I'M BACK!!! Let's friggin goooo!

Nuce prepared for one of the shortest and most extravagant car rides of his life. He stared in awe, as the stretch limousine pulled up before him; a shiny black Mercedes-Benz.

He glanced at Skulduggery next to him. "Not that I'm complaining but... Why aren't we taking a regular cab?"

Skulduggery unimpressively glanced at him. He wasn't wearing a hat and he was stuck to wearing his fancy Christmas suit, which fortunately matched his cover identity perfectly.

For a façade, he had chosen a clean-shaven jaw, narrow features, and slicked back brown hair.

At first, it had been strange for Nuce to talk to someone, who had a bare skull for a head. But now, he found it strange to talk to Skulduggery, while he was wearing a face. Nuce had to focus not to stare in fascination, at his false lips, as they shaped around each syllable.

"Have you ever seen a mob boss pull up to an important meeting, in a Toyota?" Those lips were currently asking.

"I haven't ever seen a mob boss, period," Nuce retorted and fixed his real eyes onto his fake ones.

"Well!" Skulduggery cheerfully said, "then today is your lucky day!"

He scowled. "Yeah... So very lucky..."

They got distracted, as the driver of the car got out. He was a tall buff ebony man, likely in his thirties, and likely a mortal. He respectfully nodded to them and silently opened the back doors to the stretch limo.

Skulduggery gestured an inviting hand at the back seats, "shall we?"

Nuce excitedly grinned and got in. The interior of the limousine looked just as he had imagined it. The seats, lined with extravagant black leather, were set up to face each other like in a living room. Between the back of the car and the driver's cabin, a seperation wall offered safety for the driver and privacy for the passengers. Colour-changing strips of LED light ran all along the tinted windows.

Mounted between the seats and along the dashboards were glossy tables, coolers, cupholders, which offered only the best of the best. On top of the center table, a bottle of champagne was cooling inside a golden bowl full of icecubes. There was even a golden ashtray, securely screwed into the tabletop.

Nuce picked one of the backwards facing seats. The last time he had driven backwards in a car, he had been a kid; along for the ride inside the family van of one of his school buddies' mums. He remembered it to be fun.

Skulduggery followed him inside and settled into one of the seats across from him. He gestured at the metal bowl, as the car door was shut for them.

"Champagne?" He courteously offered.

Nuce snorted, "yeah I don't really feel like celebrating...?" He nodded to the cooler box in the seat next to him, "I'll take a soda though."

Skulduggery glanced inside the cooler, pulled out a glass bottle of soda, and tossed it over. Nuce caught it and used a conveniently placed aluminum bottle-opener to crack the top.

He smirked, "this is so cool!"

"Don't get too comfortable," Skulduggery advised. "We'll be there in two minutes."

The car began moving. Almost immediately, Nuce regretted sitting backwards. He wasn't one to get motion-sick easily. But he also didn't exactly enjoy the sensation of sitting in a slow rollercoaster; on the way to an illegal brothel.

He shushed away the thought, and focused on sipping his soda. It was ice cold and pleasantly bubbly!

Meanwhile, Skulduggery pulled a leathern pouch from the inside pocket of his jacket. He unzipped it, pulled out a tiny ear-piece, and tossed it over as well.

Nuce caught it and stuffed it in his ear. He made sure to push in the tiny speaker as far as possible, and to cover up his ear with his hair. Then he tapped the ear-piece, and it sprang to life with a beeping sound.

"Test, test?" Nuce said.

"Hi love," Diamond's voice responded.

"How's the ride, Nuce?" Valkyrie's voice asked.

He beamed and took another sip from his bottle of soda. "So fancy! Honestly, you're missing out!"

After Skulduggery was done with stuffing his own ear-piece into his facade ear, he spoke up. But only in order to burst Nuce's bubble. "And sadly, so are you. We've just arrived."

Nuce had no idea how Skulduggery knew this, as the windows were entirely tinted in black. But on cue, the Mercedes came to a stop, and the engine shut off.

Nuce surprisedly frowned, "wait, did we just... Ride in a circle around the block?"

"Essentially."

He pouted. "So, when you said two minutes, you meant that literally?"

Skulduggery didn't look especially sympathetic, as the back door was opened for them. "Come on, let's go," he ordered and got out.

Nuce sighed, put his soda away in a cupholder, and followed him outside. He took a good look at their setting.

