Artemis Fowl and the Ivory Eye
Chapter I: An Eye in the Fire
Later, when Artemis Fowl thought about that horrible night, his genius mind could think of a hundred "if only's" that might have made things turn out a lot better. If only we hadn't gone to that party. he hated parties anyway, but his mother talked him in to going to it with her and his father. Why in the world did he tell her he would go? He usually didn't like being in a public place with them, let alone a party. He didn't even know who was throwing this party - some business partners of his father's. he could tell from the moment they got there that there was a lot of drinking going on. If only we hadn't gone. if only it hadn't been out of town. If only his parents didn't have all of those beers. If only it hadn't been the anniversary of the death of the man that captured his father.
Because, really, that's what had started the whole thing off - that stupid anniversary party. That, and his father liked to make a big deal of surviving the entire ordeal he went through, getting drunk and telling stories much to everyone's delight. Artemis was outraged at the behaviour of his father. He was actually relieved when his father got so drunk that his mother insisted that they leave. And he remembered his mother fighting his father for the car keys, how terrified they'd been when his father grabbed the wheel and started swerving them all over the road. If only he hadn't told Butler to stay at home with Juliet. he could put a stop to this.
But things had been different, and afterwards he could remember everything clearly. too clearly.
His mother and father and him driving home so late that night. and that terrible storm beating down on them. They'd taken a shortcut - some little road near the airport. His mother had gotten more and more upset because his father kept trying to drive... his father had started feeling sick, but there was nowhere to pull off on the narrow down hill stretch, and it was so curvy and dangerous, and Artemis had been frightened. That's when the other car had pulled up behind them, honking, trying to pass. Artemis had peered out through the streaming rain on the back window, but hadn't been able to see any faces, and the car kept honking and honking and his father had gotten mad.
"Let's give those hotshots a scare," he said, and Artemis felt think bands of fear tightening around his chest, that awful premonition that something horrible was about to happen. He bagged his mother to pull over and let the car pass, and his mother had really tried, but his father had grabbed the wheel again, and they'd almost run the car off the road. He remembered his mother shouting at him, and his father saying, "Let's give them a real scare this time!" and how he'd lean on the horn and started laughing.
He could still see it, even now.
The other car swerving around them, just as his father's foot hit the gas pedal, lurching them forward, almost right onto the other car's fender. Faster and faster - and his mother had started hitting him wrestling him for the wheel. Artemis had closed his eyes and prayed, certain they were all going to die. Just his mother yelling and his father laughing and the squeal of tires on slink blacktop as they slid around corners, hot on the tail of the other car in front - and Artemis begging them to stop - begging - begging them to let him out of the car -
"Father, don't!" he joined the fight then, prying his fingers off the wheel. "Someone's going to get hurt! It's not funny!"
"Oh, lighten up, Artemis! It the anniversary and I can do what I want! Hey - nothing can happen to me - What the hell! They just can't push me around like I'm nobody! I'll teach them a little lesson in respect. Tell you what, I won't even write them a speeding ticket!"
And then it happened.
Right then, right in front of their eyes.
The other car disappeared.
One minute it was right in front of them, taillights swishing through the curtain of rain.
The next minute the road was black and empty.
"What - stop the car, mother - stop the car!"
And Artemis was never sure if he really said the words out loud or just in his head because the noise had come then - the terrible, unbelievable noise not so far away - the crash going on and on through the dark and the thunder, and the crunching of twisting metal, and the helpless, panicky screams -
My God, those awful screams -
For a moment time had frozen. He remembered his mother frozen, his father's dazed white face. he could feel the rain pounding on the roof.
"Oh God, hurry!"
"No, Artemis, wait."
"Come on!"
And somehow he found it - or what was left of it - the mangled car at the bottom of the gorge, the sudden flicker of light, a small burst of flames -
"We've got to help!" He'd been half out of his mind, running towards the wreck like that, slipping and falling over the rocks, sliding down the muddy hill. "We've got to help!"
It had taken him a while to realize that his mother and father weren't behind him. He remembered whirling around and hearing his name being called over and over from the darkness. seeing them struggling over the rocks, trying to catch up.
While someone watched from the top of the hill.
Even now it made his skin crawl.
Because someone had been up their in front of their car, caught in the weak blur of the headlights, a person - a man - standing beside the car, just standing there, watching them.
