Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 7 - 9. Derek Landy

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СКАЧАТЬ her. “You know, with everything that’s been going on, we haven’t had a chance to talk about Fletcher.”

      She laughed. “When do we ever talk about Fletcher?”

      “Hardly ever,” he admitted, “but you haven’t seen him in a while, and he comes back, and he has a girlfriend...”

      “How do you know he has a girlfriend?”

      “He told me.”

      “Oh. Yeah, he has. She’s nice. Myra, her name is.”

      He nodded, didn’t say anything.

      She arched an eyebrow. “What?”

      “How do you feel about that?”

      “Are we seriously talking about how I feel about my ex-boyfriend? Do we have nothing better to do with our time? Aren’t there murders we need to solve?”

      “You just look like you need to talk, that’s all.”

      “I’m fine. My God, I’m grand. It’s not like he’s the love of my life. We broke up, he has a new girlfriend, that’s what happens.”

      “You don’t have a new boyfriend.”

      “Thank you for pointing that out.”

      “And Hansard Kray doesn’t seem interested.”

      “Oh... my God... you can stop making me feel better now.”

      “It’s just, if you were feeling somehow... unattractive...”

      “Sorry?”

      “I don’t mean unattractive,” he said quickly. “I mean, if you were thinking that maybe you’ll always be alone—”

      “I wasn’t thinking that,” Valkyrie said. “I wasn’t thinking that at all. But now I am. Now I definitely am. You think I’ll always be alone?”

      “That’s really not what I meant.”

      “Then what did you mean? My God, Skulduggery, just tell me. Be honest with me. Fletcher’s moved on, Hansard doesn’t fancy me...” She buried her face in her hands. “Oh, God, I’m seventeen years old and no one will ever love me. I’m going to be alone for the rest of my life. I’ve missed my chance. I’ve missed my chance at happiness. I’m an old maid. Oh, God...”

      Skulduggery folded his arms. “You’re mocking me.”

      She took her hands down. “Well, duh.”

      “I was only trying to be sensitive.”

      “I don’t need you sensitive, Skulduggery. I need you aloof and irresponsible and arrogant. That’s why I love you. That’s why I let you hang out with me.”

      “I’m truly blessed.”

      She grinned. “You love me, too. Once you admit it, everything will be better.”

      “They’re about to hook up the Cube to the Accelerator,” he said, and turned and walked off.

      She followed. “You can’t run from your feelings.”

      “I can walk from them.”

      She laughed, and a blue light shone from behind them. They turned. A curved wall of transparent blue energy filled the corridor behind them. Valkyrie frowned. “And what’s this now?”

      “A force field,” Skulduggery said, tapping against it. It sizzled slightly under his touch. “Judging from the curvature it’s a spherical shield, bisecting floors and walls outwards of its epicentre.”

      “Right,” Valkyrie said. “So we’re in a big ball, then.”

      They started walking again. “Lament must have thrown it up,” Skulduggery said. “Hopefully, it’s a precaution, and nothing more serious.” He slowed. “Wait a second. Hear that?”

      Coming from the adjoining corridor, raised voices. They moved quietly and peered around.

      The force field cut off the far end of the corridor, keeping a crowd of people back who were now trying to break through the wall of energy by blasting it with whatever they had. Lament stood inside the shield, watching them. He looked taller than usual. It took Valkyrie a moment to realise he was hovering a few centimetres off the ground. He turned slowly, and Valkyrie glimpsed his sandalled feet pointing downwards so that his toes almost brushed against the floor. He started drifting back to the Accelerator Room, and Skulduggery and Valkyrie ducked away before they were seen.

      Valkyrie got out her phone, dialled Ghastly’s number.

      He answered immediately. “Where are you? We’ve got a situation.”

      “We know,” she whispered. “We’re in it.”

      “You’re inside the force field? Is Skulduggery with you?”

      “Yes. He can hear you. What’s going on?”

      “Lament guides us all out, he says this next stage might be dangerous, and then the force field appears. I turn around and he’s floating, and his eyes are closed, and he apologises.”

      “What for?” Skulduggery asked. “What did he say?”

      Ghastly’s voice was tight. “He said they aren’t here to keep Argeddion imprisoned. He said they’re here to set him free.”

      he line went quiet for a moment while Ghastly conferred with others. Then he came back. “We have a Sensitive here. He says he’s just started to pick up a psychic wavelength that they’ve managed to keep hidden until now. We think Argeddion is controlling them.”

      “They spent the last thirty years in that mountain, watching over him,” Skulduggery said. “At some stage he must have regained a degree of awareness, started reaching out, taking them over. This whole thing was just a ploy to get us to move them all here.”

      “I don’t get it,” said Valkyrie. “If they wanted to release him, why not just turn off the Cube?”

      Skulduggery shook his head. “I don’t think turning off the Cube is the problem. The problem is that Argeddion has been in an artificially induced coma for the last three decades. Maybe he simply can’t wake up. If I were them, I’d be using the Accelerator as a defibrillator for the mind.”

      “They’re going to shock him awake,” said Ghastly. “OK, listen to me. You two are the only people we’ve got in there. I’d love to say we’re coming in after you but this wall is stronger than anything I’ve seen.”

      “We could get Fletcher back,” СКАЧАТЬ