They were standing in front of a large grocery store. Located behind them was a generous parking lot. Around them, there was nothing but unkempt shrubs and trees. To one side, the street led through the sparse forest, towards the main road nearby. To the other side, a steep hill led upwards to a lookout spot, where the trees grew least dense.

It looked like this place had once been the supermarket for a small nearby town. However, either the town's population must have declined, or the business of the store itself, as it was now boarded up and abandoned. Someone had even gone through the trouble of removing the sign of the store brand, but no one seemed to be considering demolishion or renovation.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Nuce skeptically asked.

"Quite sure," Skulduggery said and demonstrably pointed at the parking lot behind them.

Nuce turned around and spotted a handful of shiny cars, sitting all over the parking lot. They were either brand new or expensive classic models. Just as their stretch limo, they seemed entirely out of place in this ramshackle setting.

"Ah," Nuce said, "gotcha."

Skulduggery nodded to their driver, who nodded back and returned to the driver's side of the car. Then he went on to park the Mercedes next to a red Porsche Cayenne.

"What do you see?" Valkyrie's voice asked inside Nuce's ear.

"Nothing yet," Skulduggery replied as he walked towards the supermarket, "how about you?"

"Nothing, only you two."

Nuce looked around to see if he could spot her. Valkyrie was hiding on the nearby hilltop, along with Diamond, Fletcher, and Ninja.

"Don't look at us!" Diamond's voice immediately scolded him.

"Sorry!" Nuce quickly turned the other way and started jogging.

"Remember," Skulduggery told him, once he had caught up with him. "You're my young nephew, who is just being introduced to this sort of business. You know absolutely nothing about Carry, Bax Hench, or their organization. And as your wise uncle...?" He importantly tilted his head at him, "I have advised you to only speak, when spoken to."

Nuce nodded, "gotcha."

They arrived with the main doors of the building. They were boarded up as well, and the door handles were barricaded with a heavy chain and lock.

Skulduggery loudly knocked his fist on the door three times.

Nuce wondered how someone was going to open a door from the inside, which was chained up from the outside? But before he could voice his doubts, the chain disappeared into thin air, and the doors swung open.

Nuce blinked, as his brain tried to wrap itself around the visual illusion. Simultaneously, his senses were flooded with sudden activity.

The rushing noise of music, and a crowd of people; the wafting smell of sweaty people; the sight of bright lights, and sparsely dressed women.

No, not women. Girls. Although they were excellent at pretending to be older, Nuce knew the sad truth.

The bouncer, a heavy tall man with a shaven head, skeptically eyed them.

"The purpose of your visit," he demanded to know.

"We have an appointment," Skulduggery casually replied, "with Miss Carry, I believe it was?"

"Wait here," the bouncer said, and shut the doors in their faces.

The sounds and smells of the club cut off instantly, and the fake chain reappeared in the same spot as before.

"What a pleasant welcome!" Skulduggery commented.

No one thought to argue with him. A long moment of quiet passed. Then the door opened again. The same bouncer was standing there, however this time, he stepped out of their way.

"Carry says to make yourself comfortable. Have a drink, enjoy the merchandise, and when you're ready, come see her in her office." He gestured towards the back wall. "Second door to the right."

"Thank you," Skulduggery said. Although he wasn't wearing one, he tapped his hat and stepped inside.

Nuce hesitated for just a second, as he was busy stifling the sudden urge to puke.

"The merchandise..." He grumbled to himself in disgust. Then he took a deep breath of fresh air, and followed Skulduggery inside.

Carry was sitting in her office, with her legs folded over her table, whiskey in one hand, cigar in the other. As she waited for her impending doom.

She had pulled all the strings. Had called in all the favors. Had collected all the debts. And yet, there was nothing she could do, to save this manufactured glass-house of a trashy club, from collapsing into a pile of fatal shards.

The final step she could have taken, was to beg. To beg someone for help, or to beg Hench for mercy. Of course, Carry would never stoop down to such a level.

No, if she was to go out, she would go out in style, Carry had decided. With her polished nails intact; firing her Uzzi.

Carry's eyes wandered over to her gun; which remained mounted to the wall nearby. She had an image burned into her memory; of Bax Hench standing right there and running his fingers over the handle of her weapon.

She felt it would be ironic, to shoot him with it. This had been her conclusion to the issues at hand. She was going to take the bastard down with her. She'd be doing the world a favor.

That had been the idea at least. Until there was a faithful knock on her office door.

One of her bouncers stuck his head through the gap. "Got a skinny old guy outside, with his kid? Says he's got an appointment with you?"

