The Ther Drace
Chapter 1
In the coldest regions of Earth, nearly nothing exists; that is, nothing known to most people. There are the few penguins that visit the Arctic, the odd explorer that sees the North or South Poles and perhaps some persistent scientist.
Artemis Fowl the Second checked his radar scopes again, certain that he'd seen something appear on the screen just seconds ago. Leaning forward, he stared intently at the monitor. The scanner rotated once more and a fluorescent green blob appeared. Artemis sat back in his leather reclining office chair, pondering this new piece of information.
Ever since he'd rescued his father from the remote reaches of that cold a barren land, he'd kept a close tab on the little action there was. He was almost one hundred percent certain that the Mafia wouldn't return to work out of that area, but he wanted to make sure, and if they were, then he'd be able to use their location as black mail for the future.
Most of the time nothing ever appeared, the odd plane would sometimes show up, but even then, those didn't show often either – programmed out of the scanning system for their size. No, for the size that this was, it was definitely not a plane, not even a small one.
A frown crept across Artemis's pale brow, this was odd. Roughly human sized, yet moving at impossible speeds. He tapped a few keys on his keyboard and pulled up a three dimensional map of the surrounding area to match the blips movement. Swinging the computer's joystick around, he looked at the screen from a side view. The blip appeared to be floating in the air. A hang glider? No, the metal structure would show up on his scanners. What could be human sized and fly?
Artemis's stomach rumbled, reminding him that he'd skipped lunch. He reached over and flipped the communications switch, hailing his personal body guard, "Butler?"
Through the small speaker built into the seat of his Computer chair, the responding voice sounded as if it was coming from right behind Artemis. "Yes, Artemis?"
"Bring up some lunch."
Downstairs, Butler smiled, it was nearly six-o-clock in the evening.
Artemis worked his way through the nets, searching for the latest flying contraptions. The newest versions of single man jet packs could be a possibility, but even those were erratic in the flight paths. The thing that had shown up on his scanners was straight, as if walking a straight line in the air. Even on the black market, there was nothing that could possibly make a person fly.
A knock on his door and a quick glance at the hallway monitor watching his door alerted him to his mother.
"Arty? How's the studying going?"
Artemis quickly activated the wooden panels that slid over all of his computers but one. "It's going as well as studying goes. I still have to look over my papers for History."
Artemis could hear his mother's sigh through the door. "You're only fourteen Artemis, boys your age don't normally take such courses as History or Calculus."
Boys my age? Is there one boy my age that I could hold a decent conversation with in this world? Instead of voicing his thoughts, he simply answered truthfully, "These courses I'm taking are interesting. Enlightening in the least."
"Well as long as you don't think you're pushing yourself too hard. Dinner is ready if you want to come down."
Through the monitor, Artemis could see his mother shake her head and walk away. His parents thought he was studying for a final exam. The fact that they thought that their son needed time to study made Artemis grow sad. Obviously his own parents knew very little of him, nearly nothing. Mentally, he shook his head. What was this? Sentimental emotion? From Artemis Fowl?
Breathing again, Artemis brought his other computers back into sight. The green glow of his radar scanner drew his eye towards the screen showing the Murmansk area. It was glowing brightly – the entire screen. He quickly tapped into other systems he had set up north, they all came up with the same answer. For the first time in his life, Artemis had no answer as to why this occurrence was happening.
Somewhere deep down under ground, Foaly reeled back from the bright flash that showed up on his highly advanced computer systems. The sudden flux in power pushed past his firewalls and caused his protected processors to flicker and the screens to distort. Foaly yelped out loud as something short circuited and sent sparks at him, singeing the hair on his back.
Staring blankly at the smoking screen, he heard the pounding footsteps despite the so called sound proof walls in his Ops Booth. He'd have to ignore them and put off their questions as to why their computers and electricity had just cut out on them. They weren't protected from such large surges of power as his was.
Leaning forward, till his nose was nearly touching the screen, Foaly reacted similarly to how Artemis had. He had no answers. But unlike Artemis, he had the means to look into this incident. Besides, it was his reputation that was on the line here, not just mere curiosity.
Butler quietly walked into Artemis's study. The room was tastefully arranged and furnished. Plush oriental carpets covered the oak floors silencing his already silent steps. Setting down what the French Chef had procured from down in the kitchens, he took a step back to settle into his usual alert stance.
Without glancing away from the four computer screen system, Artemis complained, "Oh for heaven's sake, Butler. There's no need to be alert when we are in the heart of my house under state of the art spy equipment that is watching the property, house and all within it."
Butler shrugged and massaged his chest slightly. His breathing felt rather restricting, even the slightest amount of strenuous work seemed to aggravate it.
Artemis, ever vigilant, noted the movement in the reflection of his screens and spun his seat around, "Problem Butler?"
