CHAPTER THREE
(their situation was a unique one)
"You are not to go into that room, Anthony," Nicholas Patel commanded. He gestured to the moldy brown door which led to the damp basement.
Above his jade-green eyes, Anthony Rothgar raised a dark brown brow. "Why not?" he asked. He walked towards the door, more than a little curious.
Anthony was a senior at college. Nicholas was the editor of one of the best-selling newspapers in the country, where Anthony had been working for the past four years as an intern. Normally the two of them had a very close relationship, especially since Anthony was an orphan and had lived with Nicholas as his father figure for almost all of the 21 years of his life, but right now Nicholas seemed preoccupied with something. He had gotten home unusually late today, and when he did get home, he went straight to the basement to deposit something wrapped in a blanket in there.
Anthony's hand grazed the doorknob.
"Stay away from that door." Nicholas' voice was so sharp, that even Anthony, who had long ago passed the stage where he was afraid of his editor's moods, halted and drew back.
There was a pause.
"Are you okay?" Anthony asked his editor. "What is in there? This is going to sound weird, but when you first came in, I could have sworn you were carrying a little girl."
Nicholas exhaled loudly. "It's not weird. And actually, you aren't too far off the mark. It's little, and it's a female - but I definitely doubt that it's a human."
For a moment Anthony was silent. Then he snickered. "I get it. You got me a just-in-case-I-graduate-as-valedictorian-present, and you don't want me to see it. Of course it's a little early, but I know you like to be prepared."
At any other time, Nicholas might have rolled his eyes and ordered him to prepare dinner, but this was different. Very seriously, he told Anthony, "It came as a complete surprise. One of my layout editors was leaving early - you know most of us don't leave the office until just before midnight - and he ran into a couple of guys in a Disneyland uniform carrying an elfish creature. They wanted to sell it. Of course, Lyon - that's the layout editor's name - wrote them off as lunatics and walked away. But they swore on their beloved mothers' honor - and their own, too, for good measure - that the unconscious creature they had in their arms was not a mascot."
Anthony stared at the door, then at Nicholas. "Um, I don't get it."
"It's simple. The two Disneyland guys managed to convince Lyon to buy the elf for two thousand.. And, you have to understand this, Tony, Lyon is not an easy man to fool. He's smart as a whip. When he returned to the office claiming that he had just gotten us a month's - hell, a year's - worth of headlines, we believed him."
Anthony didn't believe a single word. "Sure. Wait, I'll get us dinner."
Nicholas sighed, but he said nothing more. Years of working with Anthony had taught him that he wasn't like other people. Most people would believe anything - it was this quality that was the reason behind how well his newspaper sold. But Anthony was trained and intelligent, and he wasn't an easy person to convince.
For his part, Anthony was thinking about what his years with Nicholas had taught him. Their situation was a unique one - orphaned at birth, he had been taken by Nicholas, his parents' best friend, but the Social Services pointed out that Nicholas wasn't father material. Nicholas understood - he was nearly always home after midnight, and he had never taken care of a kid before. But he wasn't willing to give up Anthony either. In the end, the Social Services had consented to let Anthony spend part of the year with Nicholas, and the rest with a suitable foster family that they themselves had chosen.
Anthony found a father and a mother in his foster family - Richard and Miranda were childless, and they loved him. But his real mentor and companion was Nicholas. As he grew older, and the visits from the social workers lessened, he began to spend more than his allotted time with Nicholas. Richard and Miranda understood, and let him.
Anthony thought of Nicholas as the older brother he had never had - Nicholas also viewed him as a brother, albeit a much younger one.
Yes. Their situation was a unique one. But in it, they had come to know, love, and respect each other very much. And Anthony realized that Nicholas wasn't about to say anything else.
Even as he ate dinner, Nicholas contemplated the look on Anthony's face and decided it would be best to guard the door that night. No sense in inviting trouble.
~~~~~^~~*~~^~~~~~
Holly drew her knees to her chest, trembling with the cold dampness of the basement. Figured. The Mud Men couldn't even put her in a room designed by a decent architect.
The dark gray blanket lay crumpled on the floor, as far away from her as possible. She was not going to use that, no matter how much she needed it. By now, weak and befuddled as she was, Holly had deduced that the Mud Men who had put her in this horrible room were also the ones who had given her the blanket. She was determined to avoid touching it again.
