Live and Let Drood: A Secret Histories Novel Read Online Free PDF

the workstations methodically until we found one computer that was in somewhat better condition than the others. We couldn’t get it working, so Molly just zapped the thing with some kind of spell to make it give up the last thing it had been working on. I’ve never understood how she gets magic to work on scientific things, and I have enough sense not to ask. I’m sure the answer would only upset me. The computer’s last memory appeared on a cracked monitor screen. It showed Droods jumping up from their workstations, startled, as someone opened fire on them. Bodies were thrown this way and that, blasted right out of their workstations. Blood flew on the air and bodies crashed to the floor. There were shouts and screams. None of the Droods armoured up. There was just bloodshed and slaughter, and computer stations exploding as they were raked with gunfire. And then the computer shut down and the monitor went blank.
    Molly called the last few images back to the monitor screen, goosing the thing with magical sparks when it tried to cut out on her.
    “Look at this, Eddie. According to what this screen is reluctantlyshowing us…all the Hall’s weapon systems and defences were off-line. Shut down before the attack. This has to be sabotage, Eddie; the work of the traitor inside the family. I’m sorry; I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s the only way this could have happened.”
    “Callan was in charge here,” I said. “I didn’t see him on the screen. I can’t believe all the defence systems could have gone off-line at once without his noticing. Unless…someone arranged for him to be distracted. Called away. So he wouldn’t be here when this went down.” I looked around the silent, deserted War Room. “Still no bodies. You saw my family die on that screen. So why isn’t there a single Drood body anywhere in this room?”
    “Maybe they took your family away as prisoners,” said Molly. “Ethel was gone, so they didn’t have their armour.…Maybe your family just did the sensible thing and surrendered?”
    “I suppose that’s…possible,” I said. “Droods stripped of their armour would have been in shock, especially after an attack like this. Some of them might have been captured.”
    “So some of your family could still be alive somewhere!” said Molly.
    “Why would our enemies want prisoners, if they hate us so much?”
    “Don’t be naive, sweetie. For information. Droods know things no one else does. Everyone knows that.”
    “They could have got far more information from the computers,” I said. “And our enemies went out of their way to destroy them. No. The whole point of this…was to destroy the Droods forever. To take us completely off the board.”
    “You can hope, though, can’t you?”
    “We always say about the bad guys: If you don’t have the body, they’re probably not really dead. Maybe that works for the good guys, too. If there are any survivors, Molly, if there are any members of my family left alive anywhere…I will find them.”
    We went back up and worked our way through the fallen Hall to what was left of the South Wing. To the Operations Room, a high-tech centre set up to oversee all the Hall’s defences and protect the family from…things like this. Once again the door was standing open,revealing a reasonably-sized room full of computer systems and workstations…usually run by a cadre of specially trained technicians, under the head of ops, Howard. He wasn’t there. Neither was anyone else. Everything in the room had been smashed to pieces with great thoroughness. Someone wanted to make sure that not one of these systems could ever be repaired or re-created. No way of telling whether anyone here had known the defences were off-line until it was far too late. There was a hell of a lot of blood, but no bodies.
    I made my way carefully through the wreckage, looking for something to give me hope. Molly stuck close beside me, watching my back and comforting me