"Oh my.." Daniela's hands gripped the edge of the window as the car stopped in front of a lovely cafe. Artemis must not have been joking about the cheesecake offer. "What on earth are we doing here?" Her voice caught a soprano lilt.

"I have to meet with a friend of mine about business..." Artemis winced as he emerged from the car. He detested the usage of that word. Friend was only something that could be earned, and so far, Mr. Valentine had not earned it.

"Ah, Artemis Fowl, I've been expecting you!" A high pitched voice cawed a few meters away from the two companions. The voice in question belonged to a rather gangly and tan gentleman. He seemed less than happy in his giant green jacket, matching woven hat, and two scarves. He held a cigarette in between two fingers, and allowed a puff of smoke to escape his thin lips. To the untrained eye, he seemed quite harmless.

"Hello, Mr. Valentine." Artemis kept a healthy distance from his welcome.

"And who might this young lady be?" Valentine's eyes, unamused with Artemis' lack luster reaction, found the girl next to him.

"This is Daniela, one of the ones I was telling you about."

"This is? She's so pretty! It's a pleasure to meet you, mademoiselle." Valentine reached out to kiss her handcuffed hand.

"Thanks." She smiled. It was a knee jerk reaction.

"Hello, Caldwall." Butler boomed from next to the car, causing both Valentine and Daniela to jump. The tall Eurasian eyed the gawking man. "I trust you will remember yourself around mixed company."

"Butler, could you kindly take Miss Sanchez for a bite of dessert?" Artemis directed. Butler pursed his lips slightly, but did not protest his direct order.

"Come, Lila. Let us get those cuffs off of you." He walked over to the girl to guide her by the shoulder. She stumbled slightly under the pressure of his hand, but continued to walk none the less. "I'll give you five minutes alone." He looked at Valentine. That man oozed of insincerity. "Five minutes and that is all."

"What's going on with them?" Daniela looked up at the sturdy man. She looked around, but there was no one on the corner.

"It's only business you see, nothing to concern the two of us." He smiled down at her as he reached for the key to remove the handcuffs.

"So, how long have you and Artemis known..." She stopped, catching her breath. A man caught her eye. A man that she was sure had not been there before. A man that leaned against a lamp post just yards away.

It was as if he materialized out of thin air.

A nagging buzz filled her ears. She threw her hands onto them to silence the noise. Where had she seen him before? Her heart began to pound all the faster. She shut her eyes, voices were singing in the back of her mind, singing a haunting and menacing tune.

"What's wrong?" Butler grabbed her by the shoulders.

"What's happening to me?" She moaned. "Please make him stop."

"Nobody is around."

"He's right there..." Her eyes opened suddenly.

"We had better get you back into the car..." Butler spoke softly.

"No, No he is right over there how can you not see him?" Her voice rose in pitch and frustration.

"Come Lila," He began but she sharply pulled away. She, unfortunately, did not have a plan formulated beyond that.

"No, you don't understand. It's not safe there!" Daniela could not control the flow of words. If she tried to run, what would Butler do, shoot her? If he hadn't done that by now he probably would never do it. It was a chance she was just about willing to take. Quickly, she made a bolt in the opposite direction, barely slipping between the body guard's fingers. There was no time for thinking. There was not time for seeing.

Run.

That was all she could do. Run. Run away and never look back.

Butler shouted something from behind her, he was gaining quickly. She blocked out all noise except for her own breathing, the pounding of her heart, and boots as they hit the rough ground. The blood was pumping wildly in her ears as she tried to force it away. Butler couldn't see it, how can he not it was standing right there!

Think! Think, you have to think, A local restaurant caught her eye; it would not be long before Butler caught up to her. Daniela skidded to a complete stop, and threw herself inside the back entrance.

"Please help!" She put her hands over her heart. They stared at her and then at her hand cuffs. With mouths agape, they left the room.

Daniela was small, small enough to fit into the cabinet. As quietly as possible, she chose the bottom one, crept inside, and hugged her knees to her chest.

The musty smell filled the room and she tried to stifle a cough. The sound of the opening door caught her attention. She put a hand to her mouth as tears filled the corners of her eyes.

"Hello," The dark voice whispered, "I know you are in here, don't hide from me. You can't hide from me. We are linked, my dear." The silhouette of a dark figure threw some pans against the wall in fury. "Do you know how long I have been waiting to finish what I started? Come out now!" A knife flew into another wall.

Daniela kept silent though the footsteps crept closer. The door slowly opened. She was face to face with the blonde man.

He looked at her, and whilst exposing his perfectly white teeth. "Time to go," His voice echoed.

"No!" she kicked him in the face. He doubled over as she made another run for it.

"Get back here you little bitch!" He screamed. This was all too familiar.
.

