Artemis Fowl_ The Opal Deception - Eoin Colfer [83]
The centaur ran a quick search on the surveillance database and selected the footage from the chute access tunnel where Julius had died. There was something he wanted to check.
Uncharted Chute, Three Miles Below Southern Italy
The stolen shuttle made good time to the surface. Holly flew as fast as she could without burning the gearbox or smashing them into a chute wall. Time may have been of the essence, but the motley crew would be of little use to anyone if they had to be scraped off the wall like so much crunchy pâté.
“These old rigs are mainly for watch changes,” explained Holly. “The LEP got this one secondhand at a criminal assets auction. It’s souped up to avoid customs ships. It used to belong to a curry smuggler.”
Artemis sniffed. A faint yellow odor still lingered in the cockpit. “Why would anyone smuggle curry?”
“Extra-hot curry is illegal in Haven. Living underground, we have to be careful of emissions, if you catch my drift.”
Artemis caught her drift and decided not to pursue the subject.
“We need to locate Opal’s shuttle before we venture aboveground and give our position away.”
Holly pulled over next to a small lake of black oil, the shuttle’s downdraft rippling the surface.
“Artemis, I think I mentioned that it’s a stealth shuttle. Nothing can detect her. We don’t have sensors sophisticated enough to spot her. Opal and her pixie sidekicks could be sitting in their craft just around the next bend, and our computers wouldn’t pick them up.”
Artemis leaned in over the dashboard readouts. “You’re approaching this the wrong way, Holly. We need to find out where the shuttle is not.”
Artemis launched various scans, searching for traces of certain gases within a hundred-mile radius. “I think we can assume that the stealth shuttle is very close to E7, perhaps right at the mouth; but that still leaves us with a lot of ground to cover, especially if our eyes are all we have to rely on.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying. But do go on; I’m sure you have a point.”
“So I’m using this shuttle’s limited sensor dishes to scan from here right up the chute to the surface and down about thirty miles.”
“Scanning for what?” said Holly in exasperation. “A hole in the air?”
Artemis grinned. “Exactly. You see, normal space is made up of various gases: oxygen, hydrogen, and so on, but the stealth shuttle would prevent any of these from being detected inside the ship’s hull. So if we find a small patch of space without the usual ambient gasses . . .”
“Then we’ve found the stealth shuttle,” said Holly.
“Exactly.”
The computer completed its scan quickly, building an on-screen model of the surrounding area. The gases were displayed in various whirling hues.
Artemis instructed the computer to search for anomalies. It found three: one with an abnormally high saturation of carbon monoxide.
“That’s probably an airport. A lot of exhaust fumes.”
The second anomaly was a large area with only trace elements of any gas.
“A vacuum, probably a computer plant,” surmised Artemis.
The third anomaly was a small area just outside the lip of E7 that appeared to contain no gas of any kind.
“That’s her. The volume is exactly right. She’s on the north side of the chute entrance.”
“Well done,” said Holly, punching him lightly on the shoulder. “Let’s get up there.”
“You know, of course, that as soon as we put our nose into the main chute system, Foaly will pick us up.”
Holly gave the engines a few seconds to warm up. “It’s too late to worry about that. Haven is more than six hundred miles away. By the time anyone gets here, we’ll either be heroes or outlaws.”
“We’re already outlaws,” said Artemis.
“True,” agreed Holly. “But soon we could be outlaws with no one chasing us.”
Police Plaza, The Lower Elements
Opal Koboi was back. Could it be possible? The thought niggled at Foaly’s ordered mind, unraveling any chain of thought