Well we've been everywhere except for Haven, I think it's about time we go there, don't you?

Police Plaza, Haven

The cyber attack on the LEP had crippled Haven, but what had been worse was the actual assault on Police Plaza that had followed. Corruption inside the LEP had run a lot deeper than anybody had thought, even with the previous discoveries of Ramon Stone and Chriton Salt. They still didn't know who was behind the attack, not fully, but they knew it had come from within the Police Force. And whoever they were working for commanded a large army, one that had laid siege to the station. They were defeated, but not without cost. 13 officers lost their lives whilst 1 more was permanently paralysed from the waist down. Artemis had been shot 3 times, but lived, namely because he was Artemis Fowl and his suit was custom made and Neutrino-proof. The firefight had affected everyone, but other than the officers who had been killed or disabled, it had probably affected Holly the most. She hadn't seen Artemis since that fateful day. Sure, they had been talking over video calls, but she hadn't seen him in person. She didn't know if she could.

Holly walked up to Foaly's ops booth. It was one of the few places that Holly felt safe within the LEP now that they knew anybody could secretly be a traitor. Foaly especially had gone super paranoid, and now only Holly and Artemis were ever allowed near his booth, and even then Holly was fairly sure he had lost at least some of the trust he had in them, as much as he tried to hide it. Nobody could be sure of anybody anymore. The ops booth had, at least, managed to survive through not just the hack but also the assault, meaning most of Foaly's equipment was still functional and basically powering the LEP. If that had gone too, Police Plaza may as well have shut its doors, which Holly always suspected was the aim of whoever orchestrated it. Eventually, after banging on the glass window of Foaly's ops booth for a while, he let Holly in.

"Hey Holly" Foaly said, retreating back to his seat. "It's nice to see you."
"Likewise" Holly replied, taking a seat across from him. "Any news on the Suits?"
Holly and Foaly had nicknames the people who had attacked the LEP as the 'Suits', because they were all disguised like wealthy businessmen, plus what could have been described as high end ski masks.
"No, I'm still at a dead end. We can hypothesise that whoever orchestrated this has links to Haven Maximum Security, because all of the assailants that we killed were former inmates that had been released somewhere in the past month or two prior to the attack, all due to 'good behaviour'."
"Which we believe to be doctored" Holly said.
"Correct. Even if we couldn't UV blast the paper copies and see that they had been overlaid, the fact is some of these former inmates were violent murderers who should never have been released."
"That still doesn't sound right to me" Holly said, searching her brain whilst her eyes aimlessly wandered around the room. "How can murderers serving life sentences be released and nobody bat an eyelid. Surely somebody would have realised."
"All of the inmates that were released went through one prison officer, Ferran Goy."
"Why didn't you say!" Holly nearly shouted, "We can go and arrest him!"
"I didn't tell you because there was no point" Foaly replied, warily tailing off at the end. "Ferran Goy was murdered the day after the attack. Execution style too, Neutrino to the back of the head. But he was murdered up in the Haven Heights, miles from anywhere remotely populated, with no witnesses and absolutely no evidence to help us. No murder weapon, no fingerprints or footprints, nothing. There was nothing unusual in his financials, no reason we can think of why he would be leveraged. We have nothing. We know Ferran Goy got all the people out, but who he got them out for we have no idea."
"So we're back to square one" Holly said quietly, sinking back into her seat.
"Try square minus one" Foaly countered. "Because we haven't been able to get anywhere near figuring out where the hack came from, let alone who did it."
"Why don't you ask Artemis?" Holly asked. Foaly shook his head.
"Artemis has his own problems to deal with right now, mostly trying not to kill himself."
"I'm sorry?" Holly's head shot up.
"He didn't tell you?" Foaly asked. Then it dawned on him. "Oh, he didn't tell you."
"Didn't tell me what?"
"He swore me to secrecy. I thought he was going to tell you too. Though, now I think about it, I can see why he wouldn't want to."
"What is he doing?" Holly grated. Foaly exhaled deeply, looked at Holly and then exhaled again.
"He's hooking himself up to Opal Koboi's Energy Matrix to see if he can channel the energy successfully."
"HE'S WHAT?!" Holly exploded.
"Dear Frond, calm down Holly. I've seen the schematic for the equipment Artemis and his father have rigged up, and there are so many suppressors that I doubt he'll be able to channel enough energy to kill him anyway. It's a waste of time if you ask me."
"I suppose" Holly said, rubbing her hand against her forehead, "If he's doing this with his father, it's not a surprise he didn't tell me. I can't say his father trusts me too much. I still wish I hadn't had to let Artemis Sr. in on the fact we all existed. Things would have been so much easier."
"And yet somehow, despite letting him know that the world of The People exists under the ground, you still managed not to let him know that you and Artemis were together."
"One bombshell at a time. Remember this was supposed to be part of the plan of letting Artemis' parents know I was pregnant."
Holly stopped dead at the end of her sentence. Foaly walked over to her, realising what she'd just said to herself, and put a hand on her shoulder. Holly looked up at his, and repeated just the one word from her previous line.

"Was."

*BOMBSHELL KLAXON*