"You know, you could just stay here." Trouble tried to tell his wife desperately as she practically waddled around the room, picking up supplies they had left lying around to put back in their bags. "Plenty of elves do when they're this close."
"Mm, no." She murmured, going over to him and handing him the bag. "Sorry, my darling. I hate being under Hilder-watch." Lili glanced outside their door at Hilder, a tech pad he was most definitely not paying attention to as he looked up at the door every 5 to 10 seconds, a cup of coffee steaming in his hand.
Trouble rolled his eyes, exasperated as he walked out of the doors to the island in the middle of the room. There were tech pads set in stations across the counter, and he pulled Lili carefully to him, pressing his lips against her blonde hair. "We need to go check in on Root and Foaly about Holly." He murmured.
"Take me home and sneak out the back," Lili muttered back to him, signing some of the documents on the device for her release. "I don't need to go with you."
"And you need to stay off your feet." Trouble told her a bit louder, not wanting Hilder to be even more suspicious because they were whispering to each other.
Lili looked up and smiled at her husband. She ran a hand through his short hair. "Like hell, I will."
Kelp rolled his eyes. "You've been talking with Holly too much." He picked up the rest of the bags, leading her out to go back home.
It was a silent ride on the way back home for them. Paranoid, Lili kept looking back, watching a car follow them the entire way back to their house. "He's still on us." She told him.
Trouble nodded, looking in the rearview mirror of the hovercar. "I'm going to drop you off, then make sure I'm not followed." He told her, reaching into his pocket and handing Lili a small device. "This is a security camera. Foaly was calling it a 'watchdog.' I snagged it right before I followed you to the hospital. Inconspicuously, set it where Hilder is placed. It'll camouflage itself and alert me if Hilder moves."
Lili nodded, closing her hand around it. "What do you think happened to Holly?" She asked, looking over at him with worry lining her eyes.
Trouble took a deep breath, thinking about the situation. He could still hear Holly's yell of "Artemis" before her communication cut out. It was like an echo now. A ghost. "I...Don't know. The Council can't know about this, and certainly not Hilder. Hopefully, Root has come up with some sort of plan while we were gone."
Lili nodded. "It would be nice to have people on the surface to help us in times like these." She leaned back, scrunching her nose. "People like….Fowl."
He scoffed at the name. "What would he do? This doesn't benefit him." Trouble remembered the selfish genius who only took action if it consequenced him for the better in return.
"He loved her."
"Lili, he was….What, 14, when we mind-wiped him?"
Lili looked at Trouble. "Not like that. Trubs, he cared about her. And Holly cared about him. You know how beat up she was when he died." This time it was her turn to scoff. "I just think that Fowl might be the only one that could save her right now...Or at least to have an ally like that on the surface."
"There is the rest of the Fowls." Trouble pointed out, turning into their driveway. "And Butler. But...They don't need to be dragged into LEP affairs again."
Lili shrugged. "I'm just saying, it's going to be a lot easier to have someone topside to help us with this." The car stopped and Lilli leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. "But, what do I know? I was only promoted to communications specialist what...6 years ago?"
After Trouble put the bags away and made sure Lili was safe in their house, he took her advice and snuck out the back door dressed in civilian clothes. Going around the corner, he walked nonchalantly to the building next door, looking around that corner to see Hilder's car. It was parked on the street. Although he couldn't see inside the hovercar because of the deeply tinted windows, He checked his phone to make sure Lili turned on the watchdog prototype, and he started to run back to the LEP Headquarters.
When he arrived there, Trouble went straight down to the Ops Booth. Root was sitting in Foaly's office waiting for him, his eyes downcast thoughtfully. However, as Trouble looked around the open room, he frowned. "Where's Foaly?"
Root looked up at him and sighed, leaning back on the white couch that he was in. No doubt Foaly had that put there for when Holly was staying late and needed a place to crash or talk. "He went up to the surface." He murmured, glancing down at the fungus cigar in his hand. He shrugged and lit it. The centaur wasn't there to stop him. "Fowl Manor." He finished, talking around the cigar now in his mouth.
Trouble went over to him, "What?"
Root got up, "It's the first place Holly would go if there was an emergency. And it would be nice to have connections to the surface right now. The Fowls are away, and the big one is taking care of the Manor."
"Won't Hilder and the Council suspect something?"
"Not if Foaly had a vacation coming up." Root responded, giving him a knowing look.
That just confused Trouble more. Foaly didn't take vacations. He was as much of a workaholic as Root and Holly. "What vacation? He hasn't turned in any paperwork. It would have gone through me, and I would have turned in to you."
Root snatched a Digi-pad off Foaly's table, tapping the screen a few times. He walked over to Trouble, pushing it into his hands before passing it and going over to Foaly's computer setup. "It got fast-tracked."
Trouble caught on very quickly after that, skimming over what Julius gave to him. He groaned and rolled his eyes, spinning to face him. "Oh, we're forging paperwork now?"
Root pulled up Holly's vitals right before her communications and suit cut out on Foaly's computer, speculating over it. "We have to keep it sane down here while Foaly and the mud man look for her." He sighed, shaking his head as Holly's voice echoed throughout the Ops Booth. "And we have to keep Hilder and the Council off our trail."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
It was quiet in the bunker, and the harsh lighting coming from the fluorescent lights above made the dark gray walls seem lighter than they actually were. There wasn't even the pounding of footsteps against the cold, concrete floor.
