Skulduggery had tried to subtly prod for more details about the keys in Bax Hench's possession, but Carry continued being dodgy about it. Nuce was therefore almost relieved, when their fake meeting was soon interrupted. Almost, that was, because he knew that something was wrong.
It was hard to keep track of both conversations at the same time; their chat with a crime boss lady, and the scattered ruckus that resonated from his ear piece. Still, based on the hectic whispers inside his left ear, Nuce could tell that their mission had been seriously compromised.
Soon after, there was a knock on the door. Carry excused herself, got up from her desk, and went to check on who it was.
One of her bodyguards was standing outside. The second she was in earshot, he leaned in and quickly muttered something to her. His expression was neutral and professional, but his voice suggested high levels of tension.
When he was done, Carry turned to them with a big fake smile. "Alright, Gentlemen, it seems as though we have a little situation going on. Would you mind if we continue this chat on another day?"
Skulduggery pretended to be confused. "Is there an issue?"
"Oh no, no issue at all!" Carry proclaimed, and Nuce could clearly tell that she was lying. "I would just like to ensure that your stay here is as enjoyable as possible!"
As they stood up, Nuce and Skulduggery exchanged a nervous glance. Did this mean, Carry's men had discovered the others? Did this mean, their cover was already blown? Would she really escort them to safety, or was this a trap?
Carry didn't seem surprised by their weary looks. "Don't you worry, we guarantee the comfort and safety of our clients!" She assured them. "Now, if you would please follow me? We have already instructed your driver to meet us by the back door."
Hesitantly but without further discussion, they followed her and the bodyguard into the gross club.
"I'm very sorry about the inconvenience," Carry babbled on, "I can assure you, this isn't a common occurrence. I'm sure we can come to some kind of agreement tomorrow..."
They were led past the strip poles, and the sofas, and the doors with the pink neon numbers. Nuce's inner tension rose with each gruesome entertainment zone they passed, and peaked as they reached an unmarked door. This one opened up to a hallway, which created a straight shot to the closest emergency exit.
When they had made it about halfway through the hallway, there was a quiet sound. It was the type of sound that was only quiet because it was far away, but was extremely loud from up close. Everyone jumped a bit at the noise and glanced backwards in its direction.
"No need for concern," Carry soothingly chimed, "please remain calm, and I promise to get you home safe."
Nuce suppressed the urge of rolling his eyes at her. But Carry hadn't lied, as their limousine was indeed waiting right by the back entrance.
Carry's men opened the back doors of the car and ushered them inside. As soon as they were sitting, the doors were quickly shut again. One of the men signaled the driver with a knock on the car roof, and the limousine set itself into motion.
Skulduggery's finger immediately shot up to his earpiece. "What on earth is going on out there?!"
Valkyrie's first instinct was to run in high-speed down the hill. Yet, before she got much further, she stopped herself and intently looked around.
Ninja had a headstart and she seemed to be a clever girl. Surely, despite her quick decision-making, she had picked a strategic way to try and save her friend.
There was movement in the parking lot now. The limousine that Skulduggery had rented was leaving its parking spot. Meanwhile, a handful of men were leading a girl into the back of an unmarked van, and another man got into the driver's seat.
Valkyrie assumed that Ninja wasn't planning on confronting all those men by herself. She would likely stay away from the club and the parking lot, and pick a spot near the road for an ambush.
Valkyrie's attention was drawn to the slender side street, which connected the parking lot to the main road via a T-shaped crossroads. Trees and shrubs were lining the street there and provided excellent cover.
She grunted in annoyance and set on to another sprint. Arms held out for balance, she raced down the hillside between trees and tried not to stumble over hidden roots.
It wouldn't take long for her to spot Ninja. She was hiding behind a large fallen log. Valkyrie quietly walked up to her and crouched down by her side. Ninja flinched and glanced at her, seemingly trying to figure out if she was going to be standing in her way.
"What's the plan here?" Valkyrie quietly murmured to her, "want to take on the driver all by yourself?"
Ninja sourly sneered in response, "you don't think I could?"
She nodded with partial agreement, "maybe you could. But you know, this is a team exercise. You can't just run off alone like this, you'll blow our cover..."
Ninja was having none of it. "You're one to talk!" She sharply hissed, "you used to go off on your own all the time!"
"Yeah but..."
"But nothing!" Ninja spat, "you're like... The queen of trouble! You took down lots of bad guys like this, including yourself! So don't tell me what to do! You don't wanna save my friend? You think she's not worth the risk, right?! Fine, then I'll do it myself!"