Carry's eyes widened. She immediately pulled her feet off the table, sharply sat up, and in the process, spilled some whiskey on her hand. "Wait. They actually showed up?"

He shrugged, clueless of what she was referring to.

Carry rolled her eyes and dismissively waved her cigar at him. "Tell them to make themselves at home."

They didn't take Carry up on the offer. Even if they hadn't had a mission to focus on, surely neither Nuce nor Skulduggery had any reasons to stick around and 'enjoy the merchandise'.

Purely for the sake of information, and maybe out of a sense of responsibility, they paused for a moment and looked around in the club.

The interior of the former supermarket had been seperated into several spaces; the largest of which they had just walked into. They were standing where Nuce assumed the tills had once been, and the area in front of them was mostly empty. A small dancefloor was waiting to be used, later, in the evening. Right behind it, the doors to the offices were located.

To their right, on a small elevated stage, two cladly dressed girls were lavishly dancing around a set of poles. The background music was designed to add to their performance.

To their left, the former produce isle offered even more space. The coolers and shelves had been replaced with three generous sofa islands. The couches were all made of false leather, coloured either in a tacky red or a cheap white. A long bar, made of tinted glass and white imitation marble, took up most of the wall behind and beside them.

About two dozen patrons were sitting around the bar, the pole dancing stage, and on the various sofas. Each man, or group of men, had one or two girls at their disposal. None of the men were exactly openly abusing the girls, but they were having fun fondling and groping them, as they sat on their laps or on the sofas between them. The girls seemed to be quite used to this, as they smiled and giggled and chatted with their 'clients'.

Unsurprisingly, the girls were all dressed inappropriately. It seemed that they got to choose their outfits themselves, as they each wore different styles, to varying degrees of exposure.

Some showed off the necklines of their barely developed chests; some wore short-shorts that showed their legs up to their butts; some wore crop tops that showed their flat bellies.

Nuce tried his best not to grimace in utter disgust. He was feeling nauseous again. Not alone because of what he was witnessing, but also thanks to the thick air that he was forced to breathe in.

"Blimey, it smells terrible in here..." Nuce commented. He did so quietly and in Skulduggery's direction, pretended that he was talking to him in private.

"Don't worry, you get used to it quickly," Ninja's voice humorously replied in his ear. "Especially, when you're being distracted by one of us."

His face contorted against his best efforts, as bile flooded his mouth.

"I think I'm about to throw up..."

"Do not throw up." Skulduggery immediately forbade him.

"What does it smell of, Nuce?" Diamond asked.

Nuce knew that she was trying to distract him, but he gladly went along with it. He took another whiff of air, and tried to objectively analyze the nuances of grossness.

"It smells of... Disinfectant cleaner and flower-scented room spray. It's not covering up the stink, it's making it worse," Nuce began to dissect.

"The stink of what?"

"Of sweat and cold smoke."

"The smoke is probably from Carry's cigars," Ninja informed him. During this statement, he could clearly hear the spite in her voice.

"Really?" He asked, "there are people that still smoke those, like, on a regular basis?"

"Only the super rich and old ones. She also likes to use it as a weapon sometimes."

"Gross," Nuce said.

"What else, love?" Diamond's voice encouraged.

"Also smells of alcohol, but not sharp like ethanol, more musky, like..." Nuce crinkled up his nose, "old beer that someone spilled, ages ago... But mostly, there's this really overwhelming smell of... I dunno, plastic?"

"That's not plastic," Ninja corrected. She sounded amused again. "That's silicone and latex."

"Right..."

The description tactic had failed miserably. Nuce felt like throwing up again.

Skulduggery looked like he had gotten all of the information he needed, from Nuce's sense of smell. He moved on to informing the others of what they both could see.

"We're inside a large space with several couch islands and one long bar," he succinctly described, "I count ten guards and eight cameras... No, nine cameras. There are more than twenty patrons."

"Do you recognize anyone?" Valkyrie asked.

Skulduggery glanced in the direction of one of the men, who was watching a pole-dancing girl. "Unfortunately, yes. But he will have to get away with it, for now."

He moved on. "I can see twelve girls out on the floor; two are tending the bar, two are dancing, and eight are..." Skulduggery uncomfortably paused and sounded as if he was clearing his throat, "...Entertaining the men. I don't see the remaining six girls. Ninja, any idea where they might be?"

"Yeah," she replied, "can you see the doors with the big pink numbers on them? All the way in the back?"

They turned their heads and, in the wall opposite to the bar, spotted five doors. The numbers one to five were illuminated on them, by obnoxious LED light fixtures.

