Trouble was trying to talk some sense into the sprite manning the
aboveground Visas. It had been a job to get the hologram set and find
another excuse to get out of the office again. But he'd done it. Now he had
to try and explain to the sprite why he needed a Visa at dawn.
"I have important business!"
"Sorry, Captain, can't let you through. You're crazy! The sun's out."
"Listen, pal, it's Commander."
"Alright, Commander, the sun's out, you're staying here. There's no way you're going out."
"So I'm supposed to sit here 'til sunset?"
"Yep."
"Typical!"
"Jus' sit on over on that couch and make yerself comfy. Or I'll call the LEP and let them handle it. 'Bout time they made themselves useful."
"Haven't you been listening? I am the LEP!"
"Just sit quiet-like and wait for the moon."
Root groaned. He couldn't really move; his limbs were heavy. Something was cutting into his ankles and there was something wrong with his arms. He was weak. The last thing he remembered was waking up at the bottom of the well, tied up with the Ambassador's son next to him. Had the kid been alive? The light was just starting to come. He saw a goblin in front of him.
"Shield, elf." The goblin's voice was layered with the mesmer.
Root shielded. He watched the goblin walked away, the sun was coming up and there was nothing he could do about it. He was stranded. And there was a road in front of him. He watched as a loud, red Mud Man vehicle when roaring past and he got a lungful of exhaust fumes. He coughed and couldn't move. He was tied to a tree, to rot on the roadside.
As Holly woke-up, they pulled into the driveway at Fowl Manor. She felt oddly weak. That's it, she thought. What's the Mud Boy done to me this time? Then she realized the sun was climbing high, it must have been after nine. Sunlight drained magic and power from fairies like it bleached a photograph.
She looked at the front seat. Artemis was waking up. Butler saw him and said, "Artemis, your parents are coming home today."
"Oh, good."
"The family party is today."
"That's nice."
"Artemis! You've got a fairy in the backseat and there's a houseful of people coming over."
At hearing this, Artemis fully woke and became alert. He turned his head to the rear of the car, "Captain? How do you feel about returning to your cell? It's still furnished."
Holly tried to sit up; it was a struggle, but she managed. She forgot to speak English when she replied vehemently, "Not a chance, Mud Boy."
Artemis, though fluent in written Gnommish, couldn't speak it or understand it spoken. "That didn't sound very positive. Very well. Butler, would you mind escorting the Captain up to one of the guest rooms? She can't last much longer here, even through tinted windows."
Butler got out of the car and picked Holly up off the backseat as though she were a doll and carried her into the house, over his shoulder.
Holly didn't object. She didn't have the strength to. Her helmet beeped.
"Oh my gods," breathed Foaly. "What?" asked Commander Kelp. "She's at Fowl Manor." "What's wrong with her? That place is off limits." "Try telling her that." Foaly played with a few knobs and switches until he, Holly, and Trouble were on the same frequency.
"Holly! As acting Commander I am telling you to exit that vicinity now."
"Sorry, Commander. I'm staying, it's daylight and I'm drained." She yawned and just before she lost consciousness she said, "By the way, Fowl's having a family reunion today."
Trouble shook his head, "Darvit! She's going to be in a house full of foul Fowls." He was still stuck in the station waiting for the moon and one of his best officers was in a Mud Boy's house, she sounded drugged but maybe she was just overtired.
Artemis put on a smart looking suit and went to see how Butler was getting along. He met Butler as he came out of one of the guest rooms.
"Is she settled?"
"Yes, Artemis."
"What did you do about her weapons?"
Butler hesitated. He didn't know what Artemis had wanted done. "I took her weapons and helmet from her and put them in the dresser."
"Was there anything we hadn't seen yet?"
"Nothing new."
"Good." He heard the doorbell downstairs. "The caterers are here."
The first guests arrived soon after the caterers finished setting up and the rest arrived not long after. Artemis sighed. He'd spent the better part of the last three and a half hours getting his hand shook by various uncles and great-uncles and he received smothering hugs from his aunts. He detested this much physical contact. Artemis looked around. His parents had arrived an hour before and were now busy discussing things with the guests.
Artemis looked over at the one boy his age at the whole affair: his mother's nephew was a pudgy little boy, a month younger than Artemis. He spent his days wearing out his thumbs on the latest video game system and eating mass quantities of chocolate.
