This was confirmed by a sudden shriek of delight from behind. Artemis turned slowly—and with great effort to face his enemy. It seemed as though he had been fighting her forever.
The pixie stood atop the sea stack, almost dancing with delight. Artemis could see a small furry figure splayed on the plateau.
“I have him,”Opal cackled.“With all your genius! With your big bursting brain! You dropped him! You simply dropped him!”
Artemis felt a throb build in his shoulder. In a minute, there would be worse coming, he was certain of it.
Opal stretched two hands toward her prize. “He is mine,” she said reverentially, and Artemis swore he heard thunder in the distance. “The ultimate magic is mine. I have the lemur.”
Artemis spoke clearly, so his words would carry across the divide. “It’s not a lemur,” he said. “It’s a monkey.”
Opal’s smile froze, all tiny teeth, and she grabbed what she had thought was Jayjay. The figure was soft in her hands.
“A toy!” she gasped. “This is a toy.”
Artemis’s triumph was dulled by pain and exhaustion. “Opal, meet Professor Primate. My brother’s plaything.”
“A toy,” repeated Opal dully. “But there were two heat sources. I saw them.”
“Microwave gel pack stuffed inside the foam,” explained Artemis. “It’s over, Opal. Jayjay is in Haven by now. You can’t get him. Turn yourself in, and I won’t have to hurt you.”
Opal’s features were twisted with rage. “Hurt me! Hurt me!” She dashed the toy monkey against the rock surface over and over again until the dented works fell out.
A metallic voice issued from the speaker: “History will remember this day. . . . History will . . . History will remember this day.”
Opal screamed, and red sparks boiled around her fingertips.
“I cannot fly and I cannot shoot lightning, but I have enough magic to boil your brain.”
Opal’s dreams of supreme power were forgotten. At that moment all she wanted was to kill Artemis Fowl. She stepped onto the second span with murder in her heart.
Artemis stood wearily and reached into his pocket. “Your armor should save you,” he said, his voice calm. “It will be terrifying, but the LEP will dig you out.”
Opal scoffed. “More tactics. Bluff and double bluff. Not this time, Artemis.”
“Don’t make me do this, Opal,” Artemis pleaded. “Just sit down and wait for the LEP. No one needs to get hurt.”
“Oh, I think someone needs to get hurt,” said Opal.
Artemis took his modified laser pointer from his pocket, activating the narrow beam and aiming it at the base of the Little Sister.
“What are you going to do with that thing? It would take a hundred years to saw through this rock.”
“I’m not trying to saw through it,” said Artemis, keeping the beam steady. “And it’s not a rock.”
Opal raised her hands, sparks laced like barbed wire around her fingers.
No more talk.
Artemis’s laser beam cut deep into the base of the Little Sister, until it pierced the outer shell and reached the vast pocket of methane beneath.
The Little Sister was not a rock. It was the seventh kraken, attracted by the magical resonance of Hybras. Artemis had been studying it for years. Not even Foaly knew it was there.
The explosion was huge, shooting a column of fire fifty feet into the air. The outer shell collapsed under Opal, engulfing her in a blizzard of shrapnel.
Artemis heard the dull twang of her LEP armor flexing to take the shock.
Foaly’s armor should save her.
He threw himself flat on the sea stack, suffering the rain of rock, weed, and even fish on his back and legs.
Luck will save me now. Only luck.
And luck did save him. The plateau was hammered with several sizeable missiles, but none struck Artemis. He was hailed with smaller objects and would have a hundred bruises and cuts to add to his list of injuries, but not a single bone was broken.
When the world felt as though it had stopped vibrating, Artemis crawled to the lip of the sea stack and gazed down at the bubbling sea below. A pyramid of rubble steamed gently in the waves where the kraken had been. The great beast would be moving away silently now, to find another magical hotspot. Of Opal there was no sign.
The LEP will find her.
Artemis turned over on his back and watched the stars. He did this often, and the sight usually caused him to wonder how he would reach the planets orbiting those pinpricks of light, and what he would find there. On this evening the stars just made him feel tiny and insignificant. Nature was vast and mighty and would eventually swallow him, even the memory of him. He lay there cold and alone on the plateau, waiting for a feeling of triumph that he realized would never arrive, and listening to the distant shouts of the villagers as they made their way across the long meadow.
Holly arrived before the villagers, gliding in from the north and touching down soundlessly on the sea stack.
“You’re flying,” said Artemis, as though he had never seen this before.
“I borrowed a suit from No1’s bodyguards. Well, I say borrowed . . .”