Fourth Encounter Of A Fowl Kind

      Holly squatted beneath Artemis' bed, grinding her teeth as silently as she could whilst angrily thinking 'How could I have been so stupid to have been seen by him? My badge is as good as non-existent now, is there any point even bothering to report back to Haven?' She felt humiliated at being hit by the pillow, it gave away her position as when it hit her, the material revealed the outline of her body in spite of her appearing completely invisible. Her reaction time had been slower than Artemis', which surprised her further. She'd rolled under the Mud Boy's bed when he'd safely reassumed the position he'd been in when she'd disturbed him. The others intruding on Artemis' peace in the room were far worse than anything she could have conjured up in her thoughts. When the door revealed those waiting to enter the room, she had been aghast to see four examples of the worst kinds of Mud People of which she'd ever heard. One was taller, more muscle-bound, and quite frankly younger than Butler. The nametag on his immaculate navy uniform read Serde Troy. His whole entity emitted something that made Holly feel more exposed and afraid than any other point in her life, including the first day she'd come back from a field mission without any positive factors regarding her trip. Root had gone ballistic and she'd felt like his insults scraped her soul bare as he continued his perpetual beating at her confidence. Only Foaly had shown her sympathy and made her feel a bit better by the end of their conversation. She knew it would be hard, but this on her first job in fieldwork? She still heard the sexist remarks ringing in her head whenever she thought of that day.

      Accompanying Serde were three younger boys, a little older than Artemis and easily more menacing than the vampire-esque human. None of these wore the uniform the tall male did. Serde questioned Artemis for his lack of appearance in the main hall, as he had apparently missed something of great importance. The Fowl boy told a silver-tongued lie that rolled smoothly out of his lips, explaining he felt ill, but all it earned him was a sharp smack around the cheeks and the confiscation of his laptop. Serde turned the machine off to show Artemis the significance of saving work; unaware the older person would be unable to read the files later due to the heavily encrypted content in case such a situation arose. Fowl said no more and the distinct turn of the key in the lock was the only sound to show Serde's exit. The lights silently vanished. The other boys said nothing as they prepared themselves for sleep, evidently used to such moments as these. After a while, Holly's acute sense of hearing heard the soft scratching of pen writing quickly on crumpled paper. The paper in question fell soundlessly to the ground and she went over to it, wishing there was some form of light in the windowless oval room. She carefully unfolded the page without making any sound, fearing anyone other than the Mud Boy discovering her location. Even that had been completely accidental. She activated the tiny light at the side of her helmet, praying to all the gods available nobody else saw her. Her prayers were fruitless.

      Many varieties of untidy scrawling filled the paper, but she expected it as Artemis had written it in the cove of his palm, away from the cameras Holly didn't know existed. It explained his situation and location clearly.

      Help me Holly, though I don't expect you to. Spiro went crazy and babbled out Artemis Fowl during health checks, so the authorities took my father in for questioning. It was this that made me fully remember everything we went through. When the authorities finally released my father, he sent me here to make me adapt into civilisation and act like a normal teenager should. It's an institution to make those acting incorrectly 'proper' in the strictest sense of the word. Troy is head of this, I feel like he's got links with the People; he acts immediately whenever something like goblin is mentioned. Violence is common, but that's not so bad. I can't access the Internet and have no phone with me, so I am unable to contact Butler. I'm writing my problems into many files, and in spite of what I told you, I was hoping Foaly would raid my files from the Operations' Booth and realise I was a renewed risk. I need to get out of here; they use foul play to ensure everyone complies with their rules. I know I've asked you many favours in the past, but will you get me out?

      Holly bit her lip as she read it; to aid the boy would be revealing to her superiors she'd met him and knew he had full knowledge of their escapades, but to refuse would go against her nature, even though it might result in her job loss. She called up her map of Dublin and saw nothing important in the area she was in that might threaten the People. Áras an t-Uachtaran, in spite of its size, was hardly something that sent Holly shaking with fear when she heard humans were gathering in the building. (AN for those who don't know, it's the name of the house where the Irish president resides.) She called up the building on her map, but this time the code blue building was now coming up as a disused shed—someone had tampered with Foaly's technology. She re-entered the geological location again, and as suddenly as it attacked, the disused shed returned to a large code blue area, except the intense cobalt was no longer in the room she was. Artemis was not the one to watch.

