Despite having the plan sprung on him only a few minutes beforehand, Foaly had plenty of technology to kit Holly and Artemis up with. Unfortunately, most of it wasn't useful in the confines of a maximum security prison. As such, Foaly went with the minimum he could fit in that wouldn't look out of place. As Holly wasn't technically LEP due to her suspension, she was going into the prison as a civilian, and therefore she wasn't allowed to bring in a gun. To get around this, Foaly gave her one of his prototype composite guns, the Xtro-99- designed as such that it is undetectable and completely camouflaged until the user wanted to activate it. There was only one of those, not that it bothered Artemis too greatly. There were other problems too.
"I can't send you in a LEP suit, which makes it difficult for me to monitor you. I do, however, have another prototype." Foaly opened a draw, shuffled a few spare parts out of the way, and then pulled out two yellow, cone shaped devices.
"You're replacing my suit and helmet with that thing?" Holly enquired.
"Yes. You put it in your ear."
"You haven't tested it yet, have you?" Artemis asked. Foaly shook his head.
"No, it's a very new design, but the theory is sound. At least, it is for The People; I didn't anticipate having to use it for a mud boy."
"Why were you making it?" Holly asked. "It's not like the suits weren't doing a good enough job."
"Except they weren't. I was going to upgrade the suits, but I wanted to test the technology first with these."
"What technology?"
"Electro-Magnetic Interference cancellation." Artemis said, saying Foaly's sentence for him. "I have never seen this combination of metals before. It would certainly be revolutionary if it works."
"I developed it after a recovery team got trapped in a massive EM field. Hopefully the energy resistance created by metal interactions cancel out the EM field and allow the device to continue recording and transmitting vital signals and GPS."
"OK guys" Holly interrupted, "Far too much science."
"Fine" Foaly replied. "Just please don't break it, those metals are really difficult to manufacture together. Now, go find Koboi before Artemis manages to hack my systems through telekinesis."
"You mean that's it?!" Holly exclaimed. An invisible gun and a traffic cone earpiece were not her idea of going in prepared. It barely covered the basics.
"It's all I can risk sending you in with. If you try and take anything else in then you might blow this opportunity."
Fine, Holly thought, she'll just have to improvise.

They took a shuttle up to the prison. Holly had considered walking it, but it was just too far for them to make it worthwhile, especially considering Artemis wasn't the fittest mud boy on the surface. That's what he gets for a lack of exercise his whole life. In truth, the shuttle ride wasn't too bad; The shuttle wasn't too crowded and so they got to sit together at the back, away from everyone else. It was a quiet, yet comfortable ride. But, eventually, they had reached the prison. Just like Foaly had told them, they were processed through as civilians. Well, Holly was- Artemis had a bit more trouble getting past security until the head security guard realised who he was and let him straight in. If it hadn't been for his intervention, Holly was almost sure Artemis would have been stunned with a Neutrino and thrown in one of the cells himself.
"That was the most tiresome 20 minutes of my life" Artemis said once he was finally cleared.
"You try working here for 120 years of your life" The guard escorting them to Opal, Malloy, replied. "I get treated like crap by the prisoners, treated like a concierge by the visitors and paid less than half the people we put in here. D'Arvit, I wish I had a better job."
Artemis slapped him across the back of the head. "No need to swear."
He turned to Holly. "See what I mean."
"He hates swearing. Just don't do it infront of him next time Malloy, and you'll get off easy."
"As if you've never sworn before."
"Oh I have" Holly replied, "I just make sure I'm agile enough to avoid him."
Malloy lead them down a corridor, to a single room at the end. He led Holly and Artemis inside, staying beside the door himself just incase, as was protocol. The room was plain, the walls coloured the same awful grey that covered the rest of the prison. In the middle of the room was a single sheet of Neutrino proof- Among other things- glass composite. Once again, just incase. Sitting behind the glass was the unmistakable figure of Opal Koboi, looking every bit the evil genius that Holly remembered her from their many adventures. Standing at 1 metre tall- the same height as Holly- but with porcelain white skin and deep brown eyes, coupled with long, carbon black hair, she was almost the polar opposite to Holly, who had short, Auburn hair and nut brown skin. They did, at least, both have pointy ears, so that was something similar. There was no doubting that Opal was beautiful, something she pulled off without even trying, but that beauty was only material. Underneath it all was the devious mind that had not only tried to take over the world, twice, but also killed her former Commander and close friend, Julius Root. She could not be redeemed.
"Hello Holly, Artemis" She said from her chair, her eyes staring deep into their souls. "I know exactly why you're here."

