Thirteen: Roxane
Even before the sprite turned, Artemis knew what he would see through Holly's cam feed. He'd known as soon as he'd heard her speak of the "children of the dragon."
A long, hooked nose, and a pair of slitted yellow eyes appeared on the laptop screen onto which Artemis had fed Holly's helmet cam signal. The sprite's face looked like a rubber mask that had been melted by the heat of a flame. He recognised that face instantly. So did Butler.
"Artemis," Butler began.
"I know," Artemis said. "Another mistake come to haunt me." It was the same sprite he'd encountered in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the first fairy he'd ever come into contact with. The one who had granted him access to the Book, and through it, to the fairy realms.
Artemis continued working his way into the laboratory's computer systems while the scene unfolded on the laptop screen.
"Your face," Holly gasped.
"Yes." The sprite raised one hand to let her fingers trail over the melted skin that even her magic could not heal. "A cruel joke. I can fix the features of any other creature, but not my own. No one can fix this," she said in disgust.
"You're addicted to spirits," Holly said, clearly horrified. Artemis wondered that she couldn't cover her reaction any better. But Holly never did play it close to the cuff. You always knew where you stood with Holly Short.
"I was. Thanks to Miss Koboi."
"You're an associate of hers. The surgeon who altered her features a few years ago?" Holly ventured.
"Yes, that was my work. I was once a surgeon of some renown and a leading researcher in the field of biomagicology. When you were very young."
Why was she still talking, Artemis wondered. She too must be trying to buy time. Probably to allow whatever program she had implanted into the lab's computer system to finish destroying the files, and to allow the fire to take a firmer hold on the building. Artemis could see smoke beginning to waft into Holly's field of vision. With her wings, the sprite could easily escape through a window, unlike her two hostages.
"Sprites rarely have enough magic to be medical warlocks," Holly noted.
The sprite waved a hand dismissively. "Warlocks!" She snorted, nostrils flaring. "They can heal hacked off limbs but they don't have the finesse for precision work. Small, precise doses. That was my specialty. At least until Miss Koboi hired me to aid her with her research. She wanted to better understand how to manipulate living tissue and fluids, to extract material from them."
"That sort of research is illegal," Holly said through gritted teeth.
Artemis bit back a curse as his over-large fingers pounded an incorrect key on the fairy-designed keyboard. He was almost into the sprinkler system. That should do some good... unless of course the fire managed to find its way to some of the flammable materials used in most laboratories, in which case Holly would have to risk throwing those men out the window before the entire building went up in a chemical fireball.
The sprite shrugged. "She paid handsomely for it. And I thought, where was the harm?" Her laugh was like sand pouring over stone. "When she was done, she made sure I was in no position to report her."
"She dosed you with alcohol?"
"Yes. When I woke, I was in a strange land and my magic was nearly gone. I spent years in an alley, begging for a few drops of rice wine."
"How did you recover?"
"I don't know," she said, voice trembling. "I don't remember. I awoke after a bout of illness, healed. But Miss Koboi found me again."
"And you decided to help her murder the officers we had in the Fort Tryon Park outpost?"
The sprite shook her head. "Miss Koboi is the one who loosed the test cases in the park, not me. And what choice did I have? If I fail her..."
"You'll be safe now," Holly assured her, though her weapon was still drawn and pointed straight ahead. "Let's just get out of here while we still can. Ask the two Mud Men to come along quietly."
"I can't do that."
"What?"
"I used the researchers here to help me develop the grafts. Miss Koboi said to wipe out all the evidence." The sprite glanced in the direction of the two men who remained blissfully oblivious to their peril, caught up in whatever fantasy the sprite had suggested to them.
"No," Holly said, horror plain in her voice.
"They won't feel any discomfort," the sprite went on. "I told them to imagine themselves at their favourite pastime. They'll be perfectly happy right until the end."
"You can't do this," Holly hissed.
A surge of triumph raced through Artemis's veins as he finally cracked the system and set off the sprinklers. He set to work on the air vents. If he could cut off the supply to the lower floors that would further slow the flames. He did not dare alert the fire services until Holly and the sprite were out, though.
The sprite was trembling as she spoke. "You don't know what it's like to be banished from the People, to be deprived of magic."