Valkyrie blinked in surprise at the sudden outburst, "Ninja..."
"Shut up!" She jumped to her feet, eyes gleaming with boiling anger and distain, "all you people care about is your stupid mission and taking down the bad guy! And you're basically a god, so you don't give a damn about any of us little guys! You're all monsters! You're no better than Bax Hench!"
With that, Ninja dived over the fallen log and bolted out of the forest, onto the street.
Valkyrie had been so stumped by the hateful rant, she hadn't noticed the unmarked van driving down the nearby street. She tried to run after Ninja and pull her out of the way, but she hadn't reacted soon enough.
The driver was distracted by something on his phone, clearly not expecting to be facing an obstacle on this stretch of the road. When he spotted Ninja on the street, he glanced up from his phone screen far too late.
Ninja had apparently expected him to stop the car or weave around her, but neither scenario happened. The car simply kept racing directly towards her. She gasped in shock and instinctively launched herself upwards in an attempt to clear the front grill.
Valkyrie cringed at the thumping sounds of a body painfully impacting on metal, as Ninja rolled over the hood of the van. Her shoulder hit and cracked the windshield, then she was flying up and over the roof.
The shock of running someone over caused the driver to push his gas pedal all the way through for a second. He managed to hit the breaks right afterwards, but the disorienting effect of his broken windshield didn't give him much control over the vehicle. And so, instead of stopping at the fork to the main road, or taking a turn, the van simply kept on going.
At the end of the T-shaped crossroads, there was a hill. It was only a small hill, a bump really, but it was tall enough to form a little ramp. The van cleared this ramp and flew up into the air, immediately turning as its wheels lost contact to the ground.
As soon as it landed amidst skinny trees, the van turned over and plummeted, chaotically spinning and loudly crashing, down the hill. It managed to spin quite a few times, before it hit an especially large tree and came to a thundering stop.
Ninja had long hit the asphalt by now, and she was numbly squirming and groaning in pain, but she didn't seem to have been seriously injured.
Valkyrie decided to run after the van. She crossed the few meters that remained to the main road, and made sure not to get hit herself while crossing it. As she ran through the trees beyond, she could already see what was left of the van. It was nothing but a smoking wreckage of steel and glass, lying inside the shrubs, on what used to be its driver's side.
Cursing to herself, Valkyrie waded through the foliage that had helped in stopping the crashing vehicle. Her first goal was to check on the driver, to see if he needed either life support or someone to knock him out.
She reached the passenger's side that was facing up. She glanced down through the broken window and cursed again. The body of the driver was crushed by bent metal, and his head was stuck halfway through a bloody hole in the windshield.
Soon after, Valkyrie heard Ninja's crunching footsteps and hectic breathing, closing in from behind. She craned her neck and spotted Ninja by the trunk of the van, who had immediately gone for the back doors and was currently trying to pull them open.
"Ninja, don't!" Valkyrie called, in an attempt of sparing her the sight.
She tried to fight her way through the shrubs, back to Ninja. Yet once again, she was ignored, as well as too slow.
Eyes already wide in horror and gleaming with tears, Ninja forced the metal doors open. One of them hit her body as it suddenly dislodged and sprang open, but Ninja didn't seem to care, as she was distracted by what she saw immediately afterwards.
Valkyrie reached her, just as her eyes further widened with sheer terror. Her friend had clearly not been buckled in, and during the crash, she'd been tossed around in the back of the van.
Ninja horribly screamed, at the sight of her friend's mangled body. She tried to jump into the van to help.
Knowing that the other young girl was far beyond help, Valkyrie immediately grabbed Ninja by the arms and held her back. As she struggled to remove her from the scene of the crime, Ninja tried to lunge foreward and get to her friend, crying out in despair all the while.
By now, Valkyrie was hectically glancing around for help. The horror and dread were churning in her too, but all of her focus was taken in by Ninja's cries. Where the hell were the others, Valkyrie anxiously wondered? Surely, Carrey's men had heard the car crash and were about to confront them!
As though he had read her mind, Fletcher popped up close by. He didn't even bother walking the couple of meters that seperated them. He simply teleported to a spot right next to Valkyrie and helped her with holding on to Ninja.
A second later, they were standing in the living room of Fletcher's safe house. The others weren't here yet, only Betty was waiting for them on the sofa.
