Chapter 1
In which Artemis flirts and receives the usual threat of assassination
"Butler, I still don't see the point in a 'family vacation'," Artemis mused aloud.
"No I correct myself I understand what the point of a 'family vacation' is in my parent's minds but I cannot find any long term benefits for myself or any of us, except to get an excuse for getting away from Javian and Jeremy for a little while."
"I think it's just for you to understand that they're making an effort to raise you to be a good and successful citizen, and want you to appreciate that they put a lot of time into planning this trip. As for your twin problems maybe if you agreed to go to some of the tours with them they might grow closer to you and stop jamming your inbox with all those ecards." Butler, the young heir's bodyguard answered not that there was any point in it Artemis had already moved on. Butler wondered if why Artemis' parents had taken him on a vacation was to prove to them selves and not Artemis that they were good parents.
Emerging from his thoughts Butler realized that Artemis was no longer by his side. Quickly he scanned the area with his eyes wondering where Artemis could have wondered off to now. Soon Butler spotted Artemis approaching a pretty girl with a sketchbook open, balanced on her lap and a pencil tucked behind her ear. This puberty could be the end of Artemis, constantly getting distracted and wondering off like this couldn't be very safe at all he would have to have a little talk with him after this.
Artemis stood and watched for a while as the girl carefully erased at her drawing. It depicted an African girl's profile with big dark eyes and short tight curls. He quickly glanced around too see who she was drawing and spotted nobody. "Wow," Artemis thought to himself. As if the girl had heard Artemis' thoughts she looked up and smiled showing a mouth full of braces. She looked around 14 and a half with dark brown hair pulled back into a messy bun. Her light gray green eyes where framed in dark lashes in, contrast to her medium fair skin. "I saw your shadow," she said startling Artemis out if his train of thoughts and causing him to shake his head slightly as if to dislodge stray thoughts. "Sorry that was rude of me not to introduce myself I'm Olivia, may I ask who you are?"
"Yes you may, I'm Artemis." Croaked smiling genuinely.
"Do you live here in London?" Artemis inquired sounding slightly more confident but still blushing slightly.
"Nope. My families hear on vacation." Olivia answered now fully devoting her attention to the slender pale youth in front of her instead of her drawing.
"Would you like to get some coffee or tea?" Olivia asked now the one to blush.
"Uhmm…Yes. I'm sorry but do you mind if my eh…ally accompanies us?" Olivia cocked her head and looked at him odd.
"Sorry, he's my body guard I didn't want to agitate you..."
Butler chose this time to wander over and see what was taking the boy so long.
"Artemis we need to go back to the bead and breakfast now your parents are waiting to go to the play."
"Here, my parents and I ate here when we first got off the plane. The food was pretty good," Olivia motioned towards a small brick building sandwiched between two other taller shops.
They sat down at a small round wooden table by the window in the front while butler found an armchair in the back. Butler didn't like this situation. The girl seemed nice enough but the big blue bag that she had put her sketch book in seemed oddly lumpy and it was lighter than the one she had sitting on the ground next to her earlier when she was drawing.
"So where are you from?" Olivia inquired.
"Ireland." Artemis answered sounding rather troubled. He had noticed the look Butler was giving him.
"Excuse me." Artemis whispered while standing. Olivia looked around the room and quickly spotted Butler and met his eyes,
"Butler what is troubling you?" Artemis inquired.
"Her bag is different," Butler said in a rush. Artemis weaved between the tables to Olivia.
"Your bag, is it the same one you had on the ground by you?"
"Yes of course. I reached beside me, put my sketch book and my penc-" Olivia gasped and they both craned their necks to see where she had been sitting, on the ground was her bag.
Olivia opened her bag throwing out her sketchbook pencil and after rummaging around for a moment franticly from the bottom pulled out a grey cube bleeping gently. "It's a bomb!" Artemis exclaimed remaining calm nonetheless.
"Can you disarm it?" Butler inquired quickly not wasting a moment for "Oh no's" or "Jiminy Crickets".
"Yes give me a moment"
"Is this a 'normal' day in your lives?" Olivia whispered to Butler.
"Hush Artemis needs to concentrate even though this is a simple bomb talking could distract him and I'm not quite keen on dying at 39." Butler responded quietly.
