“That’s why I’m up here. To do an X-ray scan. It’ll be in your mainframe in ten minutes.”
Holly heard a bell chime in her speakers. It was a computer alert. Her mail had arrived in Police Plaza. Foaly opened the file.
“Key codes. Okay. Cameras. No problem. Wait until I show you what I’ve developed for CCTV cameras. I’m fast-forwarding through the corridors. Dum de dum de dum, ah, the vault. Pressure pads, antibiotic mats. Motion sensors. Temperature sensitive lasers. Thermal cameras. Voice recognition, retina and gel thumbprint scanners.” He paused. “Impressive, for a Mud Man.”
“You’re telling me,” agreed Holly. “A bit more than two tin cans and a dog.”
“Fowl is right. Without me, you’re sunk.”
“So, will you help?”
Foaly had to milk the moment. “I’m not promising anything. . . .”
“Yes?”
“I’ll keep a screen open for you. But if something comes up ...”
“I understand.”
“No guarantees.”
“No guarantees. I owe you a carton of carrots.”
“Two cartons. And a case of beetle juice.”
“Done.”
The centaur’s face was flushed with the promise of a challenge.
“Will you miss him, Holly?” he asked suddenly.
Holly was caught off guard by the question.
“Miss who?” she said, though she already knew.
“The Fowl boy, of course. If everything goes according to plan, we’ll be wiped from his memory. No more wild plots, or seat-of-the-pants adventures. It will be a quiet life.”
Holly avoided Foaly’s gaze, even though the centaur could not see her.
“No,” she said. “I will not miss him.”
But her eyes told the real story.
Holly circled the Needle several times at various altitudes, until the X-ray scanner had accumulated enough data for a 3-D model. She mailed a copy of the file to Foaly in Police Plaza and returned to the van.
“I thought I told you not to mark them,” she said, bending over the fallen hit men.
Juliet shrugged. “Hey. No big deal, fairy-girl. I got carried away in the heat of battle. Just give him a shot of blue sparks and send him on his way.”
Holly traced a finger around the perfectly circular bruise on Chips’s forehead.
“You should have seen me,” said Juliet. “Bang bang and they were down. Never had a chance.”
Holly sent a solitary spark down her finger. It wiped away the bruise like damp cloth cleaning a coffee ring.
“You could have used the Neutrino to stun them, you know.”
“The Neutrino? Where’s the fun in that?”
Captain Short removed her helmet, glaring up at the teenage human.
“This is not supposed to be fun, Juliet. It’s not a game. I thought you realized that, considering what happened to Butler.”
Juliet’s grin disappeared. “I know it’s not a game, Captain. Maybe this is the way I deal with things.”
Holly held her gaze. “Well then, maybe you’re in the wrong line of work.”
“Or maybe you’ve been in this line of work too long,” argued Juliet. “According to Butler, you used to be a bit of a wild card yourself.”
Mulch emerged from the bathroom. This time he had been applying a layer of sun block. It was the middle of the night, but the dwarf wasn’t taking any chances. If this insertion went haywire, as it probably would, then he could very well be on the run by morning.
“What’s the problem, ladies? If you’re fighting over me, don’t bother. I make it a point never to date outside my species.”
The tension deflated like a punctured balloon.
“Dream on, hairball,” said Holly.
“Nightmare, more like,” added Juliet. “I make it a point never to date anyone who lives in a dung heap.”
Mulch was unperturbed. “You’re both in denial. I have that effect on females.”
“I don’t doubt it,” said Holly, grinning.
The LEP captain unfolded a stowaway table and placed her helmet on top. She switched her helmet-cam to PROJECT, and opened the 3-D plan of the Spiro Needle. It revolved in the air, a lattice of neon-green lines.
“Okay, everyone. Here’s the plan. Team one, burn your way in through the wall of the eighty-fifth floor. Here. Team two, go in through the helipad door. Here.”
Holly marked the entrances by tapping the corresponding spot on the screen of her handheld computer. An orange pulse appeared on the floating plan.
“Foaly has agreed to help, so he’ll be with us over the airwaves. Juliet, you take this handheld computer. You can use it to conference with us on the move. Just ignore the Gnommish symbols, we’ll send you any files you need to view. Wear an earpiece though, to cut out the speakers. The last thing we need is computers beeping at the wrong moment. That little indent below the screen is a microphone. Whisper-sensitive, so no need to shout.”
Juliet strapped the credit card-sized computer onto her wrist.
“What are the teams, and what are their objectives?”