Holly was utterly dumbstruck by the seemingly magical appearance of Artemis Fowl on the walls around her. Before she could even think about the situation, the apparition spoke:

"Good day to you, Commander. I have a favour to ask."

"He's hacked into our system!" Foaly yelped at her, then started pressing buttons and flipping switches. Nothing happened in response. Holly still did not speak, gazing at Fowl's huge face in front of her with a blank expression. She was more surprised than anything else.

"I apologise for these rather blunt tactics but time is of the essence in this situation. I need to ask for your help in something of great importance to me, and this was the only way that would ensure your speedy response." Foaly had not yet stopped his frantic attempts to purge Fowl from the system, and Holly doubted he had even heard what the Mud-man had said. She sighed and gathered herself.

"Fowl. Whilst it is true that you are not currently considered an enemy of the people, neither are you considered their friend, and acts of blatant hostility like this could lead to your current status being changed. Now get off my screen right now and I might consider listening to what you have to say at a time that is convenient to me." Holly had begun to develop that aura of anger and hostility that Root had been famous for, something which seemed to be common to LEP commanders.

"Commander Short," said Artemis, and Holly noted that he refrained from using her first name, probably out of consideration for her feelings. "Believe me when I say I would not have contacted you if it was not absolutely necessary. I would never have come to you if I did not need to. I want nothing more than to live my life, separate from the People."

His words hurt her slightly, and she felt as though his words were about more than just the matter he had come to discuss. "Why did you have to come back at all Artemis? We've left you alone for all this time. Why couldn't you just leave us alone?" It was unlike her to talk like this, but seeing Artemis again had shaken her.

"Holly, I-"

She cut him short. "The People do not do business with the Humans." With that she turned to leave. However the door would not open.

"I'm sorry about this Commander, but I need you to listen to me. I have taken full control of the entirety of the LEP's computer system. I don't want to have to force you, but I am perfectly capable of doing so should I need to." Holly's eyes narrowed, glaring at Fowl with his own crystal-blue eye. The anger helped her to quell her own feelings for Artemis, and the threat gave her something to fight against.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't choose to take this as an act of overt hostility. Which, let me inform you I am perfectly within my rights to do."

Artemis had to restrain himself from kneading his temples in frustration. He had foreseen that Holly would be difficult, but she seemed to have lost all vestiges of common sense.

"Trust me when I say it's not in your best interest to do so."

"Trust you!" Again her composure slipped. "I'll never do that again!"

"Well then, at least listen to what I have to say. What do you have to lose?"

Kamal was in an unusually good mood, which was mostly due to the conversation he had just had. Apparently the previous exchange point in Siberia had been dropped, due to the way in which Fowl had rescued his father, and a more secure location was being chosen. Which would mean no Arctic temperatures, no survival rations and, best of all, no radiation. Instead they would be taking the hostage to the Yamantau underground complex, a huge unfinished military base now abandoned since the end of the Cold War. Kamal didn't honestly care where the base was so long as he could be safe and warm.

Opal had, in the mean time, been plotting. Though shaken, she was keeping her resolve together by imagining what she could do to these people if she managed to escape and get out of harms way. She was confident that her husband could easily outwit her kidnappers and was probably already formulating a plan to rescue her, however all the genius in the world isn't much help when someone has a gun against your wife's head. So, she decided, she would need to escape. She hadn't really gotten much further than that, truth be told, but at least she now had a goal. And whilst Opal was more of a scientist than a strategist, having an IQ in the 200's means you don't really have much difficulty outsmarting the average criminal.

Now that she knew she had to escape, the next stage was to figure out not only a way of doing so, but a way to let Artemis know that she had escaped from harm's way. The second part would not be too difficult - whilst working on the prototypes for Butler, Opal had done extensive experimentation, even going so far as to give herself several implants. One of these was a communication implant that could give her access to his private mobile number, activated by speaking into the palm of the hand. A few of her other implants would perhaps give her an edge in trying to escape but she hadn't really designed any for combat. So, she reasoned, she would have to plan, and wait for her opportunity.

"This is beyond ironic..." Foaly couldn't resist chipping in from behind Holly, regretting it when she glared at him.

"Let me get this straight. You want us to help you rescue your wife?"

"Yes."

"And I assume you can understand why I have to refuse you?"

"Holly, please!"

"There's nothing I can do about this Fowl! Even if I wanted to help you rescue Koboi, which I can tell you right now I don't, do you really think that I could get support for this! This is completely different from the case with your father, that time it was as a last resort and you had something to offer us. This time you want us to help you rescue a criminal, a known enemy of the People, and you have given no reason for us to do so!"

"Fowl."

"What?"

"Her name isn't Koboi any more. It's Fowl. She's my wife Holly, and all I want is to have her back. I can offer you anything you want, gold if you want it."

"We're not mercenaries Fowl. In any case that's not the point. We only worked with you before because we needed help. You expect me to help you out of the goodness of my heart?"

Artemis smiled ruefully, and looked into her eyes. "Once you said that Artemis Fowl never did anything without wanting something in return. I like to think you taught me to do things out of the goodness of my heart. Is it so unreasonable to expect you to help me for the exact same reasons?"

You broke my heart a long time ago Artemis. The thought rose up from the back of her mind like a snake, and she squashed it down. Still his words hit a nerve. Truth be told, if Holly wanted to, she probably could get support from the council for a mission to help Artemis. There were plenty of Fairies who vocally defended Fowl's actions; younger, more liberal Fairies saw Artemis as a romantic figure, a noble savage in a brutal human world, a bright light for the human races future, as well as someone who had protected the People in the past. Even if there were none of this sort in the Council, many of them still believed Fowl to be a friend of the people, and Holly was generally seen by those who did not know her personally as a friend of Artemis Fowl. In fact very few people realised that his marrying Opal Koboi would have any effect on Holly. It was unthinkable.

Artemis sighed, and a look of deep regret passed over his face fleetingly. "I didn't want to have to do this Commander, believe me, and I know you will only think the worse of me, however..." he took a deep breath. "If you will not help me willingly then I am perfectly capable of blackmailing you. I have control of the LEP's computer, and the damage I could do would be terrible. You know that I would."

Holly's jaw set, but inside she was smiling, for two reasons. One, she now didn't have to make a difficult choice, and two, she could start to loathe Artemis again. And there's nothing like a healthy disgust for someone to crush those niggling feelings of self doubt.

Sorry for the gap in updates, I've been really busy. Also apologies for the lack of much happening in this chapter, but rest assured that it'll all start kicking off soon. As always R&R and any constructive criticism on the characters and characterisation in particular would be particularly welcome. Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me so far, and particularly to anyone who's left me feedback.