‘Hey, mister, is it OK if I bring my invisible friend?’
‘Sure it is, honey,’ replied the guide. ‘Bring your security blanket too, if it makes you happy.’
They were in.
Holly hovered at ceiling level, following Artemis’s progress below. The Mud Boy’s plan was fraught with risk. If Spiro decided to shoot him in the Needle, then it was all over.
But no, just as Artemis predicted, Spiro had opted to gloat for as long as possible, basking in the glow of his own demented genius. But, of course, it wasn’t his own genius. It was Artemis’s. The boy had orchestrated this whole operation from beginning to end. It had even been his idea to mesmerize Pex and Chips. It was crucial that they plant the idea to invade Phonetix.
Holly was ready when the lift door opened. She had her weapon charged and targets selected. But she couldn’t go. Wait for the signal.
Artemis dragged it out. Melodramatic to the end. And then, just when Holly was about to disregard her orders and start blasting, he spoke.
‘I am that male. Artemis the hunter. I hunted you.’
Artemis the hunter. The signal.
Holly squeezed the manual throttle on her wing rig and descended, stopping short a metre from the ground. She clipped Artemis on to a retractable cord on her Moonbelt, then dropped a sheet of cam foil in front of him. To everybody in the room, it would seem as though the boy had disappeared.
‘Up we go,’ she said, though Artemis could not hear her, and opened the throttle wide. In under a second they were nestled safely among the cables and ducts that ran along the ceiling.
Below them, Jon Spiro lost his mind.
Spiro blinked. The boy had gone! Just gone! It couldn’t be. He was Jon Spiro! Nobody outsmarted Jon Spiro!
He turned to Pex and Chips, gesticulating wildly with the gun.
‘Where is he?’
‘Huh?’ said the bodyguards, in perfect unison. Unrehearsed.
‘Where is Artemis Fowl? What did you do with him?’
‘Nothing, Mister Spiro. We were just standing here playing the shoulder game.’
‘Fowl said you were working for him. So hand him over.’
Pex’s brain was churning. This was an operation akin to a food blender mixing concrete.
‘Careful, Mister Spiro, guns are dangerous. Especially the end with the hole.’
‘This isn’t over, Artemis Fowl,’ Spiro roared at the ceiling. ‘I will find you. I will never give up. You’ve got Jon Spiro’s word on it. My word!’
He began to fire random shots, blowing holes in monitors, vents and conduits. One even came within a metre of Artemis.
Pex and Chips were not quite sure what was going on, but decided that it might be a good idea to join in the fun. They pulled out their weapons and began shooting up the lab.
Blunt did not get involved. He considered his employment contract terminated. There was no way out of this for Spiro – it was every man for himself. He crossed to the wall’s metal panelling and began to dismantle it with a power screwdriver. A section dropped from its casing, behind it a five-centimetre cable space, then solid concrete. They were trapped.
Behind him, the lift door dinged.
Juliet was crouched in the lift shaft.
‘We’re clear,’ said Holly in her earpiece. ‘But Spiro is shooting up the lab.’
Juliet frowned. Her principal was in danger. ‘Knock them out with the Neutrino.’
‘I can’t. If Spiro is unconscious when the police arrive, he could claim a frame-up.’
‘OK. I’m going in.’
‘Negative. Wait for SWAT.’
‘No. You take out the weapons. I’ll handle the rest.’
Mulch had given Juliet a bottle of dwarf rock polish. She poured a little puddle on the lift roof and it dissolved like fat on a pan. Juliet hopped into the carriage, crouching low in case Blunt decided to put a few rounds into the lift.
‘On three.’
‘Juliet.’
‘I’m going on three.’
‘OK.’
Juliet reached up to the door-open button. ‘One.’
Holly drew her Neutrino, locking all four targets into her visor’s targeting system.
‘Two.’ She unshielded for accuracy, the vibration would throw her aim right off. For a few seconds she would have to hide behind the foil with Artemis.
‘Three.’
Juliet pressed the button.
Holly squeezed off four shots.
Artemis had less than a minute to make his move. Less than a minute while Holly targeted and disarmed Spiro and Co. The circumstances were hardly ideal – screaming, gunfire and general mayhem. But then again, what better time to implement the final step in this stage of the plan? A very vital step.