Dedication: For my friend Karl-Vic, who is migrating to New Zealand on November the 20th, best of wishes and good luck.

Russia in the winter

The entire 'team' was assembled in Artemis's hall, ready for a briefing.

"Okay, so the situation is like this-" started Holly.

"You fairies let down your guard and now are screwed?" Juliet chipped in.

"Or the great and oh-so-mighty LEP has fallen so far that it is forced to work with public enemy number one, not the first time, I may add, and convicts?" Mulch smirked.

Artemis could not quite hide his smile. " I'm sure the Captain has knowledge of all of these facts already. Kindly proceed, Captain."

Holly glared at him, before continuing. "As I was saying before I was interrupted," she paused a while to glower at the three of them, "The situation is like this: Commander Root is down, we have very limited Fairy technology, most of which, by the way, is in the hands of our unknown enemy," she cast a probing sidelong glance at Artemis, "and we have no support coming through the shuttles." She concluded.

"Do we have any leads pertaining to this case, Captain?" Artemis enquired

"Hold on, I'm contacting Foaly, she answered shortly.

"What do you have for us, Foaly?" Holly asked a little rudely, still in a bad mood.

Foaly blew his nose, not quite over the untimely demise of his treasured computers. "We do have a clue," he said stuffily. "A dead sprite in Moscow, Russia. It may or may not be related, we do not have enough information at this time, for obvious reasons." Foaly's bottom lip quivered.

" A dead fairy? Above ground? Hmm… Sounds fishy. Do you think it is related?" Holly pursed her lips thoughtfully.

"Personally, I would have to say it is connected with our case. The dead sprite would have had to be above ground before the computers were torched. Not to mention the fact that he was above ground at all," Foaly told her.

"How did you even find his dead body? I mean, considering all your computers are down." It slipped out of her mouth accidentally. She winced. Foaly would not want to be reminded of his predicament. Open mouth, insert ears, she thought dully.

Foaly sniffled and blew his nose. He drew himself to his full height, which admittedly, was not very impressive, him being a fairy and all. "I would like to inform you, Captain, that in spite of the Central Processing System being on blink, a few other systems retain full functioning capacity," he said icily. "My surveillance system, for example."

Holly winced at his cold tone. "Look, Foaly-"

"That will be all, Captain Short," Foaly replied huffily as he terminated the link.

She sighed as she turned communications off.

"Not too tactful, Captain," Artemis smirked at her.

She growled at him and cursed in Gnomish.

"Now, now, Captain, you really need to watch your tongue. You forget, I have regained my memories, and I know the old language. I wonder where you picked up those words from?" he tutted.

 "How could I forget? Not with you constantly rubbing it in the People's collective faces," she replied pertly.

"Anyway, back to the business at hand. What leads did Foaly provide us with?" Artemis was not to be distracted. Much, anyway.

"Dead sprite in Moscow, Russia. May be related, or may not be." She answered sourly.

Artemis snorted. "It obviously pertains to the case. For the sprite to be above ground, with shuttles down, he, or she, would have had to be in Moscow before the-"

"Yeah, yeah, Mud boy. We've heard it," she cut him off rudely, even more ticked at the fact that he had arrived at the correct conclusion. Bah, humbug. Geniuses. Snobs, every last one of them. Centaur, human, they were all the same.

"Now can you shield in Moscow? The last time we were in Russia, you and Commander Root were unable to take advantage of this piece of magic due to the unsafe levels of radiation which abounded in that region, and-"

"I know what happened last time, Mud Boy. I was there, remember? You nearly caused be to lose my finger."

Artemis had the decency to look a little abashed. He recovered quickly, however. "You still have not answered my question, Holly."

"Yes, I think I can shield. Moscow has considerably less radiation than Murmansk," she said.

"That is good. We have weapons, albeit minimally, and we have some fairy magic. Shall I fire up my Lear Jet?" He asked conscientiously.

"You so that, Mud Boy." Holly accepted his kind offer less than gracefully.

As she watched his departing figure, along with the rest of them, she quietly opened up the line of communication again. "Foaly, if this incident happened in Russia, Fowl isn't the guilty party, right?" she asked hopefully.

Foaly sighed. "It does reduce the possibility, but one of his numerous contacts could easily have done the dirty work, on his orders."

"So this doesn't prove anything?" She asked, defeated momentarily.

"I'm sorry, Holly."

She sighed. "See you, Foaly. And I'm sorry about just now," she added.

"It's ok, Holly. See you. Take care. Especially with him around."

She didn't ask who 'him' was. She already knew.

Doubts unassuaged, she followed after Artemis.

*

As they touched down at the Moscow airport, the only thing greeting them was the cold, stinging air. All the better. Except for the cold, stinging  air part.

"Brr… I don't remember it being so cold the last time," chattered a shielded Holly.

"N-neither do I," Artemis shivered, not composed for once.

"I don't see why you're all so cold," remarked Mulch calmly. The dwarf was buried under at least eight layers of furs.

"S-so says the dwarf whose coats outweigh him," Juliet retorted.

Even Butler couldn't keep his impassive manner. He was stomping in the cold snow, trying vainly to keep warm.

"I suppose this just goes to show, never attack Russia in the winter," Artemis commented dryly. "Napoleon learned that the hard way. So will we, from the looks of it."

"I suppose you t-think you're very f-funny, Fowl," Holly whispered, somehow managing to sound scathing.

"Yes, Holly, actually, I do," Artemis smirked in the cold, miraculously contriving to look insufferably smug while shivering incessantly.

*

"This isn't that bad, right?" Mikhael Vassikin said to his partner.

"The money disappeared. I mean, it just vanished," Kamar stared disbelievingly into space.

"Oh, come off it," said Mikhael disgustedly. "We're alive, aren't we?"

"How could it be gone? I saw it. I touched it. I breathed it. I kissed it. And seventy hours later, it's gone. Fowl must be some sort of magician… He's only a boy, for crying out loud." Kamar continued obliviously.

"Don't talk about Fowl now," Mikhael shivered, and it had nothing to do with the cold. "At least Britva didn't kill us, right?" Mikhael coaxed encouragingly.

That seemed to snap Kamar out of his funk. "Not like he didn't try," he retorted. "Three times."

"Hey, mister, got any change?" Mikhael held a tin can to a passer by, who steadfastly ignored him.

"Jerk."

"Brr. It's so cold here," Kamar moaned.

"Oh, stop whining, you wussy," Mikhael snorted.

Kamar bristled. Before they knew it, they were rolling on the ground, trying to knock each other's teeth off.

A pale youth of about 15 bent down and put a few notes inside the tin can lying in front of the pair.

The stopped and squinted at his face.

"Ka-Kamar. Is that…?" Mikhael whispered

"Fowl," Kamar breathed.

"I-I don't know about you, b-but I hear that Poland isn't that bad a place." Mikhael suggested.

"Never heard a better idea. Let's get out of here," Kamar agreed fervently.

The two scrambled to their feet, leaving their collecting tin behind.

*

"Charity? You, Fowl?" Holly was genuine surprised.

Artemis looked a little embarrassed. "It was a one-time thing," he said blushing slightly.

Holly looked at him for a moment. "No, it wasn't, was it?" she asked softly.

He averted her gaze and walked on.

Holly waited behind for a moment, looking at him with an unreadable expression on her face. Not that Artemis could see it. She was, after all, shielded. And then she, too, walked on impassively. But if you looked closely, you could see a hint of a smile on her face. But only if you looked closely.