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Chapter 4

"Fine by me kid," Estagio pointed the gun at Artemis and shot. The sound reverberated deafeningly, if Butler's reflexes hadn't been as good as they were, he would have died as Selena's first instinct was to cover her ears, he held her hand in place and when she came to her senses she ducked her head into his arm to avoid the echoes as the gun shot in the tiny space. He fired another shot right into the computer and with a sudden flash of blinding sparks, the interior went dark. A boot came out of nowhere and knocked the doctor on the head, making him drop the gun, Estagio looked to where it came from, Butler.

As injured as the man was he had still managed to get a shot in, and with no weapons - if the scientist had been anything of a fighter he would have respected that. As it was he cursed loudly, jumped down to retrieve the gun, once he found it he started to climb up the ladder as fast as he could. He had barely made it out halfway when a soft 'swish' sounded and the doors closed. "3,2,1..." There was a shifting as the entire sub was released by something unseen and sank below the sea even further.

The light grew dimmer in the murky water. "Artemis?" Selena called out. There was no reply and as Selena's eyes adjusted to the lighting she saw a form facing away from her on its side. She couldn't see any blood but then, he wasn't moving either. Butler was impossible to hold down now and refused to stay put. He crawled over to Artemis's form and turned it over, Selena barely keeping up.

Artemis opened his eyes as soon as he was moved and looked over at Butler "You shouldn't have moved." He sounded far away, his eyes barely focusing on them, then with a snap, he was back, his eyes their normal piercing-icy gaze. He sat up and took in his surroundings, he ran a hand through his hair. "Grazed." He showed blood on two fingers. "I have temporarily lost my hearing." he announced. Selena turned away from him and back to Butler who seemed drifting between consciousness, his eyes were the only giveaway that he wasn't completely there. Well that and he was lying on his back on a submarine floor.

A question nagged at her mind and she looked up at Artemis again, he had spared no time and was already at the computer. "Its down" He said loudly. He turned around and his eyes darted from Selena to Butler then back to her, shadows obscuring his face. He grabbed something, a first aid kit then came over.

"I finally found it in the fridge." He opened it, sterilizer, band-aids, he mused to himself the old saying 'a band-aid fixes everything' as he moved it all to the side, bandages, a lot of them, good. Something was thrown, a shirt from the scientists bag, it hit him harmlessly but got his attention.

"I have a question." She mouthed largely so he could see. He came and knelt beside her, looking at Butler. With the bandage he brought with him, he secured her hand in place to avoid movement and blocked the wound as best he could, which was as good as any doctor could have done in the same situation. She shook his shoulder with her free hand to gain his attention. "What is he?" She pointed down at Butler. She had never really bothered to ask why he lived in the Fowls' home, it had never really irked her curiosity but after he had saved her in the shed and now after getting attacked, well she was imagining him as an assassin or mercenary, someone along those lines, someone that killed for some sort of pleasure.

"He's a bodyguard, my bodyguard." She silently oh'd and nodded. "He doesn't have much time, I'd estimate an hour."

Artemis shook his head, her voice had echoed in his ears for a second when she had asked, as though he were underwater. "My hearing is coming back, I can almost hear you." She plugged his nose and ordered him to swallow, he did as ordered and his hearing came back in full.
"What about you, you studied brain surgery, what's a little artery surgery to that?" Selena asked now that he could hear.
"Who told you about the brain surgery?" He asked suspiciously.
"I went through your room when you were gone." She said nonchalantly with a shrug.
"What?" He couldn't believe she'd simply gone into his room, bypassed all the alarms-wait how had she bypassed all the alarms?
"Prioritize, is this really an issue right now?" She looked him straight in the eyes and waited but he didn't reply. "I know you can do the surgery."
"I may not have to if I can get the computer going." He got up and went to the computer. After an eternity which could have been only ten minutes he called out. "I can't get this going; he rigged it before we arrived."

"How do you know that?" Selena asked not taking her eyes off Butler. Her father had gone very pale and in the dim light it looked like his lips had turned gray or black. He hadn't come to consciousness for five minutes now and there was a light hum of shivering. Whether it was her or him she didn't know but it seemed to be everywhere she touched him.

"Because I would have noticed if he rigged it while I was here." He said snobbishly, at least in her eyes.
"You don't have to get rude, Butler's gotten worse." He sighed like a stressed man years ahead of himself and came over.
"Butler?" He knew he had to do the surgery himself if no help arrived soon, and everything had been sabotaged down to the air supply which read empty, so they only had the air they were breathing now, but he decided to keep that to himself. He calculated though that they had a good 6 hours.

