Live and Let Drood

a real Drood answer for you,” said Molly.
    “The apple never falls far from the tree,” the Regent said vaguely.
    “If Crow Lee had a traitor inside your organisation,” I said thoughtfully, “who’s to say he didn’t have someone inside the Droods? I mean, how else could he have known about Alpha Red Alpha? Most of our family didn’t know it was down there, underneath the Hall, on the grounds that if they had, they’d probably have left the Hall en masse and set up tents on the grounds rather than live over such a dangerous thing. Hold it…hold everything. Go previous. Drop anchors.…Grandfather, has anyone ever talked to you about the Original Traitor?”
    “No,” said the Regent. “And it does sound like something I ought to know about. Tell me about this Original Traitor, Eddie. Tell me everything.”
    So we all sat down again, and I filled him in on the latest conspiracy theory within the Droods that there was a traitor inside the family who went back years, maybe decades, maybe even centuries. Subtly sabotaging us, working from within to undermine everything we did for his own hidden purposes.
    “I’ve been away too long,” said the Regent. “Far too many things I don’t know…Why the Original Traitor?”
    “Because we don’t know how far back he goes,” I said. “There is some evidence to suggest he goes way, way back.…”
    “Given how many of your family’s more important secrets have been forced out into the light recently,” said Molly, “maybe the Original Traitor feels you’re closing in on him at last. He must be getting a bit desperate.”
    “We’re pretty sure he murdered Sebastian,” I said.
    “Good God!” said the Regent. “Really? He worked for us, you know.”
    “Sebastian worked for everyone,” I said. “He was murdered during the Hungry Gods affair, while he was being held inside one of our supposedly secure holding cells. Which is supposed to be impossible.”
    “And Freddie went missing around the same time,” said Molly. “He’s been declared missing, presumed dead.”
    “Both of them rogues,” said the Regent. “Are we assuming a connection?”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “But I think we need to track down the remaining rogues and make contact with them. Apart from you and me, they’re the only Droods left in this world. A world that probably wouldn’t be too unhappy if we were to become extinct…I did make contact with some of them when I was declared rogue by Martha.…But most of them have disappeared. The Mole has gone deep underground, and no one’s seen Mad Frankie Phantasm or Harriet Hatchet in ages. Of course, it could just be that the rogues don’t want to talk to me because I killed one of them. Arnold Drood, the Bloody Man.”
    “I did hear about that,” said the Regent, nodding slowly. “It was a righteous kill, Eddie. If ever a man needed killing, he did.”
    “And Tiger Tim,” I said. “He needed killing, too.”
    The Regent looked at me sharply. “Timothy? Jack’s boy? That was you? I’d heard he’d been killed, but I didn’t want to believe it. He was Jack’s only child.”
    “I know,” I said.
    “And my only other grandson. Did you really have to… ?”
    “Yes,” I said.
    “You were there,” said the Regent. “It was your decision to make.” But he still didn’t want to look at me. “Poor Jack. Life…has not been kind to him.”
    “What about James’s children?” said Molly. “They’d be your grandchildren, too.”
    “The Grey Bastards?” said the Regent, not quite turning up his nose. “I know all about them.…I think not. They’re not Droods, you see. Just half-breeds. I know it shouldn’t matter that they’re all illegitimate, but it does. I think I’m old enough to be allowed to be old-fashioned about some things.”
    “There’s still Gerard Drood, Grendel Rex, the Unforgiven God,” said Molly, just a bit mischievously, and perhaps showing off a little. “Still securely bound and buried, sleeping deep beneath the Siberian permafrost.”
    “We don’t talk about him!” the Regent said sternly. And we all managed some sort of smile.
    “Do you know of any rogue Droods I might not have heard of?” I said. “Any who might be willing to help us against Crow Lee, or even any who might be working with him?”
    “I know of thirty-seven other rogues scattered across the world,” said the Regent. I sat up straight in my chair.
    “Thirty-seven?” I said, not even trying to