Mulch had not had a drink for several hours, causing his dwarf pores to open to the size of pinholes. They sucked noisily, latching onto the smooth external surface of the Spiro Needle. The dwarf avoided the tinted windows, sticking to the metal girders. Though the pair was draped in a sheet of camouflage foil, there were still enough limbs sticking out for them to be recognized. Camouflage foil did not render the wearer completely invisible. Thousands of microsensors threaded through the material analyzed and reflected the surroundings, but one shower of rain could short out the whole thing.
Mulch climbed quickly, settling into a smooth rhythm. His double-jointed fingers and toes curled to grip the smallest groove. And where there were no grooves, the dwarf’s pores adhered to the flat surface. His beard hair fanned out under the helmet’s visor, probing the building’s face.
Juliet had to ask.
“Your beard? That’s a bit freaky. What’s it doing? Searching for cracks?”
“Vibrations,” grunted Mulch. “Sensors, current, maintenance men.”
Obviously he wasn’t going to devote any energy to full sentences.
“Motion sensor picks us up, we’re finished. Foil or not.”
Juliet didn’t blame her partner for saving his breath. They had a long way to go. Straight up.
The wind picked up as they cleared the buffer provided by the adjacent buildings. Juliet’s feet were plucked from beneath her, and she fluttered from the dwarf’s neck like a scarf. Rarely had she felt so helpless. Events were utterly beyond her control. Training counted for absolutely nothing in this situation. Her life was in Mulch’s hands completely.
The floors slid by in a blur of glass and steel. The wind pulled at them with grabby fingers, threatening to spin the pair into the night.
“There’s a lot of moisture up here, from the wind,” gasped the dwarf. “I can’t hold on much longer.”
Juliet reached in, running a finger along the outer wall. It was slick with tiny beads of dew. Sparks were popping along the sheet of camouflage foil as the moisture-laden wind shorted out its microsensors. Patches of the foil failed altogether. The effect was like patches of circuits apparently suspended in the night. The entire building was swaying too, maybe just enough to shake off a tired dwarf and his passenger.
Finally, the dwarf’s fingers locked onto the ledge of the eighty-fifth floor. Mulch climbed onto the narrow outcropping, directing his visor into the building.
“This room is no good,” he said. “My visor is detecting two motion detectors and a laser sensor. We need to move along.”
He scampered down the ledge, surefooted as a mountain goat. This was his business after all. Dwarfs did not fall off things. Not unless they were pushed. Juliet followed cautiously. Not even Madam Ko’s academy could have prepared her for this.
Finally, Mulch arrived at a window that satisfied him.
“Okay,” he said, his voice strained through Juliet’s earpiece. “We got a sensor with a dead battery.”
His beard hair latched on to the windowpane. “I don’t feel any vibration, so nothing electrical running and no conversation. It seems safe.”
Mulch trickled a few drops of dwarf rock polish onto the toughened pane. It liquefied the glass immediately, leaving a puddle of turgid liquid on the carpet. With any luck the hole would remain undiscovered over the weekend.
“Ooh,” said Juliet. “That stinks nearly as much as you do.” Mulch did not bother returning the insult, preferring nstead to tumble indoors to safety. He checked the moonometer in his visor. “Four-twenty. Human time. We’re behind schedule.
Let’s go.” Juliet hopped through the hole in the window. “Typical Mud Man,” said Mulch. “Spiro spends millions n a security system, and it all falls apart because of one battery.”
Juliet drew an LEP Neutrino 2000. She flicked aside the safety cap and pressed the power button. A button light changed from green to red.
“We’re not in yet,” she said making for the door. “Wait!” hissed Mulch, grabbing her arm. “The camera!” Juliet froze. She’d forgotten the camera. They were arely a minute inside the building and she was already making mistakes. Concentrate, girl, concentrate.
Mulch aimed his visor at the recessed CCTV camera. The helmet’s ion filter highlighted the camera’s arc as a shimmering gold stream. There was no way past to the camera itself.
“There’s no blind spot,” he said. “And the camera cable is behind the box.”
“We’ll just have to huddle close together behind the camouflage foil,” said Juliet, her lip curling at the idea.
Foaly’s image popped onto the computer screen on her wrist. “You could do that. But unfortunately, cam foil doesn’t work on screen.”
“Why not?”
“Cameras have better eyes than humans. Did you ever see a TV picture on television? The camera breaks down the pixels. If we go down that corridor behind camouflage foil, we’re going to look like two people behind a projector screen.”
Juliet glared at the screen. “Anything else, Foaly? Maybe the floor is going to dissolve into a pool of acid?”
“Doubt it. Spiro is good, but he’s not me.”
“Can’t you loop the video feed, pony boy?” said Juliet into the computer’s microphone. “Just send them a false signal for a minute?”
Foaly gnashed his horsy teeth. “I am so unappreciated. No, I cannot set up a loop unless I am on-site, as I was during the Fowl siege. That is what the video clip is for. I’m afraid you’re on your own up there.”