Oak

In Ireland, near Dublin, there is a manor that rests one of the top ten richest families in all of Europe, and arguably with the exception of a few Saudi princes and more affluent CEO's of America, of the world. This manor known as the Fowl estate has a rather lengthy history spanning the centuries where it has been known as either the unofficial capital of luxurious parties and higher culture of Northern Europe. Or as the headquarters of crime syndicates ranging from being privateers in Queen Victoria's navy to large scale insider trading. With the return of Artemis Fowl I from the Russian Mafia however, the Fowl finances have been dawdling as he tries to set up a venue which incorporates his recent values. Recently he has been taking to starting factories in South Africa and India, while also setting up the Fowl charity that makes it a priority to help disabled children around the world. In his off time he runs marathons and has recently vowed to swim the English channel, not too idle hobbies for a man that lost a leg more than four years ago.

His own son in fact is the reason that billionaire status is still theirs. Artemis Fowl the Second has a large number of patents with his own name and countless others with various pseudonyms he uses. In his off time he has published hundreds of treatises on wide selection of topic from musical to global economics to human behavior and has at last count four doctorates and is currently working on his fifth on Quantum Physics at MIT. Only a few dozen people, mostly law enforcement personal of the highest caliber, know that he has an active Interpol file. And only a handful of humans know about his encounters with the magical race that lives below the Earth's surface.

Artemis currently was in the lounge and the sound of a piano playing could be heard. The lounge of Fowl Manor had marble floors and columns strategically placed not only for aesthetic purposes but also for security purposes. There were sofas and fainting couches of exquisite quality all arranged very tastefully. Antique tables were placed near the sofas and on one Artemis's laptop was quietly humming as it did its allocated task. A chandelier illuminated the area at the night time and at all times contained six listening devices and also a button camera at its bottom. The piano was once owned by the Impressionist Claude Debussy, and Artemis took great pleasure in playing the great musicians pieces on his piano. At the moment however he was too preoccupied with the recent undertakings to take too much satisfaction from it. On first look he looked sick, but that was mostly due to his fact of his snow white skin, but there was something on his mind that made him feel some apprehension. After finishing the piece he got up and strolled over to his laptop just as it alerted him that its task was complete. He sat on a sofa and pulled his laptop closer studying the screen.

'Hm,' he mused, 'Foaly does not know anything new on the search for Opal.'

It was disappointing but not too unexpected. Opal herself was a highly technological opponent and it also did not hurt that she was now a highly powerful witch. The search also had not been started until a few hours ago as well so he did not worry too much. If there was anyone that would be able to find Opal eventually it was the technical consultant for the LEP. Now the question though was what to do? His mother was fine if not tired from having Opal posses her and as such needed rest. Father was still out and the twins were thankfully sleeping in their room. Although he should check on them just to be sure. Artemis shook his head and smiled it was odd to think to him they had just existed a few short weeks ago and already he was worrying if they were still in their room even though he himself had put them to sleep only an hour or two ago. He rationalized though that this was because he one loved them they were his family and all and two that if he didn't remain vigilant they could do some serious damage to themselves and their surroundings. The less said of an over energized toddler the better. Ending on that note he proceeded to walk up the elegant stairway to their shared room.

Captain Holly Short of the LEP was having a less than wonderful day. She was currently in front of the desk of the LEPrecon commander and the way he kept looking at her report and sighing; all the while drumming his fingers did not bode well for her. There was the sound of shuffling hooves to her side and she spared a glance to the monitor next to her and saw the centaur moving off screen for a moment before coming back to answer an unasked question from the commander. Within moments there was a recorded feed from her helmet showing Opal in all of her splendor.

"Captain Short," Commander Kelp started, "Is the contents of this report accurate?"

She nodded before adding, "The only unaccounted portions are the parts where I was incapacitated by the Mesmered Butler."

"Thank you Captain, until further notice you are removed from surface missions until we have more information on the Opal threat."

"Trub I don't think—"Foaly started before being silenced by the commanders look.

"Its Trouble not Trub Foaly," the commanders said looking at the screen.

"Very well Commander," Holly said making a slight face at being grounded in more than one way, but grateful since it could have been a lot worse.

Sighing the commander said, "Opal Koboi with powerful magic, Frond help us."

There was a collective silence as everyone considered the possibilities before the commander was in control again, "Foaly we need to know where she is before she gets there understood?"

Foaly on his monitor nodded and then the sound of rhythmic typing was replaced by several split screens. "Naturally, it occurred to me that she is going to need a source of income so I have asked the council to allow me too look deeper into her finances and lock all the accounts even tangentially in her name."

