Live and Let Drood

hands on my chest. “Oh, Eddie. I’m so sorry about your grandfather. You’d only just found him again.…”
    “I will avenge him,” I said flatly. “I will kill Crow Lee and everyone who stands with him. I’ve always been able to do that much for my family.”
    “No need for that, thank you,” said the Regent, getting stiffly back onto his feet again. He brushed vaguely at his clothes and then shook himself briskly. Molly and I looked at him blankly, and he grinned.
    “But…you don’t have Drood armour anymore!” I said. “You said…”
    “I don’t,” said the Regent. “So I had to improvise. I knew all kinds of people would be gunning for me once I’d left Drood Hall, so I made…other arrangements.” He undid the top few buttons of his shirt and pulled it open to reveal a large glowing amulet on his chest, apparently fused directly to his skin. There was a large golden eye inthe centre of the amulet, and it glared at me unblinkingly. I stirred uneasily. It could see me. I could tell. The Regent tapped the amulet proudly, and then buttoned up his shirt again. “Kayleigh’s Eye, a very old and very potent thing from Somewhere Else. Absolutely guaranteed to protect the wearer from any and all forms of attack. You wouldn’t believe what I had to give the previous owner in exchange.”
    “Hold everything,” said Molly. “Last I heard, Kayleigh’s Eye was in the Nightside, very firmly owned by the Salvation Army Sisterhood.”
    The Regent just smiled at her. “Kayleigh had more than one eye.” He moved over to look down at the dead woman lying on his carpet in a widening pool of blood. He shook his head sadly. “Poor Miss Mitchell. Crow Lee lied to you, dear. He didn’t love you. He doesn’t love anyone. But I do have to wonder: If he could get to you, who else in Uncanny might he have got his hooks into? Hello. What’s this?”
    I was there before him, picking up the clicker Miss Mitchell had dropped, and tucking it carefully away in my pocket.
    “Just a weapon that didn’t work,” I said.
    The Regent looked at me thoughtfully. And then we all looked round sharply as the office door banged open and Ankani burst into the room, sari swirling around her, a large gun in each hand, ready for trouble. She checked that the Regent was safe, and only then looked at Molly and me before finally looking down at the body on the floor. I stood very still, ready to call on my armour, while Molly’s hands moved slowly and subtly in dangerous ways. Ankani knelt down to study what was left of Miss Mitchell’s head, and then shrugged and lowered her guns. She straightened up, stepped back a pace to avoid the spreading blood and looked to the Regent for orders.
    “Nice reaction time, my dear,” the Regent said briskly, “but right now I’m more interested in how Miss Mitchell was able to smuggle a bloody big handgun past all our supposedly top-rank security measures. Find out, Ankani. You are authorised to use severe language and excessive force. I’m also authorising a complete lockdown; no one gets in or out until they’ve been thoroughly checked. I want a full investigation into how Crow Lee was able to use his mind games on one of mymost trusted people. Have the body removed. I want a full autopsy. See if she was under any outside influence. I doubt it, to be honest, but I do feel I should give the poor old thing the benefit of the doubt. Oh, and I’ll need a new carpet.”
    “Of course, sir,” said Ankani. “I’ll have a full report on your desk by morning.”
    “You’ll have it here by end of day,” growled the Regent. “No one goes home till we’ve got this sorted.”
    “Yes, sir,” said Ankani.
    She made her guns disappear somewhere about her person, and then bent down and picked up Miss Mitchell without any obvious effort. She slung the body over one shoulder, smiled winningly at all of us, and then left, pulling the door quietly shut behind her.
    “Given that your tea lady turned out to be an assassin, are you sure you trust her any better?” Molly said sweetly.
    “Ankani? Of course!” said the Regent. “Been with me for years. One of my best agents. Trust her implicitly.”
    “You trusted Miss Mitchell,” I said, looking at the large bloody stain on the carpet. There were quite a few bits of bone and brains, too. Miss Mitchell had meant business. Crow Lee’s business.
    “Yes, well,” said the Regent. “There’s trust, and then there’s trust.”
    “That’s