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“I’ve got this one,” Valkyrie said, walking towards the Ripper on the right. She was halfway there when the cloaking sphere started to vibrate in her pocket.
Alarmed, she pulled it out. The two hemispheres were ticking towards each other quickly – much quicker than they should have – counting down to the bubble’s collapse. She tried to twist them back, then struggled to merely keep them in place, but it was no good.
The bubble contracted.
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Her boots were visible.
Valkyrie crouched before either of the Rippers caught sight of her. There were sigils on the wall – she could see them now. She recognised one of them: a security sigil that attacked Teleporters. She was pretty sure the other one was forcing her cloaking sphere to malfunction.
And it contracted again. Not all the way, just enough to reveal the top of her head. Time was running out.
Keeping low, she pocketed the sphere and hurried over to the Ripper. The bubble contracted again. He heard her footsteps and his hands went to his sickles.
Valkyrie pulled her own weapons – shock sticks, held in place on her back – and launched herself at him. The first stick cracked against his helmet, but he ducked the second, spinning away. Valkyrie’s bubble collapsed completely now, as did Skulduggery’s, and she glimpsed him throwing fire even as her Ripper attacked, sickles blurring.
Valkyrie knew the pattern and countered, slipped to the side and struck the Ripper’s knee, then spun and caught him in the ribs. His clothes absorbed the electrical charge, and he didn’t seem to register the pain.
He left her an opening and she fell for it, committing herself to a swing that she regretted instantly. A sickle blade raked across her belly, would have torn her open were it not for her armoured jacket. He kicked at her ankle, swept her leg, and she hit the ground and somersaulted backwards to her feet, defending all the while. His knee thudded into her cheek and the world tilted.
He leaped at her. She dropped the stick in her right hand and white lightning burst from her fingers, striking him in the chest and blasting him head over heels. He rolled and came up, his jacket smoking.
Valkyrie picked up the fallen stick, placed it end to end with the other one. They attached and she twisted, the staff lengthening, and when the Ripper ran at her she whacked it into his leg, then spun and cracked it against his head. He fell back and she followed, the staff striking him once, twice, and then a twirling third time. He dropped one of his sickles.
She went to finish him off and he dodged, dodged again, dodged faster than she could strike. He jumped over to the wall and rebounded, flipping over her head. She whirled but he was too close, and he grabbed the staff and pulled her into a headbutt that would have broken her nose had she not lowered her head. Even so, bright lights flashed, and she felt the staff being wrenched from her grip as she went staggering.
The Ripper let the staff drop, and swung his remaining sickle towards her neck. She raised an arm, her armoured clothes saving her once again, and snatched the weapon away. It fell, clattering against the stones.
Valkyrie ducked low and powered forward, grabbing him round the waist. Snarling, she lifted him off his feet and slammed him against the wall, then seized his helmet, searching for the twin releases, and tore it from his head. The Ripper fell back, blinking, and she swung the helmet into his jaw and he went down, and she hit him again and again until she figured that was probably enough.
She dropped the helmet and got her breath back.
“You got his helmet off,” Skulduggery said, standing over the motionless form of the second Ripper. “How did you manage that?”
She shrugged. “I adapted accordingly. Come on. We have a doctor’s appointment.”
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She pushed open the double doors and Doctor Nye waved a long-fingered hand.
“Do not disturb me,” it said in that familiar high whisper. “I left strict orders not to be—”
It looked up then, and its small eyes widened and its wide mouth opened as it got to its feet, the stool crashing to the ground behind it.
Skulduggery held his gun low, by his hip. “The moment you set off an alarm, I will shoot you. I feel we ought to be clear on that from the very beginning.”
Nye stopped moving backwards, and raised its arms. “I have no weapons.”
Up close, Valkyrie could see that the threads that had once sewn Nye’s mouth and eyes shut were still there, poking out of its skin. She walked forward. “You act like you’re not pleased to see us, Doctor. That hurts my feelings. I thought we’d bonded that time you autopsied me.”
“The years have been good to you,” Skulduggery said, coming round the table. “I mean, you’ve obviously shrunk, but apart from that you look great. How have you been spending your time? The last I heard, you’d escaped from Ironpoint Gaol. Who was it that broke you out? Eliza Scorn?”
“How is Eliza?” Valkyrie asked. “Any word?”
“I haven’t seen Eliza Scorn in years,” Nye said. “I was not the only one she freed. There were others.”
“But she set you up here,” said Skulduggery. “You’d lost everything when we imprisoned you. We made sure of it. She helped you.”
Nye licked its lips. Its tongue was small and pink. “She could see the importance of my work.”
Valkyrie picked up a scalpel and walked over slowly. “Excavating the soul,” she said. “How’s that going for you? Found it yet?”
“I believe I have,” said Nye.
“So what next? Now that you’ve found where it hides, what are you going to do with it?”
“Finding the soul was only the first step. Now I follow it to where it leads. I’m not hurting anyone. I’m not experimenting on anyone. You can search the castle. I have no patients here.”
“No?” Valkyrie asked. “You don’t have anyone strapped to a table somewhere, their ribcage open, their organs on a nearby tray while they look around, hallucinating friends and family come to rescue them? No? Well, I have to say that’s an improvement. You’re practically reformed. Skulduggery?”
