Disclaimer: Artemis Fowl and related characters are not mine. They are the
works of and are copyrighted to Eoin Colfer.
Author's Note: Be sure to check out my bio for announcements on updates on the story as well as revisions on the chapters.
Scene Six: Deception
Four days after the Tater heist, downtown Haven.
Haven was a treasure chest of lights and sounds. The various buildings glistened underneath the Earth like so many precious metals and gems. If it had been above ground, it would have mirrored the heavens in display of stars and other heavenly bodies.
Haven was a city of lights and sounds for fairies. Despite the efforts of the city officials to conserve all resources in Haven, it still managed to look like what any city should like: a beehive of activity. Crowds made up of the entire spectrum of the fairy specie (except trolls) thronged the heavily congested pedestrian walks. There were even the occasional goblin citizens, despite the fact that a large percentage of their kind were sent to jail due to the uprising two years past. Automobiles beeped loudly at each other, trying to get a move on to the even worse traffic in the road. There were fairies talking, laughing, cursing, shopping, walking, dancing, flying, yelling; their sounds reached upwards towards the tops of the buildings and filled the air. Their everyday activity and interaction was a complicated dance of music and movement that made up the lives of most fairies underneath the world. This was Haven. This was haven for all the fairies since the Mud Men had begun to take over the world above.
Yet somehow, all this did not seem to reach the lone figure resting in the shadows on one of the buildings. Mercury's face was expressionless as he gazed at the Healing Center directly across from the building he was standing upon, completely isolated and ignoring the bustle of life below. His form was hidden in shadow, the stealth cloak completely hiding him from all eyes, whether of they were those of a camera or any fairy. Only the occasional stray light from below glanced off in the shadows and it danced minutely upon his jade green eyes before it was enveloped in the darkness, like a swimmer drowning in an ocean.
Experimentally, he drew breath, sniffing the air. In the gloom, a smile curved his lips, a poisonous night flower blooming in the dark. They were here. They were waiting for him. Hah. as if they could challenge him. Holly had been lucky, but no more. He came to finish what he started. He meant to destroy whatever it was that impeded the destiny of the fairies.
He stepped to the very edge of the building. No mistakes this time. His father had not been pleased at all. His great wings stretched to its full length. Mercury was very vain of his wings. He treasured it above most everything else. They were dark and sinuous; scales dotted the membrane near the actual bones that supported it. It moved with utmost grace, a grace that surpassed any sprite's. Thank the gods his father had been able to heal them of their hurts.
For a moment, he stood upon the artificial precipice, gazing at it all. Directly below him were the golden lights of the streets and fairies. Before him lay the famous Healing Center with a myriad of lights switched on like a great beacon in the dark. He gathered his feet and pushed off. For one frightening moment, it seemed as if he would fall, but then his wings beat the air powerfully. They quickly gathered speed and he shot through the darkness faster than any bird above the world. At full speed, even if he had not been cloaked, he would not have been seen by anything.
Keen eyes assessed the entire building in one fair swoop. He could not enter from the bottom or the top. The LEP would undoubtedly have the thickest security on both vertical ends of the Healing Center. However. the LEP could not have possibly wired all the windows to alarm even if they managed to keep all of them closed. The patients of Healing Central were not as well trained as the LEP. All he needed was to get in and not even that centaur would be able to see him even if he had been eyeballing the monitor. His peril lay in moving too slowly. His last fault was moving slowly. Moving slowly in the light reduced his stealth, allowing those gifted with the highest magical attunement, in most cases elves, to see him. He would remedy that. He would prove himself worthy of his gifts.
The thief was about sixty feet away when he spotted an open window. It looked dark, the occupants within probably asleep. He could spot the outline of legs underneath pale green blankets on a Spartan bed. In a matter of seconds, he had slid through the window, flattening his wings against his back in order to squeeze in, and he spread the impact of his momentum by landing in a roll. Quickly, he ducked to the place where the thickest shadows lay. Just in time, a nurse had opened the door, spilling light within. She was carrying a clipboard and was muttering about lazy doctors.
There were four fairies within, each of them slumbering in their beds. The beds were situated and lined against the left wall. There were partitions, a desk, and a few chairs in between each bed to allow for privacy. At the far side of the room was the door outside. The nurse stopped by each bed and looked at a machine connected to each patient.
Quickly, Mercury ducked and sped past the beds. The nurse never felt a thing. Just as he slipped outside the door, he heard her say, "Oh for pity's sake, why do we have to close each window?" There was a thump, as the window was presumably slammed shut. He paused a moment, a thought occurring to him. He slipped back inside the room and closed the door softly.
The nurse was now checking on the last patient with a very heavy scowl on her face. As he came closer, he read her nametag and level. Each employee within the Healing Centers were given rank in order to help determine which type of patients they could take care of and what facilities they had access to. The thief smirked: a level four-access card. Too easy.
He stripped his cloak. It took the nurse a few minutes to realize that someone tall was standing behind her. She whirled around and gasped. Her eyes gazed at the form, traveling from the chest up to the face. Big mistake. Jade green eyes glimmered with power. "You will find out the location of the room of Captain Holly Short of LEPrecon as discreetly as you can and tell me. Do not tell anyone that you are looking for her room. Do not alert the LEP by any means. I shall be waiting here," he commanded, his voice deepening with the mesmer. The sprite nurse sighed and nodded. She moved away towards the exit of the room, leaving the thief to wait.
