AN: Little note- you will begin to see lines that look like this : ************
ASN: That's because we needed a way to signify moving from Trouble and his team to Foaly and his group. SO, when you see that, prepare for a jump in plot.
AN: We really should have put in the place names like we did in The Centaur Ordeal, but we didn't. Bad authors. No biscuit.
Chapter 23 Breaking…
Grub nibbled on his thumbnail in the dark of his closet. He'd heard Kegel talking to Defea. He couldn't hear quite what was said, but Kegel had paced around the lab muttering to himself a lot after the call ended. Grub smirked. The Mud Man was worried. Maybe the LEP was finally on its way then. Well, there had to be something he could do to help them...
"Hey Mud Man!" he yelled suddenly, banging on the door. Kegel's footsteps echoed across the wooden floor.
"You'd better shut up, little one." the human hissed. "This lab is relatively well soundproofed, but screaming may attract some prying visitors. I'd hate for you to be discovered now."
"What's so different about now?" Grub asked curiously. "Before you said you were going to spill our secrets to the world." It was a few moments before the human spoke again, and when he did, it was in a slightly strangled voice.
"Did you have something to ask me, little man, or are you just being obnoxious?"
"Welllllllll," Grub drawled, "When my brother gets here, he's gonna be mad about how you treated me."
"Obnoxious, I see." Kegel said snidely. Grub cringed at the tone, but ignored him.
"A smart Mu...human like you should have known better than to mess with us. My brother's going to wipe the floor with you." taunted Grub weakly.
"Different species, same stupid cliches. I wish you'd stop talking about being rescued." Kegel sighed. "No one can get past security. We're in the middle of an Interpol research complex."
"The LEP never leaves a man behind!" Grub declared dramatically. "You'll regret this hideous, most unthinkable..." Grub searched for an appropriately horrifying word, but couldn't think of one. "...thing." he finished lamely.
"Not the mindless threats again." moaned the nerd, starting to move away from the door. Grub started to panic.
"Wait! Maybe we can work something out. After all, we try not to harm the Mud People as much as possible. I mean, if you hold me much longer, my brother's gonna bring an entire squad to get me, and you really don't want that to happen."
Grub was rewarded by the sound of Kegel walking right up to the door, and bending down so the elf could hear his whisper quite clearly.
"Look, little man, your brother can bring all the help he wants; he's not getting past my security. So shut up before I do something I'll regret later."
Grub squeaked as Kegel stomped away. The nerd could be quite scary when he wanted to be. Grub obligingly shut up, since his objective was complete anyway. Not only had Kegel just invited his brother in, he could bring all the help he wanted. Grub grinned in the black safety of his closet. Mommy would be so impressed.
**********
Juliet crouched outside of the Interpol complex fence, peering nervously at the guards patrolling inside.
"Volunteering for this was not one of my brighter ideas." she muttered. Trouble crouched next to her behind the sheet of camfoil.
"As long as Mulch doesn't get caught, and as long as he tunnels into the right office, we'll be fine."
Juliet looked at the very conspicuous hole in the ground behind them, and then turned back to Trouble. "You know, you're not very reassuring."
"You know, a little faith wouldn't kill either of you." came an annoyed voice from behind them. The two spun to see Mulch crawling from the hole.
"Did you get through to Kegel's office?" Trouble asked. Mulch shook earth from his clothes and stood up.
"Yeah. Artemis's floor plans worked perfectly. Sort of."
Trouble's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, 'sort of?'"
***********
After thinking through all possible ways of infiltrating the perimeter of Defea's house covertly, Foaly came to the conclusion it was hopeless and had Holly land the shuttle near the front door.
Artemis gazed up at the large house emotionlessly. It was on the outskirts of Haven, away from anyone who may come sneaking by. The oddest thing about it was the fact it was pressed very close to the rocky ceiling of the underground city.
And of course, the orange shutters against the lime green siding looked pretty weird too.
"Why is Defea's house so close to the surface?" Artemis asked Holly quietly.
"No idea. Defea inherited it from her uncle, and added parts on about 10 years ago, but the house itself has been here for as long as I can remember." Holly whispered back, depositing a load of Foaly's computer equipment on the porch.
"I see. Quite a long time, then." he replied, amusement tingeing his voice. Holly gave him an evil glare and smacked his arm as she passed him. Foaly rolled his eyes.
"Okay you two, stop flirt-"
Holly shot the centaur a venomous look that should have melted the door off its hinges. Root, who was coming back with another load, caught her glaring and stopped.
"Captain? Did I miss something?" the commander asked.
"No." both Holly and Artemis said at the same time. Then they glared at each other. Foaly had by then moved to the door and bent down to open his laptop.
"All right, you two, stop fighting and help me get this set up. Defea is sure to have some sort of complicated computer code lock, so we have to be able to break it."
