Holly clenched her fingers. She missed her handgun.
'OK. Nothing to do but make a run for it. Foaly, you have free rein, if you'll pardon the horse analogy.'
'Finally,' whinnied the centaur. 'I added a game-pod joystick to my controls. A bit unorthodox, but very accurate. We've got hostiles converging from all sides. My advice is to take the direct route. Go to the end of the corridor and follow our friend Doodah's path out the window. Butler will cover you once you're in the open.'
'OK. Hold on, Number One, whatever happens, don't let go.'
The first threat came from ahead. Two security guards rounded the corner, guns extended.
Ex-police, Holly guessed. Covering the diagonals.
The men were shocked to see No.1. Obviously they were not in the need-to-know loop.
'What the hell?' said one.
The other kept his nerve. 'Hold it right there.'
Foaly hit them both in the chest with fat laser bursts. The energy sank through their clothes and they slid down the wall.
'Unconscious,' panted No.1. 'Comatose, cataleptic, out for the count.' He realized that this vocabulary- spouting was a good way to deal with stress.
'Stress. Pressure, strain and anxiety.'
Holly dragged No.1 onwards, towards the still open window. More guards came from the side corridors, and Foaly dispatched them efficiently.
'I should get bonus points for this,' he said. 'Or at the very least a free life.'
There were two more guards in the sitting room, sneaking an espresso.
Foaly dropped them where they stood. And then flashed out a fan laser burst to evaporate the coffee before it hit the rug.
'It's Tunisian,' he explained. 'Very difficult to get coffee out. Now they can just suck up the grains.'
Holly stepped down into the room.
'Sometimes I think you don't quite get the gravity of field missions,' she said, skirting a massive velvet sofa.
No.1 stumbled down the human-sized steps after his rescuer. In spite of all his new vocabulary, the imp was not quite sure how he was feeling.
Scared, of course. Big Mud Men with fire weapons and all that. Excited too. Being rescued by some kind of elf superhero, who was invisible too. Pain in the leg, don't forget that. The angry human had shot him in the leg, with a silver bullet, no doubt. But No.1 realized that one feeling was missing from the melting pot. One that had been strong within him for as long as he could remember. Uncertainty. In spite of the frantic antics unfolding all around, he felt more at home on this planet than he ever had on Hybras.
A bullet whistled past his ear.
Then again, maybe Hybras hadn't been so bad.
'Wake up, Foaly!' admonished Holly. 'You're supposed to be watching our backs.'
'Sorry,' said the centaur, swivelling the laser and strobing the doorway.
The female guard smiled broadly then collapsed. On the ground she began singing a nursery rhyme about doggies and their bones.
'Bizarre,' said Foaly. 'That guard is singing.'
'Often happens,' grunted Holly, clambering on to the window sill. 'The laser knocks out some functions, but sometimes awakens others.'
Interesting, thought the centaur. A happy gun. Certainly worth investigating.
Holly reached down and grasped No.1's wrist, pulling him over the sill.
She was dismayed to see that her own arms were not as invisible as she would have hoped. Her magic was wearing thin. Shielding was a real power siphon. She would flicker into visibility soon whether they were safely away or not.
'Nearly there,' she said.
'Just across the wide open green space, is it?' said No.1, displaying a real gift for sarcasm.
'I like him,' said Foaly.
They tumbled out on to the lawn. The alarm was well and truly raised now, and guards poured from the various doors like beads from a ruptured beanbag.
'Go crazy, Foaly,' said Holly. 'And take out their vehicles too.'
'Yes sir, ma'am,' said Foaly, and began firing.
Holly ran flat out, pulling the imp behind her. There was no time to consider his physical abilities, either he kept up, or he got dragged. The laser pencil on her helmet flashed out burst after burst, swivelling in wide arcs to cover the approaching guards. Holly felt the weapon's heat on the crown of her head and resolved to mention the helmet's supposedly revolutionary cooling system to Foaly if they ever made it out of this.
The centaur was too busy for chat now. All Holly could hear through her headset was grunting and whinnying as Foaly concentrated on his job.
He was not concerned about pinpoint accuracy any more, there were too many things to shoot. He sent out scything fans of energy that socked half a dozen guards per burst. The guards would be perfectly fine in half an hour, though some might experience headaches, hair loss, irritability, loss of bowel control and other assorted side effects for a few days.
Foaly targeted the four-wheel drives next, firing several pulses into each petrol tank. The BMWs exploded in sequence, turning spectacular fiery cartwheels. The force of the blast cupped Holly and No.1 like a giant hand, scooting them on their way a little faster. Holly's helmet protected her from the noise, but poor No.1's head would ring for quite a while.
Thick black smoke billowed from cracked engines and prowled across the tended garden, more effective than any smoke grenade. Holly and No.1 raced just ahead of the smoke line towards the main gates.
'Gates,' Holly panted into her microphone.
'I see them,' said Foaly, melting the wrought-iron barriers right off their hinges. They collapsed to the ground with a big bell bong.
A rented MPV skidded to a halt outside the pillars, and the passenger door slid open.
Artemis was inside, reaching out to No.1.
'Come on,' he said urgently. 'Get in.'
'Arrgh!' said No.1. 'A human!'
Holly leaped inside the vehicle, dragging No.1 with her.
'It's OK,' she said, switching off her shield to conserve the little that was left. 'He's a friend.'
No.1 clung to Holly's back, trying not to throw up. He glanced towards the front of the MPV where Butler sat.
'What about him? Please tell me he's a friend too.'
Holly grinned, climbing on to a seat. 'Yes, he's a friend. The very best.'
Butler yanked the gear stick into 'Drive'. 'Buckle up, boys and girls. We're about to be in a car chase.'
The sun was setting as Butler expertly steered the car round the natural chicanes of the Route de Vence. The road was hewn from the mountainside, with stone villas teetering above and the Gorge du Loup yawning below. It took a skilled driver to negotiate the bends at speed, but Butler had once driven an Al Fahd armoured vehicle through a crowded Cairo market, so the Alpine roads were not too much of a challenge for him.
As it turned out, there was no car chase. The Paradizo fleet lay in flaming, mangled, inverted heaps in the chateau driveway. There was not so much as a moped left intact to tail the getaway car.
Butler checked the rear-view mirror constantly, and only allowed himself a satisfied grin when they passed through the toll station at Cagnes sur Mer.
'We're clear,' he pronounced, accelerating into the motorway's fast lane.
'There's not a vehicle intact on that estate, including little Beau's toy car.'
Artemis smiled, giddy with success. 'Perhaps we should have left them Mister Day's marvellous booster.'
Holly noticed that No.1 was happily examining his seat belt.
'Buckle up,' she said, slotting the buckle into its catch.
'Buckle,' said No.1. 'Clasp, clip, fastener. Why are you with these humans?'