"Artemis? Artemis? Artemis, where's the bathroom?" asked Nick.
"Down that hallway, third door on your left." He had to get out of here. The noise and crowding of so many people was stifling. He followed the path of his cousin and stopped at the second door on the left.
"Artemis? Artemis? Artemis, where are you going? Do you have video games in there? Can I play? Please?"
"I'm going in here. No there aren't video games and if there were you couldn't play."
Holly woke to the sounds of the guests downstairs: eating, drinking, listening to music and have a good time. Her first thought was: where am I? She wasn't sure. It took a few seconds for her memory to return. She was at Fowl's. Where was her gun? Her helmet? He took them! She silently cursed the Mud Boy. Then, she decided to check the room. No weapons beside the bed, what about the dresser? Bingo. She put on her helmet.
"Foaly? Foaly, are you there?"
"Holly? I've been trying to contact you four almost four hours! What's happening up there?"
"It's like I said, Butler brought me in the house. I dozed off after talking to you last time and Fowl's having a party downstairs."
"Are you locked in the room?"
"Let me check."
Holly heard the centaur mutter, "She didn't check.she didn't check!"
"Yeah, yeah, I just woke up. I'm not locked in. There's a monitor here."
"He's watching you?"
"No, it shows the outside of the door, tells me if someone's coming."
"Impressive. You men the Mud Boy's been acting civil?"
"Almost civil. Where's Kelp?"
"He's not too happy." The centaur chuckled.
"What do you mean? Where is he?"
"The terminal at Tara. They won't let him out; it's 1 in the afternoon. He's mad. He's ready to knock out the sprite behind the counter."
It was only then that Holly noticed the thick drapes drawn across the windows allowing as little light in as possible. "So do you want my report on what we found?"
"Shoot."
"Alright, we found an old abandoned well. Inside were some hypodermic darts, they had some liquid left and Fowl's supposed be running lab tests on them, our guess is that they held a tranquilizing solution. There were crumbs of food with an empty bag of Squid Snaps; Aquarius's favorite. And a few empty water bottles."
"Any sign of where they went?"
"North. I'll send you the coordinates of the well. Send them to Trouble and I'll meet him there when the sun goes down."
"Alright."
The door opened and Holly turned around to find her host smiling at her and wearing sunglasses.
"Enjoy your rest, Captain?"
"I saw you come in on the monitor. You can lose the reflective lenses. No tricks."
He made to remove the glasses, but he hesitated. "No tricks?"
"No tricks, Fowl. I'm not like you. I keep my word."
He took the glasses off. "But if I'm not going to wear reflective lenses, neither are you. No helmet." He waited as Holly slowly removed her helmet. "Ah, yes, about the monitor. I thought you'd find it useful. Butler and I have the keys to get in the room but if you left it unlocked we wouldn't want anyone to stumble in. What would they think if they found an elf? As it happens my cousin is in the hallway as we speak."
"What's he doing there?"
"Probably trying to figure out where I would have hidden video games. But that's of no importance. I ran tests on the solutions we found in the darts. Three had some sort of tranquilizing agent in them and the last was for blocking brain signals to the rest of the body for movement. A paralyzing chemical if you will."
"Did you save them?"
"No. Why?"
"Evidence. There's always a tribunal. As it is they're going to be furious, my above ground VISA is expired."
"I assume the 'they' you are referring to is your Council and your VISA must have expired last night."
"The Council and that smart mouth gnome I was bullying at the desk. How long until sunset?"
"Five hours. The sun should set around six, if I am not mistaken. I am rarely mistaken."
"Great. Get me something to eat. Something clean."
"I'll send Juliet up with something. I've got to get back to the party; someone may notice I'm not there. The burdens of family."
"Burden? Then why did we chase mob men through the Artic and radiation to get your father back last year?"
"Forgive me, I'm grateful for that. It's the other relatives I'd like to get rid of. I'll send Juliet with something shortly." Artemis left.
Holly started pacing. This was almost as bad as her cell, true this was more comfortable and she wasn't locked in, but she still couldn't leave. She'd be seen. Or would she? She could shield herself and they wouldn't see her. Not yet though. She had to call Foaly. She put on her helmet.
"Hey, Foaly? Are you there? Foaly? Foaly! Answer me or as soon as I get back underground I'm gonna-"
"Yeah, yeah, what do you want?" He sounded crankier than usual.
"Did you talk to trouble yet?"