Realizing that she no longer had access to her dead friend, Ninja froze up a little. With her eyes full of tears, she glanced around.
Betty surprisedly got up from the sofa. She worriedly mustered the fresh scrapes and bruises all over Ninja's body, and the shock written all over everyone's faces. "Everything okay?! What happened?!"
Ninja looked at Betty. Then, she looked at Valkyrie. Valkyrie didn't know what to say. She knew what to do, however, when Ninja collapsed into her arms and cried her little heart out.
When the door to her reception hall opened, and Skulduggery and Valkyrie stepped inside, China Sorrows felt a smile overcome her.
Yet, that smile faded quickly, when Diamond Irie and Nuce Evans followed suit.
She quietly watched the four of them approach and stop in front of the security symbols on the ground. Irie and Evans were curiously looking around. Skulduggery and Valkyrie looked ready to lay some ugly truths on her.
As her inner tension rose, China felt the familiar instinct to charm one of them. But she quickly remembered that this was nearly impossible. As far as she could tell, the two women wouldn't fall for her magic. And the two men were immune to it, entirely.
China had been surprised to find Evans resistant to her charms. Young innocent men like him usually were a prime target for her seduction, but he seemed to be entirely oblivious to it. She assumed, this likely had something to do with his True Name being virtually broken.
"I see, you have decided to stick around these two?" China gallantly said to the strangers in her hall. "This must mean, you keep an appetite for adventure?"
Evans agreeably pouted, "sure, I like adventure."
"I suppose, I just prefer to keep busy," Irie ambiguously replied.
"Ah yes," China said with a smile in Valkyrie's and Skulduggery's direction, "busy, they do keep you. This is speaking from an abundance of personal experience I might add."
Valkyrie shrugged. "At least we don't get boring."
"Indeed you don't," she warmly agreed, "which is why I presume, you have some interesting intel to offer me, about your current investigation?"
"We do," Skulduggery spoke up and, with that, finalized the smalltalk. "What's better, we have an informant."
China contentedly leaned back in her chair and folded her hands. "Well, isn't that convenient."
"It is," he agreed, "it's far too convenient. They were essentially placed in our laps."
China grew cautious. "You believe they are a spy?"
"No, we believe they're a setup. Everything we've done, so far, seems to have been a setup. It's all more or less planned by the head of the organisation: one Bax Hench."
"Tell me about him."
"There isn't much to tell, really," Valkyrie admitted, "we've barely just found out his real name."
"Hench has been operating under the alias of, we are presuming, his father," Skulduggery elaborated, "Christopherus Gian; the man also known as The Magical Godfather."
"Quite the title," China commented.
"Yes, however a suiting one, as Gian controlled most of the drug- and human-trafficking rings in Ireland, England, and Eastern Europe. He then passed away without anyone noticing, after which Hench took over the empire. He has been leaving us clues, it's clear that he has plans for us."
"So your next move is to out-wit this Bax Hench?" China naturally guessed.
"No," Skulduggery said, "we cannot."
They all frowned at him in surprise.
The Grand Mage found herself feeling both amused and taken aback. "Are you telling me, you can't out-wit someone?"
"I can out-wit anyone," he retorted, "as long as I have the information needed, in order to predict their actions and beat them at their own game. However, Bax Hench is a man I know absolutely nothing about, except for the fact that everyone is scared witless at the mere mention of his name. He holds all of the cards because he knows our excessively public history, while he is invisible."
"Literally invisible," Valkyrie specified.
"Not quite literally," Skulduggery objected, and she frowned at him in confusion. "I have done some research into the discipline of invisibility. It isn't as straightforward as simply making your body see-through. Hench doesn't change himself, he merely changes your perception of him."
This seemed to peak Irie's interest as well, "which explains why my magic couldn't sense the attackers."
Skulduggery nodded, "or why even I can't see him, or sense his movements in the air."
"So, how does Hench do it?" Irie curiously pressed.
"Hench does not affect the density of his own body, the same as you do. He instead places himself inside blindspots. He doesn't keep you from seeing him, he tricks your consciousness into not perceiving him."
Evans confusedly spoke up, "I'm not sure I get it...? What do you mean, he places himself in blindspots?"
"Well, this explains why I'm not able to see him either, even though a regular Sensitive cannot affect my mind. Albeit the focus of my vision is far superior to the average person's, I also have blindspots. Anytime you focus your attention on something, you stop paying attention to other things. Even for me, it would be impossible to simultaneously keep track of literally everything. Hench places himself - his image, the sounds he makes, the air he displaces - into these blindspots."
