Microsoft Word - Eoin Colfer - [Artemis Fowl 03] The Eternity Code v1.0.rtf by Eoin Colfer

Author:Eoin Colfer
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-05-11T13:54:58+00:00

THE SPIRO NEEDLE

Jon Spiro sat in his opulent office, staring glumly at the C Cube on his desk. People thought it was easy being him. How little they knew. The more money you had, the more pressure you were under. He had eight hundred employees in this building alone, all relying on him for a pay cheque. They wanted yearly salary reviews, medical plans, baby-care centres, regular coffee breaks, double pay for overtime and even stock options, for heaven’s sake. Sometimes Spiro missed the times when a troublesome worker was thrown out of a high window and that was the end of him. These days, if you threw someone out of a window, they’d phone their lawyer on the way down.

But this Cube could be the answer to his prayers. A once-in-a-lifetime deal, the brass ring. If he could get this weird little gizmo working, the sky was the limit. Literally. The world’s satellites would be his to command.

He would have complete control over spy satellites, military lasers, communications networks and, most important of all, television stations.

He could feasibly rule the world.

His secretary buzzed from reception.

‘Mister Blunt to see you, sir.’

Spiro jabbed the intercom button.

‘OK, Marlene, send him in. And tell him he better look sorry.’

Blunt did indeed look sorry when he pushed through the double doors.

The doors themselves were imposing enough. Spiro had them stolen from the ballroom of the sunken Titanic. They were a perfect example of power gone mad.

Arno Blunt was not quite so cocky as he had been in London. Then again, it is difficult to look arrogant when your forehead is a mass of bruises and your mouth is full of gums and nothing else.

Spiro winced at the sight of his sunken cheeks.

‘How many teeth did you lose?’

Blunt touched his jaw gingerly.

‘All ob ‘em. Dendish shaid de roods are shaddered.’

‘It serves you right,’ said Spiro matter-of-factly. ‘What do I gotta do, Arno? I hand you Artemis Fowl on a platter and you mess it up. Tell me what happened. And I don’t want to hear about any earthquakes. I want the truth.’

Blunt wiped a blob of drool from the corner of his mouth.

‘I doh undershtan ih. Shomeshin explohduh. I dunno wha’. Shome kinna shoun grenay. Buh I dell you shomeshin. Budlah ish dead. I shod him in de head. No way he’sh geddin uh affer da.’

‘Oh, shut up!’ snapped Spiro. ‘You’re giving me a headache. The sooner you get those new teeth, the better.’

‘My gumsh wi be healed suffishendly by hish afernoo.’

‘I thought I told you to shut up!’

‘Shorry, bosh.’

‘You’ve put me in a very difficult situation, Arno. Because of your incompetence I had to hire a team from the Antonellis. Carla is a smart girl; she could decide that they deserve a percentage. It would cost me billions.’

Arno tried his best to look remorseful.

‘And don’t bother with the puppy dog look, Blunt. It doesn’t cut any ice with me. If this deal goes south, you’ll be losing a lot more than a couple of teeth.

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