He knew, in theory, how to do the surgery; even the best had a high risk rate including everything from losing your voice, to losing your mind to death. If there was any chance of death he wanted his friend's approval before going through with the surgery. "Butler I need you to wake up for a moment." It took a moment before Butler's eyes slowly opened and focused on him. "Help hasn't arrived yet and if you don't have the surgery soon you won't be able to, it'll be too late." He paused to lick his lips. "I know a little about the surgery, our choices are simple, I could try to do the surgery or we could wait and see if help gets here." He looked at his watch, then remembered it and all his other jewelery had been taken away by his father so that he would appear more 'childlike'. "You have about half an hour, if a little less before its too late for me to do the surgery." Butler tried to say something but they both missed it so finally he raised a hand and gave a thumbs up. It was decided.

Artemis nodded curtly and went back to the first aid kit, bandages, that was the first thing he needed. He searched for a knife but couldn't find one, found tweezers though, and sighed.

Ten minutes later he was set up, Selena had passed him a knife she had had hidden away somewhere and he had gathered everything he would need.
He was filling a needle full of tranquilizer from the fridge when they finally broke the silence.
"What was tranquilizer doing in the fridge?" She asked.
"The doctor studies the creature called the Megladon and theorized that if you managed to knock one out its natural buoyancy would bring it up to about 100 meters under the surface so that you could ultimately study it better." He injected the liquid into Butler's upper arm. "That was the theory anyway." He looked at her. "By chance, do you know what blood type you are?"
"Type O. Why?" He didn't say anything for a few moments. "Isn't a Megladon a shark? Like the biggest shark there is on record or something?"
"A perfect match, better then I thought." He said referring to the blood type.
"I'm not sure I can donate blood; I mean I want to, but I'm not sure I can. I'm on a lot of meds, will this screw anything up?"
"He will need blood." Was all he said to answer her. "We'll have to chance it." He paused. "What medications?" She didn't answer. "Are these medications for any diseases?" He decided that she was making up the medications in fear of needles.
"No, I don't have any diseases." She said.
"I'll need your blood later then."

Artemis took a deep breath and started, there was a lot he was missing, for one a face mask, but he would have to improvise, like he had already improvised the light that shone above them, allowing him to see clearly the damage for the first time. The wound looked bad, despite Selena's efforts at stopping the bleeding. Blood had run down Butler's chest and onto the floor in little red rivers. Butler was pale, paler than he had ever seen anybody, his skin almost looked translucent or even a tinge blue.

Right, his first task was to close the wound while at the same time, removing Selena's hand from the wound. The first finger came easily but with a sickening sound that turned them both green. A squirt of blood sprayed out and Selena doubled over in a gag, Artemis jumped back in a moment of panic. He'd killed him, Butler was dead because Artemis had made a mistake. 'No you idiot,' his mind said 'he's dying because of your mistake, big difference, dying can be fixed, dead can't'.

He came forward. "I'll need your blood now." She nearly laughed, they both did, though neither knew why. "I'll use that one." He took her arm that was still connected to Butler and for the first time in his life, drew blood. The system he had set up took exactly 3 minutes to make out of parts he found around the sub and that included sterilizing everything. He didn't have to design one, and that saved on time, instead he used a system he had studied from another genius years back. The system was simple, it drew blood from one end and sent it trough the other end, all he had to do was hook them up.
"You may want to lie down." She ignored him and looked out the glass wall.

Artemis started talking when he got back to work, for two reasons. One, he didn't want either of them to panic again and second because he needed to talk out the procedure. "There are three things in the neck that potentially kill people when their throats are cut." He said and paused on a particular hard part before continuing, the wound was still bleeding pretty hard. "So, he nicked the jugular which is actually the better choice if he had cut the carotid artery he'd have bled to death in under a minute, but if he had cut the trachea, he'd have suffocated long ago."

"Jugular, good. Got it. Now please avoid that nasty sound again." She said keeping her face away from him and looking out the glass wall. There wasn't much to see really but it beat the alternative. Artemis kept prattling on about the surgery until she realized that only three fingers were still attached to the big guy.
"Hey that was fast, only three fingers left." She said, cutting off whatever he had been talking about.
"Technically your thumb is-"
"Ya ya ya. Genius." She said cutting him off, her head was getting dizzy and fuzzy. She lowered her swarming head down and rested it on Butler's chest, it was hard to lie down and not change the position her hand was in but finally she managed it. She was watching the progress from a different angle and it really changed the entire surgery point of view, at least she thought so, her eyes drifted a little before alertness snapped them back open. "I'm getting groggy, has the wound stopped?" She looked back up, nope.

