Eoin Colfer - Artemis Fowl. The Opal Deception

On the plasma dash, the icon representing the gaseous anomaly that was Opal’s ship inched across the screen.

‘They’re on to us,’ said Holly, catching the movement in the corner of one eye.

Artemis’s stomach was knotted from flight nausea, anxiety, fatigue and exhilaration. ‘Very well,’ he said, almost to himself. ‘The chase is on.’

At the mouth of E7, Merv was at the wheel of the stealth shuttle. Scant was on instruments and Opal was in charge of giving orders and general ranting.

‘Do we have a signal from the charges?’ she screeched from her chair.

Her voice is getting really annoying, thought Scant, but not too loudly.

‘No,’ he replied. ‘Nothing. Which means they must be in their shuttle. Their shields must be blocking the charges’ signal. We need to get closer — or I could send the detonation signal anyway. We might get lucky.’

Opal’s screech grew more strident. ‘No! We must not detonate before that shuttle reaches a hundred and six miles. If we do, the orebody will not change course.

What about this stupid communicator? Anything from that?’

‘Negative,’ said Scant. ‘If there’s another one, it must be switched off.’

‘We could always return to Zito’s compound,’ said Merv. ‘We have a dozen more charges there.’

Opal leaned forward in her seat, punching Merv’s shoulders with her tiny fists.

‘Idiot. Moron. Halfwit. Are you in some kind of stupidity competition? Is that it? If we return to Zito’s, the orebody will be too deep by the time we return. Not to mention the fact that Captain Short will present the LEP with her version of events and they will have to investigate, at the very least. We must get closer and we must detonate. Even if we miss the probe window, at least we shall destroy any witnesses against me.’

The stealth shuttle had proximity sensors linked into the navigating software, which meant that Opal and company did not have to worry about colliding with the chute wall or stalactites.

‘How long before we’re in detonation range?’ Opal barked. To be honest, it was more of a yip.

Merv did some quick calculations. ‘Three minutes. No more.’

‘How deep will they be at that point?’

A few more sums. ‘Hundred and fifty-five miles.’ Opal pinched her nose. ‘It could work. Presuming they have both charges, the resulting explosion, even if not directed as we planned, may be enough to blow a crack in the wall. It’s our only option. If it fails, at least we have time to regroup. As soon as they hit one zero five, send the detonate signal. Send it continuously. We may get lucky.’

Merv flipped a plastic safety cover off the detonate button. Only seconds to go.

Artemis’s insides were trying to force their way out through his throat.

‘This heap needs new gyroscopes,’ he said.

Holly barely nodded, she was too busy concentrating on a particularly tricky series of jinks and loops in the chute.

Artemis consulted the dashboard’s readout.

‘We’re at a depth of one zero five now. Opal will be trying to detonate. She’s closing fast.’

Mulch stuck his head through from the passenger section. ‘Is all this jiggling about really necessary? I’ve had a lot to eat recently.’

‘Nearly there,’ said Artemis. ‘The ride is just about over. Tell Butler to open the bag.’

‘OK. Are you sure Opal will do what she’s supposed to?’

Artemis smiled reassuringly. ‘Of course I am. It’s human nature, and Opal is a human now. Remember? Now, Holly. Pull over.’

Mervall tapped the readout. ‘You’re not going to believe this, Op— Miss Koboi.’

The merest hint of a smile flickered across Opal’s lips. ‘Don’t tell me. They have stopped.’

Merv shook his head, astounded. ‘Yes, they are hovering at a hundred and twenty-four miles. Why would they do that?’

‘There’s no point trying to explain it, Mervall. Just keep sending the detonation signal, but slow us down. I don’t want to be too close when we get a connection.’

She drummed her nails on the hand-held communicator left behind by the dwarf.

Any second now.

A red call light flashed on the communicator, accompanied by a slight vibration.

Opal smiled, flipping open the walkie-talkie’s screen.

Artemis’s pale face filled the tiny screen. He was trying to smile, but it was obviously forced. ‘Opal, I am giving you one chance to surrender. We have disarmed your charges and the LEP are on their way. It would be better for you to turn yourself over to Captain Short than shoot it out with an armed LEP ship.’

Opal clapped her hands. ‘Bravo, Master Fowl, what a wonderful fiction. Now, why don’t I tell you the real truth? You have realized that the charges cannot be disarmed.

The mere fact that I can receive your communication’s signal means that my detonation signal will soon penetrate your shields. You cannot jettison the explosives or I will set them off in the chute, exactly as I had originally planned. Then I will simply fire a few heat-seekers at your craft. And if you attempt further flight, then I will follow and penetrate your shields before you clear the parallel stretch. You are not in communication with the LEP. If you were, we would have picked up your broadcast. So your only alternative is this pathetic bluff. And it is pathetic. You are obviously attempting to stall me until the orebody passes your depth.’

‘So you refuse to surrender?’

Opal pretended to think about it, tapping her chin with a manicured nail. ‘Why, yes. I think I will fight on, against all odds. And by the way, please don’t look directly at the screen, it’s bad for my skin.’

Artemis sighed dramatically. ‘Well, if we have to go, at least we’ll go on full stomachs.’

This was an unusually cavalier comment to make with seconds to live, even for a human. ‘Full stomachs?’

