"No," Artemis replied coolly, scanning the horizon for even the smallest hint of FBI agents or April, "I want to take care of them first."
"Ready to leave?" Kelp walked over and asked coldly. Apparently, his feelings towards Artemis hadn't changed. However, Artemis levelly met his eyes and replied just as calmly, "I'd like to find Miss April Reichards. Her mansion is undoubtedly filled with many potential additions to the Fowl Treasury."
Trouble's lip twitched as he wanted to give a sharp retort but instead merely shrugged.
***
Within 200 yards of the cave where Trouble's brigade resided, Kitty and Scheele heard voices. They hurried their pace, excited by the prospect of being able to bring the Omni Stone and Artemis Fowl to their commanders.
Scheele, who was a bit ahead of Kitty, suddenly gave a start. "Kit!" He stuttered, "Fairies!" And so there they were; about twenty fairies dressed in silver suits and armed with dangerous-looking weapons. Kitty sighed, memories awakening in her mind.
Memories she didn't want.
***
April jumped up with rare excitement as one of her agents returned and gave a quick bow.
"Well?" she demanded, her sharp glare trying to cut into Phillipe's hard gray ex-soldier eyes.
"He has been found, madame."
Resisting the urge to give an evil cackle, April limited herself to an uncommon genuine smile.
"But--"
"But?" April's smile dissolved into a displeased frown. She wasn't about to get excited if an annoying "but" chose to cut into her happiness.
"He has some people with him, madame."
"Phillipe." Speaking no more than necessary, April surveyed her uncomfortable agent.
"Some little people..."
A sharp intake of breath escaped April's delicate-looking mouth. "By little people, you surely do not mean..."
"Yes, it is so madame. Sir Fowl is in the company of fairies."
The lady of Reichards Manor concealed her shock. Now, there were only two choices she could make.
***
"Holly!" Foaly suddenly seemed to be right next to Captain Short, screaming at her.
She groaned. Pulling off her covers and turning on a light she groggily replied to her always on speaker. It was hooked up to every other speaker in Haven, Foaly's unfortunately included. "What do you want you annoyingly morning-ish centaur?" She demanded. In human time it was around 4 am and Holly had been sound asleep in her heather and goosedown bunk.
"When I read Butler the file of April Reichards something about her struck a bell in my oh-so-flawless memory."
Holly was silent. Foaly wanted her to say "so?" or something to indicate at least slight curiousity, but she was more interested in half-dozing.
"So I took her picture and ran a search on it in my oh-so-flawless network."
"Where to I fall into this?"
"Well you know my network?"
"With your oh-so-modest ego, how couldn't I?"
"It just so happens that I found a flaw."
*Record scratches and stops.*
"What kind of story is this?" Foaly demands, poking a hairy finger at the authoress.
"Action/mystery/suspense," Lily aka Meshdo innocently replies.
"My network is flawless." Foaly persists.
"But of course."
"So how is it that I found a flaw?"
"Get back in the story, 'oh-so-flawless' Foaly!" The omnipotent (irony, irony) Lily booms, to which Foaly grudgingly obliges.
*Suspenseful music resumes*
"A flaw? Oh dear, we're all doomed to oblivion!" Holly sarcastically replied, yawning.
"Yes. I found no resultes, so I did a search on 'April Reichards' instead, with one result."
"Only one! More omens of doom."
"So I select and lo and behold! Shat should I chance to come up with?"
"A page on the private life of Julius Root?" Holly asked, knowing she was being a bit over snappish. But being awakened early after 30 hours with no sleep wasn't appreciated on her part.
"No. I found a missing page alert."
"Oh." Holly speculated this. Foaly's network was supposed to be flawless, at least in the part that there were no lost or missing pages. This was because no one but Foaly could add or delete files. A hacker would have to be exceptionally skilled in order to get in.
The only question was, who was that exceptionally skilled?
***
Artemis was getting antsy. Where was that April? It was...around 4 am human time in Haven. That meant everyone was sleeping for at least another one to three hours. In fact, Kelp's whole squad was peacefully dozing.
Mulch Diggums was in Barcelona. Haven was somewhere around Spain, so it was around the same time there.. Mulch would want all adversaries to have eliminated eachother, until the only one left was who he could steal the stone from.
Wait...if Mulch had waited so long, he must have known there were multiple adversaries.
So, his goal would be to get rid of Kelps squad, take care of the FBI agents who thought they were hidden in that rocky outcrop, and evade the Mafiya. Plus escape Diggums long enough to arrive safely at Fowl Manor with the Stone.
Get rid of Trouble Kelp...now that would be easy.
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*cries* You hate me, don't you! You haaaaaaaate me!! You don't? Well then WHY AREN'T YOU REVIEWING?! Yes, those of you who do review, you are greatly appreciated. But, I want MORE reviews! So, in order to boost my reviews, I've come up with this little system thingy:
- Everyone who reviews gets a little sneak peak at the next chapter, which I will send by email. If you're a regular reviewer, email me and I can add you to my so-called mailing list.
- I'm not continuing any given chapter until I get at least 5 more reviews than I had for the previous chapter.
For the next chapter (which, by the way, will be called "Revelations" until further notice) I'm being lenient. If my lil review counter reads 40, you can expect a new chapter within the next coupe of days. I check my email every day and I have review alert on. ;) Anyway, to reiterate, REVIEW!!! Or I will be chastened to buy yet another shovel reserved for non-reviewers! (see profile)