Live and Let Drood

never find another mechanism as powerful as Alpha Red Alpha to take us after them.”
    “It’s a big world,” I said steadily. “Bound to be something out there. I hear what you’re saying, Molly, but I don’t believe it. I can’t believe it.My family isn’t dead, just lost, and I will find them…if it takes me the rest of my life.”
    “I understand, Eddie. I really do. I’d feel the same if someone had taken my sisters. And I love Isabella and Louisa a lot more than you love your family.”
    “Well,” I said. “Love’s a complicated word. And the Droods…are a complicated family.” I glanced across at her. “You never talk about your family, Molly. Apart from your sisters. I know your parents were killed in the field, like mine. But what about your other relatives?”
    “There is no one else,” said Molly. Her voice was calm enough, even matter-of-fact, but she wouldn’t turn her head to look at me. “My family have always been rogues, outlaws, troublemakers…supernatural freedom fighters or terrorists, depending on who you talk to. And a tradition like that comes with a built-in high mortality rate. You don’t die in bed in my family. Or at least not in any acceptable way. And the world…has been very hard on us, in recent times. The world and the Droods. So now there are just the three infamous Metcalf sisters to keep the world on its toes. The only survivors of a once-thriving line, because we have learned to be very hard to kill.”
    “There’s a chance my parents are still alive,” I said. “So maybe…”
    “No,” said Molly. “Beyond a certain point, hope is more than self-indulgence. It’s self-harm.”
    “You still have me,” I said. “Forever and a day. And through me you have my family. Please take them.”
    We looked at each other and managed a small smile.
    “I’m still thinking about that, to be honest,” said Molly. “I want you, but I’m not sure about them.”
    “A perfectly reasonable attitude,” I said, slamming the gear stick through its paces with the palm of my hand and sending a poncy-looking Porsche swerving uncontrollably in my slipstream. “I’m not sure I’d belong to my family if I had any say in the matter. The Droods do good work. They’re necessary. But…”
    “Yeah,” said Molly. “But.”
    I shrugged. “They’re still my family. Good and bad and in betweenand the Librarian. After all the changes I’ve put them through recently, I feel responsible for them. And, anyway, we have to get them back. The world needs them.”
    “That’s sort of what I was getting at,” said Molly. “Someone is going to have to look after business, protecting the world and all that, until you can find the Droods again. Someone’s going to have to take up the slack and do all the heavy lifting in the Droods’ absence. And who is there? I mean, really?”
    “The London Knights,” I said.
    “All right, yes. Ten out of ten for Mr. Obvious here. But…really? The last defenders of Camelot, noble knights and true, under the returned King Arthur; fair enough. No one doubts they’re the good guys, in a very martial and smiting-the-ungodly way, but they’re hardly ever here! They mostly involve themselves with otherworldly and even other-dimensional threats. And since they believe very firmly in taking the fight to the enemy and making a mess where they live, they just aren’t around much of the time.”
    “I did do some work with the Carnacki Institute back when I was just a London field agent,” I said. “But the Ghost Finders…are just too limited, both in their scope of activity and in terms of manpower. And far too closely linked to the establishment, for my liking.”
    “You see?” said Molly. “I suppose we could always approach the new authorities in the Nightside, with their new Walker, John Taylor.…”
    “Absolutely not,” I said. “I wouldn’t trust any of that crowd farther than I could throw a wet camel into the wind. There’s a reason why we keep them locked up in the Nightside, and I’m not going to be the one to let them out on an unsuspecting world. The Nightside…always has its own agenda. I mean, have you met Dead Boy?”
    “Yes,” said Molly. “Louisa went out with him for a while.”
    “There used to be MI-13,” I said, more because I was still thinking out loud than because I had any faith in them. “They’ve done good work in their time, but after the Great Satanic Conspiracy revealed how infiltrated and