would need a clear shot. But the general, if it were him, squatted immobile, his spine curled along the tunnel wall. His frame was covered by a full-length hooded cape.
The commander turned on his helmet PA so he could be heard above the howl of core wind.
‘You there. Stand facing the wall. Place your hands on your head.’
The figure did not move. Holly had not expected it to. Root stepped closer, always cautious, knees bent, ready to dive to one side. He poked the figure’s shoulder with his Neutrino 3000.
‘On your feet, Scalene.’
The poke was sufficient to knock the figure sideways. The goblin keeled over,
landing face up on the tunnel floor. Soot flakes fluttered around him like disturbed bats.
The hood flopped to one side, revealing the figure’s face, most importantly the eyes.
‘It’s him,’ said Root. ‘He’s been mesmerized.’
The general’s slitted eyes were bloodshot and vacant. This was a serious development, as it confirmed that somebody else had planned the escape, and Holly and Root had walked into a trap.
‘I recommend we leave,’ said Holly. ‘Immediately.’
‘No,’ said Root, leaning over the goblin. ‘Now that we’re here, we might as well take Scalene back with us.’
He placed his free hand on the goblin’s collar, preparing to haul him to his feet.
Later, Holly would record in her report that it was at this precise moment that things began to go terribly wrong. What had been a routine — albeit strange — assignment suddenly became an altogether more sinister affair.
‘Do not touch me, elf,’ said a voice. A hissing, goblin voice. Scalene’s voice. But how could that be? The general’s lips had not moved.
Root reared back, then steadied himself. ‘What’s going on here?’
Holly’s soldier’s sense was buzzing at the base of her neck. ‘Whatever it is, we won’t like it. We should go, Commander, right now.’
Root’s features were thoughtful. ‘That voice came from his chest.’
‘Maybe he had surgery,’ said Holly. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
The commander reached down, flipping Scalene’s cape aside. There was a metal box strapped to the general’s chest. The box was thirty centimetres square, with a small screen in the centre. There was a shadowy face on the screen, and it was talking.
‘Ah, Julius,’ it said in Scalene’s voice. ‘I knew you’d come. Commander Root’s famous ego would not allow him to stay out of the action. An obvious trap, and you walked straight into it.’
The voice was definitely Scalene’s, but there was something about the phrasing,
the cadence. It was too sophisticated for a goblin. Sophisticated, and strangely familiar.
‘Have you figured it out yet, Captain Short?’ said the voice. A voice that was changing. Slipping into a higher register. The tones were no longer male, not even goblin. That’s a Jemale talking, thought Holly. A Jemale that I know.
A face appeared on the screen. A beautiful and malicious face, its eyes bright with hate. Opal Koboi’s face. The rest of the head was swathed in bandages, but the features were only too visible.
Holly began to speak rapidly into her helmet mike.
‘Foaly, we have a situation here. Opal Koboi is loose. I repeat, Koboi is loose. This whole thing is a trap. Cordon off the area, five-hundred-metre perimeter, and bring in the medical warlocks. Someone is about to get hurt.’
The face on the screen laughed, tiny pixie teeth glinting like pearls.
‘Talk all you want, Captain Short. Foaly can’t hear you. My device has blocked your transmissions as easily as I blocked your seeker-sleeper and the substance scan that I assume you ran. Your little centaur friend can see you, though. I left him his precious lenses.’
Holly immediately zoomed in on Opal’s pixelated face. If Foaly got a shot of the pixie, he would figure out the rest.
Again Koboi laughed. Opal was genuinely enjoying herself.
‘Oh, very good, Captain. You were always a smart one. Relatively speaking, of course. Show Foaly my face and he will initiate an alert. Sorry to disappoint you, Holly, but this entire device is constructed from stealth ore and is practically invisible to the artificial eye. All Foaly will see is a slight shimmer of interference.’
Stealth ore had been developed for space vehicles. It absorbed every form of wave or signal known to fairy or man and so was virtually invisible to everything but the naked eye. It was also incredibly expensive to manufacture. Even the small amount necessary to cover Koboi’s device would have cost a warehouse full of gold.
Root straightened quickly. ‘The odds are against us here, Captain. Let’s move out.’
Holly didn’t bother with relief. Opal Koboi wouldn’t make things that easy. There was no way they were just walking out of here. If Foaly could hijack the terminal’s computers, then so could Koboi.
Opal’s laugh stretched to an almost hysterical screech.
‘Move out? How very tactical of you, Commander. You really need to expand your vocabulary. Whatever next? Duck and cover?’
Holly peeled back a Velcro patch on her sleeve, revealing a Gnommish keyboard.
She quickly accessed her helmet’s LEP criminal database, opening Opal Koboi’s file in her visor.
‘Opal Koboi,’ said Corporal Frond’s voice. The LEP always used Lili Frond for voice-overs and recruitment videos. She was glamorous and elegant, with flowing blond tresses and inch-long manicured nails that were absolutely no use in the field. ‘LEP enemy number one. Currently under guard in the J. Argon Clinic. Opal Koboi is a certified genius, scoring over three hundred on the standardized IQ test. She is also a suspected megalomaniac, with an obsessive personality. Studies indicate that Koboi may be a pathological liar and suffer from mild schizophrenia. For more detailed information please consult the LEP central library on the second floor of Police Plaza.’
Holly closed the file. An obsessive genius and a pathological liar. Just what they needed. The information didn’t help a lot; what it told her she pretty much already knew. Opal was loose, she wanted to kill them and she was smart enough to figure out how to do it.
Opal was still enjoying her triumph.
‘You don’t know how long I have waited for this moment,’ the pixie said, then paused. ‘Actually, you do know. After all, you were the ones who wrecked my plan. And now I have you both.’
Holly was puzzled. Opal may have had serious mental issues, but that could not be confused with stupidity. Why would she prattle on? Was she trying to distract them?
The same thought occurred to Root. ‘Holly! The doors!’
Holly whirled round, to see the blast doors sliding across, their engines masked by core wind. If those doors closed, they would be completely cut off from the LEP, and at the mercy of Opal Koboi.
Holly targeted the magnetic rollers along the doors’ upper rim, sinking blast after blast from her Neutrino into their mechanisms. The doors jerked in their housings but did not stop. Two of the rollers blew out, but the massive portals’ momentum carried them together. They connected with an ominous bong.
‘Alone at last,’ said Opal, sounding for all the world like an innocent college fairy on her first date.
Root pointed his weapon at the device belted round Scalene’s middle, as if he could somehow hurt Koboi.
‘What do you want?’ he demanded.
‘You know what I want,’ replied Opal. ‘The question is, how am I going to get it?
What form of revenge would be the most satisfying? Naturally, you will both end up dead, but that’s not enough. I want you to suffer as I did, discredited and despised. One of you at least — the other will have to be sacrificed. I don’t really care which.’
Root retreated to the blast doors, motioning for Holly to follow.
‘Options?’ he whispered, his back to Koboi’s device.
Holly raised her visor, wiping a bead of sweat from her brow. The helmets were air conditioned, but sometimes sweating had nothing to do with temperature.
‘We have to get out of here,’ she said. ‘The chute is the only way.’
