"Artemis Fowl," a voice announced over the loudspeaker, "You have been spotted. If you do not turn yourself over, I will kill you."
Artemis considered this for a moment. Holly rolled her eyes, no humor just exasperation.
"Thanks, but no thanks. Fowl, what have you found?"
Fowl? Artemis thought. Out loud, he said, "Sorry, but there's not- ah-ha!"
"The Heir Game," Vinyaya read aloud.
"What the hell?" Mulch mused, "What's that all about?"
"'I have been thinking,'" Holly continued where Vinyaya left off, "'If I die, who will inherit my kingdom, my beautiful empire? Of course, the simple answer would be my fully sentient clone but, then again, I have never been one for simplicity. I have decided to come up with a challenge.'"
"Is this a kind of a will?" Butler asked.
"Perhaps," Artemis narrowed his eyes at the screen, then picked up the reading. "'A challenge that can only be beaten by the greatest super-villain of all time.
Are you ready, villains of the world?'"
"What is it?" Holly demanded, "What is the task? We have to stop them!"
"The task," Artemis said grimly, "Is to kill Clone Opal."
There was stunned silence.
"We're trying to do that," Vinyaya said.
"Yes," Artemis said, "And if we do, then we inherit Opal's entire domain. But I assume that now we have found this file, it has been sent to every villain ever in contact with Opal - quite a lot, I presume. And now they will all be trying to kill Clone Opal and get Opal's legacy."
"So, the million dollar question," Holly said, "Do we help the clone? Or do we kill her ourselves?"
"That's not a million dollars," Artemis interjected, "It's Opal's life's work. Do we really want it to fall into the wrong hands?"
"We're talking about cold-blooded murder, Artemis."
"I've done bad things before. I could do worse."
"This is something you can't ever come back from," Holly turned her large doe eyes on his steely blue ones, "But it's your choice."
Artemis knew the weight riding on his answer. Did he choose his friends or the criminal empire? His family or gold? The right way or the easy?
It wasn't a choice, really. He knew what he had to do.
YOU ARE READING
The Heir Game
Hayran KurguArtemis Fowl has to face yet another enemy, and this one created by Opal Koboi herself. She may have died but her legacy has lived on. Can Artemis stop her? Meanwhile, Captain Holly Short is facing what might be the biggest rebellion in all of...
