Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.
Pages: 253 – 258
Chapter 23: The Cliff Option
Artemis stepped out from behind his podium, and Holly caught sight of a particular gleam in his eye. That was a look she had seen before. Not when the boy seemed on the verge of defeat or he'd been backed into a corner, but when his plans reached the critical moment, when everything had fallen into place.
Kronski clearly believed that his victory was assured as the crowd continued to cheer, so the doctor missed the ominous note in "Pasteur's" tone when, as the clamor died away, the young man said, "I was hoping to spare you this, Doctor. Because I respect you so much."
"Spare me what, Master Pasteur?" said Kronski, sounding less than inclined to start quaking in his boots behind his podium. Empty threats, bluffs – or so the doctor must be thinking.
"You know what," said Artemis coolly. "I think you have pulled the wool over everyone's eyes long enough."
After his successful prosecution of 'the creature,' Kronski seemed almost buoyant now, just short of bouncing up and down on the balls of his fee with excitement. "And what wool would that be?" he asked, almost tauntingly.
"Are you certain you want me to continue?"
"Oh, absolutely certain," replied Kronski, smiling, without a sliver of doubt.
Of course, Kronski obviously had no idea the resources his opponent held at his disposal, not least of which exclusive information concerning Kronski's recent activities, or the man would not have felt so secure.
Artemis finally turned and started toward Holly slowly, leisurely. "This creature was not our original defendant," he said, gesturing toward her though still not meeting her gaze. "Up until yesterday we had a lemur..."
As Artemis continued reeling off the truth behind the whole situation, the quick switch-in of Holly instead of the lemur that got away, both sold to the Extinctionists by the same boy, Kronski grew noticeably paler, but did not lose his composure.
"This boy keeps his lemur and sells us a supposed fairy," concluded Artemis, stopping a short distance from the wooden dock, and wheeling around to face Kronski once more.
"Supposed fairy?" said the doctor, trying to sound insulted, but unable to completely keep out the tremor of creeping anxiety now.
"That's right," replied Artemis dispassionately. "Supposed. We have only your word for it, and of course that of Mr. Kirkenhazard, who apparently is your worst enemy. Nobody is falling for the ruse, I assure you."
Holly wanted to laugh at that. So this must have been Artemis's backup strategy – or perhaps it had been his design from the very beginning. As she might of expected of Artemis, if this plan succeeded she would not only be saved but the fairy people would not be revealed. Although, she did have to wonder how he would convince the Extinctionists she was a fraudulent article when she wasn't.
"Examine the thing yourself," spluttered Kronski in tones of indignant outrage, once again talking as though he was a used car salesman, and she the used car he was attempting to sell that had just been accused of not running properly. "This is an easy argument to win."
"Thank you, Doctor. I believe I shall."
This was apparently the moment Artemis had been waiting for. Promptly turning back around, he stepped up to the cage, though stopping short just a few feet before he reached it.
Holly watched him, but though he was so close he had yet to actually look at her directly. She could not help but wait for the moment when he would, even if it was a bit pathetic.
Artemis reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone.
Hooking up the phone wirelessly to the laptops on the podiums, Artemis tapped a few keys so that the enormous screen on the back wall switched from Holly in her cage to a view through Artemis's phone. When Artemis moved the phone so that the camera fell on his own hand, instead of the thin, bony vampire-white fingers, a dark skeletal hand appeared, standing out against the pale gray outline of Artemis's actual hand. An X-raying device of some kind.
Holly could see what Artemis's plan was now from here. This had to be one of Artemis's better ideas, and that was saying something. It was so simple, yet ruthlessly cunning.
Kronski was getting impatient. "Do you have a point, Pasteur, or are you just showing us how clever you are?"
"Oh, I have a point, Doctor," replied Artemis. "And that point is, that were it not for the width of the brow and the pointed ears, this creature seems remarkably like a little girl."
"A pity about the ears and the brow," sneered Kronski. "But for them you would have an argument."
"Precisely."
Then, Artemis shifted the phone's camera from his hand and pointed it directly at Holly.
For a moment, she was too small on the screen for the audience to see much, then Artemis hit a button and the screen was suddenly filled with a straight-on view of Holly's face. To most, it probably appeared as though Artemis had hit a setting to magnify the image of the camera, but Holly couldn't help but notice there were no metal bars in this image – perhaps the implication was that with an X-ray, non-organic materials would not appear or some such thing, not that she knew too much about it as non-essential technologies in regard to her missions she thought were generally best left to Foaly, but it might have looked at least a little suspicious to anyone who was paying attention.
However, it didn't seem anybody was. They were all too busy staring at the dark shapes around Holly's temple and ears shown on the screen of what Holly suspected was simply a pre-fabricated video clip. No doubt Artemis had chosen that exact spot to stand in order to get the correct angle on her skull.
