Artemis Fowl stayed up very late the next night, which was not in and of
itself unusual unless coupled with the fact that his reasons for doing so
stemmed entirely from his inability to decipher the meaning of the
characters that were on the disk. A rare occurrence if there ever was one.
The boy genius was simply baffled, and it was only recently that he'd been
able to come to terms with this new revelation. He wondered if perhaps he'd
been duped. Probably not, as far as he knew, he was the only human alive
with the ability to understand gnomish, and to fabricate the language would
require extensive knowledge on the language and the Fairy world.
"Is everything alright?" Butler asked.
"It will be soon," Artemis promised. "Butler, would you please inform me when twenty minutes have elapsed."
"Yes, but why?"
"By then, I should have decoded this language. It's a mental exercise, nothing more."
"Very well then."
"Thank you." Artemis turned back to the disk. The titles were easily decoded, as they were written in gnommish. Artemis figured that this meant the title had been added later, because the language that lay in the actual writings was quite different. It made sense, why should the fairy language have remained consistent over thousands of years? Human language certainly did not.
Artemis made a mental list of similarities between this and gnommish in his mind. Like the language that the fairies currently used, this was pictoral. It shared some other features as well. The basic syntax and structure seemed to be the same-but then what was the difference? Probably just the actual meaning of the words and the method of arrangement. One could find a similar occurrence when trying to translate Spanish into English-or more accurately-Latin into English.
He was much more optimistic now. It was a solvable conundrum after all. "Butler, how much time is left?"
"Seventeen minutes, sir."
Artemis cracked his knuckles, and then put his hand on the mouse, when all of the sudden, an alarm message popped up on his screen, invading the entire monitor with a most interesting report.
Artemis had many safeguards to protect his privacy, and one of them was a bit of software that hybridized human and fairy technology. It was set to immediately alert Artemis when anyone tried to access his or Butler's files, leaving Artemis to decide what to do about it.
He mentally calculated the time he had left if he were to pass his own test. He would have to make this quick. First, he accessed the basic information for this unknown person or persons who had apparently decided to nose into his affairs. The email address was gthebedeaux@aol.com Now to find out who this email address belonged to. This turned out to be a bit more difficult, but Artemis was a little bit surprised at the name.
Butler, who had been watching Artemis frowned. "The most peculiar name I've ever seen, he murmured.
"Giselle Thebedeaux," Artemis said, flawlessly pronouncing the name. "I recognize the name Thebedeaux from somewhere." Artemis thought for a moment. "I believe that your sister possessed a video game system that is produced by Link Inc."
Butler stifled a grin at the unimaginative company name. "But what does that have to do with this Thebedeaux person?"
Deciding not to point out the flaws in Butlers pronunciation, Artemis answered, "The company's CEO is a man by the name of Thebedeaux."
"Then it would seem that he is the one who is trying to access your files."
Artemis shook his head. gthebedeaux@aol.com is not this man's email address. Artemis turned around. "You are still accounting for the time, yes?
"Yes."
"Good."
Butler just watched the clock as the boy genius he had sworn to protect typed away furiously on his computer. He opened window after window, did search after search, and sometimes stopped to let the computer that was his mind figure out a problem.
"Time," Butler called. When the second hand finally reached its destination for the last time.
Fowl eyed the screen. He was no longer typing. "That was invigorating," he declared, "I shall have to do this more often."
"Did you get the information you were looking for?" inquired Butler.
"Yes." Artemis pushed a few keys on the keyboard. And a Hodgepodge of letters filled the screen. They were in English of course, and if one looked closely, they could even be read. Artemis had managed to convert the entire grammatical structure as well as translate as well as convert this more graphic based language into the closest thing the symbols had to an English counterpart.
That was only half of what Butler had been referring to when he said information, so Artemis closed the text window and brought up a different file. Giselle Thebedeaux, daughter of Jaques Thebedeaux and Kim Le Thao, is our culprit. Surprising actually, as I suspect she might be even younger than I am. The important thing though, is that if I trace all of my dealings with GT in the past weeks, I find that GT and Giselle Thebedeaux are one and the same. Given that, it is not hard to reconstruct what has happened. I imagine that she has considerable resources at her disposal, so after discovering my deception, she tried to find me. I anticipated as much."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"Nothing. If Ms. Thebedeaux attempts to move against me, I will take appropriate actions though. In the meantime, I am going to eat dinner. If any more alerts should arise, tell me."
