A/N: First of all thank you very much to those few who have reviewed so far (means a lot). Secondly, I plan to definitely upload once a week, but I'll try and make it more frequent when I can. This chapter is a little longer than the previous two and in general I'll try and write longer chapters in future. Enjoy :)
Chapter 3;
It didn't take long to reach the ritual site, at least not with the liberal attitude to speed restrictions that Artemis had insisted Butler adhere to. The human boy wore the same mask of detached calm that he always did, but Butler knew he was worried. Holly had been an enormous part of Artemis's life and the bodyguard wasn't sure whether his charge would recover if something happened to her.
Artemis, for his part, was simply choosing to ignore the possibility that Holly was in any real danger. He and Butler walked in apprehensive silence toward the ancient oak that supposedly stood alongside Holly Short, the manservant already with a silenced Sig Sauer pistol cradled in his enormous hands.
Time stopped when Artemis saw the oak. A single word slipped out of mouth, unbidden, in a hoarse whisper.
"Holly…"
Leaning against the tree (no, Artemis realised with horror, nailed to the tree) was a diminutive figure clad in an LEP uniform and covered with blood. A sign was hung around the neck with the words "We'll be in touch ;)" painted with a substance that was deep red and terrible.
Artemis was dimly aware of Butler saying something about a possible ambush, and Foaly shouting in his ear for an explanation as to what was going on, but none of that seemed to matter. He staggered forward. This couldn't be. He had to see the face because this simply wasn't possible. Holly couldn't die, not after everything they had been through, not alone in this god-forsaken bog.
As soon as he reached the grotesque display of savagery he tore the figure's helmet off. What he saw was most definitely not the face of Captain Short. He saw human features. A girl, perhaps nine or ten years old, a similar height to a fairy. She was dead, there was no doubt about that; it hadn't been pleasant either. Nothing bled that much after death.
A hand touched his shoulder lightly – Butler, he realised – and for the first time he tried to make sense of the words from his earpiece.
"For Frond's sake Fowl, what the hell is going on?"
Artemis tried to answer, but the words wouldn't come. Even his prestigious brain was overcome by the combination of relief at finding out Holly wasn't dead, and the utter revulsion at realising what had been done. That girl, that young, innocent girl, had died for nothing. Died so someone could send a twisted message. Died to scare Artemis. Brutally killed out of sheer malice. It was repugnant.
After throwing up a bit, Artemis finally managed to put together a sentence. "Holly isn't here but her uniform… they have her. And they killed a human girl to make it look like she was dead. There's a message – "We'll be in touch". No doubt someone has captured her and intends to issue the LEP with a set of demands."
Of course that wasn't strictly the whole message – Artemis had decided to leave out the little winky face. It was surreal, seeing the jovial emoticon along with the bloodied corpse of an innocent child; it was as though someone had taken great amusement in the whole thing and felt the need to communicate that to them. Deliberate, thought Artemis. This is all a horrific display of power. And ruthlessness. We are being told not to even consider trying to go up against whomever did this.
Artemis thought back to his own kidnapping of the elf in question – he had understood the need to send a strong message to his opponents. He had dispatched an entire retrieval team (well, Butler had) and he had carefully orchestrated events that would almost kill Commander Root. But as callous and ruthless as he had been at the time, it had never even crossed his mind to attempt something like this.
He was shaken from his thoughts by Commander Trouble Kelp's voice in his ear.
"Do you mean to tell me there is LEP equipment just lying around? Foaly – self-destruct all of Holly's gear-"
"No."
"Excuse me, Mud Boy? Since when do you give orders?" came the angry reply from the LEP commander.
"I said no." Artemis's voice had a kind of quiet authority to it that even Trouble Kelp couldn't ignore. "If you do that, the body will be destroyed. This girl's parents will never know what happened to their daughter. She will just be another missing person, another unsolved crime. Trust me, to have someone you care about simply disappear and not know what happened to them is not something anyone deserves."
"Very well, Fowl. Extricate the mud girl and send her to the police or whatever," Trouble muttered, not really sounding like he cared. "We'll put together a team to investigate the site tonight, see if we can turn up any clues."
"Guys this isn't right," Foaly began. "According to my data, Holly is still wearing that suit and she is absolutely fine. Which means-" He paused uncomfortably, clearly unhappy with what he was about to say "-someone compromised my system. Wirelessly. And left no trace. I'm guessing the brief gap in data transmission I mentioned yesterday was actually caused by this hack."
On any other day this would have captured Artemis's attention immediately. After all, he was aware of exactly how hard this would be to do having tried more than once himself. And investigating the source of the hack would be precisely his forte, a challenge he would normally have relished. But this was not any other day. Artemis Fowl looked much older than the slender age of fifteen. Overwhelmed by a sudden feeling of exhaustion, he took out the earpiece and began trudging back toward the Bentley. Butler followed at a respectful distance.