"No, I've been sitting on my butt all day relaxing and telling the Ambassador that her son's rescuer is at Fowl Manor."
"Knock it off, Foaly. Now I'm going to ask one more time before I come back down there and kick your hairy butt all the way to the center of the earth. Have you told Commander Kelp where to meet me?"
"He knows. He still can't leave the fairy fort though. Not 'til the sun goes down. Anything useful from Fowl?"
"Three darts were tranquilizers, the fourth paralyzed the victim."
"The question is: which victim got the last dart?"
"My guess would be Root. The kid's not dangerous, but Root on the other hand."
"He probably can't be dangerous anymore."
"Foaly. Think positive."
"Hey, don't blame me. I'm just stating the facts. It's not like you ever listen anyway," the centaur said.
Holly heard a crunching sound. She could just picture Foaly sitting at his desk, eating his carrots, and shrugging. "Is there any way that you can activate the subcutaneous sleeper in him?"
"Sorry but those aren't meant to work above ground. I tried. The beeper sent a negative response. It didn't work."
"Okay, but what about the other two?"
"They caught the dwarf in the terminal but he's not talking."
"So the elf and the goblin are still out here. That means-"
The door opened.
"Fairy girl? Why are you talking to yourself?" Juliet came in the room. "You're not going to play any tricks on me just because I'm not wearing the sunglasses, are you?"
Holly grinned. So Juliet hadn't forgotten about the time Holly used the mesmer on her. She made sure she wasn't smiling when she took off the helmet. "You Fowls are all alike."
"Excuse me? I'm not a Fowl; I'm a Butler. We just work for them." That was something of an understatement. The Butlers often not only worked for the Fowls, but sometimes died for them too.
"Sorry about that," Holly tried to sound civil. "Did you bring the food?"
"Yes. Carrots, celery, apples, and Irish mineral water. We weren't sure what kind of meat you ate so I didn't bring any."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. I guess. Why were you talking to yourself?"
"I was talking to myself. There's a microphone in the helmet that let's me talk to my friends."
"Oh. That's cool. I guess." She looked around the room distractedly. "I'm getting back to the party. But Artemis said if you try to leave without him, he'll just get Butler to track you down and follow you. He said he has to see firsthand how this all turns out." She left.
She put her helmet back on. "You still there, Foaly?"
"No, I'm away right now. Leave a message after the beep. Beep."
"Cut it out, donkey."
"Ooh, harsh words, Captain. What was all that?"
"You remember the man mountain that took out retrieval one a couple years ago? Butler?"
"Yeah."
"That's his sister."
"Oh."
"Yeah. Any plans for outsmarting Fowl here?"
"I'd like to think I'm smarter than the Mud Boy." Foaly knew he was the stereotypical, unappreciated genius. When would they learn? "And why did you take your helmet off? She could have given you an order. Like 'don't leave the house'.
"You're still avoiding the question, Foaly."
"Look around the room for me."
Holly scanned the room so Foaly could see everything through the iris cam.
"Stop. Windows. Leave out the window as soon as it's sunset."
"His windows all have a high-tech security alarm. You want every officer in Dublin here? Think again."
"No, my way still works," he insisted. "You slip out, shielded, during the commotion. No one knows."
"Think again. Fowl will know what happened and he still has fairy helmets. He'd see me."
"You're giving Fowl too much credit."
"We know it doesn't pay to underestimate him. I'm not taking any chances with him."
"Look, Holly. You may have gotten rest but I haven't and I'm exhausted. Even a genius like me can't go this long without sleep. I'll get back to you before sunset. If you want to talk to Kelp use the third channel on your helmet."
"Alright. Good work. Get some rest, Foaly. Over and out." Holly paced around the room. She looked at the monitor. No one was out there. Holly shielded and opened the door. She couldn't leave the house because of the sunlight, but she could leave the room. She'd find Fowl's study and see what he'd been up to.
Artemis flipped open his laptop and checked the screen. He'd retreated to an antechamber; he had installed a button camera in Holly's room and linked it to his laptop, he could see her every move. He watched Holly disappear before his eyes. She shielded. Where would she go? Artemis knew that Holly was an excellent field agent, resourceful, able to think on her feet, and suspicious. Artemis knew Holly wouldn't sit quietly in her room twiddling her thumbs; he would have been quite disappointed if she had. He knew Holly wouldn't leave the house yet, it was too early, so she would probably attempt to break into his study and see what he'd been up to. When she got there, he would be waiting.
