Chapter Ten: A Time for Action
Artemis, the efficient worker that he was, soon found himself back at work on Tomoe's Case as he now thought of it. A bit of trouble was beginning to occur, he had searched through hours' worth of data and had manage to find out about the group that was supposedly the cause of the Kagawa family's woes but, though they had many illegal activities under way, they had made no communications about an abducted woman who was married to a former Russian solider. It was possible that the situation was only being discussed in code but none of the communications the group had made which were accessible through a computer seemed to fit the bill. In truth the group shouldn't have been capable of a crime this complicated, they seemed to be fairly small and without much power. If they had committed the kidnapping they would have certainly done a poor job of it, it was really very surprising that the local police force hadn't found anything.
Artemis rubbed his eyes, something wasn't right here but then he hadn't gotten much sleep lately, maybe an answer would be more obvious to a more energized mind. Sadly there wasn't time for rest; Artemis's deadline was dangerously close. Perhaps a visit with Tomoe would help him gather new information, she might know more than she thought she did.
Artemis considered calling Butler to accompany him but decided against it. The manservant had told him he was instructing Matt in self-defense and the young genius didn't want to interrupt. Besides, Tomoe's hotel was only a short walk away and it would be healthy for him to go out on his own every so often.
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Matt had gotten a very bad feeling after seeing Tomoe outside the bookshop. He knew that something was wrong and he had to talk to Artemis right away. He ran back to St. Bartleby's as quickly as he could and found upon arriving that Butler had also just returned.
"Why are you in such a hurry Matthew?" The bodyguard could tell that Matt was anxious about something, the boy had a worried look in his eye.
Matt was quite out of breath from his rushed journey and it was several moments before he could speak but finally he managed. "I just saw Tomoe in town but there's something wrong, I don't think she's who she says she is. I have to talk to Artemis."
Butler nodded, this sounded important. He followed Matt into the school and up to Artemis's room. After a full minute of knocking the bodyguard began to worry, it wasn't like Artemis to keep people at the door this long, even if he was busy. After trying the knob for a few seconds Matt finally gave up and turned to Butler.
"The door's locked but you're a bodyguard, you can pick it right?"
Butler nodded and then pulled something out of his breast-pocket which revealed to be a key. "I could pick this lock but that won't be necessary. As you can see Master Artemis has supplied me with a spare key."
A moment later the door was open and the two had gone inside. It was immediately obvious that the resident genius was not there. After a quick search Butler discovered a note Artemis had left him.
Butler-
I have gone out to speak with Miss Tomoe regarding the matter she brought before me. It is currently just after 3 o'clock and I expect to return within an hour or two though it may be longer depending on how our discussion goes. If you need to reach me I will be at the Clamendorf Hotel, kindly do not try to reach me there unless it is absolutely necessary. Also, if Matt enquires please refrain from telling where I have gone, I don't think I could stand the remarks he would make regarding myself and my 'girlfriend.'
-Artemis
Butler folded the note before informing Matt of its contents, it wouldn't do for the English boy to know everything that was in it.
"You mean he's with Tomoe right now? We have to go after him!"
"Before we do maybe you should tell me exactly what has happened. I don't want to interrupt Artemis if it's just a false alarm."
So Matt told the manservant of his brief encounter with the Japanese girl. Butler remained calm throughout most of it but his eyes widened when the boy got to the part about Tomoe speaking in fluent English.
"Are you absolutely sure this was Miss Kagawa?" Butler waited with baited breath for Matt's response. If everything he had said was true Artemis could be in great danger at that moment, that girl should have no reason for hiding her linguistic ability if she really was who she appeared to be.
Matt looked the bodyguard straight in the eye before answering, he wanted the older man to see the complete certainty he now had, "It was her, I'm sure of it."
"Then I had better get going."
Butler started to leave the room but Matt followed him. "I'm not letting you go without me."
Butler looked again at the young boy and saw the determination in his eyes. The manservant knew it would be better to just let him come along rather than argue with him since time was of the essence, he would just have to keep Matt away from the possible danger zone.
