Artemis Fowl_ The Arctic Incident - Eoin Colfer [37]
Butler glanced sideways. Holly and the commander were pumping the triggers of various weapons. Without any result. Their weapons were as dead as mice in a snake pit.
‘I don’t understand it,’ muttered Root. ‘I checked these myself.’
Artemis, naturally, was first to figure it out. He shook the snow from his hair.
‘Sabotage,’ he proclaimed, tossing aside the useless fairy handgun. ‘There is no other alternative. This is why the B’ wa Kell needs Softnose weapons, because it has somehow disabled fairy lasers.’
But the commander was not listening, and neither was Butler. This was no time for clever deductions; this was a time for action. They were sitting ducks out here, dark against the pale Arctic glow. This theory was confirmed when several Softnose laser bursts bored hissing holes in the snow at their feet.
Holly activated her helmet Optix, zooming in on the enemy.
‘It looks like one of them has a Softnose laser, sir. Something with a long barrel.’
‘We need cover. Fast!’
Butler nodded. ‘Look. An overhang. Under the ridge.’
The manservant grabbed his charge by the collar, hoisting him aloft as easily as a child would lift a kitten. They struggled through the snow to the shelter of the overhang. Maybe a million years ago the ice had melted sufficiently for a layer to slump slightly, then freeze up again. The resulting wrinkle had somehow lasted through the ages and could now possibly save their lives.
They dived underneath the lip, wriggling backwards against a wall of ice. The frozen canopy was easily thick enough to withstand gunfire from any conventional weapon.
Butler shielded Artemis with his body, risking an upward glance.
‘Too far. I can’t make them out. Holly?’
Captain Short poked her head from under the frozen ledge and her Optix zoomed into focus.
‘Well, what are they up to?’
Holly waited a beat, until the figures sharpened.
‘Funny thing,’ she commented. ‘They’re all firing now, but...’
‘But what, Captain?’
Holly tapped her helmet to make sure the lenses were working. ‘Maybe I’m getting some Optix distortion, sir, but it looks like they’re missing on purpose, shooting way over our heads.’
Butler felt the blood pounding in his brain. ‘It’s a trap!’ he roared, reaching behind him to grab Artemis. ‘Everybody out! Everybody out!’
And that was when the goblin charges sent fifty tonnes of rock, ice and snow tumbling to the ground.
They nearly made it. Of course, nearly never won a bucket of squid at gnommish roulette. If it hadn’t been for Butler, not one of the group would have survived. Something happened to him. An inexplicable surge of strength, not unlike the energy bursts that allow mothers to lift fallen trees off their children. The manservant grabbed Artemis and Holly, spinning them forward like stones across a pond. It wasn’t a very dignified way to travel, but it certainly beat having your bones pulverized by falling ice.
For the second time in so many minutes, Artemis landed nose first in a snowdrift. Behind him, Butler and Root were scrabbling from beneath the ledge, boots slipping on the icy surface. The air was rent by avalanche thunder, and the pack ice beneath them heaved and split. Thick chunks of rock and ice speared the cave’s opening like bars. Butler and Root were trapped.
Holly was on her feet, racing towards her commander. But what could she do? Throw herself back underneath the ledge?
‘Stay back, Captain,’ said Root into his helmet mike. ‘That’s an order!’
‘Commander,’ Holly breathed. ‘You’re alive.’
‘Somehow,’ came the reply. ‘Butler is unconscious and we’re pinned down. The ledge is on the point of collapsing. The only thing holding it up is the debris. If we brush that aside to get out…’
They were alive then at least. Trapped, but alive. A plan, they needed a plan.
Holly found herself strangely calm. This was one of the qualities that made her such an excellent field agent. In times of excessive stress, Captain Short had the ability to target a course of action. Often the only viable course. In the combat simulator for her captain’s exam, Holly had defeated insurmountable