Bedlam Chapter Sampler

The woman squared her shoulders. “I’m Officer Lush,” she said. “And I’m Officer Rattan,” said the third cop. “And what exactly is going on here?” Skulduggery asked. “We had a report of a break-in,” said Yonder. “We came to investigate.” Valkyrie picked her way across the floor. “Did you find anyone?” Yonder glared. “The suspects had fled before we arrived.” “And the mess?” “It was like this when we got here.” “Who owns this shop?” Skulduggery asked, and their attention switched back to him. “I don’t know,” said Yonder. “Do you think perhaps it might be a mortal?” Yonder shrugged. “Because we’ve heard stories,” Valkyrie said, and they all looked at her. “You know all those pesky mortals from Dimension X?” “The Leibniz Universe,” Skulduggery corrected. She ignored him. “You know how they were all given the empty houses in the West District? That’s quite close to here, isn’t it? They’ve only been there for five or six months, but they’re already working hard to make a new life for themselves, away from Mevolent and all the nasty, nasty sorcerers from their home dimension. Well, we heard that there were some nasty sorcerers over here , too, and they were robbing these mortals.” “Not robbery,” Skulduggery said. “Extortion.” Valkyrie snapped her fingers. “That’s right. Extortion. Their little businesses would be targeted and threatened, and they’d have to pay these nasty sorcerers to not trash them.” Yonder didn’t seem overly sympathetic. “That’s too bad,” he said. “Protection rackets are the bane of small business. Have these crimes been reported to the City Guard?” “Well, that’s the problem,” Valkyrie said, passing Lush. “It seems the nasty sorcerers doing all this damage are City Guard officers. Like you guys.”

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