"Erick," Major General Stein said behind him.

Special Agent Erick Passato looked up from the file that he was currently focused on. He turned his head in the direction of where the voice had come from. He found his boss standing in the door that seperated the large co-working space from his personal office.

"A quick word?" Stein requested.

Passato stood up straight and waved away the agent he had just been talking to. The agent grabbed the file and quickly moved on to other important tasks.

Once the distraction was taken care of, he walked up to Stein. "Yes Sir, what's up."

The General moved into his office but he kept a hand on the ajar door. Passato took that as a cue to move in closer and keep his voice down.

"I just received word from the sanctuary," Stein told him. "Someone is trying to hack into their digital mainframe."

Passato raised a brow at him. "Do we know what they're after?"

He soberly shook his head. "It appears, they aren't after anything. They are trying to upload something."

"Upload what, a virus?"

"Unclear," Stein said, "in either case, we need to know what their aim is."

He nodded affirmatively. Stein retreated into his office and shut the door.

"Everybody listen up!" Passato called to the assembled agents in the shared office.

They all looked up from their screens and files and conversations, and expectantly turned around to him. He was pleased to see that both Salient Clutch and Ulysses Denman were present and were giving him their full attention.

"The Sanctuary is currently experiencing a hacker attack!" Passato announced. He ignored the glances and murmurs, which went through the room in response. "From now on, we are on high alert! Tech team, I want you to watch our own mainframe like hawks! And figure out what they're doing over there!"

"Yes, Sir!" the head agent of the tech department confirmed. She ran off to talk to her team, which was working at a different designated office space down the hall.

"Everyone else; make yourselves useful! Contact your informants, review your most recent cases, do whatever you can to figure out who is doing this, and why! Go!"

Immediately, the room full of agents kicked into full gear. They jumped into chairs to use their computers or open up files, began conversations with each other, or talked to someone on the phone.

Meanwhile, Clutch and Denman approached Passato directly. "What about us?" Salient asked.

"You're staying with me," Erick decidedly told them. "Whatever this is, we might need your crews."

Ulysses' dark rumbling voice clearly droned over the sharp buzz of chattering agents. "How worried should we be about this?"

"Quite worried, presumably."

"Agent Passato!" a hectical voice called from beside them.

They turned and recognized the lead agent of the tech department. They didn't know her actual name, as she preferred to exclusively stick to her codename.

Neith was a young, thin woman with short brown hair, and dark eyes that usually carried a stern look of reserved confidence. Now, those stern eyes very suddenly had gone to looking extremely stressed.

"The hackers have succeeded," she informed them, to everybody's audible dismay. "They have access to the screens and every single cellphone in the sanctuary building."

"What are they doing?" Passato asked.

Neith quickly went to the closest computer in her vicinity. The agent who was assigned to that desk jumped up and gave her his chair. She plopped onto the chair, quickly logged into her own account, and fiddled around with some settings.

"They're playing a live video-feed, on every screen at the Sanctuary," she meanwhile explained.

"Agent Passato, we've got word from the Irish, the Romanians, and the Americans!" another agent called from somewhere in the room, "they're under attack too!"

"Oh super," Salient dryly commented, "global chaos..."

"Neith?" Erick impatiently demanded.

"Sorry Sir, I just need to quickly connect to..." Neith mumbled in thought, as she worked with record speed on something on the computer screen. "Got it!"

Neith looked up from the monitor and at a much larger screen, which was mounted to a wall nearby. They often used it for presentations or to show video and photo evidence during office meetings.

Everyone assembled dropped whatever they were currently doing, and turned to focus on the screen.

It was showing a woman with nearly auburn hair, who was tied up to a chair. Albeit naturally pale, her skin looked unusually ashen with pain. Contrarily, the unbothered expression on her face could almost deceive the audience that there was nothing wrong with this image.

Salient gasped in shock, and even Ulysses grunted with surprise. A rush of confused or equally shocked murmurs went through the office.

Erick froze and, eyes wide with disbelief, stared at the image of his former partner.

"Diamond," he whispered.

For a couple of seconds, there was dead silence in the room. Each patient, visitor, and doctor in the waiting area of the medical bay was staring at one screen or another. Everyone looked either surprised, stunned, or confused.

They all stared at Diamond, who was doing a great job of looking calm and collected. This was despite the visible fact that someone had recently pulled out her fingernails. Judging by Diamonds pale and sweaty state, she had been tortured for a while before being tied to the chair. And yet, her smile was gentle and unwavering as always. Someone had even done up her hair a little, in order to make her look less dishevelled.

