She’s not talking because it’s too late, thought Artemis. There’s nothing she can do to save my father and it’s all my fault.
Root’s voice cut through his thoughts. ‘The Russians are evacuating,’ he said. ‘Holly’s at the sub now, over the hole in the ice. She’s going in. Holly, what have you got? Come on, Holly. Talk to me.’
Nothing. For the longest time.
Then Holly erupted through the ice like a mechanized dolphin. She arced briefly through the Arctic night, crash-landing on the Typhoon’s deck.
‘She has your father,’ said the commander.
Artemis slipped on the spare Recon helmet, willing Holly’s voice to sound through the speakers. He magnified the picture in his visor until it seemed as though he could touch his father and watched Holly lean over his father’s chest, pulses of magic shooting down her fingers.
After several moments, Holly looked up, straight into Artemis’s eyes, as though she knew he was watching. ‘I got him,’ she gasped. ‘One live Mud Man. He’s not pretty, but he’s breathing.’
Artemis sank to the ground, sobs of relief shaking his thin shoulders. He cried for a whole minute. Then he was himself again.
‘Well done, Captain. Now let’s get out of here before Foaly activates one of these incinerator packs by accident.’
In the bowels of the Earth, the centaur leaned back from his communications console.
‘Don’t tempt me,’ he chuckled.
AN EPILOGUE OR TWO
Artemis was heading back to St Bartleby’s. This was where he had to be when the Helsinki medical services identified his father from the suitably weathered passport Foaly had run up for him.
Holly had done her best for the injured man, healing his chest wound and even restoring sight to his blinded eye. But it was too late to reattach the leg, which they didn’t have in any case. No, Artemis Senior needed prolonged medical attention, and it had to begin somewhere that could be rationally explained. So Holly had flown south-west to Helsinki, depositing the unconscious man at the doors of the University Hospital. One porter had spotted the flying patient, but he had been successfully mind-wiped.
When Artemis Senior regained consciousness the past two years would be a blur, and his last memory would be a happy one: bidding his family farewell at Dublin harbour. Thanks again to Foaly and his mind-wiping technology.
‘Why don’t I just move in with you?’ the centaur had quipped when they returned to Police Plaza. ‘Do your ironing while I’m at it.’
Artemis smiled. He had been doing that a lot lately. Even the parting with Holly had gone better than he could have expected, considering she’d seen him shoot his own father. Artemis shuddered. He anticipated many sleepless nights over that particular strategy.
The captain escorted them to Tara, slipping them out through a holographic hedge. There was even a holographic cow chewing the virtual leaves to throw humans off the fairy scent.
Artemis was back in his school uniform, which had been miraculously restored by the People’s technology. He sniffed his lapel.
‘This blazer smells unusual,’ he commented. ‘Not unpleasant, but unusual.’
‘It’s completely clean,’ said Holly, smiling. ‘Foaly had to put it through three cycles in the machine to purge. .’
‘To purge the Mud People from it,’ completed Artemis.
‘Exactly.’
There was a full moon overhead, bright and pocked like a golf ball. Holly could feel its magic singing to her.
‘Foaly said, in the light of the help you’ve given us, he’s pulling the surveillance on Fowl Manor.’ ‘That’s good to know,’ said Artemis.
‘Is it the right decision?’
Artemis considered it. ‘Yes. The People are safe from me.’
‘Good. Because a large section of the Council wanted you mind-wiped.
And with a chunk of memory this big, your IQ could take a bit of a dip.’
Butler extended a hand. ‘Well, Captain. I don’t suppose I’ll see you again.’
Holly shook it. ‘If you do, it’ll be too late.’ Captain Short turned towards the fairy fort. ‘I had better go. It will be light soon. I don’t want to be caught unshielded on a spy satellite. The last thing I need is my photo all over the Internet. Not when I’ve just been reinstated at Recon.’
Butler elbowed his employer gently.
‘Oh, Holly. . Eh, Captain Short.’ Eh? Artemis couldn’t believe he’d actually said eh. It wasn’t even a word.
‘Yes, Mud B. . Yes, Artemis?’
Artemis looked Holly in the eye, just as Butler had instructed. This ‘being civil’ business was more difficult than one would think. ‘I would like to. . I mean.What I mean is. .'
Another elbow from Butler.
‘Thank you. I owe you everything. Because of you I have my parents.
And the way you flew that craft was nothing short of spectacular. And on the train. . Well, I could never have done what you. .’
A third elbow. This time to stop the babbling.
‘Sorry. Well, you get the idea.’
Holly’s elfin features wore a strange expression. Somewhere between embarrassment and — could it possibly be? — delight. She recovered quickly.
‘Maybe I owe you something too, human,’ she said, drawing her pistol.
Butler almost reacted, but decided to give Holly the benefit of the doubt.
Captain Short plucked a gold coin from her belt, flicking it twenty metres into the moonlit sky. With one fluid movement, she brought her weapon up and loosed a single blast. The coin rose another twenty metres, then spun earthwards. Artemis somehow managed to snatch it from the air. The first cool moment of his young life.
‘Nice shot,’ he said. The previously solid disc now had a tiny hole in the centre.
Holly held out her hand, revealing the still-raw scar on her finger. ‘If it wasn’t for you, I would have missed altogether. No mech-digit can replicate that kind of accuracy. So, thank you too, I suppose.’
Artemis held out the coin.
‘No,’ said Holly. ‘You keep it, to remind you.’
‘To remind me?’
Holly stared at him frankly. ‘To remind you that deep beneath the layers of deviousness, there is a spark of decency. Perhaps you could blow on that spark occasionally.’
Artemis closed his fingers around the coin. It was warm against his palm. ‘Yes, perhaps.’
A small two-seater plane buzzed overhead. Artemis glanced skywards, and when he looked back Holly was gone. A slight heat haze hovered above the grass.
‘Goodbye, Holly,’ he said softly.
The Bentley started on the first turn of the key. In less than an hour they arrived at St Bartleby’s main gate.
‘Make sure your phone’s switched on,’ Butler said, holding the door.
‘The Helsinki officials should be getting the results of their trace from Interpol soon. Your father’s file has been reactivated in their mainframe thanks, once again, to Foaly.’
Artemis nodded, checking his phone was switched on. ‘Try to locate
Mother and Juliet before the news comes through. I don’t want to be hunting through every spa in the south
