Tales of the Hidden World Read Online Free

Tales of the Hidden World
Book: Tales of the Hidden World Read Online Free
Author: Simon R. Green
Pages:
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his slaughtered dead came looking for him, would they fill the Armory? Or the hall? Would even the massive grounds outside Drood Hall be big enough to contain them all? And if he walked up and down the rows of ghosts on parade, looking into their dead reproachful faces, would he still believe they’d all needed killing?
    It had all seemed so much simpler when he was younger, running wild in a world full of people who wanted him dead. Like his first job, not long after World War II, when he was sent chasing after missing Nazi gold, in Bavaria, at Lake Walchensee. A huge lake set right in the middle of the Bavarian mountains. Martin Bormann had been sent there with tons of gold bullion, to fund a Fourth Reich. The idea had apparently been that Bormann would seize and occupy the mountains, as a base for the Nazis to relaunch themselves. Instead, he ran away and disappeared. Supposedly, he dumped the tons and tons of gold bullion into Lake Walchensee first, because it would just have slowed him down. He probably meant to come back for it later, with a new face and a new identity, when he no longer had the world snapping at his heels. But that never happened.
    The family sent Jack Drood to Bavaria, and to the lake, to see if the gold was there. Not because they needed it, they just didn’t want anyone else to have it. Because a lot of gold can buy a lot of trouble.
    Surrounded on all sides by jagged gray mountains without a hint of personality, Lake Walchensee’s waters shimmered like living silver, under the light of a full moon. Jack Drood stood at the edge of the shore, looking out over the waters. A young man, full of vim and vigor, determined to do well and make his family proud of him. His hand went to the golden collar around his throat, the family torque. He muttered the right activating Words, and just like that, golden armor spilled out of the torque and covered him completely from head to toe. The greatest, most secret weapon of the Droods—the marvelous living armor that made them stronger, faster, and completely untouchable. Jack Drood stood for a while, thinking, like a golden statue, his face a featureless mask, a living symbol of implacable duty. And then he strode slowly forward into the shimmering waters, making quiet splashing sounds that didn’t carry any distance at all. Jack knew the waters were icy cold, deadly cold on that still wintry night, but he didn’t feel the cold at all. The armor saw to that. He strode on until the waters closed over his head, and he disappeared beneath the surface of the lake.
    He descended steadily, following the curved bank beneath his armored feet, until finally he was walking along the bottom of Lake Walchensee. He’d left the light from above behind long ago, and now he moved through dark, still waters. He made his armor glow brightly, to give him some light to move in, but even so he was lucky to see more than ten feet in any direction. The bottom of the lake was scattered with objects, none of them particularly unusual or important, and he couldn’t see a scrap of gold anywhere. His heavy armored feet sank deep into the muddy bottom, every step disturbing dirt and sediment, sending it rising up into the dark water, before falling slowly back again.
    Jack carried a special device of his own invention, set into the armor of his left hand. He’d promised the family it would detect gold bullion at up to a hundred yards radius, but so far the damned thing wasn’t reacting at all. Jack shook his hand a few times, just on general principles, but it made no difference. He moved slowly, steadily forward, covering a grid of the lake bottom he’d memorized previously. Looking carefully about him and doing his best not to trip over things.
    He’d been underwater for more than an hour, supported and protected by his armor, not feeling the cold or any need for air, when he suddenly became aware that he wasn’t alone down there. He’d been getting glimpses of things moving,
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