Shaking his head, Butler dropped his hand and relaxed somewhat, "Nothing's wrong."
"Good. Because I'm thinking that after I get these 'exams' done for History and Calculus we're going to go on a long awaited holiday."
"Foaly! Open this damn door now! I'm going to have all the carrots in Haven composted!"
Ignoring the 'life threatening threats,' Foaly switched back to the Haven console. He'd just spoken to numerous contacts throughout the underground. All having had the same black out as he, all of them had fared off worse than him and were just getting back online.
There was only one more thing to check before letting Commander Root into his Ops Booth. Pulling up the program that followed a certain human's every move, Foaly entered the long digit code that allowed him access to highly confidential information. File upon file came up. The name on each of these files? Artemis Fowl. Entering the No-Time-Delay Live feed, Foaly scanned the past four hours.
Artemis's computer action showed no high particle emissions, signifying that he'd just been working on regular computer activities. A quick look at the computer scanning Artemis's computer activity showed the same. A whistle of amazement did escape Foaly's lips as he noted that Artemis had also seen exactly what he himself had seen. Only, for some odd reason, Artemis's picture seemed to be a lot clearer in the object's size, speed, and location.
He frowned at the fact that Artemis had somehow upgraded the quality of his scanners so that they were now even better than Foaly's own design.
Finally he flipped the switch that opened up the door to the Ops Booth. Dozens of faces and body's attempted to enter at the same time, resulting in a jam up. Commander Root's voice boomed out over the complaining, "Where is that donkey?!"
"Root, what's up? There seem to be a large number of people banging at my door."
Pulling people aside so that he could enter, Root's beet red face appeared through the throng of people. "What's up? You should know! A complete black out of Haven!"
"Yes. A most strange event. But enough of the chit-chat, however lovely it is, this is serious."
"You think?"
"Seriously. And before you ask, no it has nothing to do with Artemis Fowl, although he does know about it and no. It has nothing to do with the Fairy people. Nor Humans by the looks of it."
"Foaly, what the heck are you talking about? Speak some sense – all I know is that our computer systems are all haywire."
"They would be. Some large emission of energy was released up in the Murmansk area. It wasn't one of us. It was Human sized. It couldn't be fairy."
"WHAT!? Foaly, make some sense now!" Red was going to be the permanent colour of Root's face.
Steepling his fingers, Foaly replied in a conversational tone. "Let me dumb it down a little for you then. We got something not-human and not- fairy on our hands."
Chapter 1
In the coldest regions of Earth, nearly nothing exists; that is, nothing known to most people. There are the few penguins that visit the Arctic, the odd explorer that sees the North or South Poles and perhaps some persistent scientist.
Artemis Fowl the Second checked his radar scopes again, certain that he'd seen something appear on the screen just seconds ago. Leaning forward, he stared intently at the monitor. The scanner rotated once more and a fluorescent green blob appeared. Artemis sat back in his leather reclining office chair, pondering this new piece of information.
Ever since he'd rescued his father from the remote reaches of that cold a barren land, he'd kept a close tab on the little action there was. He was almost one hundred percent certain that the Mafia wouldn't return to work out of that area, but he wanted to make sure, and if they were, then he'd be able to use their location as black mail for the future.
Most of the time nothing ever appeared, the odd plane would sometimes show up, but even then, those didn't show often either – programmed out of the scanning system for their size. No, for the size that this was, it was definitely not a plane, not even a small one.
A frown crept across Artemis's pale brow, this was odd. Roughly human sized, yet moving at impossible speeds. He tapped a few keys on his keyboard and pulled up a three dimensional map of the surrounding area to match the blips movement. Swinging the computer's joystick around, he looked at the screen from a side view. The blip appeared to be floating in the air. A hang glider? No, the metal structure would show up on his scanners. What could be human sized and fly?
Artemis's stomach rumbled, reminding him that he'd skipped lunch. He reached over and flipped the communications switch, hailing his personal body guard, "Butler?"
Through the small speaker built into the seat of his Computer chair, the responding voice sounded as if it was coming from right behind Artemis. "Yes, Artemis?"
"Bring up some lunch."
Downstairs, Butler smiled, it was nearly six-o-clock in the evening.
Artemis worked his way through the nets, searching for the latest flying contraptions. The newest versions of single man jet packs could be a possibility, but even those were erratic in the flight paths. The thing that had shown up on his scanners was straight, as if walking a straight line in the air. Even on the black market, there was nothing that could possibly make a person fly.
A knock on his door and a quick glance at the hallway monitor watching his door alerted him to his mother.
"Arty? How's the studying going?"
Artemis quickly activated the wooden panels that slid over all of his computers but one. "It's going as well as studying goes. I still have to look over my papers for History."
Artemis could hear his mother's sigh through the door. "You're only fourteen Artemis, boys your age don't normally take such courses as History or Calculus."