"I have important business!"
"Sorry, Captain, can't let you through. You're crazy! The sun's out."
"Listen, pal, it's Commander."
"Alright, Commander, the sun's out, you're staying here. There's no way you're going out."
"So I'm supposed to sit here 'til sunset?"
"Yep."
"Typical!"
"Jus' sit on over on that couch and make yerself comfy. Or I'll call the LEP and let them handle it. 'Bout time they made themselves useful."
"Haven't you been listening? I am the LEP!"
"Just sit quiet-like and wait for the moon."
Root groaned. He couldn't really move; his limbs were heavy. Something was cutting into his ankles and there was something wrong with his arms. He was weak. The last thing he remembered was waking up at the bottom of the well, tied up with the Ambassador's son next to him. Had the kid been alive? The light was just starting to come. He saw a goblin in front of him.
"Shield, elf." The goblin's voice was layered with the mesmer.
Root shielded. He watched the goblin walked away, the sun was coming up and there was nothing he could do about it. He was stranded. And there was a road in front of him. He watched as a loud, red Mud Man vehicle when roaring past and he got a lungful of exhaust fumes. He coughed and couldn't move. He was tied to a tree, to rot on the roadside.
As Holly woke-up, they pulled into the driveway at Fowl Manor. She felt oddly weak. That's it, she thought. What's the Mud Boy done to me this time? Then she realized the sun was climbing high, it must have been after nine. Sunlight drained magic and power from fairies like it bleached a photograph.
She looked at the front seat. Artemis was waking up. Butler saw him and said, "Artemis, your parents are coming home today."
"Oh, good."
"The family party is today."
"That's nice."
"Artemis! You've got a fairy in the backseat and there's a houseful of people coming over."
At hearing this, Artemis fully woke and became alert. He turned his head to the rear of the car, "Captain? How do you feel about returning to your cell? It's still furnished."
Holly tried to sit up; it was a struggle, but she managed. She forgot to speak English when she replied vehemently, "Not a chance, Mud Boy."
Artemis, though fluent in written Gnommish, couldn't speak it or understand it spoken. "That didn't sound very positive. Very well. Butler, would you mind escorting the Captain up to one of the guest rooms? She can't last much longer here, even through tinted windows."
Butler got out of the car and picked Holly up off the backseat as though she were a doll and carried her into the house, over his shoulder.
Holly didn't object. She didn't have the strength to. Her helmet beeped.
"Oh my gods," breathed Foaly. "What?" asked Commander Kelp. "She's at Fowl Manor." "What's wrong with her? That place is off limits." "Try telling her that." Foaly played with a few knobs and switches until he, Holly, and Trouble were on the same frequency.
"Holly! As acting Commander I am telling you to exit that vicinity now."
"Sorry, Commander. I'm staying, it's daylight and I'm drained." She yawned and just before she lost consciousness she said, "By the way, Fowl's having a family reunion today."
Trouble shook his head, "Darvit! She's going to be in a house full of foul Fowls." He was still stuck in the station waiting for the moon and one of his best officers was in a Mud Boy's house, she sounded drugged but maybe she was just overtired.
Artemis put on a smart looking suit and went to see how Butler was getting along. He met Butler as he came out of one of the guest rooms.
"Is she settled?"
"Yes, Artemis."
"What did you do about her weapons?"
Butler hesitated. He didn't know what Artemis had wanted done. "I took her weapons and helmet from her and put them in the dresser."
"Was there anything we hadn't seen yet?"
"Nothing new."
"Good." He heard the doorbell downstairs. "The caterers are here."
The first guests arrived soon after the caterers finished setting up and the rest arrived not long after. Artemis sighed. He'd spent the better part of the last three and a half hours getting his hand shook by various uncles and great-uncles and he received smothering hugs from his aunts. He detested this much physical contact. Artemis looked around. His parents had arrived an hour before and were now busy discussing things with the guests.
Artemis looked over at the one boy his age at the whole affair: his mother's nephew was a pudgy little boy, a month younger than Artemis. He spent his days wearing out his thumbs on the latest video game system and eating mass quantities of chocolate.
"Artemis? Artemis? Artemis, where's the bathroom?" asked Nick.
