Artemis was nearly at wits' end. And when you considered his wits, that was a far distance to push indeed. His problem was that he was in charge of developing countermeasures for whatever Opal Koboi had left in her quiver.
The problem with that was that he had no idea what Opal was doing.
When the pixie first woke up, Artemis had expected some degree of struggling. Possibly shouting. He was hopeful that there would be enough of a disturbance that he would simply be "forced" to set off the charge. That or Butler would shoot her first.
Generally, Artemis was not a murderer, much less one who would do so in cold blood. However, Opal Koboi continued to be the exception to the rule. The pixie had almost killed every human on the surface of the planet. She had destroyed so much infrastructure it would take humans decades to dig back its way out of the technological hole it was in. She had possessed Juliet. She almost caused Butler's baby sister to murder him. She had touched his brothers.
No, Artemis was no cold-blooded murderer, but he was understandably piqued at the small figure snoozing on the gel seats. It's just that unlike most teenagers should they be unfortunate enough to be in his situation, he wasn't going to throw a tantrum. No, Artemis Fowl managed his emotions so that they didn't interfere with his plans.
Still, that didn't mean he wasn't absolutely livid.
Instead of playing along with Artemis' fantasies and raging before being summarily chunked into thousands of pieces, Opal did nothing. No schemes, no magic, no struggling. Just a glassy-eyed stare at her surroundings and some mild shuffling under her straitjacket.
Then she smiled. On one hand, it was one of the most angelic things that he had ever seen. On the other hand, it was Opal Koboi and so it chilled him to his core. If she was happy, then that generally meant somebody across the chessboard from her was going to be very unhappy. At the moment, she was playing against the entire human race.
Right afterward, she schooled her features until they were incredibly neutral. Artemis couldn't read the expression. Artemis found out why when the pixie snapped her gaze directly above her, right to where the hidden thermal camera was.
Impossible, he thought. That's camouflaged.
Did she know? How did she know? Should he activate the charge now and damn the consequences? Or was this all somehow going according to plan? Artemis, a bead of sweat appearing on his brow, checked his various helmet-feeds. The camera watching Butler's sizable back, clear. Thermal camera, clear. Biometrics, all baseline, if a little bit on the low-blood pressure side.
He felt a reassuring squeeze and he turned to Holly. She was looking at him, mismatched eyes full of concern. Artemis took a deep breath and resettled himself. It was fine. Opal is doing nothing. He met her eyes and nodded, mouthing that he was fine.
Then Opal started saying random syllables. No wait, only two. In a repeating pattern.
Damn, Artemis thought, thrown right back into planning mode. I didn't sweep the shuttle for bugs! If she had managed to plant any in here then maybe she's transmitting it somewhere. She's activating something with those sounds, she must be. But where? For what purpose?
He was seconds away from detonating the explosive charge before Holly broke into his runaway thoughts.
"You know," she mused, "what if Opal has brain damage?"
Artemis' thoughts ground to a halt as he digested that statement. That was very possible. He had imagined that the separation of spirit and body would come at the cost of some memories, which may or may not return. He had consigned himself to that murky fate when he had first drugged Holly and ran off to get himself killed. If this is what happens to consciousness when the spirit is separated for all of two minutes, Artemis shuddered to imagine what would have become of him at the end of six months, or however long it took Foaly to grow an illegal clone.
Then, of course she can't have bugs in the Cupid. They would have exploded and Foaly's too paranoid.
"That… could explain what we're seeing," Artemis said, trying not to think about what he would have been like if it was his soul that had been ripped out and shoved into a clone.
Opal finally seemed to remember how to use her mouth. And then she started calling both of their names. Not just their names, but Artemis' pet name.
Even Butler's brows rose in confusion.
"'Arty?'"
"Yes, Holly?"
The elf rolled her eyes, ignoring him.
"What in Frond's name is happening right now?"
"I don't know, but I'm uncertain how much water the brain damage theory holds now," Artemis replied, lips compressing into a thin line. "She's plotting something and I intend to figure out exactly what it is."
"Well you'd better hurry it up, because Opal calling out our names like that is grating."
"I suspect that she knows that we're here and is simply doing it to throw us off. Crude but effective psychological warfare."
Holly looked irritated, particularly with how innocent Opal sounded. The pixie murderer was somehow setting off a repressed maternal instinct inside of her, and she did not like it. Pixies may look adorable and innocent, but Opal had never been accused of either of those things.
"I'm not sure what we can glean from this," Artemis admitted finally. "At the very least, I suspect that she will not be attempting an escape plot while we're actively watching."
"I'm about to lose my patience here."
"Now there's a surprise."
"Shut up, mud-boy," she quipped, pulling her Neutrino smoothly out of its holster. "How about we interrogate her? You've got her vitals, so we can tell if she's lying or not."
