The Arctic Incident

Artemis raised his palms. “Logic. That’s all it is.”


“This is all very well,” interjected the commander. “But it’s conjecture. We need to assess our situation. What have we got, and what do we know for sure?”

Butler nodded. The commander was a being after his own heart. A soldier.

Root answered his own question. “We’ve still got the shuttle, provided it’s not wired. There’s a locker full of provisions. Atlantean food mostly, so get used to fish and squid.”

“And what do we know?”

Artemis took over. “We know that the goblins have a source in the LEP. We also know if they tried to take out the LEP’s head, Commander Root, then they must be after the body. Their best chance of success would be to mount both operations simultaneously.”

Holly chewed her lip. “So that means . . .”

“That means there is probably some kind of revolution going on underground.”

“The B’wa Kell against the LEP?” scoffed Holly. “No problem.”

“Generally, that may be true,” agreed Artemis. “But if your weapons are out . . .”

“Then so are theirs,” said Root.

Artemis moved closer to the glow cube. “Worst case scenario: Haven has been taken by the B’wa Kell and the Council members are either dead or imprisoned. Quite honestly, things look grim.”

Neither fairy responded. Grim hardly did the situation justice. Disastrous was closer to the mark. Even Artemis was slightly disheartened. None of this was helping his father.

“I suggest we rest here for a while, pack some provisions, and then proceed toward Murmansk as soon as we get some cloud cover. Butler can search this man Vassikin’s apartment. Perhaps we will be lucky, and my father will be there. I realize that we are at a slight disadvantage without weapons, but we still have surprise on our side.”

No one spoke for several moments. It was an uneasy silence. Everybody knew what should be said, but nobody wanted to say it.

“Artemis,” said Butler eventually, laying a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “We’re in no shape to go up against the Mafiya. We don’t have any firepower, and our colleagues need to get underground, so we don’t have any magic. If we go in there now, we’re not coming out. Any of us.”

Artemis stared deep into the heart of the glow cube.

“But my father is so close, Butler. I can’t give up now.”

In spite of herself, Holly was touched by his unwillingness to give up, against all the odds. She was certain that, for once, Artemis wasn’t trying to manipulate anybody. He was simply a boy who missed his father. Maybe her defenses were down, but she felt sorry for him.

“We’re not giving up, Artemis,” she said softly. “We’re regrouping. There’s a difference. We’ll be back. Remember, it’s always darkest before the dawn.”

Artemis looked at her. “What dawn? We’re in the Arctic, remember?”





Operations Booth


Foaly was furious with himself. After all the security encryptions he’d built into his systems, Opal Koboi had simply strolled in here and hijacked the entire network. And what’s more, the LEP had paid her for the job. The centaur had to admire her nerve. It was a brilliantly simple plan. Apply for the upgrade contract, submit the lowest estimate. Get the LEP to give you an access-all-areas chip and then piggyback spy-cams on the local systems. Foaly would be willing to bet that Opal had even billed the LEP for the surveillance equipment.

Foaly pushed a few buttons experimentally. No response. Not that he’d expected any. Doubtless Opal Koboi had everything wired down to the last fiber-optic. Perhaps she was watching him at this very moment. He could just imagine her. Coiled up on a Koboi Hoverboy giggling at the plasma screen. His greatest rival, gloating over his destruction.

Foaly growled. She may have caught him off guard once, but it wouldn’t happen again. He would not go to pieces for Opal Koboi’s entertainment. . . . Then again, maybe he would.

The centaur began to heave theatrical sobs, peeping out between his fingers. Now, if I were a button camera, where would I hide? Somewhere the sweeper wouldn’t check. Foaly glanced at the bug sweeper, a small complex-looking mass of cables and chips attached to the roof. The only place the sweeper didn’t check was inside the sweeper itself.

Now he knew Opal’s vantage point, for all the good it did him. If the camera was piggybacking inside the sweeper, there would be a small blindspot directly below the unit’s titanium casing. The pixie could still see everything of importance. He was still locked out of the computer, and locked in the Operations Booth.