Then a funny thing happened. Artemis’s clapping hands were joined by a scattering of others from various spots in the theatre. The applause grew from hesitant beginnings to a crescendo. Soon the patrons were on their feet and the bewildered singers were forced to take several curtain calls.
On his way through the lobby minutes later, Artemis was highly amused to overhear several audience members gushing over the unorthodox direction of the opera’s final scene. The exploding lamp, mused one buff, was doubtless a metaphor for Norma’s own falling star. But no, argued a second. The lamp was obviously a modernistic interpretation of the burning stake which Norma was about to face.
Or perhaps, thought Artemis as he pushed through the crowd to find a light Sicilian mist falling on his forehead, the exploding lamp was simply an exploding lamp.
CHAPTER 5: IMPRISONED
CAPTAIN Holly Short of Section Eight followed the abductors to a Land Rover Discovery, and from there to the Naples ferry. Their captive had been transferred from a canvas sack into a stout golf bag, which was then topped off with the heads of several clubs. It was a very slick operation. Three adult male humans and one teenage female. Holly was only mildly surprised to see that a young girl was involved. After all, Artemis Fowl was little more than a child and he managed to involve himself in far more complex plots than this.
The Land Rover was returned to a Hertz rental in Italy, and from there the group took a first-class sleeper carriage on an overnight bullet train along the western coast. It made sense to travel by train. There was no need to pass the golf bag through an X-ray machine.
Holly didn’t need to worry about X-ray machines, or indeed any form of human security device. Wearing her Section Eight Shimmer Suit, she was invisible to any kind of ray the border police could throw at her. The only way to find a shielded fairy was to hit one accidentally with a stone, and even then you would probably only get an invisible smack on the ear for your trouble.
Holly slipped into the sleeper carriage and deposited herself on an unused luggage rack over the girl’s head. Below her, the three humans propped the golf bag against the table, and stared at it as if… as if there was a demon inside.
Three men and one girl. It would be easy to take them. She could knock them out with her Neutrino, then get Foaly to send in some techs to do mind wipes. Holly was itching to free the poor demon. It would take mere seconds. The only things stopping her were the voices in her head.
One of those voices belonged to Foaly, the other to Artemis.
‘Hold your position, Captain Short,’ advised Foaly the centaur. ‘We need to see how far this goes.’
Section Eight had become very interested in Holly’s mission since the demon abduction. Foaly was keeping a dedicated line to her helmet open.
Holly’s helmet was soundproof, yet she was still nervous talking in such close proximity to the targets. The trick in this situation is to train oneself to speak without any of the usual accompanying gestures. This is harder than it sounds.
‘That poor demon will be terrified,’ said Holly, lying perfectly still. ‘I have to get it out of there.’
‘No,’ said Artemis sharply. ‘You have to see the bigger picture, Holly. We have no idea how big this organization is, or how much they know about the fairy People.’
‘Not as much as you. Demons don’t carry the fairy Book. They’re not much for rules.’
‘At least you have something in common,’ said Butler.
‘I could use the mesmer on them,’ Holly offered. The mesmer was one of the tricks in every fairy’s magical bag. It was a siren’s song that could have any human happily spilling his guts. ‘That would make them tell me what they know.’
‘And only what they know,’ Artemis pointed out. ‘If I was running this organization, everyone would be told only what they needed to know. Nobody would know everything, except me, of course.’
Holly resisted the urge to thump something in frustration. Artemis was right, of course. She had to hang back and see how this situation played out. They needed to spread their net as wide as possible in order to catch all the members of this group.
‘I’ll need back-up,’ Holly whispered. ‘How many agents can Section Eight spare?’
Foaly cleared his throat, but didn’t answer.
‘What is it, Foaly? What’s going on down there?’
‘Ark Sool caught wind of the abduction.’
The mere mention of that gnome’s name drove Holly’s blood pressure up a few points. Commander Ark Sool was the reason she had quit the LEP in the first place.
‘Sool! How did he find out about it so quickly?’
‘He’s got a source somewhere in Section Eight. He called in Vinyáya. She had no option but to hand over all the facts.’
Holly groaned. Sool was the king of red tape. As the dwarfs said, he couldn’t make a decision if he was holding a jug of water and his bum-flap was on fire.
‘What’s the word?’
‘Sool is going for damage limitation. The blast walls are up and overground missions have been cancelled. No further action pending a meeting of the Council. If the manure hits the air circulator, Sool isn’t going to be the one taking the blame. Not on his own.’
‘Politics,’ spat Holly. ‘Sool only cares about his precious career. So you can’t send me anyone?’
Foaly chose his words carefully. ‘Not officially. And no one official. I mean, it would be impossible for anyone, a consultant, say, to get past the blast walls carrying something you might need, if you see what I mean.’
Holly understood exactly what Foaly was trying to tell her.
‘Ten four, Foaly. I’m on my own. Officially.’
‘Exactly. As far as Commander Sool knows, you are simply shadowing the suspects. You are only to take action if they decide to go public. In that case your orders are, and I’m quoting Sool here, “to take the least complicated and most permanent course of action”.’
‘He means vaporize the demon?’
‘Sool didn’t say that, but that’s what he wants.’
Holly despised Sool more with every heartbeat. ‘He can’t order me to do that! Killing a fairy goes against every law in the Book. I won’t do it.’
‘Sool knows he can’t officially order you to use terminal force on a fairy. What he’s doing here is making an unofficial recommendation. The kind that could have a major effect on your career. It’s a tricky one, Holly. Best-case scenario, this all blows over somehow.’
Artemis voiced the opinion that they all held. ‘That’s not going to happen. This is no opportunistic snatch. We are dealing with an organized group that knew what they were after. These people were at Barcelona and now here. They have an agenda for their demon, and, unless they’re military, I would bet it involves going public for large amounts of money. This will be bigger than the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot and the Yeti all rolled into one.’
Foaly sighed. ‘You’re in a fix, Holly. The best thing that could happen for you right now would be a nice non-lethal injury to take you out of the game.’
Holly remembered her old mentor’s words. It’s not about what’s best for us, Julius Root had told her once. It’s about what’s best for the People.