September 26, Downtown Haven
"I must say, this is very nice, Holly", Artemis said as they strolled through the city. "It's quite refreshing not to have some crisis on our hands that prevents us from spending time with each other, as friends."
Holly smiled in agreement. "Well, then, Mud Boy", she said as she playfully punched his arm (she couldn't reach his shoulder), "as friends, I'm allowed to do that." Then her eyes widened. "Have you been working out?" she accused.
Artemis coughed, tingeing slightly pink. "Well…I swore after we rescued my father that I would spend time in the gym, but I did not have the opportunity to exercise in earnest until after my Atlantis Complex was cured." His eyes twinkled. "Perhaps the next time we have to save the world, I won't fall flat on my face."
Holly's bell-like peals of laughter were joined by Artemis's, and Holly was startled to realise that, in all the years she had known him, this was the first time she had heard Artemis Fowl laugh.
Chapter Six
Ops Booth, Two Weeks After Chapter Five
Holly held her chip against the scanner at the entrance to the booth and entered when a beep signaled her acceptance. The doors slid open silently and Foaly jumped as he saw her.
"D'Arvit, Holly!" he exclaimed. "I'm not going to let you keep your entry chip if you insist on sneaking up on me."
Holly ignored this comment, peering instead at the many computer screens in the booth. For the past two weeks she had been coming in everyday around this time to check on Foaly's progress. The centaur had succeeded in revamping two bio-degrading scanners, and the LEP had been using them to inspect the suspected kidnapping areas around Haven for the past six days. The fact that Foaly was too engrossed to notice her arrival today meant that they finally had something worth looking into.
Foaly grunted as he followed Holly's gaze to his computers. "Perceptive, aren't you?"
"What do we have?" asked Holly.
"First off, let it be said that I, Foaly, once again have managed to do the impossible", announced the centaur, trotting over to one monitor. He began opening windows on the screen to show Holly what Corporal Grub Kelp had managed to find at the home of pixie Lorianne Herbert.
"Look here", he said. "Unusually high readings of copper, potassium, and also sodium chloride, better known as salt. When you put copper, potassium, and salt together, what do you get?"
Holly shrugged her shoulders, clueless.
"Copper potassium cyanide with ionized chloride", Foaly answered his own question. "Used in gold and silver mining industries or as poison."
"The missing fairies were poisoned?" Holly gaped.
"I don't think so", said Foaly. "A couple of months ago, I initiated a sampling vitality registration for all citizens of Haven – a test case, so to speak."
"Vitality registration?" Holly questioned.
"V-R. Something I came up with last year", replied Foaly. "Such a system would allow us to read the vital signs of whoever is registered on the V-R computer. Useful for detecting dormant medical conditions or for avoiding ignorance of someone's death. Do you remember the Jabrice case?"
"The loner whom no one knew had died?"
"Yes, that one. I haven't smelled anything so foul. Vitality registration would help avoid that. Of course, V-R is still experimental, and I'm not sure the Council would approve something like that on a citywide scale – also, I doubt everyone would be willing to hook themselves up to what would basically be an electronic IV…"
"Your point?" Holly asked to get him back on track. Once Foaly got started on one of his inventions, he could go on for hours.
"Right, well…" Foaly cleared his throat. "Lorianne Herbert is one of the fairies who volunteered to be a test case for V-R. The program's still primitive, but it can tell me who's alive and who's not. And Herbert is most definitely alive. I looked up her vital signs not one hour ago."
"You're making no sense, Foaly", complained Holly. "If Herbert's alive and the cyanide's not being used to poison anybody, what's the significance of it?"
"Simple. I said cyanide was used in gold and silver mining industries. Lorianne Herbert is a technical consultant – nothing even remotely mine-related."
"So the cyanide must have been left by whoever is behind this all", Holly surmised. "And he or she works in a mine? That points to the dwarfs."
"Not necessarily", Foaly disagreed. "Dwarfs hate cyanide. They absolutely hate it. They refuse to handle any metal which has even merely touched cyanide, and they never tunnel in mines where cyanide has been used."
"Yes. And?" prompted Holly when he paused. "Get on with it, Foaly, I don't have all day."
"Well, since dwarfs don't allow cyanide in their mines, it limits the field to the mines that are run by other species, which do use cyanide."
"There aren't very many of those, are there?"
"About ten to fifteen fairy-managed ones in the entire underground", Foaly confirmed. "And only six in or near Haven." He typed something into the computer. "I did some digging to see who might have a motive to do all this – kidnap fairies, or even set the bomb last year, and cross-referenced them with people who work in the mines. The dwarfs, of course, are ruled out, centaurs and sprites don't work in mines, and goblins are too stupid. That leaves elves, gnomes, and the occasional pixie." He snatched a print-out from the printer and handed it to Holly.