"Yes sir."
***
"OK Foaly, I think you have a bit of a problem," Holly said. It was a statement that could have won the Understatement of the Year Award.
Foaly grimaced. It was not a pleasant sight that lay before him. In LEP Headquarters, almost every single agent returning from a mission was puking their guts out-it was worse than the Fowl Incident where LEP had unwittingly sent a force into the Fowl Manor, mistakenly thinking that the criminal mastermind was dead.
"What do you think it is?" This question came from Trouble Kelp, the only officer other than Holly not to have come down with vomiting.
Foaly gave the centaur equivalent of a sigh. "It must be the APITA," he said. "It is the only common denominator here."
"I knew it," Holly muttered. "Anything with a name that stupid is bound to malfunction."
"On the contrary," said Foaly, "The APITAs worked perfectly. It was the operatives instead who 'malfunctioned'. I'll have to take a closer look at all the units, because frankly, it could be any number of things that is causing this violent reaction to the subatomic molecular alteration process that allows for the instant transmission."
Holly groaned and then pushed open the door so she could leave. The whole place was starting to smell like fairy vomit, which makes its human counterpart smell like fresh spring flowers by comparison.
At least the TED's weren't displaying any unpleasant side effects. Holly had practiced using the weapon many times in the firing range, imagining that each target was that wily little goblin Fyri. It had worked to perfection, and Holly hoped the new TED would work just as well against the real thing. She was itching for a rematch. It had been a smart move on Fyri's part to take advantage of the mud People's presence, but when Holly caught up with him, there would be no Mud People around. Just him, her, and a thermal energy shockwave up his-
She didn't have time to complete the thought, as one of the technicians that had been assigned to find the rogue goblin rushed up to her, almost bowling her over. He was a sprite, who apparently seemed to have fallen prey to the newest fad among the fairies. Body art, one of the aspects of human culture that had wormed its way into the Lower Elements. This particular sprite had a tattoo on his forehead that read LEP and several earrings in his ears. Holly couldn't believe that there wasn't some protocol or another that forbade such a disgusting way of defacing one's body.
"Did you find anything?" she asked.
"Yeth Come wiff me."
Holly frowned. His voice sounded a little bit strange. Then she noticed the studded ornament on the guy's tongue.
She shuddered.
He led her to a room where similarly dressed technicians were clustered all over a readout screen. "What is it?" she asked.
Fyri's locator. It was slightly damaged, but we still managed to triangulate Fyri's location."
"Is he moving?"
"Yes. Quite rapidly I might add."
Holly was already doing mental calculations in her head. "Where exactly is he?"
"England. The most specific I can give right now."
Vague, but the fact that Fyri was a two and a half foot monster who conjured fireballs and licked his eyeballs would make the search easier. There would be dozens of sightings no doubt, and sooner or later, Holly would catch up with him.
***
It was not the first time that LEP intelligence had been wrong, and it would not be the last. The blunder that they had made though was inexcusable. One would think that after having had the same trick pulled on them twice by both Artemis Fowl and Mulch Diggums, they wouldn't be so easily duped.
Fyri was not in London. He was nowhere near London. He was in fact not far from the site at which Holly had last seen him. He had no way of knowing whether or not LEP really believed the dead end he'd created, but it was his experience that the LEP were especially slow learners.
The locator that they were no doubt using to track him was no longer located on his person. He had slipped it into the briefcase of some wealthy tycoon. Where that would lead those bumbling LEP fools was anyone's guess. One thing was for sure though, it wouldn't be back to him, and that was all Fyri cared about.
He would be free. Free to do what he wanted. Free to go where he wanted. And most importantly, free to use the valuable knowledge he possessed to bring the Lower Elements down once and for all.
He would give a whole new meaning to the words 'sweet revenge.'
A/N: OK, um, I have had at least three reviews on my fic directed to the issue of Giselle being a Mary Sue. Truth be told, I don't really know what a Mary Sue is exactly, but I have the impression that it is negative.
Giselle does possess an unusual array of talents. Intelligence, beauty, and fortune to name a few, and while these are uncommon in one person, its not impossible.