As impressive as Artemis's brain was, it had room for just one thought at that moment: they have Holly. They have her.
Holly woke to pain. Initially she was confused, but the shroud over her memory quickly lifted when she became aware that the ache originated from her thigh. Remembering the attack, she guessed from the fact that her leg wasn't in pieces that her remaining magic had been used to heal the wound. Judging by the pain, she hadn't had enough left to heal it totally.
Letting out an involuntary whimper, she twisted and tried to get a better understanding of her surroundings. She was alive, that was a surprise in itself, but her arms and legs were both bound. There wasn't enough light to see anything, but by feeling around she deduced she was trapped in a very tight space. Fighting the inevitable wave of panic from her claustrophobia, she placed a pointed ear to one of the surfaces and listened carefully. She wasn't able to make out much, but there was a sort of background noise – an engine maybe? So she was likely in a moving vehicle of some sort, possibly a car or truck, but she couldn't be sure.
Trapped and alone, her mind wandered, eventually arriving at an event three (or six, depending on how you count) years ago. Artemis had attacked and abducted her in a similar fashion, waiting for her to arrive to complete the ritual and then pouncing on her with sniper fire. She had awoken in a concrete cell, similarly drained of magic, and forced to face the terrifyingly cold boy that seemed at the time to be capable of any conceivable monstrosity. But he had changed – or more specifically, she had changed him. Somehow she doubted her new captors would be so malleable.
Her train of thought was interrupted by a sharp drop in the pit of her stomach. I'm on an aircraft of some sort, she realised. And it's about to land.
Without warning, one side of the crate she was in was thrust open, flooding the small space with blinding white light. Blinking furiously, Holly tried desperately to adapt to the sudden change, but before she could no anything a fist met her face, knocking her back against the wall. Struggling against strong hands, she thought she heard a voice cursing in Russian and felt a needle pierce her arm.
Then everything went black.
It was no surprise that sleep was not forthcoming for Artemis Fowl. He had retreated even deeper into his shell since his return from the horrifying scene of the ritual site, brooding. After tossing, turning, and thoroughly failing to keep his thoughts from dwelling on his missing friend, he decided to abandon the attempt at rest.
He wondered through the eerily silent corridors of Fowl Manor, eventually finding himself in the music room. Realising he had nothing better to do and that the act would probably be a good distraction, he sat down at the grand piano. The room was well sound-proofed and a good distance from everyone's rooms, so there was no danger of waking anyone else up.
He had only been playing for a few minutes, just starting to let the music take over his body, when he was interrupted.
"Arty? What are you doing here?" The voice belonged to his mother.
The boy paused, his hands hovering above the keys. He wasn't sure what to say, so he settled on the truth.
"I couldn't sleep, mother. And I could ask you a similar question."
Angeline ignored the latter part of her son's response. "Arty, what's wrong? And don't even think about trying to claim nothing is – I can tell when something is bothering you. You certainly haven't seemed yourself since you returned this morning."
A long-neglected part of Artemis yearned to simply tell his mother what had happened and retreat into her warm embrace. To abandon his façade and be told that everything would be alright. To be a child. But lying had always been so much easier.
"Honestly, mother. Nothing is wrong," he voice was even, with a hint of false exasperation, careful not to betray the truth. "I am merely a little preoccupied; my modifications to my ice cube are not proceeding quite as planned."
She surveyed him, looking into one of Holly's eyes. Try as Artemis might to hide it, the truth was written there for anyone to see.
"I'm guessing since last night was a full moon, and since you've only just returned from Haven, you met Holly last night." It wasn't a question. "Did you fight with her?"
Artemis glanced at the clock on the wall. It was a few minutes past midnight – about a minute after Foaly guessed that Holly was attacked, he thought. It was not a coincidence, then, that his fairy communicator chose that moment to ring. He may have been afraid of the news he was about to be given, but at that precise moment he was grateful of any excuse to avoid answering his mother's questions.
"Please mother, I believe this to be a call of vital importance. Could we perhaps discuss this tomorrow?" Or, preferably, never.
Angeline Fowl regarded the troubled teen for a long moment. She was aware that normally only Holly called him on his ring, and Artemis's reaction to the call was no doubt confirming her suspicions.
"It wouldn't hurt to call me "mum" sometimes, you know," she said as she turned to leave, her voice soft and tinged with sadness.
As soon as she was satisfied she was out of earshot, Artemis twisted his ring.
"Foaly, talk to me." His immense trepidation was deliberately absent from his tone.
"Took your time, eh Mud Boy?" came the centaur's predictably sardonic reply. "We got word from the kidnappers. They want gold or she dies. Badly. And they'll reveal the existence of The People."
"How much?"
Foaly's intake of breath was easily audible. "Ten."
"Ten what?"
"Tonnes."
Artemis exhaled. "That's a lot of gold."