This was far too easy. His position afforded him greater freedom and he could exploit it. The thief silently cloaked once more and moved to the shadows. It might take a while for the nurse to carry out the command.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~
"Okay, Captain, your vitals seem to be stable with the exception of you heart. According to the readings, it's beating weakly. If we're not careful, something might interrupt the pace," said an elderly warlock. The wizened elf had come to check up on his patient. He was an elf around 2'9, thin, with a strict face like a stiff leather bag. Wide eyes the size of plates graced his face, and he had a sharp nose that emphasized the severity in his character.
He removed the thin needle from her arm. The needle released nanosensors within the body, and transmitted the readings back to the screen held by the medic. It seemed that the biological make up of the newly changed elf was similar enough in make up to both fairy and human that they were able to receive reasonably conceivable diagnoses. Nevertheless, the warlock had never seen anything quite like Captain Short as she was now. "Now, let's check your physical stats, shall we?"
The elf complacently performed the indicated motor functions, showing that she wasn't experiencing any defect in the body. Her body still felt so strangely new to her, and she was often clumsy. However, it seemed that physically she was fine.
The warlock looked up at her from his electronic clipboard, "I received the results from your written test today. It seems that you still maintain quite the sharp mental faculties. Even better perhaps."
"Now there's a shocker," said Foaly. He had been sitting to the side watching the warlock check his friend. He had remained true to his word not to interrupt the examination, but his sarcasm really just couldn't be held in check. The warlock spared him a withering glance, jotting down a note in the clipboard.
"Yes, well, we can never really be too sure, as Mr. Foaly should well know," answered the doctor. He turned his attention once more to Holly. "And your magic?"
Holly sighed, "We've gone over this, doctor, I get a few sparks, but that's it."
The warlock nodded, his chin bobbing over the clipboard, "Yes, indeed."
Holly asked worriedly, "You don't think that I lost my magic, do you?"
The warlock looked up at her, "We can't know for sure, Captain. It could be that you just don't have any left due to the tremendous amount of stress your body is in. Or . In any case, we will not know until you go aboveground and perform the Ritual." The doctor began packing up his equipment. "Extraordinary, really, every time I see your statistics."
Holly, despite her aversion for this form, was interested, "What do you mean?"
"Well, you are most definitely fairy in nature, but there are quite a few things that are not common amongst fairies. They seem human, but they cannot be human," answered the warlock. Although what he said might have made sense to Foaly, it didn't seem to make much sense to Holly. She frowned. The warlock clarified, "Take your physique, for example. It's similar to that of a few humans, but I've never seen such an advanced development of the bone and muscular system. You still retain the light density in bone that is common among fairies although for a size such as yours, it should be impossible. I hypothesize that the muscular system provides the rest of the support. And then there's your nervous system. Again, rapid and advanced development, which could explain why you possess even faster reflexes than before. I could go on for days listing the complexities of your body."
Holly remained silent, turning over the facts in her mind. She supposed that there were advantages in this new form, but she didn't like it. Not one bit. She felt claustrophobic at times. "Still no ID?" she asked hopefully.
The warlock shook his head, "I'm afraid not, Captain." Although the warlock was stern and a professional, he couldn't help but feel sympathy for the elf. She was obviously dismayed. The medic offered a wan smile, "Don't worry. If there's a way to get you back to normal, we'll find it." He finished packing his bag. "I'll be in touch in case of updates," nodded the elder elf to the centaur and his patient. "Rest well, Captain Short." The medic bid the couple goodbye and walked out the door.
Once out of earshot, Holly bit her lip and lowered herself on a chair. The reports were disturbing. She felt her pulse quickening at the thought of being trapped in this form and she stood up abruptly, pacing the room.
"Calm down, Holly," said the centaur, "sit down."
"Foaly, I!"
"Look, we'll deal with it as it goes," said the centaur. "Now sit down and I'll tell you the news from HQ." Holly was instantly attentive. She sat back on her chair. The elf slipped and landed on her rear for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. She winced in pain, cursing vividly underneath her breath. Her temper was flaring due to the number of klutz attacks she'd been having. "Foaly," she hissed, getting to her feet. "I thought this thing was supposed to change my form, not turn me into a klutz!" The captain reached a hand for the back of a chair for support, missed, and ended up sliding over a desk. The elf's cursing was not discreet this time as she picked herself. "What is wrong with me?!"
Her centaur friend tried not to snicker too loudly at Holly's blundering. "My guess is that your brain is not used to your present size, so you keep on making automatic wrong decisions. It's kind of like the way humans grow extremely fast during puberty, and they get clumsy while their brain struggles to adjust. Except no human has ever grown over two feet in a day."
"I am not a human!" fumed Holly. "I am an elf!" She paused, realization hitting her few seconds after the words left her mouth. Technically, she had no idea what she was presently. Her eyes lowered momentarily before focusing on throttling Chix's throat. At least they were roughly the same size now so she could do more damage than flipping him over and firing off a round of Neutrino stun beams at him. Her fingers curled into little fists. She would get him all right.
