“You’re really ready to die?” said Giles.
“I can’t die. I am part of a greater thing. You wouldn’t understand. I exist only to serve a function. Give me the box, Eddie, and you can have her back. For a while.”
“She’d rather die,” I said, “than become you. She’d die happily, if it meant she could take you and your masters with her.” I slowly raised my right hand to show her the flat silver box with its red button. “If I press this button, this whole place goes away, forever. A second Big Bang, to end a universe. No more here, no more you, no more Hungry Gods. Molly would see her death as a triumph, to bring that about.”
“Are you sure?” said the thing, in a voice so like the real Molly it cut me to the heart.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m pretty sure she came here expecting to die. And I think perhaps I did too. We never really thought we’d find our way back again. And at least this way, we could go out together.”
“And just when were you planning on telling me this?” said Giles.
I looked at him. “You can still get away. Gateway’s still there, still open. You’ve done all that could be asked of you, held Molly and me together long enough so that we can do what’s necessary.”
“No,” said Giles. “There’s a better way. Give me the Deplorable End.”
“What?” I said.
“I’ll do it,” said Giles.
“Excuse me,” said the drone inside Molly. “But I am still holding a very sharp knife to my throat.”
“Take Molly back through the gateway,” said Giles. “I’ll do the business with the button, blow up the Hungry Gods, bring down the curtain. With them destroyed, the Loathly Ones should all perish too, including the one inside your Molly. You can both have a life together, Eddie. My gift to you.” He smiled briefly. “For showing me things I never would have believed possible. For taking me into your family. And because…I have never had, never known, what you and Molly have and know.”
“I thought…you said something about woman trouble, back in your time?” I said.
“Oh, there were always women,” said Giles Deathstalker. “Comes with the territory, when you’re Warrior Prime. But never anyone special. Never anyone who mattered. So take your Molly and go. I can do this. In fact, I have to do this. Someone has to shut the gateway from this side, to make sure the universe-destroying energies don’t blow back through the opening into your world. I’ve got some energy grenades that should do the trick; disrupt the energy matrix and collapse the hole.”
“I didn’t bring you back all these years just so you could die,” I said.
“Maybe you did,” said Giles. “Who knows? Time plays strange tricks on all of us.”
“I have a dagger at my throat!” yelled Molly.
Giles’s arm snapped out and he snatched the dagger right out of her hand. “No, you haven’t. Now behave yourself.”
Molly glared at him, and then at me, her eyes darkening dangerously. “You really think you can threaten Gods with a mechanism? With your little box full of clockwork?”
“Only one way to find out,” said Giles. “Give me the box, Eddie.”
“It won’t work,” said Molly. “We won’t let it work. Nothing happens here that we do not allow.”
And then we all looked up, startled, as a new sound entered the higher dimension; a triumphant howl like a great steam whistle, Dopplering down from some unimaginable distance. The heavens split apart, and the Time Train came thundering across the brilliant sky, hammering over the very tops of the mountainous Hungry Gods. A big black beast of an old-fashioned steam train, its engine roaring, strange energies sparking and cascading all around it, marking its trail across the sky with a rainbow of discarded tachyons.
Jay and Jacob Drood, the living and dead man, had made it through after all.
The Hungry Gods cried out, a terrible, unbearable sound, full of rage and malice and spite, outraged that something from a lower world should dare force its way into their hidden home. Ivor blew his steam whistle defiantly, a sharp, clear sound. The Time Train was falling now, descending at a controlled speed…and then it just stopped, hanging there, as time itself slammed to a halt. Nothing moved anywhere, everything was quiet, and suddenly the ghost of Jacob Drood was standing right in front of me, smiling his old crafty smile.
He reached out sharply and prodded Molly on the forehead with his forefinger. She swayed suddenly and shook her head.
“What?” she said. “What just happened? Eddie, why are you looking at me like that? And Jacob, what are you doing here?”
“Saving the day!” Jacob said grandly. “I just hit your reset button. Don’t know how long it’ll last, so pay attention. I have things to tell you.”
“What are you doing here?” I said. “I mean, why aren’t you up in the Time Train?”
“I am,” said Jacob. “I’m up there and I’m down here. It’s amazing what you can learn to do when you’re dead. Being in two places at the same time is child’s play when you don’t have a material body to worry about. Well, I do now, but Jay’s in charge of that.” His ancient face grew serious as he glanced up at Ivor the Time Engine, hanging suspended in the awful sky above the living mountains. “Listen, time will start up again any moment. Ivor can’t hold this for long, not against the combined will of the Hungry Gods, even with all the extra power he’s accumulated during his long trip. Oh, the places we’ve been, Eddie, and the things we’ve seen… It’s a much bigger universe than any of us ever expected. Now, when time starts up again I’ll be back aboard Ivor, and then Jay and I will steer the Time Train down to a probably apocalyptic impact right in the midst of the Hungry Gods. And all the temporal energies he’s holding will be discharged in one almighty explosion. Not enough of a bang to destroy the Hungry Gods, but quite enough to set off the Deplorable End, no matter how hard the Invaders try to suppress it. So, you can’t be here, Eddie.”
“But if the gateway’s left open…” said Giles.
“We can spare enough energy to close it, just before the crash,” said Jacob. “Ivor’s a remarkably sophisticated machine, once you learn to speak his language. He’s capable of far more than was ever asked of him. He doesn’t want to die…but he’s a Drood, and he understands duty. He’s very pragmatic, for a steam engine. And, of course, I have to be here. Both of me. I’ve arranged things with Ivor so that he will use some of the time energies to ensure that my death works out the way it should. On impact, Jay will die but his spirit will be sent back in time, to become the family ghost. And I… will be set free at last. To go on … and make trouble there, too. I’m quite looking forward to it.”
“Does it have to be this way?” I said. “Aren’t there any other options?”
“We’re lucky to have this one, Eddie,” Jacob said kindly. “The Hungry Gods will be destroyed, the world will be saved. We don’t really have a right to expect any more.” He looked at Giles. “There’s even enough spare temporal energy to send you home, boy. All the way back to the future. Just stand by the box, and trust me. Close your eyes, if it helps.” He turned back to me. “Good-bye, Eddie. You always were a good friend. And the son I never had… Don’t stop giving the family hell, just because I’m not around to prompt you.”
“Good-bye, Jacob,” I said. “I wish…”
“I know,” he said.
He disappeared, and Ivor’s defiant steam whistle sounded again, striking right through the raised, awful clamour of the Hungry Gods. The Time Train was plummeting through the incandescent sky, trailing tachyon steam as it headed remorselessly for the living mountains. Giles held out his hand for the Deplorable End, and I gave him the box. He hefted it once and smiled briefly.
“Good-bye, Eddie. Good-bye, Molly. I’ve enjoyed my time with you. It’s been…interesting.”
“Good-bye, Giles,” I said. “And wherever you go, and wherever you end up, remember, you’re still family.”