When all involved in the mission had assembled in the Situation Room, Artemis commenced his review of the plan. He and Holly would arrive at the designated site in the shuttle, allegedly loaded with twelve crates full of gold ingots, just before noon. Mortilla would show up to collect the money, presumably in a shuttle of her own, and would inspect the third crate before loading it into her vehicle—hopefully. She would then remotely disarm the bombs at the school—again, hopefully.

A young LEP officer who would be on the team to track Mortilla following the drop-off raised his hand. Artemis acknowledged him with a nod, and the young elf asked, "Mr Fowl, how do we know she will just disarm the bombs? Isn't it possible that she will set them off anyways?"

"This woman has no malice towards Judkins or the children at the school," Artemis answered. "She wants money, and feels that holding such people hostage is her quickest way to get a great deal of it. Once she feels like she securely has the gold, it will be a weight off of her guilt-ridden shoulders to disarm the bombs." Artemis briefly looked around for more questions before continuing. "Once Mortilla takes off with the gold and our tracers, it will be a simple matter for the Retrieval team to apprehend her. In the meantime, our other Retrieval squad at the school will take care of the liberation of the building—with the all-clear from the explosives experts."

Trouble nodded at Artemis. "That's the plan, ladies and gentlemen. Now, let's get to it."

The assembled group dispersed to take care of their various roles. Holly and Artemis made their way to the prepared shuttle and were off to the drop-off point in less than ten minutes. It would take them about thirty-five minutes to reach it.

As they flew through one of the chutes that led out of Haven, Artemis spoke, "There really is something about this Mortilla person that causes me to wonder if we have met before—but I cannot place her face anywhere in my memories." He paused. "I hope that I am not putting us all in danger because I cannot summon some crucial recollection."

"Don't worry, Arty. It's my job to get into danger—and then get back out again."

He chuckled. It was that nice sound that Holly didn't hear often enough. "Well," Artemis said, "you certainly do very well at both of those."

They fell into a comfortable silence. Holly wondered what he was thinking. After a few minutes of quiet, she was about to ask him just that when she noticed him rubbing the back of his neck, grimacing a bit. "What's the matter?" she asked.

He looked at her, realizing she had noticed him. "I have decided that I truly need to consider buying some property down in Haven so that Butler and I can each have a human-sized bed to sleep on when we come down. Last night was not a comfortable one for me—yet compared to how Butler fared, I believe my night was restful."

Holly wondered how she should reply. Subtle encouragement. She decided on honesty. "It would be great if you got a place down here," she replied. "Then you might visit more often."

In a joking tone—one rarely heard in Artemis's voice—he said, "I'm surprised you don't find my visits on LEP business tiresome enough on their own."

She felt nervousness actually make her palms, now gripping the steering wheel of the shuttle, sweat. Just remember, she thought, he does feel the same way about you. "I would love it if you visited more—honestly. You're…you're my best friend," she finished. She felt the speech had been delivered a bit awkwardly, but it got the point across.

Artemis didn't respond immediately. Holly stole a glance at his face in one of the mirrors surrounding the pilot's seat. Unfortunately, it didn't tell Holly much, as his expression was inscrutable. Thankfully, he spoke only a moment later, after clearing his throat. "Then it's settled. I'll start looking at Haven real estate once we've completed this mission. Something with high ceilings, I think." It was only after he had finished speaking that Holly saw one of the corners of his mouth turn upwards.

Something with high ceilings. She remembered the high ceilings in the house of her future. She had a feeling she would be seeing that house again soon.

They reached the designated maintenance tunnel about five minutes before the noon deadline. Holly backed her shuttle so that its rear touched the entrance to the tunnel. This particular shuttle was too large to fit into the tunnel—after all, it had to carry twelve full-sized crates. She set the shuttle to hover and opened the back hatch completely.

She was about to switch on the conveyor mechanism that would off-load the crates in the tunnel when they heard Mortilla's voice yell "No, leave them! Come out here. Into the tunnel!"

Holly and Artemis looked at each other. "I'll go," Holly said. "You're a civilian—you stay here."

"Ah, but you see, you are unarmed," Artemis replied, smiling slightly. "You need strength in numbers. I'll come with you."

Holly was about to protest, but then decided he was right.

As they emerged out of the wall of crates that filled the back of the shuttle, they saw the small, weathered sprite, hovering up and down on furiously beating wings. Holly knew that to be a sign of stress in some sprites. Mortilla was clearly nervous about how the drop off would go. The sprite was also holding what Holly knew to be an obsolete model neutrino, probably acquired from the same decommissioned weapons dump that the detonator and bomb materials had come from. Holly shook her head. The LEP really needed to get their garbage disposal system under control.

