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Alistair screamed horribly as the flames leapt up to take hold of his right shoulder. Martha beat at the flames with her bare hands, crying out at the pain but still trying to help. I armoured up and moved quickly forward to smother the flames with my golden hands, but even though the flames couldn’t burn me, I couldn’t beat them out. In the end Molly stepped forward and reeled off some Latin, and all the flames disappeared in a moment. Alistair’s cries fell away to shocked moans, and he sat down suddenly on the floor, looking dully at what little was left of his right arm. Martha sat there with him, holding him in her arms, trying to comfort him. I armoured down and looked at Molly.
"Those were hellfires…How did you—"
"Please," she said. "Remember who you’re talking to."
Alistair’s moans stopped as he finally, mercifully, passed out. Less than half of his upper right arm remained, charred down to the blackened bone. It would have to be removed; it would never heal. Martha rocked him back and forth, crooning to him like a sleeping child. She was crying. I’d never seen her cry before. I tried to feel sorry for Alistair, but this was what he would have done to my Molly if I hadn’t stopped him.
"Martha…" I said.
"Don’t. Don’t pretend you care, you u
"So many tears," I said. "For Uncle James, for Alistair. But how many tears would you have shed over my death, Grandmother, if I had died on that motorway? Or if Uncle James had killed me like you ordered? Did you cry over my twin brother when he was sacrificed to the Heart? He was your grandson too. How did you choose between us? Flip a coin, perhaps? Or did you just leave it up to the Heart so you wouldn’t have to feel accountable?"
But she wasn’t listening. All she cared about was her Alistair and what I’d done to him. Molly gently pulled me away.
"We have to go, Eddie. Others will be coming. You know that."
I let her lead the way to the far end of the room. I always thought that in the end the traitor within the family would turn out to be Alistair. Because he never was one of us, really. I wanted it to be him. But in the end…he fought well and valiantly to protect the woman he loved from my anger. I admired him. The poor damned fool. I didn’t need to smash through the far wall. Just opened the door and stepped through into the next room, leaving Martha and Alistair behind.
The next room was huge, all gleaming white tiles on the walls and hygienically clean surfaces packed full of assorted computers and other advanced technology in an hermetically controlled environment. A whole room full of machines just to monitor and regulate conditions inside the Sanctity. They protected the Heart from all outside influences and protected those who lived in the Hall from the various disruptive energies and dangerous forces that emanated from the Heart. Normally there’d be half a hundred technicians scattered across the massive room, carefully tending the equipment and making constant small but necessary changes and adjustments to the Sanctity’s delicate balance…but the place was deserted. Presumably they’d been evacuated once it was clear I was coming here. I threaded my way through the bulky machinery, heading for the door at the other end of the room. Beyond that door lay the Sanctity, and the Heart, and my revenge.
Molly and I were almost there when the door suddenly opened and Matthew and Alexandra stepped through. I stopped abruptly, and Molly moved in close beside me again. Matthew looked sharp and smooth as always, the family’s blue-eyed boy in his immaculate Armani suit. He smiled dazzlingly at me. Alexandra’s smile was cold, and so were her eyes. I nodded briefly to them both, doing my best to look entirely unimpressed.
"Matthew," I said. "I should have known you’d turn up. You never could bear to miss out on anything important. But I honestly can’t say I was expecting to see you again, Alex."
"You of all people should know I don’t give up that easily." Alexandra’s voice was sharp and pointed. "And you really should have expected to see Matty and me here together, at the last. But then you never were very quick at figuring out what was really going on, were you?"
I frowned first at her, then at Matthew. There was something about their smiles, their easy confidence, their air of I know something you don’t know. I’d missed something. And I couldn’t afford to make mistakes, not when I was this close to the Heart and its destruction…What could I have missed? Neither Matthew nor Alexandra was wearing the armour, even though they both had good reason to see me as a threat. Something significant was happening here. I could feel it. They had to be pla
"What did you do to the Armourer, Alex?"
She shrugged easily. "You didn’t really think you could take me out that easily, did you? I maintain a constantly updated protection against all forms of poison. Basic security measure. And he really should have known better than to turn his back on me…But he’d got old and soft, like so many of the family today. We’re going to change all that."
And with that we, the pe
"Yes," said Matthew. "That’s us. Only we prefer to call ourselves Manifest Destiny."
I must have made a shocked sound. Their smiles widened, and Molly grabbed on to my good arm and hung on tightly. Perhaps she thought I’d attack them. I was too stu
"Truman only thinks he runs things," Alexandra said lightly. "But he’s just our front, our public face, so the rest of the world won’t realise that the Droods are actually bankrolling and ru
"But…you fought their troops," I said to Matthew. "I saw you, in London…"
He shrugged. "A necessary deception. And occasionally the troops have to be put in their place. It keeps Truman from getting too uppity if we slap him down hard now and again."
"Working behind the scenes has always been the Drood way," said Alexandra. "Kingmakers rather than kings. Zero Tolerance is the only way forward for the Droods, Eddie. The family’s got very old-fashioned, very set in its ways, and far too complacent. Too content with the way things are in the world…Most of the younger generations follow us now, impatient to change the world for the better instead of risking their lives just to maintain the status quo. And after all, why should they? Look around you. The status quo sucks. It’s time we take the lead, stamp out all the bad guys once and for all, and make a better world for everyone."
"But who gets to decide what’s better?" I said. "The Droods? Manifest Destiny? You?"
"The family will decide," said Matthew. "And who better? We’re the only ones who know what’s really going on in the world."
"I thought you of all people would understand, Eddie," said Alexandra. "You were always the great rebel…the renowned freethinker of the family. You opened my eyes. Showed me there was more to life than just duty and responsibility. After you left, I waited and waited for you to do…something. But you settled for being just another field agent. Such a disappointment."
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