Artemis Fowl_ The Opal Deception - Eoin Colfer [50]
The taped message was coming to an end.
Artemis’s abductor was describing what was in store for the Irish boy. “Oh yes,” she said. “I had a nasty little scenario planned for Foaly—something theatrical involving the Eleven Wonders. But now I have decided that you are worthy of it.”
“How nasty?” asked Artemis’s new ally, Holly.
“Troll nasty,” responded Opal.
The Fowl Manor intruder made a loud sucking noise, then discarded the remains of an entire rack of lamb.
“Not good,” he said. “This is really bad.”
Butler cocked his weapon, aiming it squarely at the intruder.
“It’s about to get worse,” he said.
Butler sat the intruder in one of the study’s leather armchairs, then pulled a second chair around to face him. From the front, this little creature looked even stranger. His face was basically a mass of wirelike hair with eyes and teeth. The eyes occasionally glowed red like a fox’s, and the teeth looked like two rows of picket fencing. This was no hairy child: this was an adult creature of some sort.
“Don’t tell me,” sighed Butler. “You’re an elf.”
The creature sat up straight. “How dare you,” he cried. “I am a dwarf, as you very well know.”
Butler thought back to Artemis’s confusing message. “Let me guess. I used to know you, but somehow I forgot. Oh yes, the fairy police wiped my mind.”
Mulch burped. “Correct, you’re not as slow as you look.”
Butler raised the gun. “This is still cocked, so less of the lip, little man.”
“Pardon me, I didn’t realize we were enemies now.”
Butler leaned forward in his chair. “We were friends?”
Mulch thought about it. “Not at first, no. But I think you grew to love me for my charm and noble character.”
Butler sniffed. “And personal hygiene?”
“That’s not fair,” objected Mulch. “Do you have any idea what I had to do to get here? I escaped from a sub-shuttle and swam a couple of miles in freezing cold water. Then I had to break into a blacksmith’s in the west of Ireland, about the only place they still have blacksmiths, and snip off my mouth ring. Don’t ask. Then I burrowed across the entire country to find out the truth about this affair. And when I get here one of the few Mud Men I don’t feel like taking a bite out of is pointing a gun at me.”
“Hold on a minute,” said Butler. “I need to get a tissue to wipe my eyes.”
“You don’t believe any of this, do you?”
“Do I believe in fairy police and pixie conspiracies and tunneling dwarfs? No, I don’t.”
Mulch slowly reached inside his jumpsuit and pulled out the gold-plated computer disk. “Maybe this will open your mind.”
Butler turned on one of Artemis’s Powerbooks, making sure the laptop was not connected to any other computer by wire or infrared. If this disk did contain a virus, then they would only lose one hard drive. He cleaned the disk off with a spray and cloth and slid it into the multidrive.
The computer asked for a password.
“This disk is locked,” said Butler. “What’s the password?”
Mulch shrugged, a French baguette in each hand. “Hey, I don’t know. It’s Artemis’s disk.”
Butler frowned. If this really was Artemis’s disk, then Artemis’s password would open it. He typed in three words, Aurum est potestas: Gold is power. The family motto. Seconds later the locked disk icon was replaced by a window containing two folders. One was labeled Artemis, the other Butler. Before the bodyguard opened either, he ran a virus check, just in case. The check came up clean.
Feeling strangely nervous, Butler opened the folder with his name on it. There were more than a hundred files on it. Mostly text files, but some video, too. The largest file was labeled view me first. Butler double-clicked that file.
A small QuickTime player opened on the screen. In the picture,