"I see them...?" Skulduggery confirmed.

They let their gazes slide and pretended that they were still busy with taking in the scenery.

"Those are the private rooms," Ninja casually explained, as though that wasn't the grossest thing that Nuce had heard yet. "Some of us might be in there. The others are probably staying in the sleeping area. Carry doesn't like having too many of us on the floor, she wants us to look busy."

"How can we get to the sleeping quarters?" Skulduggery asked.

"There's a long hallway that goes to where the storage used to be. It's through the door next to Carry's office."

Nuce glanced at the correct door but only briefly so. He continued to look in Skulduggery's direction, as to pretend that they were engulfed in a one-on-one conversation.

Skulduggery's head didn't move. "Is that door ever locked?"

"Nope," Ninja said. "They don't need to lock the doors, no one ever tries to run."

"And you said, Carry keeps the designated keys inside a briefcase in her office?"

"Yep, it's always under her desk. You can see it, but like, just a corner of it...? Right when you walk through the door."

He nodded off the intel and moved towards Carry's office, and Nuce followed suit. The manner in which Skulduggery was striding ahead, made him look like he was about to kick in the door, and give that Carry woman a good scolding. Yet as they arrived, he merely gave the door a polite knock.

Nuce expected for them to be called inside. Instead the door was quickly opened for them, and the charming smile of an attractive woman greeted them.

"Welcome, Gentlemen!" Carry said.

Valkyrie set her binoculars down next to herself. Ever since Skulduggery and Nuce had left her line of sight, nothing notable was happening in or around the parking lot.

She and Diamond were lying flat on their bellies, in the grass, elbows propped up on the ground. Keeping their heads low in this manner had allowed for them to scoot all the way to the edge of the hilltop. Thus, they had an excellent view onto the repurposed supermarket, and even some of the surrounding streets.

Behind them, Fletcher and Ninja were sitting on the ground. Ninja looked positively thrilled being part of their mission. Fletcher looked mostly glum and admittedly a bit lonely, without Betty around to curb his boredom.

Betty had vehemently disagreed to the idea of going home. However after almost half an hour of discussion, Diamond had managed to talk her into staying at the safehouse in South America.

Valkyrie had to admit, she had been grateful for Diamond's determination to shield her best friend. She was just as glad to have one less person to worry about.

Valkyrie refocused her attention on the mission. All four of them were wearing ear pieces for the occasion. They silently listened to the voices of the two undercover men, as they witnessed the terrible scene first-hand. As they waited for them to reach Carry's office, a brief moment of quiet developed.

Diamond used the opportunity to gift Ninja an approving smile. "You know, you're pretty good at this!"

Ninja surprisedly blinked, "really?"

"Yeah, the way you give information, it's quite... Concise. That can be a useful skill in many scenarios."

She beamed, "cool."

Valkyrie opened her mouth, in order to jump aboard Diamond's compliment. She was interrupted however, by Skulduggery's voice, as it resonated exclusively in her left ear.

"No thank you, for having us. My name is Cornelius Goodfellow, and this is my nephew Lucas."

"Hello," Nuce blankly said.

Valkyrie thought to hear a faint sense of distain in his voice. Yet in this situation, it served him well. To Carry, Nuce's attitude probably made him fit perfectly into the role of a spoiled hormonal teenager.

Everyone else listening went quiet, and turned their full attention to the voices from their ear pieces.

"Young Lucas here just recently turned nineteen," Skulduggery lied, "so I have decided to gift him something special this year."

"Well, what a wonderful occasion!" A female voice chirped. One could only assume, this voice belonged to Carry. Valkyrie could virtually hear her bat her eyelashes at Nuce, "belated congratulations to you, my dear."

"Thank you," Nuce said.

"Can I offer you anything?" Carry philandered on, "should one of the girls bring you a drink?"

"I'm fine, thank you," Skulduggery politely declined, "you, Lucas?"

"No thanks," Nuce said.

"Please, have a seat. I was told that you're interested in taking home some of our girls? We have a wonderful collection of seventeen, for you to choose from. Did you get a chance to talk to one of them?"

Ninja's head jerked up in shock! Valkyrie, Fletcher and Diamond all frowned at each other.

Skulduggery seemed to have picked up on the detail as well. "Seventeen girls?" He confusedly asked. "I was told there was one more. What happened to number eighteen?"

"Oh, the market is quite competitive, as you surely know," Carry casually replied. "She has already been promised to another buyer. We're actually just in the process of getting her ready for the move."

