“No you’re not,” said the Armourer. “We need to talk to them. And besides, it wouldn’t do any good.”

“What?” Howard looked at the Armourer, baffled.

“I know who they are,” said the Armourer. “Or at least, I recognise who one of them is, and what the other one is. The one with the glasses is family.”

“Ah,” said Howard bitterly. “I might have known. Only family could get past family defences.” He peered dubiously at the image. “Can’t say I recognise him.”

“You wouldn’t,” said the Armourer. “He hardly ever comes home. That’s Harry Drood. James’s only legitimate son.”

“And, unfortunately, I recognise the other guy,” I said. “I met him once before, briefly, in the prison cells under Manifest Destiny’s old headquarters. They’d imprisoned him inside a pentacle, and cut out his tongue, just in case. And he was still the most dangerous thing there. He’s a half-breed demon, offspring of a succubus. I left him there to die when I brought Truman’s operation crashing down around his head . . . I should have killed the unnatural thing when I had the chance.”

“You never had the chance,” said Molly. “Half-breeds like that are very hard to kill. They may look like us, but they all have one foot in the Pit. But what’s he doing here, side by side with a Drood?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But it’s not going to be anything good. Harry Drood . . . I’ve heard stories about him.”

“Most of them are true,” said the Armourer. “Harry’s always been one of our best field agents, if a little too independent. Not unlike you, Eddie, in many ways.”

“But why appear out of nowhere like this?” I said. “In the company of a demon?”

“You killed his father,” said the Armourer.

“Yes,” I said. “That’s going to haunt me for the rest of my life, isn’t it?”

“At least now we know how they got in,” said Howard, sounding a little more cheerful. “No mystery anymore. Our defence systems were never designed to recognise something as rare or unnatural as a half-breed hellspawn.”

“All right, Howard,” I said. “Put the Ops Room on standby, but keep all weapons on line. Just in case Harry’s invited some more friends to drop in later. But don’t start anything without express instructions from me. Molly, Uncle Jack, let’s go welcome Harry home.”

“Is it okay if I take my arm out of the computer first?” said Molly.