"What's the news from the Council or Birchwood?" asked Holly aloud. She would dream about beating the D'Arvit out of Chix later. "Or did you just come in here to laugh at me?" She shot daggers at the centaur who looked amused at her antics.
"Actually, you might want to sit down for this one," said Foaly before smirking, "otherwise you might trip."
If eyes could kill, Foaly would have been a roasting puddle of troll refuse by now. Holly walked, stiffly, to her uncomfortably small chair and managed to sit down without slipping too far either. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Foaly," muttered Holly. "So what do we know?"
"Chix is definitely gone. We've interviewed all possible witnesses. His family doesn't know where he's been. He moved out of the main house around forty years ago. He stopped visiting ten years past. His friends are all clean. All we got off from them was that he'd been doing late night deliveries, which explains why he's looked exhausted for the past couple of days. They checked out too. So far, we have no leads as to where he could be. He apparently walked out of the Police Plaza and evaporated into thin air. Mercury hasn't been seen since he met Kelp's squad. A bit traumatized, I think," grinned Foaly. "He got more than a few scratches from that one."
"Good for Trouble," nodded Holly approvingly. "Chix deserves that one."
"If it is Chix," nodded Foaly.
"What do you mean?" demanded the elf. "Of course it's Chix! You saw his face! A sun blinded troll could tell it was Chix!"
"He looked a bit big, don't you think, Captain?"
"No D'Arvit," growled out Holly, "What do you think I look like?"
Foaly waved a dismissive, hairy arm, "That's very well and all, but as Commander Root would say, 'It's just conjecture.' We have to get to the root of the matter before anything else. Rest assured, though, that we're investigating Chix fully."
Holly rolled her eyes but nodded for the centaur to continue.
The centaur took a long time settling in to his chair, a strange flush gracing his cheeks. Holly raised an eyebrow at this. If Foaly was smug, then it usually meant he had hit a breakthrough. "Ahem, as I was saying," continued Foaly, "I've just hit on a breakthrough for us." He smirked, switching into lecture mode, "Magic leaves residual trace elements. Usually, the magic we do (shielding, mesmer, and healing etc.) is too small to leave too much of an impression. But if Mercury says he has magic and worked it on you, I hypothesized that a spell of that size would leave considerable traces. I took samples with the techies and voila! Now, I feed it into my computers and piggyback into a couple of Mud Men sensors worldwide. There are about 50 hits around the globe. Quite a long and short list to be investigated. But the one with the greatest amount of hits, unusually so, is Saint Bartleby's School for Young Gentlemen in County Wicklow, Ireland. Tell me I'm not the smartest creature in the universe."
"That means," breathed Holly, "that there's a good chance that whatever it is, its source is in that school!" She stood up, slipped, and landed back on her seat. She growled but her excitement was palpable, "What did Root say?"
"He's sending in a Recon agent as soon as he gets approval from the Council," said Foaly, the smile on his face fading slightly since he had begun telling her about his discoveries. "It seems that the Council are terribly concerned about the situation. Who could blame them? If what Mercury said is true." A cold silence descended on the room. "There could even be a remote possibility that Mud Men are involved in this." The centaur sighed, "In any case, it's an extremely high risk mission, even for Recon. Whoever is responsible for this is almost certainly expecting an agent."
"True," murmured Holly, deflating slightly.
"Well, Captain," said Foaly, standing up, "that's your bit of news for the night. I have to go back to headquarters. Rest up now."
Holly snorted, "Foaly, I feel perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with me except for the occasional klutz attack. If Root keeps me in here much longer, I'm going to go mad."
The centaur snorted. "Yeah well, that's the idea," said her friend.
"Shut up."
"Captain, you whine too much," shot back Foaly as he proceeded to leave the room. "Oh and before you go and toss back smart insults, do go to bed first. That is, if you can handle it. One violent gesture and you might slip and break your delicate neck. That'd be a shame after all the stress you gave the warlocks." With that, the LEP technical genius shut the door and walked away, laughter shaking his shoulders.
Holly scowled at Foaly's disappearing form. Annoying. So annoying. Nonetheless, as annoying as the centaur proved to be, he was right. As usual. SO annoying. The elf stood up and slipped into her bed. Although her legs stuck out at the end quite a bit, she was still of the slim build of the elven fairy people. With some degree of comfort, the hazel-eyed fairy fell asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
The nurse returned fifteen minutes after Mercury had sent her out. After ensuring that no one was following or monitoring him, the thief quickly demanded the answer. Staying in one place for too long made him antsy. However, he had used the time to devise another strategy to move about the hospital. It was extremely risky and needed to be done with utmost speed and precision. A minute's delay could prove fatal.
"Captain Holly Short is registered in room P13 in the seventh floor," said the nurse, as if in a dream.
The thief smirked and then said, "Good job. Now I have one last thing for you to do for me. Make as much of a commotion as you can on ALL floors. Trip all the alarms that you can and evade capture. You will not remember me. Now go."
The nurse nodded and walked out of the room. It took only a minute before a fire alarm switch had been tripped. The electricity in the building was automatically switched off except for the red, flashing bulbs that indicated paths to emergency exits. Most of the hospital was plunged in a dim atmosphere. Even better for Mercury.
