2.
School was a great distraction.
The new semester started, and Holly got back into her normal routine with the ease of practice after the last two years. She got up, went for a run, went back home, showered, changed into her uniform and grabbed her bag, then went to the Academy for the remainder of the day for classes and training with the rest of the cadets her age. It was easy and mindless after a few years. All the training was good for her. It was a good way to release stress and control the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her at times.
Another few weeks passed. As she always had, Holly kept her grades up, passed everything with flying colors, and worked as hard as she could. It was even more important to her now with so many people constantly watching her. It wasn't really fair, but it just was, and she wasn't going to set herself up to fail in front of an audience.
One evening, she sat alone in her apartment, working. She had mountains of papers spread out around her on her little table, and she was curled up on the couch, Casper beside her with his big head in her lap while she worked. She hummed slightly as she wrote, lost in her work.
Casper lifted his head and growled, low in his throat. She glanced at him, frowning slightly. He seemed to do that every time someone walked by in the hallway. "Hush," she told him, but he ignored her, actually getting up and going over to the door.
Holly frowned. He didn't usually do that. Why would he-
Someone knocked.
Holly groaned, setting down her papers and getting up. Of it course it made sense because she hadn't had any actual visitors since her dad had dropped her off. He didn't growl when she came by, but he knew her footsteps. She forcefully pushed the dog away, cracking open the door.
"Oh." She pulled the door back at the sight of Trouble at the door. "Look, it's Trouble," she told him. Casper stopped when he saw who it was, his tail starting to beat against the floor.
Trouble chuckled, coming inside. She closed the door and went back to the couch. "This place is… efficient," he told her.
"It's all I need. I'm hardly ever here anyway." Holly picked up her papers again, tapping the pencil against her chin. "Why are you here, anyway? Shouldn't you be at work?"
"Not at this time. Besides, I'm still a Corporal. I don't get to do much." He shrugged. "This is when all the big stuff happens, so of course they don't need me."
"I see." She scratched the dog's head and stared at her sheet, trying to think of what to write next. "That doesn't answer why you're here."
"Because you need to get out." He sat on the arm of the couch, looking down at her and frowning. "What in the gods' names are you writing?"
"Essay on torture," Holly mumbled, staring at the paper as if not actually seeing it.
"Mhm." He took it from her, glanced over it, then threw it on the table. "Come on. Let's go out."
"No." She groaned. They'd had this conversation a hundred times as kids. Trouble, ever the social butterfly, loved to go to parties and such. Holly hated it, but she always seemed to get dragged along. "I don't want to."
"You know you want to."
"No, I don't."
"Fine. You know you need to, then." He stood up.
She couldn't argue with that one, but she tried still as he pulled her to her feet. She set her heels in the floor. "If I screamed right now, my dog would attack you," she told him.
Trouble glanced at the pup. He was still sitting by the door, watching him with interest. That eerie intelligence in his eyes was enough to convince him she was right. "Come on, Holly. Just dinner. I'm paying."
Holly huffed. "I'm in my pjs, Trouble. I'm comfy and working on homework. And I know you have real work to do, Corporal or no."
"Fine." He stepped away. "Then we'll go out tomorrow. It's Friday anyway. Then you'll have no homework and no excuses and we can celebrate your first month back."
Holly stuck her tongue out and sat down again. "What if I'm not dressed again?"
"Then you'll go out that way." He made a face back at her. She pouted, picking up her paper.
"Fine." She stopped, grabbing her pencil again. "What took you so long to show up, anyway?"
"Work. And I was hoping you'd changed your anti-social ways." He grinned at her.
"You know that's never going to happen."
"It was a long shot, but I had to try."
"Try all you want. Still don't want to party." Holly chewed her lip, looking at the paper. Casper climbed back up beside her, worming his big head under her arm.
Trouble chuckled. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yep. Night."
"Night." He left.
Holly went back to her work. There was too much to do to worry about what Trouble could possibly concoct by tomorrow night.
She finished her work for the night - all that she could stomach, anyway - and headed in for bed. When she went in and laid down, something crinkled underneath her pillow.
Holly sat up again, looking around carefully. Slowly, she lifted up the pillow and looked.
It was a note. She frowned, picking it up and setting the pillow back down. She skimmed over it quickly.
The more narrow escapes you have the less likely you are to make it through the next one. Your number is up, Short. Don't get cocky. You're being watched.
Heart thundering, she lowered the note. It didn't make any sense. It was short and vague, and it wasn't written in anyone's handing writing she'd recognized. No one she knew would have left her a note like this.
But it almost had to be someone she knew, didn't it? Who else would Casper have let in? Unless maybe they'd gotten in without him noticing, or locked him in a closet. There certainly wasn't any blood anywhere, so there'd been no confrontation.
She held up the paper for him to sniff. "Did you let someone in here, you big dummy?" she asked him quietly. He sniffed the paper and grumbled, then turned away. She took that as a no, crumbling the paper up and setting it on her stand.
Made more paranoid by the discovery, she got up, rechecking to make sure all the doors and windows were locked before climbing back into bed. It didn't make sense. What escapes could they be referring to? And telling her she was being watched? Of course she knew that.
She laid down slowly, the words swimming in her head even as she finally fell asleep.
oOoOoOoOoOo
Somewhere far away, on a different continent, Artemis Fowl the second was experiencing similar dilemmas.
By this time, it's been over two months since his escape from the LEP. He was living comfy, in hiding, under an assumed name. He'd made some serious money from his big scandal. It was sweet, on one hand, as his funds were easily replenished with enough to search for a few more years. But on the other, he'd hurt someone he cared about dearly to do it.
Holly. He'd been keeping tabs on her from afar, assuring her progress as she finally was able to get back into school and back to her normal life. He was happy she was better, and seemed to be functioning well.
But it couldn't last long.
The reason for this? His fault, of course.
Because just recently, he'd found all out his hard work had been in vain. His father was alive, locked up somewhere he could never find him himself. His only hope was the ransom demand that had shown up.
Why now? He had no idea. He didn't know who was behind it, either, or anything else about what was going on. He was going in blind. And the money - it was outrageous, but he could pay it. He hadn't received a method to do so yet, which meant he had time before they sent it and time before they expected it. If he could get some information, he could plan and raise some more funds.
What did this have to do with Holly? That much, nothing. The problem that involved Holly had just been brought to his attention today.
He'd been hearing things, from all over the place. He was still connected to the underworld through various contacts and people from it. People were pissed at him - he'd targeted that bank on purpose, though he'd thought no one had known that, and he'd siphoned some other, eviller, well known criminals out of some money. The bank he'd chosen was much like the casino Root had watched - known for being packed with criminals' false accounts full of blood money.
Now they wanted revenge. Which, on his own, he could handle. The problem was that they knew about Holly. And that meant she was in danger.
The how, who, and why were again unbeknownst to him. But that didn't matter now, nor did he really care whether she fought him or not.
When he told her he'd be back, he certainly hadn't meant so soon. But now he was out of choices. He had to go get her and hide her before something terrible happened to her. Worry about that first, then ransom later. He still had time on that, after all.
But it looked like Holly would be out of time if he didn't act soon.
The time to do something was now. And he intended to do it.