"Butler please, I need to concentrate," Artemis declared sounding rather frustrated.
They waited in silence for 10 minutes as Artemis worked furiously occasionally pausing to mutter something under his breath. Butler and Olivia didn't think he was exactly swearing since Artemis never bent so low as to have to use swear words since his vocabulary was large enough to accommodate enough words for him to choose from to express his emotions. "Done," Artemis stated sounding proud with a slight undertone of smugness. "I disarmed it."
"Artemis do you have any theories on why the bomb was planted or who planted it?" Butler questioned. Deciding that praise could be saved for later after he knew who wanted his charge dead.
"No, but if this individual knew me well enough to know that they wanted to assassinate me or at least go threw the trouble of employing someone to they would probably know of my intelligence and if they did why did they plant a bomb that is so easy do disarm."
"The bomb wasn't meant to kill you it was a warning," Olivia stated quietly as if not quite sure if she should voice her theory aloud.
"Yes, that's what I was thinking. How did you know? Are you accustom to situations like this?" Artemis looked surprised.
"Nope that's just basic logical reasoning." Olivia responded answering both questions in one short sentence that that because of the sounding slightly smug voice that she had used because her idea was overall accurate.
"Terrific just what I need on my hands another child prodigy except why me!!??" Butler mumbled under his breath quit unlike him but yet he deserved it he was always the one stuck in the middle of Artemis' schemes except for this time he wasn't sure that the bomb was part of it.
Chapter 2
In which Artemis makes a dinner date
Back at Fowl Manor
"Any theories on who planted the bomb?" Butler inquired almost timidly but it wasn't a wise decision to disturb Artemis when he was deep in thought.
"No not yet. I was thinking that maybe it would be for that in my spare time I have been doing some research on the copper scrolls but I don't know who would have any objection to that I haven't even done anything illegal, yet."
"Maybe those scrolls are more than they appear. But who would know that you where researching them?"
"I have lurked and joined in a few online discussions on them but I used a pseudonym."
"That girl at the restaurant was talking about the dead sea scrolls you know, funny coincidence." Artemis rummaged in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a scrap of paper with a phone number written on it in loopy cursive. Artemis punched the numbers into his mobile phone and waited for two rings before a girls voice came from the speaker.
"Hello?" She said sounding impassive.
"Hello, is this Olivia?"
"No the mushrooms got her I'm her sister."
"Okay could you tell the mushrooms to give her back I need to speak with her," Artemis had concluded that the best way to get the young girl to hand over the phone was to play along.
"Piper give me the phone, now!" Artemis heard Olivia's voice in the background.
"What ya think I'm gonna tell you boyfriend about that little incident when your nose swelled up the size of one of those base ball bat zucchinis mom grows!" Piper was obviously enjoying torturing her sister and was not going to give up the phone easily.
"That hurts you moron," Artemis was getting tired of listening to the sisters quarrel and was about to hang up when he heard a door slam and Olivia's voice, "Sorry about that my sister piper is well I don't think she's from this galaxy let alone this planet.. So what did you call about?"
"Before we get down to business what was that about zucchini?" Artemis asked sounding mildly amused.
"Nothing," Olivia answered sounding rather ticked off.
"Okay, okay so I need some information on the Dead Sea Scrolls especially the Copper Scroll. Can you come over here for dinner? I would rather not discuss this over the phone..."
"My mom is probably going to want to come in at first to make sure you're not crazy or anything..."
"That's fine, see you around 7?"
"Sure formal?"
"Nope"
"Coolio"
"Coolio?"
"My own crazy word."
"Oh, alright"
"Bye"
"G' Bye"
Chapter 3
In which Olivia answers questions which only leads to more..
The door bell rang at 7:00 as they had agreed, Artemis opened the door to Olivia dressed in tan cargo pants and a long celery colored sweater with large buttons up the front. Her hair was sopping wet and hung limply a bit less than half way down her back. She bobbed her head to music coming to the large grey head phones which she stuffed in her bag upon seeing Artemis.
"Piper broke my hair dryer," she said in response to the mildly surprised look on Artemis' face."
"I wasn't going to ask."