"Almost there." Artemis said, his forehead was damp with sweat but his eyes were focused, determined.
"So how long have you known Butler? Does he even have a first name?" Artemis wiped the sweat from his brow.
"I've known Butler since a few hours after I was born, its tradition, every Fowl gets a bodyguard from the Butler family the moment they become a Fowl."
"So you've known him a long time then?" She asked, her eyes closing.

"Yes. His first name, you'll have to ask him about it when he gets better." There was a silence then that clearly stated 'if he gets better'. She nodded sleepily. Artemis stopped what he was doing; he didn't want to kill the girl even to save his friend, after all. He unhooked her and let her rest.

Artemis tried to keep talking, even to himself but it seemed too awkward. His head hurt too, without thinking he brought a hand up to it, blood. Both Artemis and Butler were the same blood types by coincidence, he could have hooked himself up, but he was the doctor, and you could not think right if you were the one giving blood at the same time.

He finished removing Selena's hand from the wound and promptly decided to hook himself up until he got the wound under control. He sterilized the needle that was to go into his own arm, and put it in without hesitation, then he hooked Butler back up, using the other arm this time. His eyes crossed Butler's face as he did so and he was shocked by hat he saw, Butler looked sort of, dry and crumpled, to Artemis, he looked already dead. Every crease every muscle looked shrunk in somehow.

It took a moment for him to realize why he had stopped, he was done, and there was no more to do other then bandage the wound which should stop bleeding soon.

He did so slowly, his mind drifting as he wound the bandage around and around Butler's throat, then he applied pressure, just enough to stop the bleeding, and was pleased to see that it worked like a charm. Charm, he was losing it, he needed to take the needle out of his arm before he lost consciousness. Everything was swimming around him and the room got pitch dark suddenly, he decided instead, he would lay down and close his eyes, just for a moment, then he'd take it out. The rational side was yelling something but he blissfully ignored it.

Butler

Butler was vaguely aware of the two children around him, he could hear them talking but his mind only translated a few words to his brain. They discussed something about a shark, and blood types before all went dark, he heard some sort of dispute over Selena giving him her blood... he awoke seemingly a moment later to find both Artemis and Selena asleep, their heads rested against him and their bodies curled in from the cold. It was night time by appearances, Artemis had made a small light that hung above them and shed blue-white light down directly onto Butler's chest and their heads. Dry blood cracked as he flexed experimentally, neither children moved.

Although Butler was exhausted he couldn't seem to get back to rest, something was keeping him awake. He stretched, his arms going up above him as he checked the time. 'How strange,' thought Butler he was still attached to a tube that was giving him blood. His eyes trailed along the tube and... It was too dark to see much else, especially with a light blaring in his eyes and it hadn't occurred yet to ask from where the blood came from. From above came light once more as the ship moved on its way, so it wasn't night.

He could see better now and he saw the tube was coming out of Artemis's arm, he hurriedly took it out of Artemis, ignoring the part that was attached to himself. With two fingers he felt for a pulse, ignoring his exhaustion that had flooded into his every pore after he had discovered the problem. He couldn't feel past the pins and needles if there was a pulse, if there was it was faint, Artemis didn't look too well and wasn't waking up. He shook Selena awake hurriedly.

"Wake up!" his voice boomed out of him making her wince and him jump, that wasn't his voice. "Wake up." He tried to whisper, his voice rang out much louder then he intended and she turned her head away from the noise. "Selena." He tried, attempting to lower his voice, it didn't work, and it was still as loud as if he had shouted it out.
"Hmm...What?" She said sleepily, she moved out of his reach, he sat up, surprised at the effort the simple movement took. He tried to feel Artemis's pulse again but there was still nothing, so he turned Artemis over and checked to see if he was breathing, with his watch, seconds ticked by and no moment of fog on the lens.

He shook her and kept shaking her until she was sitting up, she leaned on one arm as she looked at him. Butler tried to tell her something. "No talk..." She rubbed her eyes and looked at Artemis. She leaned forward and felt for a pulse, the way Butler was currently doing. "Ok, I gotta be honest I have never done this before." He took her hand and non-to-gently shoved her fingers into the boy's neck. "I dunno, I guess so, yeah I feel something, very slow and hard to tell. I'm guessing it's not supposed to be like that?" He didn't say anything, and not just because he couldn't talk, as far as she knew.

"Selena." He said, she winced at the volume of his voice. "Why did Artemis, have to give me blood?" It made no sense that Artemis would both do the surgery and give blood, unless she was the wrong blood type. He suspected now though, that whatever she wanted from the family, she did not need him to continue. She was up to something, he just couldn't put his finger onto it just then.

"What?" She asked looking away from Artemis and up once more at Butler.