She was captured by Mud Men!
She really wouldn't want to know how Root had reacted to the news.
But the chill in the room wasn't the only source of Holly's discomfort. The two Mud Men outside had been arguing with each other for quite some time now. She supposed they were the ones who had taken her from Disneyland. The noise was beginning to bother her.
It galled her beyond belief that she had no other option but to wait for help to reach her. The door was locked, she was drained of magic, the Mud Men weren't coming close enough to be mesmerized, and she didn't even know where she was and what exactly had happened. Her only option was to wait for Foaly and the other fairies to come and save her.
" I knew it. I knew it! Why do you think I was sitting here, guarding the damned door? I knew you would try to sneak in and have a peek at the creature, even when I told you not to."
Holly snorted feebly, but it was a snort nonetheless. Crude barbarians. She was an elf, not a 'creature.'
"Nicholas - are you sick?" The voice was young and worried. Holly was too weak to even care why the youth was addressing the obviously older voice without anything like 'Dad' or 'Uncle' - perhaps they were brothers.
The reply was sharp and exasperated. "I'm not insane, Anthony. Godsakes. But I'm not letting you in to see the creature, either. It might be dangerous."
Holly sighed. This one had common sense, something Mud Men almost always lacked. Too bad he kept calling her a 'creature.'
"Tomorrow, I'll be moving back in with Richard and Miranda," the one Holly presumed was Anthony pointed out. "I'll be there for the rest of the month. If you don't show me now, I'll never see it."
"You don't trust me, do you? Can't you just take my word for it?"
"Honestly, an 'elfish, weird-looking creature?' Whatever you're describing doesn't exist. I wish you'd let me see it. You're really starting to make me nervous."
Holly fumed. A 'weird-looking creature,' eh? They'd be sorry when she finally got a chance to put the mesmer on them.
"For the last time, I am not insane!" the older one fairly shouted.
"Then why won't you let me see the creature?"
Holly stuffed her fingers in her ears and tuned them out, not willing to stomach their inane bantering any longer. She closed her eyes to block out the sight of the damp, unfurnished basement, thinking longingly of her warm home where a bubbling mud bath was waiting for her. She was so tired that she slipped almost immediately into slumber.
If she had listened, she would have heard and understood what happened moments later.
Anthony, fed up with the argument, finally marched off to call Lyon himself and see if at least part of Nicholas' story was true. But, coincidentally, the phone rung just as he was about to pick it up. Lyon was on the other end, shouting for Nicholas.
When Nicholas put down the phone almost an hour later, he had a deep frown on his face.
Anthony, who had left the area to give them some privacy, reappeared. "Well?"
"The data disappeared."
"What?"
"Everything. All the pictures we took, all the research we conducted, every article we started, everything connected to the picture. It vanished. As if it had never been there. And to top it all off, the guard working there claims he never saw anything unusual - and that includes the creature. He doesn't remember seeing Lyon bring it in, which is impossible, because of the hell we raised moments later."
Anthony wanted to tell Nicholas that this only corroborated his theory that he was losing it, but instead he said, "Do you think the guard erased the proof that the creature in that basement, that I haven't heard, smelt, or seen, existed?"
"We have to entertain that possibility - and others as well."
"I don't understand."
"I knew that creature was dangerous. I believe there are others like it - and that they want all proof that suggests they exist erased. It is all the more important for you to stay away from the basement, Anthony. They might come for the creature."
~~~~~^~~*~~^~~~~~
"Nicholas Patel," Foaly announced.
"How did you find out?" Root snapped.
"Mud Men post everything on colorful little pieces of paper." The centaur handed a yellow Post-it to the commander.
It said simply, "Creature brought home by editor-in-chief. Contact him or Lyon if you want to write an article or take pictures or do anything concerning the creature."
"And the editor-in-chief is Nicholas Patel," Foaly said.
"He'll probably redo everything we erased tomorrow. We can erase the data again tomorrow night, or save Holly instead. We don't have the resources to pull time-stops without at least an eight-hour interval. We're right back where we started!"
"We might not be."
"You seriously think this Patel is going to hold off redoing all the stuff he's done on Captain Short?"
"No, but he might be prevented."
"You've already contacted Artemis Fowl." It wasn't a question.
Foaly nodded. "He'll be here in about two minutes. Taken by force if necessary."
