Chapter 7: The Temple Of Artemis
THE LOWER ELEMENTS
Opal Koboi’s shuttle was a concept model that had never gone into mass production. It was years ahead of anything on the market, but its skin of stealth ore and cam foil made the cost of such a vehicle so exorbitant that even Opal Koboi couldn’t have afforded one without the government grants that had helped to pay for it.
Scant secured the prisoners in the passenger bay, while Merv piloted them across to Scotland, then underground through a mountain river in the Highlands. Opal busied herself making sure that her other plan, the one involving world domination, was proceeding smoothly.
She folded up the screen on a video phone, dialling a connection to Sicily. The person at the other end picked up in the middle of the first ring.
‘Belinda, my dear. Is it you?’
The man who had answered was in his late forties, with Latin good looks and grey-streaked black hair framing his tanned face. He wore a white lab coat over an open-necked, striped Versace shirt.
‘Yes, Papa. It’s me. Don’t worry, I am safe.’
Opal’s voice was layered with the hypnotic mesmer. The poor human was utterly in her power, as he had been for over a month.
‘When are you coming home, my dear? I miss you.’
‘Today, Papa, in a few hours. How is everything there?’
The man smiled dreamily. ‘Molto bene. Wonderful. The weather is fine. We can take a drive to the mountains. Perhaps I can teach you to ski.’
Opal frowned impatiently. ‘Listen to me, idiota. . Papa. How is everything with the probe? Are we on schedule?’
For a moment, a flash of annoyance wrinkled the Italian’s brow, then he was bewitched again.
‘Yes, my dear. Everything is on schedule. The explosive pods are being buried today. The probe’s systems check was a resounding success.’
Opal clapped her hands, the picture of a delighted daughter. ‘Excellent, Papa. You are so good to your little Belinda. I will be with you soon.’
‘Hurry home, my dear,’ said the man, who seemed to be utterly lost without the creature he believed to be his daughter.
Opal ended the call. ‘Fool,’ she said contemptuously. But Giovanni Zito would be allowed to live — at least until the probe he was constructing to her specifications punctured the Lower Elements.
Now that she had spoken to Zito, Opal was eager to concentrate on the probe portion of her plan. Revenge was certainly sweet, but it was also a distraction. Perhaps she should just dump these two from the shuttle and let the Earth’s magma core have them.
‘Merv,’ she barked. ‘How long to the theme park?’
Merv checked the instruments on the shuttle’s dashboard. ‘We’ve just entered the main chute network, Miss Koboi. Five hours,’ he called over his shoulder. ‘Perhaps less.’
Five hours, mused Opal, curling in her bucket seat like a contented cat. She could spare jive hours.
Some time later, Artemis and Holly were stirring in their seats. Scant helped them back into consciousness with a couple of jolts from a buzz baton.
‘Welcome back to the land of the condemned,’ said Opal. ‘How do you like my shuttle?’
The craft was impressive, even if it was ferrying Artemis and Holly to their deaths.
The seats were covered with illegally harvested fur and the decor was plusher than your average palace. There were small entertainment hologram cubes suspended from the ceiling, in case the passengers wanted to watch a movie.
Holly began to squirm when she noticed what she was sitting on.
‘Fur! You animal!’
‘No,’ said Opal. ‘You’re sitting on the animals. As I told you, I am human now. And that is what humans do, skin animals for their own comfort. Isn’t that right, Master Fowl?’
‘Some do,’ said Artemis coolly. ‘Not me personally.’
‘Really, Artemis,’ said Opal archly. ‘I hardly think that qualifies you for sainthood.
From what I hear, you’re just as eager to exploit the People as I am.’
‘Perhaps. I don’t remember.’
Opal rose from her seat and fixed herself a light salad from the buffet.
‘Of course, they mind-wiped you. But surely you must remember now? Not even your subconscious could deny that this is happening.’
Artemis concentrated. He could remember something. Vague, out-of-focus images. Nothing very specific.
‘I do remember something.’
Opal lifted her eyes from her plate. ‘Yes?’
Artemis fixed her with a cool stare. ‘I remember how Foaly defeated you before with superior intellect. I am certain he will do it again.’
Of course Artemis had not truly remembered this, he was simply repeating what Holly had told him. But the statement had the desired effect.
‘That ridiculous centaur!’ shrieked Opal, hurling her plate against the wall. ‘He was lucky, and I was hampered by that idiot, Cudgeon. Not this time. This time I am the architect of my own fate. And of yours.’
‘And what is it this time?’ Artemis asked mockingly. ‘Another orchestrated rebellion? Or perhaps a mechanical dinosaur?’
Opal’s face grew white with rage. ‘Is there no end to your impudence, Mud Boy?
No small-scale rebellions this time. I have a grander vision. I will lead the humans to the
People. When the two worlds collide, there will be a war and my adopted people will win.’
‘You’re a fairy, Koboi,’ interjected Holly. ‘One of us. Rounded ears don’t change that. Don’t you think the humans will notice when you don’t get any taller?’
Opal patted Holly’s cheek almost affectionately. ‘My poor, dear, underpaid police officer, don’t you think I thought of all this while I stewed in that coma for almost a year? Don’t you think I thought of everything? I have always known that humans would discover us eventually, so I have prepared.’ Opal leaned over, parting her jet- black hair to reveal a magically fading seven-centimetre scar on her scalp. ‘Getting my ears rounded wasn’t the only surgery I had done. I also had something inserted in my skull.’
‘A pituitary gland,’ guessed Artemis.
‘Very good, Mud Boy. A rather tiny, artificial human pituitary gland. HGH is one of seven hormones secreted by the pituitary.’
‘HGH?’ interrupted Holly.
‘Human growth hormone,’ explained Artemis.
‘Exactly. As the name implies, HGH enhances the growth of various organs and tissues, especially muscle and bone. In three months, I have already grown a centimetre.
Oh, maybe I’ll never make the netball team, but no one will ever believe that I am a fairy.’
‘You’re no fairy,’ said Holly bitterly. ‘At heart you’ve always been human.’
‘That’s meant to be an insult, I suppose. Maybe I deserve that, considering what I am about to do to you. In an hour’s time there won’t be enough of you two left to fill the booty box.’
This was a term that Artemis had not heard before. ‘Booty box? That sounds like a pirate expression.’
Opal opened a secret panel in the flooring, revealing a small compartment underneath. ‘This is a booty box. The term was coined by vegetable smugglers, over eight thousand years ago. A secret compartment that would go unnoticed by Customs officials. Of course these days, with X-ray, infrared and motion-sensitive cameras, a booty box isn’t much good.’ Opal smiled slyly like a child who has put one over on her teacher. ‘Unless, of course, the box is completely constructed from stealth ore, refrigerated and equipped with internal projectors to fool X-ray and infrared. The only way to detect this booty box is to put your foot into it. So even if the LEP did board my shuttle, they would not find whatever it is I am choosing to smuggle — which in this case is a jar of chocolate truffles. Hardly illegal, but the cooler is full. Chocolate truffles are my passion, you know. All that time I was away, truffles
