Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 163 - First day in New York City

Chapter 163

Valkyrie and Nadia began their journey to New York early the next morning, having Fletcher teleport them to the nearest city to New York Fletcher had been to since he hadn't been before out of fear of being caught teleporting, getting taxis to the airport and then taking a plane. It was almost a five-hour flight from the state they were in but the journey was pleasantly boring. Nadia looked up things to do the entire time and Valkyrie worked out the logistics of where and when they could visit those places in the six full days they were going to have before travelling back on the sixth late at night. Today they'd have a half day.

Once at the airport in New York it was a nightmare getting a taxi and then a nightmare travelling to their hotel. Valkyrie had found a nice, but not super fancy, hotel for them. It had a double bed, a desk, wardrobe, bathroom and a small sofa area with flatscreen on the wall. All the furniture was simple but the room was large enough to walk around without feeling restricted.

"This is nice," Nadia complimented when she walked in. "Ooh, look at the view."

Valkyrie came over and had a look. "It's cool," she said. It looked out into the street which was packed with people and cars. It was busy and energetic. Not necessarily beautiful, but definitely different to what they were used to. "Should we hang our stuff up? There are hangers in the wardrobe."

Nadia did want to do that, so they spent half an hour settling in before getting hungry. Valkyrie decided to ask the person on the front desk what was good and they were recommended a Japanese restaurant, a pizza place and a mandarin buffet. It was only four-thirty, but neither of them had eaten in a while so they chose the buffet.

It wasn't far to walk. It was very hustle and bustle, and the buildings were extremely tall, but it was all very exciting to the girls. They held hands and stayed out of the way of everyone. On their way they saw a lot of different people and Nadia commented as they went that this may have been the most diverse mortal place they'd ever visited, and Valkyrie was tempted to agree.

"Good afternoon," the woman at the front doors of the mandarin buffet greeted them. "Table for two?"

"Yes please," Nadia smiled.

"Okay. I should warn you that the meal is not open for another half an hour. You are welcome to have drinks and wait," she said, and led them to their table. The place was packed already, since they were in almost the dead centre of the city, and it did seem a little strange that this restaurant liked to wait to let people eat but Valkyrie didn't mention it. They sat down and ordered drinks, nothing alcoholic since the drinking age was twenty-one and neither of them had a licence stating that, nor did they look it. They just got fizzy drinks instead.

"This is strange," Nadia whispered.

Valkyrie shrugged. "I'm so hungry I don't care. I just want these fifteen minutes to be over."

"Oh, look," Nadia giggled, ducking her head. The men behind Valkyrie had gotten up and, swaying like they were drunk, tried to get passed the staff to the food. They actually got to the plates and were taking food as the chefs were bringing it out to the middle of the room to put in the serving stands. The entire room watched as the bouncers took all three of them and were thrown out, their three very angry girlfriends following and then walked away from the men on the curbside, abandoning them. The room cheered before a bell went and they were allowed to get their food.

Valkyrie and Nadia went to the front with the crowds and ended up somewhere in the middle. Trying to be a good girlfriend for Nadia, since it was her birthday holiday, she let her go first. They chose very similar foods. They both loved dumplings, spring rolls and the meats. Valkyrie didn't actually know the names of what she was eating as it was all in a language she didn't understand, but it was seriously good.