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(their situation was a unique one)
"You are not to go into that room, Anthony," Nicholas Patel commanded. He gestured to the moldy brown door which led to the damp basement.
Above his jade-green eyes, Anthony Rothgar raised a dark brown brow. "Why not?" he asked. He walked towards the door, more than a little curious.
Anthony was a senior at college. Nicholas was the editor of one of the best-selling newspapers in the country, where Anthony had been working for the past four years as an intern. Normally the two of them had a very close relationship, especially since Anthony was an orphan and had lived with Nicholas as his father figure for almost all of the 21 years of his life, but right now Nicholas seemed preoccupied with something. He had gotten home unusually late today, and when he did get home, he went straight to the basement to deposit something wrapped in a blanket in there.
Anthony's hand grazed the doorknob.
"Stay away from that door." Nicholas' voice was so sharp, that even Anthony, who had long ago passed the stage where he was afraid of his editor's moods, halted and drew back.
There was a pause.
"Are you okay?" Anthony asked his editor. "What is in there? This is going to sound weird, but when you first came in, I could have sworn you were carrying a little girl."
Nicholas exhaled loudly. "It's not weird. And actually, you aren't too far off the mark. It's little, and it's a female - but I definitely doubt that it's a human."
For a moment Anthony was silent. Then he snickered. "I get it. You got me a just-in-case-I-graduate-as-valedictorian-present, and you don't want me to see it. Of course it's a little early, but I know you like to be prepared."
At any other time, Nicholas might have rolled his eyes and ordered him to prepare dinner, but this was different. Very seriously, he told Anthony, "It came as a complete surprise. One of my layout editors was leaving early - you know most of us don't leave the office until just before midnight - and he ran into a couple of guys in a Disneyland uniform carrying an elfish creature. They wanted to sell it. Of course, Lyon - that's the layout editor's name - wrote them off as lunatics and walked away. But they swore on their beloved mothers' honor - and their own, too, for good measure - that the unconscious creature they had in their arms was not a mascot."
Anthony stared at the door, then at Nicholas. "Um, I don't get it."
"It's simple. The two Disneyland guys managed to convince Lyon to buy the elf for two thousand.. And, you have to understand this, Tony, Lyon is not an easy man to fool. He's smart as a whip. When he returned to the office claiming that he had just gotten us a month's - hell, a year's - worth of headlines, we believed him."
Anthony didn't believe a single word. "Sure. Wait, I'll get us dinner."
Nicholas sighed, but he said nothing more. Years of working with Anthony had taught him that he wasn't like other people. Most people would believe anything - it was this quality that was the reason behind how well his newspaper sold. But Anthony was trained and intelligent, and he wasn't an easy person to convince.
For his part, Anthony was thinking about what his years with Nicholas had taught him. Their situation was a unique one - orphaned at birth, he had been taken by Nicholas, his parents' best friend, but the Social Services pointed out that Nicholas wasn't father material. Nicholas understood - he was nearly always home after midnight, and he had never taken care of a kid before. But he wasn't willing to give up Anthony either. In the end, the Social Services had consented to let Anthony spend part of the year with Nicholas, and the rest with a suitable foster family that they themselves had chosen.
Anthony found a father and a mother in his foster family - Richard and Miranda were childless, and they loved him. But his real mentor and companion was Nicholas. As he grew older, and the visits from the social workers lessened, he began to spend more than his allotted time with Nicholas. Richard and Miranda understood, and let him.
Anthony thought of Nicholas as the older brother he had never had - Nicholas also viewed him as a brother, albeit a much younger one.
Yes. Their situation was a unique one. But in it, they had come to know, love, and respect each other very much. And Anthony realized that Nicholas wasn't about to say anything else.
Even as he ate dinner, Nicholas contemplated the look on Anthony's face and decided it would be best to guard the door that night. No sense in inviting trouble.
~~~~~^~~*~~^~~~~~
Holly drew her knees to her chest, trembling with the cold dampness of the basement. Figured. The Mud Men couldn't even put her in a room designed by a decent architect.
The dark gray blanket lay crumpled on the floor, as far away from her as possible. She was not going to use that, no matter how much she needed it. By now, weak and befuddled as she was, Holly had deduced that the Mud Men who had put her in this horrible room were also the ones who had given her the blanket. She was determined to avoid touching it again.