The thief slipped out of the room and hurried along the corridor, sliding like water between various employees, patients, and guests who were running around frightened. An earthquake alarm was then tripped, followed by an emergency patient alarm. Mercury spotted various LEP officers beginning to run around in order to contain the situation.
Resisting the urge to laugh insanely, the thief slid inside the stairwell and sped up. His plan was working like a charm. The nurse caused a lot of noise in one end, while he moved in to the other end. It wouldn't matter if he tripped a few alarms anyway because everybody would assume it was just the mad nurse's doing. He knew they were probably going to be waiting for him at Holly's room, but not all of them would be there. Even if they were, he was not afraid of any LEP officer. They could be easily taken care of.
The thief sped past the seventh floor entrance, noting but disregarding the cameras installed in dark corners. The stairwell opened up to a long hallway with various identical doors dotting each side. The one to his left was labeled P49. Mercury quickly ran to the right, dodging the fairies moving about in a hurried manner. Many patients were being escorted out now, some with considerable difficulty due to the fact that a lot of equipment was needed to sustain them. He rushed past them. If he moved fast enough, he could make it to where Holly was before anything happened to her.
In a matter of minutes, he was descending rapidly down the hallway of choice. The hallway was dimmer here, and there were not many fairies running around. It was quiet as well despite the various alarms going berserk. There was one sprite standing guard in Holly's door, and he was quickly dispatched before the sprite even knew he was there. He paused, a rare action. Hesitantly, he leaned against the door, adrenaline and excitement making his heart beat fast. What would he find beyond the doorway? He had not been able to complete the spell on Holly.
He bit his lip and chastised himself for his uncertainty. Silently, he opened the door and stepped to the side. He knew he was invisible in the dim gloom, but he was not going to take chances. There was silence. He peeked in and saw no one there, but a bed and its occupant. The lights were switched off. A head of hair peeked out on top of the pillow. He approached with absolute silence, zeroing in on the figure atop the bed. From a hidden sheath, he withdrew a dagger. The blade was slim but strong. The poison it contained shone fairly and coldly in the darkness. In that moment where he was poised to sink the blade on the still form's head, darkness rushed to claim him. The shadows were deep and opaque, engulfing his body until all that could be seen were his eyes. They too were beginning to be lost. Then he swung, the cool metal singing a high-pitched requiem as it arced in the air and fell irrevocably.
Bright, hot, white lights flooded the area with as much subtlety as a tidal wave. The fairy underneath the sheets rolled quickly to one side and flipped up a neatly hidden Neutrino Blaster from underneath the sheet. The knife stabbed the pillow where her head had been moments before. He cursed and quickly withdrew it. That was a mistake.
He was hit several times by the Neutrino. Despite the fact that the armor he wore underneath negated most of the blasts, he could feel it sizzling through his cells. He cursed.
"Like, freeze, Mercury!" rang a shrill, high voice. Mercury was momentarily distracted by it, and he looked to where the fairy was in position of firing at point blank range. In the darkness, it would have been impossible for any fairy to tell without some sort of aid, but the thief had also been gifted with night vision. He couldn't hold back the surprise and he drew breath.
"That's right, freak, you fell for our trap," said the female smugly. Actually, the only other female LEP field employee besides Holly Short. Lili Frond, the bimbo poster girl of the LEP, took a moment to dramatically tear off her close crop red wig whilst still pointing her Neutrino at Mercury's chest. Blond tresses fell down her shoulders. During her little banter with the thief, several other officers had flooded inside the room. Some blocked the window and the others blocked the doorway. More crowded in the hallway outside and the emergency bars on the windows were activated. "Now drop the weapon and stick 'em up before we're forced to fry you!" commanded Lili.
A trap. He had fallen for a trap. He knew that they were trapping him, but his arrogance had blinded him to the true nature of the trap. He gritted his teeth, anger burrowing deep inside his chest. Cold eyes appraised the situation. Not only had they duped him to go inside a cramped room, but also all the officers were fully equipped elves. Foaly must have noticed that most of the officers who could see him were elves.
"Okay," he said slowly. "I'm dropping the weapon."
"Good, now, t-" Lili never got to finish her sentence. The dagger had dropped point first in the floor, resulting in a small explosion that rendered a hole in the floor. The thief quickly dropped through it, grabbed onto the weapon, and cloaked. Loud curses erupted from the LEP operatives as some quickly gave chase.
However, the thief was near invisible now and was employing all the speed and craft he had in flight to escape. He crashed through a window in one room and quickly took flight. His form shimmered out of visibility entirely in the darkness of the tunnels. Not even elves could see him now.
Nonetheless, as the wind whistled past him, Mercury was far from satisfied. He had yet again fallen for another trap of the LEP's. No doubt, as his master said, that being seen in camera would prove disadvantageous. The game was getting more dangerous. In addition, he had not eliminated Holly as he had intended to do. Father would be enraged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In an extra room in the LEP headquarters, Holly Short slept, a frown forming between her brows. She trembled a little, and her heart jumped. A sigh escaped from her lips and she murmured, "No."
The next day Holly was in the Ops Booth with Foaly. She had insisted that she felt well enough to walk the short way there, and she and her friend had taken precautions to ensure that no one saw her. In light of the near catch of Mercury, the elf also insisted that she wanted the information first hand.