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      Foaly became intensely bored as he sat at his control desk as he took cables from the surface apart, laughed at the basic technology required then rebuilt it with more power in it. Of course he never put the cables back into the human world as it held the potentiality of ruining future times of laughing at Mud Man's abilities. He stored the modified artefacts away in his private museum, which basically pointed out the reasons why the People were superior. Occasionally he changed all the access codes at random, feeling strong paranoia from the time Cudgeon and Koboi locked him out of his own system. He wanted company; this time machines bore no interest for him. Maybe it was because the area was so quiet lately, or maybe he finally realised there were other forms of entertainment in the world. He wished Holly were here, at least then he'd have someone to talk to. Root wasn't angry and didn't require the centaur's assistance, so annoying the Commander for a few moments' fun would only put his job and salary at risk. He whinnied softly to himself as he searched his computers for the status of the code blue in Ireland to see how far Holly had advanced. Aghast, he saw a sudden message flash up on the screen before the machinery around him imploded. It merely said two words, but for anyone to leave a message in his system was impossible. The two words had been:

      'Hello horsy"

                                             ********

      Holly switched off her light and activated her body shield the split second the door was unlocked and opened, praying her timing was quick enough. It was Troy again, and as he walked across the room, the lights sprang into life without him touching a switch. He pulled Artemis up by the neck, coolly demanding a reason why he'd just acted like that.

      "Like what?"

      "Don't lie to me Fowl, you're already running high on my patience tonight. Tell the truth. Address your superiors properly. Now"

      "I don't know what you mean, sir" The last word was deliberately insolent.

      "Explain the pen on your bed. You know ink is forbidden in these zones"

      "I found it in my laptop's case, sir. I was going to hand it up tomorrow sir. I assumed it would be incorrect to hand it up now as leaving the room at night is against rules sir"

      "Explain the ink on your hand Fowl, and you can forget getting your laptop back this week"

      "It leaked on my hand when I picked it up, sir"

      "No it didn't"

      "Explain your thesis then please, sir" Troy slapped Artemis sharply for his insolent tone and question. The uniformed superiors always forbade the students of the building from asking questions. Artemis did not flinch.

      "That's you're last warning, now answer the question. WHY IS THERE INK ON YOUR HAND?"
      "It leaked as I already explained sir"

      "Then you won't mind me examining it then, will you?"
      Artemis hid his inner terror as he felt extremely certain Troy was going to try something new tonight. And new was never nice. Troy twisted Artemis' wrist backwards and they both heard the slight crunch of bone, though neither acknowledged it.

      "Who's Holly?"

      Holly stuffed the letter soundlessly into her jumpsuit, hiding the evidence, as she knew this moment was as tense at it could get. She didn't know the situation was about to worsen.

      "I don't know any Holly, sir"
      "Really? Then who was under your bed with a light on?"
      Holly and Artemis felt dread; the People were at risk, and without being able to contact Foaly silently, there was no way out of this sticky mess. Troy had seen Holly in a way neither of them knew, and if she were on camera there was no point in denying it. Artemis didn't reply and his face volunteered nothing to the tall man with glacier eyes and ebony hair. Then the deciding factor of their situation came.

      "HOLLY, GET OUT OF THERE NOW! THIS IS NOT AN ORDINARY MISSION, YOU NEED BACK-UP!!!"

      Everyone in the room clearly heard Foaly's panicked cries to the elf, and they instantly knew the area from whence the sound came. Holly futilely squatted against the wall; they'd found her, and it was more than her job she'd just lost…

                                    ~*~*~*AN*~*~*~

This is where I thank you, the reviewers! You want lovely acclaim from me? Then be nice and review this chappie!

Pendragon4: thank you for your encouraging comments, though I still don't know how I got Holly's character right *shrugs* You are my first official reviewer!

ArtemisFowlWorld: I did keep going, so here's the next chappie for you!

Librarynymph: Thank you for the comments on my writing, they were very encouraging indeed *hands out cookies* Thank you!

The REAL Ami Potter: Thank you, you left the longest and most helpful review *hands out more cookies* I wrote a mini explanation about the pillow thing at the top of this chapter, hope it clarified it for you. If not, I'll readily assist you in your path to trying to decode my mindless babble!

          *Takes in breath* thank you all for reading, and pweeeze review!