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Artemis had just been arriving at Tomoe's room when the young girl came out herself. She stared at him for several seconds in surprise before smiling in her innocent way.
"Hello Fowl-san, have you discovered where my mother is?"
Artemis sighed, more dealing with that horribly accented Russian. "I have made progress but I seem to have encountered some difficulty, I was hoping you might be able to help me."
Tomoe looked down-cast for a moment but then smiled again. "I do not know what I can do to help you but I will do my best. I was just about to go to the roof to feed the birds, may we speak there?"
Artemis looked at the girl's arms, she was holding what appeared to be a large bag of birdseed. The Irish boy raised his eyebrow quizzically and Tomoe blushed.
"I was hoping it would bring me luck in my mission."
Artemis had never really been one to believe in good luck rituals but he supposed that under the circumstances luck was essentially all the Japanese girl could wish for right now. He nodded and led Tomoe in the direction of the stairs.
The view was really quite impressive from the roof. Artemis found he could see the whole town and quite some distance beyond that, for a moment he felt like a king looking over his vast kingdom.
He hastily shook his head, this was not a time for poetic similes. He turned to Tomoe to begin questioning her but saw she was already quite absorbed in spreading birdseed on the rooftop, several pigeons had already begun to gather. Artemis sighed, he supposed it would be best if he let the girl enjoy herself for a few moments before bringing up her family again.
To pass the time he decided to gaze from the roof's edge once more, the view would be worth a second look. He checked his watch, it was about quarter to four now and, wait, what was this?
Artemis hastily removed his watch to take a closer look. Yes, there was now a deep scratch along the glass. He looked up again and wondered where he could have gotten it. Being the genius that he was the answer most likely would have come to him shortly but it was just then that the Fowl heir felt something hard come in contact with the back of his head. The last thing he saw was the majestic view he had so admired quickly disappearing behind the roof's wall as he fell to the ground.
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Foaly was indeed very concerned over Holly's case and over Estella in general but he knew it was also important that he continue to help the officers at the LEP with the regular work he put in there. Or at least he knew it was important that he at least appear to continue his regular work there. Thus that morning he had punched in and entered his fortress of technology at his regular time. He then recorded a message for anyone who might call in that he was doing very important work and wasn't to be disturbed. Once that was done he was finally able to get some sleep.
It was in fact rather unfortunate that he decided to do this, although he certainly needed the rest after all the extra work he'd been doing, for exactly forty-five minutes after he laid his head down on his desk Holly pulled up in front of the station.
It had been a while since Holly had been to her old work place, she got a feeling of nostalgia just looking at it, she missed her recon work. The elf quickly shook her head, this wasn't the time to get lost in memories, this was a time for action. Despite his pardon Mulch was still nervous about going inside a police station and elected to guard the car. Estella also decided to stay behind, partially because she was nervous about this meeting with Foaly but mostly because her injured leg was making it hurt for her to walk.
It was an unusually slow day at the station. Under normal circumstances Holly would have had no trouble going to see Foaly, she did still have many friends from her old job, however as it was no one was letting her anywhere near the tech ops office. The last time someone had interrupted the paranoid technician when he had said he wasn't to be disturbed had distracted him at a crucial moment in a very delicate test and had blown out an entire side of the station. No one had gotten hurt but the resulting chaos had allowed almost all the criminals in custody to slip away unnoticed. It had been a complete nightmare taking months to sort out and needless to say everyone was especially on guard against it happening again. The gnome on duty told the former captain all of this however Holly was not in a mood to wait.
Meanwhile Estella was becoming increasingly annoyed back outside. She respected Mulch and was grateful for the help he had given her but she had to admit that he was completely disgusting. The dwarf was currently eating his lunch to pass the time and he was doing so with less manners than a swear toad. This in addition to the increased throbbing in her leg left the centaur decidedly testy. After fifteen minutes of waiting Estella smacked her forehead. She had been so distracted by her other problems that the obvious hadn't occurred to her, Holly could heal her leg.