"Why didn't you give me blood? If we really are father-daughter why could you not just give me blood?" His voice sounded accusing and it wasn't exactly the volume.

"Because we're not close enough for that, thats why." Selena said angrily, may be later she'd tell him she did give blood but at that moment she was mad that he would sound so... as if it were expected of her to give her blood.

"Since I'm free now, meaning I'm not attached to 300 pounds of sinking muscle, I can go to the surface and get help, as soon as I find a way out..." She looked around, there was apparently only one door, and it was above them in the corner. "Ok, I'll swim out and get help." She looked at him as she pointed to the port. He took her arm, his face serious.
"Who are you?" She gasped as he yelled in her face, seemingly on purpose.
"You really want to bring this back up now?" She tried to pull out of his grasp but even in his weakened state he was stronger then her. "Look I can leave and get help and we can discuss this later. Its not like you can jump up and leave." She reasoned.
"How do I know you'll come back?" He demanded loudly, his voice boomed and echoed.
"Because I didn't leave when you got hurt or when that whack-job started firing on us or even when your throat did that disgusting sucking sound and I nearly threw up, that's how." She struggled out of his grasp and he finally let her go.

"I'm a champion swimmer, I can be out in the time it takes to open." She said, massaging the arm he had grabbed, it felt bruised now, and it was the same arm she had saved his life with, miserable life as it was. "We'll have help in a matter of minutes." He nodded once and she got to her feet and made her way to the door. She wasn't sure how the door opened or closed, it didn't look like the typical submarine door she had seen in movies but she went to the door to see if she could open it anyway. The door had a lightening bolt shape that locked the two sides together in an airtight manner. Being a powered door it was logical that the door would only open if the power was on, which it wasn't. She was about ready to give up there and try something else when something caught her eye.

Before then she had thought it was only her imagination that the floor was tilted but from the door, something was blocking it and a stream of water was trickling in and traveling across the roof and down the wall, there was a good puddle at the corner, steadily growing the whole time. It wasn't fast enough to cause any problems, in fact in all the time they had been down there it was only a few inches at its deepest point and only an estimated foot and a half long and wide across the floor.

She climbed up higher to get a good look at it, it looked like a strip of thin cloth, a shoe, it was the side of the scientists' shoe, it must have gotten caught as the door closed and he yanked his foot out, unless he was trapped on the other side which terrified her for a moment before she realized that was ridiculous. She dug her nails into the slit and pried with all her might. The door felt exhaustively heavy and as soon as it parted there was a strong torrent of water that tore her grasp away and sent her to the floor in a crash, water poured for a second drenching her then stopped.

She sat for a second to make sure it was all over before she got back up, she had injured her ankle in the fall, she didn't even notice until she stood back up. 'I need something to block the door...' She thought, her eyes found an office chair in the corner, she didn't ask why there was an un-anchored chair in the corner in such an expensive sub, she just grabbed it, and put it under one arm. She wrung out her hair, slightly redundantly but the less weight the better in her eyes, and climbed back up the ladder carefully. Her ankle throbbed and she only realized at the top that she had skinned her knee through her white tights. It was a bit bloody through the fabric but it didn't hurt, and even if it did, that wasn't her main worry.

"Hey, is Ireland known for its sharks?" She asked, getting ready for attempt number two. No answer, of course. She tried the door again, getting the door open a good half foot before she crammed the chair in and jumped through with the rushing air that exploded out. The chair barely did its job and she wasn't fully out before a snap sent the chair into pieces down and up with the rushing air and water current, closing the door again now around her waist.

She nearly let out her air as she felt she was being crushed alive, her hands flailed for a few seconds in shock and pain then found the doors and tried to pry them open. She reamed and pried but she could barely open them enough not to crush her to as she had felt she had used up all her strength, two powerful unseen hands held the doors open wide enough for her to escape. She pulled herself out and kicked off, letting the door seal properly this time. She wasted no time heading to the surface, the last of her air spent she was still pretty far.

Butler held Artemis cradled in his arms, protecting him as best he could, there was no surface to put the kid onto accept the lone chair which was busted up in pieces floating all around the room. The water had come up to a good three, almost four feet so although he was tired he couldn't very well put the unconscious boy down. The launch had occurred early, although the test launch was supposed to occur half an hour before they had launched, the official launch was not supposed to be for another half hour after they launched. The chairs were set to come in just minutes after their arrival, they sat, once installed, a good four feet above the ground. After some careful and deliberate searching he managed to find the seat of the chair, still relatively intact except for one leg that was missing and a large crack down the seat, the back was gone and smashed all around. Slowly and with deliberate effort he shifted to the broken seat, with little choice otherwise and sat to wait, hoping he had judged the girl right.