"Help!" Artemis screamed, moving back again, "Help us please!"
But he didn't move, and so he ran on, ran straight for the burning car, he had almost reached it when his father finally tackled him to the ground and he kept screaming, and someone else had been screaming too.
Not his mother, whose face was soaked with rain and tears, not his father who kept yelling, "It's gonna blow - let's get out of here - the whole thing is going to go up!"
But other screams - screams of terror and pain - and in the growing rush of crackling flame he saw the outline of someone - someone still alive - moving against the flames, trapped upside down behind the car window.
"NO!" Artemis screamed. He tried to claw his mother and father away, as they pulled him up the hill, forcing him up the hill.
They heard the explosion, felt the earth rumble beneath them, and he tried to turn around and go back, but his father and shoved him so hard that he had fallen down in front of the headlights.
The mushy ground where the footprints were starting to fill up with water.
"Someone was here," He mumbled, "Mother, some one was here - do you see him? Where'd he go?"
"Come on, Artemis, there's nobody - we've got to get out of here!"
"But mother, someone."
"Come on, get in the car!"
He remembered the rain.beating down on them without any mercy.
He remembered his father babbling like an idiot saying, "It was only a joke. just a joke."
My God what have we done..
If only it hadn't been the anniversary.
If only the screams would stop echoing in his head forever.
* * *
At that exact moment, Foaly's computer went haywire.
"Foaly, what the hell is going on?" demanded Commander Root.
"I'm scoping some serious mud-man activity up there," replied Foaly smiling.
"Serious mud-man activity?" asked Holly who was standing next to Root. "In my book that only means one thing."
"Oh boy, here it comes," said Foaly.
"Fowl," said Holly in a low voice. "When trouble arises you can bet he's behind it."
Root glanced at both of them. "Foaly I want you to pinpoint his location, and after you get it I want Holly to be dispatched and confront him. Bring him here for questioning. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir," said Holly.
"Artemis Fowl current location is at Fowl Manner, Rooty," said Fowl a few minutes later.
"Holly go to Fowl Manner and bring the mud-boy to me."
"Understood," said Holly. She left the control room and got into her jumpsuit and helmet. "Get ready Fowl," she muttered to herself. "I'm coming back."
Chapter I: An Eye in the Fire
Later, when Artemis Fowl thought about that horrible night, his genius mind could think of a hundred "if only's" that might have made things turn out a lot better. If only we hadn't gone to that party. he hated parties anyway, but his mother talked him in to going to it with her and his father. Why in the world did he tell her he would go? He usually didn't like being in a public place with them, let alone a party. He didn't even know who was throwing this party - some business partners of his father's. he could tell from the moment they got there that there was a lot of drinking going on. If only we hadn't gone. if only it hadn't been out of town. If only his parents didn't have all of those beers. If only it hadn't been the anniversary of the death of the man that captured his father.
Because, really, that's what had started the whole thing off - that stupid anniversary party. That, and his father liked to make a big deal of surviving the entire ordeal he went through, getting drunk and telling stories much to everyone's delight. Artemis was outraged at the behaviour of his father. He was actually relieved when his father got so drunk that his mother insisted that they leave. And he remembered his mother fighting his father for the car keys, how terrified they'd been when his father grabbed the wheel and started swerving them all over the road. If only he hadn't told Butler to stay at home with Juliet. he could put a stop to this.
But things had been different, and afterwards he could remember everything clearly. too clearly.
His mother and father and him driving home so late that night. and that terrible storm beating down on them. They'd taken a shortcut - some little road near the airport. His mother had gotten more and more upset because his father kept trying to drive... his father had started feeling sick, but there was nowhere to pull off on the narrow down hill stretch, and it was so curvy and dangerous, and Artemis had been frightened. That's when the other car had pulled up behind them, honking, trying to pass. Artemis had peered out through the streaming rain on the back window, but hadn't been able to see any faces, and the car kept honking and honking and his father had gotten mad.
"Let's give those hotshots a scare," he said, and Artemis felt think bands of fear tightening around his chest, that awful premonition that something horrible was about to happen. He bagged his mother to pull over and let the car pass, and his mother had really tried, but his father had grabbed the wheel again, and they'd almost run the car off the road. He remembered his mother shouting at him, and his father saying, "Let's give them a real scare this time!" and how he'd lean on the horn and started laughing.
He could still see it, even now.