"Better that than to become a murderer," Holly shot back. Though his attention was focussed on the tiny screen of the fairy computer, he allowed himself the ghost of a smile. It was just like Holly to make such a reply. And he had no doubt that she meant it.
"You don't know," murmured he sprite. "You don't understand."
"Artemis," Holly said into her mic. "I'm not making anyway headway. How are you doing?"
"I've turned on the sprinkler system and cut off ventilation. Can you see any effect?"
"Negative. Thermal readings have barely dipped. It's too late. I'm going to have to shoot her and try to get everyone out myself."
"Wait."
The cam feed jumped as Holly tilted her head. "You have a trick up your sleeve?"
"A small one. I shall play Cyrano to your Christian and feed you your lines."
"Artemis, who– Oh never mind. Just tell me what you want me to say."
ooo
Over the years, there had been many times when Holly had had her doubts about Artemis's plans, but somehow he had always gotten them through dire straights. She hoped this time would be no different, because if he were wrong it would be a pair of innocent bystanders who would pay the price.
Taking a deep breath, Holly did as Artemis instructed over the com line.
"You're in enough trouble as it is," she told the sprite. "Don't add murder to the list of charges."
"Your threats are empty, elf. Nothing could be worse than what she would do to me."
"Is that so?" Holly paused a moment– as per the instructions Artemis was feeding her– and then, "Forever doomed shall be the one, who betrays my secrets one by one." Every school child knew those words by heart. It was from the opening passage of the Book. Yet the sprite paled, hands trembling. "What if the LEP learned about your Book?"
The sprite froze. "My Book?"
"Yes. Your Book," Holly said, with a slyness that was entirely feigned. "What if they learned what happened to your Book?"
"I don't know what you mean." But sweat prickled her green skin and Holly was certain it was more than the rising temperature of the room.
"How did you recover from your addiction to spirits?"
"I– I don't know – don't remember. I woke up healed."
"Are you sure you don't remember anything?" Holly prodded.
"A dream," murmured the sprite. "I remember a dream. A giant and a child..."
Holly's heart was in her throat but she managed to keep her voice calm. "And your Book... When you woke up, it wasn't where it was supposed to be, was it?"
"I– How did you–"
"It was lying out in the open, not where you usually kept it, deep in the folds of that filthy robe. You let them see, didn't you? You let the Mud Men see our Book!"
"You were there!" shrieked the sprite. "Spying on me! Please! Please, I don't remember what happened. I don't wish to be banished again. Please..."
"Then help me save them," Holly said, gesturing to the two men.
"I will. But please... It was an accident. I– I don't know what happened," she gibbered.
Holly rolled her eyes, but inside she felt her stomach churn most unpleasantly. Artemis could manipulate people like no one else she knew, though for once she was grateful for it.
The smoke was beginning to settle over the room like a shroud, and though the Mud Men continued to enjoy their mesmer-induced fantasies, they were coughing and gasping for breath. It was time to go.
"The fire exit is still clear," Holly said. "Tell them to get out of here."
The sprite nodded and did as she was told. In moments the Mud Men had recovered from their happy stupor and, suddenly aware of their predicament, were racing for their lives towards the stairwell. "Now we need to–"
"There's another researcher," the sprite squeaked.
"Where?"
"I left him on the first floor."
"D'Arvit!" That would explain why she hadn't detected his thermals. If he was on the first floor, the chances of the Mud Man still being alive were slim but... "Tell me where. Exactly where," Holly drawled.
"In the room where we worked on the grafts. The central laboratory along the main corridor. The fourth door on the left." The sprite coughed. Without a mask like Holly's the smoke was becoming too much even for her.
"Get out of here," Holly said. "And don't you dare run. There are two Mud Men outside in a truck. Go wait with them. No questions!" she added before the sprite could protest. "And if I don't see you waiting outside when I get back, every fairy under the world is going to know how Artemis Fowl got a copy of the People's Book."
Blanching to an almost pastel shade of green, the sprite nodded vigorously. "Yes. Yes, I'll wait," she said and then took to the air, flying out an already opened window.
"Holly."
"Do you have any intel, Artemis? Because otherwise I need to you to be quiet and let me do my job." She was already flying back towards the stairwell. From what she could see of the thermals, the southern face of the building was rapidly being consumed by flames. Soon it would be an inferno and even her suit would not protect her were she to be trapped in it. But she had to do this. She could not let innocents be sacrificed for the sake of one of Opal's twisted plans.
