Eoin Colfer - Artemis Fowl - The Eternity Code

Her helmet camera scanned the eye, storing the information on chip. It would be a simple matter to project the file on to the vault’s scanner and fool the security computer.

The thumb scan would not be so simple. Because the device was a gel scanner, the tiny sensors would be searching for the actual ridges and whorls of Spiro’s thumb. A projection would not do. It had to be 3D.

Artemis had come up with the idea of using a memory-latex bandage, standard issue in any LEP first-aid kit — and the same latex used to glue the mike to his throat. All they had to do was wrap Spiro’s thumb in a bandage for a moment and they would have a mould of the digit. Holly spooled a bandage from her belt, tearing off a fifteen-centimetre strip.

‘It won’t work,’ said Artemis.

Holly’s heart sank. This was it. The thing that Artemis hadn’t told her.

‘What won’t work?’

‘The memory latex. It won’t fool the gel scanner.’

Holly climbed off the futon. ‘I don’t have time for this, Artemis. We don’t have time for it. The memory latex will make a perfect copy, right down to the last molecule.’

Artemis’s eyes were downcast. ‘A perfect model, true, but in reverse. Like a photo negative. Ridges where there should be grooves.’

‘D’Arvit!’ swore Holly. The Mud Boy was right. Of course he was.

The scanner would read the latex as a completely different thumbprint.

Her cheeks glowed red behind the visor.

‘You knew this, Mud Boy. You knew it all along.’

Artemis didn’t bother denying it.

‘I’m amazed no one else spotted it.’

‘So why lie?’

Artemis walked round to the far side of the bed, grasping Spiro’s right hand.

‘Because there is no way to fool the gel scanner. It has to see the real thumb.’

Holly snorted. ‘What do you want me to do? Cut it off and take it with us?’

Artemis silence was response enough.

‘What? You want me to cut off his thumb? Are you insane?’

Artemis waited patiently for the outburst to pass.

‘Listen to me, Captain. It’s only a temporary measure. The thumb can be reattached. True?’

Holly raised her palms. ‘Just shut up, Artemis. Just close your mouth. And I thought you’d changed. The commander was right. There’s no changing human nature.’

‘Four minutes,’ persisted Artemis. ‘We have four minutes to crack the vault and get back. Spiro won’t feel a thing.’

Four minutes was the textbook healing deadline. After that there were no guarantees that the thumb would take. The skin would bind, but the muscles and nerve endings could reject.

Holly felt as though her helmet were shrinking.

‘Artemis, I’ll stun you, so help me.’

‘Think, Holly. I had no choice but to lie about my plan. Would you have agreed if I had told you earlier?’

‘No. And I’m not agreeing now!’

Artemis’s face glowed as pale as the walls. ‘You have to, Captain. There is no other way.’

Holly waved Artemis aside as though he were a persistent fly and spoke into her helmet mike.

‘Foaly, are you listening to this insanity?’

‘It sounds insane, Holly, but if you don’t get this technology back, we could lose a whole lot more than a thumb.’

‘I can’t believe it. Whose side are you on, Foaly? I don’t even want to think about the legal ramifications of this.’

The centaur snickered. ‘Legal ramifications? We’re a tad beyond the court systems here, Captain. This is a secret operation. No records and no clearance. If this came out, we’d all be out of a job. A thumb here or there is not going to make any difference.’

Holly turned up the climate control in her helmet, directing a blast of cold air at her forehead.

‘Are you sure we can make it, Artemis?’

Artemis ran a few mental calculations. ‘Yes. I’m sure. And anyway, we have no option but to try.’

Holly crossed to the other side of the futon.

‘I can’t believe I’m even considering this.’ She lifted Spiro’s hand gently. He did not react, not so much as a sleep murmur. Behind his eyelids, Spiro’s eyes jittered in REM sleep.

Holly drew her weapon. Of course, in theory, it was perfectly feasible to remove a digit and then magically reattach it. There would be no harm done, and quite possibly the injection of magic would clear up a few of the liver spots on Spiro’s hand. But that wasn’t the point. This was not how magic was supposed to be used. Artemis was manipulating the People to his own ends, once again.

‘Fifteen-centimetre beam,’ said Foaly in her ear. ‘Very high frequency. We need a clean cut. And give him a shot of magic while you’re doing it. It might buy you a couple of minutes.’

For some reason, Artemis was checking behind Spiro’s ears.

‘Hmm,’ he said. ‘Clever.’

‘What?’ hissed Holly. ‘What now?’

Artemis stepped back. ‘Nothing important. Continue.’

A red glow reflected from Holly’s visor as a short, concentrated laser beam erupted from the nozzle of her Neutrino.

‘One cut,’ said Artemis. ‘Clean.’

Holly glared at him. ‘Don’t, Mud Boy. Not a word. Especially not advice.’

Artemis backed off. Certain battles were won by retreating.

Using her left thumb and forefinger, Holly made a circle round Spiro’s thumb. She sent a gentle pulse of magic into the human’s hand.

In seconds the skin tightened, lines disappeared and muscle tone returned.

‘Filter,’ she said into her mike. ‘X-ray.’

The filter dropped and suddenly everything was transparent, including Spiro’s hand. The bones and joints were clearly visible below the skin. They only needed the print, so she would cut between the knuckles.

It would be difficult enough reattaching under pressure without adding a complex joint into the equation.

Holly took a breath and held it. The Sleeper Deeper would act more effectively than any anaesthetic. Spiro would not flinch or feel the smallest jolt of discomfort. She made the cut. A smooth cut that sealed as it went. Not a drop of blood was spilt.

Artemis wrapped the thumb in a handkerchief from Spiro’s closet.

‘Nice work,’ he said. ‘Let’s go. The clock is ticking.’

Artemis and Holly climbed back down through the wardrobe to the eighty-fifth. There was almost a mile and a half of corridor on this floor and six guards patrolling it in pairs at any one time. Their routes were specially planned so that one pair could always have an eyeball-sighting of the vault door. The vault corridor was a hundred metres long and took eighty seconds to travel. At the end of that eighty seconds, the next pair of guards stepped round the corner. Luckily, two of the guards were seeing things in a different light this particular morning.

Foaly gave them their cue. ‘OK. Our boys are approaching their corner.’ ‘Are you sure it’s them? These gorillas all look the same. Small heads, no necks.’

‘I’m sure. Their targets are showing up bright and clear.’

Holly had painted Pex and Chips with a stamp generally used by customs and immigration for invisible visas. The stamps glowed orange when viewed through an infrared filter.

Holly pushed Artemis out the door in front of her. ‘OK. Go. And no sarcastic comments.’

There was no need for the warning. Even Artemis Fowl was not inclined to be sarcastic at such a dangerous stage of the operation.

He ran down the corridor straight towards the two mammoth security guards. Their jackets protruded angularly beneath their armpits.

Guns, no doubt. Big ones, with lots of bullets.

‘Are you sure they’re mesmerized?’ he asked Holly, who was hovering overhead.

‘Of course. Their minds are so blank it was like writing with chalk on a board. But I could stun them if you’d prefer.’