On a final note, I do not intend for Giselle to be perfect. She will think she is perfect, she will act like she is perfect, but she will not be perfect. And her pride will ultimately be her downfall. She will not outsmart Artemis, because while she may be a genius, Artemis is a mastermind. The ultimate conflict will be between Fowl and the fairies.
Hopefully, the presence of Giselle will not be a big turnoff.
"Is everything alright?" Butler asked.
"It will be soon," Artemis promised. "Butler, would you please inform me when twenty minutes have elapsed."
"Yes, but why?"
"By then, I should have decoded this language. It's a mental exercise, nothing more."
"Very well then."
"Thank you." Artemis turned back to the disk. The titles were easily decoded, as they were written in gnommish. Artemis figured that this meant the title had been added later, because the language that lay in the actual writings was quite different. It made sense, why should the fairy language have remained consistent over thousands of years? Human language certainly did not.
Artemis made a mental list of similarities between this and gnommish in his mind. Like the language that the fairies currently used, this was pictoral. It shared some other features as well. The basic syntax and structure seemed to be the same-but then what was the difference? Probably just the actual meaning of the words and the method of arrangement. One could find a similar occurrence when trying to translate Spanish into English-or more accurately-Latin into English.
He was much more optimistic now. It was a solvable conundrum after all. "Butler, how much time is left?"
"Seventeen minutes, sir."
Artemis cracked his knuckles, and then put his hand on the mouse, when all of the sudden, an alarm message popped up on his screen, invading the entire monitor with a most interesting report.
Artemis had many safeguards to protect his privacy, and one of them was a bit of software that hybridized human and fairy technology. It was set to immediately alert Artemis when anyone tried to access his or Butler's files, leaving Artemis to decide what to do about it.
He mentally calculated the time he had left if he were to pass his own test. He would have to make this quick. First, he accessed the basic information for this unknown person or persons who had apparently decided to nose into his affairs. The email address was gthebedeaux@aol.com Now to find out who this email address belonged to. This turned out to be a bit more difficult, but Artemis was a little bit surprised at the name.
Butler, who had been watching Artemis frowned. "The most peculiar name I've ever seen, he murmured.
"Giselle Thebedeaux," Artemis said, flawlessly pronouncing the name. "I recognize the name Thebedeaux from somewhere." Artemis thought for a moment. "I believe that your sister possessed a video game system that is produced by Link Inc."
Butler stifled a grin at the unimaginative company name. "But what does that have to do with this Thebedeaux person?"
Deciding not to point out the flaws in Butlers pronunciation, Artemis answered, "The company's CEO is a man by the name of Thebedeaux."
"Then it would seem that he is the one who is trying to access your files."
Artemis shook his head. gthebedeaux@aol.com is not this man's email address. Artemis turned around. "You are still accounting for the time, yes?
"Yes."
"Good."
Butler just watched the clock as the boy genius he had sworn to protect typed away furiously on his computer. He opened window after window, did search after search, and sometimes stopped to let the computer that was his mind figure out a problem.
"Time," Butler called. When the second hand finally reached its destination for the last time.
Fowl eyed the screen. He was no longer typing. "That was invigorating," he declared, "I shall have to do this more often."
"Did you get the information you were looking for?" inquired Butler.
"Yes." Artemis pushed a few keys on the keyboard. And a Hodgepodge of letters filled the screen. They were in English of course, and if one looked closely, they could even be read. Artemis had managed to convert the entire grammatical structure as well as translate as well as convert this more graphic based language into the closest thing the symbols had to an English counterpart.
That was only half of what Butler had been referring to when he said information, so Artemis closed the text window and brought up a different file. Giselle Thebedeaux, daughter of Jaques Thebedeaux and Kim Le Thao, is our culprit. Surprising actually, as I suspect she might be even younger than I am. The important thing though, is that if I trace all of my dealings with GT in the past weeks, I find that GT and Giselle Thebedeaux are one and the same. Given that, it is not hard to reconstruct what has happened. I imagine that she has considerable resources at her disposal, so after discovering my deception, she tried to find me. I anticipated as much."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"Nothing. If Ms. Thebedeaux attempts to move against me, I will take appropriate actions though. In the meantime, I am going to eat dinner. If any more alerts should arise, tell me."
"Yes sir."
***
"OK Foaly, I think you have a bit of a problem," Holly said. It was a statement that could have won the Understatement of the Year Award.
