Live and Let Drood: A Secret Histories Novel (42 page)

I’d barely got moving before Major Michaels thrust his monkey’s hand at me, and just the power of it was enough to force the armour back into my torc. I summoned it again and again, but even though I could feel the rogue armour’s presence at the back of my head, raging and desperate to get out, it was trapped. The major laughed softly and took his time pointing the monkey’s hand at Molly.

“Behave yourself, Drood! Or do you want to see this nasty little object do something really unpleasant to your girlfriend? Maybe I’ll have it turn her into something really revolting.…That was always one of your favourite tricks, wasn’t it, Miss Metcalf? Perhaps I’ll fuse your legs together so you can play mermaid.…Or I could melt off both your arms.…Or just take away your eyes and your mouth, your ears and your nose, and leave you trapped in the dark inside your own head.”

“Please,” I said. “Don’t. There’s no need for this. We surrender. Take us to Crow Lee. You know he’s going to want to talk to us.”

“Oh yes,” said the major. “He’s just dying to have words with you. That’s all that’s keeping you alive. After all my men you killed…”

“Run, Eddie,” Molly said dully. “Get out of here. Get help.”

“I can’t leave you,” I said.

“You picked a fine time to get sentimental,” said Major Michaels. “I always thought you field agents would be more professional. I am a professional soldier of long standing. Like the man you just killed, girl. Major Browten was a good soldier and a fine officer. Not a friend, as such, but a colleague. Kind of man you could depend on to keep his head in a firefight and do his job. Dead and gone now because of you. So don’t look to me for sympathy.”

“You stood by and let it happen,” I said.

He shrugged. “Orders…”

More uniformed soldiers appeared out of nowhere and hurried forward to join the major. He looked at them scathingly.

“Where the hell have you been? I had to take care of business on my own! Don’t look at them like that; they’re just captives now. Quite harmless. Search them, secure them and then escort them in to see Crow Lee.” He looked down at the dead body of Major Browten and shook his head briefly. “Bad way to go. Not that there are many good ways.” He turned to Molly and punched her hard in the face. Her head snapped back, blood flying on the air. I threw myself at the major, and the other soldiers beat me to the ground with their gun butts. I curled up into a ball, as I’d been trained, trying to take the blows on my tensed muscles, but there were just too many of them, hitting me from every direction at once. One rifle butt got through to my head, slamming in with vicious force. My head filled with pain and then the world just went away for a while.

When I came back, I hurt so much I couldn’t move. Blood was drying on my face and seeping out my split and broken lips. My face felt like it had been pulped. One eye had swollen shut. My muscles jumped and spasmed as I tried to move, and I groaned at the pain despite myself. I could hear the soldiers laughing.

I wasn’t dead. Crow Lee had given orders not to kill me. I clung to that thought. There was a limit to what they could do to me. They couldn’t risk killing me. That was something. They’d hurt me, but it didn’t feel like they’d broken anything important. If I could just get my armour around me, it would make the pain go away and make me strong again, and then, and then…

I rolled my head slowly to one side, gritting my teeth to keep from making any sound. I didn’t want to give the soldiers the satisfaction. I saw Molly lying on the grass beside me. Half her face was hidden behind a mask of dried blood, but at least they hadn’t beaten her, too. She was breathing heavily, but she managed half a smile for me.

“They’re awake.” It was Major Michaels. “Pick them both up. The Drood has to see this.”

Rough hands hauled me up onto my feet and held me there. Two more soldiers held Molly up before me. She looked very small and
vulnerable, like a broken doll that’s been treated too roughly. Major Michaels took her chin in one hand and lifted her face. Molly stared coldly at him. She tried to spit at him, but the blood just dribbled down her chin.

“Charming,” said Major Michaels. “Pay attention, Drood. This is for your benefit. Crow Lee has given me orders and I will carry them out to the letter, because I am a good soldier. Everything that happens next is to take the fight out of you and to teach you a lesson. That you are entirely helpless now and there is nothing you can do. We can do anything we want to you, and we will. Watch.” He gestured to the two soldiers supporting Molly. “Hold the girl steady.”

