Kenspeckle’s eyes were wide and his hand was clutching something that hung from his neck. She knew it was the vial of saltwater he wore in case of vampire attack.

“Professor,” Skulduggery prompted. “The leftover pieces from the Desolation Engine. Why is that troubling?”

“I-I don’t know,” Kenspeckle said. “I just…It doesn’t make any sense.”

“A lot of things don’t make any sense,” Guild said. “Such as how you were able to restore that Engine to working order so quickly. We thought it would take you days, if you could do it at all.”

“Of course I could do it!” Kenspeckle snapped, suddenly back to his old self. “There was never any question of whether I could do it! They didn’t know that of course. They just got lucky by picking me.”

“I don’t care how smart you are,” Guild said. “Sanctuary experts have examined that bomb for decades and they still have no idea how it worked, let alone how to fix it in a single afternoon.”

“Of course they don’t, you damn fool. They didn’t build the thing in the first place, now did they?”

They all stared at Kenspeckle. He was flustered. He rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“You built it?” Valkyrie asked.

He looked at her. “What?”

“You…you said you built it. The Desolation Engine.”

“I did? I…I suppose I did, yes.” For a moment he looked so very old and so very frail, and then the irritation returned to his voice. “Yes, well, I wasn’t always who I am now. No one ever is. I’ve spent my entire lifetime becoming who I am. Finally, I’m here and I’m old. It’s depressing, it really is.

“When I was a younger man, I was no less intelligent, but I fear I lacked some basic and fundamental sense. My outlook on things was different. My philosophy was different. Different things interested me. The Desolation Engine for instance. I wanted to see if I could build it. It existed in theory, but then it had always existed in theory. It was my goal to turn magic-science theory into magic-science fact. Which was what I did.

“I don’t think I cared about who would use it, or where, or on whom. These things were immaterial. When I was told about the detonation in Naples, I can’t recall being affected by it one way or the other. It worked. I built it, I knew it would work and it did. Project over – start another.

“It was only years later that I understood what I had done and took responsibility for my actions. I didn’t take the human equation into account, you see. I was all about the magic and the science. Everything else…slipped by unnoticed.”

“And you’ve been making up for it ever since,” Ghastly said.