Chapter 8
Foaly set about the task of tracing Koboi's email without actually opening it again. Not particularly easy, but he didn't think he could stand any more of Opal's tricks. Or what he hoped were tricks.
The tract led back, via several satellites, to Koboi Labs. Foaly snorted. Too obvious. Way too easy. She couldn't be there.
Butler ducked his head into the Ops booth. He was carrying as much fairy weaponry as would fit onto the moon belt Foaly had loaned him, so couldn't fit through the door. He was going with the Retrieval team, as soon as Foaly told them where to go. Commander Kelp hadn't been too pleased about having a human with the squad, but Butler had insisted.
"Any locations yet, Foaly? We're getting a bit anxious out here."
Grub Kelp was hyperventilating, Trouble was wearing a track in the floor where he was pacing, and Butler had polished his Sig Sauer five times. The waiting was the worst bit. Once they got down to the action, they'd all be ok. Well, apart from Grub, who was panicking just thinking about taking on two Opal Koboi's.
"One. But it's too obvious."
"Where?"
"Koboi labs. But she wouldn't hide out there, it'd be the first place everyone would think of."
"And then discard, like you are. Sometimes, Foaly, the obvious answer is the right one."
Butler strode over to Trouble, who was trying not to picture the various predicaments Holly and Artemis could be in right then.
"Commander? We have a possible location."
"Where?"
Butler told him. Trouble frowned.
"Why would she be there?"
"The best place to hide is in plain sight, Commander. If everyone is so convinced that they have to look in every nook and cranny, sometimes they forget to look in the obvious places."
"Making the obvious place the best place to hide." Trouble nodded. He turned to the Retrieval squad and yelled, in a voice reminiscent of Root.
"All of you, up and ready to go now! We have lives to save!"
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Artemis put the bio bomb back together carefully. He had made a few minute alterations to the circuitry, with Past Opal glaring over his shoulder, and now he just had to hope that it worked.
"Done." he said, neutrally. Opal elbowed him to one side and stared down at the silver sphere on the table.
"Good. Well done, Mudman. Now, you have the pleasure of testing it for us."
"T…testing it?" This was what Artemis had been hoping for, but no need to let the Opals know that.
"Yes. You think we would just trust you? Oh, no. So, we test it. If it works, then you go free. If it doesn't then…well, you'll die just like the rest of them."
Opal was tinkering with the bomb as she was talking, setting the blast radius. No need to kill herself if Artemis had tried to trick them.
"What about you? What's going to protect you from the blast? Your elder self will register as human, I've already figured that out…"
Opal smirked at him.
"I have the Eternity Stone."
"The what?" asked Artemis, nonplussed. He'd never heard of an Eternity Stone. Opal pulled a silver chain from around her neck to expose the small blue pendant attached to it. It looked like a sapphire, only ten times brighter.
"This is the Eternity Stone. It protects the wearer from damage, even from a bio bomb. The blast won't touch me."
She tucked the Stone away inside her top and pulled a communicator from her pocket.
"Opal? Yes. Get the subject to the test area. I'll bring the Mudman."
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Holly was pacing the cell, frustrated. Artemis's plan was suicide, but it was also the only thing she could think of that might actually work. The only way to stop the Opals from destroying Haven.
She sighed. Vindictive little pixies. Couldn't they give it a rest? Did they really have to rule the world?
The door opened the reveal Present Opal. Holly snarled at her. Opal just grinned and pointed the remote in her hand at Holly. For a second nothing happened. Then, Holly felt the seeker-sleeper in her arm heat up. Sedative flooded her system, and she stumbled into the wall. Opal laughed delightedly.
"Come on, Captain. We're going to take a little walk."
The pixie gripped Holly's upper arm and dragged her out of the cell. She didn't try to resist, it was all she could do to stay awake and on her feet. She shuffled up the corridor after Opal, desperately clinging to consciousness. If she succumbed, Artemis's plan was ruined. And so were their chances of getting out of this mess alive.
Opal threw her into another room and slammed the door, giggling as Holly fell to her knees. She raised her head blearily, and saw the silver bomb in front of her.
I was right she thought. We're going to die.
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Artemis, stood in the room next to the bomb, saw Opal throw Holly in through the one way mirror in the wall. When he'd asked why there was a one-way mirror, Opal had told him to shut up and watch. From the fact that the bio bomb appeared to be in some form of factory room, he guessed that Opal hadn't trusted her own employees, so had this room to watch them packaging her precious inventions.
Holly fell to her knees, and Artemis clenched his fist. They'd activated the seeker-sleeper. This was very, very bad.
Present Opal walked into the room smirking and pressed a button on her remote. Holly shook her head and straightened. They wanted her awake, Artemis realised. They wanted to see her panic, her hopelessness just before she died. Just before the bio bomb ripped the life from her body. Which it wouldn't, of course. In theory.
Past Opal handed him a small silver control.
"If you'd do the honours."
Artemis was shaking with anger. They wanted him to detonate the bomb.
Present Opal picked up a Neutrino from the work surface and pointed it at Artemis's head.
"Do it, Mud Boy."
Artemis took the control, but hesitated, thumb suspended over the button. What if he'd gone wrong? What if the bomb didn't do what it should? Would he be responsible for Holly's death? Again?
Past Opal got tired of his hesitation and slapped his thumb onto the button. There was a flash of light and the bomb exploded.