Muttering angrily to herself Estella climbed out of the shuttle and limped toward the station. Once inside she beheld a rather startling scene. Holly was being restrained by two gremlins while shouting at the top of her lungs that she didn't care what kind of work Foaly was doing, she needed to see him now. Whenever she took a breath the now terrified gnome, hiding behind his desk, would ask why it was so important that she couldn't wait a few hours but Holly wouldn't say and would just set the cycle off again. The scene hadn't been so violent at first of course the gnome had politely explained why no one was allowed to bother their top technician at the moment and Holly had politely explained that she didn't care what reasons the centaur had given, her business was important and if the gnome did not stop blocking her way soon he would find that her boot could cause much pain to the gnome's rather large posterior. It was at that point that the gnome had politely called security and Holly had lost her temper.
Estella quickly took all this in and determined that Holly shouting wasn't going to get them to Foaly any faster. In truth the elf's explosion shouldn't have happened, it was unnecessary and only showed just how nervous Estella's news about the Jalingers had made her. Now however it was too late for a graceful retreat, it was time to do a bit of acting. She trotted over to Holly as quickly as her wounded leg would allow her and lightly shook the elf's shoulder. This quieted everyone down for a moment as it was obvious that Estella was trying to bring reason to a battlefield which was sorely lacking in it.
"It's alright Ms. Short," she said, "I'll explain things to him."
Holly stared at her, confused for a moment. It wouldn't make sense for Estella to have suddenly decided it actually was a good idea to tell the LEP about the Jalingers. There must have been another plan brewing.
Estella turned toward the gnome who, sensing calm, was starting to creep out into the open once again. She put on a sad but controlled face and launched into her story, "You don't need to worry about the building blowing up sir. I know for a fact that Foaly is not performing any experiments as dangerous as the incident that has so scarred everyone here, you have nothing to worry about as far as that's concerned. You see I'm Foaly's beloved little sister and he always tells me about what he's working on. Normally I wouldn't want to interrupt him while he's at work but something very serious has happened in our family and he has to know about it right away,"
Estella paused for a moment looking somber. "I don't want to go into the particulars but this incident is what caused this injury on my leg, the others were far worse off." She sniffed as if holding back tears. "Ms. Short happened to be in the area and was kind enough to take me here so I could speak with my brother, won't you please let me see him?"
The gnome sniffled slightly, he had always had a soft spot for tragic stories. He signaled for the gremlins to release Holly and took Estella's hand. "Oh you poor girl," he said, "of course you can see your brother. I hope everything works out for you. Here, this is the key to the tech ops booth. It won't actually open the door for you but it will stop whatever he's doing and let him know you're here."
With that the gnome waved them off and went back to his desk feeling sad but very accomplished for having helped the young centaur girl.
Meanwhile Estella was wondering if it was possible to get sick from melodrama. Had she had time she would have liked to come up with a cover story that wasn't oozing with sap but she had known she had to act quickly or whatever she said wouldn't have seemed believable simply because it had taken her so long to say anything. At least it was over now and the plan had worked.
"Just out of curiosity Estella," asked Holly as they traveled down the hall, "how do we know we aren't about to get the building blown up?"
"Well, we don't actually know but I think Foaly knows that even he can't get away with that kind of destruction twice. I'm sure he wouldn't be doing anything that dangerous again."
"Maybe."
Estella looked up when Holly touched her arm. She had apparently been about to go the wrong way, the centaur had never been inside the LEP station before. Holly knew this but she was still smirking when she corrected Estella's path. "Come along Ms. Lunos, your beloved big brother is this way."
She would have made a snappy comeback but she knew this wasn't the time. 'Mission first, pay-back second' she chanted in her head. Soon they were outside the tech ops booth and Holly was putting in the key-card the gnome had given them.