‘Yes,’ said Artemis. ‘Mulch took something else from your shuttle.’

He picked up a small chocolate-covered ball, wiggling it in front of the screen.

‘My truffles?’ gasped Opal. ‘You took them. That’s just mean.’

Artemis popped the treat into his mouth, chewing slowly. ‘They really are divine.

I can see why you missed them in the clinic. We’re going to have to work really hard to eat all we took before you blow us to smithereens.’

Opal hissed, catlike. ‘Killing you will be so easy.’ She turned to Merv. ‘Do we have a signal yet?’

‘Nothing, Miss Koboi. But soon. If we have communications, it can’t be long now.’

Holly squeezed her head into the viewfinder. One cheek was swollen with truffles. ‘They really melt in the mouth, Opal. The condemned crew’s final meal.’

Opal actually poked the screen with her nail. ‘You survived twice, Short. You won’t do it again, I guarantee it.’

Holly laughed. ‘You should see Mulch. He’s shovelling those truffles down his gullet.’

Opal was livid. ‘Any signal?’ Even now, with certain destruction only moments away, they were still mocking her.

‘Not yet. Soon.’

‘Keep trying. Keep your finger on that button.’

Opal unstrapped herself, striding through to the lounge. The dwarf couldn’t have carried all the truffles and the explosives. Surely not. She had been so looking forward to a handful of the heavenly chocolate, once Haven was destroyed.

She knelt on the carpet, worming her hand underneath the seam to the hidden catch. It popped beneath her fingers, and the booty box’s lid slid up and back.

There was not a single truffle left in the box. Instead, there were two shaped charges. For a moment Opal could not understand what she was seeing. Then it became terrifyingly clear. Artemis had never stolen the charges, he had simply told the dwarf to move them. Once in the booty box, they could not be detected or detonated. As long as the lid was sealed. She had opened the box herself. Artemis had goaded her into sealing her own fate.

The blood drained from Opal’s face. ‘Mervall,’ she screamed. ‘The detonation signal!’

‘Don’t worry, Miss Koboi,’ the pixie shouted from the cockpit. ‘We just got contact. Nothing can stop it now.’

Green countdown clocks activated on both charges and began counting back from twenty. A standard mining fuse.

Opal lurched into the cockpit. She had been tricked. Duped. Now the charges would detonate uselessly at seventy-four and a half miles, well above the parallel stretch. Of course, her own shuttle would be destroyed and she would be left stranded, ready to be scooped up by the LEP. At least, that was the theory. But Opal Koboi never left herself without options.

She strapped herself into a seat in the cockpit.

‘I advise you to strap yourselves in,’ she said curtly to the Brill brothers. ‘You have failed me. Enjoy prison. ’

Merv and Scant barely had time to buckle up before Opal activated the ejector gel-pods under their seats. They were immediately immersed in a bubble of amber impact-gel and ejected through panels that had opened in the hull.

The impact-gel bubbles had no power source and relied on the initial gas propulsion to get them out of harm’s way. The gel was fireproof, blast-resistant and contained enough oxygen for thirty minutes’ shallow breathing. Merv and Scant were catapulted through black space until they came into contact with the chute wall. The gel stuck to the rocky surface, leaving the Brill brothers stranded, thousands of miles from home.

Opal, meanwhile, was rapidly keying codes into the shuttle’s computer. She had less than ten seconds left to complete her final act of aggression. Artemis Fowl may have beaten her this time, but he wouldn’t live to gloat about it.

Opal expertly activated and launched two heat-seeking plasma rockets from the nose tubes, then launched her own escape pod. No impact-gel for Opal Koboi. She had, of course, included a luxury pod in the ship’s design. Just one, though, no need for the help to travel in comfort. In fact, Opal didn’t care what happened to the Brill brothers, one way or the other. They were of no further use to her.

She opened the throttles wide, ignoring safety regulations. After all, who cared if she scorched the shuttle’s hull? It was about to get a lot more than just scorched. The pod streaked towards the surface at over five hundred miles per hour. Pretty fast, but not fast enough to completely escape the shockwave from the two shaped charges.

The stealth shuttle exploded in a flash of multicoloured light. Holly pulled the LEP shuttle close to the wall, to avoid falling debris. After the shockwaves had passed, the shuttle’s occupants waited in silence for the computer to run a scan on the stretch of chute above them. Eventually three red dots appeared on the three-dimensional representation of the chute. Two were static, while the other was moving rapidly towards the surface.

‘They made it,’ sighed Artemis. ‘I have no doubt that the moving dot is Opal. We should pick her up.’

‘We should,’ said Holly, not looking as happy as one might have expected. ‘But we won’t.’

Artemis picked up on Holly’s tone. ‘Why not? What’s wrong?’

‘That’s wrong,’ said Holly, pointing to the screen. Two more dots had appeared on the screen and were moving towards them at extreme speed. The computer identified the dots as missiles, then quickly ran a match in its database.

‘Heat-seeking plasma rockets. Locked on to our engines.’

Mulch shook his head. ‘That Koboi is a bitter little pixie. She couldn’t let it go.’

Artemis stared at the screen, as if he could destroy the missiles through concentration. ‘I should have anticipated this.’