"So, he's more like a teleporter or a shunter?" Valkyrie precariously concluded, "how does he stay within the blindspot of several people at the same time?"
"You'll have to think one step further. No matter how observant you are, your mind fills in blanks where it believes there to be blanks. It will automatically draw from memory and experience, in order to make conclusions about its environment and how to interact with it. As your mind accepts that something isn't there, it will continue to assume that it isn't. So Hench is very much standing right in front of you, it's merely impossible for you to pay attention to him."
"And so, as Bax Hench's magic can stump even you, you'll allow him to toy with you?" China asked unimpressively.
His friends beside him seemed similarly confused about the insinuations.
"I said, we're forced to play his game," Skulduggery clarified, "I didn't say, we need to lose it."
She gave him a benevolent sigh. "Why don't you take us all on a direct track to your conclusion?"
Skulduggery ignored the little jab. "For simplicity's sake, let's assume that Hench can plan ahead every single step we take," he elaborated dryly, "then everything we do in contradiction to his apparent plan, might be something that he has planned for us to do. Yet, if we simply went along with it all? We'd be slaves to a mafioso."
"We can't win," Valkyrie argued, "that's basically the same thing as losing."
"Not exactly." His finger rose up to underline his next statement, "not unless! We ignore him!"
Their collective frowns returned.
"We stop thinking about how to play, and we stop playing altogether. We stop giving a damn. We forget about Bax Hench, we forget he ever existed, we consciously decide to stop paying attention to him, and we find a new thing to focus on."
"Which is...?" China pressed.
Skulduggery looked at Valkyrie to his right and Irie to his left.
They both looked pleased with his conclusion.
"The girls," Irie said.
His finger tipped over to point at her. "Can we all agree that focusing on underaged human-trafficking victims is the most morally unambiguous thing to do, in this situation?"
"Aye," Valkyrie said.
"Aye," the rest of them echoed in a scattered choir.
"Wonderful. In this case, I suggest we start by following our informant's wish and liberating Carry's club. We get an undercover agent to buy the keys to the girls, we try to take them peacefully. If that goes wrong... which, knowing us, it will... we still have our fists."
"We cannot hide them here or take them back to their hometowns," China objected. "They are prime witnesses, they will be hunted anywhere they go."
"Would the United States be far away enough?" Valkyrie suggested, "Those guys have a major saviour complex. I bet they would give them asylum."
"Though we don't know yet, how far this organisation's reach goes..." Skulduggery partially agreed, "it's worth a try."
"I will talk to Wayward," China decided. "If I can sell this as an international sting operation, it will go over much smoother."
"Maybe, if we can get our hands on Carry," he rumored, "I have a feeling that she'll sing like a canary, given the right opportunity."
"Unless she has a remote-controlled implant, same as Perock," Irie raised.
He tilted his skull down at her. "Well, then I'll just have to be quicker than whoever is holding the remote."
She looked unconvinced. "I guess we'll see about that."
"I guess you will," he smoothly philandered.
Irie faintly smiled. As she returned her attention to the Grand Mage, she found ice-cold eyes; watching her. Irie faintly frowned.
"Was there anything else you were going to request?" China unamusedly asked.
"There is indeed," Skulduggery answered and retrieved her attention. "I believe you have an asset that might be instrumental to this operation. The word in town is, they only take cases on your explicit order."
"The Code?" She impatiently demanded.
"Code-Nobody."
Irie and Evans looked at him in surprise. Valkyrie looked confused.
China raised a brow. "And how would you know of Code-Nobody?"
"My dear..." Skulduggery scoldingly tilted his skull at her. "I'm me."
Irie relaxed her facial expression and her partner followed suit.
China was busy hiding a smile. "What did you require their services for?"
"They have a fitting approach and the right contacts. The-one-we're-ignoring is in possession of the keys, so we need someone unrecognizable and untraceable to get inside, make a deal, and bring them to us. Once we have the keys, we can rescue the girls from the club, teleport them to a remote location, disable the implants, and then take them somewhere safe from there."
"If anyone ties us to the keys, the whole mission is a bust," Valkyrie said as she caught up with his point, "we already risked blowing our cover once."
"And lest we forget Geoffrey Perock!" Skulduggery ironically commiserated.
China was pleased with their logic. Regardless, she shook her head. "Code-Nobody is on their scheduled leave of absence. I doubt they'll be interested in work."
