Artemis Fowl_ The Opal Deception - Eoin Colfer [34]
Holly opened her visor to clear the tears. Artemis Fowl must be saved. As much for the commander as for himself. Holly closed her visor, kicked up her legs, and opened the throttle to maximum. Time to see what these new wings of Foaly’s could do.
In a little more than an hour, Holly sped into Munich’s airspace. She dropped to a hundred feet and activated her helmet’s radar. It would be a shame to make it this far only to be pasted by an incoming aircraft. The Kronski showed up as a red dot in her visor. Foaly could have sent a live satellite feed, or at least the most recent video footage, but she had no way to contact the centaur, and even if she did, the Council would order her back to Police Plaza immediately.
Holly zeroed in on the red dot in her visor. That was where the bio-bomb would be headed, so she had to go there too. She dropped lower, until the Kronski’s roof was below her toes, and touched down on the rooftop. She was on her own now. This was as far as the onboard tracker could take her. She would have to locate Artemis’s room on her own.
Holly chewed her lip for a moment, then typed a command into the keypad on her wrist. She could have used voice command, but the software was touchy and she did not have time for computer error. In seconds, her onboard computer had hacked into the hotel computer and was displaying a guest list and schematic. Artemis was in room 304. Third story, in the south wing of the hotel.
Holly sprinted across the roof, activating her wings as she ran. She was seconds away from saving Artemis. Having a mythological creature drag him from his hotel room might be a bit of a shock, but not as much of a shock as being vaporized by a bio-bomb.
She stopped dead. A guided missile was arcing in from the horizon toward the hotel. It was fairy manufactured, no doubt about it; but it was new, slicker and faster, with bigger tail rockets than she’d ever seen on a missile. Opal Koboi had obviously been making upgrades.
Holly spun on her heels, racing for the other side of the hotel. In her heart she knew she was too late, and the realization hit her that Opal had set her up again. There never was any hope of rescuing Artemis, just as there never had been any chance of rescuing the commander.
Before her wings even had a chance to kick in, there was a bright blue flash from beyond the lip of the roof, and a slight shudder underfoot as the bio-bomb detonated. It was the perfect weapon. There would be no structural damage to the hotel room, and the bomb casing would consume itself and leave no evidence that it had ever been there.
Holly dropped to her knees in frustration, peeling off her helmet to gulp breaths of fresh air. The Munich air was laced with toxins, but it still tasted better than the belowground filtered variety. But Holly did not notice the sweetness. Julius was gone. Artemis was dead. Butler was dead. How could she go on? What was the point? Tears dropped from her lashes, running into tiny cracks in the concrete.
Get up! said her core of steel. The part of her that made Holly Short such an excellent officer. You are an LEP officer. There is more at stake here than your personal grieving. Time enough to cry later.
In a minute. I’ll get up in a minute. I just need sixty seconds.
Holly felt as though the grief had scooped out her insides.
She felt hollow, numb. Incapacitated.
“How touching,” said a voice, robotic and familiar.
Holly did not even look up. “Koboi. Have you come to gloat? Does murder make you happy?”
“Hmm?” said the voice, seriously considering the question. “You know, it does. It actually does make me happy.”
Holly sniffled, shaking the last tears from her eyes. She decided that she would not cry again