Holly wasn't at all surprised Opal knew why they were there, Raine had visited her earlier about Kevoor so it wasn't too much of a stretch to see why Holly and Artemis wouldn't question her too. Well, maybe it was a little bit of a stretch that Artemis was down there, but not Holly.
"You know" Opal said, bringing Holly back to reality, "I've learned two very important things since I've been left to rot in this hell hole. One, never decide that it's a good idea to train somebody to take over from you once you're no longer in the position to take over the world. Turns out they end up hating you."
"You're talking about Flower Kevoor?" Holly asked, just to make sure.
"Well I haven't been training up anyone else, so yeah, Kevoor." Opal spat the last word with a ferocious hatred. Seems Opal and Flower hated each other just as much as the other.
"What's the second point?" This time it was Artemis who asked the question.
"You and Holly make a really cute couple."
Holly was pretty sure her jaw dropped to the floor. "How... What... HOW?"
"Oh come on, I saw the sparks between you the first time we all met each other. Though to be honest I rather wish I hadn't, I might be ruling the world at the moment if you two hadn't stopped me."
"Impressive" Was the only comment Artemis made. He didn't seem the least bit phased. "But seeing as time is rather precious at the moment, I'd quite like to get down to business. If you know why we're here, then you would have only agreed to talk to us if you had useful information. I would like to hear it."
"Oh I know why you're here, to stop that bitch who's trying to take my throne."
"Why do you hate her so much? She seems to be carrying on much the same way you were before you ended up here." Holly asked. She was almost worried Opal might pop a vein the way her face contorted at the question.
"Flower Kevoor has not done anything in my honour since I ended up here! I had it all planned out, and she knew what was to be done, every single word of it. Once she had carried out all of the steps, then I could return to my rightful place as Empress of the world! But no, she decided that she was going to try and destroy the world instead. How am I supposed to be an Empress, if there is no world left for me to rule!" Opal paused her rant for a second to catch her breath, then began laughing softly to herself. "I turned Flower Kevoor into a monster, in the hope that I would have somebody by my side that could think like me, so I didn't have to keep commanding around idiots like the Brill brothers. I made her what she is today- and, instead of creating my ideal partner, it seems I now have a new arch enemy. And like all my enemies, she has to be stopped."
"How do I know we can trust you to actually help us?" Holly said, still sceptical of Opal. Not that that's entirely surprising.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend" Opal replied smoothly. "And right now, that makes you my friends. Granted, you have no reason to trust me. But you would not have come to me if you did not believe I was you best chance of stopping Flower. It's a risk you're going to have to take."
"I'm aware of the risks" Artemis said, taking control. "What is your advice?"
"Every person, be them human or fairy, has a weakness. The best conceal that weakness to the point that nobody knows what it is, or find a way to make it affect them less. It's still a weakness. It's how you managed to put me in here, after all."
Holly thought back to when Opal plotted to use a human probe to 'expose' The People to the rest of the world, and she'd only been stopped because Artemis used her absolute love of truffles against her, by stealing them and replacing them with the very bombs Opal intended to use to carry out her plot. She went searching for her beloved truffles, opened the compartment, and boom, the bombs went off inside her own ship. She had escaped of course, but only made it so far before the LEP managed to arrest her.
"Flower has two main weaknesses, which she's not done a very good job of concealing. Her first weakness is control. She has to have control at all times, especially against somebody like Artemis Fowl, otherwise her plans start to fall apart rather quickly. But her second, and more important weakness, is me."

Opal closed her eyes as she reached the end of the sentence, and all hell broke loose.