Live and Let Drood: A Secret Histories Novel

Live and Let Drood

ALSO BY SIMON R. GREEN

T
HE
S
ECRET
H
ISTORIES
N
OVELS

The Man with the Golden Torc

Daemons Are Forever

The Spy Who Haunted Me

From Hell with Love

For Heaven’s Eyes Only

T
HE
D
EATHSTALKER
S
ERIES

Twilight of the Empire

Deathstalker

Deathstalker Rebellion

Deathstalker War

Deathstalker Honor

Deathstalker Destiny

Deathstalker Legacy

Deathstalker Return

Deathstalker Coda

T
HE
A
DVENTURES
OF
H
AWK
& F
ISHER

Swords of Haven

Guards of Haven

O
THER
N
OVELS

Blue Moon Rising

Beyond the Blue Moon

Blood and Honor

Down Among the Dead Men

Shadows Fall

Drinking Midnight Wine

A
CE
B
OOKS

T
HE
N
IGHTSIDE
S
ERIES

Something from the Nightside

Agents of Light and Darkness

Nightingale’s Lament

Hex and the City

Paths Not Taken

Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth

Hell to Pay

The Unnatural Inquirer

Just Another Judgement Day

The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny

A Hard Day’s Night

The Bride Wore Black Leather

G
HOST
F
INDERS
N
OVELS

Ghost of a Chance

Ghost of a Smile

Live and Let Drood

A Secret Histories Novel

Simon R. Green

ROC

Published by New American Library, a division of

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,

New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto,

Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2,

Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)

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Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)

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Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632,

New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)

Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue,

Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:

80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library,

a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, June 2012

10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

Copyright © Simon R. Green, 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

Green, Simon R., 1955–

   Live and let Drood: a secret histories novel/Simon R. Green.

      p. cm.

   ISBN: 978-1-101-58541-2

  1.  Drood, Eddie (Fictitious character)—Fiction.   I.  Title.

   PR6107.R44L58 2012

   823’.92—dc23   2011045364

Set in ITC New Baskerville

Designed by Elke Sigal

Printed in the United States of America

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

ALWAYS LEARNING

PEARSON

Table of Contents

Previously in the Secret Histories…

Chapter One: Home Is Where the Heart Breaks

Chapter Two: When the Droods Are Away

Chapter Three: There Are Worse Things Than Mummies in the Undiscovered Tombs of Old Egypt

Chapter Four: When the Seas Give up Their Dead

Chapter Five: Do You Have an Appointment?

Chapter Six: Department of the Unexpected

Chapter Seven: Some Unpleasantness at the Establishment Club

Chapter Eight: Traffic Can Be Murder Sometimes

Chapter Nine: Facing Evil

Chapter Ten: Where the Monsters Are, and a Not Entirely Unexpected Surprise

Chapter Eleven: Home Again, Home Again

Casino Infernale

Previously in the Secret Histories…

I
came home and found someone had murdered my whole family.

Someone is going to pay.

In blood.

CHAPTER ONE

Home Is Where the Heart Breaks

Y
ou think you know where your life is going. You think you’ve got everything sorted out. You’ve defeated your enemies, saved the world, made peace with your family and gone on holiday with the woman you love. And then you discover what you should have known all along: that it takes only one bad day to turn your life upside down. That there’s nothing you can have, nothing you’ve earned, nothing you’ve paid for with blood and loss and suffering…that the world can’t take away from you.

I stood before all that remained of my home, Drood Hall, and all I could think of was how it used to look. How it had looked all my life. A huge, sprawling old manor house dating back to the time of the Tudor kings, though much added onto and improved through the centuries. Traditional black-and-white-boarded frontage with heavy leaded-glass windows, proud entrance doors strong enough to hold off an army, and a jutting peaked and gabled roof. Four large wings had been added to accommodate the growing size of the family; it was massive and solid in the old Regency style. So large and solid and…significant, it looked like it could take on the whole world and win.

High above the extensive grounds, the wide roof rose and fell like a great grey-tiled sea, complete with sharp-peaked gables, scowling
gargoyles that doubled as water spouts and ornamental guttering that had probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Add to that a perky little observatory, extensive landing pads for all the family’s more outré flying machines (and, of course, the winged unicorns), and more aliens and antennae than you could shake a gremlin at…and it all added up to one very crowded and very useful roof.

I used to spend a lot of my time up on the roof when I was just a kid, enjoying the various comings and goings and getting in everyone’s way.

All gone now.

The Hall was a burnt-out ruin. Someone had taken it apart with gunfire and explosives and set fire to what remained. Walls were broken and shattered, blackened and charred from smoke and flames. The upper floors had collapsed in on themselves into one great compressed mass of broken stone and rubble and what fragments remained of the roof. The ground floor looked to be more or less intact, but the windows were all blown out, and the great front doors had been blasted right off their heavy hinges. God alone knew what was left inside.

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