Diamond's chair was made of wood with crude back and arm rests. Although the feet weren't visible, Valkyrie imagined that it was bolted to the floor. Next to it, a different chair of a similar size was sitting empty.

In contrast to the crowd around her, Valkyrie wasn't confused. She was utterly horrified. She felt her stomach tighten to a ball of steel, and her mind locked up for a breathless second. She couldn't tear her eyes away from Diamond's bloodless face, or the hollow smile stretched across it. Then, Skulduggery's stillness yanked her back into focus. Someone had to take charge.

She swallowed hard and scanned the room. Skulduggery was frozen stiff, his gaze pinned to the video feed on his phone screen. A glance at Tanith revealed that she was doing something quite similar. Most people in the room were watching, but some onlookers began mumbling amongst each other as they tried to figure out what was happening.

Finally, Valkyrie's gaze caught on Ninja beside her; wide-eyed and seconds from panic. Her stomach twisted again for an entirely different reason. Valkyrie tried to collect herself and act quickly. She had a feeling that - in just a moment - the very man who had bought, sold and enslaved Ninja and her friends would step into frame.

"Reverie, get the kids out of here. Now."

She hated how cold she sounded, but there was no time for softness. Ninja was staring at the screen, trembling, the horror reflected in her tear-filled eyes. Valkyrie wanted to take her hand, tell her it was going to be okay, but she didn't. Because it wasn't.

Synecdoche quickly clued in and announced to everyone, "underaged patients, parents with young children! If you would please follow me to a safe area!" She took Ninja by the arm and tried to pull her away.

Yet, as Ninja realized that this prompt applied to her too, she immediately began to fight her on it. "No!" she protested and tried to free herself from Reverie's grip, "no, I wanna stay! You can't make me!"

Valkyrie didn't flinch. She couldn't afford to. But her chest tightened painfully as she turned away, pushing the guilt deep down where it wouldn't slow her down.

The father of a much younger girl moved in to help the Doctor with containing Ninja. They managed to drag her away and, along with all the other children in the medical bay, disappeared inside a large examination room. They could still hear Ninja yell and cry through the door for quite a while.

No one remained focused on her plight for very long, however. Bax Hench had just walked into frame.

He was tall, strong, and attractive, and he greeted his audience with a charming smirk. And yet, Valkyrie felt nothing but hatred and disgust, as she first laid eyes on him. The face of every girl she had seen suffer - or dead - at his hands, appeared before her inner eye. She wished she could punch him through the tv screen. Alas, she could not. And so, she was condemned to helplessly watching, just as Skulduggery was.

"Welcome everyone, to the Bax Hench Show!" Hench announced as he stood next to Diamond. He smiled down at her. "And of course, please welcome our special guest. The elusive, the brilliant, the beautiful... Diamond Irie!"

Diamond twisted her neck, in order to smile up at him in return. "Wow, what an introduction, I almost feel flattered."

Hench sat down on the empty chair next to Diamond's. His chair looked much more comfortable, and naturally he wasn't tied to it. To add insult to injury, his chair wasn't bolted to the floor like hers, and it even had rollers that allowed him to freely move around as he spoke.

Now that they were sitting next to each other like this, surrounded by an empty tv set and fake soulless studio furniture, Valkyrie felt like she was watching a morbid talkshow of sorts.

"Hello there, Diamond," Hench greeted her directly with a teasing smirk, "or should I say, Dianne?"

"Hello there, Bax," she shot back, "or should I say, Bradley?"

Hench seemed amused by this. He walked over to the second chair, sat down, and comfortably crossed over a leg. "So, let's get right to it, shall we? You and your friends have been wreaking tons of havoc inside my organization lately. You've been, to say it mildly, a major pain in my butt."

She agreeably nodded. "So, you thought you'd wreak some more havoc in your own organization, by showing your face to the public?"

This response also seemed to humor Hench. "Well, I thought that's only fair!" He leaned in closer and inquisitively propped his elbows onto his knees. "All those government resources, all the loyalty and confidentiality that have gone into keeping your existence a secret for years...? All of that is about to go to waste, isn't it?"

"An eye for an eye?" Diamond bemusedly followed.

"Exactly. Or in this case; a face for a face."

Hench briefly turned to the camera and seemed to look directly at the audience. Valkyrie felt a sudden pang of dread, when this created the illusion of locking eyes with him.