A girl was standing by the car in the driveway. She was shorter than Olivia and Artemis assumed that was Piper but then focused more intently on the girls features to see that at first glance she seemed like she could be Piper, her nose was similar to Olivia's so where her and eyes in shape, but now looking again he saw that this girls' features seemed almost elfin, she had warm hazel eyes and short auburn hair. Recognition flashed in Artemis' eyes Holly. Before Artemis could say or do anything she had flickered out of sight.
"Come inside Olivia Butler will show you to the dinning room and introduce you to every one I'll be there in a moment..." Artemis stuttered unlike himself. After all he hadn't seen Holly in months and she was here at Fowl Manor. Olivia looked at him questioningly before interning the house and waving at her mom in the car that it was okay and she could leave.
The door shut behind Olivia and her mom's car had speed of down the drive out of sight. Holly buzzed into sight beside Artemis. "Holly!" Artemis exclaimed. "Yeah that's right mud boy," Holly replied smiling slightly. "So who's that," Holly continued her smile growing. Artemis looked over his shoulder at the closed door.
"Oh thats Olivia," Artemis replied..
"And.." Holly urged him..
"She's here on vacation and I invited her over for dinner…" "Okay now enough small talk Holly, why are you here?" Artemis continued even though though her question hadn't quite been answered yet..
"I need to talk to you. Should I wait until you're done with dinner?" Holly looked slightly disgruntled.
"Sure that will work." Artemis made his way down the hallway into the kitchen where Olivia was sitting at the table watching Butler cook.
"Hey, what took you so long?" Olivia inquired looking up at him expectantly,
"Nothing" Artemis sat down next to her. She could tell he was thinking about something else. "I was wondering if you could tell me more about the copper scrolls I've done some research but I don't but I've mostly been led on a wild goose chase."
"Well, the copper scroll was found in 1953. Two copper rolls were discovered off by themselves in the back of a cave where some of the other Dead Sea scrolls where hidden. The style of writing was unusual, different from the other scrolls. The writing is supposedly a map leading to the treasure worth at least one billion dollars. Nobody knows if the treasure exists anymore or even existed in the first place. The copper scroll is currently on display at the Archaeological Museum in Amman, Jordan."
"Sounds like some crazy myth to me," Butler commented from the stove.
"That's what I thought when I first heard about it but from what information I did find most of the story is legitimate except for the one billion dollar treasure its closer to 2.5 billion."
"Dang, whomever finds that will be lucky," Olivia piped up.
Artemis didn't bring up the Dead Sea scrolls for the rest of the meal. Olivia talked about her mother and her younger sister, Piper.
Near the end of the meal Javian and Jeremy ran in slamming the door behind them.
"ARTEMIS ARTEMIS ARTEMIS!! He called me a moron and said it wasn't a skill I can walk and talk at the same time!" Javian shouted his bottom lip quivering.
"ARTEMIS HE STARTED IT HE CALLED ME AN INCOMPETENT IDIOT." Jeremy exclaimed.
"I thought I had it bad with Piper," Olivia muttered under her breath just laud enough that Artemis could hear.
"Javian your brother may not compare to you in intelligence but that's no reason to call him an incompetent idiot. Jeremy just ignore him." Artemis said coolly. They both turned and left.
"Well you dealt with that tactfully," Olivia stated raising one eyebrow.
"But they went away didn't they." Artemis retorted.
After dinner Olivia called her mother and informed her she should pick her up then. In 10 minutes they heard a honk from Olivia's mother's car.
"Well.. Uh, call me tomorrow if you have any more questions on the Dead Sea scrolls," Olivia informed Artemis. She hugged him briefly his arms hung limply at his sides.
"Uh bye." Olivia stated. She smiled slightly.
"Bye," Artemis replied.
After her car had disappeared out of sight Holly buzzed into sight.
"Well that was awkward," Holly laughed slightly as she said this.
"So why are you here?" "Not that I'm not glad to see you but I wasn't really expecting to see you." Artemis inquired.
"Foaly asked me to come talk to you about some of the research you have been doing about the Dead Sea scrolls." Artemis opened his mouth to protest that Foaly was still monitoring him but holly continued before he could start. "He received contact from a girl claiming she knew the location and the significance of the treasure. As you may guess this isn't any regular treasure, not that there's anything regular about treasure, but this treasure isn't human treasure but ancient fairy gold. Some human's got their hands on some gold being transported and thought it was sent to them from god. They then hid it away and left the copper scroll so one day one of their descendants could retrieve it. As you could easily guess it would be catastrophic if that gold fell into the wrong hands. We need to know so we can find it ASAP."
