From a Drood to a Kill - Simon R. Green Page 0,119
stolen something,” I said flatly. “From the Droods. Yes, I thought that would get your attention. To be exact, I am now in possession of the legendary and quite priceless Merlin Glass.”
She reacted immediately to that name. She just couldn’t help herself. She sat up straight behind her desk, forgetting the paper she’d been filling out, and leaned forward suddenly, her eyes glowing with pure unadulterated greed.
“Details, please.”
“Trust me,” I said, “you don’t want to know exactly how I got it. Look . . . it was a mistake, all right? I didn’t realise what I was getting myself into, or that I’d end up with the whole damned Drood family chasing after me! I’ve already tried going to ground in a dozen different places, that I would have sworn were perfectly safe and secure. . . . But I’ve been chased or scared out of all of them. These people are inhuman! They know everything! They really are taking this far too personally . . . They want the Merlin Glass back, and they want my head. Not necessarily in that order. I’d give them the bloody Glass back, if I thought they’d just take it and let bygones be bygones. But they do seem to be very angry indeed. Look . . . I am prepared to give you people the Merlin Glass in return for one of your guaranteed one-way tickets to someplace where the Droods can’t find me!”
“I’m not sure where to recommend,” Ms Smith said slowly. “Is there such a place?”
“I have heard of one,” I said. “The Shifting Lands.”
Ms Smith looked at me sharply, and then sat back in her chair and regarded me thoughtfully with her cold grey eyes.
“It is supposed to be one of the few places outside of Drood jurisdiction,” I said after a while. “You do know about this place?”
She shook her head suddenly. “Sorry, Mister Bond, I think I’m going to have to pass this one further up the chain of command. So stay put. Don’t move from your chair and don’t touch anything while I’m gone. You are being watched.”
She all but ran out of the office, she was so keen to pass this hot potato on to someone else. She didn’t want to be the one who lost out on the Merlin Glass, but on the other hand, she really didn’t want to be the one who got the Droods mad at the Travel Bureau. I looked around the room for hidden surveillance cameras. There were only a couple, blindingly obvious to anyone with a torc. Hardly state-of-the-art equipment. I reached out to them through my armour and overwrote their signal so anyone watching would only see Shaman Bond sitting quietly in his chair. Standard operating procedure for any Drood in the field. How else do you suppose we stay hidden in this age of electronic surveillance? Just let everyone see what they expect to see, and they’re perfectly happy.
I got up out of my chair, and wandered around Ms Smith’s desk to take a look at her laptop. It was all very basic. I armoured up one hand, and sent golden filaments of strange matter burrowing into the computer. I soon had it purring like a contented tabby cat as I bypassed all its security protocols and had a good rummage through its files.
I knew I should have been patient, and taken no unnecessary risks. Just play the game and not risk the deal . . . but I couldn’t. Not while Molly was still missing. I had to believe Jack was right; that whoever it was and wherever they had taken her, Molly Metcalf was still perfectly capable of taking care of herself. But . . . I couldn’t help but remember the vicious beating Molly had taken at the hands of Crow Lee’s soldiers after she and I underestimated them. It doesn’t matter how good you are; there’s always going to be someone tougher, and nastier. Not knowing what was happening with Molly was driving me insane. I couldn’t just sit and do nothing while there was something I could be doing to hurry things along.
My armour opened up the laptop easily enough, but it had only limited access to company business. I was still surprised to discover just how many people had made use of the Departure Lounge in recent years. The Travel Bureau had done a lot of business, with hundreds of names, many of which I recognised. Nobody particularly big or