“Well,” Skulduggery said, taking out his phone, “where magic fails, technology prevails.” He took a picture of the pen, then made a call.
Scrutinous glanced behind him, just in time to see a pale fin sink beneath the water’s surface.
“It’s here!” he screeched. “It’s over there!”
Valkyrie jumped in front of him protectively.
“That won’t do any good,” Skulduggery said.
“I know!” she snapped. “But we can’t just stand around while he gets eaten!”
Scrutinous took a deep breath and ducked his head into the water. The confines of the room did not exist down here. Down here, he was in the middle of the ocean. He saw a dark shape move out of the corner of his eye, and then it was gone. He came up for air.
“It’s huge,” he said. “Oh, God, it’s h-huge.”
“China,” Skulduggery said suddenly. “We have a bit of an emergency here. I just sent you a picture, did you get it? Excellent.” He waited a moment, listening to her talk. “But that’s just the thing. It is a mistake. The gent who set the curse didn’t mean it to apply to everyone – he meant it to apply simply to the first one.”
Scrutinous took another breath, and ducked down for another look.
The shark, and it must have been a Great White judging by its size, was visible in the distance, turning towards him. Scrutinous broke the surface, gasping for air. “It’s coming!”
“But my question,” Skulduggery was saying, “is how to correct the curse so that the original intent overrides the mistake? Really? Oh, that’s interesting.”
“It’s coming!” Scrutinous screamed.
“Geoffrey, please,” Skulduggery said, “I can’t hear what she’s saying.” He put the phone back to his head. “Carry on.”
“Splash about,” Valkyrie said. “Make a lot of noise. Scare it away.”
Scrutinous splashed at the water and kicked his legs and screamed and yelled and hollered.
“A shark’s coming for him,” Skulduggery said into the phone. “Oh, have you? OK, I’ll tell him.” Skulduggery looked over. “China was attacked by a shark once, just like I was, except it was an actual shark and she was actually attacked. She says you’re not to splash about, she says that makes you look like a seal, and sharks really like eating seals.”
Scrutinous froze, and Valkyrie winced. “Oh, yeah,” she said. “I saw that once on TV. Sorry.”
“So it’s just the upwards slash, then?” Skulduggery was saying, peering at the pen. “Is it too long or too short? How long should it be? No, shouldn’t be a problem.” He put the phone on loudspeaker and placed it in his top pocket, then readied Maybury’s scalpel. “OK, making the cut now…”