The two elves nodded before Holly asked, "Do we know what she's after though, well besides world domination?"

There was a momentary stop in typing, "I don't know. My thoughts are divided over trying to get J.J to getting some other way to increase her power."

"What's the security on J.J," Trouble asked.

"The best my budget can buy," the centaur whinnied happily, "believe me I almost wish she would try and get him so we can be done with this mess all together."

"Okay what about damage control I would rather not tell the general populace that the past version of public enemy one is at large."

"No problemo Trubs I got it all situated."

Trouble scowled and his face seemed to redden, "Its Trouble."

Foaly fought hard to withhold his grin and said, "Yes this ordeal with Opal is trouble."

The LEP commander seemed to be counting back from ten before he continued, "Also double the security around the mud maid in Atlantis."

Opal Koboi of the present in her attempt to start an interspecies war turned herself into a human so that she maybe on the winning side. Unfortunately for her now that meant her magic was gone and that her life span was shortened.

"Way ahead of you commander."

Kelp seemed to be thinking about his options, "Captain Short, do you have any recommendations?"

Holly tried to think of anything that wasn't addressed and could only think of one thing, "What about Artemis, he might become a target."

"We've got eyes and ears at the Manor now and also I'm thinking about just opening a shuttle port there so that it would be easier for us to do his yard work while were protecting his sorry behind."

Artemis sneezed quietly as he sat in his room staring at his computer. He reached into his suit's front pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. After blowing his nose he got up and proceeded to look his room over for dust mites. Three minutes of searching with one of his inventions did not prove fruitful so he continued the task he was on. Currently he was shifting through his e-mails and sighed when he saw that Juliet had sent him something. Not that it was a surprise she routinely sent him chain letters and jokes. Artemis started an application that he had devised to sort through the binary of pictures. While he waited for it to load he mused on the last picture he had decoded.

The picture was a photograph of several kittens with a caption at the bottom but the picture hid something more sinister. Hidden in the encoding was a virus that latched on to your computer and waited for you to do banking online. When that happened it activates and piggy-backs onto your account. Then it proceeds to siphon a penny per week to an account on the Caymans until manually detected and when that happens it decays and foils anyone attempting to track it. Everyone except for Artemis that is. He tracked it down to a Mr. Robert Dunall a thirty-five year old programmer that lived in his parents home. Artemis than proceeded to load his own virus onto the programmers bank accounts in the Caymans that would take all four hundred and fifty thousand he had stolen over the years and placed an anonymous letter to the police with more than enough evidence to put him away for many years. Truly he did a good deed and as such only kept twenty five percent as his consultant fee before giving the rest to his father's charity.

When the program was ready, Artemis opened the e-mail and was slightly disappointed that it contained only a short message and then a hyperlink.

Yo Arty, thought this was cool and was wondering if you could do your magic and find out if this is a movie coming out or what. TTYL Jade Princess

Artemis when finishing the e-mail you would imagine be annoyed for being asked to do something trivial. Or that he would complain that his talent was being wasted. But you clearly did not know Artemis. Juliet would not have asked lightly what was in this message unless there was a deeper meaning behind it. He studied the message again trying to read between the lines. Magic. He had sent Juliet a copy of his diary after returning to Limbo as a favor to Butler. Apparently she was upset and thought Butler had lost what she called his marbles because of losing Artemis. Could magic have a double meaning? Artemis decided until he watched the video he was wasting time. Without any hesitation he clicked the hyperlink.

Holly walked home from Police Plaza with a lot on her mind. True she still had a job but being apart of the LEPRecon recon was a crucial part of the job. In essence meaning that unless she was released tomorrow night, than she was stuck at a desk doing meaningless paper work or if she was going to be stuck for a long time she could be transferred over to Traffic to help the desperately understaffed and underfunded division. She shuddered and hoped that she wouldn't have to wait to long for the commander to let her up to the surface.

Police Plaza was filled with even at this late hour tourists and their infernal busses. She overheard a tour guide talking about the terrible fire fight that happened during the Goblin Revolution and Holly couldn't help but grin in her helmet. Hard to believe that the Revolution was beaten by a kleptomaniac dwarf with crayon drawings, and at the time public enemies number one and two.

'We beat Opal than too,' She thought determined but than a sadness that still hasn't gone away fully, 'I wish Julius—'she then stopped herself. The commander would have yelled at her if he saw what she was doing now. So she steeled herself with the though of throwing Opal in a cell for the rest of her life. Shaking her head to clear the thoughts she decided to stop by at an old friends.