The red haired fairy alternately held her breath with excitement when Foaly told her of the plans and groaned when she heard the feed of Lili playing macho with Mercury. There was a loud explosion, followed by several expletives tearing themselves violently out many fairies' mouths. Holly looked questioningly toward Foaly.
"As near we can tell," shrugged the centaur, "he dropped a concentrated bomb to the floor. Some officers, however, claim that was his dagger."
Holly nodded. "What did Root say when he saw the report for this?" she asked.
"He was red. Ah, that is, he was purpler than usual," snickered the centaur.
The elf smiled ruefully, "There wasn't much the LEP commandos could do besides what they had already done. I just wish that Trouble had been the one to lead the team. If he had been, he would have shot 'till unconsciousness and asked questions later."
Foaly nodded, "True, but the commander is in a lot of stress lately."
"Yes, it's been crazy these last few months for the LEP," affirmed the captain.
"Not only that, but with this lead for Mercury dried up," added the golden eyed fairy, "he has no choice but to send in a Recon agent to that Mud Men school. Let me tell you, that place is a nightmare for Recon. It's a huge cathedral and monastery converted to an up to date school for the rich Mud Men's children.
Apparently, it was an unfinished structure and the Roman Catholic Church would have renovated it entirely if it hadn't been for the government education officials. They bought it from the Church then had aristocrats sign pledges to help build the school. The cathedral and monastery were built in full size plus the modern embellishments. The curriculum is strictly religious, the pay per semester a whopping ten thousand euro, and the parents are required to make many more donations.
The estate itself is around 500 acres and it encompasses an equestrian center, various large sports fields, several large gardens, an Olympic sized outdoor pool, and then just more property. The monastery is a luxury boarding house complete with central heating, plumbing, electricity, and more. The cathedral is even larger! It has six floors and six towers with an addition three more floors in each tower. There are about 200 rooms that house the various classrooms and departments, but the centerpiece is the main floor, which has the room for masses.
It would take weeks to cover that place, and that's not adding in the fact that several of these facilities are hard to get into. Impossible to do it in the time frame night gives us."
Holly bit her lip, "That means we're going to have to do several Recons with several agents if we're supposed to contain the situation soon. What about the time stop?"
"You kidding me?" asked Foaly. "The Fowl Estate was hard enough to contain and it had all that we needed to set up the machines. This place is much bigger, and it has a lot more people. There's no guarantee the number of people we're going to have to mind wipe or mesmer. It's a nightmare to do that much technical operation at the same time. Plus, if the residual trace elements there do signify magic similar to that of Mercury's, it could negate the time stop right in the middle of the investigation and then we're in really deep D'Arvit."
The elf simply sat back in her chair, at a loss for words.
The door hissed open as Commander Root marched inside the room, looking quite red. "Well, Foaly, anything on the tapes?" he asked. "Did the behavioral psychologists say anything?"
The centaur shrugged, "Nothing that we don't already know. Apparently to make a concrete profile we need visual and not just audio evidence."
"D'Arvit," swore the commander.
"What did the Council say, chief?" asked Foaly.
Root glanced at Holly before saying, "They want LEP to pursue Mercury. Given the nature of St. Bartleby's, the most they'll let us do is a fly by."
Holly's mouth dropped open, "I object, commander! St. Bartleby's is our best lead yet. With due respect to the LEP, we haven't been able to capture Mercury and it doesn't seem likely that we ever will in the near future. Reconnaissance in the Mud Man school is vital to the case."
"And what would you do, Captain?" shot back Root. "We have our orders and we cannot disobey them. Frankly, I see no way to cover a thorough reconnaissance of that school."
Holly took a breath, "Sir, I have an idea.." From the way Root's eyes narrowed, anyone could tell he was not in the mood to humor her or anyone's ideas presently. Nonetheless, the elf plunged on recklessly, "Send me in."
The inevitable explosion from the commander was not long in coming. "Have you gone mad?!" he roared. "You can't even fit in a LEP jumpsuit much less get on wings to do a reconnaissance! And you think you can do a recon of a 500 acre estate in one night!"
The elf winced, but her voice remained strong, "Sir, it's impossible to do a reconnaissance in one night. That's a fact. However, the reconnaissance I plan to do will stretch over several weeks. If it works, you can have full coverage. At worst, we could just find out we're wrong and pull out quietly."
"How do you plan to remain undetected?" asked Root sarcastically. "In case you haven't noticed, you don't exactly." Root trailed off, eyes widening in comprehension. Behind him, Foaly gave an eager whinny.
"That's right," breathed the centaur. "You look similar enough to Mud Men. Provided you stay away from medical examinations, you should fit right in."
"You two have gone daft," snapped the commander disgustedly. "Can you even comprehend the risks we're running? You're talking about sending an agent into a completely foreign environment knowing next to nothing about it. A thousand things could go wrong. Oh, and let's not forget that the school is called 'St. Bartleby's School for Young Gentlemen.'"
"Not exactly next to nothing, Commander," objected Foaly. "We know enough about Mud Men to impersonate them for a few weeks. It's perfectly feasible."
Holly nodded vigorously, "All we'd need is for Foaly to give me a fake identity, fake credits, and then I'm a student going through the school. No one will be any wiser if I were snooping around. No attention to fairies. Perfect cover. Commander, this could seriously work."