The other car swerving around them, just as his father's foot hit the gas pedal, lurching them forward, almost right onto the other car's fender. Faster and faster - and his mother had started hitting him wrestling him for the wheel. Artemis had closed his eyes and prayed, certain they were all going to die. Just his mother yelling and his father laughing and the squeal of tires on slink blacktop as they slid around corners, hot on the tail of the other car in front - and Artemis begging them to stop - begging - begging them to let him out of the car -
"Father, don't!" he joined the fight then, prying his fingers off the wheel. "Someone's going to get hurt! It's not funny!"
"Oh, lighten up, Artemis! It the anniversary and I can do what I want! Hey - nothing can happen to me - What the hell! They just can't push me around like I'm nobody! I'll teach them a little lesson in respect. Tell you what, I won't even write them a speeding ticket!"
And then it happened.
Right then, right in front of their eyes.
The other car disappeared.
One minute it was right in front of them, taillights swishing through the curtain of rain.
The next minute the road was black and empty.
"What - stop the car, mother - stop the car!"
And Artemis was never sure if he really said the words out loud or just in his head because the noise had come then - the terrible, unbelievable noise not so far away - the crash going on and on through the dark and the thunder, and the crunching of twisting metal, and the helpless, panicky screams -
My God, those awful screams -
For a moment time had frozen. He remembered his mother frozen, his father's dazed white face. he could feel the rain pounding on the roof.
"Oh God, hurry!"
"No, Artemis, wait."
"Come on!"
And somehow he found it - or what was left of it - the mangled car at the bottom of the gorge, the sudden flicker of light, a small burst of flames -
"We've got to help!" He'd been half out of his mind, running towards the wreck like that, slipping and falling over the rocks, sliding down the muddy hill. "We've got to help!"
It had taken him a while to realize that his mother and father weren't behind him. He remembered whirling around and hearing his name being called over and over from the darkness. seeing them struggling over the rocks, trying to catch up.
While someone watched from the top of the hill.
Even now it made his skin crawl.
Because someone had been up their in front of their car, caught in the weak blur of the headlights, a person - a man - standing beside the car, just standing there, watching them.
"Help!" Artemis screamed, moving back again, "Help us please!"
But he didn't move, and so he ran on, ran straight for the burning car, he had almost reached it when his father finally tackled him to the ground and he kept screaming, and someone else had been screaming too.
Not his mother, whose face was soaked with rain and tears, not his father who kept yelling, "It's gonna blow - let's get out of here - the whole thing is going to go up!"
But other screams - screams of terror and pain - and in the growing rush of crackling flame he saw the outline of someone - someone still alive - moving against the flames, trapped upside down behind the car window.
"NO!" Artemis screamed. He tried to claw his mother and father away, as they pulled him up the hill, forcing him up the hill.
They heard the explosion, felt the earth rumble beneath them, and he tried to turn around and go back, but his father and shoved him so hard that he had fallen down in front of the headlights.
The mushy ground where the footprints were starting to fill up with water.
"Someone was here," He mumbled, "Mother, some one was here - do you see him? Where'd he go?"
"Come on, Artemis, there's nobody - we've got to get out of here!"
"But mother, someone."
"Come on, get in the car!"
He remembered the rain.beating down on them without any mercy.
He remembered his father babbling like an idiot saying, "It was only a joke. just a joke."
My God what have we done..
If only it hadn't been the anniversary.
If only the screams would stop echoing in his head forever.
* * *
At that exact moment, Foaly's computer went haywire.
"Foaly, what the hell is going on?" demanded Commander Root.
"I'm scoping some serious mud-man activity up there," replied Foaly smiling.
"Serious mud-man activity?" asked Holly who was standing next to Root. "In my book that only means one thing."
"Oh boy, here it comes," said Foaly.
"Fowl," said Holly in a low voice. "When trouble arises you can bet he's behind it."
Root glanced at both of them. "Foaly I want you to pinpoint his location, and after you get it I want Holly to be dispatched and confront him. Bring him here for questioning. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir," said Holly.
"Artemis Fowl current location is at Fowl Manner, Rooty," said Fowl a few minutes later.
"Holly go to Fowl Manner and bring the mud-boy to me."
"Understood," said Holly. She left the control room and got into her jumpsuit and helmet. "Get ready Fowl," she muttered to herself. "I'm coming back."