Boys my age? Is there one boy my age that I could hold a decent conversation with in this world? Instead of voicing his thoughts, he simply answered truthfully, "These courses I'm taking are interesting. Enlightening in the least."
"Well as long as you don't think you're pushing yourself too hard. Dinner is ready if you want to come down."
Through the monitor, Artemis could see his mother shake her head and walk away. His parents thought he was studying for a final exam. The fact that they thought that their son needed time to study made Artemis grow sad. Obviously his own parents knew very little of him, nearly nothing. Mentally, he shook his head. What was this? Sentimental emotion? From Artemis Fowl?
Breathing again, Artemis brought his other computers back into sight. The green glow of his radar scanner drew his eye towards the screen showing the Murmansk area. It was glowing brightly – the entire screen. He quickly tapped into other systems he had set up north, they all came up with the same answer. For the first time in his life, Artemis had no answer as to why this occurrence was happening.
Somewhere deep down under ground, Foaly reeled back from the bright flash that showed up on his highly advanced computer systems. The sudden flux in power pushed past his firewalls and caused his protected processors to flicker and the screens to distort. Foaly yelped out loud as something short circuited and sent sparks at him, singeing the hair on his back.
Staring blankly at the smoking screen, he heard the pounding footsteps despite the so called sound proof walls in his Ops Booth. He'd have to ignore them and put off their questions as to why their computers and electricity had just cut out on them. They weren't protected from such large surges of power as his was.
Leaning forward, till his nose was nearly touching the screen, Foaly reacted similarly to how Artemis had. He had no answers. But unlike Artemis, he had the means to look into this incident. Besides, it was his reputation that was on the line here, not just mere curiosity.
Butler quietly walked into Artemis's study. The room was tastefully arranged and furnished. Plush oriental carpets covered the oak floors silencing his already silent steps. Setting down what the French Chef had procured from down in the kitchens, he took a step back to settle into his usual alert stance.
Without glancing away from the four computer screen system, Artemis complained, "Oh for heaven's sake, Butler. There's no need to be alert when we are in the heart of my house under state of the art spy equipment that is watching the property, house and all within it."
Butler shrugged and massaged his chest slightly. His breathing felt rather restricting, even the slightest amount of strenuous work seemed to aggravate it.
Artemis, ever vigilant, noted the movement in the reflection of his screens and spun his seat around, "Problem Butler?"
Shaking his head, Butler dropped his hand and relaxed somewhat, "Nothing's wrong."
"Good. Because I'm thinking that after I get these 'exams' done for History and Calculus we're going to go on a long awaited holiday."
"Foaly! Open this damn door now! I'm going to have all the carrots in Haven composted!"
Ignoring the 'life threatening threats,' Foaly switched back to the Haven console. He'd just spoken to numerous contacts throughout the underground. All having had the same black out as he, all of them had fared off worse than him and were just getting back online.
There was only one more thing to check before letting Commander Root into his Ops Booth. Pulling up the program that followed a certain human's every move, Foaly entered the long digit code that allowed him access to highly confidential information. File upon file came up. The name on each of these files? Artemis Fowl. Entering the No-Time-Delay Live feed, Foaly scanned the past four hours.
Artemis's computer action showed no high particle emissions, signifying that he'd just been working on regular computer activities. A quick look at the computer scanning Artemis's computer activity showed the same. A whistle of amazement did escape Foaly's lips as he noted that Artemis had also seen exactly what he himself had seen. Only, for some odd reason, Artemis's picture seemed to be a lot clearer in the object's size, speed, and location.
He frowned at the fact that Artemis had somehow upgraded the quality of his scanners so that they were now even better than Foaly's own design.
Finally he flipped the switch that opened up the door to the Ops Booth. Dozens of faces and body's attempted to enter at the same time, resulting in a jam up. Commander Root's voice boomed out over the complaining, "Where is that donkey?!"
"Root, what's up? There seem to be a large number of people banging at my door."
Pulling people aside so that he could enter, Root's beet red face appeared through the throng of people. "What's up? You should know! A complete black out of Haven!"
"Yes. A most strange event. But enough of the chit-chat, however lovely it is, this is serious."
"You think?"
"Seriously. And before you ask, no it has nothing to do with Artemis Fowl, although he does know about it and no. It has nothing to do with the Fairy people. Nor Humans by the looks of it."
"Foaly, what the heck are you talking about? Speak some sense – all I know is that our computer systems are all haywire."
"They would be. Some large emission of energy was released up in the Murmansk area. It wasn't one of us. It was Human sized. It couldn't be fairy."
"WHAT!? Foaly, make some sense now!" Red was going to be the permanent colour of Root's face.
Steepling his fingers, Foaly replied in a conversational tone. "Let me dumb it down a little for you then. We got something not-human and not- fairy on our hands."