Artemis Fowl moved his fingers across his laptop. The rhythmic sound helped him keep time to Hungarian Rhapsody No2 which was playing in his head. He wrote a few more lines of code into his laptop as the music reached the climatic part in the piece. This recent plot had been the most self serving by far and in many ways the most dangerous. This was nothing to be sneezed at.
Everything had been so dramatic, border-lining on histrionics. It could have been an 80's movie montage. It was because of this strange feeling of urgency that made Artemis feel detached. It was as though nothing bad could happen. He continued to work sometimes against his better nature, and sometimes fervently through the night.
Against the better wishes of the fairy people, Artemis was using his laptop as a control for a massive time stream gate. At the moment the gate was closed, and looked very much large hole in the ground surrounded by concentric metal rings. Artemis felt that this look was better than the cliché time portals in some ridiculous fiction shows.
Artemis felt excitement pulse through his finger tips as he finished up the code. It would create the first viable open ended time stream, or as many an educated man would say, it was a traversable wormhole. Artemis was so glad that he read those papers on quantum mechanics. At the time it seemed frivolous to waste precious days on it when there was gold to be stolen. Now it was the difference between a four dimensional time well and big hole in the ground.
Artemis reached over to a theatrical oversized switch and flipped it. Though he detested the thought of time traveling phone booths, Frankenstein's Tesla coil switch seemed quite reasonable. Artemis had developed a sort of ostentatious flair these past few months while constructing the portal. The gate buzzed to life with periodic whirling. Red sparks began to form in the middle of the portal and grew outward. Of course he didn't expect the worm hole to be stable without a little tinkering. His hand stayed on the keys at all times. He was ready to activate a time stop, or some suspended fairy magic he managed to concoct using mandrake shavings and rice wine. Artemis played with the magnetic fields enclosing the growing wormhole. The metal circles surrounding it rotated in various directions keeping the worm hole exactly circular. Mathematical algorithms printed out on the screen playing the role that an x-ray would on a patient. Artemis calculated it all in his head and typed out instructions accordingly.
Of course it would have been ideal for Artemis to work in a perfectly focused environment. That would have been too much to ask for considering his horrible luck. That's when Artemis noticed a glimmer in the air, and a window that was slightly ajar. He had a visitor. Artemis made a first guess at whom.
"Holly, is that you?" Artemis said looking directly at the waver that could almost be heat glimmer. Holly materialized. She appeared unabashed. Of course they would send her first. They called her the expert but lately she felt more like the babysitter.
"What are you doing?" She said. Though clearly from her tone, she knew exactly what he was doing. Her face was tense as she made her way carefully around the various spinning metallic rings
"Time portals are forbidden" She continued noticing the burgeoning circular red sparks in the center of the rings. She had seen them once before when she traveled back in time to rescue an extinct lemur. Artemis was breaking one of Haven's newest rules. It was created briefly after the lemur event. No time travel, no exceptions.
"Ah that's true. We are not allowed to travel through time anymore. However, that does not mean that no one will ever travel through time. I'm not breaking fairy law, leave me be" Artemis said. It was easier than expected to divide his attention into pacifying Holly while also controlling a mystical vortex.
"This is crazy. You're crazy plans always lead into trouble. Then you have to think your way out, which leads me into nearly dying" Holly continued. Artemis was not moved by that comment. He had worked too long on this, he needed this.
"But you didn't die" Artemis wanted to say. Of course that was not entirely true. Holly had died once before during a rip in time space, but Artemis had quickly amended that using nothing but steady counting. Artemis relented and decided to tell Holly the truth about this experiment. Perhaps then she could understand.
"I have searched the entire world over for an intellectual equal with no avail. I should have looked through time. Infinite upon infinity, surely my chances are more than slim. Someone will find my instructions in the future and leap through at any second" Artemis said proudly. He was being entirely truthful. He had combed the known world for someone he could call an equal. Minerva was close, Foaly was even closer, yet they both lacked that spark of intuition, that touch of imagination. There was no one who could understand what it was like to drown and know a million and one ways to breathe. Artemis was lonely.
Holly sighed and stealthily called for some back up. Artemis noticed but didn't seem to care. He looked at the time slip as though his prayers would be answered if only the intensity of his gaze did not waver.
Only nothing came out from the other side. They waited another moment, both tense with anticipation.
"Maybe no one was smart enough to figure out your evil plan" Holly said tersely.
"It's not an evil plan" Artemis replied. He appeared dourer now. With each passing second his equal seemed less likely to appear.
"This is crazy, what if twenty year old you decides to leap through and tell you that he needs an endangered tree frog. Or worse he comes through saying that no one is smart enough to solve your riddles but him... err... you" Holly said, the logic was dizzying. Only it causes a catastrophic time paradox and the universe to cave in on itself,Holly added as an afterthought.
