Chapter One: Pyramids and Vials
France
The country of France has, since the beginning of its foundation, been a center of creative intellect and art. Paris overflows with old symbols and masterpieces. The very center of the city is the Eiffel Tower, a great symbol of French power and creativity.
It is in Paris that the four greatest art museums in the world rest. All sit exactly on the points of the compass; to the north, the Pompidou Center, which holds the Museum of Modern Art; to the west, Musée Jeu de Paume, to the south, Musée d'Orsay, and to the east, Musée du Louvre. None of the first three can hold the glory of the last. The Louvre holds a stock of 65,300 pieces of incredibly famous artwork, among these the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, Venus de Milo, The Wedding Feast at Cana, and Winged Victory. The entire building is horseshoe shaped and is three miles in perimeter. It is one of the most famous places in the entire world.
The perfect place, Artemis thought, for hidden fairy secrets.
Artemis Fowl II stood at the end of the Great Gallery, ignoring the masterpieces around him with difficulty. He'd seen the Louvre collection, of course - he prided himself on the fact that he had seen every one of its paintings. The floor of the Grand Gallery, with its various shades of brown, seemed to swirl around him, trying to entice him towards the paintings. That wasn't what he was here for, though. Artemis glanced up at his hulking bodyguard, Butler.
"You know what to do," he said simply, running his fingers over his watch face to activate the cameras he'd placed around the Gallery. Putting on a pair of dark sunglasses and shoving a pair of headphones into his ears, he slumped against the wall, the picture of teen boredom. In actuality, the glasses and earphones were not glasses and earphones at all. The "music player" in his pocket was recording everything that everyone said in the Gallery and sending it to a privet file in his own computer back at the Fowl Mansion. The sunglasses were based on fairy technology, also geared to his computer at home. He performed a series of blinks that opened the feeds from the cameras around the room - cameras so small that no one would ever be able to find them. He twitched his left eye, switching his view until he found what he was looking for.
Watching the man from across the Gallery, Artemis couldn't help but grin in the shadows. He watched the tall figure for some minutes while Butler slowly and quietly walked toward him. The Gallery was almost empty save for them; it was near closing time. A few lone scholars, a group of school children. Artemis grimaced. He didn't want children here right now. Leave, he thought frantically. They would ruin everything. There could be no one here to witness. He held off his order to Butler, watching the kids chasing each other around their guardian. Finally the frazzled woman had seen enough, and dragged them out of the hall, their high voices ringing off the walls as they complained. Artemis relaxed slightly and watched as the scholars left as well. Very soon he, Butler and the man were the only ones in the Gallery, and Artemis had the advantage.
"Now," he said softly, knowing that the tiny microphone suctioned below his jaw would convey the order to Butler instantly. The teen took off his glasses and tossed them into his backpack, along with the earphones. The jeans-and-t-shirt look had been a good surprise before, and it hadn't failed him this time. He left his bag in the corner. If things went wrong, he didn't really need it, and things shouldn't go wrong, anyways.
Butler already had the man whimpering in a corner by the time Artemis arrived, puffing after traveling almost the entire length of the Gallery. He gave Butler a nod, and the man stepped obediently away from the thin figure.
The man was tall and thin, with a hawk like nose and beady, water black eyes. His hair was a muted gray with black lines running through it, giving a hint at darker coloring in his earlier years. The skin around his eyes and mouth was folded and creased like old paper. Right now, he was leaning against the wall beside a Da Vinci, quivering slightly.
"Professor Alexander Hoffthern, I presume? Oh, come now, don't act surprised, Professor, you can hardly say that you didn't expect me sooner or later," Artemis chided lightly. "A man of your intellect and - how shall I phrase this - status cannot afford to be careless. No doubt you are aware that I have been tracking your movements for some time now. Three months, I believe? You're privet files have been most helpful, let me assure you." He gave the man a toothy smile. Hoffthern shrank back further against the wall.
"What do you want with me, Fowl?" he wailed pathetically. "I've got nothing you want!"
"Your files disagree. And yet, I am surprised that you have not made a solid conclusion. The information was extensive, the analysis disappointing. You made me do more work than I had expected. Perhaps I have overestimated your intelligence," he mused. "It is possible. I tend to forget how idiotic the general population can be."
"What are you talking about?" Hoffthern asked, his eyes flickering around for some kind of escape.
Artemis chuckled. "I'm sure you know, my good man. I came to deliver a message, actually." He turned serious, all playful bantering gone. "Do not continue this search, Hoffthern. It will not end well. No," he said, raising a hand at the man's fearful look, "I am not threatening you. Certain… others are very interested in this object as well. I have made it my personal job to keep it from them. Stay out of my way, and theirs. Understand?" The man nodded furiously. "Good. Take your leave, Professor."
The man jerked towards the exit to the Gallery and ran away as fast as his conveniently long legs would carry him. Artemis sighed.
"Well, that went well," he said, taking off his jacket to reveal a silk, tailor-made shirt underneath. He buttoned the cuffs neatly. "At least nothing exploded."
Butler smiled thinly. "If we're not dead or dying by the end of it, Artemis, I count it as a victory."
Artemis smiled up at his massive friend. "I must agree. We've had quite a few of those, have we not?" The smiled fell from his face as he looked out of the Gallery. "One last stop before we head back, old friend," he murmured. "There's something I must see to."
