"We already know what it is," I said.

"Of course you do. You're a Drood. You know everything. I do like what you've done with the armour… very stylish modifications. Medieval, with a definite knightly touch. Things have clearly progressed since I was one of the favoured few."

I was a little surprised, but didn't say anything. I hadn't realised my armour was automatically adapting my favourite modifications, without my having to even think about it anymore. As though the armour was learning… Something else to think about, when I had the time.

"Of course," said Tiger Tim, "you took my armour away from me. Quite a shock, at the time. I didn't know the family could do that."

Which meant he hadn't heard about the treachery of the Heart, and its downfall. And how different the new armour was. At least the family was still keeping the details of its disgrace and rebirth secret from the world at large.

"All the field agents who suddenly lost their torcs got them back," said Tiger Tim. "Why didn't I?"

"Because you're not worthy," I said. "Because you're not a part of the family anymore. You'll never wear a torc again. Not after all the things you've done."

"Typical Drood. Always so judgemental. Have I really killed so many more than any Drood field agent? My crimes are really quite small, compared to the family's… At least I don't meddle with the world. I just want to play with it."

"I walked through a town full of dead people to get here," I said. "The Acceleration Drug drove them into a killing madness. What the hell did you think you were doing?"

"Well, it wasn't liked we needed them anymore, the good Doctor and I. And I never leave anyone behind to speak ill of me. Two men can keep a secret, if a whole bunch of people are dead. Besides, it was such fun to watch. From a safe distance. Aren't surveillance cameras wonderful?"

"Did Doctor Delirium know you were going to do that, to his people?" I said.

Tiger Tim grinned widely. "The good Doctor has been very… distracted, since I introduced him to the Apocalypse Door. He doesn't care about anything else, anymore. He talks to it, and it answers him. Or so he says. I've always been very careful to maintain a safe distance. I could have set his whole base on fire and toasted marshmallows on the burning bodies, and he wouldn't have cared. Not to worry, though; I'm here to keep an eye on him."

"We'll find you," I said. "The whole family will be at your back and at your throat until the day you die. What happened to you, Timothy? You might have been a rogue before, but you never used to be an abomination."

"Lot you know," Tiger Tim said easily. "I like to think of this as the real me finally surfacing, after years of repression. I'm not bad; I just want to have fun. Might I inquire which Drood I have the honour of addressing? You all look the same to me. And after all, the game is only fun if you're playing against a worthy opponent."

"I'm Edwin Drood."

"London Eddie! My God… You have come a long way, haven't you, from junior field agent chasing second-class scum around the back streets of unfashionable London? Of course, you only got that cushy posting, and your vaunted freedom from the family, because you had your grandmother's support. I never had anyone's support. I never had anyone in my corner, my whole life. Always telling me what to do, what to think… They were always afraid of me. Of my potential. And quite rightly. I couldn't wait to find a way out of the Hall, throw off their damned brainwashing and get on with my life, far away from all the suffocating restrictions… What's the point of being more than human, if you're still going to allow yourself to be bound by human limitations? Humanity is a trap, from which it is our duty to escape.

"So, I came up with my own ideas. You see, it isn't just the armour that makes us so much better than everyone else. Though it does help. Droods have accomplished more in world history than all governments put together. Because we're focused, smarter, more capable of taking the long view. Doing what needs to be done, and to hell whether it's popular or politically expedient. The armour has evolved us, as people, as a family, far above the common herd. We shouldn't be hiding in the shadows, we should stride out into the open and operate as the world leaders we really are. We are a natural aristocracy, superior in mind and body and will, and we should be lords and masters of all we survey. With everyone else in their proper place as servants, peasants, slaves. Their only real purpose in life is to serve their betters and worship their masters.

"We could put the world in order. No more wars, because everyone would do what they were told. No more want or hunger, because everyone would be equal, under Drood. Of course, we'd have to cut the numbers back, to a more manageable level. I spent ages putting all this together, but when I finally gathered up my materials and presented my Noble Experiment to the Matriarch… She said I was mad. I tried to explain, but she wouldn't even look at the materials! She refused to listen to me! No one would listen!"

"Really," I said. "I wonder why. You do like to talk, don't you?"

"Yes, well, I have been positively starved of good conversation, just recently. Anyway, when it became? clear that the family was not going to be rational on this matter, I decided I'd have to start the ball rolling myself. A trial run, so to speak. Would I be right in thinking the powers that be in the family still don't like to talk about how close I came to actually getting away with it?"

"I know you half killed the Armourer, trying to get him to open the Armageddon Codex for you," I said. "Is that why you wanted the forbidden weapons? To declare war on Humanity?"

"Not a war, Eddie. Just a short sharp shock, a little practical culling, of the weak and unworthy. The old man shouldn't have tried to stop me. He should have understood. I would have worn him down eventually, if James hadn't turned up to drive me off. Bloody Grey Fox… always so full of himself. He never liked me. Still, I was really quite upset when I heard he'd died. I did so want to kill him myself.

"Anyway, that's how it all started. The secret origin of Tiger Tim. I am finally where I should have been, all those years ago. I have the Apocalypse Door, the Acceleration Drug, and a fiendish master plan. Doctor Delirium and I will rule the world, and everyone else will bow down to us. Including every single stuck-up, straight-backed… stuffy member of the Drood family!"

"You and Doctor Delirium will rule the world?" I said.

"Yes… I'd been wondering when that particular penny was going to drop. He will be my partner for as long as I need him, and not one moment longer. He really does have a remarkable mind, but once the threat of the Door has placed the whole world under my control, I won't need him anymore, will I?"

"If you have the Apocalypse Door, why do you need him at all?"

"Because, my dear Eddie-oh, it is so good to have someone I can speak openly with at last… Because direct contact with the Apocalypse Door can be very… affecting, to the human mind. The dear Doctor seems quite besotted with it. But he can't open it without my help. So he acts as my cutout, so to speak. Should it prove necessary to open the? Door, I will make it possible for him to do so. But I'm certainly not foolish enough to get too near myself."

"You don't really think an army of Accelerated Men will be enough to protect you from the Droods, do you?" I said. I needed to divert him. Before he realised just how much information he'd given away. "You must know the Drug is flawed. Your superhumans burn out."

"They last long enough to do what's necessary," said Tiger Tim. "Especially with my new extra magic ingredient. Courtesy of Doctor Delirium's amazing mind and first-class labs. What you've seen at the base was just the trial run, for a much larger experiment."