Although the LEP superior's objections had been vehement, they were now alleviated with sufficient proof. Yes, there dangers, but so did all LEPrecon missions. It was not entirely safe, but it was also much safer than sending in a recon agent in the dark to snoop around for gods knew what. Foaly could tell the cogs clicking in Root's brain.
"Also," he added in an undertone, "it's a way to keep Holly safe. Julius, we know that Mercury wants to kill her and from what it looks like it will only be a matter of time before she's found. Aboveground, he won't be able to move or follow her. She'll be safer there."
Root growled at Foaly, "Don't call me, Julius, donkey boy." But inwardly, he had started to assent to the plan. It was a very dangerous plan, but it was the only way to move forward in a dangerous case. Mercury was a great enemy to the public, and if left unchecked he could do serious damage. "All right, all right, I approve," relented Root finally. "But this operation has to be completely aboveboard. That means Council approval and full regulation implementation. I don't want to be responsible for the life of one of my officers." He looked Holly in the eye, and said with gravity, "Captain, I want you to understand that this is an extremely risk mission. There is a great possibility that your life will be terminated while in this operation. Are you willing to take that chance? You don't have to do this."
Holly licked her lips and nodded. "I've risked my life for Haven before. I'm prepared to do it again. Changing bodies has not changed the way I felt," she answered steadily. Hazel eyes, perhaps her only feature that remained untouched in her transformation, was lit with a fire that was not found in neither hearth or lightning. She was 100% aware and 100% certain.
"Oh and one last thing, Captain," said Root wryly. "How do you plan to go in an all male school?"
The elf had the decency to look abashed, "Well, I got in recon, didn't I?" Foaly's full throated, hearty, horselaugh rang out of the Ops Booth.
Author's Note: Be sure to check out my bio for announcements on updates on the story as well as revisions on the chapters.
Scene Six: Deception
Four days after the Tater heist, downtown Haven.
Haven was a treasure chest of lights and sounds. The various buildings glistened underneath the Earth like so many precious metals and gems. If it had been above ground, it would have mirrored the heavens in display of stars and other heavenly bodies.
Haven was a city of lights and sounds for fairies. Despite the efforts of the city officials to conserve all resources in Haven, it still managed to look like what any city should like: a beehive of activity. Crowds made up of the entire spectrum of the fairy specie (except trolls) thronged the heavily congested pedestrian walks. There were even the occasional goblin citizens, despite the fact that a large percentage of their kind were sent to jail due to the uprising two years past. Automobiles beeped loudly at each other, trying to get a move on to the even worse traffic in the road. There were fairies talking, laughing, cursing, shopping, walking, dancing, flying, yelling; their sounds reached upwards towards the tops of the buildings and filled the air. Their everyday activity and interaction was a complicated dance of music and movement that made up the lives of most fairies underneath the world. This was Haven. This was haven for all the fairies since the Mud Men had begun to take over the world above.
Yet somehow, all this did not seem to reach the lone figure resting in the shadows on one of the buildings. Mercury's face was expressionless as he gazed at the Healing Center directly across from the building he was standing upon, completely isolated and ignoring the bustle of life below. His form was hidden in shadow, the stealth cloak completely hiding him from all eyes, whether of they were those of a camera or any fairy. Only the occasional stray light from below glanced off in the shadows and it danced minutely upon his jade green eyes before it was enveloped in the darkness, like a swimmer drowning in an ocean.
Experimentally, he drew breath, sniffing the air. In the gloom, a smile curved his lips, a poisonous night flower blooming in the dark. They were here. They were waiting for him. Hah. as if they could challenge him. Holly had been lucky, but no more. He came to finish what he started. He meant to destroy whatever it was that impeded the destiny of the fairies.
He stepped to the very edge of the building. No mistakes this time. His father had not been pleased at all. His great wings stretched to its full length. Mercury was very vain of his wings. He treasured it above most everything else. They were dark and sinuous; scales dotted the membrane near the actual bones that supported it. It moved with utmost grace, a grace that surpassed any sprite's. Thank the gods his father had been able to heal them of their hurts.
For a moment, he stood upon the artificial precipice, gazing at it all. Directly below him were the golden lights of the streets and fairies. Before him lay the famous Healing Center with a myriad of lights switched on like a great beacon in the dark. He gathered his feet and pushed off. For one frightening moment, it seemed as if he would fall, but then his wings beat the air powerfully. They quickly gathered speed and he shot through the darkness faster than any bird above the world. At full speed, even if he had not been cloaked, he would not have been seen by anything.
Keen eyes assessed the entire building in one fair swoop. He could not enter from the bottom or the top. The LEP would undoubtedly have the thickest security on both vertical ends of the Healing Center. However. the LEP could not have possibly wired all the windows to alarm even if they managed to keep all of them closed. The patients of Healing Central were not as well trained as the LEP. All he needed was to get in and not even that centaur would be able to see him even if he had been eyeballing the monitor. His peril lay in moving too slowly. His last fault was moving slowly. Moving slowly in the light reduced his stealth, allowing those gifted with the highest magical attunement, in most cases elves, to see him. He would remedy that. He would prove himself worthy of his gifts.