"There are fire trucks en route. You have minutes, Holly."
"Copy that. Just be ready to leave when I get out," she said and then focussed on the task at hand.
Clouds of smoke were rising in a column through the stairwell. Holly tinkered with the settings on her helmet for maximum visibility and then dropped into a dive, pulling up just as she reached the ground floor. Wracking her memory for the layout of the place, she retraced her steps to the main corridor, hovering low to avoid the smoke. Embers dotted the air like fireflies, giving the smoke a lurid glow. She could feel the heat through her suit in spite of the climate controls. Sweat beaded brow; she thought she could hear the approaching sirens.
In the main corridor she drew up against the right wall. Her visibility was down to almost nothing and she had to resort to running her hand against the wall to feel for doors, counting them as she passed.
One. Wall... Wall.. Wall... Two.
Another span of wall. Three– no. A fire extinguisher. Too late for that now.
More wall and then... Three. One more door.
A roaring filled her ears. Not far ahead, the orange glow had become a bright haze. Through it she glimpsed the flicker of flames lapping up the walls and inching towards the ceiling. Once it caught, debris would start raining on her head. Not much time.
Relief swelled through her as she felt the irregularity of a doorframe beneath her hand. She scrabbled around for the door handle and threw open the door. Smoke followed after her in the seconds before he slammed it closed behind her. Scanning the room, she willed her heartbeat to steady. Where was he? The smoke was thinner here, but she couldn't see more than a metre ahead. The room seemed elongated, much like the laboratory where she'd encountered the sprite, but divided by several islands. She hovered low the ground and searched the room aisle by aisle.
"D'Arvit! I don't see him."
It crossed her mind that the sprite might have lied, might have told her there was a third man in the hope of giving herself time to escape, or with the idea that if Holly didn't survive the fire, she wouldn't be able to report her.
"Holly, there's not much time." Artemis's voice was taut through the com channel. "The building's structure is compromised. You need to get out of there."
She didn't take the time to reply; she kept searching in a methodical grid pattern. If he was here she would find him. If not... she was going to introduce that sprite to the wrong end of her buzz baton.
"Holly, you need to–" She hit the mute. He was a genius after all; if he had something important to say she was confident he'd figure out how override it. In the meantime she needed no distractions.
It wasn't until she'd covered some three quarters of the room that she finally found him, a tall man in a lab coat, darkened to grey by soot. He was face down on the floor, unmoving. Holly pressed her fingers against his throat. A thready pulse. Good. There was still time.
He was twice her height; more than twice her weight; too much for her to carry. She would have to rely on the suit's wings. Reaching to her belt, she pulled a tether from it and tied it around the man's chest, just below the arms. She also took a moment to drape some camfoil around him. The material was flame retardant and would give him some protection anyway; she hadn't gone to all the trouble of locating him just to let him get burnt to a crisp on the way out.
As she rose slowly, her suit's wings whirred in protest for a few seconds and then adjusted to the added weight. The unconscious man's bulk made it difficult to manoeuver and left her flying through the denser smoke. The heat penetrated her suit.
Her first instinct was to fly to the far wall and head out the nearest window. Then she remembered: the sprite had said it was the central laboratory. They were in a windowless room in the centre of the building. She would have to head back out into the main corridor. Wonderful.
When she reached for the doorknob, she could feel the heat even through her glove. Her passenger was not going to enjoy this ride. But then in all likelihood, neither was she.
Holly opened the door and found herself faced with a blazing inferno. The flames had stormed over the walls and were consuming the ceiling. The roaring was tremendous, as if she were flying through a dragon's gullet. A chunk of something – drywall perhaps – crashed down in front of her. She swerved and gunned her throttle, surging through a veil of fire.
Debris showered her, filling her vision with flares of orange. Even through her helmet's filters, the air was hot enough to sear her lungs. Just a little further.
Something caught her in the shoulder, and with the weight of her passenger she couldn't compensate in time and was sent careening downward into the floor. A tremendous groaning followed from above, the yawn of a behemoth it seemed, and she felt the weight of a mountain come crashing down atop her.
A/N: Just by the by, the title of this chapter is a reference to the character in Cyrano de Bergerac, the play referenced by Artemis... not the song by the The Police. ;)