A/N: Here we go. Second chapter of Liberation.
--
Lieutenant Derek Sumal knocked on the office door of Erika Sekuma's office. "Come in." Sekuma replied. She looked up from the papers on her desk. "Ah, Derek. What can I do for you?"
Sumal gave her a look that made her think she should know why he was here. "You don't know?" He asked.
"No, what is going on?"
"You've been receiving death threats."
"Hasn't my approval rating risen to 80 percent or something?"
"Yes, but right now it's the other 20 percent I'm worried about."
"Okay, so my life has been threatened. That still doesn't really explain why you're here."
"I'm your bodyguard."
"I don't need a bodyguard. I'm more than capable of taking care of myself."
"Under normal circumstances I would not dispute that, but this is necessary."
"Why?"
"Because Kelp says it is, and around here we do what he says."
"So, do you know who is threatening me?" She dropped the argument about her security, for now.
"No, but we have an idea. What were you doing a century and a half ago, Erika?"
"I did a lot in the 1800s."
"It would be something that had been erased from your file."
"Frond," She hit the button on her phone, connecting herself to her assistant. "I need to see Commander Vinyaya, now. Tell her it's about Atlantis."
--
Lieutenant Kieth Droin walked down the hallway separating his office from Commander Kelp's. Droin was The Plaza's unofficial press secretary. Fifty years on the job and only one reporter could still annoy him on a daily basis. Rybeka Tusitala, a reporter who was far too good at her job. She had knack for finding classified information. "Corporal Calden," Droin called to his assistant, "If Rybeka calls I'm in a meeting and cannot be disturbed."
"Are you going to a meeting?" She asked.
Droin stopped and turned toward her. "No, I am going to my office."
"You're hiding from her?"
"No, I'm making sure I know everything about anything she could have to ask about and formulating a plan."
It still sounded a lot like hiding to Corporal Calden, but she didn't say anything about it.
Droin stepped into his office, closed the door behind him and turned around to find a female elf sitting at his desk.
"Frond, are you an idiot." Rybeka Tusitala said.
"Calden!" Droin yelled.
"Yes." Calden said opening the door. "Oh." She muttered after noticing Rybeka.
"She didn't know I was here Droin." Rybeka said.
"But she should." Droin replied.
"Drop it; I need to talk to you."
"It's nothing Calden, back to work. So what did you need to see me about?"
"I know the LEP have been covering something up, something that could very well put everyone under the earth's lives in danger."
"And what is it that we are allegedly covering up?"
"A radical group known as the Shikan."
"There's not much there to cover up. We don't know much about them. And what we do know I was going to release at the next briefing."
"I beg to differ. They've been around for hundreds of years and when anyone has contact with them it is erased from their file. Many of the council members have had dealings with them, Vinyaya and Sekuma, for a couple."
"And you have found this how?"
"I have my sources."
"You might want a new source; nothing has been erased from Sekuma's file."
"Because if it had been you would know about it." Rybeka finished for him. "You know as well as I you do not know everything that goes on in this Plaza, as much as you'd like to."
"So you're telling me this because you don't have enough to run a story and you want me to give you more." He guessed.
"No, I have enough to run, but I'm not one to take down the reputation of the LEP without so much as a comment from you. So, I came to ask if you wanted to comment."
"I don't."
"You sure about that? How about I give you the rest of the day. Talk to Kelp, Vinyaya, Sekuma, anyone you want, but comment or no comment I'm running it tomorrow. And, that is the kind of courtesy you have never extended me."
"I extend you courtesy all the time."
"Oh, when?"
"Right now, you're sitting in my chair."
"Hmm, you may have a point."
--
A banging came from the door of Josiah's office. He glanced over to the camera and said, "Alita, I've been expecting you. Come on in." He hit a button on his keyboard and the door slid open. "I assume you want to know about the Shikan."
"I do." Alita replied.
"Much of what we know Kelp has already told you. They want to take back the ancient homeland, Ireland. They hate the humans. View them as inferior and undeserving of the land above. Ever heard of the bombing of the civil rights headquarters in Atlantis close to 200 years ago, that was them. They normally just cause a lot of trouble for Recon and Retrieval because they almost alert the humans to our presence. We have never told the public about them. News that at anytime a war over the surface can erupt tends to freak people out."
"They've been dormant awhile haven't they?"
"Yes and the whole thing started in Atlantis."
"So that would be why I've never heard of them."
"Exactly."
--
Holly was sitting in a LEP shuttle headed up E1 to Tara, Ireland. She was headed up to the surface to tell Artemis Fowl about the Shikan. She had a direct channel to Trouble through what little of Foaly's system was still fully operational. "So, why is the Shikan suddenly on our radar?"
"A couple days ago a bomb was found in the basement of the Atlantis Civil Rights Headquarters. The commander out there has had dealings with the Shikan before and knew this was the kind of thing they did. He asked me to bring you in to monitor things on the surface because of your connections with Artemis Fowl."
"I see." Holly had about thirty minutes before she reached the surface. Artemis and Butler were already waiting for her. She opened a bottle of mineral water and settled in to wait.
--
Artemis Fowl II was standing outside Tara Shuttle Port. It was a couple hours before sunset on the night of a full moon, and as such, to him, the whole place looked like it was under water due to all the shielded fairies. The casual passerby, however, would see nothing out of the ordinary. You had to know what to look for to see a shielded fairy.
He glanced down at his watch. Holly would be here any minute. He just hoped they could find her in this mass. Finding her didn't prove to be as hard a problem as he thought; she unshielded right in front of him. "Hello Holly, nice to see you again." He said.
"You too, Artemis, Butler." She replied.
"So are you going to tell us what this is about?" Butler asked.
"Quite possibly, a war."
They were both surprised by this remark. The couple times war had almost broken out between fairies and humans they had been a pretty big factor in it. Butler was the first to get his thoughts in line; the prospect of war did not startle a bodyguard as much as a fifteen year old boy, even one as brilliant as Artemis. "War?" Butler asked.
"I'll fill you in on the way."
"To where?" Artemis asked.
"Fowl manner of course. There can't be a place on earth safer from fairies. Unless of course your family's home."
"No, they took Myles and Beckett on a trip. They insisted I stay behind so I didn't miss much school"
--
A/N: Chapter two down. Now, I have two more days of school, finals. I don't have to take Geography, Spanish, and Math. I wouldn't have to take English if my teacher rounded up, she annoys me. And I wouldn't have to take Religion if you know I actually turned in my homework. Health is going to annoy me though. Josh said it was the hardest test he had ever taken, and that's saying something. Moving on.
The reason I'm telling you all of this is because I wanted you to know, starting next Wednesday, I'm headed to Massachusetts this weekend, I will have more time to write.