On they ran.
The goblins found range. A hail of charges sang through the air around them, pulverizing what was left of the Emporium’s shop front. Trouble’s crown lurched forward as a slug flattened itself against his helmet. More charges.
Lower down. A tight grouping between his shoulder blades. The sandwich board held.
The impact lifted the captain like a kite, slapping him into his brother, and carrying them both through the decimated double doors. They were instantly hauled behind a wall of riot shields.
‘Grub,’ gasped Captain Kelp, through the pain and noise and soot. ‘Is he OK?’
‘Fine,’ answered the senior warlock paramedic, rolling Trouble on to his stomach. ‘Your back on the other hand, is going to have some lovely bruises in the morning.’
Captain Kelp waved the warlock away. ‘Any word from the commander?’
The warlock shook his head. ‘Nothing. Root is missing in action and
Cudgeon has been reinstated as commander. Even worse, now they’re saying
Foaly is behind this whole thing.’
Trouble paled, and it wasn’t from the pain in his back. ‘Foaly! It can’t be true.’
Trouble ground his teeth in frustration. Foaly and the commander. He had no choice, he would have to do it. The one thing he had nightmares about.
Captain Kelp struggled up on to one elbow. The air above their heads was alive with the buzz of Softnose bursts. It was only a matter of time before they were completely overrun. It had to be done.
Trouble took a breath. ‘OK, people. Listen up. Retreat to Police Plaza.’
The troops froze. Even Grub caught himself in mid-sob. Retreat?
‘You heard me!’ snarled Trouble. ‘Retreat. We can’t hold the streets without arms. Now move it out.’
The LEP shuffled to the service entrance, unaccustomed to losing. Call it retreat, call it a tactical manoeuvre. It was still running away. And who would have thought that order would ever come out of Trouble Kelp’s mouth?
Artemis and his fellow travellers took shelter in the shuttle port. Holly made the journey slung over Butler’s shoulder. She protested loudly for several minutes until the commander ordered her to shut up.
‘You’ve just had major magical surgery,’ he pointed out. ‘So just stay quiet and do your exercises.’ It was vital that Holly manipulate her finger constantly for the next hour or so to ensure the right tendons got reconnected.
It was very important she move her index finger the way she intended to use it later, especially as she would be firing a weapon.
They huddled around a glow cube in the deserted departure lounge.
‘Any water?’ asked Holly. ‘I feel dehydrated after that healing.’
Root winked, something that didn’t happen very often. ‘Here’s a little trick I learned in the field.’ He popped a flat-nosed shell from a clip in his belt.
It seemed to be made from perspex and filled with clear liquid.
‘You won’t get much of a drink from that,’ commented Butler.
‘More than you’d think. This is a Hydrosion shell: a miniature fire extinguisher. The water is compressed into a tiny space. You fire it into the heart of a fire and the impact reverses the compressor. Half a litre of water is blasted at the flames. More effective than a hundred litres poured. We call them Fizzers.’
‘Very good,’ said Artemis drily. ‘If you could use your weapons.’
‘Don’t need ‘em,’ said Root, drawing a large knife. ‘Manual works just as well.’
He pointed the shell’s flat tip at the mouth of a canteen and popped the lid. A fizzing spray jetted into the container.
‘There you are, Captain. Never let it be said I don’t look after my officers.’
‘Clever,’ admitted Artemis.
‘And the best thing is,’ said the commander, pocketing I the empty
Fizzer. ‘These things are completely reusable. All I have to do is stick it in a pile of snow and the compressor will do the rest, so I won’t even have Foaly on my case for wasting equipment.’
Holly took a long drink and soon the colour surged I back to her cheeks.
‘So we were ambushed by a B’wa Kell hit team,’ she mused. ‘What does that mean?’
‘It means you have a leak,’ said Artemis, holding his hands close to the cube’s warmth. ‘It was my impression I that this mission was top secret. Not even your Council I was informed. The only person who isn’t here is that centaur.’
Holly jumped to her feet. ‘Foaly? It can’t be.’
Artemis raised his palms. ‘Logic. That’s all it is.’
‘This is all very well,’ interrupted the commander, ‘but it’s conjecture. We need to assess our situation. What have we got, and what do we know for sure?’
Butler nodded. The commander was a being after his own heart. A soldier.
Root answered his own question. ‘We’ve still got the shuttle, provided it’s not wired. There’s a locker full of provisions. Atlantean food mostly, so get used to fish and squid.’
‘And what do we know?’
Artemis took over. ‘We know that the goblins have a source in the LER
We also know if they tried to take out the LEP’s head, Commander Root, then they must be after the body. Their best chance of success would be to mount both operations simultaneously.’ Holly chewed her lip. ‘So that means ‘That means there is probably some kind of revolution going on below ground.’
‘The B’wa Kell against the LEP?’ scoffed Holly. ‘No problem.’
‘Generally, that may be true,’ agreed Artemis. ‘But if your weapons are out
‘Then so are theirs,’ completed Root, ‘in theory.’ Artemis moved closer to the glow cube. ‘Worst-case scenario: Haven has been taken by the B’wa Kell, and the Council members are either dead or imprisoned. Quite honestly, things look grim.’
Neither fairy responded. Grim hardly did the situation justice. Disastrous was closer to the mark.
Even Artemis was slightly disheartened. None of this was helping his father.
‘I suggest we rest here for a while, pack some provisions, and then proceed towards Murmansk as soon as we get some cloud cover. Butler can search this man Vassikin’s apartment. Perhaps we will be lucky and my father will be there. I realize that we are at a slight disadvantage without weapons, but we still have surprise on our side.’
No one spoke for several moments. It was an uneasy silence.
Everybody knew what should be said, but nobody wanted to say it.
‘Artemis,’ said Butler eventually, laying a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
‘We’re in no shape to go up against the Mafiya. We don’t have any firepower, and our colleagues need to get below ground, so we don’t have any magic. If we go in there now, we’re not coming out. Any of us.’
Artemis stared deep into the heart of the glow cube. ‘But my father is so close, Butler. I can’t give up now.’
In spite of herself, Holly was touched by his unwillingness to give up, against all the odds. She was certain that, for once, Artemis wasn’t trying to manipulate anybody. He was simply a boy who missed his father. Maybe her defences were down, but she felt sorry for him.
‘We’re not giving up, Artemis,’ she said softly. ‘We’re regrouping.
There’s a difference. We’ll be back. Remember, it’s always darkest before the dawn.’
Artemis looked at her. ‘What dawn? We’re in the Arctic, remember.’
Foaly was furious with himself. After all the security encryptions he’d built into his systems, Opal Koboi had simply strolled in here and hijacked the entire network. And what’s more, the LEP had paid her for the job.
The centaur had to admire her nerve. It was a brilliantly simple plan.
Apply for the upgrade contract, submit the lowest estimate. Get the LEP to give you an access-all-areas chip
