Valkyrie sat in Erskine Ravel's office shivering.
"Why won't this stupid thing WORK?" She growled, banging her fist on a small heater that sat in front of her.
"I don't know," Skulduggery said leaning against the wall, "maybe there is something wrong in the furnace room, I can go check if you won't me to."
"Yes," Valkyrie said.
"Tanith, come on, we're going to go check the furnace room and I think you're sword will come in handy."
"Okay," Tanith said getting up from her seat next to Valkyrie and walking out the door.
When Skulduggery left, Ravel looked up from his paperwork and cocked his head.
"Hey, did you check to make sure that the heater is plugged in?" he said.
Valkyrie hesitated then leaned down and looked at the plug and saw that it was lying on the ground next to the outlet.
"Oh," Valkyrie knelt down and plugged the heater in then flipped the switch. Immediately a blast of heat came out of the heater and started to warm her up.
She sighed happily.
"Are you going to go down to the furnace room to tell Skulduggery and Tanith that everything is fine and that they can come back up?" Ravel asked.
"Nah, they will figure it out when they get back up. Which reminds me, shouldn't they be back by now?"
Down in the Furnace room…..
Tanith and Skulduggery walked down the staircase and into a long hallway with lots of doors.
Tanith looked around, "where's the Furnace Room?"
"It's behind the door marked 'Furnace Room' dumb-dumb in big letters right next to you."
Tanith scowled, "you know," she said as they walked into the room, "if you make any more remarks like that, I might use this sword for another purpose…"
"That is charming that is."
Skulduggery started to check a bunch of stuff that Tanith didn't understand.
After a few minutes Skulduggery turned to her, "there is nothing wrong with anything so I guess we can just go back upstairs and tell Valkyrie we don't know what the problem is."
"Okay," Tanith said turning to walk out the door, "besides it's getting pretty hot in here anyway."
She got to the door and tried to open it. It didn't open.
"Um, Skulduggery," she said jiggling the handle.
"Yeah?"
"The door won't open up."
"What?" Skulduggery walked over and tried the door, it didn't open.
"What do we do?" Tanith asked suddenly worried.
"Well, I get to kick down the door while you stand back and watch in awe and amazement."
Tanith rolled her eyes and stepped back. "Sure I will."
Skulduggery lifted his leg then kicked the door, nothing.
Tanith frowned. Skulduggery cocked his head, "weird, that usually works."
"Well what will what do we do now?'
"I don't know."
Everything was quiet for a few seconds.
"Oh, I know," Tanith said walking over to a machine, "what if we turn up the heat really high so that the alarm will go off that the furnace is too hot and then when they come down to see what's wrong we'll be saved."
"Good idea Tanith. See some of my brilliance is rubbing off on you," Skulduggery said walking over to another machine and turned a knob.
"There, now all we have to do is wait," he said happily, sitting down in a chair next to a small table that was probably used for when workers came down to work on the furnace.
Tanith sighed and sat down across from him and settled down to wait.
20 Minutes Later…
"It's… not… WORKING!" Tanith wailed. She was now only wearing her tunic and pants. Her boots and socks were scattered around and her coat was lying on the ground.
She was sitting with her back against the door and calling 'help.'
"Maybe we should turn up the heat more." Skulduggery started to walk towards the furnace again.
"NO!" Tanith attacked Skulduggery, toppling him to the ground. "No more heat. In can't take it anymore!"
She leaped up and started to whack the furnace with her sword. Suddenly the knob broke off and the heat went all the way up.
Tanith whimpered and curled up on the ground.
Skulduggery looked at her for a few moments then said. "Fail."
A few more moments passed and Skulduggery said, "I have a better idea of what to do."
"What?"
At Ravel's office…
"Maybe you should go see what's taking them so long." Ravel said to Valkyrie who had music cranked up loud on the stereo and was humming slightly, rocking back and forth on a swivel chair; her heater giving off heat.
"Hm?" Valkyrie looked up. "Oh, yeah, maybe I should." She got up and stretched then left the room.
Two minutes later…
"HELP! WE'RE TRAPPED! HELP!" They banged on the door with their fists.
"It's no use." Tanith finally said exasperated, falling into a chair. "You 'brilliant' plan has failed and we're going to die down here and there's nothing anyone can do about it."
"Well only you can die, I can't," Skulduggery pointed.
Suddenly the door swung open, Valkyrie stood looking at them with a raised eyebrow. "What are you doing?" She asked.
Tanith and Skulduggery froze.
Valkyrie rolled her eyes and walked over to a bright red phone that was hanging on the wall in plain sight, dialed a number and said, "Yeah I found them."