“It’s not a question of decency. It just can’t be done.”
Artemis drummed his fingers on the gurney. Thinking. “I want to talk to Foaly,” he said finally.
“I speak for the People, Fowl,” said Holly testily. “We don’t take orders from humans.”
“Please, Holly,” said Artemis. “I can’t just let him go. It’s Butler.”
Holly couldn’t help herself. After all, Butler had saved all their hides on more than one occasion.
“Very well,” she said, fishing a spare com-set from her belt. “But he’s not going to have any good news for you.”
Artemis hooked the speaker over one ear, adjusting the mike stem so it wound across his mouth.
“Foaly? Are you listening?”
“Are you kidding?” came the reply. “This is better than human soap operas.”
Artemis composed himself. He would have to present a convincing case, or Butler’s last chance was gone.
“All I want is a healing. I accept that it may not work, but what does it cost to try?”
“It’s not that straightforward, Mud Boy,” replied the centaur. “Healing isn’t a simple process. It requires talent and concentration. Holly is pretty good, I grant you, but for something like this, we need a trained team of warlocks.”
“There’s no time,” snapped Artemis. “Butler has already been under too long. This has to be done now, before the glucose is absorbed into his bloodstream. There is already tissue damage to the fingers.”
“Maybe his brain, too?” suggested the centaur.
“No. I got his temperature down in minutes. The cranium has been frozen since the incident.”
“Are you sure about that? We don’t want to bring Butler’s body back, and not his mind.”
“I’m sure. The brain is fine.”
Foaly didn’t speak for several moments.
“Artemis, if we agree to try this, I have no idea what the results would be. The effect on Butler’s body could be catastrophic, not to mention his mind. An operation of this kind has never been attempted on a human.”
“I understand.”
“Do you, Artemis? Do you really? Are you prepared to accept the consequences of this healing? There could be any number of unforeseeable problems. Whatever emerges from this pod is yours to care for. Will you accept this responsibility?”
“I will,” said Artemis, without hesitation.
“Very well, then it’s Holly’s decision. Nobody can force her to use her magic, it’s up to her.”
Artemis lowered his eyes. He could not bring himself to look at the LEP elf.
“Well, Holly. Will you do it? Will you try?”
Holly brushed the ice from Butler’s brow. He had been a good friend to the People. “I’ll try,” she said. “No guarantees, but I’ll do what I can.”
Artemis’s knees almost buckled with relief, then he was in control again. Time enough for weak knees later. “Thank you, Captain. I realize this could not be an easy decision to make. Now, what can I do?”
Holly pointed to the rear doors. “You can get out. I need a sterile environment. I’ll come get you when it’s over. And whatever happens, whatever you hear, don’t come in until I call.”
Holly unclipped her helmet camera, suspending it from the cryo pod’s lid to give Foaly a better view of the patient. “How’s that?”
“Good,” replied Foaly. “I can see the whole upper body. Cryogenics. That Fowl is a genius, for a human. Do you realize that he had less than a minute to come up with this plan? That’s one smart Mud Boy.”
Holly scrubbed her hands thoroughly in the medi-sink. “Not smart enough to keep himself out of trouble. I can’t believe I’m doing this. A three-hour healing. This has got to be a first.”
“Technically it’s only a two-minute healing, if he got the brain down to below zero straightaway. But . . .”
“But what?” asked Holly, rubbing her fingers briskly with a towel.
“But the freezing interferes with the body’s own biorhythms and magnetic fields, things even the People don’t understand fully. There’s more than skin and bone at stake here. We have no idea what a trauma like this could do to Butler.”
Holly stuck her head under the camera. “Are you sure this is a good idea, Foaly?”
“I wish we had time for discussion, Holly, but every second costs our old friend a couple of brain cells. I’m going to talk you through it. The first thing we need to do is take a look at the wound.”
Holly peeled off several cold packs, unzipping the foil suit. The entry wound was small and black. Hidden in the center of a pool of blood, like a flower’s bud. “He never had a chance. Right under the heart. I’m going to zoom in.”
Holly closed her visor, using the helmet’s filters to magnify Butler’s wound. “There are fibers trapped in there. Kevlar, I’d say.”
Foaly groaned over the speakers. “That’s all we need. Complications.”
“What difference do fibers make? And this really is not the time for jargon. I need plain Gnommish.”
“Okay. Surgery for morons it is. If you poke your fingers into that wound, the magic will reproduce Butler’s cells, complete with their new strands of Kevlar. He’ll be dead, but completely bulletproof.”
Holly could feel the tension creeping up her back. “So, I need to do what?”
“You need to make a new wound, and let the magic spread from there.”
Oh great, thought Holly. A new wound. Just slice him open. “But he’s as hard as rock.”
“Well then, you’re going to have to melt him down a little. Use your Neutrino 2000, low setting, but not too much. If that brain wakes up before we want it to, he’s finished.”
Holly drew her Neutrino, adjusting the output to minimum. “Where do you suggest I melt?”
“The other pectoral. Be ready to heal—that heat is going to spread rapidly. Butler needs to be healed before oxygen gets to his brain.”
Holly pointed the laser at the bodyguard’s chest. “Just say the word.”
“In a bit closer. Six inches approximately. A two-second burst.”
Holly raised her visor, taking several deep breaths. A Neutrino 2000 being used as a medical instrument. Who would have thought it? Holly pulled her trigger to the first click. One more click would activate the laser. “Two seconds.”
“Okay. Go.”
Click. An orange beam of concentrated heat spilled from the Neutrino’s snout, blossoming across Butler’s chest. Had the bodyguard been awake, he would have been knocked unconscious. A neat circle of ice evaporated, rising to condense on the surgery’s ceiling.
“Now,” said Foaly, his voice high-pitched with urgency. “Narrow the beam and focus it.”
Holly manipulated the gun controls expertly with her thumb. Narrowing the beam would intensify its power, but the laser would have to be focused at a certain range to avoid slicing right through Butler’s body. “I’m setting it for six inches.”
“Good, but hurry, that heat is spreading.”
The color had returned to Butler’s chest and the ice was melting across his body. Holly pulled the trigger again, this time carving a crescent-shaped slit in Butler’s flesh. A single drop of blood oozed from between the wound’s edges.
“No steady flow,” said Foaly. “That’s good.”
Holly holstered her weapon. “Now what?”
“Now get your hands in deep, and give it every drop of magic you’ve got. Don’t just let it flow, push the magic out.”
Holly grimaced. She never liked this bit. No matter how many healings she performed, she could never get used to sticking her fingers into other people’s insides. She lined her thumbs up, back to back, and slid them into the incision.
“Heal,” she breathed, and the magic scurried down her fingers. Blue sparks hovered over Butler’s wound, then disappeared inside like shooting stars diving behind the horizon.
“More, Holly,” urged Foaly. “Another shot.”
Ho
lly pushed again, harder. The flow was thick at first, a roiling mass of blue streaks, then as her magic ebbed, the flow grew weaker. “That’s it,” she panted. “I have barely enough left to shield on the way home.”
“Well, then,” said Foaly. “Stand back until I tell you. Because all hell is about to break loose.”
Holly backed up to the wall. Nothing much happened for several moments, then Butler’s back arched, throwing his chest into the air. Holly heard a couple of vertebrae groaning.
“That’s the heart started,” noted Foaly. “The easy bit.”
Butler flopped back into the pod, blood flowing from his most recent wound. The magical sparks knitted together, forming a vibrating lattice over the bodyguard’s torso. Butler hopped on the gurney like a bead in a rattle, as the magic reshaped his atoms. His pores vented mist as toxins were expelled from his system.