Artemis made sure he had a good look around the antechamber. There was more here. Every square centimetre of the metal surface contained a security or surveillance device. From what Artemis could see, an invisible ant would have trouble sneaking in. Not to mention two humans, an elf and a dwarf – assuming the dwarf survived Pex and Chips.
The vault door itself was impressive. Most corporate vaults looked impressive, plenty of chrome and keypads, but that was just to make an impression on stockholders. In Spiro’s vault there wasn’t a tumbler out of place. Artemis spotted the very latest computer lock on the face of titanium double doors. Spiro keyed in another complicated series of numbers, and the metre-thick doors slid back to reveal another barrier. The secondary door.
‘Imagine you are a thief,’ said Spiro, an actor introducing a play, ‘and you somehow get into the building, past the electronic eyes and the locked doors. Then imagine you somehow cheat the lasers, the sensor pad and the door code, and open the first vault door – an impossible feat by the way. And while we’re imagining all this, let’s pretend you disable the half dozen cameras, and even then, even after all that, would you be able to do this?’
Spiro stood on a small red plate on the floor in front of the door. He placed a thumb on a gel-print scanner, held his left eyelid open and enunciated clearly.
‘Jon Spiro. I am the boss, so open up quick.’
Four things happened. A retinal scanner filmed his left eye and fed the image into the computer. A print plate scanned his right thumb, and a vocal analyser scrutinized his voice’s accent, timbre and intonations. Once the computer had verified all this information, the alarms were deactivated and the secondary door slid open to reveal an expansive vault.
In the very middle, in the centre of a custom-made steel column, rested the C Cube. It was enclosed in a perspex case, with at least six cameras focused on its various planes. Two burly guards stood back to back, forming a human barrier in front of the fairy technology.
Spiro could not resist a jibe. ‘Unlike you,’ he said, ‘I look after my technology. This is the only vault of its kind in the world.’
‘Live security in an airtight room. Interesting.’
‘These guys are trained at high altitude. Also, we change the guards on the hour, and they all carry oxygen cylinders to keep them going. What did you think? I was going to put air vents into a vault?’
Artemis scowled. ‘No need to show off, Spiro. I’m here; you win. So can we get on with it?’
Spiro punched a final number sequence into the column’s keypad and the perspex panes retracted. He took the Cube from its foam nest.
‘Overkill, don’t you think?’ commented Artemis. ‘All of this is hardly necessary.’
‘You never know. Some crooked businessman could attempt to relieve me of my prize.’
Artemis took a chance on some calculated sarcasm.
‘Really, Spiro. Did you think I would attempt a break-in? Perhaps you thought I would fly in here with my fairy friends and magic your box away?’
Spiro laughed. ‘You can bring all the fairy friends you like, Arty boy. Short of a miracle that Cube is staying right where it is.’
Juliet was an American citizen by birth, even though her brother had been born on the other side of the world. She was glad to be back in her home country. The discord of Chicago’s traffic and the constant chorus of multicultural voices made her feel at home. She loved the skyscrapers and the steam vents and the affectionate sarcasm of the street vendors. If she ever got the chance to settle down, it would be in the US. On the west coast though, somewhere with sun.
Juliet and Holly were circling the Spiro Needle in a blacked out mini-van. Holly sat in the back, watching the live video feed from Artemis’s iris-cam on her helmet visor.
At one point she punched the air triumphantly.
Juliet stopped at a red light. ‘How are we doing?’
‘Not bad,’ replied the fairy, raising her visor. ‘They’re taking Mulch to bury him.’
‘Cool. Just like Artemis said they would.’
‘And Spiro has just invited all of Artemis’s fairy friends into the building.’
This was a crucial development. The Book forbade fairies from entering human buildings without an invitation. Now Holly was free to break in and wreak havoc without violating fairy doctrine.
‘Excellent,’ said Juliet. ‘We’re in. I get to bodyslam the guy who shot my brother.’
‘Not so fast. This building has the most sophisticated Mud Man security system I’ve seen. Spiro has a few tricks in there that I’ve never come across before.’
Juliet finally found a space opposite the Needle’s main revolving doors.
‘No problem for the little horsey guy, surely?’
‘No, but Foaly’s not supposed to help us.’
Juliet focused a set of binoculars on the door. ‘I know, but it all depends on how you ask. A smart guy like Foaly – what he needs is a challenge.’