Holly Short was lying in bed, half-conscious. She pulled herself into a sitting position and turned to look at her alarm clock. She groaned. 6:30. The morning came too quickly.
Her mind slowly drifted, drifting back to yesterday's coffee break at the LEP office. As she remembered what happened, she started to giggle. She kept giggling, eventually cracking up.
Julius Root -Holly's commander, friend, and husband- walked into the room, yawning. He stopped when he saw Holly laughing. She must be up to something, because the last time she was laughing like this, it didn't end innocently. "What are you laughing about?" he asked.
Holly shook her head, but continued to crack up. She couldn't speak even if she wanted to. Not at this peak of hysteria.
"What?" asked Julius. "It's not like you haven't seen me yawn before."
It's not like she hadn't seen his new self, either, she thought to herself. Ever since the accident…she thought.
Julius had been in an accident involving Opal Koboi and her evil sister, Ruby Koboi. He and Holly had been on a mission, which was to rescue someone out of the flare chutes, but Julius had fallen in the chute himself, "thanks" to Opal and Ruby. He had been badly burned, and a team of warlocks had to come in to heal him. Except something went wrong. The healing had been maximized, and had healed him too much. He was still about 500 years old, but it made him look like he was about 150- tall and slim, with dark brown hair and golden-tan skin. He and Holly hadn't been too worried. It wasn't everyday that your looks were reduced by about 400 years. Although some people at work complained about this. Here they were, their rank being only a corporal, and the looked about 700 years old, while meanwhile, their commander looked 550 years younger than they did.
Julius' voice brought her back to reality. "Now, Holly, I am going to stand here until you tell me. And if I remember, we still have to get ready for work."
Holly walked over and kissed him. "Just thinking about yesterday's coffee break," she said, grinning.
He ruffled her hair playfully. "How could I forget that," he said, rolling his eyes.
During the coffee break, Corporal Frond had tried to ask the commander if he would come over to her house for dinner. This didn't surprise him and Holly, because a lot of the girls were hitting on Julius these days. Frond had used up all 15 minutes of their coffee break. It took her precisely 5 minutes to ask her question, 5 minutes for Julius to get the point across that he was already married, and he and Holly had spent the remaining 5 minutes laughing over it. Holly knew because she had counted the minutes.
Julius kissed her, and each left to get ready for work. 20 minutes later, when Holly walked into the kitchen, Julius was casually leaning against the counter and drinking a smoothie.
Holly liked their apartment. It was big, but not too big. The rooms were fairly large, due to something Holly and Julius called "personal space."
He handed her a smoothie, and walked over to the chair, grabbing both of their laptop bags. The laptops were Foaly's invention. He had taken a regular laptop, added all sorts of gadgets, and called it the Mobile 2000. Fortunately for them, Holly, Julius, Foaly, and Trouble Kelp had done a little persuasion, and had the better versions. Also called the Mobile 3000.
The left the apartment, and climbing in Holly's car, began the drive to work. Holly's car was a present from her mother, for her 100th birthday. It was a glossy black Corvette, and as usual, Foaly had added in all sorts of extras.
Root pulled out his laptop and began checking his flooded email inbox. Ah, the fun of being a commander.
"We're to meet Foaly when we get there for our new assignments…" Julius said.
Holly was looking forward to this assignment. Foaly had promised her and the commander that it would be a good one.
"Ah, no, not again!" Julius complained. "This has been the 3rd email this week!"
Holly leaned over to see what he was talking about. She sighed. Another message from Corporal Frond. Julius growled, hitting delete and closing the laptop.
As Holly pulled into the parking lot, she glanced at the clock. They were both 5 minutes early. This was one of the perks of being married to the commander. She was never in trouble for being late. Not like when she first came to the LEP.
They walked in the back entrance, pausing only to drop off their laptop bags at their office. Then the walked to Foaly's office.
Foaly stood up when they walked in. "I've been expecting you," he said.
He walked over to the door and closed it, not saying a word. Holly and Julius looked at each other. This must be pretty good.
"Sit," Foaly said. He handed them each a piece of paper, and walked over to the closet pulling out a silver case. Walking back to Holly and Julius, he opened the case. Inside laid two brand new, top of the line, Neutrino 7000's. Holly and Julius looked at each other again. This would most definitely be good.
"Now," said Foaly, leaning forward, "I have given you your new mission. It is top secret, and completely hush-hush." He paused.
"But this will not be by yourself entirely. You will have the help of 2 other people. You have worked with them before, so I am not worried. But you will need to contact one of them and explain the mission," he said.
"Who will we contact?" asked Holly, knowing what his answer would be.
Foaly's voice lowered even more. "Artemis Fowl," he said.