This particular card had been created after the goblin rebellion when the LEP had briefly believed that Foaly had betrayed them all. The Council had realized how easily they could be at the genius centaur's mercy if he ever actually did turn on them. They had then ordered Foaly to create a key that could be used to access his booth in emergency situations. Of course the paranoid centaur had wanted none of this and so request turned into a series of fiery emails which had only settled when a compromise had been reached. Foaly agreed to create a key, but one that wouldn't open his door but simply disable certain systems he might be using at the time. At least that's what he told the Council, in actuality all key did was act as a sort of doorbell for him. Thus when Holly first entered the card into its slot Foaly did not awake for several minutes. He finally opened his eyes when the incessant ding-dongs began to annoy him, he looked up at his monitor to see who it was.
Estella and Holly had been waiting outside Foaly's door for ten minutes after entering the key-card and had been about to leave to seek out another technician to try and break them in when the door opened and Foaly jumped out.
"Sorry to keep you two waiting, you, ah, caught me in the middle of something." He scratched his nose nervously. "Anyway you obviously have something important to say if you came all the way here, come on in."
He then took Estella's hand and led her inside the technology fortress, Holly was forced to make the short journey unaided but it didn't exactly bother her. She also decided to give Foaly a chance to show off his inventions for a few minutes, Estella was suitably impressed, and then it was time to get down to business.
After a sound thump upon the head similar to the one he had gotten after his first meeting with Estella Foaly was ready to pay attention. The entire explanation took about half an hour to get through but when it was done the technician didn't waste any time, he immediately went to his computer and started running the security footage again, looking at it with a new intensity.
The two women were quiet for almost a full five minutes, Estella determinedly examining the floor and Holly waiting for one of the centaurs to speak to the other. At last Estella broke the silence.
"Holly, could you heal my leg? It's been hurting for a while now."
The elf blinked, surprised that she hadn't thought to do this before, and knelt by the girl's hind leg. Soon blue sparks were shooting from Holly's hand and the wound began to disappear, however the awkward silence had returned and when Holly had finished the healing Estella looked like she was in more pain than before. At least then she had had a wound on the outside. All throughout Holly's speech Foaly had not once looked at her. Estella could only assume the worst, he must hate her now that he knew what a horrible thing her father was involved in and that she had been hiding the truth for so long.
Though the rejection hurt Estella was determined to bear it with dignity, the important thing was that Foaly was still helping them and right now they all had more important things to worry about than a broken heart.
"Well it looks like our job here is done Holly," said Estella bravely. "We should probably leave Foaly to his work now; we don't want to distract him."
Holly hesitated a moment, it was true that Foaly's work right now should be top priority, if faeries attacked the mud men it would be catastrophic, but she couldn't just leave things the way they were.
"You go ahead, I'll be right there." Once Estella had left Holly turned back to the intently working technician. "So does it really bother you that much?"
Foaly didn't look away from the screen but did pause the video feed. "That the most feared faerie group in history is active again and we may be on the brink of faerie exposure on a wide scale leading to a possible war with the mud men? Yes, that bothers me a bit, why do you ask?"
"Not that Foaly, I meant the truth about Mamilton's past and how Estella's been protecting him all this time. I was just surprised that you were so cold to her just now."
This time Foaly did look away from the computer screen, his face a mixture of confusion and incredulity. "What are you talking about? Mamilton's past is long behind him now and who could blame Estella for protecting him? He is her father."
Now it was Holly's turn to be confused, "Then why didn't you say anything to her just now? Or even look at her?"
"Well, I needed to get to work on decoding the sign language didn't I? It's the best chance we have right now finding out what the Jalingers are up to." The centaur's face was full of innocence but Holly only saw it as annoying ignorance as she gave him the second whack upside the head he had earned that hour.
"You idiot!" she exclaimed. "Estella was petrified to tell you the truth, she was sure you would hate her because of it, and now you've let her walk away thinking just that!"
Foaly stared for a moment, he may have been a technological genius but as clichéd as it was he didn't know much when it came to relationships. "So, what should I do?"
Holly slapped her forehead. "Go after her! Catch her before she leaves the building and make sure she knows how you really feel." Before he had a chance to respond Holly had pushed him out the door.