"There must be someone, we are looking into infinity. The possibility is endless" Artemis said. Infinity had become a recent mantra to cure the biting loneliness of being the smartest person on earth. The scowl on his mouth seemed adamant but his eyes looked hazy with doubt. What if in the entire universe, in all of time, there was no one who could solve the riddles he set in place? That would mean that he was the smartest creature of all time. The thought made him feel cold. What an understatement! He felt a relentless empty numbness forming in his chest, like his nerves had died in a physiological nuclear winter.
Holly reached for the switch. She was serious about this. Anything could come out of the portal. Alien races could come pouring out and a time paradoxical fashion to take over the earth. Then in hundred years time they would find Artemis' instructions and do it again because they had done it before. But just as Holly was about to close the portal something leaped through. Holly closed the switch off abruptly in case anything else tried to invade their time. Holly was breathing heavily from adrenaline. Her eyes reluctantly focused on the figure standing where the portal had been.
It was a mud whelp no older than fifteen. She looked up at them and Holly felt as though she knew this girl. Holly now focused her eyes a little more on the girl's features. Something was not right. The girl's ears were too pointy to be human yet not enough to be an elf. Artemis calculated this infinitely faster
"What are you?" Artemis asked the girl. She looked at him with a sideways glance. Her expression was stern. Artemis looked back at the girl. She had dark raven hair, and the structure of someone not quite human nor elf. She had a wide intelligent brow and something oddly familiar about her that Artemis could not pinpoint. She was sprawled out like a cat ready to leap. She stayed still for a moment as if she were running calculations in her head. She then decided to stand up and brush herself off. She was taller than an elf could ever hope to be yet the proportions of her body suggested this was not so.
"Who are you?" Holly interrupted. The girl seemed confused at first then something dawned on her.
"Mum?" She said. Her head tilted slightly to the side. She seemed sure now. Her expression gradually went from skeptical to elated.
"What?" Holly blurted. Holly looked at the girl more carefully. This girl did have some of her features. As she studied more closely, the girl's cherub face was so clearly a reflection of her own. Holly's expression went from perplexed to stunned
"You look so young" The girl said bluntly then rushed to embrace Holly. Holly was still in shock and could not suppress it long enough to return the girl's hug.
"What's your name?" Artemis asked. He was excited. It seemed that against all odds, he had an intellectual equivalent. She had solved the various equations he set in different parts of the world, and jumped into his time. Solving them meant that she was as smart as him, perhaps even smarter. Artemis buried hundreds of different disks in various parts of the country. He had hidden the messages in various forms of mathematical formula as well as ancient Egyptian. The girl's name was irrelevant but Artemis surmised that it would be important to know, if they both were to travel across the continent revolutionizing the world. The girl did not answer right away but appeared somewhat amused by the question.
"I'm working on a theory. If I tell you my name then its origin is a loop. But if you can guess it then it's a line" She said with certainty. Artemis understood immediately. Holly cocked her head to the side. The girl looked at Holly's quizzed expression
"If I tell you my name then, it means that you'll name me thusly. It means I've named myself. But if you know my name then its origin comes from you" She clarified. Holly scratched her chin
"But the Holly of your time must have already told you everything that was going to happen? There is no need to theorize" Artemis said. The logic was getting thick
"The future has a lot more rules then you think. You wouldn't believe all the technicalities of time travel" The girl said dismissively. Artemis began to wrack his brain for what these future rules of travel must be. Holly was wondering what she would name her baby. She had thought about it often in the dead of night before she fell asleep.
"Julius" Holly finally said.
"Correct, although I prefer Julie" Julie replied cheerfully. Julie smoothed back her raven hair. Her wide brow seemed very familiar to Artemis. It was like he was itchy but didn't know where to scratch.
"After Commander Root" Artemis said his voice bordering on sentimental. That was what he would name any heir he managed to produce as well. The itch became even stronger.
"Who's this whelp?" Julius said with a sideways glance. Julie clearly didn't know who Artemis was or why he kept butting in on their conversation.
"I'm Artemis Fowl II. We have a lot to discuss. The implications of two people of our intellect are astronomical. We can rewrite this world into anything we please" Artemis said offering his hand. The girl finally looked fully at him. Before she could say anything Artemis finally realized why her eyes looked so startled when he had told her his name. It was her eyes. They were piercing blue, with a mischievousness that could not be erased. He knew who she was.
"Dad" She half-asked. Holly looked at Artemis realizing what was going on, who this girl was. Julie smiled revealing two oddly sharp incisors and everything became so clear
This was their child. They had a child together sometime in the future. Holly looked at Julie. Julie was a child of two worlds. She had his eyes and her chin. She was all that was evil and all that was good. She was intelligent like him, yet strong and formidable like her. She was an anomaly, a paradox, and an enigma. She was the most beautiful girl Holly had ever laid eyes on.