Root dropped his piece of gear and frowned. Foaly winced. "Are you sure?" the elf asked. "You'd think some high tech lock would be covered in wired and flashing lights, not-" he glanced at the door, "red and pea green checks."
"What?" Foaly abandoned his computer to go look at the door. After a moment, he reared back. "It's-it's…" He looked totally shocked. "It's a dead bolt lock!"
"A dead bolt." Root repeated, a purple tinge beginning to bleed into the usual red. "We carried all this, all this way, to open an extremely complicated dead bolt lock?!"
Foaly grinned sheepishly. "We might be able to use it later." Holly shook her head.
"Sorry, but once we're in, we need to keep moving. We don't have time to stop and lug computer junk."
"It's not junk." Foaly muttered, turning back to the dead bolt. He studied it for few more seconds, then held out a hand. "Magnetic cutter." he commanded.
The other three just looked at him.
The centaur huffed angrily. "I'll get it." He trotted over to the stack of gear and removed something that looked like a tiny screwdriver that had been bent at a 90 degree angle. At Root's confused look, he grinned. "This, Julius, is a magnetic cutter; it's a new invention of mine. It uses the friction of two opposite magnetic forces pushing against each other to cut through metal quickly and soundlessly, as if slicing through butter. It's tiny enough that I can fit it in between the doorjamb and the door. And, it'll catch the piece of metal cut with a strong magnet before it can hit the ground and make noise."
"Uh-huh." Root said. "So, it can open this lock and not alert Defea while doing it?"
"Of course, landing a shuttle in her front yard probably tipped her off…but unless she has it booby trapped, then I would say, yes."
"So…DO IT!!"
Foaly cringed and slid the cutter into the minuscule crack. After a few seconds of extreme tension, he smirked. "Success."
Just as a precaution, he slid the cutter down a little farther, then stopped. "There's another one here." After cutting, he slid it down more. "And another." A pause. "And another." He ran it to the very end of the door and frowned. "She got even more paranoid after we broke up, didn't she?" After cutting through the last, he smiled. "All right. Shall we go?"
The group brought their guns up, tensing a little. Artemis had palmed one of the lasers when they were arguing over the pros and cons of arming him, and when they discovered he had one, they let him keep it. Root and Holly had their wings on, silently hovering over Foaly's head. Root glanced around to check that they were all ready and then slammed his shoulder into the door, opting for a dramatic entrance.
It didn't move, but Root did.
He bounced backward and almost fell down the steps. The elf took a deep breath to calm himself, but was unable to stop his face from reddening.
"I've never seen that color before." Artemis whispered to Holly. She groaned softly.
"We see it all too often."
"FOALY…"
"I got all the locks, honest!" the centaur protested. Artemis decided to state the obvious.
"Did you check over your head at the top of the door?" His impeccable logic earned him three glares.
"Okay, Mud Boy, you do it." Foaly snapped, tossing him the cutter. Artemis caught it smoothly and headed to the door. It was built to centaur specifications, which meant it was slightly shorter than a normal human door, although it was a little bit wider.
After cutting through the last of the three top bolts, the door opened slightly. Artemis handed the cutter back to Foaly and made a slight gesture. "After you."
"You're expendable, Mud Boy." Root growled. "You first." Artemis shrugged calmly and stepped toward the door.
"Uh, Commander, are you sure that's wise?" Holly asked. Root grinned maniacally.
"If he should happen to get hurt, this would rapidly become the best day of my life."
"Until Butler found out." Foaly said dryly.
The smile disappeared from Root's face faster than Mulch with a bar of gold. "Hey, Fowl! Wait a second!"
Artemis stopped a foot from the door and turned, an amused smile on his face. "Something wrong, Commander?"
"I was joking. Let the professionals handle this." Artemis stepped back, though the smile on his face widened.
"As you wish. Though I'm certain I have a bit more experience in house breaking than you do."
"Fowl…" Root's hands clenched convulsively as he imagined wringing the human's neck. "Just. Move."
Artemis complied with Root's order to move and the fairies swept into the house.
***********
AN: Now, I'm certain all of you are eager to hear you won the title contest.
ASN: Well, we've thought and thought and thought, and we've decided…
AN: That we can't decide.
ASN: *Shrugs sheepishly* So, you have an extension. If you have any ideas, send 'em in.
AN: And we will try really really hard to come up with the winner soon. We promise.
ASN: And you know how much you can trust our promises.
AN: *Frowns* I sense great sarcasm… anyway, preview time!!
"The lock has a password of 10 random numbers." Artemis explained softly, fingers flying. "The computer is trying out all the possible combinations of 10 numbers, trying to ascertain which number goes where."
"And how long is that going to take?" Holly asked, carefully watching the end of the hall.
With an electronic chime, the lock clicked open.
"Not long." Artemis said, snapping his laptop shut.