“You’re quite sure there is no one being tortured, Doctor?” Skulduggery asked. “Maybe having their skin peeled off? I heard about one experiment you ran during the war where you decapitated prisoners and then kept their heads alive in jars.”
Nye backed up. “What do you want?”
“You’re under arrest,” Skulduggery said. “You’re going back to Ironpoint.”
“We’ll be sure to request a smaller cell this time,” Valkyrie said. “Something snug.”
“Or you can make it easy on yourself,” Skulduggery said. “You can tell us where Abyssinia is.”
Incredibly, Nye paled even further.
“Wow,” said Valkyrie, “your poker face sucks, dude. That means we get to bypass the bit where you tell us you don’t know what we’re talking about – and we threaten you and you eventually break – and go straight to the part where you answer our questions. So where is she?”
“I do not know.”
“I’m just going to warn you that we’ve been looking for Abyssinia for almost seven months. Do you hear me? Seven months. And we haven’t found her, or the flying prison she’s commandeered, or any of her little anti-Sanctuary friends. We’re both extremely annoyed about this. Our patience has worn thin, Doctor. When we found out that she paid a visit to this charming castle no less than two days ago … Well, I’m not going to lie: I cried a little. Tears of happiness. And when we learned that you were working here? It was like all my birthdays had come at once. Not only do I get to see my old friend Doctor Nye, but Doctor Nye gets to help us in our search, and tell us where Abyssinia has gone.”
“I promise you, I do not know.”
“Then why was she here?” Skulduggery asked.
“If … if I tell you, you must let me go.”
“OK.”
“I think you are lying.”
“Of course I’m lying. You’re going back to prison, Doctor. The only choice you’ve got is the size of your cell.”
Nye hesitated, then sagged. “It was not a thing she was looking for. It was a person. His name is Caisson.”
“And who is Caisson?”
“Abyssinia said he is her son.”
“I see,” Skulduggery said, taking a moment. “Does he work here? Is he a scientist or manual labour?”
Nye hesitated.
Valkyrie folded her arms. “He was a patient, wasn’t he? You may not be experimenting on anyone right now, but up until two days ago you were.”
“When I came here, this facility had already been running for decades,” Nye said. “I was brought in to replace a scientist who had gone missing. My instructions were clear: I was to continue the work of my predecessor. On my initial tour, I was shown the room in which Caisson was being kept – but I was not the one who worked on him.”
“How long had the experiments been going on for?”
“As far as I am aware, for as long as this facility has been operational.”
“Which is?”
“Sixty years.”
Valkyrie frowned. “He’s been experimented on for sixty years?”
“No,” said Nye. “He was experimented on here for sixty years. I do not know where he was before this.”
“What else do you know about him?” Skulduggery asked.
“Nothing. Experimenting on Caisson was not my job.”
“So who did the work?”
“An associate. Doctor Quidnunc.”
“Is he in today?” Valkyrie asked.
“I have not seen him in a week, since Caisson was removed from this facility.”
“Caisson was removed a week ago?” Valkyrie said. “So when Abyssinia came for him, he was already gone? Why was he moved?”
“I do not know for certain,” said Nye, “but I imagine somebody learned that Abyssinia was drawing close and we were told to evacuate as a result. Caisson was the first to be moved.”
“Then why are you still here?”
“I, and a handful of other scientists, refused to leave. I can only speak for myself, but my work had reached a critical stage and I could not possibly depart.”
“Abyssinia wouldn’t have been happy that her son wasn’t here,” Skulduggery said.
“She was not,” said Nye. “She killed many Rippers.”
“Did you tell her where he was moved to?”
“I did not, and do not, possess that information.”
“Who took him?”
“I do not know. A small team of people. The owner of this facility sent them.”
“Which brings us back to Eliza Scorn.”
Nye shook its head. “Eliza Scorn does not own this facility. As far as I know, she was merely obeying orders when she delivered me here.”
“Then who’s your employer?”
“I am afraid I do not know.”
“You’re working for someone and you don’t even know who it is?”
“What does it matter?” Nye asked. “My work is important and needs resources. I do not care who provides them.”
Valkyrie sighed. “What about Abyssinia? Did she say anything that could lead us to her? Remember, you really want to make us happy.”
“She provided no such information.”
“Did you tell her about Quidnunc and his experiments?” Skulduggery asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you tell her where she could find the good doctor?”
“I do not know where he is.”
“Then how are you still alive?” Skulduggery asked. “You don’t know anything helpful, you worked in the same facility where her son was being experimented on … Why didn’t she kill you, Doctor?”
“Because I did to her the same thing as I am doing to you,” Nye responded.
“And what is that?”
“Delaying you.”
The shadows converged and twisted and from the darkness stepped a woman in a black cloak, her face covered by a cloth mask so that only her eyes were visible.
Skulduggery raised his gun and the woman’s cloak lashed out, and Skulduggery ducked and fired. The cloak absorbed the bullets and whipped again, slicing through the table to get to him. Skulduggery jerked to the side, his hand filling with flame, but the cloak twisted back, covering him – and when it whipped away, Skulduggery was gone.
The woman turned to Valkyrie, but Valkyrie had already moved behind Nye and was buckling its legs. It dropped to its knees and she gripped its throat, keeping her eyes on the newcomer.
“Have to admit,” Valkyrie said, “that was pretty cool, even for a Necromancer. But, if you try anything like that on me, I will fry the stick insect here.”
