A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed. Glad you like the story so far. All people (except Jack), places and things belong to Eoin Colfer.

Chapter 8: So that's how he did it

One hour later Artemis still sat in the room down the hall. He was trying to think of a good plan. It wasn't working very well.

Come on stop complaining, he thought, weren't you just telling Holly that you were bored?

He looked up at a computer screen on the wall. He had an idea. He turned on the machine and went into Foaly's files. He called up a picture and the file on Ark Sool. He also pulled up the picture Holly and Foaly had seen from E7. He looked closely at the screen as he enlarged the picture.

Could it work? He asked himself.

He enlarged the picture once more. The answer was obvious.

"So that's how you got the weapons Sool," he said softly.

He got up from the chair he was sitting in and went out the door. The others had just come back from eating and were in a good mood. Then he saw something that made his stomach lurch.

Everyone had had a good time. The most fun was telling Jack about their adventures. Holly didn't want to admit it but when you got to know him he was actually kind of fun. Holly also felt guilty at leaving Artemis out, even though she knew that he was doing what he liked best.

Jack was always trying to talk to and sit next to her. She admitted that at the beginning it annoyed her but after a while it more amused her.

As they returned to the computer room, she sat down a little away from the others. Naturally Jack sat next to her.

"So after you and Artemis switched eyes, what happened? You know I noticed you had two different colored eyes but I didn't notice that Artemis did."

Holly smiled, "Well maybe you just never looked. After we switched eyes...well... everything pretty much everything went back to normal. This is the first crisis we've had in almost 4 years."

Artemis came in just then. What he saw was Juliet, Mulch, Foaly and Butler talking at one side of the room, but what caused his stomach to lurch was what was happening at the other side of the room.

Jack and Holly were sitting next to each other and smiling. Artemis's eyes narrowed slightly, though he didn't know why. Suddenly Holly saw him. She stood up and walked over to him.

"Did you find anything, Artemis?" she asked.

Artemis asked, "I didn't know you liked my cousin so much."

Holly looked surprised. "Well he's nice when you get to know him." She said.

Everyone else in the room now noticed that he was here.

"Well, what did you come up with Artemis?" asked Mulch.

Artemis scowled slightly, he had been imagining telling everyone what he had found but know he wasn't in the mood.

Are you crazy? A voice in his head asked him, this is a big thing, and you can't just decide not to tell people.

Aloud Artemis said, "I have a plan, but I didn't find anything."

Everyone in the room was surprised, Holly most of all. Artemis Fowl had never said he hadn't found anything.

Juliet looked at him thoughtfully and then realized what was going on. She smiled but she wasn't about to say anything. She'd wait until she was alone with Artemis to confirm her suspicions.

"Did you just say you didn't find anything?" asked Foaly.

Artemis nodded tightly. "But I do have a plan." He said. "Here's what we'll do. We go to the warehouse tomorrow, plant some gold, not real of course but it'll have to look real, put tracking spray on the fake gold and then follow it to it's location."

Everyone's (except Juliet and Jack's) mouth hung open.

"That plan is extremely dangerous Artemis," Butler said, "Sool would be sure to find out that the gold's fake and nuclear bomb the city before we could stop him. Besides we all saw the picture of his crates of weapons. He would kill us with them in a second."

This was what everyone was thinking but Artemis gave his vampire smile and said, "Well do you have any better ideas?"

"Yeah. We give him the gold and control of the city and go back to the surface." Jack said.

Artemis stared at him in disgust, "That is not an option. Foaly can you make realistic-looking gold?"

The centaur smiled weakly, "Of course I can. Am I right in supposing that you didn't tell us all of your plan?"

Artemis shrugged, "Perhaps. Now Holly I should like to get some sleep, can we go back to your apartment?" The elf nodded still confused and walked with Artemis out of the building. Juliet followed closely behind.

A/N: What do you think? Review! Please? .