He hit her again and again and again. The soldiers held Molly so tightly she couldn’t even turn her head aside. And the other soldiers held me tightly so I couldn’t turn my head aside from what I was seeing. I had to watch. I didn’t struggle. Didn’t cry out to beg or plead with them. There was nothing I could do, so why give them the satisfaction? I watched, watched till Major Michaels was done, and a cold, cold fire burnt in my heart. The major finally lowered his fists and stood there, breathing heavily; and then he took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood from his hands. Molly hung limply in the grasp of the two soldiers holding her, blood dripping steadily from her ruined face. I hoped she was unconscious.

Major Michaels turned to me and took something from a pocket. A small flat box with a button on the top. He waggled it at me.

“Nasty little toy, Drood. Not a soldier’s weapon. And Crow Lee says he won’t have it in the house. So…”

He crushed the box in his hand, and it fell apart into a hundred pieces. Major Michaels fluttered his fingers, and the tiny fragments fell away.

“All right, boys,” said the major. “Let’s take these unfortunate poor souls up to the house. Crow Lee wants to play with them for as long as they last.”

He led the way across the devastated grounds, while the soldiers half carried Molly and me along after him. Molly was just about back
on her feet again, though her head hung down. Blood dripped steadily off her chin. I did my best to keep my legs under me, for pride’s sake. More heavily armed guards kept appearing out of nowhere, moving in around us to escort us to the house. Not because they thought we were dangerous anymore, but because they couldn’t be sure we came alone. There might be others, watching and waiting for their chance.

I kept calling on my armour, but nothing came. I could feel its angry presence, and its thoughts were as hot as mine were cold, but the influence of the monkey’s hand kept it trapped where it was. If I could just get Crow Lee to send the major away while he questioned us…maybe there was a limit to how far the monkey’s hand could reach. And then…

I looked around Crow Lee’s gardens as we were led through them, and I managed a small smile. Even though it broke open my split lips and filled my mouth with blood. Molly and I had made a definite impression. His gardens couldn’t have looked more of a mess if a small country had declared war on them.

The soldiers were still having to half hold me up. I was playing along a bit, so they wouldn’t see me as any kind of threat till it was too late…but I was still shocked at how weak I was. It had been a long time since I’d taken a professional beating. But I was a Drood. Which meant I was used to beatings. The Sarjeants-at-Arms had seen to that ever since I was a small child. I hurt, but my head was still clear. All I had to do was wait for my chance.

You tell yourself things like that when you’re broken and bleeding and all out of options. That’s part of the training, too.

The soldiers stopped before the front door of the manor house, and Molly raised her head to look at me. I wouldn’t let myself look away, and I tried to keep out of my expression just how bad she looked.

“All my fault,” she said indistinctly. “I should have waited for my magics to return naturally, not relied on the Twilight Teardrop. But there just wasn’t time.…”

“I know,” I said. “It’s all right.”

I waited, but she didn’t have anything more to say. She let her head droop forward again, and blood resumed dripping off her chin.

I made myself look away and study the exterior of Crow Lee’s house. Looking for any information or insight I could use for ammunition when we met. The place seemed quiet and even peaceful, though the drawn curtains at all the windows gave it a slightly sinister aspect. There was even a welcome mat set out before the front door. I laughed briefly at that, and got a slap round the head for my trouble. The door swung silently open before us, and I felt a whole new level of tension rise among the soldiers. Crow Lee was waiting. Major Michaels yelled at his men, and they hauled Molly and me inside. The door swung silently shut behind us.

Inside the place stank. I grimaced as the stench washed over me, of blood and shit, musk and misery. Even Major Michaels was affected by the smell, though he did his best to hide it. One of the soldiers supporting Molly gagged loudly and whipped his head from side to side, as though searching for fresher air. The major snarled at him and led us all down the long hallway.

Both walls were covered with mirrors, long rows of framed glass. And as I passed them by I saw faces imprisoned behind each mirror, half-starved, scarred and ruined, silently screaming and pleading. There was nothing I could do. Except hope I’d get the chance to do something for them later. The ceiling was covered with old overlapping bloodstains. Mostly arterial spray, by the look of it.

