At fifteen years old, the subject, Artemis Fowl, was without a doubt the world's best criminal mastermind. In the three years since his scandalous encounter with the fairies, namely Holly Short and the LEPrecon, he had amassed more than enough money to cover whatever losses his family fortune had suffered. Through various criminal enterprises, the brilliant mind that was Artemis Fowl had eluded the smartest detectives and pulled off impossible heist after another. If you asked him, he would also remind you that he has a book published, a bestseller, written under the pseudonym Dr. F. Roy Dean Schlippe. An ingenious nonfiction musing on the enigma of the human mind, and one that had earned 'Dr. Schlippe quite a bit of publicity and money'
Now, he was about to pull off a small time job. A simple matter of deception that would add another couple grand to the Fowl fortune.
Even being arguably the most intelligent person in the world, he could have no way of knowing the trouble that this petty crime would cause down the road . . .
In the back of his Bentley, fifteen-year-old Artemis was busy checking the briefcase, a brown, leather one that appeared hold twenty-thousand dollars in cash. 'Appeared' being the operative word in this particular situation.
The Bentley pulled to a gentle stop in an alley. A large, six foot plus Eurasian man, Artemis's bodyguard whom he referred to as Butler, stepped out, taking the brown leather briefcase with him. Although Artemis had masterminded and even devised the entire scheme, Butler would be the one to actually handle the transaction.
The other car parked not two meters from Fowl's Bentley no doubt contained the other party. Artemis watched with interest as the door of the Rolls Royce opened. It was quite dark outside with nothing but a crescent moon to provide any sort of light, but night vision glasses he wore gave him crystal clear vision as a man and a woman stepped out of the car. Both wore floor length black dusters and one held a box.
Perfect.
Artemis adjusted a small knob on the glasses, enhancing the image. They were video linked to a small camera that Butler had attached to his own glasses. In essence, Artemis could see whatever Butler saw. The technology was really light years ahead of the most sophisticated human technology, a little gift that he'd 'borrowed from the fairies in his dealings with them. No doubt his collection of fairy technology had been invaluable to him in past dealings.
"Do you have the cash?"
Artemis heard the question through the receiver built into his laptop. Butler had the microphone, which currently resting in his suit pocket. It was a handy system intended so that Artemis could more clearly observe what was going on outside.
Butler needed no prompting. "Yes, right here." He nodded towards his briefcase.
"Slide it over here."
Butler hesitated, but Artemis hissed through the comm. System, "do it."
Butler placed the briefcase on the ground and kicked it expertly across the ground. One of them, the woman, stepped forward, bent down, and picked it up off the ground. In two seconds, she had it open. Butler knew she would find that the bills were all there.
Artemis watched from the car as the woman pulled a scanner out of her pocket, just like he'd anticipated. She ran it over the bills quickly and efficiently, nodding to her partner when it was all done.
The man stepped forward, opting to hand Butler the box. Butler opened it and looked inside. There lay a solitary disk.
"It looks legitimate," he whispered to Artemis through the comm link.
"Yes, it does, but we would be foolish not to check."
"Of course." Butler extricated something resembling a PDA from his pocket. He inserted the disk and, pressed a small red button, sending the information directly to Artemis's laptop. (another little bit of fairy technology.)
Artemis quickly scanned through it with eyes that could absorb and process information faster than most anyone alive. "It's good."
Butler smiled. He always liked it when a deal went well, at least when it went well for Artemis. "Pleasure doing business with you," he said genially.
"Likewise, replied the man and the woman simultaneously. "We assume you have everything you want."
"Yes."
Wordlessly, the two slid back into the Rolls Royce. In a matter of seconds, the car was driving away.
Artemis waited until he returned to Fowl Manor to more thoroughly examine his prize. It was late at night and his parents were both in bed, so the only sound being made was by Butler's sister Juliet talking on the phone, probably with a member of the opposite sex.
Fowl went to his study and slid the disk inside of his PC. A few lightning fast keystrokes later, strange symbols suddenly appeared on the screen in an odd and seemingly senseless configuration. Artemis would have been perplexed if he didn't already know how to decipher the code, or rather, the language. Gnommish.
He had designed a program years ago that could decipher the puzzling language, one that he used now. It took about a minute given the many translative differences the computer had to overcome, but soon enough the entire text contained on the disk was reduced to English. Reduced because some of the characters which simply could not convert had been lost.
"My my," he muttered to himself, or rather, to the person that had given it to him, "if only you knew what it was you had." He was sure that if they had , they would never have given it up for such a small price. How small a price, they were abut to find out.