Holly concentrated on not moving so as to match the image on-screen as Artemis cried out triumphantly, "Implants. Clearly the result of surgery. This fairy is a clever fake." He turned to the doctor as he shut off the X-ray camera function, the image on the big screen reverting to the video being fed from the camera mounted on the cage, though his phone was still connected to the laptop, accusation plain in every line of his face. "You have tried to dupe us, Kronski."
The reaction was immediate. As Kronski tried to argue his innocence, the affronted voices of the Extinctionists rose above him, furious with this betrayal.
Kronski turned up the volume on his mike to be heard above the furor, pleading with the crowd. "This boy, Pasteur, is lying," he insisted desperately. "My fairy is real. Just give me a chance to prove it."
"I have not finished, Doctor," said Artemis heartlessly, still in that calm, logical tone that made one have to believe he was well-informed, though his voice had now risen a bit more than was usual in the excitement of his attack. A little like a wild dog just about to finally sink its teeth into the neck of its prey, Holly thought, but in Kronski's case Holly was perfectly okay with that.
"These ears do not seem right to me," Artemis continued, taking a final step that put him right up by the cage sitting in the dock. "And your friend Mr. Kirkenhazard was most gentle with them."
Artemis reached into the cage. Holly just caught a glimpse of a nu skin bandage concealed in his palm and she knew again exactly what he meant to do.
The nu skin patches were a piece of fairy medical equipment, bandages that could be adhered to the skin over injuries to stop the bleeding, but unlike regular bandages would take on the color and feel of the skin it was attached to so they would be less obvious.
She felt Artemis's hand against her ear, spreading the patch around to disguise the point. As he did so, he pretended to be exerting a great effort to pull the end of the ear off.
"It's coming away," he said in a strained voice. "I have it."
Only moving her eyes, Holly shot a worried glance toward the camera mounted on the cage, wondering if it would give away what Artemis was really doing. But Artemis's arm blocked her and so was probably also blocking the audience's view of her ear.
As Holly thought about this, her eyes moved automatically back to "Pasteur's" face as he concentrated on what he was doing. So it startled her when at that precise moment, Artemis unexpectedly lowered his gaze and his eyes at last met hers.
Two blue eyes, she noticed, he must have been wearing a colored contact.
Slowly, surreptitiously he closed one eye in a wink, though the rest of his expression didn't change so much as a muscle. It felt a bit strange actually, seeing Artemis make such a friendly, casual gesture after that powerful speech, as though she had forgotten that he really wasn't a young Extinctionist trying to discredit Kronski so he would have a shot at taking the leadership position. Or maybe it was just seeing Artemis make a friendly gesture, period.
Holly looked back at him with no apparent reaction as she interpreted the silent message. I have them right where I want them, he seemed to say. Now you play your part.
Holly remembered back to when she had been last with him over a day ago in the cham pod, an age ago now, and even before that when they were still on the shuttle.
"Not sure, Holly."
"I would be more comfortable with this..."
Ever since he had confessed to her about the blackmail, he had been displaying a lack of confidence on a level that was unusual for him. So in a way, it was good to see Artemis back to his usual, arrogant self. The other un-Artemis-like attitude was a little creepy, like there was a gear off in the inner workings of the world.
Holly was flooded with an unexpected wave of relief. And for some reason, she realized suddenly she felt safe. She was far from free from this mess, but for the first time since Artemis had appeared before her in this place, she was filled with an absolute certainty they would get out. All she had to do was whatever Artemis wanted her to do, and everything would work out fine; Artemis couldn't be beaten.
I would honestly jump off a cliff if he said it would save us, she thought, bemused with herself, but it didn't stop the sudden rush of elation of before from stealing through her again, the feeling that Artemis was invincible. Because, by extension, she as his ally was also invincible.
The emotion was so overpowering and so sudden, if she'd been able to and there hadn't been a room of ravenous Extinctionists sitting there watching, she honestly might have leaned up and kissed him again right then.
Thank goodness my mouth is taped.
However, her rapture was destined to be short-lived as something dawned on her and she mentally repeated with growing horror, Play my part? Her eyebrows drew together like magnets as suddenly what Artemis must be expecting her to do became all too obvious.
Oh, how irritating it was to think that all that practice during her LEP training had actually come in handy so many times in her career already, probably eighty percent of those somehow related to schemes of Artemis's. Now here she was, going to play the poor, defenseless victim yet again – Why she allowed Artemis to maneuver her into these situations over and over she hadn't the slightest idea, but privately she thought she would have preferred the cliff option.
A/N: Sorry, a bit of a short chapter. Next chapter should be up soon though; I worked on both this one and the next as kind of like one, since I know you're all probably anxious to get out of the Extinctionists' compound already. (;
Thanks for reviewing! Hope to hear from you. (:
Posted 1/29/12