"Given that it seems she is armed," Artemis mumbled to Holly under his breath, "I suggest we try to follow her orders." Holly nodded in response.

Artemis raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "We are coming out. According to your wishes."

Holly noticed Mortilla flinch. From earlier discussions, Holly knew what Artemis was doing—speaking in fours to drive up the pressure on the kidnapper. The more insecure and uneasy Mortilla felt, the more she would be drawn to the number three, and the greater the chance she would only check the third crate.

Mortilla gripped the neutrino harder. Artemis asked, "Is something wrong, friend?"

She flinched again and tried to be threatening as she waved the neutrino. "Not your friend. Over there, now!" she snarled, gesturing an area of the tunnel about ten feet from the rear shuttle door.

Artemis and Holly, both with hands in the air, went to the spot she had indicated. When they had reached it, Artemis pointed to the back of the shuttle. "There is your gold."

Mortilla closed her eyes, and muttered quietly. Holly could tell she was counting to three repeatedly.

Artemis was relentless. "Feel free to inspect. All is in order. It's all for you." He put a slight emphasis on the word "for." It worked—Mortilla was now on her feet instead of hovering, and Holly could see her shaking.

Mortilla entered the back of the shuttle. Holly held her breath as she saw the sprite tap the first, then the second, and finally the third crate with the neutrino. All three of them were full of gold ingots, to appease Trouble's pessimism. Artemis had been confident only the third needed to be filled, but Trouble hadn't been willing to risk lives on the hunch of a human.

Of course, Artemis was right. Mortilla shot a blast through the third crate and gold ingots spilled onto the metal shuttle floor, creating a huge racket. The sprite picked up one of the pieces and inspected it. Apparently satisfied that it was real, the expression on her face changed from suspicion and anger to glee. "My plan worked! My plan worked!" she squealed in delight.

Now that she knew there was gold in the crates—or at least in some of the crates—Holly knew Artemis would begin speaking in groups of three. Mortilla needed to feel secure.

He did just that. "Now, the detonator?" he asked.

Mortilla pulled the small device out of her pocket. She pressed a large button. "There you go," she said, still giddy. "Bombs are deactivated." She turned towards the mouth of the tunnel and threw the detonator into the void. It would be falling for quite awhile.

Holly connected through to Foaly using her helmet. "Foaly, has anything happened with the school?"

"No, it's still there."

"Send the bomb squad in. Mortilla has apparently deactivated the bombs. Once the bomb squad has given the all clear you can evacuate the school."

"Roger that, Captain. The squad is moving in as we speak."

Holly suddenly noticed something. As she had approached the tunnel in their shuttle minutes earlier, she had seen no other shuttle—or vehicle of any kind—in the general vicinity. "Hey, how did you get here, Mortilla? Where's your ride?" She didn't bother to count her words.

Mortilla stopped her jubilating and looked at Holly. "Oh, yes, right." She switched her gaze to Artemis. "Remember me, human? Ho Chi Minh?"

Holly looked at Artemis. His face had turned pale—or, at any rate, paler than it usually was—and realization was flooding it.

"You…you are the sprite who gave me the Book?"

"That is correct," Mortilla replied through a wicked smile, eyes narrowed. "I gave the book. You gave pain. Very excruciating pain.

"The detox," Artemis whispered to himself before addressing Mortilla. "But you wanted it. That's how I got you to give me the Book. You cannot be angry at me for simply giving you something for which you asked."

"Twisting my words!" Mortilla screeched. "You hurt me. But now you—you get pain. Maybe death, too." Her smile had turned grim, as she reached into another pocket and pulled out a similar detonator as before. "This one's yours."

Artemis took a step forwards. Holly saw pain in his eyes. "The kidnapping of Judkins, the taking of the school—those were not because of me, were they?"

Mortilla gave a short laugh. "No, you fool. You're a bonus."

Holly had been putting her observational skills to work. There was a chance she could disarm Mortilla while she was distracted with Artemis. The sprite started monologuing about all the hard knocks she'd gone through, and Holly thought that was about as good a chance as she was going to get. She started rushing Mortilla, but unfortunately she kicked a small rock as she moved quickly forwards, which caused a skittering noise across the metal floor. Mortilla was thus alerted in time to raise her neutrino at Holly and get off a shot—and Mortilla was shooting to kill.

