I N F E R N O
- Dim Aldebarn -
Chapter Twelve
:i:
Upon reaching the north wall of Ferguson Manor, Artemis consulted his watch; blueprints of the ground floor were displayed on the pane. There would be two separate points of entry, one for each party: Artemis and Butler would enter first, and coordinate Juliet's entry from there.
They walked down the side of the Manor; the massy construction style, with worn old-growth cedar logs, made it seem as if they were touring a historic site. But then, Ferguson Manor was built a mere one hundred and fifty years before, which was nothing to the European.
Of course, the tourist would not be wearing millions of dollars of equipment, either.
Artemis had used a combination of the official blueprints and some revealing satellite imagery to create the plan of attack; the base of operations was one of the first places he had planned. He had eventually decided on a small room opposite the principal security booth. Though windowless, there was access through the refrigeration unit, which kept the room at a cool temperature for the computer servers.
Of course, access was not perfect. The exact brand of the refrigeration unit was unknown; there was record of three different brands being purchased by the Fergusons, and this particular one could be any of the three. Though the vented to the outside, it would have to be turned off, and several partitions removed, before Butler could enter. That left Artemis, of a far slighter build, to do this.
Butler hoisted him up to the grate; perhaps undignified, but effective. Artemis, a sort of universal tool in hand, rapidly unscrewed the initial grate and slipped inside. There wasn't much room inside the vent, and what room there was was scarce enough; he was forced to crawl on his elbows and knees, and Butler would be reduced to wiggling. Hot air, a side product of the refrigeration process, roared through the shaft, threatening to blow Artemis' protective camfoil blanket back outside.
The next partition was what separated the inflow from the room from the outflow outside. When unscrewed, the unit would automatically power off—and would trigger an error alert to the Manor's computer system, if the Fergusons had installed such things. Though it was unlikely—the Manor was a security nightmare—it was always better safe than sorry.
However, even in the state-of-the-art Fowl Manor alert system, it would take about a minute for such a low-risk alert to display. After all, it kept track of the thousands upon thousands of electronically-controlled devices at Fowl Manor, from the security cameras to the septic system to the sprinkler. Thus, at the worst, he had a minute to remove the remaining partitions, lower himself into the server room without injury, and then attach a bug to the unit's computer.
Perhaps Artemis was not a particularly active young man, but he was efficient. He unscrewed and removed the partition with all speed; instantly, the roaring of air stopped. Removing the final grate was far easier, due to the lack of rushing air; he set the grate next to him in the shaft.
Lowering himself seven feet to the floor would be difficult, especially considering that he was currently positioned head-first in the vent, with little room to maneuver. Carefully, he turned himself on his back, and then grabbed the upper sill of the unit with each hand. He began slowly extracting himself from the vent and into the open air. Just like a sit-up, he told himself, just pretend that you can do them—
—and he was dangling five feet above the floor; his arms were shaking hard, and the camfoil was threatening to slip off. With only the briefest thought of twisted ankles, he let go.
The jar to his knees and ankles was excruciating; he bit back a yelp of pain. Immediately, he made sure that his camfoil blanket was still in place; it had slipped slightly, but it had only exposed him in the direction of the near wall. All things considered, it was Artemis Fowl's greatest feat of physical prowess: a single pull-up.
There is time for pride later, he told himself, and considered the next obstacle. The refrigeration unit's computer was very conspicuous, since temperature adjustments had to be done manually.
He had downloaded the troubleshoot guides for the three possible units, and had memorized the necessary pages. After a moment of inspection, Artemis unscrewed a panel to the right of the screen, exposing a tangled network of wires. He selected the one that would run to the security booth next door, and attached his bug.
Physically inconspicuous, the bug would intercept any electronic signals pertaining to an error message, and transmit one of full working order. Of course, he had had them preprogrammed from the safety of the Lear.
This left him with a full ten seconds.
Silence was of the essence: Artemis alerted Butler that the coast was clear with a few taps to the throat patch. Relatively unaltered from Foaly's original, the patch would pick that up as a series of dull thuds. Butler would hear the signal in his earpiece, and follow him through the vent. While he was negotiating the tight passageway, Artemis would make himself at home.
The first thing to do was loop the cameras. He unhooked another bug from his watchband and walked over to the one camera of the room, which could have been from the back corner of any convenience store. The detail would be so grainy that it was unlikely it would even pick up the blur of the camfoil blankets—but again, it was better safe than sorry.
He attached a bug to one of the exposed wires, and then considered the next security threat: the lack of sound from the refrigeration unit. It was a noisy, inefficient thing, and from the outside, any passerby would be able to hear its roar. A lack of such sound would be a cause of alarm, and an investigation would result.
Earlier, he had recorded the refrigeration unit's sound from the outside; though muffled by the wall, it was as close an approximation as he could get. He took another link from his watchband, and delicately pushed an inset in the side. A dull roar emitted from the pea-sized device; he set it near the door.