Foaly grimaced. It was not a pleasant sight that lay before him. In LEP Headquarters, almost every single agent returning from a mission was puking their guts out-it was worse than the Fowl Incident where LEP had unwittingly sent a force into the Fowl Manor, mistakenly thinking that the criminal mastermind was dead.
"What do you think it is?" This question came from Trouble Kelp, the only officer other than Holly not to have come down with vomiting.
Foaly gave the centaur equivalent of a sigh. "It must be the APITA," he said. "It is the only common denominator here."
"I knew it," Holly muttered. "Anything with a name that stupid is bound to malfunction."
"On the contrary," said Foaly, "The APITAs worked perfectly. It was the operatives instead who 'malfunctioned'. I'll have to take a closer look at all the units, because frankly, it could be any number of things that is causing this violent reaction to the subatomic molecular alteration process that allows for the instant transmission."
Holly groaned and then pushed open the door so she could leave. The whole place was starting to smell like fairy vomit, which makes its human counterpart smell like fresh spring flowers by comparison.
At least the TED's weren't displaying any unpleasant side effects. Holly had practiced using the weapon many times in the firing range, imagining that each target was that wily little goblin Fyri. It had worked to perfection, and Holly hoped the new TED would work just as well against the real thing. She was itching for a rematch. It had been a smart move on Fyri's part to take advantage of the mud People's presence, but when Holly caught up with him, there would be no Mud People around. Just him, her, and a thermal energy shockwave up his-
She didn't have time to complete the thought, as one of the technicians that had been assigned to find the rogue goblin rushed up to her, almost bowling her over. He was a sprite, who apparently seemed to have fallen prey to the newest fad among the fairies. Body art, one of the aspects of human culture that had wormed its way into the Lower Elements. This particular sprite had a tattoo on his forehead that read LEP and several earrings in his ears. Holly couldn't believe that there wasn't some protocol or another that forbade such a disgusting way of defacing one's body.
"Did you find anything?" she asked.
"Yeth Come wiff me."
Holly frowned. His voice sounded a little bit strange. Then she noticed the studded ornament on the guy's tongue.
She shuddered.
He led her to a room where similarly dressed technicians were clustered all over a readout screen. "What is it?" she asked.
Fyri's locator. It was slightly damaged, but we still managed to triangulate Fyri's location."
"Is he moving?"
"Yes. Quite rapidly I might add."
Holly was already doing mental calculations in her head. "Where exactly is he?"
"England. The most specific I can give right now."
Vague, but the fact that Fyri was a two and a half foot monster who conjured fireballs and licked his eyeballs would make the search easier. There would be dozens of sightings no doubt, and sooner or later, Holly would catch up with him.
***
It was not the first time that LEP intelligence had been wrong, and it would not be the last. The blunder that they had made though was inexcusable. One would think that after having had the same trick pulled on them twice by both Artemis Fowl and Mulch Diggums, they wouldn't be so easily duped.
Fyri was not in London. He was nowhere near London. He was in fact not far from the site at which Holly had last seen him. He had no way of knowing whether or not LEP really believed the dead end he'd created, but it was his experience that the LEP were especially slow learners.
The locator that they were no doubt using to track him was no longer located on his person. He had slipped it into the briefcase of some wealthy tycoon. Where that would lead those bumbling LEP fools was anyone's guess. One thing was for sure though, it wouldn't be back to him, and that was all Fyri cared about.
He would be free. Free to do what he wanted. Free to go where he wanted. And most importantly, free to use the valuable knowledge he possessed to bring the Lower Elements down once and for all.
He would give a whole new meaning to the words 'sweet revenge.'
A/N: OK, um, I have had at least three reviews on my fic directed to the issue of Giselle being a Mary Sue. Truth be told, I don't really know what a Mary Sue is exactly, but I have the impression that it is negative.
Giselle does possess an unusual array of talents. Intelligence, beauty, and fortune to name a few, and while these are uncommon in one person, its not impossible.
On a final note, I do not intend for Giselle to be perfect. She will think she is perfect, she will act like she is perfect, but she will not be perfect. And her pride will ultimately be her downfall. She will not outsmart Artemis, because while she may be a genius, Artemis is a mastermind. The ultimate conflict will be between Fowl and the fairies.
Hopefully, the presence of Giselle will not be a big turnoff.