"The magical world gets to put a face on their favorite enemy number one...?" He reached out, took a hold of Diamond's chin, and forced her to look at the camera as well. "And they get to put a face to... The only Shapeshifter in recorded history."

A choir of curious mutters went through the crowd at the medical bay. Meanwhile, Valkyrie was getting seriously pissed off by this. A look at Skulduggery told her that, naturally, he felt quite similar.

In response to this reveal, Diamond rolled her eyes. The exasperated expression that flickered across her face was so intimately familiar to Erick, his heart skipped a beat.

He had always loved to poke at that part of her. To break through her porcelain mask of professional neutrality and polite smiles, and to bring out a piece of raw emotion. Usually, that piece turned out to be annoyance, but even after annoying her every day for fifteen years, Erick had never grown tired of it.

"Seriously?" Clutch angrily scoffed at the well-kept secret that Hench had just revealed to the public. "What is this guy's problem?!"

No one felt the need to inform him that they didn't know the answer to that either. They were focused on seeing where Hench was going with his show.

Hench was just letting go of Diamond's chin. He glanced at the camera again, as if someone in the audience had asked an interesting question. "What's that?" he echoed the unspoken commentary, "Shapeshifter, he said? But we all thought, those don't exist!" Hench expectantly looked at Diamond.

"Apparently, I do," she unimpressively retorted.

"You must be as rare as living skeletons!" Hench humorously proclaimed, "I'm sure some of the audience members are now wondering; should we be taking your name literally, Diamond?"

She continued to be neither flattered nor humored by his line of questions. "You may."

"That must look mesmerizing," he complimented. "Are you going to give us a demonstration?"

Diamond gave a polite smile that just about verged on a sneer. "If you ask nicely."

A subtle wave of cheeky chuckles went through the crowd of watching agents. Passato could only agree; as usual Diamond was keeping her composure perfectly, despite the immense amount of pain she was surely in. Yet, he wasn't worried about her allowing for Hench to humiliate her any more than he already was. He was much more worried about what else Hench had in store for her, other than humiliation.

Ulysses voice pulled him from his thoughts. "Erick," he quietly reminded him, "your orders?"

He tore his eyes off the screen and noticed the entire office full of MI6 agents, expectantly staring at him in anticipation of what he would do.

Passato forced himself to come to his senses. He cleared his throat before turning to Clutch. Their youngest core member looked rather pale with concern by now.

"Did you tell Neith to put that tracker on Diamond's phone?"

Salient quickly nodded. "Yeah, umm..." He looked at their head of tech. "Neith, that phone number I gave you about a year ago, is that still active?"

She nodded and immediately began to scour the computer for the information. "Yessir, it was the last time I checked, but..." Unfortunately, as she opened the correct program and file, Neith sagged like she had bad news. "But we lost contact to it, a couple of hours ago."

"Where did it ping the satellite last?" Passato asked.

"Somewhere in downtown Roarhaven, near the Irish Sanctuary."

"Do we have a portal exit near there?"

She sounded more positive at her next response. "Yes we do! I'll get it set up."

Passato nodded off the information and didn't ask any more questions for now. As Neith continued working, everyone else returned their full attention to Diamond and Hench on the screen.

"I, myself, am much more curious about this:" Hench challenged, "for someone who has put so much work into staying anonymous... You haven't been shy to make some enemies in high places, over the course of this past year."

Diamond vaguely shrugged, as much as the ties on her wrists would allow her to. "In my line of work, it's hard not to make an enemy or two."

Hench agreeably nodded, "oh yes, I'm sure. In your line of work, in your private life..." He meaningfully raised a brow at her.

There now was a reaction in her eyes, an uncertain flickering, as Diamond seemed to realize what he was going to say next. Passato had no idea what he would say, but he couldn't lie that he was curious to hear it.

Diamond's uneasy look seemed to incentivize Hench to gleefully conclude his point. "You must have tons of experience, dealing with enemies...? Considering that you're Skulduggery Pleasant's girlfriend."

Erick felt like someone had gut-punched him in the gall bladder, as tons of bile abruptly flooded his mouth. His entire body seemed to have some sort of adverse reaction. It took him a notable amount of willpower to swallow it.

Meanwhile, Clutch and Denman exchanged a look of surprise. Then, along with many other seasoned agents in the room, they turned to see Passato's reaction.

And all he could say was; "what the actual fuck?"

Each and every head in the medical bay turned, and every single pair of eyes attached itself to Skulduggery. Soon after, a quiet choir of secretive whispers and murmurs filled the room, as people immediately started gossiping.

