'Artemis,' said Holly and Mulch simultaneously.
'Exactly. Somehow he was able to predict what we couldn't. We knew when, but our where was off by several metres.'
Holly sat forward. Interested. Back in the game.
'Did we get Artemis on film?'
'Not exactly,' replied Vinyaya cryptically. 'If you don't mind, I'll leave the explaining to someone more qualified than me. He's back at base.'
And she would say no more on the subject. Most infuriating.
Mulch wasn't one for patience.
'What? You're just going to take a nap? Come on, Vinyaya, tell us what little Arty is up to.'
Vinyaya would not be drawn. 'Relax, Mister Diggums. Have another nettle beer, or some spring water.' The commander took two bottles from the cooler, offering one to Mulch.
Mulch studied the label. 'Derrier? No thanks. You know how they put the bubbles in this stuff?'
Vinyaya's mouth twitched with the ghost of a smile. 'I thought it was naturally carbonated.'
'Yeah, that's what I thought until I got a prison job at the Derrier plant.
They employ every dwarf in the Deeps. They made us sign confidentiality contracts.'
Vinyaya was hooked. 'So go on, tell me. How do they get the bubbles in?'
Mulch tapped his nose. 'Can't say. Breach of contract. All I can say is it involves a huge vat of water and several dwarfs using our. . er,' Mulch pointed to his rear end '. . natural talents.'
Vinyaya replaced her bottle gingerly.
As Holly sat back in her comfortable gel chair, enjoying yet another of Mulch's tall tales, a niggling thought nudged through. She realized that Commander Vinyaya had avoided answering the dwarf's initial question.
Who are these people?
Ten minutes later, that question was answered.
'Welcome to Section Eight Headquarters,' said Vinyaya. 'Forgive my theatrics, it's not often we get to wow people.'
Holly didn't feel very wowed. They had pulled into a multi-storey car park several blocks down from Police Plaza. The stretch armoured vehicle followed the curved arrows up to the seventh floor, which was stuffed below the craggy roof ceiling. The driver parked in the least accessible, darkest space, then switched off the engine.
They sat for several seconds in the damp darkness, listening to rock-water drip from stalactites on to the roof.
' Wow,' said Mulch. 'This is something. I guess you people spent all your money on the car.'
Vinyaya smiled. 'Just wait.'
The driver ran a quick proximity scan on the dashboard scanner and came up clean. He then took an infrared remote from the dash and clicked it through the transparent plastic roof at the rock face overhead.
'Remote-controlled rocks,' said Mulch dryly, delighted at the opportunity to exercise his sarcasm muscle.
Vinyaya did not respond — she didn't have to. What happened next shut
Mulch up all on its own. The parking space rose hydraulically, sending the car catapulting towards the rock face above. The rocks did not move out of the way. There was no doubt in Holly's mind that when rock went up against metal, the rock would win. It made no sense, of course, that Vinyaya would bring them here only to crush the entire party. But there was no time to consider this in the half a second that it took the stretch vehicle to reach the hard unforgiving rock.
In truth the rock wasn't hard or unforgiving. It was digital. They passed right through to a smaller carport, built into the rock.
'Hologram,' breathed Holly.
Vinyaya winked at Mulch. 'Remote-controlled rocks,' she said. She flipped open the rear door, stepping out into an air-conditioned corridor.
'The entire headquarters has been hewn from the rock. Actually most of the cave was already here. We just lasered off a corner here and there.
Forgive all the cloak-and-dagger, but it's vital that what we do here at Section Eight remains secret.'
Holly followed the commander through a set of automatic doors and down a slick corridor. There were sensors and cameras every few paces and Holly knew that her identity had been verified at least a dozen times before they reached the steel door at the end of the corridor.
Vinyaya plunged her hand into a plate of liquid metal at the door's centre.
'Flux metal,' she explained, pulling her hand out. 'The metal is saturated with nano-sensors. There's no way to fake your way through this door. The nano-sensors read everything from my handprint to my
DNA. Even if someone cut off my hand and stuck it in here, the sensors would read a lack of pulse.'
Holly folded her arms. 'All this paranoia in one place. I think I can guess who your technical consultant is.'
The door whooshed back, and standing on the other side was exactly the person Holly had expected to see.
'Foaly,' she said fondly, stepping through to embrace the centaur.
Foaly hugged her warmly, stamping his rear hooves with delight.
'Holly,' he said, holding her at arm's length. 'How have you been?'
'Busy,' replied Holly.
Foaly frowned. 'You look a little skinny.'
'Amazingly, so do you,' laughed Holly.
Foaly had lost a little weight since she had last seen him. And his coat was glossy and groomed.
Holly patted his flank. 'Hmm,' she mused. 'You're using conditioner, and you're not wearing the brain- probe-proof tinfoil hat. Don't tell me you have a little lady centaur tucked away somewhere.'
Foaly actually blushed. 'It's early days yet, but I'm hopeful.'
The room was packed from floor to ceiling with state-of-the-art electronics. In fact some of it was in the floor and ceiling, including wall-sized gas view screens, and an incredibly realistic sim-sky overhead.
Foaly was obviously proud of what he had put together. 'Section Eight has the budget. I get the very best of everything.'
'What about your old job?'
The centaur scowled. 'I tried working for Sool, but it didn't work out.
He's destroying everything Commander Root built. Section Eight headhunted me discreetly at a speed-dating weekend. They made me an offer and I accepted. I get plenty of fawning adoration here, not to mention a huge salary hike.'
Mulch had a quick nosey around and was irritated to find that there wasn't a single crumb of food in the room.
'None of that salary went on vole curry, I suppose?'
Foaly raised an eyebrow at the dwarf, who was still coated with tunnel dirt.
'No. But we do have a shower room. You do know what a shower is, don't you, Diggums?'
Mulch's beard hair bristled. 'Yes, I do. And I know a donkey when I see one too.'
Holly stepped between them. 'OK, you two. No need to take up where you left off. Let's hold off on the traditional insults until we find out where we are, and why we're here.'
Mulch lowered himself gleefully on to a cream couch, |, fully aware that some of his mucky coating would rub into the furniture. Holly sat beside him, but not too close.
Foaly activated a wall screen, then touched it gently to navigate to the program he wanted.
'I love these new gas screens,' he snickered. 'Electric pulses heat the particles to different temperatures, causing the gas to turn different colours, forming pictures. Of course it's a lot more complicated than that, but I'm dumbing it down for the convict.'
'I was completely exonerated,' objected Mulch. 'As you well know.'
'The charges were dropped,' Foaly pointed out. 'You were not exonerated. It's a different thing. Slightly.'
'Yes, like a centaur and a donkey are different things. 'Slightly.'
