Spiro cleared his throat noisily.
‘Hey there, Mister I-Gotta-Make-My-Point, that kid slips over the side and you might as well throw yourself off, because that boy is worth more to me than an army of bodyguards.’
Blunt set Artemis down.
‘You’re not going to be valuable forever, Fowl,’ he whispered ominously. ‘And when your stock falls, I’ll be waiting.’
They took a mirrored lift to the eighty-fifth floor, where Doctor Pearson waited, along with two more muscle-bound minders. Artemis could tell by the look in their eyes that these two weren’t exactly brain surgeons. In fact, they were as close as you could get to Rottweillers still balanced on two legs. It was probably handy to have them around to break things and not ask questions.
Spiro called one of them over.
‘Pex, do you know what the Antonellis charge if you lose their personnel?’
Pex had to consider it for a moment. His lips moved as he thought.
‘Yeah, wait, I got it. Twenty grand for a metal man and fifteen for a monkey.’
‘That’s dead, right?’
‘Dead or incapaci… incatacip… broken.’
‘OK,’ said Spiro. ‘I want you and Chips to go over to Carla Frazetti’s and tell her I owe her thirty-five grand for the team. I’ll wire it to her Cayman account in the morning.’
Mulch was understandably curious, and not a little apprehensive.
‘Excuse me? Thirty-five grand? But I’m still alive. You only owe twenty grand for Loafers, unless the extra fifteen K is my bonus?’
Spiro sighed with almost convincing regret.
‘This is the way it is, Mo,’ he said, punching Mulch playfully on the shoulder. ‘This deal is huge. Mammoth. We’re talking telephone numbers. I can’t afford any loose ends. Maybe you know something, maybe you don’t. But I’m not about to take the chance that you might tip off Phonetix or one of my other competitors. I’m sure you understand.’
Mulch stretched his lips, revealing a row of tombstone teeth.
‘I understand all right, Spiro. You’re a back-stabbing snake. You know, the kid offered me two million dollars to cut him loose.’
‘You should have taken the cash,’ said Arno Blunt, propelling Mulch into Pex’s gigantic arms.
The dwarf kept talking, even as he was being dragged down the corridor.
‘You better bury me deep, Spiro. You better bury me real deep.’
Spiro’s eyes narrowed to wet slits.
‘You heard the man, boys. Before you go to Frazetti’s, bury him deep.’
Doctor Pearson led the party through to the vault room. They had to pass through a small antechamber before entering the main security area.
‘Please stand on the scanner pad,’ said Pearson. ‘We wouldn’t want any bugs in here. Especially not the electronic kind.’
Artemis stepped on to the mat. It sank like a sponge beneath his feet, spurting jets of foam over his shoes.
‘Anti-infection foam,’ explained Pearson. ‘Kills any virus you might have picked up. We’re keeping some bio-technology experiments in the vault at the moment. Very susceptible to disease. The foam has the added advantage of shorting out any surveillance devices in your shoes.’
Overhead a mobile scanner bathed Artemis’s frame in purple light.
‘One of my own inventions,’ said Pearson. ‘A combination scanner. I have incorporated thermal, X-Ray and metal-detector beams. The beam basically breaks your body down into its elements and displays them on this screen here.’
Artemis saw a 3D replica of himself being traced out on the small plasma screen. He held his breath, praying that Foaly’s equipment was as clever as the centaur thought it was.
On-screen, a red light pulsed on Artemis’s jacket front.
‘Aha,’ said Doctor Pearson, plucking off a button. ‘What have we here?’ He cracked the button open, revealing a tiny chip, mike and power source.
‘Very clever. A micro-bug. Our young friend was attempting to spy on us, Mister Spiro.’
Jon Spiro was not angry. In fact, he was delighted to have the opportunity to gloat.
‘You see, kid. You may be some kind of genius, but surveillance and espionage are my business. You can’t slip anything past me. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner we can get this thing over with.’
Artemis stepped off the pad. The decoy had worked, and the real bugs hadn’t caused a blip in the system. Pearson was smart, but Foaly was smarter.