The Artemis Fowl Files - Eoin Colfer [2]
“The Tern Islands,” moaned the major.
The old elf’s face glowed with demented triumph. “I know them. When?”
Evergreen mumbled the words, shamefacedly. “A week from today.”
The captain clapped his captive on the shoulder. “Well done. You have chosen wisely. No doubt hoping to live through this ordeal and warn my brother.”
Alarm cut through Evergreen’s pain. Brother? This was Commander Root’s brother? He had heard the story; everyone had.
The captain smiled. “Now you know my secret. I am the disgraced Captain Turnball Root. Julius hunted his own brother. And now I shall hunt him.”
Evergreen winced as a dozen tiny gashes were opened in his stomach. “Kill the insect,” he pleaded.
Turnball Root drew a small flask from his pocket. “Oh, very well. But don’t think you’ll be warning anyone. There was an amnesiac in the dart I gave you: in five minutes this entire incident will be a dream floating beyond your grasp.”
Captain Root opened the flask, and Evergreen was relieved to smell the pungent aroma of strong coffee. The Tunnel Blue was a hyperactive, finely tuned creature with a hair-trigger heart. When the coffee entered its bloodstream, it should trigger a fatal heart attack.
Turnball Root poured the scalding brew down Evergreen’s throat. The major gagged, but swallowed it down. After a few seconds, the spider began to thrash in his stomach, then the vicious activity ceased.
Evergreen sighed in relief, then closed his eyes, focusing on what had happened. “Oh, very good,” chuckled Captain Root. “You are trying to reinforce the memories so they can be brought out under hypnosis. I wouldn’t bother. What I gave you wasn’t exactly regulation. You’ll be lucky if you remember what color the sky is.”
Evergreen hung his head. He had betrayed his commander, and all for nothing. In one week’s time, Julius Root would walk into a trap on the Tern Islands. A location that he had revealed.
Turnball did up his overcoat, hiding the uniform below. “Farewell, Major. And thank you for your help. You may find it difficult to concentrate for the next while, but by the time your resolve returns, those straps should have dissolved.”
Captain Root opened the hut door, stepping out into the night. Evergreen watched him go, and a moment later he could not have sworn that the captain had ever been there at all.
CHAPTER 2: SOMETHING FISHY
The Boulevard of Kings, Haven City,
The Lower Elements; One Week Later …
CORPORAL Holly Short was on traffic detail on the Boulevard of Kings. Lower Elements Police officers were supposed to travel in pairs, but there was a league crunchball match being played across the river, so her partner was patrolling the sidelines in Westside Stadium.
Holly strolled down the boulevard, resplendent in her computerized traffic suit. The suit was more or less a walking road sign that could display all the common commands, plus up to eight lines of text, across her chest plate. The suit was also coded to her voice, so if Holly ordered a driver to stop, the command would appear in yellow lights across her chest.
Being a walking road sign was not exactly what Holly had in mind when she had signed up for the Lower Elements Police Academy, but every corporal had to put in a stint in Traffic before he or she was allowed to specialize. Holly had been on the streets for over six months, and sometimes it seemed as though she was never going to get her chance at Reconnaissance. If the brass did give her a shot, and if she did pass the initiation, then she would be the first female ever to make it into Recon. This fact did not daunt Holly Short; in fact, it appealed to her stubborn nature. Not only would she pass the initiation, but she intended to smash the score set by Captain Trouble Kelp.
The boulevard was quiet this afternoon. Everyone was over in Westside enjoying vegetable fries and mushroom burgers. Everyone except her, a few dozen public servants, and the owner of a camper shuttle that was illegally parked across a restaurant’s loading bay. Holly scanned the purple camper’s bar code by running