Aquaria Major is now in full swing. It's going to be one hell of a ride, I can tell you that. But the prologue was just a glimpse into the background of what is to come...

72 HOURS LATER

Holly felt like she hadn't slept for weeks. Not in a bad way, but it was Artemis' last day in Haven and she wanted to make it spectacular- after about 3 months away from his family, it was time he got back. At least, that was one of the reasons why her body felt like it was in limbo between having had 20 unfiltered coffees and pure exhaustion. The only problem was that she'd barely seen Artemis all morning; They were having breakfast at the moment, but in the couple of hours they'd been awake, Artemis had already received 2 phone calls and made another of his own. It wasn't too surprising then when his phone rang for a third time. Holly watched Artemis as he glanced down at the screen to look at the number. At first it looked as if he was going to ignore it, but then his expression changed. He grabbed the phone and ran off into the living room, mouthing 'Sorry' to Holly as he went. She took another bite of her toast and wondered what in Frond's name could be so important at 8 in the morning. She needed to be at work in an hour or so, so Holly got off the table and made her way into her room to change into her LEP uniform. As a part of stopping Flower Kevoor, a manic pixie who was intoxicated on a mixture of pure energy and revenge, her suspension had been lifted by Colonel Scar, and so for the past couple of months she had been back at Police Plaza, doing her duty as a Major in the Lower Elements Police. A lot can change in 2 months, however, and no change was bigger than the death of her commanding officer, Trouble Kelp. Nobody had been fully sure about how he had died until footage was recovered of him being hit in a 'drive by shooting'. Since then, Colonel Scar had taken over his position on a temporary basis until someone could be appointed permanently. Trouble may not have seen eye to eye with Artemis, at all, but he had still been a good commanding officer to her. In the month after his death, she'd spent most of it wishing the two of them had got along better. Artemis to his credit had accompanied her to Kelp's recycling ceremony. She just hoped she never had to do another one, she'd already lost too many friends.

Artemis almost hadn't accepted the call. He had devised a strict routine of only accepting calls from people in his contact list, lest one of his enemies ever get hold of his number. As this call was not a number that had been saved, he almost immediately rejected it, but then he remembered where he'd seen the number before. It wasn't in his contact list because he didn't want Holly to find it in there when she went through his phone, something she did regularly when she was bored.
"Opal" Artemis said flatly, answering the phone.
"So you did find my number after all!" Opal cackled. "I was almost worried you were going to ignore me and get on with your sickeningly sweet relationship and billionaire lifestyle."
"You know I think I liked your clone better, at least she was vaguely nice."
"Well that's the problem with a clone Artemis, they're never nearly as evil as you want them to be."
"What do you want Opal?" Artemis asked, getting bored of Opal and her mocking tone very quickly. "I know you didn't give me your number for a social call."
"Not that you'd know the meaning of social, mud boy" Opal shot back. "But you're correct, I'm not here to mock your inferiority. Not much, anyway."
"Yes, inferiority. Because I haven't foiled your plans for world domination at all in the past, have I?"
"You forget that I saved your precious girlfriend's life not too long ago, Artemis. I'd be careful what you say."
"I think you'll find that all you did was pull the trigger. I'm the one that lured out Kevoor, and I'm the one that brought Holly back to life."
"And you call me evil. I'm not the one playing god."
Artemis didn't reply. Soon enough, Opal took that as a cue to get on with it.
"You asked me why I called. The answer is simple- I want to cash in on my missed opportunity. Me and you, working together for once in our lives."
"And you think I'd be able to trust you if we worked together?" Artemis replied sarcastically.
"No, but you're going to have to decide whether it's worth the risk when I tell you what I have planned."
"I'm listening."

Holly could hear Artemis speaking in the other room. She couldn't make out what was being said, as much as she wanted to. For a brief moment she thought about using the mesmer on Arty and making him tell her, but she dismissed it with a smile, as entertaining as it would be. They had built up such a level of trust that Holly knew he would tell her eventually, whatever it was. That made what she was hiding even more difficult, but she had resolved with herself to tell Artemis before the end of the day, when he would be leaving Haven for a few months at least. If she left it that long, then there was the risk it could spiral out of control and destroy the both of them, so she had to tell him. She just wished he would stop getting so many damn phone calls so she could.