"Absolutely not," Artemis vetoed. "We shouldn't risk any unnecessary contact until we're absolutely certain."
"Certain of what, Arty? It's Opal. If she's got a plan, she's gonna monologue about it."
"I don't want you to be in any danger, Holly," the boy said pensively.
"I appreciate the concern," the captain said, smiling, "but let's face it. This is what I'm good at. Just magic, guts, and a scary gun."
Artemis made an ineffectual mewling sound that may have contained protest. Butler nearly removed the earpiece in disbelief. He didn't even know his charge could even make those noises.
Holly rolled her eyes good-naturedly. She decided to throw Artemis a bone.
"Look, my gut's telling me this is how we proceed," she said, regretfully extricating her hand from Artemis'. "And my gut's never wrong. It led me to you, after all."
Artemis made a sound that could have been a cough or squeal. Despite Holly's cheap tactics, he could see the logic in her arguments. If Opal was already calling out to the two of them, then they had little incentive to continue hiding and more to gain by half-revealing their hand.
Of course, Opal would probably figure where Holly was, Artemis would be close by. But there was the possibility Opal had assumed that he had died. Still, he was incredibly unhappy with Holly acting as bait, but he had to trust she could handle herself.
"Very well, captain," sighed Artemis, fighting down a blush, "do be careful."
"When am I not?" she asked, fading from the visibility.
Butler snorted. Artemis was too well-bred to do the same, but the cocked eyebrow meant much the same thing.
Holly, shielded, cautiously approaching the restrained pixie. The clone was still mewling her name every so often, as if that hadn't been annoying the first dozen times she had done it. Holly stepped carefully around the camfoil, finding a good spot for when she unshielded. It wouldn't be great if she was in Butler's line of fire. From Opal's point of view, it would appear that it was simply a fairy unshielding in an empty room. Hopefully this would lead her to believe that it was just Holly she was dealing with.
Opal always did have a tendency to see what she wanted to see.
The LEPrecon captain took a deep breath. Then she unshielded. Holly almost wanted to close her eyes in anticipation, but her training forced her to keep her eyes open. Whatever was going to happen, she needed to prepare for it.
However instead of the expected, like a torrent of abuse, surprise, or magical fireworks, Opal simply gave Holly a glassy stare. Then Nopal broke into the widest smile that Holly had ever seen on another fairy.
"Holly. You came."
Holly was thrown off balance for a moment, and said nothing. Who was his pixie? She seemed like she had been waiting for Holly for centuries with perfect faith that the elf would come for her. And now that she had arrived, Nopal, for her part, seemed content to just look at Holly's face.
"Holly? Holly?" Artemis radioed, snapping Holly out of her consternation. "I believe she is either deranged or pretending. Actually, I retract my supposition on the former. Nevertheless, play along. Ask her some questions to establish a baseline."
Holly rolled her eyes. She knew the drill. Nevertheless, she pressed a button to allow her voice to be heard through the helmet. It was generally something of a riot feature, functioning as a megaphone. Luckily she could turn the volume down so she wouldn't deafen everyone in the shuttle. Blowing out Opal's eardrums would be satisfying, but it was a little petty.
"Hey, do you mind if I ask you some questions?" Holly asked.
Nopal nodded, an earnest expression on her face.
"Is your name Opal Koboi?"
The pixie furrowed her brows. Was that her name?
"I don't… think so," she answered finally. Her voice was higher than Opal's and had a strange lilting-quality to it. Nopal shook her head, more sure this time, "Nope."
"That's unusual," Artemis said, in that tone.
To Holly, when one of the geniuses—genii just in case Artemis was reading her mind—was about to deliver her bad news they'd say something like "hm, that's weird" or "how unusual." And they would always, always deliver it in that tone. She felt her pulse quicken.
"Arty," she said, in that tone. Artemis and Foaly knew it as that tone that precedes Holly whalloping you if you don't hurry and explain what's so "unusual."
"Right. No change in heartbeat or signs of perspiration," Artemis said, a tad hurriedly. "Perhaps she may be a better liar than we expected."
"Opal Koboi, good at lying—stop the presses," she muttered under her breath. Not that the faeries had used newspapers in centuries. Cutting down trees and printing ink on them for something you'd use once? Barbaric.
"Alright. What is your name, then?"
"My name is Nopal! You named me, I think."
What? Artemis frowned. That would be a good strategy to convince them, not to mention get them off balance. Devious, but he expected no less from her. But still no reaction, at least physiologically.
"No change in vitals," he reported dutifully. Holly didn't seem to hear him.
"I did?" Holly paused for several seconds, unsure how to continue. "What else do you remember?"
Nopal thought about this.
"I remember," she said seriously, "being in the chrysalis. Then the Brill brothers moved me in a janitor's cart."
Nopal's expression was troubled as she began, an expression of sheer concentration. Recalling the early stages of her life was hard. She brightened visibly as she continued, though.
