what we should do,” Valkyrie agreed, swinging her leg over and dropping down on to school grounds.
Skulduggery drifted down beside her as she walked. “It really doesn’t seem fair,” he said, checking his gun. “Those sorcerers trained for years to develop their powers, and these kids wake up one morning and they’re able to tear them apart with a gesture.”
“They’re not kids,” Valkyrie said. “They’re the same age as me. Do you think of me as a kid?”
“No, but then I’ve never defined you by your age.”
“Then don’t define them by their age, either. They’re not kids, they’re murderers.”
“If you’re telling me not to go easy on them because they’re under eighteen, you don’t have to worry.”
“So you’re going to be your usual ruthless self?”
“It’s been working well for me so far.”
She glanced behind them. “Did you know any of the sorcerers back there?”
“I knew all of them,” he said. “You knew three – but you wouldn’t have recognised them.”
The empty feeling in Valkyrie’s chest expanded slightly.
They reached the football pitch and looked across at the school buildings. No alarms, no screaming, no explosions.
“Maybe they changed their minds,” Valkyrie said.
“I doubt it,” Skulduggery responded, putting his gun away.
“Do we have a plan?”
“We do, but it’s not very good.”
“Any plan at all would be a reassurance.”
“Very well. We go in there and we evacuate each room as quietly as possible.”
“That actually sounds like a good plan.”
“It does, until you realise it’s very light on details, such as how we evacuate them and how we manage to do it without causing a panic.”
“We could set off the fire alarm.”
“Which would cause the panic I just mentioned, which in turn could set off Kitana and her friends. If this turns bad, we’re going to have to forget about hiding magic from the mortals. If you have to throw fire right in front of them, then that’s what you do. Focus everything you’ve got on defending yourself and the people inside, do you understand?”
“Yes. This really isn’t going to be pretty, is it?”
“It’s really not,” Skulduggery said.
They approached the school from the rear. Skulduggery disconnected the alarm on the fire doors and they slipped inside. The corridor was long and empty. Still no screaming. A face slid upwards from Skulduggery’s collarbones, and he opened the door of the first classroom they came to. The teacher, standing at the board, looked round.
“Can I help you?”
“I’d like a word, please,” Skulduggery said. “If you wouldn’t mind?”
The teacher frowned, but joined them in the corridor.
“My name is Detective Inspector Me,” Skulduggery said, keeping his voice low, “and I’m part of the new school safety initiative. You won’t have heard of it, it’s all very top secret. Basically, what I’m going to need you to do is take your class out through the fire door here and escort them a safe distance from the school.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Get your class away from the school.”
“Listen, I wasn’t told anything about this.”
“That would have ruined the surprise, don’t you think? Please do as I say.”
“Could I see some identification, or a badge or something?”
“I don’t need a badge, I have natural authority.”
The teacher frowned at Valkyrie. “And who are you? You’re a little young to be a cop, aren’t you?”
“I’m the student liaison,” she told him. “It’s my job to take notes on how the teachers interact with the pupils in a time of crisis.”
“So this is some kind of fire drill? Then why isn’t the alarm going off?”
“Because we want to observe each class one at a time,” Skulduggery said. “And speaking of time, we’re running out of it. If you don’t start the evacuation in the next thirty seconds, you will have failed the test.”
“Failed? Now just hold on there...”
“Twenty-five seconds.”
The teacher’s eyes widened. “But where do I evacuate them to?”
“Anywhere away from the school.”
“But where? We could go across the football pitch. There’s a car park at an old supermarket we could—”
“Not there,” Valkyrie said quickly. “Is there anywhere else?”
“There’s the trail down to the woods.”
“Is that out of sight of the school?”
“Yes.”
“Then that’s where you take them. Eight seconds left. And tell them not to make a sound.”
The teacher darted back into the classroom. While Skulduggery waited, Valkyrie hurried to the next door and glanced through the glass panel. A full room. She hurried on, counting one empty room and two more full. She reached a room at the halfway point and stopped. The teacher was sitting rigidly at his desk. The students were also sitting bolt upright. She heard someone talking, too low to make out the words. She backed off, walked quickly back to Skulduggery as the last of the students left through the fire door.
“They’re here,” she whispered. “They’re in class. Everyone in that room is terrified.”
Skulduggery’s face grimaced. “We’re going to have to evacuate everyone out through the windows. Footsteps on this floor are just too loud.”
“We won’t be able to do it,” she said. “You’re talking about hundreds of students who are going to be giggling and laughing and once they’re outside you know there’s bound to be a few eejits who start shouting for joy at missing class. Once Kitana realises that something is wrong, she’s going to start killing people.”
“Then we forget about the evacuation. We focus on taking them down.”
“We’ll have to take them by surprise.”
“And I have