"Down that hallway, third door on your left." He had to get out of here. The noise and crowding of so many people was stifling. He followed the path of his cousin and stopped at the second door on the left.
"Artemis? Artemis? Artemis, where are you going? Do you have video games in there? Can I play? Please?"
"I'm going in here. No there aren't video games and if there were you couldn't play."
Holly woke to the sounds of the guests downstairs: eating, drinking, listening to music and have a good time. Her first thought was: where am I? She wasn't sure. It took a few seconds for her memory to return. She was at Fowl's. Where was her gun? Her helmet? He took them! She silently cursed the Mud Boy. Then, she decided to check the room. No weapons beside the bed, what about the dresser? Bingo. She put on her helmet.
"Foaly? Foaly, are you there?"
"Holly? I've been trying to contact you four almost four hours! What's happening up there?"
"It's like I said, Butler brought me in the house. I dozed off after talking to you last time and Fowl's having a party downstairs."
"Are you locked in the room?"
"Let me check."
Holly heard the centaur mutter, "She didn't check.she didn't check!"
"Yeah, yeah, I just woke up. I'm not locked in. There's a monitor here."
"He's watching you?"
"No, it shows the outside of the door, tells me if someone's coming."
"Impressive. You men the Mud Boy's been acting civil?"
"Almost civil. Where's Kelp?"
"He's not too happy." The centaur chuckled.
"What do you mean? Where is he?"
"The terminal at Tara. They won't let him out; it's 1 in the afternoon. He's mad. He's ready to knock out the sprite behind the counter."
It was only then that Holly noticed the thick drapes drawn across the windows allowing as little light in as possible. "So do you want my report on what we found?"
"Shoot."
"Alright, we found an old abandoned well. Inside were some hypodermic darts, they had some liquid left and Fowl's supposed be running lab tests on them, our guess is that they held a tranquilizing solution. There were crumbs of food with an empty bag of Squid Snaps; Aquarius's favorite. And a few empty water bottles."
"Any sign of where they went?"
"North. I'll send you the coordinates of the well. Send them to Trouble and I'll meet him there when the sun goes down."
"Alright."
The door opened and Holly turned around to find her host smiling at her and wearing sunglasses.
"Enjoy your rest, Captain?"
"I saw you come in on the monitor. You can lose the reflective lenses. No tricks."
He made to remove the glasses, but he hesitated. "No tricks?"
"No tricks, Fowl. I'm not like you. I keep my word."
He took the glasses off. "But if I'm not going to wear reflective lenses, neither are you. No helmet." He waited as Holly slowly removed her helmet. "Ah, yes, about the monitor. I thought you'd find it useful. Butler and I have the keys to get in the room but if you left it unlocked we wouldn't want anyone to stumble in. What would they think if they found an elf? As it happens my cousin is in the hallway as we speak."
"What's he doing there?"
"Probably trying to figure out where I would have hidden video games. But that's of no importance. I ran tests on the solutions we found in the darts. Three had some sort of tranquilizing agent in them and the last was for blocking brain signals to the rest of the body for movement. A paralyzing chemical if you will."
"Did you save them?"
"No. Why?"
"Evidence. There's always a tribunal. As it is they're going to be furious, my above ground VISA is expired."
"I assume the 'they' you are referring to is your Council and your VISA must have expired last night."
"The Council and that smart mouth gnome I was bullying at the desk. How long until sunset?"
"Five hours. The sun should set around six, if I am not mistaken. I am rarely mistaken."
"Great. Get me something to eat. Something clean."
"I'll send Juliet up with something. I've got to get back to the party; someone may notice I'm not there. The burdens of family."
"Burden? Then why did we chase mob men through the Artic and radiation to get your father back last year?"
"Forgive me, I'm grateful for that. It's the other relatives I'd like to get rid of. I'll send Juliet with something shortly." Artemis left.
Holly started pacing. This was almost as bad as her cell, true this was more comfortable and she wasn't locked in, but she still couldn't leave. She'd be seen. Or would she? She could shield herself and they wouldn't see her. Not yet though. She had to call Foaly. She put on her helmet.
"Hey, Foaly? Are you there? Foaly? Foaly! Answer me or as soon as I get back underground I'm gonna-"
"Yeah, yeah, what do you want?" He sounded crankier than usual.
"Did you talk to trouble yet?"
"No, I've been sitting on my butt all day relaxing and telling the Ambassador that her son's rescuer is at Fowl Manor."