"They might change their mind," Skulduggery said, "if they know who is involved."
Suddenly, Evans looked angry. He opened his mouth as if to protest.
Irie shot him a glance, and he glowered but immediately shut his mouth to a thin line.
"I shall ask nicely," China gave in. "Will that be all then?"
Skulduggery nodded.
"Valkyrie, dear?"
Valkyrie stood a bit straighter. "Yes?"
"Would you please show your new friends the way out? There is something Skulduggery and I need to discuss in private."
The three of them exchanged glances, but they moved to clear out the room. China waited until Valkyrie had taken them away.
All the while she critically mustered Skulduggery, as he stood before her, dressed in several layers of black. The heavy door fell shut, and its metallic sounds echoed through their silence.
"Grand Mage Penn attempted to put a Sanction on you, mere days ago. Were you aware of this?"
Skulduggery didn't seem to be aware. "Is that why you tried to call me in? What's his problem, this time?"
"His problem, Prime Detective, is whatever mysterious trips you have been taking across his English border." She gestured towards the closed door behind him. "I presume, this has to do with your new... Lady-friend? British collaborator? What should we call her?"
"How about Miss Irie?" He coolly suggested. "And what concern is it to you or Sway Penn?"
"Everything, you do, is our concern, Skulduggery Pleasant." She unimpressively retorted. "I am Grand Mage. And you are both a demi-alive agent of my Sanctuary, as well as a full-fledged risk potential. Furthermore, the people you surround yourself with, often turn out to be quite similar."
His skull inclined with a hint of aggression.
China disregarded it. "As long as your bones walk, someone will be watching them, my dear," she facetiously smiled. "Therefore. Why don't you help me, help you, stay ahead? Spare us all the hassle, including Miss Irie? Because if I don't have a reason to come up with a lie to sell to Sway Penn, he might decide to ban you from English soil, altogether."
Skulduggery was quiet for a moment as he calculated his response. When he spoke, his voice was neutral again. "All you need to know is that she's on our side."
"Why is she?" China patronized and leaned closer forward. "Dexter Vex was the one that initially mentored her, wasn't he? They've been friends for decades! What sort of relationship could you, possibly, be fostering with her... On the basis of Lord Vile war secrets?"
Skulduggery hesitated for another moment. She wondered if he was making his reply out to be more honest, or more calculated.
"Diamond has experience working with Necromancy," he decided to tell her. "She offers an alternate perspective."
China raised a sarcastic brow, "and she's doing what, with all that perspective...?"
When Skulduggery decided to lay down his next truth on her, his voice was no longer hesitant. Instead he spoke on clearly, and decisively.
"Diamond is helping me deal with the chronic side-effects of the Surge Trapper."
All sense of mockery immediately faded from China's demeaner. She sat a little straighter. Took a beat before replying.
"Chronic side-effects?" She then echoed. "You haven't told me about any long-term repercussions."
"Nor am I required to," Skulduggery factually retorted. "Our agreement states that I'm to keep you informed about my risk potential, as you call it, not my overall state of well-being."
The mention of their agreement almost shocked her, had it not even crossed her mind until now. It was an official but benign piece of contract, created only to satisfy the bottomless hunger of bureaucracy and political securities. Nothing less could she have done, having to clean up slaughter after slaughter in his wake.
Following its rules was the very bare minimum of what she had expected, when it came to disclosure. This had little to do with politics, and everything with the centuries they had known each other.
Especially, in comparison to this strange woman he had just met!
"That doesn't give you the right to falsefy your reports to me," China scoffed.
"I didn't."
"Didn't you?" She challenged, "and yet, I was under the impression that your trip to Alaska had resolved these effects."
"I said, I have it under control. That doesn't mean it's resolved."
China verified this with her memory of the conversation, and decided to swallow his overall dismissal for now. Swallowing the underlying meaning of his admission, however, turned out to be significantly more challenging.
"Should I expect an update on your risk assessment, anytime soon?" She cuttingly asked him.
"Eventually."
China tried her hardest to ignore the tightness in her stomach.
"Does Miss Irie know about what Dìlis Ferrum did to you, five years ago? Does she know that you have McMan in your possession?"
"What does it matter to you?"
China found, she did not have an answer. Not one, at least, that required words she felt able to speak aloud.
"Are these border crossings going to be an issue, going forward?" Skulduggery impatiently alluded, when silence followed.
"No," China said, "they will not."