Valkyrie was staring at Skulduggery too, but not with shock or scandal, but with aching concern. She cursed under her breath. Hench wasn't just killing Diamond; he was turning her into bait. She could see it clearly, the whole trap laid out like a roadmap in front of her, and still, they had no choice but to fall for it. Every enemy Skulduggery had ever made would be lining up now. Hench didn't have to pull the trigger. He just needed to light the match and walk away.

Valkyrie's hands balled into fists. This wasn't just about Diamond anymore. This was about the domino effect this would have, the chaos that would follow. She glanced at Skulduggery, still frozen, still locked in place. Her chest ached.

She knew that Tanith had just realized the same thing when she heard her quietly gasp in horror.

Despite the abundant attention on him, Skulduggery didn't react to any of the scandalous stares and murmurs. Instead, he put his phone away and slowly walked up to the largest tv screen nearby. He inched his skull closer, like he was searching for something specific. Everyone watched him, as he silently stared up at Diamond's image.

Meanwhile, the Bax Hench Show continued. As Diamond had apparently been prepared for the second grand reveal, she barely reacted to it.

"I suppose so," she merely replied.

"Or is 'girlfriend' not the appropriate word? What shall we call you?" Hench inquired further with obvious intrigue. "What are you to the Great Skeleton Detective, next to Valkyrie Cain? His lover? His confidant? His accomplice in life, and death?"

Diamond thinly smiled. "Call me whatever you like."

"Okay..." he agreeably nodded, "in that case, I think I'll be calling you Lady Die, from now on. I believe that's fitting, don't you?"

Diamond looked almost unsettled by receiving a nickname from him. "Yeah, no... Anything, except for that."

Hench pretended to be disappointed as he pouted at her. "Aww... Could you be any more anticlimactic? What's the point of revealing a big secret, if the big reveal isn't satisfying for the masses?"

"I can see how these nuances might go over your head, Bax," she unimpressively retorted, "but there's a long way, between keeping something a secret and blasting it out to the public."

"Right, and why would you want that information to be public?" Hench cheerfully agreed. "What would everyone say, about the secret gem of the British Sanctuary? Plus, now, you have so many more enemies to worry about!"

"Do you see her fingers?" Skulduggery quietly asked. He was holding his skull at an odd angle. His gaze wasn't directed at Diamond's face, but at something in the lower half of the screen.

"Umm, yeah..." Tanith uneasily confirmed, "they pulled out her nails."

Skulduggery shook his head. That wasn't what he meant. "No... I thought I saw..." His voice thoughtfully faded out.

Albeit she kept an eye out for suspicious movement, Valkyrie's attention immediately returned to the interaction on the screen.

"Speaking of enemies," Diamond was just asking, "what's the point of all this, anyway? Do you want to kill me? Or do you just want revenge?"

"Oh, you haven't realized?" Hench curiously asked. "This video is playing on every screen, inside the Sanctuaries of four countries!"

Diamond seemed to have assumed something along those lines. "So?"

"There!" Skulduggery suddenly called out.

His hand shot up to point at Diamond's right index finger. And indeed, Valkyrie could now see movement. The finger was twitching against the armrest, but not like it was responding to a reflex, but in an intentional rhythmic manner.

"Is she..." Tanith realized, "is that Morse code?"

"It is indeed," Skulduggery said, his voice suddenly laden with something between a gleeful sneer and a proud smirk. "She is telling us where she is."

Diamond had bought herself some time with her last question. While the exchange between the people in the medical bay unfolded, Hench had gone on to elaborate on his plan. As he talked, Diamond's finger kept subtly moving, spelling out her message with shorter and longer taps.

"So," Hench replied, "not only have I proven that the Sanctuaries are incapable of protecting themselves from any type of attack, cybernetic or otherwise...? I will now also demonstrate to the world, how to attack you. That should keep you two lovebirds busy enough to stay out of my way for a while, I gather?"

The way Diamond smiled and nodded, it almost looked as though she approved of his idea. "You'll be plenty busy too, when your enemies come after you."

"Where are those directions leading?" Tanith asked, "where are they keeping her?"

"We'll see..." Skulduggery murmured absentmindedly, "I don't know where they've started the journey yet..."

"Okay, Tanith?" Valkyrie asked, "go talk to Ninja and Reverie, and figure out where exactly that café is."

Tanith dutifully nodded and ran off, towards the patient room where the children were being kept safe from the very real horrors displayed on the tv screen. She had to push her way past a couple of curious onlookers, who were too distracted by the show to notice themselves standing in the way.

