Foaly watched CNN, as he did every day. He thought it was important for him to know what's new in the human's territory. It was usually things like, "A new and dangerous epidemic spreads in India" or "dozens of storks died because of water pollution". Things the fairies could prevent with a little technology.
As the narrator on CNN started to say, "The president of the USA, Daniel Malone, arranged a press conference, to give, as he said, a message that will change the course of history."
'Nice', thought Foaly, 'Maybe they finally made world peace.'
"So we'll go to the press conference, live." Said the narrator, and there was Malone, standing on his podium, looking very excited. He opened his mouth and the reporters stopped talking immediately.
"Citizens," he said, "I would like to inform you… that the FBI had discovered the existence of fairies. Thanks to agent Maxwell Steven Benson, we managed to capture a real fairy… the fairy introduced itself as 'Corporal Grub Kelp', and refused to give us any information about its People, but we are sure that there are others."
The whole room was filled with the buzz of talking, and Foaly stood there for a couple of seconds, in total and complete awe. Malone started talking again.
"Unfortunately, Kelp was hostile and took Agent Benson hostage, so our forces had to neutralize him."
One of the reporters asked, "What do you mean by 'neutralize'?"
"We had to kill him," Malone said, "And we do have a couple of pictures, of Kelp's body."
The screen behind him showed Grub, staring upwards with an empty look.
The reporters started asking the president questions, and Foaly turned the TV off. He ran to Root's office as fast as he could. Trouble and Holly were in his office at the same time, and Trouble was just saying, "He's gone for too long and I think…"
Root looked at Foaly sarcastically. "What?"
"They pinged us..."
"What!" said Holly. "How?"
"Some Benson guy… he abducted Grub somehow… they just said it on the news… I don't know how they did it but he was killed, and his pictures will probably appear on every single newspaper around the world."
"They killed Grub?" said Trouble. After a couple of seconds he said, "They pinged us…"
"What do you think we should do?" asked Holly.
"Well," said Root, "I think we can't fix it. We can't reverse time. Let's face it, the whole world knows about us. So we'll have to make friends with them… maybe join the UN."
"With the Mudmen!" said Trouble, "Are you crazy?"
"It's not such a bad idea. Maybe we can help them fix the planet and maybe move aboveground again." Said Holly.
"Or maybe they can sell us to slavery, or to a circus, or worse!" said Trouble, "Humans don't get along with creatures that are different than they are. Not to say better."
"It's our only choice. If you can't beat them, join them. And we can't beat them." Said Foaly.
"Who says we have to fight them? We can just stay belowground."
"You know it won't work," Foaly said, "We'll have to go aboveground someday. And then it will probably get even worse."
"Fine… but how do you expect us to do that?"
"Maybe Artemis Fowl could help us."