"3 months ago, a large natural event occurred in the reaches of the Earth's atmosphere. I don't need to tell you what that event was of course, because you're the one that predicted it was going to happen."
"Naturally" Artemis said under his breath, but Opal still heard it all the same. He was pretty sure that, if they were face to face, Opal would probably have shot him by now just to shut him up, and loved that he wound her up so much. She deserved it, amongst other, more suitable punishments.
"I'm going to ignore that. Again" Opal growled. "I am of course talking about the scientific wonder that was the Celestra crash. Whilst most of the asteroids were obliterated as everyone believed, there was one, rather large piece of Celestra-86 that survived the impact. That piece of rock is currently sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, approximately 500KM west of the Irish coastline. Of course, you mud men couldn't wait to see what wonders you could find locked inside that piece of space rock, so for the past 2 months a team of research scientists have been at the bottom of the ocean running every experimental test conceivable inside a station they decided to call Aquaria Major."
"How do you know all of this?" Artemis asked. "I very much doubt you're one of the research crew. Though given your description of them, I'm sure you'd fit right in."
"I like to keep myself informed when an event like this one occurs, just incase there's something there I can... profit from. And as it turns out, there is."
"I would have said that you mesmerised one of the crew into giving you information, but you lost those powers when you decided to change your anatomy. I wonder who was the unfortunate fairy that had to do it on your behalf was?"
"How I get my information is besides the point, Artemis" Opal said sharply. "What matters is what I know."
"Then tell me what you know."
"I know that the asteroid fragment contains a large volume of a very heavy metal, one that has yet to be discovered on this planet. Element 115."
"Element 115 has been discovered" Artemis countered. "It just hasn't been officially recognised yet. Besides, the most stable isotope of 115 has a half life of just 220ms."
"Valid points, but you're missing the bigger picture here Artemis. 115 may have been synthesised, but this is the first ever natural deposit to be found on the planet. And better yet, it is far more stable that anything created in a lab. Whilst they can only make isotopes up to 115-290, this deposit is made up entirely of 115-291. It is a completely new isotope."
"Impressive."
"Oh I'm just getting started. One of the many things the crew at Aquaria Major found out about this new metal was that it has a half-life of just over 8 and a half years, making it far more stable. However, when it does decay, it doesn't do any of the normal methods. No, 115-291 performs 3 simultaneous Alpha decays along with a single Beta decay."
"But the Beta-Triple-Alpha decay method is just a theory" Artemis said, and Opal laughed down the phone in response.
"Not anymore it isn't, and that method of decay releases a lot of energy. Now, think what you could do if that energy was harnessed and stored. You could power millions of settlements above and below ground and you could create fuel for the entire United States military fleet along with that of the LEP for a millennium and still have over half the deposit left."
"Or you could build a weapon."
"Exactly" Opal replied. "And I am more than certain that there will be groups both above and below the surface more than willing to embrace this new technology. We could make a fortune."
"There we go" Artemis said. "Now I know why you really called. Because you see this as a get rich quick scheme. What do you expect to do, just walk in and steal the metal from the lab?"
"Oh no, it's going to be far easier than that. They worked out the properties of this metal weeks ago, but I didn't call you back then. I called you now, because the entire crew of Aquaria Major have disappeared."
"Disappeared? Opal, don't mess with me or this conversation is over."
"I'm not messing with you Artemis. They're all unaccounted for, and that means we really can just walk in and take the samples."
Artemis sighed. "A few years ago, I would have agreed to this immediately. But this is not a scheme without consequences."
"Artemis Fowl the changed man" Opal mocked. "I can tell you've been mentally calculating how much money you could make from this. You don't even have to do anything after we engineer the weapon, just watch as the money rolls in."
"And leave you with enough radioactive material to create several WMDs? I would rethink your proposition if I were you Opal."
There was silence down the other end of the phone. Artemis stared out of Holly's living room window, and wondered whether Opal would actually reply at all.

Doing a deal with the devil herself, Artemis Fowl style. Well, not quite yet. But soon...