Artemis Fowl sat at the small coffee table. He had tried his hardest to mask the pure annoyance he had gathered towards Mr. Valentine, who had already wasted just enough time flirting with the pretty Irish waitress. Every second in this smoke filled cafe caused Artemis to cough, and should his Armani suit be tarnished because of that, Mr. Valentine would be the recipient of a large bill.

"Now where were we, my boy?" Valentine took a giant sip of his drink after the pretty waitress was out of sight. Only when there were no more cute girls to flirt with would he pay attention to the task at hand.

"You tell me, Mr. Valentine." Artemis's humor was withering as Valentine lit up another cigarette; he had no business to play games with this man.

"Eh, the big guy." The American man whispered between sips of his intoxicating drink, "Where did he go?"

"I can assure you, he will not be meeting with us right now." Artemis clasped his hands on the table impatiently.

"Ha, so I see. Want one?" The man gestured towards the cigarette.

"I have no need; however, I do have a need for the information we are supposed to be discussing. If you do not want your payments I will understand, yet if I find that you are simply playing with me, well, things will not end well for you."

Valentine stopped in mid smoke. The boy meant business. Slowly his lips curled into a smirk, this was what he had been waiting for.

"That girl that you brought with you, you said they tried to take her."

"Yes, that I did."

"But you don't have proof."

"That is also correct."

"You know as well as I do, if you lose this one, then you've dug your own grave and there is nothing I can do to help you. You or your father, whom I respect more than anything."

"I am well aware of the risks." Artemis could feel a headache forming in his frontal lobe.

Valentine put out his cigarette in his ashtray. "I can't believe it. I never do house calls. What is the world coming too?"

"I would hardly call this a house call."

"Ha, a sense of humor, I like that. Now, back to the dead girls." He waved for the waitress to bring him another drink. "Something I noticed, when I got to take a look at 'em, their DNA had changed a bit. Now, I know that sounds crazy but I'm asking you to let go of what you know. I'm thinking this might be the work of aliens or fairies or something. I know that sounds crazy, but believe me I've looked at every possible explanation and there is nothing else that would make sense...scientifically speaking anyways." He leaned in closely to the Irish youth, so close that Artemis could smell the alcohol and smoke on Valentine's breath.

"Now, Mr. Valentine I may be young but please do not insult my intelligence, who would believe in something like that?" Artemis suppressed a smirk.

"I would do no such thing!" Valentine protested. "Their DNA, it was different, whatever changed their DNA, was what killed them, but boy, you don't give a guy anytime to do proper research."

"My good man," Artemis tutted, "I believe somebody has been watching too much Star Trek."

"Artemis, if you don't believe me, then why didn't you take that tootsie of yours to the hospital when you found her?"

"Excuse me?"

"You couldn't! You knew that would raise questions didn't you? Didn't you? You couldn't because she is already changing! I could tell when I met her, she smelled like they did. Those...inhuman things." The man was beside himself with excitement. Artemis was ready with a response, but was cut off by a deep voice in his ear piece that broke his concentration.

"What did you say?"

"She ran off, I'm in pursuit." Butler sounded out of breath.

"What happened, Butler?"

"She said she saw something, but there was nothing there. She's delusional. Artemis, do not worry. I will find her."

"She ran off didn't she?" Valentine had no shame in laughing. "Tell me Artemis, do you remember the first girl they found?"

Artemis was silent. He remembered all too well.

"Oh I'm sure you do. She wasn't dead...not yet anyway. No, she lived for only a few more minutes after they found her. Do you remember what she was saying? I could be wrong, but she did seem delusional didn't she?"

For a second time, Artemis said nothing. Valentine's voice haunted him.

"Let me refresh your memory. She said she was being chased. She said the 'creature' of some sort was standing over her. Funny thing was; there wasn't anything there now was there? Sounds like your little tootsie doesn't it? Admit it Fowl, I'm right."

Artemis let the words take hold of him for a moment; suddenly he became very aware of the sweat on his brow. He closed his eyes in attempts to assess the situation, yet to his utter dismay and shock, he thought of nothing. But he had removed most of the poison from this unknown creature had he not? At least, he thought he had gotten the poison out. He had sent samples of it to Foaly for examination. The results had no match to any magical creature, leaving both Artemis and Foaly completely dumbfounded. That never happened. Never.

"I have to go," He finally whispered. He then turned his attention to the voice in the ear piece. "Butler, where are you?"

"I'm close, just North of you. She won't get much further."

"I'll be right there."

"Wait, where did you say you were going?" Valentine barked as Artemis turned on his heels. "You are nothing like your father!" Seeing as insults got him nowhere, Valentine followed. He would not be left empty handed

Artemis grabbed his knees gasping for breath. He was not used to physical exercise especially of this caliber. How was Butler able to move so quickly? At his size it did not make sense scientifically, but he would not question that at this particular second.