Holly had good reflexes, but even the small momentum she had gained in rushing in Mortilla's direction put her off balance when she saw Mortilla shooting at her. Thankfully, Artemis was quicker physically than he used to be. He launched himself at Holly and tackled her out of the way of the neutrino's lethal blast just in time. The beam managed to graze the arm of his suit jacket, searing a long tear in the sleeve. By the time both extricated themselve from each other and got up, Mortilla was closing the rear hatch of the LEP shuttle. Though Holly ran towards it, the shuttle pulled forwards into the chute even before the hatch had fully closed. There was no way to reach it now.

Usually, this would not have been a problem. Foaly knew where they were and could have another shuttle there in a half hour to pick them up. The problem was that apparently Mortilla had planted explosives in the maintenance tunnel in an effort to kill—or maim—Artemis. And that was a fairly significant problem.

Holly whirled around to see Artemis getting to his feet and dusting himself off. He examined the seared arm of his suit and muttered something about his favourite jacket being ruined. Holly rolled her eyes. "I'm very sorry about your clothes, but we need to find a way out of here or they'll have to take us out of here in a matchbox." She connected with Foaly. "Foaly, we need a ride out of here ASAP. Mortilla took our shuttle along with the gold and has apparently loaded the area with explosives. I expect she is waiting until she is clear of the area before she's going to detonate."

Foaly's nervous voice filled her helmet as he replied, "The nearest LEP vessel is five minutes away. I'll send it your way. In the meantime, try and find a way to either get out of that tunnel or some way to shelter yourselves from the blast." Holly knew that to have any LEP vehicles nearer might have compromised the drop-off—even the simplest fairy ship had the technology to detect other vessels within a certain radius. But that was cold comfort now.

"Will do." Holly turned to Artemis. "No one can get to us for at least five minutes. That's not enough time."

Artemis was looking around the maintenance tunnel, clearly racking his brain.

"We're sitting ducks here," Holly exhaled, exasperated—but she too was looking around for a solution.

"If only I knew where she had planted the bombs," Artemis said absently, looking at the ceiling of the tunnel. Suddenly, a light seemed to ignite in his eyes. "Our villain is likely no explosives expert. We may be able to survive this after all."

"What?" Holly asked. She really wished he would learn to give explanations before uttering cryptic statements.

"Look," he replied, pointing at a small trapdoor in the ceiling near the back of the tunnel. "For the fairies who service the tunnel's lights. I would bet Fowl Manor that she placed the explosives inside. Short of major excavation, there is no other way she could have planted explosives that would affect this tunnel. And, unless the Haven Safety Code has changed, the maintenance sub-tunnels are reinforced to protect against geological disturbance, to allow a fairy caught in a maintenance tunnel during an earthquake to find refuge." Holly would have rolled her eyes had the situation not been so serious. Of course Artemis would have memorized something as dull as the Haven Safety Code.

Artemis continued. "I wouldn't dare attempt to disarm the bomb at this point—we have no idea when it is going to detonate—and as long as she has used more than a nominal amount of explosives there still should be some damage in the main tunnel—but there shouldn't be a complete cave-in."

"All right, thanks for the explanation—but where should we hunker down and brace ourselves?"

"Without getting into the sub-tunnel to see where she has placed the bombs along the roof of the tunnel, I have absolutely no idea."

Holly opened her mouth and was about to say something along the lines of "Well, that's helpful", when an explosion rocked her off her feet. When she hit the ground, her LEP training kicked in. She rolled into a ball, covering her head with her hands. Luckily, her helmet had protected her ears from the shockwave, as well as the small pieces of steel and stone which were falling from the ceiling below. Other chunks caught her arms and torso, but her magic healed the minor bumps and cuts almost as soon as they happened. She did her best to save at least some of her magic for Artemis, who didn't have the same protective gear she did.

The whole thing lasted less than ten seconds, though of course it felt much longer. Her first thought was Artemis. She unrolled herself and saw that he, too, was curled into a ball, with his arms sheltering his head. His suit was now torn in multiple places, with some of the tears revealing bleeding cuts of various sizes. He was just unrolling himself and looked over at her. "Are you okay?" he asked. His eyes widened, and he placed his hands on his ears, then removed them. "I can't—I can't hear," he shouted. "The blast—it's deafened me."

Holly rushed over to him and covered his ears with her hands. "Heal," she whispered, looking directly in his eyes. She felt the magic flowing through her fingers and into him. Even after she knew his ears would be good as new, she allowed the magic to heal his cuts as well.