"I'll keep track of what's happening," Valkyrie then told Skulduggery. "You focus on memorizing Dye's directions."

Skulduggery curtly nodded, and they grew quiet to focus on their respective tasks. Contrarily, they tried not to focus on the rather large audience that had gathered by now, of people who were watching seemingly for the entertainment value. At least, the crowd was considerate enough to shut up and let them work.

"Ah, yes, but there's just one little difference!" Hench unconcernedly continued in the meantime. "Right now, your magic gives you the ability to become indestructible, and I have the ability to become invisible. After I'm done with my demonstration, I remain invisible. But you will no longer be indestructible."

Diamond looked at him and, for the first time since she had appeared on the screen unannounced, she didn't seem to have a good comeback.

"It's a win-win, you see?" Hench continued teasing. "I win, and I win again."

"What a prick..." Clutch distastefully commented.

"Shh," Passato hissed. He didn't necessarily disagree with the statement, but he had bigger priorities than insults.

"We have to cut the damn feed!" Clutch protested, slamming his fist against the desk. "Hijack the signal, block him - do something!"

Neith looked up from her frantic typing, eyes wide. "I can't. He's locked us out of the Sanctuary's systems."

"Then trace the signal!" Clutch snapped, voice sharp with frustration. "Or at least scramble the audio! He's broadcasting this like a damn tv special!"

Passato, still focused on the screen, didn't even turn. "And risk him killing her right now? Think, Clutch."

Salient faltered, but his breathing remained ragged. Then Denman spoke, calm but firm.

"She's buying time," Ulysses observed, pointing at Diamond's hand. "Look at her finger."

That was when Passato finally noticed the twitching movements against the armrest. He found a winning smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "Morse code. That'a girl," he quietly praised. Then he loudly commanded, "Neith! Get a decoding program on that; I want to know exactly what she's saying!"

"Already on it, Sir!" Neith answered.

Of course, Bax Hench didn't pause his show for them to have a strategic moment. As they talked, his interview with Diamond continued.

"You see, Ladies and Gentlemen," Hench said, again speaking directly to the camera, "if it weren't for me...? Miss Irie, Mister Pleasant, and their Sanctuaries would have tried to sell you a lie. The lie that, because Diamond Irie can literally turn into a statue of diamond, there is no way to harm her." He turned back to Diamond. "Would you like to have the honor, of telling our audience the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, Lady Die?"

Diamond didn't look especially interested. She put on a polite smile instead. "I wouldn't dare to steal your spotlight, Bax."

"Oh, not at all." Hench humbly waved it away. "Please, go on! I wouldn't dare to speak for you."

The agents watched Diamond's finger continue to type out her Morse signals, until her attention became occupied with the nightmarish talkshow she was trapped in. Her finger halted when she focused on making a decision about what to say next.

During the brief moment of silence, Ulysses shared his most recent analysis with them. "She's providing directions to her location."

Passato nodded in agreement. "Neith, translate Diamond's directions to a map and start the journey wherever we lost contact to her phone. Give me the most probable destination and check where the closest portal exit is."

"Yessir!"

On the screen, Diamond was rolling her eyes again. Mostly, she seemed to decide to continue complying. The more she indulged Hench's antics, the more time she had to send her coded message to those watching. She didn't give Hench the satisfaction, however, of directly addressing the audience like he did.

"The only thing that can break through my diamond form," she factually explained in his direction, "is something else made of diamond."

"For example, a diamond bullet?" Hench guessed.

"For example."

"How about a diamond drill?"

She skeptically raised a brow at him. "Sure...?"

"Perfect!" He energetically stood up and walked off stage.

Just a moment later, Hench returned and stood by Diamond's side. He was holding a drill.

Skulduggery briefly took his gaze off the screen, long enough to exchange a horrified glance with Valkyrie.

The mood in the room abruptly shifted. Any scandal and glee that had remained from the recent revelations faded away. And their audience seemed to realize that they were in for more entertainment than they had bargained for.

Tanith came back from her quest of finding out where Diamond had been abducted. "It's called Café Soleil. It's like five minutes away, just as Ninja..."

She paused as she noticed the shock on everyone's faces, especially on Valkyrie's. Tanith looked at the screen, spotted the diamond drill in Hench's hands, and froze with similar horror.

"What," she whimpered, "what is he doing?"

Everyone remained silent, in order to let Hench explain it.