"What kind of game are you playing at boy?" Valentine was right behind him. "You can't leave a man without paying!"

"Butler!" Artemis ignored the American man. Butler casually walked around the corner of the restaurant with the girl hogtied over his shoulder. So much for not causing a scene; he had to explain to spectators that she had escaped from the insane asylum while he had tied her up.

The lack of straightjackets was alarming, the government just did not know where to donate its money. Luckily for the spectators, she was able to be tied with great ease. They were a lucky bunch.

People would believe anything these days, but her already handcuffed hands, and protesting about some creature certainly helped the charade. They even applauded Butler's heroic actions.

"Let me go! He's coming for me! Please believe me, I saw him!" She was hysterical.

"Artemis, Valentine," Butler nodded to the two, seemingly unaffected by Daniela's screams. Artemis could see that through his masked emotions, the manservant was irritated.

"Unbelievable!" Valentine walked around to look the delusional girl square in the eyes. He was like a child in a candy shop. "It's amazing really; she's completely insane now, but before she seemed fine...to the untrained eye that is. She didn't get by me though, you both are my witnesses! See Artemis, what did I tell you? Oh, please do inform me the moment she expires! I would love to take a good look at her."

"Let-me-go-let-me-go-let-me-go-" She continued screaming, tears streaming down her face.

"That will be enough Mr. Valentine," Artemis said after fully catching his breath. "Butler, if you could be so kind as to put her back in the car."

"Not without you," Butler growled looking at Valentine who was now proceeding to stretch the girl's eyelids as if she were already on the slab.

"Very well," Artemis did not care to protest this time.

"Shut her up!" Artemis's knuckles where white from clutching his ear piece. He could no longer listen to her screams. Her screams meant failure, and that was something that he would not soon take a liking too.

Butler took out his syringe poised to prick the hysterical girl.

"Or rather...don't" He waved his hand absentmindedly, that wouldn't cure anything. Artemis needed to think and that was that. Valentine was the best Pathologist known to the states, and as an ally to the Fowl name he wouldn't lie to the boy. Now it looked like Daniela would be next to die according to Mr. Valentine. They had nothing more to go on besides how perfectly Artemis was being set up. How on earth could this possibly happen? The teenager closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Artemis, are you there?" The voice belonged to Foaly communicating via earpiece.

"Yes of course I am. Foaly, you had better give me some good news."

"Actually, I just might have some."

"Continue," The boy's eyes shot open. He was all ears.

"Alrighty- then your royal highness," The centaur snorted "Well as you know, the computers showed no match to the DNA you sent to me, which obviously makes no sense if you should ask me, but judging by the events taking place with the missing girls, I may have found a better pattern. You see, nothing like this has happened since the eighteenth century, and even then they blamed the strange discoloration of the victims on witches ala Wicked Witch of the West. You know, because she's green?"

"So you think this is the doing of a witch?"

"Artemis, come now we are not in second grade." How rude of the ignorant mud boy to cut him off. "I continued my research looking through many books, you wouldn't believe my sleepless nights, but I think I have come across something that would fit our delicate situation."

"And that would be?"

"Djinni"

"A genie, as in three wishes genie."

"Don't insult my intelligence!" The four legged man huffed, "Not at all, a Djinni is a demonic soul that has been imprisoned by higher powers; they can only enter our world when unleashed by a creature of our world. Even then it is incredibly hard for them to sustain life, so they must live off of others, preferably youth. The young are easily influenced and thus easier to corrupt. The Djinni calls to them, becomes like a drug to them and before you know it you've got the ultimate form of Stockholm syndrome. That is, until the Djinni offs 'em and from the looks of this, it won't quit until it does."

Artemis was silent. He looked over at Daniela, her tousled chocolate hair, her eyes red from crying. She was living on borrowed time. If Foaly was correct, then the Djinni would 'off' her like he did the rest of the girls once he got his fill of her life. Suddenly, she did not seem like such a pebble in a shoe. He felt guilty.

"Is there any way to reverse this process?"

"Well, no, not that I know of yet...but the further you get her away from the Djinni the more time she should have."

"Is there any way to kill it?"

"Well thats the thing...no one ever has killed it. There are no records, anyways. You can, however, send it back to its realm. But that of course takes incantations and voodoo magic...and chalk. Don't ask me."

"Please send me all of the information you have. It will be greatly appreciated. Now, on to the messages," Artemis breathed, referring to each girl's mouth.

"Ah yes, most morbid..." Artemis could hear Foaly's quiet breathing on the other end of the ear piece. All traces of his sarcasm left with his silence. "Somebody planned this out perfectly didn't they?"

"It would appear so..." Artemis paused, and reluctantly allowed the young woman's sobs to fill his ears.