"Can you hear me?" she asked.

Artemis patted his right ear, "Yes, it appears your magic did the trick. Thank you."

"Don't mention it," she replied.

With both of them healed up, they were able to finally get a look at their surroundings. Thankfully, the reinforced tunnel lining had done its job in absorbing much of the explosion's energy, but there were still large chunks blown out of the ceiling. In fact, there were three large holes along the roof, one at the back of the tunnel, one in the middle, and one near the front, with large heaps of rocks underneath each one. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she had 'strategically' planted the bombs along the sub-tunnel above. Luckily, she and Artemis had both been about mid-way between the one in the middle and the one at the front, near the entrance.

Holly realized in dismay that the fact that the steel lining did not extend fully to the entrance of the tunnel meant that the pile of debris was much larger than the other two. In fact, the rubble blocked the entrance, and probably extended up past the top of the original cave entrance. Holly had the feeling that maybe Mortilla had intended for that to happen—that if they survived the bombs, they would not survive being trapped.

Dim light still existed in the tunnel, thanks to a couple of emergency lights lining the walls that had made it through the explosion. All of the other so-called emergency lights appeared to be out of commission.

Holly looked at Artemis. He was frowning at the blocked tunnel entrance, the gears in his mind turning. "I think we ought to leave the rubble alone—depending upon the construction of the sub-tunnel, the bomb may have damaged the rock above as well as created the blockage. If we try to shift the rubble too much, we may bring even more down upon our heads. But we do need to ensure there is at least a couple of small holes for airflow. Then, we wait for the LEP to get here and dig us out with their equipment."

"All right, I guess that sounds like as good a plan as any," Holly replied, sighing.

Together, they were able to shift some of the smaller rocks in such a way that small airholes emerged, large enough for Holly's fist to pass through, but nowhere near large enough fo her, much less a human, to traverse.

Once they had finished securing themselves against suffocation, Artemis trudged over to the wall, about halfway down the tunnel. Holly knew that he had chosen to move back from the entrance area so that any potential cave-ins resulting from the arrival of the LEP did not land upon him. She followed suit and retreated from the front as well.

Artemis leaned his back against the tunnel wall and slid down until he was sitting. He scowled in frustration, staring straight ahead at the opposite wall. "Yet another thoughtless deed by Artemis Fowl results in mayhem and pain to everyone around him." He looked up at Holly. "And I am very sorry that your life was put in danger another time on my account."

Holly was a bit surprised at the turn things were taking. Once they had determined they wouldn't suffocate while waiting for the LEP to rescue them, she had been in a pretty decent mood—at least, compared to how she was feeling before. Artemis apparently didn't share her relief. She went and sat beside him.

"Hey, you were younger. You've changed a lot since then."

He shook his head. "That fails to change the fact that I am tortured every day by the people I have hurt along my path of transformation," he said, adding a mocking tone to the last word. "People like you, who would never dream of sinking to the kinds of depths to which I have sunk at times. I cannot begin to number my regrets."

Holly had known Artemis harboured guilt for past wrongs. That, after all, had been the trigger for his Atlantis Complex. But even now that he had completely recovered from the illness, he apparently still felt deep remorse. Though she would have, at one time, thought exactly the opposite, she now felt that almost no one deserved such feelings less.

She reached across him and took him by the shoulders, gently turning him to face her. Taking a deep breath, she said, "Artemis Fowl, I'm not going to tell you that you've never made a bad decision—you obviously have. But for a long time now you've worked hard to help people, human and fairy. You've helped many times more people than you ever hurt. Come on—you even sacrificed your own life for billions of people you never met. And those people will never know about it to thank you for it."

Through her little speech, Artemis had not been able to meet her eyes. She needed to make sure he was hearing her, so she lifted his chin until he was looking at her. "Arty, we've just survived the umpteenth attempt on our lives. Even in fairy terms, life is short. You have to let the past go and just move forward. You can't live your life in regrets."

Artemis was certainly meeting her eyes now. And there was something else there. Holly's heart started to beat faster, and she dropped her fingers, which had lingered on his face as she spoke. She couldn't have looked away if she wanted to, with atmosphere of the dim tunnel full of something like electricity—and she had a hunch that Artemis was experiencing the same thing.

"Regrets…" he murmured. He seemed to hesitate, but then he took a deep breath and spoke softly. "Right now…right now I have a feeling that if I don't tell you something, I will regret it for the rest of my life."

