“On the floor?” she said. “I can feel the movements of this tower better
from here, Din, reading the wind and the weather with my back.” She
grinned. “It’s marvelous. You ought to try it sometime.”
Minerva accepted the phone from the security guard.
'Minerva Paradizo speaking.'
'Minerva, this is Artemis Fowl,' said a voice in perfect French. 'We met once across a crowded room in Sicily.'
'I know who you are; we nearly met in Barcelona too. And I know it's really you. I memorized your voice pattern and cadence from a lecture you gave on Balkan politics two years ago at Trinity College.'
—You must nearly be ready by now right, El-Melloi?” She said, abruptly directing all the
attention at me.
“What are you talking about?”
Touko failed to hold back a laugh at my response.
“Don’t play dumb! Since you’re here, and you still have a refreshing look of
“Why bother with dappleglass at all? Why use the same contagion that had once killed
her canton, her home? Dappleglass, after all, is difficult, temperamental, and, obviously,
murderously uncontainable. It seemed a symbolic choice. Almost like a personal vendetta.
It made no sense---until we discussed the history of Oypat with the late Immunis
Nusis, who had personally served there during the canton’s death.