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“And were you forced to wear remedial shoes with stacked soles?”
Argon was intrigued He hadn’t thought about those horrible shoes in centuries; he had actually forgotten them until this moment
“Just one, on ht foot”
Arteh their roles had been reversed, and that he was the patient
“I would guess that your foot was pulled into its correct alignhtly in the process A simple brace should solve your hip problem” Artemis pulled a folded napkin fro these past few sessions Foaly should be able to build the brace for you I may have been a few milliet ers flat on the desk “May I leave now? Have I fulfilled ation?”
The doctor nodded glu that he would possibly omit this session from his book He watched Arteh the doorway
Argon studied the napkin drawing and knew instinctively that Arteht about his hip
Either that boy is the sanest creature on earth, he thought, or he is so disturbed that our tests cannot even begin to scratch the surface
Argon pulled a rubber stamp from his desk, and on the cover of Arte red letters
I hope so, he thought I really hope so
Arteuard, Butler, waited for his principal outside Dr Argon’s office in the large chair that had been a gift from the centaur Foaly, technical consultant to the Lower Elements Police
“I can’t stand to look at you perched on a fairy stool,” Foaly had told hi a coconut”
“Very well,” Butler had said in his gravelly bass “I accept the gift, if only to preserve your eyes”
In truth he had beenmore than six and a half feet tall in a city built for three-footers
The bodyguard stood and stretched, flattening his palht by fairy standards Thank God Argon had a taste for the grandiose, or Butler wouldn’t even have been able to stand up straight in the clinic To his old-flecked tapestries, and retro si doors, looked more like a monastery where the monks had taken a voealth than a medical facility Only the wall-mounted laser hand-sanitizers and the occasional elfin nurse bustling past gave any hint that this place was actually a clinic
I a to an end, Butler had been thinking at least once every five ht spotsconfined in a city clamped to the underside of the earth’s crust that made him feel claustrophobic for the first time in his life
Arteon’s office, his self-satisfied smirk even more pronounced than usual When Butler saw this expression, he knew that his boss was back in control of his faculties and that his Atlantis Complex was certified as cured
Nowords No more irrational fear of the nuoodness for that
He asked anyway, just to be certain “Well, Artemis, how are we?”
Artemis buttoned his navy woollen suit jacket “We are fine, Butler That is to say that I, Artemis Fowl the Second, am one hundred percent functional, which is about five tie person Or to put it another way: one point five Mozarts Or three-quarters of a da Vinci”
“Only three-quarters? You’re being modest”
“Correct,” said Arte “I am”
Butler’s shoulders sagged a little with relief Inflated ego, supreme self-confidence Artemis was most definitely his old self
“Very good Let’s pick up our escort and be on our way then, shall we? I want to feel the sun on my face The real sun, not the UV lamps they have down here”
Arteuard, an e h for Butler to be inconspicuous a humans; down here he could hardly have attracted ling fireballs
“Very well,” agreed Artemis “We will pick up our escort and depart Where is Holly?”
Butler jerked a thuenerally is With the clone”
Captain Holly Short of the Lower Elements Police Recon division stared at the face of her archene at the real Opal Koboi and not a cloned version, then pity ht not have been the last emotion on her list, but it would certainly have ranked far below rage and intense dislike bordering on hatred But this was a clone, grown in advance to provide the alomaniacal pixie with a body double so that she could be spirited froon Clinic if the LEP ever ed to incarcerate her, which they had
Holly pitied the clone because she was a pathetic, du was a banned science both for religious reasons and the more obvious fact that, without a life force or soul to power their systeent brain activity and organ failure This particular clone had lived outfor each breath since it had been rerown
“Not forthe ersatz pixie’s forehead through the sterile gloves built into the incubator wall
Holly could not have said for sure why she had begun to visit the clone Perhaps it was because Argon had told her that no one else ever had
She came from nowhere She has no friends
She had at least two friends now Arte Holly on her visits and often would sit silently beside her, which was very unusual for him
The clone’s official designation was Unauthorized Experiment 14, but one of the clinic’s wits had named her Nopal, which was a cruel play on the name Opal and the words no pal Cruel or not, the nah with tenderness
Argon assured her that Unauthorized Experiment 14 had no mental faculties, but Holly was certain that sometimes Nopal’s milky eyes reacted when she visited Could the clone actually recognize her?
Holly gazed at Nopal’s delicate features and was inevitably reene donor
That pixie is poison, she thought bitterly Whatever she touches withers and dies
Arte a hand lightly on her shoulder
“They’re wrong about Nopal,” said Holly “She feels things She unde
rstands”
Arte last week Watch”
He placed his hand on the glass, tapping his fingers in sequence slowly, building up a rhythm “It is an exercise developed by Cuba’s Dr Parnassus He uses it to generate a response from infants, even chimpanzees”
Arte her hand laboriously to Artelass clumsily in an attempt to copy his rhythm
“There, you see?” said Arteence”
Holly buently, shoulder to shoulder, which was her version of a hug “I knew your brains would eventually come in handy”
The acorn cluster on the breast of Holly’s LEP ju, accepting the call A quick glance at her wrist computer told her that the call was from LEP technical consultant Foaly, and that the centaur had labeled it urgent
“Foaly What is it? I’ Artemis”
The centaur’s voice was crystal clear over the Haven City wireless network
“I need you back at Police Plaza, right now Bring the Mud Boy”
The centaur sounded theatrical, but then Foaly would play the drama queen if his carrot soufflé collapsed
“That’s not hoorks, Foaly Consultants don’t give orders to captains”
“We have a Koboi sighting coh on a satellite It’s a live feed,” countered the technical consultant
“We’re on our way,” said Holly, severing the connection
They picked up Butler in the corridor Artemis, Holly, and Butler were three allies who had weathered battlefields, rebellions, and conspiracy together and had developed their own crisis shorthand
Butler saw that Holly earing her business face
“Situation?”
Holly strode past, forcing the others to follow
“Opal,” she said in English
Butler’s face hardened “Eyes on?”
“Satellite link”
“Origin?” asked the bodyguard