Giselle Thebedeaux was waiting in her room when her two assistants, the twins Cameron and Carrie, entered. They were both in their late twenties, and had faces and bodies that seemed to conform to whatever society considered attractive at the time. That was the least of their blessings though, as they also possessed extensive training in martial arts and the use of firearms, a useful talent, for they also served as Giselle's bodyguards.
Giselle smiled when she saw the briefcase that Carrie held in her hand. The fourteen year old braniac immediately hopped off of her bed. Standing at around five feet seven inches, Giselle possessed long, dark hair that she preferred to wear up in a ponytail. She had graciously slanted black eyes and an aristocratic nose, the only physical characteristic she had inherited from her father. The rest of her features were decidedly Asian, as her mother was the daughter of a Vietnamese businessman who had married a French multi-millionaire.
Her mental capacities were astounding. There is no other way to put it, for this girl was a true genius. Not only in knowledge, but in cunning and intelligence. At age four, she had been able to play Symphony No. 6 flawlessly on the piano, and was just as talented in other instruments, such as the harp, the flute, and even the tuba. By the time Giselle was six, she was being rushed into high school level courses. She knew far more than the teachers and Professor's themselves however, so after she had caused the resignation of two highly esteemed teachers at the Foxbury School for Young Ladies, her parents had designed to just take her out of school and let her teach herself.
Giselle took advantage of this of course. She had considered school to be a silly waste of time anyway, and now she was free to invest her time in her own pursuits, like writing novels and playing in orchestras in symphonies all across Europe and even in America.
Tonight though, tonight was the first time that she had actually done something like this. It had all started the previous month when she had been touring Ireland and happened to run across a small book, about the dimensions of matchbox. On the cover was several strange symbols and inside, the book was filled with a code that even her best software could not figure out.
Somehow, she had no idea exactly how, but somehow, someone had found out about this and contacted her, offering to give her a large sum of money for just a copy of the book.
It was suspicious. There were several unanswered questions, such as how this mysterious person who referred to his/her self as AF had even known about it, not to mention that he or she was willing to pay a large sum of money for what appeared to be a bunch of nothing. Money was money however, and if AF wanted it so bad, then AF could have it. Giselle sure hadn't been able to do anything with it.
"So you have the money?" Giselle asked, excitement creeping into her voice.
"Yep," said Carrie. It was a word she had picked up in America, and now seemed to use all the time. Carrie handed Giselle the briefcase.
With a grin, Giselle took it and sat down. She flipped it open with blinding speed and looked down at her reward. There it was. Tons of stacks of bills just lying there.
"They're perfectly legit," said Carrie. Another word she'd gotten from the West.
Giselle's mind had just started to toy with the different ways she could spend the money when she noticed a strange smell that seemed to be emanating from the briefcase.
"What the-" was all she managed to get out before the money literally melted right in front of her. It was giving off a strange fume, and then its entire consistency changed from solid to semi-liquid, a paste like substance that smelled absolutely horrific and melded together into one huge blob of green goo.
Giselle was dumbfounded. Her mouth dropped open and she couldn't speak for a moment. Even when she tried, it was a hoarse croak. It wasn't hard for her advanced mind to figure out what had happened. She'd been swindled!
Her shock subsided soon enough and it was replaced by rage, although you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at her. When Giselle became angry , she rarely showed it. She'd been tricked, duped, bamboozled. A genius she was, and yet she'd been played like a fool. Her pride had taken a very significant blow.
But she would get her revenge.
"Do you want me to throw this out?" Cameron asked, referring to the gunk that now filled the briefcase.
Giselle shook her head, still seething with anger. "No," she said. "Take it to the lab, I want to analyze it myself. And give me the footage from the transaction." She'd recorded the entire thing as a backup, and it looked like that would come in handy after all. She promised herself that she would make Mr. AF rue the day he'd decided to cheat Giselle Thebedeaux. And if there was any one quality that Giselle possessed, it was that she always kept her promises.
"Right about now," Artemis told Butler, "they will probably have discovered my little surprise."
Butler didn't say anything. He had no doubt that Artemis was 100% correct. He had a knack for these things.
"I imagine that Giss. T., probably a female, will be experiencing a bit of rage.
Giss. T. was the codename that the other party had used. Of course, unknown to Artemis it stood for Giselle Thebedeaux
"She will attempt retaliation," Artemis continued, "or at least think about it. After all, she was just cheated out of twenty thousand dollars. Not to worry though, this Giss T. is harmless, she can't hurt us."
It was one of the few times that Artemis Fowl had ever been wrong in his life.