"That girl, Olivia she knows a lot about the treasure. That's why I invited her for dinner."
"Are you sure that's the only reason?" Holly interrupted. Artemis shot her a look that would reduce most other people to a sniveling heap.
"So how have you been?" Artemis inquired.
"Good, Vinyáya been doing well as a the new commander. Troubles such a sweet heart. We've been going out for 4 months now," Holly stopped looking at the expression, a cross between horror and interest.
"Well I have to go I'll talk to you tomorrow.." Holly stated and fizzled out of sight.
Chapter 4
In which Artemis learns of Scarlett Zelden and drags Juliet and Minerva out of a spa to go to Seattle
The phone rang phone rang twice before Artemis noticed it was ringing. He answered in a groggy voice.
"Hello?"
"Hi Artemis?" Hollies voice came across over the line.
"The email, it was from a girl named Scarlett Zelden, she's 15 and of course a genius."
"And?"
"She sent us another email and wants us to meet her in Seattle tomorrow at the play Romeo and Juliet tomorrow to talk to us about the copper scrolls,"
"Should Olivia come along?"
"If she can then yes and bring Juliet, Butler, and Minerva along too if possible."
"Okay."
"I'll meet you in Seattle at your hotel."
"See you then."
"Alright."
"Is trouble coming?"
"Should I bring him?"
"Sure, coolio bye."
"Coolio?"
"Olivia's word." Holly laughed slightly upon hearing this.
"We should go on a double date if we can find a restaurant which doesn't minding a couple of moody teenagers and some very short adults."
"Bye."
"Bye."
Artemis Laughed to himself after he hung up. He reached for the phone again and dialed Olivia's number. She picked up after the first ring.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?!" Olivia exclaimed.
"Yep."
"I know that we have just met but I'm going to Seattle and I was wondering if you could come?"
"Sure."
"What? You don't think it's weird since we just met?"
"No." Olivia paused. "My moms a police officer she polled a few strings and was able to do a background check on you. You don't think that's weird now?"
"Nope. I was wondering why your mother let you come over here without making such a fuss.."
"So I'll see you in a six hours?"
"Sure I can be at your house at noon, how long will we be gone?"
"Uh sorry I'm not really sure, 3-4 most likely."
"Olivia?"
"Yeah?"
"Bring a nice dress we're going to a play."
"Alright bye."
"Bye."
Artemis hung up and continued to call Juliet and Minerva. (They where both at a spa.) He called Butler up and informed him about the trip.
SIX HOURS LATER
Minerva and Juliet where already. Minerva tossed her blond ringlets over her shoulder chatting animatedly to Butler. The doorbell rang and Artemis opened it to Olivia, her hair was dry this time pulled into two braids. She was wearing a tight black t shirt and grey wash jeans. She was carrying a canvas duffle bag and her usual head phones hung around her neck. She stepped inside and smiled slightly,
"Hello, I'm Olivia."
"Olivia, this is Minerva and Juliet, they will be going with us to Seattle along with Butler but you already met him." Artemis gestured towards Minerva and Juliet in turn. Olivia looked of each of the blond girls in turn one, with strait hair looked older around 20 and the younger had curly hair and looked around her own age.
"Well get your bags we need to head for the airport, our flight leaves soon.." Butler stated grabbing Artemis' and his own bags. They headed out the door towards a waiting parked car. Butler did his usual bomb check and placed the bags in the back. They made their way towards the airport and boarded a plane, first class. Artemis sat by himself Juliet with Butler, Olivia and Minerva. Olivia talked with Minerva about a wide verity of things.
Chapter 5
Seattle
They reached the hotel all looking very tired. They checked in and took the elevator to the 30th floor. The building was very modern with large glass windows. The whole place looked like you could perform surgery on one of the coffee tables.
They finally arrived in the room. It had 360 degree view of Seattle and multiple plasma TVs, there where four bed rooms, three bathrooms, a full kitchen and a large living room with floor to sealing windows.
Once they had finally settled into their rooms, Olivia had a bedroom to herself, Artemis had the room next to hers. She changed into short pajama bottoms with ice cream cones. Olivia opened a large book and began to read. At around 2 in the morning she heard tying on a keyboard in the room in the next door.