All immediate security threats attended to, he examined the room more closely. It had been recently remodeled; the concrete walls and floors were clean and bare in the way only newness can be. The room was on the small side, but for its purpose, it was actually quite big. There were only a dozen or so servers, which were placed in the center of the room within a low-slung slotted cabinet. The great masses of cords, a perpetual nightmare of a tangle at Fowl Manor, were neatly bundled, and strung up through a port in the ceiling. Their gentle hum as they went about their ceaseless, redundant tasks could barely be heard through the roar of the refrigerator unit recording.
Butler, though considerably larger than Artemis, dropped down from the vent with ease; Artemis watched the blur do a graceful flip from the floor. They would be keeping their camfoi blankets on, of course, but detecting each other's presence would hardly be difficult in the small room.
Butler went right to inspecting the room for security flaws; the blur moved in a slow circle around the central server table. When satisfied, he sent a signal message using his watch.
Artemis withdrew a small box from his suit—about two inch square—and tapped it gently. It was his most recent version of the infamous C-Cube. The improvements upon the original were numerous, but the most conspicuous was the layout. It quickly unfolded into a sort of small laptop, albeit a laptop with two screens instead of one. A separate keyboard and stylus were also produced.
Artemis set this down as one might set down a book in his lap and perched the slight keyboard on a knee. Using the stylus, he quickly brought the blueprints of Ferguson Manor on one screen, with his modifications and notes, and a detailed outline of the plan on the other.
He tapped his throat patch to get Juliet's attention.
"Yeah?"
Artemis winced; even through his earpiece, she managed to sound unconcerned. He brought Juliet's eye cam view on his panel, and began: "Go to the third window west from the northeast corner of the building."
"Distance?"
"Twenty meters from your current position."
The side of the Manor bobbed up and down in the eye cam view. Artemis, somewhat impatient, picked dust particles from the sleeve of his suit.
"Okay, I'm there. Now what?"
"There should be a window on the second floor, directly overhead. Scale the wall to the left of it."
Juliet's gloves and soles could generate a sort of microspike texture; with the push of a button, they could grip virtually any substance. It made for a somewhat Peter Parker approach to buildings; but short of a microscope, no scratches were detectable, and the camfoil jumpsuit made the risk of exposure slight.
When she had scaled the wall, Artemis relayed the next set of instructions: "The window should be inset by a half meter. Step onto the ledge and give me a view of the locking mechanism."
They knew the brand of window—Diana had found a bill regarding a recent window replacement—but not the exact nature of the locking mechanism by the time they left. However, second-story windows tended to have simple locks, and the security company that covered Ferguson Manor was one that Artemis had dealt with previously.
Juliet obliged him with a view of the lock. After a brief examination, Artemis smiled. The hookup to the security alarm was simplistic. "Take the stud from your right shoulder; second from the top. Open it. There should be a bug within."
While Juliet was unwrapping the bug, Artemis downloaded a program into it that would deal with this particular security system. Rather than be directly attached to the wires, as with most of his bugs, this one would transmit and intercept over an area. Since the window alarm was the only electrical device for a meter around, the bug would affect only it.
Juliet planted the bug on the cross hatch of the window; the patented adhesive would stick to veritably any surface. Glass was nothing. "Bug planted. Now what?"
"Go to the west side of the window. Between the wall and the frame, there should be a narrow gap. Can you see the locking mechanism through it?"
"Yeah. You know, it is absolutely ridiculous how easy this is—"
Though privately Artemis agreed, Juliet's little comments were out of place—and irritating. "Mind on the mission, if you will. The vibroblade—you remember how to use it?"
The vibroblade was exactly what it sounded like; a blade that vibrated. It was approximately ten centimeters long when fully extended. The 'blade' was titanium, and would vibrate at extremely high frequencies. In this state, most substances could be cut with relative ease.
"You push the button," Juliet replied, "and then you cut. Not that hard." She demonstrated on the lock, nearly cutting off her hand in the process. "Like that."
Artemis grimaced; a pity there weren't less frivolous Butlers of the proper age. He had a task, however: he hacked into the Ferguson mainframe and accessed the security input. Though he preferred his physical bugs, which were untraceable after they self-destructed, sometimes a bit of hacking was the only alternative.
His proximity to the mainframe was the entire reason why he was inside the Manor, versus outside of it: proximity equaled simplicity, in hacking. Once inside the mainframe, he accessed the security cameras. When he had located the one in Juliet's corridor, he looped the video input so Juliet could pass by without even a blur. "All clear."
"About time," Juliet said, opening the window and slipping inside.
"Go down the hallway and take the second right."
Juliet broke into a soundless jog. The crisp lines of the cedar-paneled corridor bobbed up and down on the screen. Once she took the right, a new hallway presented itself: one leading to the suite of Natalie Ferguson. "Now what?"