As though he could feel the attention of his audience, Hench shot a cheeky smirk in the direction of the camera. Then he turned his attention back to Diamond, although he didn't sit down again. Now that he was standing above her, the constraints on her hands became much more noticable.

"So, if I were to put some holes in, let's say... the major arteries in your arms...?" Hench casually suggested. "What should we expect to happen?"

Diamond clearly had a much harder time now, maintaining her calm and somewhat aloof demeanor. Her eyes kept flickering to the drill as it inactively hovered close to her head.

But still, she forced herself to continue answering with a steady voice. "If my arms are shapeshifted? At first, you would do just that. You'd make some pretty holes."

Valkyrie felt her gut twist and her shoulders rise higher, as the images already played out inside her mind even before they unfolded on the screen.

"And for how long could you keep your arms shapeshifted?" Hench curiously asked on, still as casual as if he were just interviewing a talkshow guest.

"If I don't want them to rot off...?" Diamond replied with similar casualness, "fifteen minutes, maybe? Twenty, if I'm lucky?"

"And then, my guess is... You'll bleed to death?"

She agreeably nodded. "Oh yes, rather quickly in fact."

Hench meaningfully raised an eyebrow at the camera. "You heard it here first, folks." He smirked at Diamond. "Well then, Lady Die. Let's give our audience something worth remembering, shall we?"

She shot him a facetious smile. "Let's."

Hench demonstrably activated the drill. He let it wind up a couple of times, like a car motor right before a race. Diamond barely blinked, but the tense line of her jaw betrayed her awareness of the sound.

Hench reached out for one of Diamond's wrists. "If you wouldn't mind?" he gallantly requested.

"How would you like it? Up to my elbow?"

"Excellent suggestion."

Diamond did as she was told. She shapeshifted the lower half of both of her arms. Her finger stopped tapping in code and grew stiff and immobile. Her crystal skin glittered intensely underneath the stage lights pointed at her from all directions.

A couple of people in the audience gave a wondrous pant at the pretty sight. Having gotten used to it by now, Valkyrie only felt herself tense up more in anticipation.

"Thank you," Hench nodded and set the diamond drill down on her crystalized arm.

The immobilized arteries of her wrist were hidden away, as her arm was attached to the chair with the palms of her hands facing downwards. Thus, he placed the drill bit about on level with them, on the back of her lower arm.

As though she realized that she couldn't avoid her fate, Diamond seemed to grow calmer again. There was a hint of challenge in her eyes, as she gave Hench more useful instructions. "Go at a bit of an angle," she advised him, "you'll cover more surface area that way."

Hench smirked and gladly accepted her suggestion. He angled the electric tool a little. Then, he started drilling.

The drill wound up to maximum speed with a screeching whine, high-pitched and grating. The sound eerily reverberated from the various speakers in the medical bay, bouncing off sterile walls and making several people flinch instinctively.

Valkyrie's face contorted further and further with unease, dread and disgust, as she forced herself to watch.

The moment the diamond drill bit dug in, a sharp screech tore through the room. The drill bucked against the resistance, its high-pitched whine deepening into a jagged grinding noise as Hench pressed harder. The drill bit slowly worked its way into Diamond's shapeshifted arm. Bits of crystal split off, some landed on Diamond's clothes, and sparkling particle dust rose from the developing hole.

Meanwhile, Diamond's face showed the first signs of sincere discomfort. She was biting the inside of her cheek to keep from making a sound. It was clear that being drilled into wasn't a pleasant experience to say the least, but it didn't seem to be nearly as painful as it should have been.

Hench kept drilling with steady hands, until he had cut a narrow channel all the way through Diamond's arm. The drill bit made a dull cracking sound, as it sunk into the wood of her arm rest.

"You've hit the chair," Diamond said. Her tone was dry and even, but there was a tightness there now, a fraying at the edges.

Hench chuckled, amused. He activated the drill long enough to pull the bit out of the chair and the inside of her arm. More dust scattered into the air, floating in the stage lights like deadly glitter.

Valkyrie barely registered the murmur of the crowd anymore. Her focus was locked on the tiny details; the pink flush beneath Diamond's sweat, the slow drag of air through her nose as she tried not to react.

Hench curiously inspected the hole. Despite how visible it was, there was not a hint of blood or gore to be seen anywhere. He checked the expression on her face.

"That doesn't really hurt you, does it," Hench remarked.

Diamond shrugged with a simper that was thin as it was meaningful. "Not quite yet."

