Artemis Fowl_ The Opal Deception - Eoin Colfer [82]
“Keep a close eye on it,” he said, trying to sound interested. “Especially when it runs parallel to E7. I don’t anticipate any trouble, but eyes peeled just in case.”
“Yes, sir. Oh, and we have Captain Verbil on line two, from the surface.”
A tiny spark of interest lit the centaur’s eyes. Verbil? The sprite had allowed Mulch Diggums to steal an LEP shuttle. Mulch escaped a few hours after his friends on the force had been killed. Coincidence? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Foaly opened a window to the surface. In it he could see Verbil’s chest.
Foaly sighed. “Chix! You’re hovering. Come down where I can see you.”
“Sorry,” said Chix, alighting on the floor. “I’m a bit emotional. Trouble Kelp gave me a real grilling.”
“What do you want, Chix? A hug and a kiss? I have things on my mind here.”
Verbil’s wings flared up behind him. It was a real effort to stay on the ground. “I have a message for you, from Mulch Diggums.”
Foaly fought the urge to whinny. No doubt Mulch would have some choice words for him.
“Go on, then. Tell me what our foul-mouthed friend thinks of me.”
“This is between us, right? I don’t want to be pensioned off on the grounds that I’m unstable.”
“Yes, Chix, it’s between us. Everyone has a right to be temporarily unstable. Today of all days.”
“It’s ridiculous, really. I don’t believe it for a minute.” Chix attempted a confident chuckle.
Foaly snapped. “What’s ridiculous? What don’t you believe? Tell me, Chix, or I’ll reach down this com link and drag it out of you.”
“Are we secure?”
“Yes!” the centaur screeched. “We’re secure. Tell me. Give me Mulch’s message.”
Chix took a deep breath, saying the words as he let it out. “Opal Koboi is back.”
Foaly’s laughter started somewhere around his hooves and grew in volume and intensity until it burst out of his mouth. “Opal is back! Koboi is back! I get it now. Mulch conned you into letting him steal the shuttle. He played on your fear of Opal waking up, and you bought it. Opal is back; don’t make me laugh.”
“That’s what he said,” Chix mumbled sulkily. “There’s no need to laugh so hard. You’re spitting on the screen. I have feelings, you know.”
Foaly’s laughter petered out. It wasn’t real laughter anyway, it was just an outburst of emotion. Mostly sadness, with some frustration mixed in.
“Okay, Chix. It’s not your fault. Mulch has fooled smarter sprites than you.”
It took Chix a moment to realize that he was being insulted.
“It could be true,” he said, miffed. “You could be wrong. It is possible, you know. Maybe Opal Koboi conned you.”
Foaly opened another window on his wall. “No, Verbil, it is not possible. Opal could not be back, because I’m looking at her right now.”
Live feed from the Argon Clinic confirmed that Opal was indeed still suspended in her coma harness. She’d had her DNA swab minutes beforehand.
Chix’s petulance crumbled. “I can’t believe it,” he muttered. “Mulch seemed so sincere. I actually thought Holly was in danger.”
Foaly’s tail twitched. “What? Mulch said Holly was in danger? But Holly is gone. She died.”
“Yes,” said Chix morosely. “Mulch was shoveling more horse dung, I suppose. No offense.”
Of course. Opal would set Holly up to take the blame for Julius. That little cruel touch would be just like Opal. If she wasn’t right there, in her harness. DNA never lies.
Chix rapped the screen surround at his end, to get Foaly’s attention. “Listen, Foaly, remember what you promised. This is between us. No need for anyone else to know I got duped by a dwarf. I’ll end up scraping vole curry off the sidewalk after crunchball matches.”
Foaly absently shut the window. “Yes, whatever. Between us. Right.”
Opal was still secure. No doubt about it. Surely she couldn’t have escaped. If she had, then maybe this probe was more sinister than it seemed. She couldn’t have escaped. It wasn’t possible.
But Foaly’s paranoid streak couldn’t let it go. Just to be sure,