Artemis Fowl_ The Opal Deception - Eoin Colfer [27]
Holly gritted her teeth. “You’re lying. Why would you give me a chance?”
“Don’t take the shot,” said Root, strangely calm. “Just get out of range. Go and save Artemis. That’s the last order I’ll ever give you, Captain. Don’t you dare ignore it.”
Holly felt as though her senses were being filtered through three feet of water. Everything was blurred and slowed down.
“I don’t have any choice, Julius.”
Root frowned. “Don’t call me Julius! You always do that just before you disobey me. Save Artemis, Holly. Save him.”
Holly closed one eye and aimed her pistol. The laser sights were no good for this kind of accuracy. She would have to do it manually.
“I’ll save Artemis next,” she said. Holly took a deep breath, held it, and squeezed the trigger.
Holly hit the red spot. She was certain of it. The charge sank into the device, spreading across the metal face like a tiny bushfire.
“I hit it,” she shouted at Opal’s image. “I hit the spot.”
Koboi shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought you were a fraction low. Hard luck. I mean that sincerely.”
“No!” screamed Holly.
The countdown on Root’s chest ticked faster than before, flickering through the numbers. There were mere moments left now.
The commander struggled to his feet, raising the visor on his helmet. His eyes were steady and fearless. He smiled gently at Holly. A smile that laid no blame. For once there wasn’t even a touch of feverish temper in his cheeks.
“Be well,” he said, and then an orange flame blossomed in the center of his chest.
The explosion sucked the air from the tunnel, feeding on the oxygen. Multicolored flames roiled like the plumage of battling birds. Holly was shunted backward by a wall of shock waves, the force impacting every surface facing the commander. Microfilaments blew in her suit as they were overloaded with heat and force. The camera cylinder on her helmet popped right out of its groove, spinning into E37.
Holly herself was borne bodily into the chute, spinning like a twig in a cyclone. Sonix sponges in her earpieces sealed automatically as the sound of the explosion caught up with the blast. The commander had disappeared inside a ball of flame. He was gone, there was no doubt about it. Even magic could not help him now. Some things are beyond fixing.
The contents of the access tunnel, including Root and Scalene, disintegrated into a cloud of shrapnel and dust, particles ricocheting off the tunnel walls. The cloud surged down the path of least resistance, which was of course directly after Holly. She barely had time to activate her wings and climb a few meters, before flying shrapnel drilled a hole in the chute wall below her.
Holly hovered in the vast tunnel, the sound of her own breathing filling the helmet. The commander was dead. It was unbelievable. Just like that, at the whim of a vengeful pixie. Had there been a sweet spot on the device? Or had she actually missed the target? She would probably never know. But to the LEP observers, it would seem as though she had shot her own commander.
Holly glanced downward. Below her, fragments from the explosion were spiraling toward the earth’s core. As they neared the revolving magma sphere, the heat ignited each one, utterly cremating all that was left of Julius Root. For the briefest moment the particles twinkled gold and bronze, like a million stars falling to earth.
Holly hung there for several minutes, trying to absorb what had happened. She couldn’t. It was too awful. Instead she froze the pain and guilt, preserving it for later. Right now, she had an order to follow. And she would follow it, even if it was the last thing she ever did, because it had been the last order Julius Root ever gave.
Holly increased the power to her wings, rising through the massive charred chute. There were Mud Men to be saved.
CHAPTER 4
NARROW ESCAPES
Munich
Munich during working hours was like any other major city in the world: utterly congested. In spite of the U-bahn, an efficient and comfortable rail