Hench interestingly nodded and focused his attention on Diamond's other arm. He did the same as before and, this time around, Valkyrie spared herself the sight. She locked eyes with Tanith in order to avert her gaze, and the women pulled pained grimaces at each other as they tried to blank out the horrible noise.

A couple of other people were looking away too, some even left the room. Someone muttered, "this is sick..." Meanwhile, Skulduggery didn't move an inch and kept on watching.

When Hench was done with impaling Diamond's arms like he was designing an obstruse necklace, he put the drill aside on his empty chair. He expectantly looked at her. "That should about do it?"

Diamond inspected the holes as well and approvingly nodded. "Just about."

"Alright, well... Now is your chance to say something to your boyfriend," Hench announced as though it was a generous offer. "Is there anything you need to tell him, before we wrap this up?"

For the first time, Diamond looked into the camera. She appeared to consider the option for a second, but then she sincerely smiled. And it seemed, she was smiling directly at Skulduggery.

Skulduggery gently tilted his skull at her in response. For a moment, Valkyrie felt as though they could see each other through the lens of the camera.

Then, Diamond looked back up at Hench. "No," she certainly replied.

Hench looked almost impressed as his brows rose with a hint of surprise. "Very well." He glanced at someone behind the camera who the audience couldn't see.

The camera was moved, and Diamond left the frame. Hench stepped up closer, until the video feed was showing a close-up of his face.

"Skulduggery Pleasant," he said into the camera, "I now speak directly to you."

This incentivized everyone in the medical bay to stare at him as well. Skulduggery's chin angrily lowered, as he attempted to glare back at Hench through the screen.

"Your whole undead life, you've been chasing after a way to redeem your failure to protect your family. I'm now giving you an opportunity to do just that." Hench generously smiled. "You have twenty minutes to save her."

And just like that, the video feed cut off. The phone and tv screens went dark, and the room went silent. No one dared to speak. Not even Valkyrie.

Skulduggery still didn't move for a moment. He stared at the dark screen, like his mind was stuck in loading mode. Then, like an electric charge had seized his body, he jumped into action.

Skulduggery sharply turned and began running. Valkyrie and Tanith exchanged a look that managed to sum up a dozen pained and stressed notions at once. Immediately afterwards, they darted after him.

"Where are we going?!" Tanith called, as they rushed out of the medical bay.

"Back to the filing room!" Skulduggery barked, "we need a map!"

"Why don't we use our phones?!"

"We'll need those too!" he replied. Albeit this was a rather nonsensical response, neither of the women thought to argue with him at the moment.

At twice the speed as before, they sprinted through the hallways, up several staircases, right back to where they had started. This time, as people saw them approach, they looked alarmed and quickly jumped out of their way.

Valkyrie paid no mind to them. She felt suddenly wired with adrenaline, and yet perfectly calm at the same time. Her every neuron had locked onto a new mission, and not just any mission. This felt like more than a life-or-death type of situation; it felt like the world-ending type.

They arrived in the filing library, and Skulduggery took off flying the moment he stepped foot inside. "One of you, ask the directory!" he commanded as he shot off into the distance.

"I'll look it up!" Tanith called to Valkyrie. "You go!"

Valkyrie wasted no time to follow instructions. She ran after Skulduggery at high-speed, occasionally using her magic to propel herself forward several steps at a time.

She just about managed to keep track of Skulduggery and found him in the map section soon after. He was floating about halfway up a shelf and was frantically searching through the various folders.

Soon after, the glowing orb of light joined him there. It was moving much quicker now, as though it understood the urgency of its assignment. When it indicated the correct folder, Skulduggery immediately ripped it out. He tossed the whole thing in the air, extended his hand, and made the map unfold itself.

By the time the paper was fully opened and softly touched to the floor, it took up the entire width of the hallway. It was a giant map of Roarhaven that showed the surrounding area and the outlines of each and every building in it.

"Find that café," Skulduggery said and crouched down on the ground beside the map.

Valkyrie joined him there as she pulled out her phone and looked up the Café Soleil. Once she had found it and located the corresponding building on the paper map, she pointed at the correct street. "There. That's where she parted ways with Ninja."

Recalling the directions that Diamond had given him via Morse code, Skulduggery quietly mumbled to himself. His finger followed along the roads and took turns left or right wherever she had indicated one.

At some point, Skulduggery uncertainly paused. His finger was stuck by an especially long straight road. "Diamond said they drove straight ahead for eighteen seconds. I'll need the speed limit to know how far that is."

Valkyrie quickly looked it up on her phone. "That's a fifty-zone."

