"You were careless Reaper!" Reaper gritted his teeth, he had been taking a verbal beating by Trouble for ten minutes now, and this was normal. When it came to humans Reaper felt he was lower on the list then most for Trouble Kelp. "You went in there too brashly, how could you miss a helicopter!"

"Well in my defense it was very dark out." Reaper said jokingly, but it came out weakly.

"Don't try my patience mudman, you're desperately close to getting your mind wiped. The only thing that's keeping you safe is the fact that you managed to get a decent amount of information." Reaper watched as Kelp rubbed his face in frustration. "Just tell me how this Mikhael Vassiken person is involved with the goblins."

"Ah, well he was actually the supplier for the goblins. Seems that he gave them the batteries, supplies for making softnose lasers, and a certain drug that we have no idea about."

"So what your telling me is that he's a smuggler?"

"Yes, he was previously a member of the mafia, he was involved with the Fowl hostage exchange. I'm certain you remember that."

"I've been trying to forget, I try to forget about the situations involving the mud whelp."

Reaper turned his head quizzically, "You mean Artemis Fowl II? Seems a bit harsh don't you think?"

"Reaper at this point I'd be worrying about my own skin if I were you."

"Why? You said I was safe, and Foaly stated that he had another mission for me. I have more important things to do then listen to you lecture me."

Trouble began growling, "Reaper, you're getting dangerously close to being thrown to the wolves. Do you even know how close you came to losing one of my best LEP officers!"

"Nice to see you care about Wraith and me."

Trouble sighed, sitting down in one of the many chairs in the base, "Just go, just know that you're on thin ice Reaper."

Reaper had turned around and left before he mentioned the last part. He had this conversation before, many times actually. Kelp just never cared for Reaper or Wraith. Of course it was the same with every other employer, he had gotten used to it. He looked around the familiar cobweb infested building, he was seriously thinking about donating a large amount of money to cleaning this place. Wraith was leaning against a wall while Holly was sitting down on another chair. Reaper picked up his arms, "Yeah, got it over with. He's mad and blames us for it but we're good."

"So it was like you said?" Wraith asked, almost laughing.

"Yep, we ended up shooting our way out and took most of the blame for it." Reaper replied, lighting another cigarette and putting it in the slit in his mask.

"What do we do now?"

Reaper took the cigarette out of his mouth, blowing out a puff of smoke, "Well, I assume we wait for Foaly, get our pay, then get our next mission and go onto our next great adventure which will end the same way as almost all of our missions end. Life is good when it's simple isn't it?"

"What about me?" Holly asked, waving some smoke away from her face.

"Well, I think it was made very clear that you wouldn't be working with us for a very long time or…ever. Anyways it was good working with you Miss Short. Good luck with whatever life throws at you and all that." Reaper heard a small commotion being made behind him "Is our reptilian friend conscious again?"

Wraith nodded, "That seems like an accurate assumption. You want me to "sedate" him?"

"That won't be necessary, we'll be taking him to LEP headquarters soon enough." They heard a voice coming from the left.

"So good of you to finally join us Foaly. You said you had a job for us? And please tell me that you have our payment." Reaper tossed the cigarette into a nearby garbage bin, looking directly at the centaur.

"Yes I have your payment, Reaper. But about your next job, that will have to wait until after we run some tests on our friend here. He does seem altered. But more importantly, the footage you sent us. How exactly did the goblins manage to muster enough brainpower to create an assembly line?"

"That I can't answer Foaly, I have no idea on how it happened, or why Mikhael Vassiken was involved, but I know that neither means good news."

"Can you answer how the goblins found a way to manufacture softnose lasers?"

Reaper shook his head, "Unfortunately we're still in the dark on this one Foaly, we have no idea on what's going on with the goblins or about the drug that Mikhael mentioned, or how the goblins managed to get their hands on a jamming device like the one they had. Either way it's a big bother to both the humans and fairies alike."

Foaly nodded, going over to the goblin, which was handcuffed to a chair. He was fighting furiously to escape, but to no avail. He looked back at the three, "Go on and take a break for a while. This will take until at least tomorrow." He lifted his index finger, shooting the goblin with a tranquilizer dart that was on his finger at the time. "Commander Root used this on Cudgeon on the first mission involving Fowl," he explained, "Had to be careful the entire time I had this."

Reaper yawned, not caring about what Foaly was talking about, he found an area on the floor that wasn't so dusty, removing his trench coat and folding it to be a pillow. He lay down on the floor, placing his hat over the eye slits in his mask, and got some much needed sleep. He decided that whatever problems he was going to face would be face more effectively in the morning.