaving shocked and startled drivers in my wake and intimidating the hell out of everyone who didn’t get out of my way fast enough. I wasn’t concerned about police cars. Let them try to chase us. After what the Armourer had done to the Phantom’s engine, it could probably hit Mach 2 without straining. While going sideways.
    “I thought we didn’t want to attract attention,” said Molly, amused.
    “They don’t start none, there won’t be none,” I said wisely. “We’re a lot safer doing the Brighton run the hard way than by popping through the Merlin Glass. That much power in one place really would call all the eyes of the hidden world down upon us.”
    “And you don’t trust it,” said Molly.
    “That, too,” I said. “Besides, I can use the time it’ll take us to get to the coast to do some thinking. There’s a lot that needs thinking about.”
    “I’ll put in some music,” said Molly, producing a CD out of thin air.
    And she put in Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Night Castle . Which may or may not have contributed to my mental processes. Those guys crank it up to eleven just to shake off the cobwebs. I was still working on how best to attend to Crow Lee when Molly abruptly shut off the music to raise a pertinent question.
    “There’s no telling how long this is going to take, is there?” she said. “I mean, to track down your missing family and locate a mechanism strong enough to take us there and bring us back. It could take weeks, months…maybe even years.”
    “Yes, it could,” I said, staring straight ahead and concentrating on putting the wind up everything in my way. “It’ll take as long as it takes.”
    “And we have to face the possibility,” Molly said carefully, “that we might never find them. There’s no telling just how far Alpha Red Alpha might have thrown the Hall, across the worlds beyond the worlds. We might