The thief was about sixty feet away when he spotted an open window. It looked dark, the occupants within probably asleep. He could spot the outline of legs underneath pale green blankets on a Spartan bed. In a matter of seconds, he had slid through the window, flattening his wings against his back in order to squeeze in, and he spread the impact of his momentum by landing in a roll. Quickly, he ducked to the place where the thickest shadows lay. Just in time, a nurse had opened the door, spilling light within. She was carrying a clipboard and was muttering about lazy doctors.
There were four fairies within, each of them slumbering in their beds. The beds were situated and lined against the left wall. There were partitions, a desk, and a few chairs in between each bed to allow for privacy. At the far side of the room was the door outside. The nurse stopped by each bed and looked at a machine connected to each patient.
Quickly, Mercury ducked and sped past the beds. The nurse never felt a thing. Just as he slipped outside the door, he heard her say, "Oh for pity's sake, why do we have to close each window?" There was a thump, as the window was presumably slammed shut. He paused a moment, a thought occurring to him. He slipped back inside the room and closed the door softly.
The nurse was now checking on the last patient with a very heavy scowl on her face. As he came closer, he read her nametag and level. Each employee within the Healing Centers were given rank in order to help determine which type of patients they could take care of and what facilities they had access to. The thief smirked: a level four-access card. Too easy.
He stripped his cloak. It took the nurse a few minutes to realize that someone tall was standing behind her. She whirled around and gasped. Her eyes gazed at the form, traveling from the chest up to the face. Big mistake. Jade green eyes glimmered with power. "You will find out the location of the room of Captain Holly Short of LEPrecon as discreetly as you can and tell me. Do not tell anyone that you are looking for her room. Do not alert the LEP by any means. I shall be waiting here," he commanded, his voice deepening with the mesmer. The sprite nurse sighed and nodded. She moved away towards the exit of the room, leaving the thief to wait.
This was far too easy. His position afforded him greater freedom and he could exploit it. The thief silently cloaked once more and moved to the shadows. It might take a while for the nurse to carry out the command.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~
"Okay, Captain, your vitals seem to be stable with the exception of you heart. According to the readings, it's beating weakly. If we're not careful, something might interrupt the pace," said an elderly warlock. The wizened elf had come to check up on his patient. He was an elf around 2'9, thin, with a strict face like a stiff leather bag. Wide eyes the size of plates graced his face, and he had a sharp nose that emphasized the severity in his character.
He removed the thin needle from her arm. The needle released nanosensors within the body, and transmitted the readings back to the screen held by the medic. It seemed that the biological make up of the newly changed elf was similar enough in make up to both fairy and human that they were able to receive reasonably conceivable diagnoses. Nevertheless, the warlock had never seen anything quite like Captain Short as she was now. "Now, let's check your physical stats, shall we?"
The elf complacently performed the indicated motor functions, showing that she wasn't experiencing any defect in the body. Her body still felt so strangely new to her, and she was often clumsy. However, it seemed that physically she was fine.
The warlock looked up at her from his electronic clipboard, "I received the results from your written test today. It seems that you still maintain quite the sharp mental faculties. Even better perhaps."
"Now there's a shocker," said Foaly. He had been sitting to the side watching the warlock check his friend. He had remained true to his word not to interrupt the examination, but his sarcasm really just couldn't be held in check. The warlock spared him a withering glance, jotting down a note in the clipboard.
"Yes, well, we can never really be too sure, as Mr. Foaly should well know," answered the doctor. He turned his attention once more to Holly. "And your magic?"
Holly sighed, "We've gone over this, doctor, I get a few sparks, but that's it."
The warlock nodded, his chin bobbing over the clipboard, "Yes, indeed."
Holly asked worriedly, "You don't think that I lost my magic, do you?"
The warlock looked up at her, "We can't know for sure, Captain. It could be that you just don't have any left due to the tremendous amount of stress your body is in. Or . In any case, we will not know until you go aboveground and perform the Ritual." The doctor began packing up his equipment. "Extraordinary, really, every time I see your statistics."
Holly, despite her aversion for this form, was interested, "What do you mean?"
"Well, you are most definitely fairy in nature, but there are quite a few things that are not common amongst fairies. They seem human, but they cannot be human," answered the warlock. Although what he said might have made sense to Foaly, it didn't seem to make much sense to Holly. She frowned. The warlock clarified, "Take your physique, for example. It's similar to that of a few humans, but I've never seen such an advanced development of the bone and muscular system. You still retain the light density in bone that is common among fairies although for a size such as yours, it should be impossible. I hypothesize that the muscular system provides the rest of the support. And then there's your nervous system. Again, rapid and advanced development, which could explain why you possess even faster reflexes than before. I could go on for days listing the complexities of your body."
Holly remained silent, turning over the facts in her mind. She supposed that there were advantages in this new form, but she didn't like it. Not one bit. She felt claustrophobic at times. "Still no ID?" she asked hopefully.
The warlock shook his head, "I'm afraid not, Captain." Although the warlock was stern and a professional, he couldn't help but feel sympathy for the elf. She was obviously dismayed. The medic offered a wan smile, "Don't worry. If there's a way to get you back to normal, we'll find it." He finished packing his bag. "I'll be in touch in case of updates," nodded the elder elf to the centaur and his patient. "Rest well, Captain Short." The medic bid the couple goodbye and walked out the door.
