LITMIR.BIZ

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paradise, we would. And maybe it’s possible – it’d be wonderful to think that it was. But we’d have to step over a generation of dead bodies to reach it. The cost, Valkyrie, it’s just too great.”

      “We can’t afford to be idealists,” Ravel said without looking up. “It’s our job to keep the world spinning. We let the mortals change it. As clumsy and as corrupt as they are, this is still their world. We’re just protecting it.”

      The door opened and Skulduggery came in. He stood beside Valkyrie, and took his hat off. “Nothing,” he said. “No sign of Argeddion. No idea where he materialised and no traces for the Sensitives to follow.”

      “We need to find out who his surprise guest is,” Ghastly said. “If his plan hinges on this guest and the Accelerator, we have to take one of them out. The Accelerator is still behind that force field, but the guest may be vulnerable. How much time do we have?”

      “Tomorrow’s Thursday,” Skulduggery replied. “We have until Saturday before his tests are complete. He infected the mortals downstairs to find the best way to infect everyone. I’ve just checked with Doctor Synecdoche, but there was no change in their condition when Argeddion awoke.”

      “And what about this Greta Dapple?” Ravel asked. “If he planned this out to coincide with her birthday, which is a sweet but psychotic thing to do, then maybe she plays a bigger part in this.”

      Skulduggery nodded. “Maybe she does. She isn’t at her house and she isn’t answering her phone. I have people looking for her. If we can find her, she could lead us straight to Argeddion.”

      “And what do we do when we find him?” Sult asked. “What can we do?” He looked to Strom, Strom looked to Ravel, and Ravel looked to Skulduggery.

      “I’m working on it,” he said.

      The drive back to Haggard seemed to take for ever. Valkyrie fell asleep twice, and woke up both times by bouncing her head against the window. “Ow,” she said.

      “Sorry,” said Skulduggery. They were on country roads, and his skull was in complete darkness. “How are you feeling?”

      “I don’t know,” she said. “My head feels empty. He just... cut her off from me. I don’t have her any more.”

      “If it’s permanent, that could be a cause for celebration.”

      “But Darquesse and Vile might have been our only weapons against him.” She sighed. “What are we going to do? This isn’t as clearcut as usual. Kitana and Doran and Sean and Silas Nadir... those are the people we’re used to dealing with. Killers. People who hurt other people. But Argeddion... he’s not like them.”

      “Argeddion is as dangerous as anyone we’ve faced,” Skulduggery said. “He may not be out to physically hurt us, but his goals are just as damaging. We need to treat him just like any other hostile.”

      “Would you kill him?” asked Valkyrie. “He’s a pacifist who only wants to help people. And there’s no guarantee that mankind would destroy itself. It might all work out according to Argeddion’s plan. Who are we to say it won’t?”

      “Are you willing to take that risk?”

      “I just... I don’t feel right about this. He wants to make the world a better place and we want to keep the world as it is. That doesn’t sound particularly... heroic.”

      “We have to maintain the status quo, Valkyrie. It’s not our job to change the world. That’s for the mortals to do.”

      “So you would kill him?”

      There was a pause. “I believe his plan would result in billions dead. Yes, I would kill him.”

      “I… I don’t think I could.”

      He turned his head to her. “I’m not asking you to.”

      The Bentley pulled in at the pier and Valkyrie got out. It was just past ten but she was exhausted. The air lifted her to her window and she climbed in. Her room was empty. She sat at her desk, where schoolbooks lay open. She yawned, and her reflection came in. It shut the door behind it.

      “Hey,” she said.

      “Hey,” it said back. “You look like you’ve had a rough day.”

      “Rough enough.”

      “Where’s your jacket?”

      Valkyrie glowered. “I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to go to bed. You finished our homework?”

      It shook its head. “Another half-hour or so, I’d say. Can you wait until then?”

      “Yeah. Sure. I’ll go for a walk, actually.” She got up. “Hey, I want your opinion on something.”

      “Sure,” said the reflection, stepping towards the mirror.

      “No,” said Valkyrie. “I want your opinion as the reflection of me the last time I was here, not as the reflection of me now. If you know what I know, then your perspective will be my perspective, and I don’t want my perspective. I want your perspective.”

      “For anyone else, that would be overly complicated. OK. What do you want your old perspective on?”

      “Argeddion is out. He’s free. He wants to make every mortal magic and live in a kingdom of enlightenment and righteousness. It sounds lovely, to be honest, but according to Skulduggery and the others, it’d never work and we’d all end up killing each other. But he’s really powerful, and the only way we had to stop him was to...”

      “Become Darquesse,” said the reflection.

      “Yes. But I can’t do that any more. He got in my head, he blocked her off. I can’t Hulk out and Argeddion took Skulduggery’s armour, made it vanish. It’s not destroyed, or else all the Necromancer magic would return to Skulduggery, but it’s hidden.”

      “You’re disappointed.”

      “Argeddion’s at least as powerful as Darquesse. We needed her.”

      “Needing her is dangerous.”

      “I know.”

      “You might have been able to stop Argeddion, but who would stop you?”

      “Hopefully, Skulduggery.”

      “He’d have put on the armour and gone after you? After what happened last time?”

      Valkyrie collapsed back into her chair. “I don’t know. Yes. He did it before.”

      “He stopped you, eventually, after you both tore up O’Connell Street. You tried to kill people. You tried to take down a helicopter. And what about Skulduggery? When he puts on that armour, he’s a killer. You know he is.”

      “But last time—”

      “Last time was a fluke,” the reflection said. “Somehow, he managed to regain control of himself and he talked you down. But if you let her take over again, she won’t go so quietly next time.”

      “Well, we don’t have that option any more.”

      “That shouldn’t have even been an option. Argeddion has a plan that might backfire – but your plan was to send two killers after him? What’s the term that was used before? World-breakers? You were going to send two world-breakers after him? There is a risk of his plan going wrong and resulting in death and destruction. But if you had unleashed Darquesse, you’d be guaranteeing that people would die.”

      “Skulduggery would have stopped me.”

      “You can’t be sure of that.”

      “I trust him.”

      “And that’s the problem.”

      “What? What’s the problem?”

      The reflection hunkered down and rested her folded

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