The Artemis Fowl Files - Eoin Colfer [35]
“On your back!”
Mulch obeyed, dropping the tiara and shifting the helmet to the front. The dwarf was thinking furiously. How much time had gone by? Surely the Significants would be back any second. They would come running to relieve Sergei.
“Officer, you really should get out of here.”
Holly searched him for weapons. She unstrapped the LEP helmet, rolling it across the floor.
“And why is that?”
“My teammates will be here any second. We’re on a tight schedule.”
Holly smiled grimly. “Don’t worry about it. I can handle dwarfs. My gun has a nuclear battery.”
Mulch swallowed, glancing through Holly’s legs toward the tent flaps. The Significants had arrived right on time, and three were sneaking through the tent flap, making less noise than ants in slippers. Each dwarf held a flint dagger in his stubby fingers. Mulch heard a rustling overhead, and looked up to see another Significant peering through a fresh rip in the tent seam. Still one unaccounted for.
“The battery isn’t important,” said Mulch. “It’s not how many bullets you have, it’s how fast you can shoot.”
Artemis was not enjoying the circus. Butler should have contacted him over a minute ago to confirm that Mulch had arrived at the rendezvous point. Something must be wrong. His instinct told him to take a look, but he ignored it. Stick to the plan. Give Mulch every possible second.
The last few seconds ran out moments later when the five dwarfs in the ring took their bows. They exited the ring with a series of elaborate tumbles, and headed for their own tent.
Artemis raised his right fist to his mouth. Strapped across his palm was a tiny microphone, of the type used by the U.S. secret service. A skin-tone earpiece was lodged in his right ear.
“Butler,” he said softly—the mike was whisper sensitive. “The Significants have left the building. We must execute plan B.”
“Roger,” said Butler’s voice in his ear.
Of course there was a plan B. Plan A may have been perfect, but the dwarf executing it certainly wasn’t. Plan B involved chaos and escape, hopefully with the Fei Fei tiara. Artemis hurried along his row while the second box was lowered into the center of the ring. All around him, children and their parents cooed at the melodrama unfolding before them, unaware of the very real drama that was being played out not twenty yards away.
Artemis approached the dwarfs’ tent, sticking to the shadows.
The Significants trotted ahead of him in a group. In seconds they would enter the tent and find that things were not as they should be. There would be delays and confusion, in which time the jewel merchants in the big top would probably come running, along with their armed security. This mission would have to be either completed or aborted in the next few seconds.
Artemis heard voices from inside the tent. The Significants heard them too and froze. There shouldn’t be voices. Sergei was alone, and if he was not, something was wrong. One dwarf crawled on his belly to the flap, peeking inside. Whatever he saw obviously upset him, because he crawled rapidly back to the group, and began issuing frantic instructions. Three dwarfs went in the front flap, one scaled the tent wall, and the other popped his bum flap and went subterranean.
Artemis waited a couple of heartbeats, then crept to the tent flap. If Mulch was still in there, something would have to be done to get him out, even if it meant sacrificing the diamond. He flattened his body against the tightly drawn canvas and peered inside. He was surprised by what he saw. Surprised, but not amazed: he should have expected it, really. Holly Short was standing over a fallen dwarf who may or may not have been Mulch Diggums. The Significants were closing in on her, daggers drawn.
Artemis raised the radio to his mouth.
“Butler, how far away are you, exactly?”
Butler answered immediately. “I’m on the circus perimeter. Forty seconds, no more.”
In forty seconds, Holly and Mulch would be dead. He could not allow that.
“I have to go in,” he said tersely. “When you get here, moderate plan B as necessary.