Artemis Fowl II was sitting at his desk talking to his best friend. Finally he asked a question which had been nagging him for a while.
"Have you heard of anything evil going on below ground?" Artemis asked Captain Holly Short.
Her face looked surprised before she answered. "Not that I know of. Why? Are you bored?" She teased.
Artemis tried to keep the disappointment from his face, I shouldn't want there to be a crisis. He thought, I should be happy that the world's safe.
Aloud he said, "You're right. I am bored. I need something to challenge my intellect. You are aware that we haven't had a crisis in almost 4 years right? And don't say you don't miss the action at all."
Holly laughed, her face smiling. "I knew it. You'd think you'd enjoy the rest, not having to save the world every five minutes..."
She was interrupted by a knock at Artemis's study door.
"Who is it?" He called.
"It's us Arty, we need to speak to you." Came the voice of his father, Artemis Fowl the First.
"Uh one minute." Artemis said.
He looked down at the fairy communicator in his hand. "I have to go now Holly. We can finish the conversation later. Good night."
"Good night Artemis." She said before she cut the connection.
"Come in." Artemis called, putting the communicator in a drawer.
"Did we hear talking in here, Arty?" Asked Angeline Fowl looking around the room.
Artemis's face went blank, "No, I didn't hear any talking, Mother." He said, knowing he'd feel guilty later at lying to her.
The couple sat down across from Artemis. "Artemis, we have some good news." His father said. Artemis was wary; his father's idea of good news was to get surprise tickets to a sports game. Something that did not make it to Artemis's top ten list of favorite things. Or even the top hundred.
"What is it, Father?" Artemis asked hesitantly.
"We have arranged for you and the twins to spend the summer at your cousin Jack's house."
Artemis paled. He detested his cousin, who always seemed so infantile to him, though to be fair Artemis was only one month older than Jack. Artemis's cousin was also a lady's man, trying to impress girls at every turn. Unfortunately all the girls loved him. As if that wasn't bad enough Jack Fowl had a fixation with practically every sport imaginable and always tried to get his cousin to play a game with him.
Artemis opened his mouth to protest when the twins came running in. Nicholas and Benjamin, the 5-year-old Fowl twins, were very energetic and loved anything to do with running. They had met Jack a year ago and had gotten along with him splendidly.
"Butler said that we're going to spend the summer with Jack!" They cried in unison. Artemis winced slightly, he still wasn't used to them and, despite being a genius, often had trouble telling the identical boys apart.
Artemis Sr. and Angeline smiled at their enthusiasm.
"When are we going?" Benjamin asked excitedly. No one ever called them by their nicknames, they'd only answer to Nicholas and Benjamin.
Angeline smiled at her son. "Tomorrow." She said.
The twins started shouting happily and Artemis almost groaned. Artemis finally found his voice. "Tomorrow?" He asked, "May I be excused from the trip and stay here?"
Artemis Sr. frowned, "No Arty, not this time. Don't worry Butler and Juliet will be going to."
With that he and Angeline herded the boys out the door. Artemis sat in his chair, numb with shock until Butler came in.
"You'd better start packing, Artemis, we'll leave early tomorrow morning."
Artemis looked up miserably, "You know I hate going to my cousin's house. Last time I went to Jack's house, I had to play three different sports in one day. And that was for a one-day visit. How will I survive the whole summer?"
Artemis rarely broke apart but being forced to be with his cousin for 3 whole months seemed almost unbearable.
Butler laughed a little, "I remember, but Jack will have the twins to play with. You could just stay in your room."
"It'll never be that simple." Artemis said before leaving the room.
Holly hung up her communicator looking puzzled.
Do I miss all the action in saving the world? She asked herself, I don't know, I never thought about it before. I guess I never thought about it because I do have some action at Section 8 every once in a while. If I was Artemis and had nothing to do, I guess I would be dead bored too.
She got up from her desk and went out the door.
Time to go home, eat something and go to sleep. She thought yawning.
She was so tired that she didn't hear a voice call her name. When the person tapped her shoulder she jumped and turned around quickly.
"D'Arvit Foaly! Don't do that! I almost had a heart attack." As her heart speed returned to normal she said irritably, "What do you want?"
Foalytutted, "Manners. I just wanted to get your opinion on some strange footage from E7."
Holly sighed. "Ok but then I'm going home, I've had a stressful week." She said, yawning.
She followed the centaur into the Ops Booth, closing the door behind her. She watched the computer screen. Nothing happened.
"What exactly am I supposed to be seeing here Foaly?" She asked impatiently.
"That's just it, nothing. The cameras malfunctioned."
Holly groaned. "You called me in here so I could see a glitch in your system?"
"But it's all the cameras and mikes in E7. Everything was working perfectly 2 hours ago, and now look. This is no accident, there is no way that every camera and mike would short out at once."
Holly thought hard. "Someone tampered with the system. Someone who knows exactly how many cameras and mikes there are and where they are." She frowned looking closely at the screen. "What's that?" she asked pointing to something.
"I don't know, probably interference." Foaly said, but he enlarged the shot anyway.
Both Holly and Foaly turned cold at what they saw.
"We need to call Artemis and tell him to come down here." Holly said urgently.
Foaly nodded. "We'll call him first thing in the morning, that mud boy doesn't like being woken up."
Holly nodded back, "Well I'm going home. I need to get some rest if we're going to have to save the world again."
She left the Ops Booth. A half hour later she snuggled down in her bed, trying not to think of the image in the Ops Booth. But no matter what she did, she couldn't block it out. The image had shown Ark Sool, former commander of the LEP, and several elves and pixies carrying crates of human weapons.
Artemis should be careful what he wishes for. She thought before drifting off to sleep.