"Very well. Does that mean I can go and dismantle the Mob now, Grand Mage?"
"You may."
Skulduggery left. She watched him leave.
As they waited for Skulduggery to finish his one-on-one meeting with Sorrows, Nuce silently seethed.
Clearly, the women could tell that he wasn't happy. They payed no attention to it however, and started a conversation about the upcoming sting operation.
Nuce didn't listen. He stood with his arms crossed and a grim pout on his face, and waited. Nuce had never been very good at hiding it when he was angry, so he had given up on trying years ago.
All three of them jumped, when the door abruptly opened and Skulduggery strode out of the reception hall. He walked past them without a word, and it was quite obvious that he wasn't in the best of moods either.
Valkyrie frowned as she quickly caught up with him, and Nuce and Diamond followed behind.
"What happened?" Valkyrie asked him.
"It doesn't matter," Skulduggery grimly retorted.
She meaningfully looked him up and down, as they speed-walked through the hallway. Everyone that encountered them quickly stood aside and got out of the way, as Skulduggery headed towards them like a boney bulldozer.
"It obviously does matter," Valkyrie objected. "What did China say to you?"
"Fine, it matters," Skulduggery agreed, but obviously as a tactic to cut short the discussion, "but it doesn't matter right now. We have a plan, let's focus on the plan."
"Yeah," Nuce sourly murmured to himself, "great plan..."
Nuce thought he had spoken quietly enough, but Skulduggery seemed to have heard him loud and clear. His skull sharply turned his direction. "Is there something you would like to say to me, Nuce?"
"Yeah, actually!" Nuce snidely retorted.
He saw both women cringe at the developing argument, but he didn't care. He had planned on keeping his mouth shut and seething in silence. Yet Skulduggery seemed to be in the mood for a fight, and if a fight was what he wanted, Nuce was all too happy to oblige.
"There's tons of things I'd like to say to you," he spat, "I just don't think your giant ego could handle it!"
"By all means, get it off your chest!" Skulduggery sarkastically proclaimed, hands flailing as he strode on. "I'll try my hardest not to cry, so please, don't hold back on my accord!"
"Don't act dumb, Mister Super-Genius, you know exactly what I'm upset about!"
Skulduggery sharply stopped walking and turned to face him directly. The two women also stopped, and uncomfortably glanced back and forth between the two men. Diamond looked uneasy.
Valkyrie looked confused. She leaned towards Diamond and quietly asked something along the lines of, "am I the only one that doesn't have a clue what's going on?"
Valkyrie was indeed the only one that didn't have a clue, but none of them felt like explaining it to her.
"Yes, Nuce, I get it! You're upset that I'm calling Nobody to work, while they're on medical leave," Skulduggery angrily retorted instead. "You're upset that I didn't consult you beforehand. It's dangerous and probably extremely unhealthy for them, you'll probably be the one to pick up the pieces later, and in summary; I'm a terrible person! Are you happy now?"
At this point, Nuce was more than seething; he was ready to explode. Yet he forced himself to form a cohesive reply. "So, If you know all that...? Why the hell are you doing it?!"
"Because that's what they TOLD ME TO DO!" Skulduggery snapped.
Nuce faltered. Suddenly, a lot of the heat drained from his head. "What?"
Skulduggery irritably growled but explained further, "because Nobody is a grown adult that can make their own decisions. And you aren't assigned to protect them; they are assigned to protect YOU! And I hate to tell you this, but ever since your true name became public, Nobody, Diamond, myself, and thus by extension, Valkyrie, have ALL been tasked with protecting you, and by any means necessary. I shouldn't even be taking you along to any of these missions! Therefore, Nobody has instructed me to call them in, should you be involved in something dangerous, such as... Oh, I don't know, an international sting operation?!"
Nuce stared at him with wide eyes, stunned speechless.
"Alright," Diamond said. She took a step forward and stood in between the men. She didn't look especially pleased with either of them, but she remained calm out of sheer principle. "I believe everyone has made their point now? Valkyrie, how about you two go right ahead. We'll meet you outside in a minute."
Valkyrie nodded, clutched Skulduggery's arm, and pulled him away.
Diamond remained behind with Nuce. Once the other two had walked a good distance ahead and soon disappeared behind a corner, they set themselves into motion again.
Nuce expected his older partner to give him one of her famous scoldings, or to tell him that his best friend was going to be okay. Yet Diamond did neither of those things. She simply took his hand, and they walked in silence for a while.