Artemis considered the deal that had been offered to him, almost on a silver platter. He finally held out a hand to the centaur. 'You have yourself a deal Foaly.' Foaly took the hand and smiled "Together we will be unstoppable and the world will know better than to mess with a pair of genius'." Artemis nodded and smiled vampirish.
"I suppose we had better get the finer details of our agreement finalised then.' the youth said casually. 'I believe a place of stay was required?' Foaly nodded and waved a hand to indicate the view that was present from behind the French windows. "preferably a place where I can watch the sun and have access to the grass.' Artemis glanced curiously towards the one person who could claim to be near his intelligence level.
"I was under the opinion that fairies couldn't go out into the sun's rays.'
'fairies can't' was the mild reply. 'It messes with their magic. But centaurs haven't that much magic and we need the sun. To run under the sun's glare. It's the dream of most cooped up under the world.' Artemis indicated the large acres that had been in the Fowl family for generations.
'If you wish to run, then you may. The estate is large enough for you to be able to run freely and have no one notice you. And from a distance, you look rather like any other horse with a rider on it's back. There is a rather large herd running free at any given moment. The Fowl stable's are amongst the best in the country.'
Foaly rolled his eyes. "of course they are.' Artemis merely glanced at him. Foaly continued on hurriedly. "and then you will help me conduct a plan of revenge?' Artemis nodded. 'of course. I too, have a score to settle with the LEP. They did mind wipe me after all. But right now, I have to regain my memories and see just what is missing. Only when I know exactly what I'm dealing with can a reasonable offensive be conducted.' Artemis turned towards his laptop, hesitated, and turned back. "How soon do you need your revenge to be carried out?' he inquired interested in the answer despite himself. Foaly shrugged feigning indifference although his eyes told a different story.
'The faster we deal with them, the faster I can remove them from my mind and concentrate on starting afresh.' Artemis nodded slightly, he had been expecting an answer along those lines. Although he knew what the answer would be he asked any way. Little details meant the difference between freedom and capture. "Revenge is a dish best served cold you know.' Foaly laughed and danced slightly on his hind hooves. 'Maybe it is' he agreed. 'but I like mine pipping hot.' Artemis nodded again, he was beginning to feel a bit like a puppet on it's string. "agreed then. You can have any room not currently in use. Butler will show you around. I shall be coming up with a brilliant scheme.' Foaly nodded. He expected no less from the boy genius.
Butler waited until they were well and truly out of young Artemis' hearing before he asked the centaur. "don't you want to help conduct the plan? It is after all, your revenge.' Foaly shook his head, hooves making a smooth clip-clop sound as they trotted evenly on the wooden floor boards. 'I am certain that anything I could come up with, Artemis would always be three steps ahead of me. This is after all, not something I have ever considered doing. And the LEP will possibly be expecting me to try and make an attack. They will not suspect whatever Artemis has concocted.'
Foaly must have seen the look of incredulous disbelief on Butler's face because he added 'Did you ever suspect that fairies existed? Would you have worked out such an ingenious plot to separate on from it's gold? Would you have been able to work out a plan to rescue someone from the Russian Mafia? And to be more specific, would you have shot your father or even have given the order to do so? Would you have been able to work out a way into Spiro's fortress and discovered a way to place him in jail without ever being implicated?' Foaly laughed and this single laugh was capable of sending shivers down the body guard's spine. 'no, they will not suspect what Artemis comes up with. And I can not wait to see the chaos and disarray it causes.' Butler gulped slightly and quickened his pace.
Captain Holly Short walked in to the Lower Element Police head quarters and waited for the usual sarcastic comment to come out from Foaly's booth. She frowned as she received only silence. Could it be that Foaly has finally decided to stop with the comments about Recon jocks who weren't intelligent to get by without his help? Holly dismissed that thought at once. How could she even think something that illogical? Foaly would stop making sarcastic comments the day Commander Root stopped shouted at everyone and lost the nickname of Beetroot. Not gonna happen in this lifetime.
"Foaly?" she called tentatively as she waited for the electronic doors to let her pass through. She blinked as she surveyed the op booth. Devoid of personal effects at the best of times this was...bland. All equipment that wasn't nailed down had been removed and everything was turned off. Holly frowned. Something was not right. Foaly would not leave his office like this. If something happened, that centaur just had to hear/see it first hand.
She stepped back out of the booth and halted a passing constable. "Where'd Foaly go?" Holly wasn't quite sure what answer she was expecting, most likely something along the lines of 'he's on holidays' perhaps but she defiantly wasn't prepared for the gnome to stammer something that Holly could only just make out. 'The, uh commander, um, decided that, ah, perhaps Foaly wasn't, um, working to his, er, full potential sir...' Holly stopped listening at that point because her brain had, recognising an outburst when it saw one, had shut down everything not necessary to dwelling on the subject. The first coherent thought when it finally re-emerged was 'I'm going to kill Root."
Commander Julius Root was not having a good day. Firstly, that Frond-cursed centaur had disappeared and nobody knew where he had gotten to which meant that no one knew how to turn the blasted computers on which were the eyes and ears of the LEP operations. Secondly, Root's doors which were not electronic were thrown open and a very angry elf stood where they had once been. He frowned irritably at the captain. 'Just what do you think you're doing?' he snapped. Holly stalked inside and slammed the doors behind her. "What do I think I'm doing?' she hissed 'what do YOU think your doing firing Foaly like that!' Root glared at the standing elf. 'Captain Short' he began 'I understand that you have a friendship with the centaur but you do not have all the facts!' This was met with an icy glare. 'so tell me' she spat out 'the facts.' Root leaned back in his chair and sighed. This would not be easy. Elves were such temperamental creatures. He should know after all, he was one himself.
'We lost Mulch' he said tiredly. Holly snorted. 'And for that you fired the most important member of the police force?' Root glared at the insubordination as he snapped back 'of course not! We fired Foaly' he emphasised the word 'because the date on the warrant had been changed and he was the only one capable of such a feat.' He gentled his voice slightly seeing that Holly obviously didn't understand. "I mean that Foaly has been playing us all for fools for years. But he didn't cover his tracks as well this time and he got caught.'
Holly was about to say something snippy when suddenly the power went out. Holly glanced upwards in some surprise. Power failures did not generally happen. Flood, quarantine or discovery by the humans were the only things that would cause this to happen. Holly sighed. Her meeting with Root was by no means over but she had to do her job before anything else.