“Hey, I’m already public enemy number one,” he had said. “It’s not as if I can go any higher on the list.”
So now they were seated inside the tunnel scraper, which was slotted into a launching bracket, drawing a few minutes’ charge from the coupling dock before they dropped into the abyss. Holly spent the time falsifying a report for the tunnel authorities.
“I’m telling them that the shuttle paddle has been upgraded as per the service order, and the ship has been requested by the North African shuttleport to do a supply artery de-clogging. It’s a drone flight, so they won’t be looking for any personnel on board.”
Artemis was determined to give the mission every chance of success, in spite of the bridges he had burned. So if a question had to be asked, he would ask it.
“Will that work?”
Holly shrugged. “I doubt it. There’s probably a smart missile waiting for us on the other side of that door.”
“Really?”
“No. I’m lying. Not nice, is it?”
Artemis shook his head miserably. He would have to think of some way to make it up to Holly. At least partially.
“Of course it will work. For now, at least. By the time Police Plaza puts all of this together, we should have returned to the future.”
“And we can fly without a paddle?”
Holly and Mulch shared a guffaw and a few words in Gnommish that were too fast for Artemis to catch. He did think he heard the word cowpóg which translated as moron.
“Yes, Mud Boy. We can fly without a paddle, unless you’re planning to scrape some residue from the tunnel walls. Usually we leave that to the robots.”
Artemis had forgotten how cutting Holly could be with people she wasn’t fond of.
Mulch sang a few bars of the old human song “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.” He crooned at Holly, clutching an imaginary microphone in his fist.
Holly was not smiling now. “You’re about to lose all feeling in your legs, Diggums, if you don’t shut it.”
Mulch noticed Holly’s expression and realized that now was not the best time to be needling her.
Holly decided that it was time to terminate the conversation. She remote-opened the access hatch and withdrew the docking clamps.
“Buckle up, boys,” she said, and dropped the small craft into a steep dive, down an enormous hole, like dropping a peanut into the mouth of a hungry hippo.
CHAPTER 10
A FOWL MOOD
Fez, Morocco
Ten-year-old Artemis was about as miserable as Butler could remember seeing him, except for perhaps the time he had lost a science prize to an Australian postgraduate. The bodyguard glanced in the mirror of the rented Land Rover and saw that his young charge was sitting in a puddle of perspiration, his expensive suit virtually dissolving on his spare frame.
He’s in a Fowl mood, thought Butler, in a rare moment of wit.
A perforated box sat belted on the seat beside Artemis. Three black fingers poked from one of the holes, as the captured lemur explored his prison.
Artemis has barely looked at the creature. He is trying to objectify it. It is no small thing to cause the extinction of a species, even to save one’s father.
Artemis, meanwhile, was cataloging the causes of his misery. A missing father and a mother teetering on the brink of nervous collapse were numbers one and two. Followed by a team of Arctic explorers running up expenses in a Moscow hotel room, doubtless living on room service—caviar with everything. Damon Kronski figured high on the list too. A repulsive man with repellant ideals.
The local airport, Fez Sa?ss, had been closed, and so Butler had been forced to detour the Lear to Mohammed V International in Casablanca and rent a Land Rover there. And not a modern Land Rover either. This one belonged in the last millennium and had more holes than a block of Gruyère cheese. The air-conditioning had spluttered its last more than a hundred miles ago, and the seat padding had worn so thin that Artemis felt like he was sitting on a jackhammer. If the heat didn’t bake him, the vibration would shake him to death.
Still, in spite of all these things, a thought struck Artemis, causing the corner of his mouth to twitch into a half smile.
That strange creature and her human companion were utterly fascinating.
They were desperate to have this lemur, and they would not give up. He was certain of it.