Luckily for Foaly Estella hadn't gone very far, she hadn't wanted to go outside alone and had been going slowly in the hopes that Holly would soon catch up with her, that and the fact that she really wasn't eager to rejoin Mulch. Foaly caught up with her a few cubicle rows down from the tech ops booth.
"Hey!" he called out, "Wait up!"
Estella turned around, a feat rather difficult in the narrow cubicle lined aisle, and looked at him in surprise, this made the moment even more awkward for Foaly.
"I, er, just realized that you may have gotten a wrong impression just now. I wasn't talking to you a minute ago because I thought I should get right to work but, um, you might have thought I was mad at you," Foaly blushed and looked at the ground, "or something like that. But I'm not, I don't think you've done anything to be ashamed of; I'd probably have done the same thing. So just so you know I still like you. A lot."
As Foaly stood there red-faced and rambling he could only think that he was glad the staff of their current area was in a five-hour meeting just then, if word got that there was a girl he liked he would never hear the end of it. Just then however all such thoughts were driven from his head as he suddenly found himself in a tight embrace courtesy of Estella.
"Thank you," she said her head on his shoulder, "that means a lot to me."
Foaly was blushing again but now it had nothing to do with being embarrassed as he gladly returned the hug. This seemed to give Estella courage and she slowly lifted her head to look Foaly in the eye, then in one decisive motion she moved forward and the couple had their very first kiss. It was quite the Kodak moment.
A few moments later they stepped apart and stared at the ground, both blushing furiously now. When they finally looked up Foaly smiled and broke the silence.
"Well, I guess we both have a lot of work to do now, we should probably get started."
Estella returned the smile, "Yes, I'll try to investigate the situation further with Mulch and Holly."
"Alright, be careful." Estella nodded and started to walk away when Foaly called out one more time. "Oh, Estella!" she turned her head; "I'll be coming by to see you soon, is that alright?"
The female centaur's grin broadened, "That sounds wonderful, I look forward to it."
As he walked back to his operations booth Foaly was still smiling, he had previously detested trying to decode Mamilton's mysterious sign language, it had been too tedious, but he was now sure he had more than enough motivation to get it done.
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A/N: There, THERE now it's done and I just want to freeze it, take a picture, and hang it on my wall. I don't think authors are allowed to like their own pairings this much but I don't care. I was squealing to myself just as I wrote that wonderful KISS scene. My god it's gotten so bad I keep thinking that I'll go look for other fanfiction with Foaly and Estella but then I realize that there are no others, there are barely any Foaly pairing stories at all! And almost all those stories are with Holly! (No offense to Holly/Foaly shippers I just prefer my pairings to have the same number of legs.) Ok, here's my challenge: write a one-shot piece of Foaly/Estella. It can be as long or short as you want and involve anything, it could have nothing to do with The Charity Case or it could just be their perspectives on a certain scene. I'll put the winner in my livejournal (though you are free to post it as well) and put the author in an upcoming scene of The Charity Case. I've already received an entry from my beta editor Inkheart. It all makes me so happy.
As for another less demanding (and egocentric) contest who is your favorite character in the story thus far? I have two categories: favorite original character and favoritely portrayed cannon character. Kindly vote! I must know!
As for Artemis's side of the story I'm afraid I've left you with a bit of a cliff hanger. As with many of my chapters I had to cut a long scene in half so that I wouldn't keep my readers waiting for a ridiculous amount of time for an update. Also I had been starting to wonder if anyone even bothered to read my author's notes since I don't usually get many responses, the last chapter certainly answered that. It seems everyone wants Artemis to get paired and right now he probably will. I received an incredibly long review from The Hands of Fate and Destiny on the subject and I have given it an equally long response on my livejournal under the heading of WOW.
Now on a sadder note I must say that my time of constant writing ability is near an end for me as well as many others. My school will be reopening soon and that means much less spare time for me. Of course I have no intention of abandoning this story, it's the center of my creative energies right now, but I'm afraid there will be far more time between updates. I'll try to write as much of chapter eleven as I can in the meantime though, with a bit of luck school will barely interfere with my posting it. Anyway, thank you all for your encouragement I only hope I do not disappoint.