Skulduggery nodded and his finger continued moving along the paper map. Valkyrie followed his movements on her digital map, reading out information whenever necessary.

Eventually, Tanith caught up to them. She suddenly had three other people in tow. Valkyrie sighed in relief, as she recognized three very different but equally familiar shades of blonde.

Nuke, Fletcher, and Dexter joined their fold. They saw that Skulduggery was focused on the map, and thus directed their questioning glances at Valkyrie. Mostly, their expressions mirrored the decisive seriousness displayed on her own face.

"Do we know where she is?" Dexter asked.

"We're about to find out," Valkyrie curtly replied before focusing back on her task. "The next long stretch is a motorway; hundred-zone," she informed Skulduggery.

He nodded it off and continued following Diamond's instructions with his finger. Finally, he landed on a formation of large buildings by a street off the highway. "Here."

Valkyrie found the building on her phone map and zoomed in. "Looks like a warehouse facility."

"Warehouse sounds about right," Nuke nervously commented.

As he spoke up, Valkyrie's gaze locked with his for the first time that day. Nuke's eyes were a bit glazed over like he was in shock, but he seemed focused and more than ready to strike.

"Fletcher," Skulduggery demanded and pointed at the spot on the map, "how close can you get us to that street?"

Fletcher stole Valkyrie's phone and fiddled around with it. "I don't know the street but I've been to an intersection nearby," he said before pointing towards the exit. "We have to get out of the building first, though. I can't teleport in here."

That was all they needed to hear. Dexter dragged Tanith away, and Nuke and Fletcher followed close behind. Valkyrie and Skulduggery abandoned the map on the floor and ran after the others.

Skulduggery caught up with Dexter in the front, and the two men led the way to the closest emergency exit. They knew that opening such a door would likely trigger an alarm to go off in the entire building, but Valkyrie gathered that the current situation qualified as an emergency.

Quickly, but not nearly quickly enough, they reached the reinforced door. Skulduggery pushed through it via the large metal bar and, immediately, a shrill alarm began to ring all around them. Some of them flinched at the sudden noise, but they all disregarded it and followed him outside.

Once on the sidewalk, they immediately crowded around Fletcher and held on to him.

The blink of an eye and an uncomfortable spinning sensation later, they appeared in an underground pedestrian tunnel, which allowed for passage beneath the highway. Despite its usefulness in keeping people from walking into traffic, the tunnel was a little creepy due to the lack of lighting and the abundance of graffiti on the walls.

Valkyrie felt someone grab her hand, and then she was running again. Tanith was dragging her along, as the others were already headed towards the warehouse facility.

For a moment, Erick was too stunned to react. His body was frozen and his throat was swollen shut. This wasn't something that usually happened to him but, in addition to being horrified about the entire situation, he was also quite unsure of what to do. Technically speaking, none of this had anything to do with him. But practically speaking, he gathered, it had absolutely everything to with him.

Salient seemed to notice that his friend and superior was momentarily out of order, so he stepped up to snap the other agents out of their stunned inactivity. "Well?!" he called out, "what are we waiting for? Make yourselves useful!"

A couple of stunned glances were exchanged, a couple of concerned murmurs followed. Immediately afterwards, everybody got back to work.

"Erick," General Stein said behind him again, much louder this time, to be heard over the noise of a busy office.

Passato turned and locked eyes with his mentor. Stein looked calm as ever, but his demeanor was dead serious. He raised his hand and showed Passato two fingers: he was allowed two crews for this mission.

He nodded and turned to Clutch and Denman. "Drum up your crews. Get the vans ready and prepare for portal jump."

Both agents nodded and rushed away to do so.

"Neith, make sure this jump is flawless. No glitches or blips this time, you hear me?"

This time around, Neith sounded just a bit uncertain as she said, "yessir..."

Passato was about to rush towards the meeting spot, himself, when he was stalled in his departure by an unexpected command.

"One more thing," Stein said.

He turned around and was surprised that the General was still standing there. Usually, Stein didn't stick around to supervise his top agent. Now, he seemed to have a stern word of advice for the road.

"Yes?" Erick impatiently prompted.

"Diamond's safety is your main prerogative."

He frowned with a hint of offense. "Of course it is. What are you insinuating?"

Stein meaningfully raised a brow at him. Passato questioningly raised his brow back at him. He couldn't be sure, but maybe he thought to see the hint of a knowing smile play at the corners of his mentor's lips.

"Do not get in his way," Stein told him. "It won't end well for you."