Artemis Fowl_ The Opal Deception - Eoin Colfer [101]
The detainees were housed in the shuttleport’s executive lounge, evicting several grumbling lawyers and businessfairies. It was all very civil: good food, clean clothes (not for Butler), and entertainment centers. But they were under guard, nevertheless.
Half an hour later, Foaly burst in to the lounge.
“Holly!” he said, wrapping a hairy arm around the elf. “I am so happy that you’re alive.”
“Me too, Foaly.” Holly grinned.
“A little hello wouldn’t hurt,” said Mulch sulkily. “‘How are you, Mulch? Long time no see, Mulch. Here’s your medal, Mulch.’”
“Oh, all right,” said Foaly, wrapping the other hairy arm around the equally hairy dwarf. “Nice to see you too, Mulch, even if you did sink one of my subs. And no, no medal.”
“Because of the sub,” argued Mulch. “If I hadn’t done it, your bones would be buried under a hundred million tons of molten iron right now.”
“Good point,” noted the centaur. “I’ll mention it at your hearing.” He turned to Artemis. “I see you managed to cheat the mind wipe, Artemis.”
Artemis smiled. “A good thing for all of us.”
“Indeed. I’ll never make the mistake of trying to wipe you again.” He took Artemis’s hand and shook it warmly. “You’ve been a friend to the People. You too, Butler.”
The bodyguard was hunched on a sofa, elbows on knees. “You can repay me by building a room I can stand up in.”
“I’m sorry about this,” said Foaly apologetically. “We don’t have rooms for people your size. Sool wants you all kept here until your story can be verified.”
“How are things going?” asked Holly.
Foaly pulled a file from inside his shirt. “I’m not actually supposed to be here, but I thought you’d like an update.”
They crowded around a table while Foaly laid out the reports.
“We found the Brill brothers on the chute wall. They’re singing like stinkworms—so much for loyalty to your employer. Forensics have collected enough pieces of the stealth shuttle to prove its existence.”
Holly clapped her hands. “That’s it, then.”
“It’s not airtight,” corrected Artemis. “Without Opal, we could still be responsible for everything. The Brills could be lying to protect us. Do you have her?”
Foaly clenched his fists. “Well, yes and no. Her escape pod was ruptured from the blast, so we could trace it. But by the time we reached the crash-down site on the surface, she had disappeared. We ran a thermal on the area and isolated Opal’s footprints. We followed them to a small rustic homestead in the wine region near Bari. We can actually see her on satellite, but an insertion is going to take time to organize. She’s ours, and we will get her. But it may take a week.”
Holly’s face was dark with rage. “She’d better enjoy that week, because it will be the best of the rest of her life.”
Near Bari, Italy
Opal Koboi’s craft limped to the surface, leaking plasma gouts through its cracked generator. Opal was well aware that this plasma was as good as a trail of arrows for Foaly. She must ditch the craft as soon as possible and find somewhere to lay low until she could access some of her funds.
She cleared the shuttleport and made it nearly ten miles across country before her engines seized, utterly forcing her to ditch in a vineyard. When she clambered from the pod, Opal found a tall tanned woman of perhaps forty waiting for her with a shovel and a furious expression on her face.
“These are my vines,” said the woman in Italian. “The vines are my life. Who are you to crash here in your little airplane and destroy everything I have?”
Opal thought fast. “Where is your family?” she asked. “Your husband?”
The woman blew a strand of hair from her eye. “No family. No husband. I work the vines alone. I’m the last in the line. These vines mean more to me than my life, and certainly more to me than yours.”
“You’re not alone,” said Opal, turning on the hypnotic fairy mesmer. “You have me now. I am your daughter, Belinda.”
Why not? she reasoned. If it worked once . . .
“Bel-inda,” said the woman slowly. “I have a daughter?”
“That