“Let’s say you’re right,” Tanith said. “Let’s say Meritorious and Guild orchestrated Vanguard’s assassination and framed Scarab. For 200 years Scarab’s been sitting in his cell. After being cut off from his magic for so long, he would have started to age again, right? So he’s an old man, he’s out and he’s angry. He has his psycho son and their nutball gang, and they’re looking for revenge. So they steal a Desolation Engine that won’t go off and a Soul Catcher. How does this help them get their revenge?”

“And who are they going to get revenge on?” Fletcher added. “Meritorious is dead.”

“They’ll be going after Guild,” said Skulduggery, “so we should warn him. They’ll probably be after me too, but you don’t have to warn me. I already know. As for what they want with the things they’ve stolen, I haven’t worked that out yet. But I will.

“On the plus side, the more people Scarab has, the greater our chances are of finding one of them. Crux was last seen in Haggard – maybe he’s still there, trying to find a way through China’s perimeter.”

“I know the area,” Tanith said. “I’ll take my bike, have a look around.”

“And I know of a couple of bars Sanguine used to frequent when he was here last,” Ghastly said. “They’ll still be open, even this late. I can ask if he’s been in recently.”

Skulduggery nodded. “Take Fletcher with you – you’ll get through it faster. Unfortunately, we know next to nothing about Dusk. The vampire I took to the holding cell isn’t co-operating, which isn’t much of a surprise, and his kind are impervious to most kinds of psychic reading.”

“Then just get Valkyrie to ask her vampire mate,” Fletcher said.

Skulduggery turned sharply. “Her what?”

Valkyrie glared at Fletcher and he blushed.

“Uh, didn’t she…She didn’t tell you?”

“I didn’t tell him,” Valkyrie said, her jaw tight.

Skulduggery looked at her. “You have a vampire friend?”

“He set up the meeting with Chabon,” she explained. “I was never alone with him. Tanith or Ghastly were always—”

Skulduggery whirled on them. “You knew about this? You knew she was meeting with a vampire and you allowed it?”

“We had it under control,” Tanith said.

“You never have a vampire under control!” Skulduggery roared. “It could have killed her! For what? For a chance to get me back? You should have left me there!”

Tanith looked away and Valkyrie lowered her eyes, her face burning. Only Ghastly kept his gaze level.

“It was a risk,” Ghastly said, as calm as ever, “but it was a risk we decided to take. And now that she has made contact with this vampire, we should consider using him to try and find Dusk. It’s only logical.”

Skulduggery didn’t move for a moment.