Skulduggery sat in the front of his Bentley R-Type Continental waiting for Valkyrie Cain, his 13 year old colleague, to come out of the office block. He waited in silence, only making a noise when laying out all of the possibilities that his colleague may have been captured by forces unknown. He then abruptly laughed and shook the thought from his mind. He was just cleaning a speck of dust from the dashboard when he noticed the time on the clock. It was 5:30PM and people were rushing out of their buildings trying to avoid the traffic jams. He also noticed that Valkyrie was still not back. She'd been in the building for an hour and a half and he had no idea whether she was alright or not. He decided he'd had enough and , donning his disguise, got out of the car and made his way to the building with the glass front.

******

Valkyrie Cain let herself be led to Miss Thorpe's office by the two burly security guards. She didn't mind this long trek as it gave her a chance to think about what she was going to say when she got to the woman's room. She knew she had to keep it sweet and to the point because she couldn't be to long. Skulduggery was in the car outside, waiting for her. They all took a turn to the right, past a door with several locks on it. The Door had a sign:-

'PRIVATE.

For use with GOLD Clearance Cards ONLY'

Valkyrie wondered how many people knew about the secrets that lay beyond this special door and, especially, if she would find out if she told Skulduggery about it. After all, he liked breaking in to forbidden places.

"How long now?" she asked the guard to her right.

"Oh, about 5 minutes and then we'll take the elevator to the 31st floor" he replied, not looking at her.

"OK, Cool. It's just as soon as I've seen Miss Thorpe I really must be going. My associate is waiting in the car for me."

This made the guards stiffen.

"So someone knows you're here?" the guard to the left asked.

"Mm-hmm. And he gets quite anxious when I'm on my own. If I'm to long he'll come looking for me." Valkyrie said, half surprised, half scared as she realised her voice was beginning to tremble. She knew that when someone said 'Someone knows you're here?' they weren't just making small talk, or worrying about what dangers were waiting for her when she left the building, where they could no longer protect her. They were, more often than not, going to attack her. Valkyrie calmed herself down, knowing that if she didn't, her powers would be of no use to her. She tried to think about her parents, and what they would be doing right now and if they would ever know that she had die-. No she wasn't going to die. If she was too long Skulduggery would save the day. He was outside he knew when something was wrong. She would be just fine. She hoped.

They took a left and continued walking down a white corridor. Unlike the others this had no doors and no picture's. No decorations at all. But at the end of the corridor she could see the silver doors which would mean they were nearing the lift shaft. Both the guards stopped and held their heads still as if they were listening to instructions.

"They probably ARE listening to instructions. From Miss Thorpe. They have earpieces." Valkyrie thought to herself.

One of the guards took a remote from his pocket and pressed a big button in the middle of it. The silver doors opened with a 'PING'. Valkyrie continued walking. The guard to her left dropped back to talk to his earpiece but the guard on the right kept her walking. He made her quicken her pace.

"Valkyrie? Valkyrie Cain? Is that your name?"

"Yes. I've already told you that. Why are you asking?"

"Never mind. All you need to know is that Miss Thorpe and that guard over there are not going to be very sympathetic with you. That man over there is ruthless. Miss Thorpe uses him to beat the hell out of anyone she doesn't like then after he's finished with them she'll take over and make them suffer. I'm sorry but I can't let you off the hook. But at least you know what to expect. Now at least, you have the element of surprise on your side." the guard looked round to the other guard who was still talking into his earpiece. He glanced sideways at Valkyrie.

"I don't need the element of surprise, I need the element of invisibility!" Valkyrie said incredulously, hardly believing her ears.

"I'm sorry, but you're on your own now." he said as the other guard started to approach.

"OK, Tim we don't need you anymore. Me and Miss Cain can go in the elevator on our own."

The guard who'd been talking to her, Tim the other guard had called him, backed down quietly and looked sadly at Valkyrie.

"Poor girl." he thought, "She has her whole life in front of her and now she's going to die…"

Tim rounded the corner and left the corridor, just as Valkyrie Cain stepped into the lift and the doors closed.