“Take a look at the rugs on the floor,” Major Michaels said cheerfully. “Every one of them made from the pelts of endangered animals. If you look carefully at the ones where the heads are still attached, you’ll notice the eyes are still alive and full of suffering. He doesn’t miss a trick, that Crow Lee.”

He pushed on ahead of us, heading for the closed door at the end of the hall. The whole place stank of death and suffering, like a spiritual abattoir. A row of severed heads had been stuck on spikes: men and women, young and old. They were still alive and suffering, too. Their eyes rolled and their mouths moved, though no sound came out of them.

“Crow Lee had their vocal cords cut out,” Major Michaels said
casually. “You can listen to only so much screaming before it gets old. And it’s not as if any of them had anything to say that he wanted to hear.”

I remembered threatening to put the Immortal’s head on a spike, and I felt ashamed.

We finally reached the door at the end of the hall. The soldiers were looking at each other unhappily, every movement full of tension and fear. Major Michaels gave me some time to look over the door. The heavy wood had been carved with every name and symbol for evil you could think of, including some from civilisations that don’t even exist anymore. The door knocker was an inverted crucifix, with what I took at first to be some kind of shaved monkey nailed to it. It wasn’t until Major Michaels encouraged me to take a closer look that I realised Crow Lee had nailed a foetus to the cross.

The major laughed at the expression on my face. “Ripped untimely from his mother’s womb, and nailed up in place while he was still breathing. You’ve got to laugh, haven’t you? So, what do you think of the great man’s dwelling?”

“Reflects his personality,” I said. “He really is the Most Evil Man in the World.”

“Was there ever any doubt?” said Major Michaels.

“How can you stand to be in a place like this?” I said. “How can you stand to work for a piece of shit like Crow Lee?”

The major smacked me round the head again, just hard enough to make his point. My eyes watered and my knees buckled. The soldiers held me up till I could get my feet back under me.

“You never learn, do you?” said Major Michaels.

Molly lashed out suddenly with one foot, and the major turned aside at the last moment to take the kick on his thigh instead of in the groin. He backhanded her across the face. I kicked him hard in the back of the leg, and he went down on one knee. I struggled with the soldiers holding me but couldn’t break free. Major Michaels got to his feet again and went to slap me across the face. I waited till just the right moment, and then snapped my head forward and sank my teeth into his hand.
He howled with shock and pain, and I ground my teeth in deep, his blood spurting into my mouth. The major punched me hard in the head with his other hand, and I lost track of things for a moment. The soldiers forced my jaws open, and Major Michaels fell back, clutching his damaged hand to his chest.

“You animal! You vicious little shit!”

I laughed at him, spraying his blood and mine from my mouth. “Least I could do.”

The major went to hit me again, and I laughed again and spat more blood at him. “Careful, Major. Can’t damage me too much. Crow Lee’s waiting in there to talk to me, remember? You knock me out or render me speechless with a concussion just when he’s in the mood to ask me some very specific questions, and he’s going to be really upset with you. Isn’t he?”

Major Michaels held his injured hand tightly with the other. “Afterwards,” he said tightly, “he’ll give you to me. And I’ll show you what pain really is. You’re going to be mine, Drood.”

“You’re not my type,” I said.

The major knocked loudly on the door, though I noticed he handled the crucifix rather gingerly, for all his fine words. A happy voice beyond the door called for us to enter. The major pushed open the door, and the soldiers bustled Molly and me through and into Crow Lee’s lair.

They threw us on the floor before him. On our knees before the master of the house. I forced my head up and looked round the room, deliberately ignoring Crow Lee. By comparison to the hallway, the room seemed calm and cosy, comfortable, even civilised. A country gentleman’s study, with old-fashioned furniture, bookshelves, objets d’art and colourful prints on the walls. Crow Lee sat at his ease before us in an oversized armchair big enough to handle his huge frame. The burns Molly had given him in the club library were already gone from his face. Beside him stood his bodyguard, Mr. Stab. He looked down at Molly and me, at our bloodied and broken state, and I thought for a moment he might say something, but he didn’t. He just stood there
where he’d been told to stand, and nothing moved in his face. Crow Lee looked at Molly and me and chuckled happily.