She was captured by Mud Men!
She really wouldn't want to know how Root had reacted to the news.
But the chill in the room wasn't the only source of Holly's discomfort. The two Mud Men outside had been arguing with each other for quite some time now. She supposed they were the ones who had taken her from Disneyland. The noise was beginning to bother her.
It galled her beyond belief that she had no other option but to wait for help to reach her. The door was locked, she was drained of magic, the Mud Men weren't coming close enough to be mesmerized, and she didn't even know where she was and what exactly had happened. Her only option was to wait for Foaly and the other fairies to come and save her.
" I knew it. I knew it! Why do you think I was sitting here, guarding the damned door? I knew you would try to sneak in and have a peek at the creature, even when I told you not to."
Holly snorted feebly, but it was a snort nonetheless. Crude barbarians. She was an elf, not a 'creature.'
"Nicholas - are you sick?" The voice was young and worried. Holly was too weak to even care why the youth was addressing the obviously older voice without anything like 'Dad' or 'Uncle' - perhaps they were brothers.
The reply was sharp and exasperated. "I'm not insane, Anthony. Godsakes. But I'm not letting you in to see the creature, either. It might be dangerous."
Holly sighed. This one had common sense, something Mud Men almost always lacked. Too bad he kept calling her a 'creature.'
"Tomorrow, I'll be moving back in with Richard and Miranda," the one Holly presumed was Anthony pointed out. "I'll be there for the rest of the month. If you don't show me now, I'll never see it."
"You don't trust me, do you? Can't you just take my word for it?"
"Honestly, an 'elfish, weird-looking creature?' Whatever you're describing doesn't exist. I wish you'd let me see it. You're really starting to make me nervous."
Holly fumed. A 'weird-looking creature,' eh? They'd be sorry when she finally got a chance to put the mesmer on them.
"For the last time, I am not insane!" the older one fairly shouted.
"Then why won't you let me see the creature?"
Holly stuffed her fingers in her ears and tuned them out, not willing to stomach their inane bantering any longer. She closed her eyes to block out the sight of the damp, unfurnished basement, thinking longingly of her warm home where a bubbling mud bath was waiting for her. She was so tired that she slipped almost immediately into slumber.
If she had listened, she would have heard and understood what happened moments later.
Anthony, fed up with the argument, finally marched off to call Lyon himself and see if at least part of Nicholas' story was true. But, coincidentally, the phone rung just as he was about to pick it up. Lyon was on the other end, shouting for Nicholas.
When Nicholas put down the phone almost an hour later, he had a deep frown on his face.
Anthony, who had left the area to give them some privacy, reappeared. "Well?"
"The data disappeared."
"What?"
"Everything. All the pictures we took, all the research we conducted, every article we started, everything connected to the picture. It vanished. As if it had never been there. And to top it all off, the guard working there claims he never saw anything unusual - and that includes the creature. He doesn't remember seeing Lyon bring it in, which is impossible, because of the hell we raised moments later."
Anthony wanted to tell Nicholas that this only corroborated his theory that he was losing it, but instead he said, "Do you think the guard erased the proof that the creature in that basement, that I haven't heard, smelt, or seen, existed?"
"We have to entertain that possibility - and others as well."
"I don't understand."
"I knew that creature was dangerous. I believe there are others like it - and that they want all proof that suggests they exist erased. It is all the more important for you to stay away from the basement, Anthony. They might come for the creature."
~~~~~^~~*~~^~~~~~
"Nicholas Patel," Foaly announced.
"How did you find out?" Root snapped.
"Mud Men post everything on colorful little pieces of paper." The centaur handed a yellow Post-it to the commander.
It said simply, "Creature brought home by editor-in-chief. Contact him or Lyon if you want to write an article or take pictures or do anything concerning the creature."
"And the editor-in-chief is Nicholas Patel," Foaly said.
"He'll probably redo everything we erased tomorrow. We can erase the data again tomorrow night, or save Holly instead. We don't have the resources to pull time-stops without at least an eight-hour interval. We're right back where we started!"
"We might not be."
"You seriously think this Patel is going to hold off redoing all the stuff he's done on Captain Short?"
"No, but he might be prevented."
"You've already contacted Artemis Fowl." It wasn't a question.
Foaly nodded. "He'll be here in about two minutes. Taken by force if necessary."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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