Artemis Fowl_ The Opal Deception - Eoin Colfer [5]
“Night crew only,” he said at last. “Nobody in this sector except Corporal Idiot over there.”
“What about the parking lot?”
“Clear.”
Merv held out his hand. “Okay, brother. This is it. No turning back. Are we in? Do we want Opal Koboi back?”
Scant blew a lock of black hair from one round pixie eye.
“Yes, because if she comes back on her own, Opal will find a way to make us suffer,” he said, shaking his brother’s hand. “So yes, we’re in.”
Merv took a remote control from his pocket. The device was tuned to a sonix receiver planted in the clinic’s gable wall. This in turn was connected to a balloon of acid that lay gently on the clinic’s main power cube in the parking lot junction box. A second balloon sat atop the backup cube in the maintenance basement. As the clinic’s janitors, it had been a simple matter for Merv and Scant to plant the acid balloons the previous evening. Of course, the Argon Clinic was also connected to the main grid, but if the cubes did go down, there would be a two-minute interval before the main power kicked in. There was no need for more elaborate arrangements; after all, this was a medical facility, not a prison.
Merv took a deep breath, flicked the safety cover, and pressed the red button. The remote control emitted an infrared command activating two sonix charges. The charges sent out sound waves that burst the balloons, and the balloons dumped their acidic contents on the clinic’s power cubes. Twenty seconds later the cubes were completely eaten away and the whole building was plunged into darkness. Merv and Scant quickly put on night-vision goggles.
As soon as the power failed, green strip lights began pulsing gently on the floor, guiding the way to the exits. Merv and Scant moved quickly and purposefully. Scant steered the trolley, and Merv made straight for Corporal Kelp.
Grub was pulling the video glasses from over his eyes.
“Hey,” he said, disoriented by the sudden darkness. “What’s going on here?”
“Power failure,” said Merv, bumping into him with calculated clumsiness. “Those lines are a nightmare. I’ve been telling Dr. Argon, but nobody wants to spend money on maintenance when there are fancy company cars to be bought.”
Merv was not chatting for the fun of it; he was waiting for the soluble sedative pad he had pressed onto Grub’s wrist to take effect.
“Tell me about it,” said Grub, suddenly blinking a lot more than he generally did. “I’ve been lobbying for new lockers at Police Plaza. I’m really thirsty. Is anyone else thirsty?” Grub stiffened, frozen by the serum that was spreading through his system. The LEP officer would snap out of it in under two minutes and be instantly alert. He would have no memory of his unconsciousness, and with luck, he would not notice the time lapse.
“Go,” said Scant tersely.
Merv was already gone. With ease, he punched Dr. Argon’s code into Opal’s door. He completed this action faster than Argon ever could, due to hours spent practicing on a stolen pad in his apartment. Argon’s code changed every week, but the Brill brothers made certain that they were cleaning outside the room when Argon was on his rounds. The pixies generally had the complete code by midweek.
The battery-powered pad light winked green, and the door slid back. Opal Koboi swung gently before him, suspended in her harness like a bug in an exotic cocoon.
Merv winched her down onto the trolley. Moving briskly, and with practiced precision, he rolled up Opal’s sleeve and located the scar in her upper arm where the seeker-sleeper had been inserted. He gripped the hard lump between his thumb and forefinger.
“Scalpel,” he said, holding out his free hand. Scant passed him the instrument. Merv took a breath, held it, and made a one-inch incision in Opal’s flesh. He wiggled his index finger into the