The elevator was spacious by LEP standards and so allowed Butler enough headroom to stand up straight, though he still knocked his crown against the capsule wall whenever they hit a bump.
Finally Artemis spoke: “If we can get into the shuttle before the deadline, then we stand a real chance of making it to the magma chutes.”
Artemis used the word deadline, but his companions knew that he meant assassination. Pip would shoot Opal when the time was up; none of them doubted that now. Then the consequences of this murder would unfold, whatever they might be; and their best chance of survival lay on the inside of a titanium craft that was built to withstand total immersion in a magma chimney.
The elevator hissed to a halt on pneumatic pistons and the doors opened to admit the assorted noises of utter bedlam. The shuttleport was jammed with frantic fairies fighting their way through the security checkpoints, ignoring the usual X-ray protocols and jumping over barriers and turnstiles. Sprites flew illegally low, their wings grazing the tube lighting. Gnomes huddled together in crunchball formations, attempting to barge their way through the line of LEP crowd-control officers in riot gear.
“People are forgetting their drills,” muttered Holly. “This panic is not going to help anyone.”
Artemis stared crestfallen at the melee. He had seen something like it once in JFK airport, when a TV reality star had turned up in Arrivals. “We won’t make it through. Not without hurting people.”
Butler picked up his comrades and slung one across each shoulder. “The heck we won’t,” he said, stepping determinedly into the multitude.
Pip’s attitude had changed since he’d shot his partner. No more chitchat or posturing; now he was following his instructions to the letter: Wait until your phone alarm beeps, then shoot the pixie.
That Fowl guy. That was bluff, right? He can’t do anything now. It probably wasn’t even Fowl.
Pip decided that he would never divulge what had happened here today. Silence was safety. Words would only bind themselves into strands and hang him.
She need never know.
But Pip knew that she would take one look in his eyes and know everything. For a second Pip thought about running, just disentangling himself from this entire convoluted master plan and being a plain old gnome again.
I cannot do it. She would find me. She would find me and do terrible things to me. And, for some reason, I do not wish to be free of her.
There was nothing for it but to follow the orders that he had not already disobeyed.
Perhaps, if I kill her, she will forgive me.
Pip cocked the hammer on his handgun and pressed it to the back of Opal’s head.
Atlantis
In the reactor, Opal’s head was buzzing with excitement. It must be soon. Very soon. She had been counting the seconds, but the bumpy elevator ride had disoriented her.
I am ready, she thought. Ready for the next step.
Pull it! she broadcast, knowing her younger self would hear the thought and panic. Pull the trigger.
Police Plaza
Foaly felt his forelock droop under the weight of perspiration and tried to remember what his parting comment to Caballine had been that morning.
I think I told her that I loved her. I always do. But did I say it this morning? Did I?
It seemed very important to him.
Caballine is in the suburbs. She will be out of harm’s way. Fine.
The centaur did not believe his own thoughts. If Opal was behind this, there would be serpentine twists to this plan yet to be revealed.
Opal Koboi does not make plans; she writes operas.
For the first time in his life, Foaly was horrified to catch himself thinking that someone else might just be a little smarter than he was.
Police Plaza Shuttleport
Butler waded through the crowd, dropping his feet with care. His appearance in the shuttleport only served to heighten the level of panic, but that could not be helped now. Some temporary discomforts would have to be borne by certain fairies if it meant reaching their shuttle in time. Elves shoaled around his knees like cleaner-fish, several poking him with buzz batons and a couple spraying him with pheromone repellent spray, which Butler found to his great annoyance instantly shrunk his sinuses.
When they reached the security turnstile, the huge bodyguard simply stepped over it, leaving the majority of the frightened populace milling around on the other side. Butler had the presence of mind to dunk Holly in front of the retinal scanner so they could be beeped through without activating the terminal’s security measures.
Holly called to a sprite she recognized on the security desk.
“Chix. Is our chute open?”
Chix Verbil had once been Holly’s podmate on a stakeout and was only alive because she had dragged his wounded frame out of harm’s way.
“Uh…yeah. Commander Kelp told us to make a hole. Are you okay, Captain?”
Holly dismounted from Butler’s shelflike shoulder, landing with sparks from her boot heels.
“Fine.”