I haven't had a particularly fun week for a variety of reasons, but one good thing to come out of it is that I broke 500 visitors for June. Yippee. Anyway, enjoy the reveal of the big bad, and all the other wonderful stuff that comes after it.

The mystery man ordered Holly and Artemis to turn around. When she did, Holly finally got to see the people responsible. There were 3 of them on the balcony: The first, who looked like he was in charge, was a tall man of possibly Latin descent, with tanned skin and short black hair. He wore a dark blue suit, though it was nowhere near as smart as the one Artemis had on. His hands sported several gold rings, and he had at least 1 gold tooth. The two people flanking him were certainly bodyguards, almost mini Butlers. Almost, in the sense that they were nowhere near as intimidating, despite the handguns they had trained on the 2 captives. Holly quickly hid her Neutrino 3000 in her waistband so it wouldn't be seen.
"Eduardo Ortega" The man introduced himself, flashing a mock smile. "It would seem one of you knows where you are, but for the purpose of the one that doesn't, I shall explain." He looked at Holly, who couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in his gaze. "7 years ago I set up One World Industries, with one aim- to be the best in the world. So I built this place, and created a legend that made me famous without even selling one product."
"How admirable" Artemis spat. "One day someone will stumble upon this place, and it won't be a legend anymore."
"You would think so" Eduardo said, "But in 7 years, nobody has ever seen it. Well, nobody that's lived that is."
Holly felt physically sick. This man was a murderer. He would probably kill them too.
"I've seen many weird sights in my years" Ortega carried on, still looking at Holly, "But none quite as weird as you. Then again, I found you with Artemis Fowl, I wouldn't be surprised if you were one of his lab experiments."
"I would watch the way you speak about my friend, Ortega" Artemis warned, but Eduardo brushed it off.
"Your anatomy is certainly humanoid, but not Human entirely, especially not your ears." His eyes sparkled. "Are you by any chance an alien?"
Holly couldn't help but laugh. Alien? This guy really wasn't as clever as he'd like to believe. Unfortunately, Eduardo Ortega did not take kindly to Holly's laugh, and tried to slap her around the face. For Holly, what happened next was extraordinary. Artemis practically jumped on Ortega, knocking him off balance enough that his attempted assault on Holly missed completely. Artemis was no match though, and Ortega easily threw him off.
"Do not laugh at me alien!" He said sternly, back towards Holly. Artemis started towards him again, but the stopped when this time the bodyguards raised their guns.
"How dare you touch my friend" Artemis shot at Eduardo, his eyes cold and glassed over, his voice deadly serious. Holly couldn't help but think back to the 12 year old Artemis Fowl that had kidnapped her. "If you ever dare to touch her again, I will make you feel a world of pain so bad that you'll wish that you'd never heard the name Artemis Fowl II."
This time it was Eduardo that laughed, obviously not taking in the seriousness of Artemis' threat. To Holly, the way Artemis was trying to protect her, it was actually rather cute. Her heart fluttered as she realised that he would genuinely go out of his way to protect her. Holly mentally vowed that, should Artemis not be the architect of Eduardo Ortega's demise, then she would do it herself. She couldn't wait to see him in handcuffs.
"I'm tired of the games" Eduardo said, changing the subject. "I want to talk about your device, Artemis. The wave catcher is an impressive device. I would not have known about it had a colleague of mine not let it slip during an... interrogation. He was most useful in helping me acquire this device."
"You disgust me" Holly managed to spit out. Eduardo certainly took notice of it.
"Our friend speaks English? Excellent. Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, the Wave Catcher." He turned back to Artemis. "I'm going to make this simple. I know this device can do more than just block radio communications. I know it has a bigger range than just this building. I know that only you can unlock it. So here's your options: Either you unlock your device and surrender it to me, or your alien friend will suffer, greatly."
"Elf" Holly muttered under her breath. She was not a frickin' alien.
"Fine" Artemis said coolly. "Take me to your laboratory." And as Holly looked at him, she recognised the expression on his face. It was the expression of a mud boy with a plan.

They walked for a while. Artemis spent most of the time watching the surroundings. Holly wondered what his plan was; obviously, he couldn't tell her, as the two bozos Ortega called bodyguards would overhear. She needed to something, so why not try and engage in conversation by asking a question she already knew the answer to?
"How did you know you would find us in the woods?"
Ortega turned to face her. He seemed to like it when she spoke. "It was quite simple in the end. Everyone knew about the Celestra Crash. Everyone knew Artemis Fowl would be watching. We needed a distraction to get him and his bodyguard away from Fowl Manor, so we set up a series of projectors in the woods and positioned a sniper. Easy. Now, we're here" He said, leading them off towards a set of glass doors. This was the first time he'd moved ahead of Artemis and Holly.
"Holly" Artemis whispered. "I want you to turn on every communication channel you have. Once you've done it, I want you to hit my back left pocket, hard."
Odd request, Holly thought, but almost certainly part of the plan. So, just as Eduardo opened the door to the lab, Holly began broadcasting from her helmet radio, turned on her emergency locator and signal booster. Then, with all her strength, slapped Artemis' back left pocket. To any random onlooker, it would look like she'd just randomly slapped his ass, but Holly knew there was something in that pocket, which compressed on contact. Suddenly, both bodyguards and Eduardo screamed out in pain, their hands going to their ears. They tried desperately to rip out their ear pieces; Holly could even hear the high pitched screech from where she stood. Knowing this was her one opportunity, she pulled out her Neutrino, and fired 3 shots at the writhing enemies, flooring them. Then she grabbed Artemis and ran.

"The shots aren't going to stop them for long, the setting on my gun wasn't set very high" Holly told Artemis as they rushed back into the main plaza. He simply nodded as they rushed down the stairs and towards the door. "The door won't open"
"Of course not" Artemis said. "Ortega wouldn't be so stupid as to give us an easy exit."
"Well then what do we do?"
"Try blasting through the window" Artemis suggested. Holly turned her Neutrino up to full blast, and fired 5 shots towards the transparent barrier. Each one bounced straight off.
"Well that idea is out of the window" Holly said. Artemis laughed shallowly at her poorly disguised pun. "It looks like we don't have a way out."
"In which case, I propose we go on the offensive."
Holly was almost shocked by that. Almost. "Artemis Fowl promoting violence? I've seen it all now."
"Laugh all you want, but we have to get out of here somehow. And, considering that Butler is not available, that almost makes you my bodyguard. Besides, who said anything about violence?"
"You mean like that trick you pulled back by the labs? What even was that?" Holly asked.
Artemis smirked, showing off his signature vampire smile. "I thought you'd never ask." Of course, any opportunity for Artemis Fowl show off his genius. "It's just one of the many features of the Wave Catcher that Eduardo Ortega did not know about. When the Wave Catcher 'catches' a signal, it stores that signal in its membrane. I simply took all of the energy from the signals you were broadcasting, and fed it straight into their earpieces."
"How come I didn't receive any of it?"
"I didn't programme the device for fairy specifications. Like I said, this was never supposed to involve you guys."
"It's nice to see how that turned out." Holly joked. "I take it you have a plan for our 'proposed offensive'?"
"Oh of course my dear Holly, I always have a plan."

Chants: PLAN PLAN PLAN (I'm not great at making plans, don't get your hopes up. Or...)