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- Holly tapped her helmet to make sure the lenses were working.
- “Maybe I’m getting some Optix distortion, sir, but it looks like
- they’re missing on purpose, shooting way over our heads.”
- Butler felt the blood pounding in his brain.
- “It’s a trap!” he roared, reaching behind him to grab Artemis.
- “Everybody out! Everybody out!”
- And that was when the goblin charges sent fifty tons of rock, ice, and
- snow tumbling to earth.
- They nearly made it. Of course nearly never won a bucket of squid at
- gnommish roulette. If it hadn’t been for Butler, not one of the group would
- have survived. Something happened to him. An inexplicable surge of
- strength, not unlike the energy bursts that allow mothers to lift fallen trees
- off their children. The manservant grabbed Artemis and Holly, spinning
- them forward like stones across a pond. It wasn’t a very dignified way to
- travel, but it certainly beat having your bones pulverized by falling ice.
- For the second time in so many minutes, Artemis landed nose first in
- a snowdrift. Behind him Butler and Root were scrabbling from beneath the
- ledge, boots slipping on the icy surface. The air was rent by avalanche
- thunder, and the packed ice beneath them heaved and split. Thick chunks
- of rock and ice speared the cave’s opening like bars. Butler and Root were
- trapped.
- Holly was on her feet, racing toward her commander. But what could
- she do? She threw herself back underneath the ledge.
- “Stay back, Captain,” said Root’s voice in her ear. “That’s an order!”
- “ Commander,” Holly breathed. “You’re alive.”
- “Somehow,” came the reply. “Butler is unconscious and we’re pinned
- down. The ledge is on the point of collapsing. The only thing holding it is
- the debris. If we brush that aside to get out . ..”
- They were alive, then, at least. Trapped but alive.
- -The Arctic Incident, Chapter 8
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