“You can feel safe with us,” Skulduggery said. “We’ve saved the world a few times and we’ve become quite good at it. Really, if I were you, there’s no one else I’d rather be with at a time like this.”

“Skulduggery,” Valkyrie said, “your façade.”

“Oh, yes,” he said, and his gloved fingers tapped his collarbones. A face flowed up, covering his skull with skin and hair and features. He smiled at a lady in a car they passed and she frowned at him.

“He can only wear a face for half an hour every day,” Valkyrie whispered to Ryan. “So he tends to overdo it on the sociable front.”

“But all that went on in a library,” Ryan said, finally confident enough to form a complete sentence without gibbering. “It’s going to be all over the news.”

“Actually,” Valkyrie responded, “it’s not. We have people for that sort of thing. Sometime within the next hour a very nice man called Geoffrey is going to convince everyone who witnessed that fight that they didn’t see what they thought they saw. He’s kind of a Public Relations officer, in a way – making sure the civilian world doesn’t notice the rest of us as we go about our business.”

Skulduggery glanced at Ryan over his shoulder. The face he wore was dark-haired and sallow-skinned. “Some people, like Geoffrey, find they are suited to non-combative roles. He’s what we call a Sensitive – someone with psychic abilities. Some Sensitives read minds, some see the future – Geoffrey just makes you believe whatever he tells you. Another Sensitive was a man called Deacon Maybury. Which is where you come in.”

“I’ve never heard of him,” Ryan said.

“Of course not,” said Valkyrie. “I hadn’t either, up until a few days ago. I’d heard of his brother, Davit, who died. There were sextuplets, apparently. Six identical Mayburys. Only four now, though.”

“This Deacon Maybury, he’s dead too?”

Skulduggery turned the Bentley off the busy road, down a quieter street. “Deacon was a Sensitive who worked for the Sanctuary – where we work. Sometimes we arrest criminals for whom there is no redemption. If they’re susceptible, it’s possible to enter their mind and insert a new personality. It’s always been a controversial procedure, and it only works if the criminal’s will is weak, but the old personality would be subdued, the new one would have a life and a history and memories, and the criminal would get a chance at a normal life. Inserting new personalities was Deacon’s job.”

“But he got bored,” Valkyrie said. “We spoke to people who knew him. He wanted adventure and excitement. He wanted money and power. So he fell in with the wrong crowd – Foe and his gang.”