I strode forward, through the scattering Accelerated Men, cutting down anyone stupid enough to come within reach. One threw himself at me, screaming hysterically, trying to pry open my golden armour with his superhuman strength. His hands scrabbled uselessly against the gold, his finger bones breaking, and in the end I just threw him aside. He hit the ground hard, his back snapping, and just lay there, crying. I should have stopped long enough to give him the coup de grâce, but I had more important things on my mind. Later in the day, that lack of basic mercy would upset me. But not then.
I was only a dozen feet short of the great glowing circle when the enemy decided on one last desperate, despicable tactic. A final wave of Accelerated Men burst through the dimensional door, carrying large reinforced pouches strapped to their chests of backs. They ran at the Hall with the best speed their superhuman strength could provide. Something about those pouches bothered me, and I reached out lazily, putting out a straight golden arm in the path of one of the runners. He slammed right into it, and my golden arm did not budge one inch. It whipped the runner off his feet and put him on his back in a moment, his chest caved in. He looked up at me with a shocked, surprised face, fighting for breath, and actually struggled up onto his feet again as I closed in. I punched him in the chest as hard as I could, and blood shot from his mouth as my fist emerged from his back. I pulled my hand out, and he collapsed immediately, as though that was all that had been holding him up.
He took his time dying, but I had eyes only for the reinforced pouch strapped to his chest. I ran my hands over it carefully, checking for trip wires and booby traps, and then gave in to my impatience, and just ripped the thing open. And inside, was a small but perfectly functional nuclear device. Big enough to take out the Hall and a hell of a lot of the grounds around it.
“It’s a nuke!” I yelled to the Sarjeant. “It’s a bloody nuke! All these new arrivals are suicide bombers!”
“They only need to get one inside the Hall,” said the Armourer, his voice cutting in sharply. “The Hall has protections against an outside nuclear assault, but not inside . . . Never thought we’d need it. And even if we keep the bombs outside the Hall, and they detonate just one in the grounds, think about all the Droods out here fighting . . .”
“Could our armour protect us from an atomic bomb?” I asked Ethel.
I don’t know! What’s atomic?
“Terrific,” I said.
“Even if we should survive the blast, about which I for one have severe doubts,” said the Armourer, “the grounds would still be utterly devastated, a radioactive nuclear nightmare for generations to come!”
“Well then,” I said. “Let’s not let that happen.”
“I can’t use the Kirlian gun!” said the Armourer. “In fact, any of our weapons might set the bloody things off!”
“There is another way,” I said. “Something I used once, to stop Archie Leach from using his Kandarian amulet.”
“And if it doesn’t work?” said the Sarjeant.
“See you in Hell, Cedric,” I said.
I placed both my hands on the backpack nuke, and concentrated hard. The strange matter of my golden armour spread out slowly, completely covering and enveloping the nuclear bomb in a casing of golden armour. The bomb was now effectively inside my armour, with me. If it went off, the armour should contain the blast, and the radiation. Of course, I wouldn’t be around to see it, but . . . Anything, for the family.
Molly? It’s me. See you soon, love.
I could see other Droods getting the idea, dragging runners to the ground and enveloping the nukes within their armour. Inside of a few moments, there wasn’t a single suicide bomber left in control of his bomb, just dead runners and Droods who’d taken the bombs inside their armour. Presumably breathing heavily and sweating hard, just like me, as we waited to see what would happen. I was just a bit flattered to see that one of them was the Sarjeant-at-Arms. It was nice to know he had such faith in me. I screwed my eyes shut, half cringing in anticipation of the detonation I’d never even feel . . . but the seconds dragged on, and nothing happened. Slowly, I realised that if the bombs were going to go off, they would have done so by now.
It’s all right, Eddie, said Ethel, her voice bright and bouncy again. The activation signal couldn’t get through the armour, and I’ve already sent strange matter into the bombs, to disrupt the timers. You can come out now; the bomb’s perfectly safe. So, that’s atomic . . . nasty little weapon.
And then, finally, one by one the Accelerated Men started to fall over. Aging, withering, dying, as the Drug used up the last of the energies that drove them. None of them had got anywhere near the main entrance to the Hall. The dimensional door slammed shut, before any of us could reach it. And just like that, the assault was over.
One by one, we armoured down. I stood up slowly, leaving the deactivated bomb at my feet. I took a deep, deep breath, and the cool morning air tasted good, so good. The man who’d strapped the nuke to his chest had died, somewhere along the line. I couldn’t bring myself to care. All over the lawns, exhausted men and women stumbled back towards the Hall, and family. Dead bodies lay sprawled everywhere, in the crimson mud and churned-up grass. Most of them were Accelerated Men, but not all. We’d lost a lot of good men and women, this morning. They would be avenged.
“Get the nukes down to the Armoury, and I’ll take them apart,” said the Armourer. He was standing not far from me, looking tired and a lot older. He glanced down at the Kirlian gun in his hand, as though he couldn’t remember what he was doing with such a thing, and then he grimaced, and made the gun disappear. “I want the Accelerated Men, too. We need to know more about this damned Drug. I’ll have my people run some autopsies, see what we can find. And then . . . I’ll make us a whole new batch of scarecrows, to defend the Hall.”
I’d never seen him this mad, this vicious. It was easy to forget that the kindly old Armourer had once been one of the most feared field agents, of that coldest of Cold Wars. And truth be told, I couldn’t find it in me to feel any remorse, for what was in store for the fallen enemy. They shouldn’t have threatened the Hall, the family, the children.
The Sarjeant-at-Arms came over to join us. He was puffing heavily, but all things considered he looked quite cheerful. The man was in his element.
“No one’s tried to nuke us since the Chinese, back in the sixties,” he said. “We must be getting close to something really important, if they want to stop us this badly. Whoever’s behind this.”
“Could be Doctor Delirium, could be Tiger Tim, could be both of them working together,” I said. “They’re the only ones we know are definitely linked to the Apocalypse Door. But where did they get all those people? Or those incredible weapons?”
They took my strange matter from me! said Ethel. By force! That’s . . . impossible!
“Nothing’s impossible, for the Immortals,” said the Armourer.
“Hush!” the Sarjeant said immediately. “Not in public!”
I looked at him thoughtfully. “You still going to try and arrest me, Sarjeant?”
“No,” he said. “My investigations have cleared you of all involvement.”
“Well,” I said. “That’s nice. Now all I have to do is clear you as a suspect.”
It was worth it all, to see that look on his face.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Only Good Traitor
The Armoury had come alive again. Blazing bright lights, people running back and forth, lab assistants crowded round every workstation. Everyone was talking at once, when they weren’t shouting, and from the look of it every lab assistant from every shift was back on duty. The Armourer and I appeared through the Merlin Glass, and everyone immediately stopped what they were doing to point a whole series of really nasty-looking weapons at us. I stood very still, while the Armourer beamed happily about him.