stood, his face tight. He brought his chair back to the table. “I’m good,” he said. “Just clumsy, is all.”
Shudder looked at them all for a moment then came forward and sat. “You may continue your conversation,” he said.
Sanguine turned sideways in his chair, resting one elbow on the table. “Is there a rule against threats?” he asked.
“No,” said Shudder.
“There a rule against the promise of a violent death?”
“There is not.”
“Well, OK then.” Sanguine’s eyeless gaze fell upon Valkyrie. “I’m goin’ to kill you. You cut me right across the belly with that damned sword, an’ I couldn’t go to no big-shot professor to get stitched up. I had to go to some back-alley moron who talked the talk, but when it came to walkin’ the walk, he barely got faster than a shuffle. I’m fairly certain he made things worse. He said give it a few weeks to heal and I gave it a month, but when I went burrowin’, it was like my guts were on fire and the smoke was collectin’ in my lungs. Now, I can’t go back and demand he fix me up on account of the fact that he’s already dead, an’ so the only person I have left to blame is the little brat who cut me in the first place.”
“It was self-defence,” Valkyrie said.
“That ain’t no excuse. Fact is that makes it worse. If you’d just let me kill you when I wanted to kill you, we wouldn’t be in this situation. This whole thing is your fault.”
“Your logic is impeccable,” Skulduggery said. “Then what about Springheeled Jack? What is his motivation for revenge?”
Sanguine gave a shrug. “Jack is doin’ what Jack does – causin’ mischief. He just wants to cause more of it, on a wider scale, and he wants to get rid of anyone who’d try an’ stop him.”
“But why the Engine? Why go to the trouble of working to repair a bomb of that magnitude if all you want is revenge on a few select individuals?”
“Now that,” Sanguine said, his smile returning, “is the secret part of our secret plan.”
“Why are you here, Mr Sanguine?” interrupted Shudder. “I make it a point not to pry into my guest’s private lives, but Skulduggery has indicated that you’re here for a Remnant. If that’s true, we may have a problem.”
“Well,” Sanguine said, “it is true, so what kind of a problem do we have?”
Shudder sighed. “I have twenty-three rooms in this hotel that people are free to use. The twenty-fourth room, however, is off-limits to everybody.”
“I had heard this, yeah.”
“Even if you were able to use your powers,” Shudder continued, “you wouldn’t be able to enter. The twenty-fourth room is more secure than any prison cell. It’s why I was asked to keep the Remnants here in the first place.”
“I’m sure that is true,” Sanguine nodded.
“There is no window and only one door into the twenty-fourth room and there is only one key for that door.”
“I get it, yeah.”
“And I keep it on me at all times.”
“I guessed you would.”
“And yet you still plan to take a Remnant with you when you leave.”
“I have to be honest here – yeah, I do. It’s a nice subtle little plan. You’ll like it. Without goin’ into specifics, when the time comes, I’m fully expectin’ to either be given the key or to take it from your cold, dead hand and just let myself in.”
“I see,” Shudder murmured. “You should know that’s very unlikely.”
“It’s unlikely now. When the time comes, it’ll be pretty likely, believe me.” He glanced at his watch. “An’ the time’s approachin’…”
Valkyrie detected movement outside the window. She went to it and looked out. “There are people out there,” she said.
Skulduggery and Shudder joined her. People were approaching from all directions – dozens of them. Valkyrie saw dried blood on their clothes. They got closer and she realised how pale they were, how dishevelled. Some of them stumbled as they walked. Their faces were expressionless.
“Zombies,” Skulduggery said. “Zombies at the door. This is your version of subtle, is it?”
Sanguine stood up from the table and grinned.
“The dead can’t pass through,” Shudder said. “They can stay out there until they rot and this hotel will move on at midnight. I fail to see how any of this would make me open the door to the Remnants.”
“Well,” said Sanguine, “that’s because you don’t have all the facts. You got your security mojo workin’, keepin’ out undesirables like the walkin’ dead, and all that’s great. But see, the problem with security symbols is that there’s always a way round them. And that whole magical alphabet thing has always been a bit of a hobby for my daddy. He’s no expert, but he knows which symbol cancels out what symbol, y’know? All those zombies out there? They’re all got this symbol carved into their smelly, rottin’ skin.” He handed a crumpled piece of paper to Shudder. “What d’you think? Think it’ll do the job?”
Shudder examined the paper and his eyes narrowed. He didn’t respond.
“You know it’s enough for those pesky critters to come stormin’ in here, don’t you?” Sanguine continued. “So here’s my offer, Anton. You open that door for me, you let me get what I came here to get and I’ll call off the zombie horde.”
Shudder looked at him then out of the window. He shook his head. “No.”
Sanguine sighed. “That’s the wrong move, buddy. It’ll be a bloodbath once they get started.”
“We can hold them off,” Shudder said. “What do you think, Skulduggery?”
“Should be fun,” Skulduggery responded. “Valkyrie here has never held off a horde of zombies before. It’ll be good experience for her.”
“Oh, joy,” she muttered.
“You people,” Sanguine said. “Always so eager to die heroic deaths. I don’t want any blood on this suit, so if you don’t mind, I’ll be headin’ outside now. Wouldn’t want to be caught in here when the carnage starts.”
He turned to go and Shudder punched him. Sanguine spun and fell back, nearly tumbling over a chair.
“What about your no violence rule?” he said, rubbing his jaw.
“No violence towards guests,” Shudder clarified. “You are no longer considered a guest.”
Skulduggery walked towards him and Sanguine straightened up.
“You can punch me all you like,” he began and