Artemis did not reply, instead speculating upon the suite blueprints on the screen. There had been no way to deduce the location of Girl in Solitude, from either satellite imagery or even Diana. In short, Juliet would have to sweep the entire seven-hundred-square-foot suite of rooms.
To no matter. He planted some more bugs in the security cameras of the suite, and checked for occupants on the footage. Neither of the Ferguson siblings seemed to be within. When satisfied, he said, "Check the walls, first. See if she's had it hung—as a war trophy, of sorts."
Juliet entered. Though he could only get short, bobbing views of any particular place in the room, he was nevertheless surprised at its contents: the place was a veritable library, with cedar shelves coating every wall, and books stacked two or three deep. There was little else in the room: asides from these shelves, the cedar parquet was bare, and furniture seemed entirely nonexistent.
"No trophies here," Juliet said cheerfully. "Where to next?"
There were three doors branching off from this main room: one he identified as a bathroom, which was a bad place for a painting because of the humidity, and thus very unlikely. The other two appeared to be bedrooms, or media rooms.
"First door on the right."
Juliet bobbed on over to it. The opening of the door revealed a room, similarly lined with bookshelves. However, there was a window in this room, a large one, with an expansive panorama of the mountainsides, and a deep windowseat.
"Go to the window."
"Why? There's no paintings here—"
"Do it."
Juliet caught the steely tones in his voice; in all likelihood rolling her eyes, she advanced upon the window and supplied him with a good view. "Happy?"
"Very," Artemis replied smoothly. "Open it."
"It's a seat—"
"Have you lost all common sense, Juliet?" Artemis snapped. "Or are you just playing stupid to irritate me?"
Juliet mumbled something incomprehensible under her breath, and bent down. The varnish on the cedar had been worn through on the top of the seat, but also on the edge. As he had thought: it was a lid, which could be opened and closed.
"Open it," he repeated.
She did.
Inside were cardboard tubes, the traditional way to store paintings. All had neat Sharpie labels on them:, Cassandra, Echo, Eurydice, Medusa, Persephone—
—and Medea.
He closed his eyes for a moment. What were those other stolen paintings?—the titles all implied the tragic female figure, clearly, a source of fascination for Natalie. What insight he could gain into her character, what prescience—
"Take them all," Artemis said.
"There's six of them!" Juliet cried out indignantly. "How am I supposed to scale that wall with six tubes in hand?"
"You'll find a way, I'm certain," Artemis replied absently: his mind was already spinning with the thought of not only Girl in Solitude, but five more variations on the theme of Natalie Ferguson—
Juliet sighed melodramatically and scooped up the tubes. Since they were perfectly visible, she would have to make her exit quickly to avoid detection.
Artemis turned towards Butler. "The vent, if you will."
Butler nodded, and went to it. He would climb through the vent to the other side, then lower a small rope for Artemis, so he could climb up to the vent on his own. Artemis would follow a few moments later. It was a minimal security risk, and he would have to secure the outdoors for both Artemis and Juliet anyway. He gave it little thought.
While Butler was managing that, Artemis began deleting the traces of their little visit: as Juliet exited the windowseat room, he began deleting the looping programs on each of the cameras. That way, their little visit would go unnoticed for long enough that they could return to Fowl Manor in peace.
Lost in his programs, he almost ignored Juliet's warning cry: "Artemis—!"
He checked the screen. Before Juliet, in the doorway of the suite, was Natalie Ferguson, pale eyes fixed on the levitating tubes.
"D'Arvit," Artemis swore, uncharacteristically but quite appropriately. His mind raced; any moment, she would snap out of it and sound the alarm. "Knock her out."
"The paintings—"
"Drop them!"
Juliet did; as they clattered to the ground, she lunged forward and captured the girl in a headlock. Before the girl could even scream, her head fell limply forward onto her chest, rendered unconscious. "Now what?"
His mind was spinning, as if flung into the Tevatron—"Can you carry her?"
"Duh."
"Return the paintings," Artemis quickly replied. "We can come back for them later. Bring her out with you through the window, Butler will help—"
There was a clicking sound. Looking up, Artemis suddenly found himself faced with a spectacle he hadn't seen in a decade:
Looking down the barrel of a gun.
There was the sound of thunder, and Artemis could only fall…
:i:
Sorry about how long this took! I've had this typed up for almost a month now, but I simply cannot write this sort of thing. Sorry, I'm just terrible at these action-subterfuge stuff. I had to get it over with, so from here on out, the action will not have to do with unlikely technology and long winded explanations. My only excuse is… well, the more I tried to edit this, the longer and more unlikely it all got, so I figured I had to stop myself before it got too over-the-top.
Asides from that… er, the cliffie? The next chapter should be up next week Saturday, very much on schedule, since I already have that one typed up, and it's much more friendly to edit. Besides being full of fun Fergusonness and How Someone Actually OutsmartedArtemis and all, without being an actual genius and... I've said too much. coughs Yeah. XD
CC much appreciated – especially if you can help me figure out how to write this sort of scene!
