Father caught me looking at his leg.
‘Don’t worry, Arty,’ he said. ‘I’m being measured for a prosthetic tomorrow. Doctor Hermann Gruber is being flown in from Dortmund.’
I had heard of Gruber. He worked with the German Paralympics squad. The best.
‘I’m going to ask for something sporty. Maybe with speed stripes.’
A joke. That wasn’t like my father.
My mother ruffled my father’s hair.
‘Stop teasing, darling. This is difficult for Arty, you know. He was only a baby when you left.’
‘Hardly a baby, Mother’, I said. ‘I was eleven, after all.’
My father smiled at me fondly. Perhaps now would be an appropriate time for us to talk, before his good mood wore off to be replaced by the usual gruffness?
‘Father, things have changed since your disappearance. I have changed.’
Father nodded solemnly. ‘Yes, you are right. We need to talk about the business.’
Ah yes. Back to business. This was the father I remembered.
‘I think you will find that the family bank accounts are healthy, and I trust you will approve of the stocks portfolio. It has yielded an eighteen per cent dividend in the past financial year. Eighteen per cent is quite exemplary in the current market; I haven’t failed you.’
‘I have failed you, son,’ said Artemis Senior, ‘if you think bank accounts and stocks are all that’s important. You must have learned that from me.’ He pulled me close to him. ‘I haven’t been the perfect father, Arty, far from it. Too busy with the family business. I was always taught that it was my duty to manage the Fowl empire. A criminal empire, as we both know. If any good has come out of my abduction, it’s that I have reassessed my priorities. I want a new life for us all.’
I could not believe what I was hearing. One of my most persistent memories was of Father repeatedly quoting the family motto, ‘aurum potestas est’ – ‘Gold is power’. And now, here he was, turning his back on Fowl principles. What had the magic done to him?
‘Gold isn’t all-important, Arty,’ he continued. ‘Neither is power. We have everything we need right here. The three of us.’
I was utterly surprised. But not unpleasantly so.
‘But, Father. You have always said… This isn’t you. You’re a new man.’
Mother joined the conversation. ‘No, Arty. Not a new man. An old one. The one I fell in love with and married, before the Fowl empire took over. And now I have him back; we’re a family again.’
I looked at my parents – how happy they were together. A family? Was it possible that the Fowls could be a normal family?
Artemis was yanked back to the present by a commotion from inside the Ice Age mobile unit. The vehicle began to rock on its axles, blue light crackling from beneath the door.
Artemis did not panic. He had seen healings before. Last year, when Holly reattached her index finger, the magical fallout had shattered half a ton of ice – and that was for one little finger. Imagine the damage Butler’s system could do repairing a critical injury.
The pandemonium continued for several minutes, popping two of the van’s tyres, and completely wrecking the suspension. Luckily the institute was locked up for the night or Doctor Lane would certainly be adding automobile repairs to her bill.
Eventually the magical storm subsided, and the vehicle settled like a rollercoaster car after the ride. Holly opened the rear door, leaning heavily against the frame. She was exhausted, drained. A sickly pallor glowed through her coffee complexion.
‘Well?’ demanded Artemis. ‘Is he alive?’
Holly didn’t answer. A strenuous healing often resulted in nausea and fatigue. Captain Short took several deep breaths, resting on the rear bumper.
‘Is he alive?’ repeated the youth.
Holly nodded. ‘Alive. Yes, he’s alive. But…’
‘But what, Holly? Tell me!’
Holly tugged off her helmet. It slipped from her fingers, rolling across the yard.
‘I’m sorry, Artemis. I did the best I could.’
It was possibly the worst thing she could have said.
*
Artemis climbed into the van. The floor was slick with water and coloured crystals. Smoke leaked from the fractured grille of the air-conditioning system, and the overhead neon strip flickered like lightning in a bottle.
The cryo pod lay off-kilter in one corner, its gyroscopes leaking fluid. One of Butler’s arms flopped over the unit’s edge, throwing a monster shadow on the wall.
The cryo pod’s instruments panel was still operating. Artemis was relieved to see the heartbeat icon blipping gently in the display. Butler was alive! Holly had done it again! But something had been worrying the fairy captain. There was a problem.