has really annoyed you recently.”
“Can I pretend it’s you?”
“I really don’t see how that would—”
She kicked it, and the door burst open. “I’m in,” she said, closing the door behind her. “And that really hurt my foot. I’m in a room with machines along the walls. Lots of blinking lights.”
“Do you see the ventilation duct along the floor?”
She froze. “Please tell me I don’t have to crawl through that.”
“I’m afraid you do.”
“No. I can’t. It’s too small.”
“The measurements are—”
“I get claustrophobic! You know I do! Especially after the caves last year, with all those things and I couldn’t move my arms and they were in my hair and—”
“Calm down.”
“I’m not getting in there, I’m just not.”
“You’ll be able to fit,” he said, his voice gentle. “You will have space to move. You won’t be trapped.”
“I can’t.”
“Valkyrie, listen to my voice. I know you don’t want to, I know you don’t think you can, but you don’t have a choice. I’m in the security room now and I can see the monitors. The prisoners are swarming the building. You can’t let them catch you.”
She dropped to her knees at the duct. “How do I even open it? It’s screwed in place.”
“You’re going to have to prise it open. Is there anything you could use?”
She looked around. “There’s a bench here with things on it, bits of machinery and stuff. And some tools. There’s a screwdriver! I could use the screwdriver to prise it open!”
“Yes,” Skulduggery said, “or you could use it to unscrew the screws.”
“Oh, yeah,” she muttered. She grabbed the screwdriver, hurried back to the duct and got to work.
“The Cleavers are doing a good job with the riot,” Skulduggery said, “but there are prisoners running everywhere. How are you doing?”
“One almost … OK, it’s out. Three left.”
“The prisoners have reached the security door.”
The screwdriver kept slipping out of the groove. “The glass door?”
“Yes.”
“So they’re really close.”
“Yes.”
Her mouth was dry. “The moment they realise they can’t break through that door they’re going to turn around, find their way through here.”
Skulduggery hesitated. “They’ve turned around, Valkyrie.”
Two screws left.
“They’re heading towards you.”
The screwdriver slipped again.
“Valkyrie …”
“I’m going as fast as I can.” Her heart hammered. The third screw fell. “One left.”
“Valkyrie,” Skulduggery said, “you’re going to have to be really, really quiet.”
She heard voices, and running footsteps. She turned, screwdriver clutched like a knife, waiting for the door to burst open.
The voices passed the door, started to grow distant.
“They’re carrying on to the end of the corridor,” Skulduggery said. “There’s no way out there. They’ll have to double back. You don’t have long.”
She spun, screwdriver working, twisting and twisting until—
“Done,” she said, the last screw joining the others on the ground. She dug the screwdriver in at one corner and prised the covering loose, then got her fingers in there. She bit her lip and pulled, ignoring the pain as the metal dug into her skin. It came free all of a sudden and she lifted it away. She looked at the square hole. It was dark, and looked too small to fit in.
“Are you sure I won’t get stuck?” she asked.
“You don’t have a choice,” Skulduggery said. “They’re on the way back to you. You’re going to be crawling to your left. Move!”
Valkyrie took a deep breath, and plunged in.
It was small and tight and dark. She couldn’t even raise herself up on to her hands and knees. She shuffled forward on her elbows.
“See?” Skulduggery said. “I told you you’d be fine.”
She kept shuffling until she froze. She closed her eyes, turned her head so she could whisper into the phone. “Get me out of here. It’s too small. How am I going to get out? I can’t turn around.”
“It won’t do you any good to panic.”
“I’m going to get stuck in here, I know I am.”
“Shh. They’re in the room behind you.”
She quietened. She could hear them, their raised voices, arguing among themselves. One of the voices got suddenly louder, and she twisted to look back. A head appeared in the shaft, examining the space. He couldn’t see her, lying there in the dark.
“Valkyrie,” Skulduggery said, very softly. “There aren’t any cameras in the room. I can’t see what they’re doing.”
She didn’t answer. The head ducked back out and the voices started up again. Valkyrie crawled on, as fast and as quietly as she could. There was a series of loud noises behind her.
“They’re in here with me,” she whispered. “They’re following me.”
“Just keep going,” she heard Skulduggery say. “You’re going to pass four more covers like the one you just opened. The fifth one will overlook a stairwell that should be empty. That’s where you’re getting out.”
The first ventilation cover was up ahead. Already her muscles were burning. Her hair fell over her face but she didn’t have room, or time, to tie it back. She crawled on, phone in one hand, screwdriver in the other.
The closer she got to the vent, the louder the alarm sounded.
She didn’t want to glance back, didn’t want to see anyone moving back there. She kept her eyes front, kept her elbows working. She reached the vent and glanced through into a dark room. She moved on. She could hear voices behind but she did her best to block them out.
There was another vent ahead. Light streamed in through the slats. There was some movement outside. People running. She reached the vent and shuffled onwards, but a voice behind her drifted up.
“You see that?” the voice said. “There’s someone up there.”
She froze.
“No there’s not,” said another voice. “Just keep going, will you?”
“Just look. See? They were moving just a second ago. Hutchinson, get up here. See that?”
“Yeah,” said the third voice, the one they called Hutchinson. “Hey there! Hold on a sec!”
Valkyrie