Artemis Fowl: the time paradox

that felt and ask yourself if you want to go through it again.’

Foaly dropped his gaze, thinking back. That time had been a waking nightmare for the fairies. The use of magic had been suspended and the lemurs were already extinct by the time a court order forced Opal to reveal the source of her antidote. He had worked sleeplessly to develop an alternative cure, but without success.

‘We thought we were invincible. The only disease left was man.’ The centaur made up his mind. ‘The lemur must be alive,’ he stated. ‘The brain fluid can be stored for brief periods, but once it becomes inert, the fluid is useless. I was developing a charged container but …’

‘This time you will succeed,’ Artemis assured him. ‘You will have a live subject and laboratory conditions. You can clone a female.’

‘Cloning is illegal generally,’ mused Foaly. ‘But in extinction cases exceptions have been made …’

Holly’s helmet beeped, drawing her attention to a craft landing in the driveway. She hurried to the window in time to see a slight shimmer cast a shadow on the moonlit driveway.

It must be a rookie pilot, thought Holly crossly. He hasn’t activated his shadow-lights.

‘The shuttle’s here,’ she informed Artemis.

‘Tell the pilot to park round the back, in one of the stables. The doctor’s assistant is making calls from my father’s office. I don’t want her going for a walk and bumping into a shielded fairy craft.’

Holly relayed the instructions, and they waited tensely for the shuttle to manoeuvre to the back of the house. It seemed like a long wait, silent but for the rasp of Angeline’s laboured breathing.

‘Number One might not be able to do it,’ said Foaly almost to himself. ‘He is a young warlock, with barely any training. Time travel is the most difficult of magics.’

Artemis did not offer a comment. There was no point. All his hopes rested on N^o1.

He does it, or Mother dies.

He took Angeline’s hand, stroking the rough parchment skin with his thumb.

‘Hold on, Mother,’ he whispered. ‘I will only be a second.’

CHAPTER 5: I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU

THE little demon known as N^o1 cut a strange figure waddling down the LEP shuttle’s gangplank. A small, stocky individual with grey armoured plates and short limbs, he looked a little like a miniature upright rhinoceros with fingers and toes, except for the head. The head was pure gargoyle.

I wish I had a tail, thought N^o1.

In actual fact, he did have a tail, but it was stubby and not good for much except making snow fans in Haven City’s artificial weather park.

N^o1 consoled himself with the observation that at least his tail didn’t dangle down the toilet. Some of the Hybras demons had trouble adjusting to the newfangled seats on the recycling lounges in Haven. He had heard horror stories. Apparently there had been three emergency reattachments this month alone.

The transition from Limbo to normal time had been difficult for all demons, but there were many more positives than negatives. Restrictions imposed under the old tribal leader were now being lifted. Demons could eat cooked food if they felt like it. Family units were taking hold again. Even the most belligerent demons were a lot more relaxed with their mothers around. It was difficult to shake off ten millennia of human-hating, and many of the buck demons were undergoing therapy or were on mood pills to stop them hopping a shuttle to the surface and chomping on the first human limb they saw.

Not N^o1, though, who had no limb-chomping ambitions whatsoever. He was something of an anomaly among demons. N^o1 loved everyone, even humans, especially Artemis Fowl, who had saved them all from the deathly dreariness of Limbo, not to mention Leon Abbot, the psychopathic ex-tribe leader.

So when the call came through to Section Eight that Artemis needed him, N^o1 had strapped himself into the division’s shuttle and demanded to be taken above ground. Wing Commander Vinyaya had agreed, because disagreeing could lead to all sorts of magical tantrums from the fledgling warlock. Once, in a fit of frustration, N^o1 had accidentally shattered the magnifying wall of the city’s huge aquarium. Fairies were still finding minnows in their toilet ponds.

You can go, Vinyaya had told him, but only if you take a squad of guards to hold your hand every step of the way.

Which did not literally mean hold his hand, as N^o1 had found out when he tried to link with the captain of the guard.

‘But Commander Vinyaya said,’ he’d objected.

‘Stow the hand, demon,’ ordered the captain. ‘There’ll be no hand-holding on my watch.’

And so N^o1 appeared to approach Fowl Manor alone, though he was flanked by a dozen shielded fairies. Halfway up the avenue he remembered to shroud his real appearance with a shape-shifting spell. Any human who happened to be looking down the driveway would now see a small boy in flowing flowered robes strolling towards the front door. This was an image N^o1 had seen in a human movie from the last century, and he thought it was appropriately non-threatening.

Miss Book happened to appear at the doorway just as N^o1 reached it. The sight of him stopped the nurse/publicist in her tracks. She tugged off her glasses as though they were feeding false information to her eyes.

‘Hello there, little boy,’ she said, smiling, though she probably would not have been so jolly had she been aware of the twelve plasma rifles pointed at her head.

‘Hi,’ said N^o1 cheerily. ‘I love everyone, so no need to feel threatened.’

Miss Book’s smiled faltered. ‘Threatened? Of course not. Are you looking for someone? Are you playing dress-up?’

Artemis appeared at the doorway, interrupting the conversation.

‘Ah… Ferdinand, where have you been?’ he said, quickly shepherding N^o1 past the nurse. ‘This is the gardener’s boy, Ferdinand,’ he explained. ‘A dramatic type. I’ll summon his father to collect him.’

‘Good idea,’ said Miss Book doubtfully. ‘I know your mother’s room is sealed, but don’t let him upstairs all the same.’

‘Of course not,’ said Artemis. ‘I’ll send him out the back way.’

‘Good,’ said the nurse. ‘I just need a breath of fresh air, then I will come to check on your mother.’

‘Take your time,’ said Artemis. ‘I can read the instruments.’

I designed a few of them, he thought.

As soon as Miss Book disappeared round the corner, Artemis escorted his demon friend up the stairs.

‘We’re going upstairs,’ objected N^o1 mildly. ‘Didn’t that young lady tell you not to allow me upstairs?’

Artemis sighed. ‘How long have you known me, Number One?’

N^o1 nodded craftily. ‘Ah, I see. Artemis Fowl never does what he is told to do.’

Holly greeted N^o1 on the landing, but refused to hug him until he dropped the shape-shifting spell.

‘I hate the feel of those things,’ she said. ‘It’s like hugging a wet sponge.’

N^o1 pouted. ‘But I enjoy being Ferdinand. Humans smile at me.’

Artemis assured him that there was no surveillance in his study and so the demon warlock waited until the door was closed behind them, then banished the spell with a click of his fingers. Ferdinand unravelled and fell from N^o1 ’s body in a flurry of sparks, leaving the small grey demon warlock wearing nothing but a wide grin.

Holly hugged him tightly.

‘I knew you would come. We need you desperately.’