Holly's heart was racing so quickly that she felt it might burst before long. "What is it?" she asked, a bit breathlessly. She hoped it would be what she had been waiting for so long to hear. Though the whole scene had a surreal quality to it, she felt more alive now than she ever had.

"Holly," he began, "I know that we said we would leave behind all that happened when we returned to the past to save JayJay; however, I'm afraid I have not been very successful in that endeavour. I've thought about that…that kiss so many times." He took a deep breath, and exhaled heavily. "There are incredible impediments to us ever becoming…involved with each other, but the most formidable to me always seemed to be your lack of desire to change things between us. On the other hand…" he trailed off, before continuing with narrowed eyes and the smallest hint of a smile. "On the other hand, it seems that recently you have been giving off some confusing signals."

Holly arched her eyebrows, and put on an exaggeratedly nonchalant front that she knew he would see through in an instant. "I don't know what you are talking about," she replied, trying, but failing to keep the smile off of her face.

Artemis too was losing his battle in attempting to keep a straight face. "I think you know precisely what I mean. When Foaly notices something, you are being obvious."

"All right, Mud Boy, smile all you want. You were saying?" she said gruffly, shaking her head, yet grinning at the same time.

"As you wish. Holly, you may have noticed that there are few situations in which I find myself less comfortable than when I am expressing my…my feelings. But I can go no longer without telling you that you are the most important person to me in this world, either above or below the surface. I feel tremendous respect and admiration towards you. And more than that…I…I find myself to be completely in love with you." Silence hung in the air for a moment. Insecurity creeping into his features and voice, Artemis said, "I would be grateful for any response you can give."

Holly gave a laugh, cut short by the almost suffocating feeling of happiness filling her chest. There were so many things she wanted to say. "Arty, I've thought about what happened in the gorilla cage, too. Much more often than I should have. But, like you, I guess I thought there were too many things in the way. Lately those things haven't seemed as important to me—at least, they aren't as important as the fact that…that I feel the same way about you."

For a long moment, neither said anything. The words each had spoken seemed to reverberate around the cave, at least in their minds. Holly had never felt her eyes so glued to those of another person as she felt then, looking at Artemis. But then she noticed his eyes drop slightly, and she knew what was coming, and welcomed it. He gently took her face in his hands, gingerly, as if he was afraid he would break it. As he moved towards her, it didn't take her long to close the gap.

Their first kiss had been the result of her impulses, born out of deep and giddy relief that she had been able to save him from the savage beating he had taken from the gorilla that night at the zoo. When Artemis had softly kissed her forehead before going to offer himself up to Opal Koboi, she had felt panic dulled by the sedative overpowering her, which would later give way to a profound ache as she knelt over his lifeless form.

And even though her first two experiences relating to Artemis's lips were widely different, the third was something else entirely.

Holly was a woman of action. Artemis was a man of contemplation. But all either could do when they broke apart from the kiss was smile at each other. Goofy, dopey smiles, that both would have denied having upon their faces had any third party asked, and that they would have mercilessly mocked on anyone else.

It was Artemis who first spoke after a long silence. "I suppose waiting for the LEP to arrive doesn't seem so bad now. In fact, I wouldn't mind if they took a little longer than a half hour."

Holly was surprised at the tone of her voice—and her words—as she answered, "Me neither. I think I could stay here all day."

If possible, Artemis's smile grew even wider. "Why, Captain Short, I do think you are going soft."

Holly knew she would never act like this in public—she had never been a believer in public displays of affection and felt Artemis would probably be on the same page—but they were all alone now.

But as much as she would have enjoyed continuing talking, and possibly some additional kissing, she was slightly dismayed to feel that the adrenaline she had felt at the explosion—as well as the different kind of rush at Artemis's words and their subsequent kiss—was wearing off. It was being replaced by the exhaustion that followed all but the most minor of healings. Looking at Artemis stifling a yawn, she knew he was feeling it, too.

"Our bodies need some rest. From the healing, and all," she said, needlessly. Artemis would have known what was happening the instant he felt the exhaustion kicking in. He simply nodded, leaning his head back on the wall. Holly expected him to close his eyes, but instead, he grinned at her and held the arm nearest her away from his body. In almost an instant, she knew what he meant. She moved so his arm went around her shoulders, and leaned her head against his upper chest. The weight of his arm around her felt so natural.

As she allowed herself to fall into her restorative slumber, Holly silently thanked future Artemis for his very good advice.