Olivia got up and made her way over to the door, she knocked quietly on the door.
"Come in." Artemis' voice drifted in. Olivia opened the door, Artemis sat cross leg on his bed typing on a Mac Book Pro perched on his lap.
"Isn't it a little late to be up?" Olivia inquired.
"I could say the same thing to you." Artemis replied. " I've been doing more research on the Dead Sea scrolls but I really can't find much."
Olivia sat down on the bed with him reading over his shoulder to look at the screen.
Olivia broke the silence, "Did you know that some of the scrolls are being displayed here in Seattle?" Artemis' eyes lit up.
"It makes since now, Scarlett didn't want to meet us here for the play it was for the exhibit." Artemis muttered.
"Scarlett?" Olivia questioned.
"I got an email yesterday from a girl named Scarlett saying she wants to meet me in Seattle to talk about the Dead Sea Scrolls at Romeo and Juliet. I thought it would be good if you came along since you know so much about the Dead Sea scrolls." Artemis explained. Olivia looked slightly disappointed, "Not that it's nice to have you here," Artemis smiled.
They sat in silence as Olivia watched as Artemis typed madly on his computer. Eventually she fell asleep her head resting on the pillow next to him. Olivia woke up the next morning to find a blanket that wasn't there the night before. Artemis was snoring quietly next to her. She looked at the clock it read 1:25 PM. She decided that it was time to wake up since they were going to dinner at 5:30. Olivia shook him genially,
"Artemis wake up the sun is up the day has started." Olivia said shaking him a little harder.
"Inaminute," Artemis mumbled. Olivia shook him hard, "NoIdontwanttowakeup," Artemis continued to mutter into his pillow. She finally decided that it was time for desperate measures, she grabbed a few strands of his hair and pulled as hard as she could.
"OUCH!" He exclaimed sitting up. "Wait why are you here," he inquired.
"Sorry I fell asleep.."
"It's fine, well good morning. Did you have to pull my hair that hard?"
"Did you know you are a very heavy sleeper?" Olivia got up and opened the windows and continue out the door into the living room.
"Good morning, I was worried we were going to miss the play.." Minerva spoke from across the room where she sat curled in an armchair reading War and Peace. Juliet sat on the couch watching TLC. She proceeded to flop herself down on the couch next to Juliet.
"Oh I love this show!" Olivia exclaimed after watching the TV for around five minutes. They sat and watched the TV for around two hours before Minerva noted that they probably start getting ready for the play. They returned to their rooms, Olivia proceeded to put on a long grey dress. She decided to put her hair up into a careful bun with a few curls loose. She selected a pair of black 4 inch heals that killed her feet but looked lovely.
She heard a knock on her door, "Come on it's time to go," Juliet's voice came through the door.
Olivia entered the Living room to see Artemis and Butler both in black tuxedos. Minerva wore a red long silk dress. Her long blonde ringlets hung down her back. Juliet wore a olive green loose dress with a high empress waist.
"Shall we go," Butler stated.
"Sounds good," Juliet made her way out the door. They walked about two blocks to a very expensive looking restrant with a name in French she couldn't understand. They took their seats by the window and a man with a shaved head and grey mustache took their order. Olivia, Butler, and Juliet stayed away from the snails… The theater was only a short walk from the restraunt.
"Did you notice that this play is the only one in the series with an interpriter for the deaf?" Minerva stated and motioned towards a section in the front where many people sitting there where signing rapidly.
The show began and thy watched as Juliet and Butler declaired their love for each other. Nearing the end of the first act Olivia followed Juliet's eyes to the box across from them where a slender girl with long strait black hair her eyes where the color of tiger's eyes stone and her skin was the color of a chestnut. She wore a simple black silk dress with a black cashmere shall rapped around neck. Her eyes where focused on the translater below. Olivia soon realized that Juliet was not looking at the girl but a man sitting beside her. At first glace they looked very much alike except his hair was short and he wore square glasses.
Durring the intermission Juliet and Olivia mentioned the people in the opposite box from them. After the play the two people approached them from across the loby.
"Hello I'm Michael Zeldin this is my sister Scarlett, I also am her interpreter." Micheal stated shaking all of their hands.