"Knock it off, Foaly. Now I'm going to ask one more time before I come back down there and kick your hairy butt all the way to the center of the earth. Have you told Commander Kelp where to meet me?"
"He knows. He still can't leave the fairy fort though. Not 'til the sun goes down. Anything useful from Fowl?"
"Three darts were tranquilizers, the fourth paralyzed the victim."
"The question is: which victim got the last dart?"
"My guess would be Root. The kid's not dangerous, but Root on the other hand."
"He probably can't be dangerous anymore."
"Foaly. Think positive."
"Hey, don't blame me. I'm just stating the facts. It's not like you ever listen anyway," the centaur said.
Holly heard a crunching sound. She could just picture Foaly sitting at his desk, eating his carrots, and shrugging. "Is there any way that you can activate the subcutaneous sleeper in him?"
"Sorry but those aren't meant to work above ground. I tried. The beeper sent a negative response. It didn't work."
"Okay, but what about the other two?"
"They caught the dwarf in the terminal but he's not talking."
"So the elf and the goblin are still out here. That means-"
The door opened.
"Fairy girl? Why are you talking to yourself?" Juliet came in the room. "You're not going to play any tricks on me just because I'm not wearing the sunglasses, are you?"
Holly grinned. So Juliet hadn't forgotten about the time Holly used the mesmer on her. She made sure she wasn't smiling when she took off the helmet. "You Fowls are all alike."
"Excuse me? I'm not a Fowl; I'm a Butler. We just work for them." That was something of an understatement. The Butlers often not only worked for the Fowls, but sometimes died for them too.
"Sorry about that," Holly tried to sound civil. "Did you bring the food?"
"Yes. Carrots, celery, apples, and Irish mineral water. We weren't sure what kind of meat you ate so I didn't bring any."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. I guess. Why were you talking to yourself?"
"I was talking to myself. There's a microphone in the helmet that let's me talk to my friends."
"Oh. That's cool. I guess." She looked around the room distractedly. "I'm getting back to the party. But Artemis said if you try to leave without him, he'll just get Butler to track you down and follow you. He said he has to see firsthand how this all turns out." She left.
She put her helmet back on. "You still there, Foaly?"
"No, I'm away right now. Leave a message after the beep. Beep."
"Cut it out, donkey."
"Ooh, harsh words, Captain. What was all that?"
"You remember the man mountain that took out retrieval one a couple years ago? Butler?"
"Yeah."
"That's his sister."
"Oh."
"Yeah. Any plans for outsmarting Fowl here?"
"I'd like to think I'm smarter than the Mud Boy." Foaly knew he was the stereotypical, unappreciated genius. When would they learn? "And why did you take your helmet off? She could have given you an order. Like 'don't leave the house'.
"You're still avoiding the question, Foaly."
"Look around the room for me."
Holly scanned the room so Foaly could see everything through the iris cam.
"Stop. Windows. Leave out the window as soon as it's sunset."
"His windows all have a high-tech security alarm. You want every officer in Dublin here? Think again."
"No, my way still works," he insisted. "You slip out, shielded, during the commotion. No one knows."
"Think again. Fowl will know what happened and he still has fairy helmets. He'd see me."
"You're giving Fowl too much credit."
"We know it doesn't pay to underestimate him. I'm not taking any chances with him."
"Look, Holly. You may have gotten rest but I haven't and I'm exhausted. Even a genius like me can't go this long without sleep. I'll get back to you before sunset. If you want to talk to Kelp use the third channel on your helmet."
"Alright. Good work. Get some rest, Foaly. Over and out." Holly paced around the room. She looked at the monitor. No one was out there. Holly shielded and opened the door. She couldn't leave the house because of the sunlight, but she could leave the room. She'd find Fowl's study and see what he'd been up to.
Artemis flipped open his laptop and checked the screen. He'd retreated to an antechamber; he had installed a button camera in Holly's room and linked it to his laptop, he could see her every move. He watched Holly disappear before his eyes. She shielded. Where would she go? Artemis knew that Holly was an excellent field agent, resourceful, able to think on her feet, and suspicious. Artemis knew Holly wouldn't sit quietly in her room twiddling her thumbs; he would have been quite disappointed if she had. He knew Holly wouldn't leave the house yet, it was too early, so she would probably attempt to break into his study and see what he'd been up to. When she got there, he would be waiting.