"I checked Opal Koboi's cell", he continued. "She's restless, but she's definitely not free, nor is it a clone. I made sure of that. It might be the Opal from the past who's still running large, but I can't see any Opal Koboi working in mines or even getting her hands on cyanide – at least not this particular variety. After a bit of work, I narrowed the suspect list down to six." He tapped the sheet in Holly's hand.
"Brill and Mervall Descant", Holly read from the paper. "The pixie twins?"
"They were sentenced to work in the mines after their involvement with Opal's plot", Foaly answered. "Keep going."
"Perry Underwood."
"An egoistic, power-hungry elf who's the head executive of one of the major non-dwarf mining companies."
"Sloan DiRubic."
"An ex-convict with a history of kidnapping and smuggling some very illegal contraband."
"Yolande McGregor."
"Now there's an odd one", mused Foaly. "Squeaky-clean record, not a single offense with the law – but her colleagues are complaining that she's been acting strange lately. Obsessed with numbers, dark humour, insatiable interest in everyone's lives – might be the beginnings of an Atlantis Complex or some other psychosis – or maybe she's just tired of being good."
"Do you mind?" Holly asked acidly. "All these bios are written right here on the page. I don't need you keeping up a steady commentary."
Foaly clamped his mouth shut as Holly read the last name. This time she looked at Foaly for confirmation herself.
"Ark Sool?" she queried.
Foaly smiled smugly. "I pulled some info off a few databases. Sool's quite bitter over his demotion – from Commander to Private, you know – and it turns out he was willing to get a little payback at the LEP. I found some very cleverly worded messages in a couple of human webpages advertising his services for anyone who wants to have a shot at causing trouble underground. Remember the Sozzled Parrot?"
"That above-ground dwarf bar that got crushed under our escape pod the year before last?"
"Uh-huh. I talked to the bartender, Barnet Riddle, and he says that Sool became a pretty regular customer. I checked with Mulch to confirm."
At this Holly slapped her forehead. "Mulch!" she exclaimed. "I completely forgot about him. I haven't seen him since last year. How's he doing?"
"Well, he's not going to be very happy that you forgot him", Foaly observed. "But other than that, he's doing okay. He's still with Doodah Day in that P.I. firm you started up. They're doing a roaring business catching petty offenders and small-time criminals the LEP has no time for. They've even expanded the employee list to ten, excluding themselves. For a couple of weeks after the bombing, Mulch popped by everyday to see how you were doing." Foaly stopped. "Oh, that reminds me", he said, clacking away at a different keyboard, "He wanted me to tell him when you were yourself again."
"Mulch Diggums, co-founder of Short and Diggums", answered Mulch's image on the monitor. Holly came over to the screen to talk to him.
"I see you still haven't changed the firm name."
"Holly!" Mulch exclaimed. "Welcome back. No, we haven't changed the name – probably never will. Doodah wanted to do it, of course, but we both agreed eventually that it'd started with you, so your name stays. Foaly, did you know your hat's getting crooked?"
"It is not!" Foaly insisted, reaching up a hand to check the foil anyway.
"Gotcha." Mulch laughed.
"Oh, sure, very funny, Mulch", said Foaly sourly. "Hilarious."
Holly laughed along with them, for what was probably the first time since Artemis's death.
"Anyway, Foaly", said Mulch when the laughter had subsided, "How's that case of yours coming?"
Foaly sobered. "We've got six suspects thanks to the information I dug up. Perry Underwood…"
"I know her", said Mulch. "I broke into her office once. I don't think she's doing all this, but you should keep an eye on her. She's got the potential to turn into another Opal Koboi."
"Noted", agreed Foaly. "We've also got Sloan DiRubic, Yolande McGregor, the Descant twins – oh, and Ark Sool."
Mulch frowned. "Not Sloan", he said. "I spent some time sharing a jail cell with him. He doesn't have the finesse to plan something like this. And the Descant twins are the type who are all talk and no action - at least not without Opal Koboi. I stop by their mine from time to time, and believe me, they're in no way responsible for this." He turned his head to look at something behind him. "Whoops – I've got to go. We're tracking one of Doodah's ex-accomplices. Good luck on your case." He vanished from the screen.
"That was helpful", commented Holly. "Mulch's helped us narrow the suspect list down to two: Yolande and Sool."
"Yep", agreed Foaly. "Sometimes it's useful to have someone on our side who used to be a criminal. They've got all the underground connections." He tapped something into yet another computer. "You should let Trouble know what we found out."
"Right", said Holly. "Good job, Foaly."
Foaly smirked. "Thank you. What would you do without me?"
Holly punched him.
A/N: Most of you were not expecting the Root twist. Some were hoping James Rothwell would turn out to be Artemis. Sorry to disappoint you, readers, but again, I have a good reason. Thanks to dimka-roza-belikova, Magiske-Fingrer, Leon, and Valerie3 for reviewing!
Disclaimer: Goodness, no.