Jessica was sitting sideways across an armchair in the common area, her long legs swung over the side. She was donned in a black tank top and denim shorts and was absentmindedly examining her nails.
The sound of a large lock clicking rang out in front of her. A smirk spread across Jessica's lips and she flipped her long brown hair over her shoulder. The steel door in front of her jerked open before Troy and Cooper walked in. Jessica's smile dropped immediately at the sight of something missing. "Where's Artemis?" She almost hissed.
Troy walked over to the stainless steel counter in the common area, slamming his bag down and running his hand through his own hair. They didn't say anything in response, but that was all she needed.
Jessica swung her legs back over the arms of the chair to sit up, her hands going to grip the cushion under her as she leaned forward. "Aww, did Hawthorne's second-hand boys fail to capture his golden boy?" She rolled her eyes, "Told you your mission was a wash."
Cooper just rolled his eyes back, sitting on the stool next to the counter. He nursed his right arm, having hurt it when he fell out of the jet. Thankfully, he was tougher than most people gave him credit for. He also knew not to get sucked into Jessica's drama.
Troy, however, took everything against him personally. Just the sound of the idea of Artemis beating him made his blood boil with rage. Without a word, he strode over to Jessica and grasped a handful of her hair to yank her head back sharply. "Don't start," he growled, his feral eyes locked with Jessica's calm ones.
However, she wasn't startled at all by this, looking in his eyes and leaning into him. "You wouldn't dare do a single thing to me." Jessica practically purred. "That is...If you don't want to piss off Hawthorne even more. You know how he feels about us damaging each other."
Jessica stood up and pushed him away, fixing her dark curls. The smirk on her face told them just how carefree she was about them. She knew they weren't going to hurt her. Cooper just rolled his eyes at Troy because even though he let her go, he was still glaring at her as though he was ready to strike. "You know she's right." He mumbled, grabbing a water bottle and taking a gulp of it before continuing. "Just leave her alone before you get us all in even more trouble."
Sulking, Troy shook his head and let it go, walking back over to his bag. He started to rummage through it mindlessly, frowning. That was until the sound of footsteps began echoing down the staircase. "Troy. Cooper. Office. Now."
The hairs on the back of Cooper's neck stood up straight at the sound of Hawthorne's gruff voice. He exchanged looks with Troy before getting up. Jessica just smirked, looking smugly at them. Hawthorne did not sound happy at all.
"Good luck!" She called out sarcastically, watching the two men start to climb the stairs. This only earned an obscene gesture from Troy in return.
Upstairs, Cooper and Troy walked into Hawthorne's office. It was dark in the office, the same as the entire bunker. No natural light came in the room because there were no windows upstairs or downstairs. The only access to the outside was through the steel door downstairs.
Hawthorne's office was paneled in a dark wood, a couch to the side with a coffee table, and a desk parallels from the door. The older man was already back at his desk, standing up on the opposite side and looking over a file silently. He knew that Cooper and Troy were there, but waited a moment to start.
The two stood a couple feet apart from each other. Troy's hands were in the pockets of his black jeans, his feet apart as he waited for Hawthorne. Cooper stood in more of a formal stance. His hands clasped behind his back and feet apart, but his eyes were cast down to the hardwood floor.
Hawthorne snapped the file in his hand shut and he sighed. He threw it on the desk and walked around it. He leaned against the sighed, looking at the men in front of him. "Where's Artemis and the girl?" He asked, obviously rhetorically.
Troy and Cooper didn't say anything. Troy's eyes shifted to the side of the room while Cooper's stayed locked on the floor by his feet.
"Honestly!" Hawthorne continued. "You two combined should be able to incapacitate Artemis and bring him here. The girl he's with is just a low-level cop. What are you two capable of? Do I have to do everything myself around here?" His voice began to rise in his lecture to an enraged yell.
That made Troy roll his eyes and scoff. "Really? It's a surprise we didn't take out your favorite one? I don't suppose that has anything to do with the fact that you trained him the most?"
Hawthorne raised an eyebrow stoically, pushing off the desk and walking over to him. "Would you like to repeat that?"
Not the type of person to back down, Troy nodded and started confidently. "Yeah-"
Troy was cut off almost immediately by Hawthorne punching him straight in the jaw. Before he could get up, Hawthorne gripped the back of his neck and pushed him down. "Stay." He growled next to his ear, letting go of his neck after pushing him down further. "And don't say another word."
He made his way over to Cooper a few feet over, the blond's eyes still focused on the floor. "You want to say something smart too?"
Cooper's eyes flicked over to Troy, kneeling on the floor with his head down. "No, sir." He replied.
"Good." Hawthorne nodded at his response and strode back over to his desk, He walked over to the other side, sighing as he sat down in his chair. "Now. Do we know where he's going?" Hawthorne asked Cooper.
Glancing up at Hawthorne, Cooper ran a hand through his light hair as he thought back. "I glanced at the longitude and latitude in the cockpit. It seemed to be somewhere in central Ireland."
That made Hawthorne scoff, nodding to himself. "We'll need a few days to prepare. But I know exactly where he is."