Valkyrie worriedly glanced at Ninja. Ninja looked absolutely horrified.

She couldn't blame her. Chances were, if this girl was about to permanently leave the club, they would lose track of her soon after.

"How unfortunate," Skulduggery said.

Carry sounded unconcerned, "I'm sure you'll find our current selection satisfactory. To start; how many were you interested in?"

The response was drowned out, as Diamond leaned in towards Valkyrie, and quietly murmured to her. "Do you think we could grab number eighteen, on her way out?"

Valkyrie pulled an unfortunate grimace, "probably not without blowing our cover. So for the sake of Nuce, Skul, and the other seventeen girls...? We might have to let her go."

Diamond sighed in dismay, "yeah, you're probably right..."

"Ummm... Guys?" Fletcher suddenly said behind them.

Both women twisted their necks and glanced back at him. They didn't need to ask what was wrong however, as the problem quickly became apparent.

"Where did Ninja go?" Fletcher asked.

Valkyrie gasped and jumped up! She frantically looked around, but Ninja was nowhere to be found!

Diamond almost rolled onto her back, in order to watch Valkyrie get up. Then she rolled the other way, in order to look at the stomped down path, which led towards the supermarket parking lot. She was about to set her binoculars down and jump up too, but she didn't get that far.

Valkyrie dug the tiny microphone out from her ear and tossed it over to her.

"I'll find her!" She announced and began jogging backwards. "You two stay here and focus on the others!"

Diamond caught her ear piece out of the air and nodded to her.

Valkyrie spun around and began running.

To no one's surprise, Carry perfectly matched her own cheap tacky decoration, and her outfit was almost as revealing as that of her subordinates. Her nails were as red as the sofas and her perfume had an overwhelming scent of flower oils. She wore a jeans skirt and net tights, as well as a pink top. The colour of her shirt matched some of the fake cacti, which attempted to decorate the otherwise tastefully furnished office.

The only thing about Carry that seemed at all natural was her brown hair, which flowed in yet manicured waves over her shoulders.

Seeing any of this might have been somewhat amusing to Nuce. Yet he mostly continued feeling sick. Additionally, a nagging feeling of dread added to the churning in his stomach.

As he and Skulduggery had walked into Carry's office, Nuce had reminded himself of what Ninja had told them. Just as they stepped through the door, he had intently looked at the space below Carry's desk.

Nuce had expected to see a handle, or the tiniest corner of a briefcase - the briefcase that contained the killer keys.

However he had seen no such thing, and Nuce was worried that, for some inexplicable reason, the briefcase might have been missing.

Despite this, Nuce had focused on the conversation, as he did his best to hide his disdain of the woman they talked to. He felt that he wasn't doing a terrible job at it. But he wondered, if Carry could see right through any type of fakeness, as it seemed to be her area of expertise.

"I'm sure you'll find our current selection satisfactory," Carry was currently saying, as if she was talking about the grocery store inventory. She looked at Nuce for her next question, "to start; how many were you interested in?"

Nuce shrugged, "all of them?"

Skulduggery shot him a scolding glare. Nuce immediately shut his mouth. Carry looked confused.

"All of them?" She skeptically asked, "I'm not sure if that's a good idea...? Do you have the space and resources to take care of that many people?"

"You must excuse my nephew," Skulduggery jumped in, "he's still very new to this type of business. His parents have tried their hardest to preserve his innocence, for as long as possible. I believe, one girl should suffice for now."

Thankfully, Carry's smile returned and her skepticism visibly faded. "No problem, shall we take a look around then?"

"First, I would like to discuss the details of this transaction," Skulduggery objected, "as far as I was told, you will be handing me a designated fob key, yes?"

Carry nodded in approval, "yes. You will receive it along with the girl, after the transaction."

Skulduggery's facade contorted to a half disagreeable expression. "But I'm assuming it will take some time for you to prepare her...? I would like to hold on to some sort of physical reassurance, that we will receive what we've paid for."

She apologetically nodded, "I fully understand your concern for financial security. However, as I've said before, these girls are very sought-after. Therefore, Mister Gian has decided to hold on to the keys personally."

Nuce did his very best not to look utterly shocked, or to meaningfully glance at Skulduggery beside him. His observation had apparently been correct; the fateful briefcase full of killer-keys wasn't here.

Despairingly, Nuce also realized that Carry wasn't referring to the dead Christopherus Gian, but the person that was acting under his alias. And this surely meant, the keys were with none other than the 'big boss' himself; Bax Hench.