"After that I got put somewhere smaller with less wires. And I sat a lot. You visited me often, though. Thanks!"
Holly felt unsettled. Her instincts assured her that she wasn't in danger, at least not immediately, but she was certainly in a novel situation. Face to face with Opal Koboi and not feeling rage and hatred. When was the last time that happened?
Oh right, before the whole B'wa Kell rebellion. I had thought that if I ever met Opal I'd congratulate her for rising in a male-dominated field. I thought we were kindred spirits.
The thought made her shudder. But looking at the smiling face peering up at her, Holly couldn't quite feel the same revulsion she felt not twelve hours earlier.
"Holly," Artemis said, "I have gotten no changes from her physiologically, yet I suspect she is nevertheless lying to us. I wouldn't suppose you've gotten any luck from your angle?"
The captain thought about it for a moment. She wouldn't expect for Opal to have any obvious tells, but if anything, the clone didn't seem to be able to keep anything off her face. There was the intensity to that gaze that she couldn't quite place.
"Yeah, Arty," she said, "I either can't read a thing or I'm reading only what she wants me to read."
Holly heard him sigh, unusually tired. Well, he had been awake for a while. Holly and Butler had their brief stints of unconsciousness, so they were relatively well rested compared to the genius. She'd bet that he even had a consistent sleep schedule, the spoiled brat.
"I didn't expect so," muttered Artemis. He wanted to take off his helmet and rub the bridge of his nose, but that was an unnecessary risk. They were silent as Artemis began thinking about alternatives for imprisoning Opal. They'd have to move her into the manor, Artemis thought with a grimace.
"Hey," Holly said, breaking into his thoughts. "Crazy idea."
"Are you about to ask about the possibility that she is actually Nopal and we are not being played like second-rate instruments at a high-school band recital?"
Her silence was answer enough. Nevertheless, Artemis considered that ridiculous idea. Where it anyone else, there was certainly a strong chance that the soul would simply become the driving anima for the clone and thus create an entirely different person. However, it was not anyone else. It was Opal Koboi.
Meanwhile, Nopal was continuing her story, grabbing Holly's attention. The way the clone spoke when telling a story became almost sing-songy. It was… endearing? Creepy?
"...then I got put into a titanium egg. I think I rode a surface flare, and so it was really, really hot. I think I almost died, but it was over quickly. Then Arty put the mask on me and I couldn't see much. But I played the game right, and then there were a ton of green lights and Opal shot me. Then I think I died. But now I'm here. Can I use the bathroom?"
Holly didn't answer immediately.
"Arty, did you get all that?"
"Vitals are steady."
"Arty…" she said warningly. She knew a Fowl evasion when she heard one, and this one wasn't even particularly well done.
"Holly, I don't know what you want me to say, really. There's still a chance that those memories could have been absorbed by Opal as she claimed the clone's body. This level of functionality could be explained by the short time that she was separated. Furthermore, the fact that this approach seems to be so effectively winning us gives me even more reason to be concerned."
"Would Opal even be this good at acting?"
"She did impersonate a nurse and mesmerize Dr. Schalke on the side. Though her imitation of my mother was lacking."
"I remember that," Holly conceded. She remembered being dunked into a barrel of animal fat by Butler and felt bile rise in the back of her throat at the memory. And they still had that damned thing! Well at least it had released a berserker.
"Holly, it appears you're getting attached. We cannot allow sentiment here. We cannot be certain if this is the same clone that you and I looked over at the clinic."
"Well at the very least can't we try? We're clearly not getting anything out of her here. If it is Nopal, then she's done nothing wrong."
"I believe by fairy law her existence is illegal," Artemis countered. He didn't mention the part of his resurrection plan that called for Holly and Foaly doing said illegal things.
Holly shot him a look, through the camfoil. Nopal watched as Holly was arguing with someone in her helmet. She couldn't hear any of the words, but she assumed it was Arty. They seemed to do that a lot.
"At least let's take care of her?" she asked in that tone that made Artemis' demeanor start to crack. "We don't get anything out of a clone soiling herself in a straitjacket. Trust me on this one, Arty, my gut says she's no harm to anyone right now and I bet she hasn't eaten or drank anything in… well, ever."
"Can she even take solids right now?"
"Please?" asked Holly, delivering a pair of devastating puppy-dog eyes. Artemis felt his retort die on his lips.
"This is most unfair, captain Short."
"Please, mud-boy," she scoffed, "Holly Short doesn't play fair."
Nopal didn't know what happened, but she felt like she was going to be alright. Hopefully Arty will show up soon.
—
Butler had heard all of these deliberations from outside. He didn't find it strictly necessary to interject at any point, or at least so necessary that he had to break concealment. However, when he started hearing Holly and Artemis help the clone onto their feet, he shook off the camfoil. And glowered.
He was not happy with their decision.