The factory complex looked as dead as ever, the windows were broken and the lights off, grime was covering just about every surface from the outside, being the middle of the night didn't help the scene either. Holly Short was watching the building from a distance, shielded of course. She contacted Foaly, "Are you sure this is the right place?" She asked. "It seems dead; I doubt anyone would want to come here."

Foaly's voice buzzed in on her helmet, "This is where your contact said to meet him Holly, he said that he found something pretty big and we have to take his word on it, considering that we lost connection to his helmet before we could start recording. His last location was on the second floor office, he also said his partner was somewhere else but we lost connection to him before they even made it into the building."

Holly sighed, how was it that she kept getting stuck with these kinds of missions? She just hoped that whatever her two contacts found in the factory was worth her time, otherwise nasty things would start happening. She turned her wings on, they were as silent as ever, she jumped from the ledge she was sitting on, taking a look around her, the area was dead, and the factory was located in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a few cliffs and a desert, the nearest town was twenty miles away. Her wings caught a slight breeze that was flowing in her direction and she took off, heading for the location designated on her H.U.D. She breathed in the air for a moment, she may not have liked going on a job like this but it was a welcome break from the events involving Artemis and his antics. As she approached her location she thought she saw some movement in the factory but assumed it was a trick of the light, still she drew her Neutrino 3000 just to be safe.

She landed on a small ledge on the outside of the room she was supposed to link up with her contact, luckily this one had also been broken. She gently flew up from her position, silently infiltrating the room while her shield was up, she wasn't visible to the naked eye which was lucky for her because she saw someone on the ground at the opposite wall, head under a window looking down on the rest of the factory. The person was wearing black clothing which messed with her vision since the entire room was black. She started making her way around a table in the room and almost made it around the person on the ground when she felt a hand on her shoulder, a human hand. Startled she turned, pointing her gun at the mudman as his hand left her shoulder. He looked up at her, his face finally showing, it was covered by a hat only moments ago she now realized, and she almost yelped in surprise when she saw a skull looking back at her, she felt him grab her Neutrino 3000 and yank it from her grip, clasping a hand over her mouth before any noise was heard, "Relax…" he said, calmly, his voice was smooth and clear, "I'm with you."

Holly relaxed herself a bit, but still remained skeptical, as he took his hand off her mouth she inquired, "And how exactly am I supposed to trust you?"

The mudman sighed, looking a holly for a second. She soon realized that it wasn't a skull, I was a mask. The mudman began speaking in the people's language, "I was sent here by Foaly to check up on some suspicious activity that had been going on for a few days. I lost contact with him, much like you probably have by now, soon after I entered here. Now, do you have any more pointless questions or are we going to continue with this assignment?"

Holly blinked in surprise under her helmet, how did this human know the language? She thought only Artemis and Butler were the only two humans who could speak in that tongue. She then realized that she couldn't contact Foaly, much like the human said, all that would come up was static. "Okay, I trust you mudman, but not by much. Now then, would you like to explain to me the situation before I decide to leave you here to deal with your problems all alone?"

The figure nodded, standing up, Holly noted that he was fairly tall, about 6'2", he was also wearing a black trench coat and suit, which she thought was strange attire since they were both on a field mission. On his back was what looked like two grey short sticks and at his sides were two pistols, still in their holsters. The man nodded his head back to the window he had previously been under, "Why don't you see for yourself."

She unshielded herself, looking through the window and down to the factory's bottom floor, her eyes widened with surprise. At least twelve goblins were surrounding a group of crates as they were being carried to a certain location by a couple of demons. "Do you know what's in the crates?" She asked the man in the skull mask.

"Batteries," he responded, "I hope you recall what happened last time goblins got a hold of human batteries."

"How do you…" she was about to ask how he knew about that situation that happened a few years back when he raised his hand, interrupting her.

"I've read the files on what's happened for the past few years, the situations involving a certain Artemis Fowl were particularly interesting but that's for another time."

Holly sighed with frustration, "Okay, so who are you exactly skull mask?"

"You can call me Reaper, I'm a mercenary hired by Foaly for a form of experiment that he's decided to run through. My partner, Wraith, is just across the platform in the other office."

"How do you know that exactly?"

"He signaled me using a mirror and the moons light maybe an hour ago. I assume he hasn't moved much until then otherwise he would have regrouped with me. Now, do I have to answer any more pointless questions or can we deal with the situation at hand?"

"Fine," Holly said, getting aggravated with this human's manners, "What exactly do we do now?"

"Well," Reaper started, "first we try to link up with Wraith, we make our escape and I deliver these pictures to Foaly and I get going with my next assignment and you never see me again."

"I can't wait…" Holly sighed, and she truly meant that, she'd have a talk with Foaly about this "experiment" of his when all of this was over with.

She put her shield back on and was about to fly across the platform when Reaper stopped her again, "Hold it," he said. "Take a look at the corner section there."

Holly looked at where he was indicating, a rotating camera was sitting there, its red light flickering every now and again. "So?" She asked, obviously irritated, "It's just a camera." She then realized, if goblins and demons were involved then the camera could most likely see through her shield.

Reaper, obviously seeing this realization on her face, pointed out, "The camera can see you, as you may have realized, but I'm assuming the goblins can't, now I've been watching the camera rotate, it goes around 30 second intervals for each turn, meaning once you can sneak by it you don't have much time, I would go but I can be seen even without the shield so that means only you can link up with Wraith. Do you understand?"

Holly nodded, watching the camera closely, she waited for a few turns of its lens, once she was just out of sight from it she flew across the platform quickly and quietly, making it to the camera's blind spot. She sighed with relief, thankful nothing saw her, when she heard a bit of a scuffle going down below, from his point she could see two goblins going at it, she didn't know what it was about, she assumed it had something to do with one of their mothers, she was just about to go across to the other office when one of the goblins got so mad he threw a fireball at his companion. This shot missed horribly and went straight for holly, she jumped out of the way just in time before she was cooked like a roast turkey, but when she did this she looked up in horror as he camera was pointed directly at her.