Artemis Fowl_ The Opal Deception - Eoin Colfer [89]
“We need to talk,” blurted the centaur to the general assembly.
“Quiet,” hissed Council Chairman Cahartez. “Have a bowl of curry.”
Chairman Cahartez ran a fleet of curry vans in Haven City. Vole curry was his specialty. Obviously he was catering this little viewing session.
Foaly ignored the buffet table. He snatched a remote control from a chair armrest and muted the master volume.
“We have big trouble, ladies and gentlemen. Opal Koboi is loose, and I think she’s behind the Zito probe.”
A high-back swivel chair swung around. Ark Sool was lounging in it. “Opal Koboi? Amazing. And she’s doing all this psychically, I suppose.”
“No. What are you doing in that chair? That’s the commander’s chair. The real commander, not Internal Affairs.”
Sool tapped the golden acorns on his lapel. “I’ve been promoted.”
Foaly blanched. “You’re the new Recon commander?”
Sool’s smile could have illuminated a dark room. “Yes. The Council felt that Recon had been getting a bit out of hand lately. They felt, and I must say I agree, that Recon needs a firm hand. Of course I will stay on at Internal Affairs until a suitable replacement can be found.”
Foaly scowled. There was no time for this. Not now. He had to get clearance for a supersonic launch immediately.
“Okay, Sool, Commander. I can lodge my objection later. Right now we have an emergency on our hands.”
Everyone was listening now. But none with much enthusiasm, except Commander Vinyaya who had always been a staunch supporter of Julius Root, and would certainly have not voted for Sool. Vinyaya was all ears.
“What’s the emergency, Foaly?” she asked.
Foaly slipped a computer disk into the room’s multidrive. “That thing in the Argon Clinic is not Opal Koboi; it’s a clone.”
“Evidence?” demanded Sool.
Foaly highlighted a window on the screen. “I scanned her retinas and found that the last image the clone saw was Opal Koboi herself. Obviously during her escape.”
Sool was not convinced. “I’ve never trusted your gadgets, Foaly. Your Retimager is not accepted as actual evidence in a courtroom.”
“We’re not in a courtroom, Sool,” said Foaly through ground teeth. “If we accept that Opal could be loose, then the events of the past twenty-four hours take on a whole new significance. A pattern begins to emerge. Scalene is dead, pixies are missing from the clinic, Julius is murdered, and Holly is blamed. Then within hours of this, a probe is sent down a decade ahead of schedule. Koboi is behind all of this. That probe is on its way here and we’re sitting around watching it on PPTV . . . eating stinking vole curry!”
“I object to the disparaging curry remark,” said Cahartez, wounded. “But otherwise I get your point.”
Sool jumped from his chair. “What point? Foaly is connecting dots that don’t exist. All he is trying to do is exonerate his late friend, Captain Short.”
“Holly may be alive!” snapped Foaly. “And trying to do something about Opal Koboi.”
Sool rolled his eyes. “But her vitals flatlined, centaur. We remote-destructed her helmet. I was there, remember?”
A head poked into the room. One of Foaly’s lab apprentices. “I got that case, sir,” he panted. “Quick as I could.”
“Well done, Roob,” said Foaly, snatching the case from the apprentice’s hand. He spun the case around. “I issued Holly and Julius with new suits. Prototypes. They both have bio-sensors and trackers. They are not linked with the LEP mainframe. I never thought to check them earlier. Holly’s helmet may be out of action, but her suit is still functioning.”
“What do the suit’s sensors tell us, Foaly?” asked Vinyaya.
Foaly was almost afraid to look. If the suit sensors were flatlining, it would be like losing Holly again. He counted to three, then consulted the small screen in the case. There were two readouts on the screen. One was flat. Julius. But the other was active in all areas.
“Holly is alive!” shouted the centaur, kissing Commander Vinyaya soundly on the cheek. “Alive and reasonably well, apart from elevated blood pressure and next to zero magic in her tank.”
“And where is she?” asked Vinyaya, smiling.