They froze. She could tell that Fletcher was fighting his natural instinct to teleport. Her eyes flickered to Skulduggery. They all had their backs to the Gardaí, but Skulduggery had lost his scarf. If he turned, they’d see what he was.

“Get down on the ground!” one of the cops shouted. She watched them out of the corner of her eye as they advanced cautiously. They weren’t armed.

“Put down any weapons you are carrying and get down on the ground!” the second cop ordered.

Valkyrie didn’t move. Skulduggery raised his hands above his head. She heard the clink of handcuffs. She saw the first cop reach for Skulduggery and Skulduggery spun, grabbing the cop’s hand and twisting it. The one behind Valkyrie suddenly had a baton in his hand, but she whirled, kicking his feet from under him as he went to help his colleague.

Skulduggery wrapped an arm around the first Garda’s throat and applied the choke. Valkyrie pushed the air and the second Garda went skidding along the ground. He hit Sanguine’s car and groaned.

There were more sirens, getting louder.

Skulduggery laid the unconscious cop on the ground and all three of them walked quickly to the car. Valkyrie took the battery from the teenage boy’s phone and tossed the phone back to him. They got in the car and sped away – pulling in sharply to the side of the road as three squad cars passed. They got back to where they had last seen Tanith and slowed. The street was empty.

Valkyrie pulled her phone from her pocket and called Tanith’s number. After a few rings, the call was answered.

“‘Ello, my lovely,” Springheeled Jack said, a smile in his voice. “Tanith can’t come to the phone right now, on account of her bein’ so unconscious. If you’d like to leave a message—”

“Let her go,” Valkyrie snapped.

“—I’ll make sure she gets it. ‘Ave a nice day.”

The phone went dead.

27 WHEN KENSPECKLE MET SCARAB

27
WHEN KENSPECKLE MET SCARAB

S carab laid the Desolation Engine on the worktable in front of Kenspeckle Grouse. It was relatively small for such a destructive weapon, resembling a stone hourglass about the length of Scarab’s hand. There were two glass vials within the stone frame, both of them half-full of a calm green liquid.

Professor Grouse’s voice was strained when he spoke. “And what do you expect me to do with this?”

“I want you to fix it,” Scarab said.

“So you can use it to kill thousands of innocent people? No.”