I do not own Artemis Fowl.

Chapter 14

Constantine walked back across his lawn after the fairy had left his sight. Looking at the burn holes in the ground he sighed. "Oh well," he thought. "the grass needs to be cut anyway." It was a few hours before Artemis said he would call and hell, it was a good workout to mow about 2 acres of grass.

When Artemis finally did call, Constantine was in his basement and decked out in boxing gloves showing his 300 pound heavy bag who was the boss around here. Luckily he had his phone system running through the entire house and could answer it from the gym. Artemis was succinct, as always, simply telling him that, no, Holly had not come back yet, and would not return until after dark, and no, I didn't find anything useful in his gun, though Butler still has not heard back from one of his contacts, So yes, you can have your gun back, and no, I do have information for you, well why don't you come over so I can tell you what I've found, which was the original point of the call in the first place?

Constantine came over so that Artemis could tell him what he had found.

When Constantine pulled up the driveway to the manor, Butler, who had been waiting for him, was surprised to see him driving a 1967 Fleetwood Mac.

"Aren't bounty hunter's supposed to be inconspicuous?" Butler asked as Constantine stepped out of the red vehicle.

"ex bounty hunter my friend." He said, smiling. "I threw off that mantle when I got married. Didn't really have a choice, actually."

He laughed. But it sounded hollow and joyless to Butler. Butler just smiled and said, "Seems like a the dream." Sometimes misery wants company, sometimes it wants to be consoles, a lot of the time misery just wants to be agreed with. Butler had learned of the years that if someone is trying to hide their tears, the best thing to do is not to notice.

Artemis was waiting for the both of them inside Artemis' study, a projector projecting projections onto the wall opposite the door. A face of a man loomed in front of them. Constantine peered at man with great interest.

"Nice to see you again Constantine." Artemis said.

"Hello Artemis, Juliet." Constantine replied, with his usual charm.

Juliet nodded and smiled back at him. Butler glanced at his sister, a little surprised at her silence. He smiled inwardly to himself.

"Who's he?" Constantine asked Artemis.

"Honestly I was hoping you could tell me."

"You don't know?" In response Artemis smiled vampirically at the man. Constantine smacked his forehead. "I walked into that one."

"Quite. His name is Maximillian Kravchenko. He's a russian industrialist who works in steel."

"What's his connection to me?" Constantine started to feel like James Bond.

"Directly? None that I know of. Indirectly," with a few clicks on a laptop he pulled up a satellite picture of a gorge with a steel mill across one side. "This is his factory, just outside of Yaroslavl. The gorge is-"

"The place where I woke up." Constantine finished.

"Precisely. Also, he had another factory." Artemis' voice was soft, and hesitant.

"Had?" The smile had been gone from Constantine for some time.

"Yes. This factory is only four years old. He had a factor that was destroyed, almost entirely, in fact, seven years ago."

"S-Seven?" Constantine's eyes were wide.

"Yes."

Constantine was silent for a moment. Artemis studied him carefully, the same, listless, look was flashing in his eyes as before. Suddenly Artemis placed the look he noticed earlier in Constantine's library. It was confusion. "So what do we do?" Constantine looked at Artemis for direction.

"Fowl Industries is currently looking to buy steel for a line of products I am hoping to release. I am going to arrange a meeting with the man to inspect his product. My bodyguard and his protege will accompany me."

Constantine understood his part perfectly. "So I might be able to make him. What if he makes me?"

"Doubtful, we are going to make you up to look different than you would have 7 years ago, and If he is so inclined to actually try something in broad daylight when my company knows exactly where I am, then he will have to contend with two of the strongest men on earth, as well as, hopefully, Holly, armed and invisible. Counting on the fact that you are quite possibly the only human who can see through the fairy shield I think we should be okay."

"Alright then, what about the assassins who attacked?"

"Yes, well I think it's safe to say that the assassins were after you, not me."

"Why's that?" "Because, I've only been attacked once in my own house, to similar results." He glanced at Butler, flashing the manservant a quick smile. "So the house being attacked again after several years of reasonable peace on the same day that you show up is an incredible coincidence. Quite frankly, I've learned not to believe in coincidence."

Constantine nodded. It made sense, but it brought out something disturbing to him. That meant that just by being there, he had put these people in danger. People that had been nice to him, the closest thing he had had to friends in years. When he married his wife, he became an addition to her circle of friends. He didn't really have any otherwise. When she died, some of her family blamed him for the event, abandoning him right out. Others were nice in the beginning, but slowly faded out. The friends they had acted the same way, occasionally he would get invited to Christmas parties. Occasionally he went to them, but otherwise, he was alone a lot of the time. This only strengthened his resolve to find his past.

"So when do we start?"

"Tonight. Butler will start training you tonight on how to act as if you were a true blue diamond bodyguard, you may go home tonight afterwards, but come back tomorrow morning so the preparations can continue, and we may have to leave at a moments notice depending on when the appointment is made for."

"Alright." Constantine stood up and he smiled again at Artemis. "Thank you."

Artemis, slightly taken aback, smiled back at Constantine. "Anytime."

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