Butler shrugged, used to his charge's secretive mannerisms. "Whatever you say."
After retrieving his backpack, Artemis led the way back up to the entrance floor, namely to the Carrousel du Louvre, an underground shopping mall in the Louvre. The young protégé ordered his bodyguard to do what he did best - guard. Butler stood with his back turned away from Artemis, wanting to see what the boy was doing but unwilling to intrude if the mission was really so important.
Artemis watched Butler for a moment to make sure that he wouldn't turn around. He trusted his bodyguard like he trusted his own hand, but he wasn't willing to risk the situation. Everything depended on this object staying hidden.
Sweeping his hair back from his eyes, Artemis looked up at the massive La Pyramide Inversée. The lesser known of the two famous pyramids at the Louvre, it is a mirror image - literally - of La Pyramide, which is located outside of the Louvre in the courtyard. The Inverse Pyramid was build just like the Pyramid, but it descends into the ground rather than ascending above it. The tip comes to rest at 1.4 meters above the ground. In between the floor and the tip, the most looked over piece of art in the museum sits. It is a small stone pyramid, mirroring the tip of the Inverse Pyramid. It is about three feet high and made of simple tan colored stone. It was upon this that Artemis focused his attention.
Not taking his eyes off of the pyramid, Artemis reached into the back pocket of his jeans - cringe - and pulled out his cell phone. Using an application that he'd invented himself, Artemis scanned the pyramid and smiled slightly. It was just as he'd hoped. The pyramid was virtually nonexistent in the eyes of the machine - a simple void where there should have been some kind of reaction. The inside of the pyramid was most likely hollow, with a lead lining inside. Artemis tapped his chin with his index finger.
A while ago, while browsing Foaly's files (top secret files, of course), he'd come across a file marked "The Inverse Pyramid". Intrigued, Artemis had broken the codes protecting the file. They had been numerous and incredibly complex. It had taken him almost fifteen minutes to break through them all, the longest that he had ever worked on breaking any code. Usually they took him all of ten seconds. Foaly had obviously put all of his centaur mind power into creating that code. The intense security only prompted Artemis' curiosity.
Using the knowledge that he had gained from that file, Artemis pressed his right hand to the north facing side of the stone pyramid. Using his free hand, he took a silver rod, covered in Old Gnomish script, out of his backpack. The script glowed with blue fairy magic. He shivered as he felt the power of the ancient words written on the silver metal. He had created the rod using blueprints in Foaly's file. Using his own tools, he had taken absolutely pure silver, found in the fairy city of Atlantis, and carved ancient Gnomish words of power into it. The words themselves were derived from a time when the Gnomish speech was used by demon warlocks to cast spells. The power in the symbols still held, though no living soul on Earth knew how to pronounce the words anymore. Infinitely more complex than the modern Gnomish language, this ancient text was incredibly descriptive and hard to use. The lines and lines of text on the rod made only one sentence:
Open, and Reveal your Secrets
Artemis, keeping his right hand pressed firmly against the pyramid, drew the rod along the four sides of the pyramid. The lines glowed blue, like the script. Then, on the north face, Artemis carefully wrote out the same words that were written on the rod around his hand. The words stayed, glowing in the darkening light flittering through La Pyramide Inversée, floating slightly above the stone. Finished, Artemis pushed the rod in between the two pyramid's apexes. It latched onto the one above, and slowly the smaller pyramid's sides began to separate. They set down on the floor silently, and Artemis leaned into the square the pieces now surrounded.
A small diamond vial sat in the center of the square. Inside the vial, what looked like a black fire flickered and twisted. Artemis took this vial out, put it in his pocket, and closed the pyramid again.
He walked past Butler, his footsteps silent as the lights started to go out. "Come, Butler. Our work is finished here."
Butler wondered if Artemis had developed a twitch. The youth kept throwing wary glances out the back window, as if searching for something. It wasn't like Artemis Fowl to be nervous. Whatever he had done at the Louvre, it had him on edge. Not a thing easily done, Butler thought warily. When Artemis was nervous, everyone had a reason to be nervous.
Artemis was, in fact, looking for something. Or rather, making sure that nothing was there at all. He patted his pocket for the ninth time, making sure that the vile was still there and safe. He looked out the back window again and focused his eyes on one spot, watching for telltale waves in the air that would portray fairy presence. He found none, and forced himself to relax.
You took all necessary precautions, he reasoned. There is no one following you. No one even knows that you made this trip.
He meditated for the rest of the drive to the privet airport. His jet - the fastest he owned - was waiting on the runway. No one was at the airport; everyone had the day off, with a little prompting from Master Fowl. Butler prepped the plane and Artemis sat in the cockpit. Finally they were in the air, and Artemis began to really relax with the mission almost over.
The flight back to Fowl Manner was a little over an hour long, using the incredibly fast craft. Artemis ordered Butler to cool the plane down. Meanwhile, he went inside through the kitchen door, climbing the stair to his bedroom. Unobserved, he opened an invisible safe in the wall. The interior was lined with lead and there were four lock mechanisms, layered, on the inside. He opened these, again taking care to make sure that no fairies were hidden in the room, and slipped the vile out of his pocket and into the safe. He quickly closed it and the flopped into a chair.
It was done. The tiny black dot of energy contained in the vile was safe. No one knew he had it, and no one ever would.