"I know, obviously the LEP can't afford it, and we also can't let Holly die or The People to be revealed. So our only choice is to find her."
"How long do we have?" asked Artemis, his head already filled with a plethora of plans, options and calculations.
"The e-mail said they'll give us forty-eight hours to gather funds and then disclose a drop point." The response was matter of fact, but Artemis could sense Foaly's worry. Two days wasn't much time.
"Remember how you planned to beat me when I kidnapped Holly?"
"Don't remind me, Mud Boy," Foaly grumbled. He didn't like thinking about how the LEP was completely outplayed by a twelve-year-old human.
"I'm serious – think about it. It very nearly worked. It would have done if you had been dealing with anyone apart from myself. But you could only attempt it because you had the gold."
Foaly snorted. "Are you insane, Fowl? Ten tonnes. The council will never agree to it. You know how they are with gold. Forget it."
Artemis had already run the calculations in his head. "Ten tonnes of gold would be worth somewhere in the region of four-hundred-and-twenty million US dollars. I already have half a ton from… well you know what. I could never bring myself to spend any of it. And I was planning on spending my vast riches on saving the world, but I rather think Holly takes precedent."
Artemis distinctly heard a cackle through the communicator before Trouble Kelp began speaking.
"Artemis Fowl, spend gold on someone else? Forgive me if I'm dubious. Still…" Trouble and Holly were close friends and Artemis knew this wasn't easy for him either. "If you could put up the majority of the sum, we could add the last bit. We also have the half-ton she reclaimed from you, minus what Diggums stole, and I might be able to get the council to agree to a bit more. It would certainly make things a lot easier if we actually had something to negotiate with."
"My thoughts precisely, commander," said Artemis smoothly.
"As for the moment, Foaly I want you tracking that e-mail. Not that I imagine you'll have much luck considering how your tech was totally compromised yesterday without you even realising it," Kelp declared, seemingly unable to resist an opportunity tease Foaly, regardless of how serious the situation might be. "I need to inform the council of the situation, but before I go I'll have Major K'Azir begin preparing the LEP for a possible extraction – Artemis, I'd recommend you have Butler do the same. And put that big brain of yours to use."
"Done and done, commander... good luck," added the human in a rare gesture of camaraderie between himself and Trouble, who were normally at each other's throats.
A couple of hours and several adrenaline patches later, Artemis was no closer to having achieved anything than he had been when he had begun.
Now he was about to receive yet another call from Foaly and Trouble, and was fully expecting to offered precisely nothing the way of good news whatsoever. He would not be disappointed.
"Alright Fowl," Kelp's voice was tired. "Please tell me you have something."
"Not yet, I'm afraid."
"D'Arvit. Foaly's got nothing, not that he wants to admit it, my forensics team got nothing from the ritual site, and now the council has expressly forbidden me from collaborating with you. I get one call to tell you that and then nothing. In fact, a few people quite unsubtly implied you might be involved."
Artemis's eyes narrowed. "I trust you explained to them exactly how ridiculous that notion was?" the boy asked, his tone low and dangerous.
Foaly interjected before Kelp could retort. "Commander, whatever you may think of Artemis, that actually is insane. There's no way he'd ever do anything to hurt Holy."
Trouble laughed, but there was no humour in it. "God's help me, but I actually agree with you. For once Fowl might actually be innocent of something, and – although I probably shouldn't admit this – we might be able to use his help on this one. It doesn't matter though; the council has made up its mind."
Deciding that it probably wouldn't be helpful to point out that the LEP had "used his help" on numerous occasions and that without it Haven would have been destroyed several times over, Artemis simply nodded, an idea slowly forming in his mind.
"Foaly," he began. "Would your Retimager work on a dead person's eyes?"
Artemis was sure he heard the centaur crack his knuckles with glee. "Oh, that's good, Mud Boy. Very impressive. For a human. I've never actually tried it, but in theory it should work."
"It doesn't matter if it would work," interjected the LEP commander. "I'm guessing you want to try and find out who killed the girl, but in case you hadn't noticed we don't have the girl's eyes. And the council said they won't approve any surface missions until we know where Holly is."
"Perhaps you have forgotten to whom you are speaking. I thought we had established that I had certain talents for, shall we say, removing things from where they are supposed to be. Of course, the LEP could not work alongside someone like me, but if, hypothetically, an artifact of incredible significance to the investigation was to be safely deposited near a shuttle port and away from prying eyes, there would be a way to retrieve it?"
"I suppose there might be," replied Trouble, cottoning on.
Despite the dire circumstances, Artemis smiled. No more sitting around worrying, now he could actually do something.
A/N: Well that was a bit graphic wasn't it? Sorry. I hope no-one really thought Holly was dead. Don't worry, the rest of the story isn't going to be that brutal, but I wanted to have something like this early on for shock value, and also to demonstrate to the characters and the audience that the villain in this story really doesn't mess around. Anyway, please review!
