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"Very well! One more time, for the hard of thinking! I have been searching for the Apocalypse Door for centuries. I first read about it in an illuminated manuscript, a piece of apocrypha recorded by the Venerable Bede. Then again, in a sixteenth-century manuscript that turned up during Henry VIII's dissolving of the monasteries. I almost got my hands on the Door during the Great Fire of London, but it disappeared in the general confusion. Imagine my surprise when it finally reappeared in the Really Old Curiosity Shoppe's auction catalogue, in LA. Of course, I couldn't risk being outbid, so I sent in a few of my more deniable people to pick it up.
"All would have been well, if Doctor Delirium hadn't turned up with his people, and not one but two Drood field agents. Some days things wouldn't go right if you twisted their arm. Ever since dear Eddie reorganised the Droods, it's been very difficult to get reliable information out of Drood Hall."
"Why don't we just kill Edwin?" It was the same younger Immortal, on his feet again. There was a loud murmur of agreement.
"We're working on it," said Methuselah. He gave the other Immortal a hard look, until he sank back into his seat again. Methuselah continued. "We will take care of Eddie, the moment a decent opportunity presents itself. For the moment, he and his family are preoccupied with digging out all the doppelgangers we placed inside Drood Hall. We knew this was inevitable, the moment Eddie started reorganising things, that's why I ordered the Matriarch murdered, and tried out the Acceleration Drug's addition on them. Always such fun, spreading chaos among one's enemies. The witch's death… was unfortunate. It's made Eddie more dangerous than ever. But, assaulting the Hall with Doctor Delirium's Accelerated Men distracted them all nicely, and killed a satisfying number of Droods along the way. And that is the most we can hope for, for now. Strike directly against Eddie, or those closest to him, and they will strike back. That can be your problem, for the future. Once I, and whoever chooses to join me, have passed through the Door… you can choose a new Leader, and a new direction, if you wish. The family will be yours to run and shape."
The young Immortal was back on his feet again, waving a hand angrily to be acknowledged. It was clear Methuselah was growing angry with this open challenge to his authority, but he still kept his calm, and finally gestured for the Immortal to speak.
"What if Doctor Delirium opens the Door before you get there, and all Hell is set loose on the world? Why are you waiting?"
"This is Area 52 we're talking about," Methuselah said flatly.
"The most secure, and most heavily guarded, military base on the planet. All of its security measures and protections are still very much in place, along with Doctor Delirium's personally designed anti-Immortal measures. If we even try to break in through brute force, you can bet Doctor Delirium will open the Door, if only to spite us. We have to wait to be invited in, by our man on the inside.
"Once Tiger Tim has assassinated Doctor Delirium, he will shut down all the defences, and we can just stroll right in and take what we want. Starting with our dear rogue Drood's head. Never trust a traitor, even when he's your own. Perhaps we'll send his head back to Drood Hall; I understand they can be terribly sentimental about such things. Of course, once I've turned the Door, and passed through it, all of you who choose to remain behind can help yourselves to whatever goodies lie hidden away in Area 52's forbidden armouries." He smiled briefly. "You see how good I am to you? New toys to play with! Won't that be nice?"
"But how soon are you pla
"Eight hours, maximum," said Methuselah. "So you'd all better prepare yourselves, hadn't you?"
Eight hours… it seemed I had an even tighter deadline than I'd thought.
"Any more questions?" said Methuselah, just a bit pointedly. "Any other little thing I can do, to put your Immortal minds at ease? I swear, it's like working with a bunch of whiny little children. I should have kicked you all out of the nest long ago, and let you learn to fly the hard way. You've got soft, all of you. Soft and complacent, and stupidly arrogant! The world is yours; get out there and trample all over it! I can't hold your hands forever! I swear, it's youngsters like you, with no real ambition, that will make me glad to leave all this behind…"
Someone else in the audience stood up, an Immortal from a circle closer to the stage. "You haven't been a real leader in years, and you know it. You've let our plans for world domination lapse, excused yourself from all the strategy meetings, just so you could concentrate on your damned Door, and your dreams of Paradise. You're abandoning us, to chase your own fantasies!"
"So?" said Methuselah. "Choose a new leader, make new plans. It'll be your world, once I'm gone. Make of it what you will. Use it up, eat it up, spit it out. It's all yours to play with. While some of us go on to better things."
And that was when the door behind me burst open, and the Immortal I'd knocked out and replaced staggered in. He was unsteady on his feet and his eyes were still somewhat dazed, but sheer rage kept him moving. It was strange to see his face, after I'd been using it for so long. He clung to the door and yelled almost hysterically at the faces turning to look at him.
"We've been infiltrated! Someone's got into the Castle!" He saw me then, looking back at him with his own face, and he almost went into meltdown with sheer outrage. He pointed at me with a shaking finger. "There! That's him! He's made himself look like me, but he's not one of us! He's a Drood! A Drood!"
That's what you get for being merciful. Ungrateful little scrote. I jumped up, punched him out, leapt over his falling body, and raced out of the lecture hall while the general cry of outrage from within was still building. I ran down the hallway, and already doors were opening everywhere, with angry Immortals spilling out. I could hear more of them fighting each other to get out of the lecture hall and get after me. They sounded like they wanted my blood, and weren't too fussy how they got it. I pounded down a side corridor, and Immortals appeared from everywhere, in front and behind me. So I squeezed the ring on my finger, and made a duplicate of myself. And then both of me squeezed my rings, and there were four of me.
The sudden rush of extra sensory input would have been overwhelming, but all I had to concentrate on was ru
I ran on, lost in myself, everywhere at once, unable to concentrate on anything. Immortals jumped me, hit me, dragged me down, over and over, and I fought back, lashing out at everyone who wasn't me. I couldn't think, couldn't plan, lost in the horror of endlessly branching possibilities, lost in the crowd, lost… I panicked, and called all of me back into myself.
Suddenly there was just me, alone in my head, and it felt good, so good. I stumbled to a halt, as I struggled to assimilate a whole host of conflicting memories. I leaned against a cold stone wall, breathing harshly, sweat ru