The Fowl Twins: Chapters 7–10

“But it is my duty as your protector to say that I think you are squandering this opportunity to escape.”

The museum was a futuristic and deservedly famous landmark perched at the waterside on the IJ Promenade.

The main structure sat atop a giant plinth that operated as the building’s lobby and restaurant, or would operate as such in a few hours, when the institute opened for business.

“Wait,” said Myles, unperturbed by the seemingly abject failure of his experiment.

Jeronima looked up to see a magnificently bearded, glaring man displaying none of the usual deference to her rank.

The humorless robot and plucky monkey were named Mr. Circuits and Whoop respectively.

“We should depart,” said Myles, “for time is precious and seconds are fleeting.”

The leisurely route chosen by Myles Fowl was for a self-driving electric SUV Uber, which pulled into the squat Collection Building adjacent to the EYE plinth precisely twelve minutes after it was summoned, and precisely two minutes before the Amsterdam police arrived from Centrum Jordaan to throw a cordon around the entire facility.

In one of his rare interviews, Artemis had revealed to Time magazine, in his Man of the Year piece, that through meditation he had succeeded in harnessing his subconscious so that he could more efficiently work on projects while he slept, which, as the interviewer pointed out, subverted the entire point of meditation.

“I could talk for hours about fairies and their magics,” said Artemis. “But in the interest of possible urgency, I will curtail my lecture....”

Myles swallowed, imagining the Tesla torn asunder, but Beckett was not the least bit nervous.

I believe we are dealing with what is known in criminal parlance as a shrink-wrapper, or CV slug. One of Ishi Myishi’s best-selling nonlethal projectiles.

“You wouldn’t happen to know what year this Myishi person's grandmother was born?” asked Lazuli, growing impatient with the Fowl boy’s penchant for extended lectures.

“Proceed with Operation: Freedom Troll,” he said with some chagrin; Beckett had insisted they name the procedure.

He was loath to cede control of any operation, but in this instance he left the calculations to NANNI, as he found that even with his perfect lasered eyesight, his best guess for distances was usually accurate to the nearest centimeter only.

The boy’s laugh galvanized the troll.

He leaped to his feet, wiping the mess from his forehead, and unleashed a long undulating howl that reminded Myles of the lead singer in a heavy metal band he had once been forced to listen to in an attempt to make a friend.

“Beckett is generally calm. Infuriatingly so on several occasions most days.”
As if to belie Myles’s words, Beckett actually snapped at his twin: “Quiet, brother! I am trying to work here.”

Myles was equal parts incensed and terrified.

In fact, neither Myles nor Beckett had a middle initial, but inserting one in his twin’s name was a device Myles sometimes used to pique Beckett’s interest, as his brother would often stop whatever he was doing to make a list of possible names the fake initial might stand for.

Beckett’s favorite invented middle initial for this game was C, which he once decided stood for Counterclockwise, and at the time Myles had to admit that Beckett Counterclockwise Fowl did have a certain ring to it and summed up his personality quite succinctly.

And I’m inferring from what you said that ancient fairies could converse with trolls. I would suggest that the subject—that is to say Beckett Fowl—has been imbued with that fairy’s ability to communicate with all developed species. He is, in effect, a trans-species polyglot.

And I’m inferring from what you said that ancient fairies could converse with trolls. I would suggest that the subject—that is to say Beckett Fowl—has been imbued with that fairy’s ability to communicate with all developed species. He is, in effect, a trans-species polyglot.

And that, thought Jeronima, could be muy inconveniente, because even though ACRONYM was an intergovernmental clandestine agency, they had over the years broken more laws than the rest of the world's secret services put together.

In fact, if Myles Fowl were to leak the stolen files, it could spell the end of ACRONYM—and federal prison time for many of its upper echelon.

Our errant band shall be trussed like turkeys before lunch.

The first thing she learned was that the Fowl Twins had somehow managed to divest the troll of its radiation-infused coating.

“One of the items on your list was ordered from Master Porter in the past hour. A designer store for the more juvenile gentleman. Delivery to be bundled and expedited to a very specific longitude and latitude.”

I found Douglas to be the epitome of efficiency.

...the family matriarch, Peg O’Connor Fowl (often and quite rudely referred to as Pirate Peg), had paid the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits an extortionate amount of gold to engineer a secret cabin in the rear car that would be made available exclusively and in perpetuity to the Fowl family.

...the family matriarch, Peg O’Connor Fowl (often and quite rudely referred to as Pirate Peg), had paid the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits an extortionate amount of gold to engineer a secret cabin in the rear car that would be made available exclusively and in perpetuity to the Fowl family.

If there had been just one criminal mastermind and one single shadowy organization to vanquish, Myles felt he would have been more than equal to the task, but both together was a considerable challenge, and he would never forgive himself if something were to happen to Beckett.

“I agree, human boy,” said Lazuli, undoing the strap on her control gauntlet.

“My only stipulation,” he said, “is that there be no interference with me or my brother. We go our own way, and that is the end of it.”

All in all, Myles thought, the sight of a toy troll who was now sitting atop the brass statue of Juliet, complete with the sound of the creature harmonizing with his own stomach, was certainly one of the strangest tableaux he had ever witnessed.

The delivery drone was right on time, as it should have been, considering the exorbitant subsidy charged for an airborne shipment by the popular internet shopping site.

Had he, a veritable genius, become predictable?

Myles dismissed this as a ruse, for surely the duke must be aware that Lazuli would come after the troll, and the entire world knew where Lord Teddy Bleedham-Drye hung his hat, so he would not exactly be a chore to locate.

A shrewd hunter such as the duke would never allow them to simply walk out of here.

After all, he had shown her the remote destruct button that would blow her out of the sky if she reneged on their partnership.