Once out of earshot, Holly bit her lip and lowered herself on a chair. The reports were disturbing. She felt her pulse quickening at the thought of being trapped in this form and she stood up abruptly, pacing the room.
"Calm down, Holly," said the centaur, "sit down."
"Foaly, I!"
"Look, we'll deal with it as it goes," said the centaur. "Now sit down and I'll tell you the news from HQ." Holly was instantly attentive. She sat back on her chair. The elf slipped and landed on her rear for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. She winced in pain, cursing vividly underneath her breath. Her temper was flaring due to the number of klutz attacks she'd been having. "Foaly," she hissed, getting to her feet. "I thought this thing was supposed to change my form, not turn me into a klutz!" The captain reached a hand for the back of a chair for support, missed, and ended up sliding over a desk. The elf's cursing was not discreet this time as she picked herself. "What is wrong with me?!"
Her centaur friend tried not to snicker too loudly at Holly's blundering. "My guess is that your brain is not used to your present size, so you keep on making automatic wrong decisions. It's kind of like the way humans grow extremely fast during puberty, and they get clumsy while their brain struggles to adjust. Except no human has ever grown over two feet in a day."
"I am not a human!" fumed Holly. "I am an elf!" She paused, realization hitting her few seconds after the words left her mouth. Technically, she had no idea what she was presently. Her eyes lowered momentarily before focusing on throttling Chix's throat. At least they were roughly the same size now so she could do more damage than flipping him over and firing off a round of Neutrino stun beams at him. Her fingers curled into little fists. She would get him all right.
"What's the news from the Council or Birchwood?" asked Holly aloud. She would dream about beating the D'Arvit out of Chix later. "Or did you just come in here to laugh at me?" She shot daggers at the centaur who looked amused at her antics.
"Actually, you might want to sit down for this one," said Foaly before smirking, "otherwise you might trip."
If eyes could kill, Foaly would have been a roasting puddle of troll refuse by now. Holly walked, stiffly, to her uncomfortably small chair and managed to sit down without slipping too far either. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Foaly," muttered Holly. "So what do we know?"
"Chix is definitely gone. We've interviewed all possible witnesses. His family doesn't know where he's been. He moved out of the main house around forty years ago. He stopped visiting ten years past. His friends are all clean. All we got off from them was that he'd been doing late night deliveries, which explains why he's looked exhausted for the past couple of days. They checked out too. So far, we have no leads as to where he could be. He apparently walked out of the Police Plaza and evaporated into thin air. Mercury hasn't been seen since he met Kelp's squad. A bit traumatized, I think," grinned Foaly. "He got more than a few scratches from that one."
"Good for Trouble," nodded Holly approvingly. "Chix deserves that one."
"If it is Chix," nodded Foaly.
"What do you mean?" demanded the elf. "Of course it's Chix! You saw his face! A sun blinded troll could tell it was Chix!"
"He looked a bit big, don't you think, Captain?"
"No D'Arvit," growled out Holly, "What do you think I look like?"
Foaly waved a dismissive, hairy arm, "That's very well and all, but as Commander Root would say, 'It's just conjecture.' We have to get to the root of the matter before anything else. Rest assured, though, that we're investigating Chix fully."
Holly rolled her eyes but nodded for the centaur to continue.
The centaur took a long time settling in to his chair, a strange flush gracing his cheeks. Holly raised an eyebrow at this. If Foaly was smug, then it usually meant he had hit a breakthrough. "Ahem, as I was saying," continued Foaly, "I've just hit on a breakthrough for us." He smirked, switching into lecture mode, "Magic leaves residual trace elements. Usually, the magic we do (shielding, mesmer, and healing etc.) is too small to leave too much of an impression. But if Mercury says he has magic and worked it on you, I hypothesized that a spell of that size would leave considerable traces. I took samples with the techies and voila! Now, I feed it into my computers and piggyback into a couple of Mud Men sensors worldwide. There are about 50 hits around the globe. Quite a long and short list to be investigated. But the one with the greatest amount of hits, unusually so, is Saint Bartleby's School for Young Gentlemen in County Wicklow, Ireland. Tell me I'm not the smartest creature in the universe."
"That means," breathed Holly, "that there's a good chance that whatever it is, its source is in that school!" She stood up, slipped, and landed back on her seat. She growled but her excitement was palpable, "What did Root say?"
"He's sending in a Recon agent as soon as he gets approval from the Council," said Foaly, the smile on his face fading slightly since he had begun telling her about his discoveries. "It seems that the Council are terribly concerned about the situation. Who could blame them? If what Mercury said is true." A cold silence descended on the room. "There could even be a remote possibility that Mud Men are involved in this." The centaur sighed, "In any case, it's an extremely high risk mission, even for Recon. Whoever is responsible for this is almost certainly expecting an agent."
"True," murmured Holly, deflating slightly.
"Well, Captain," said Foaly, standing up, "that's your bit of news for the night. I have to go back to headquarters. Rest up now."
Holly snorted, "Foaly, I feel perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with me except for the occasional klutz attack. If Root keeps me in here much longer, I'm going to go mad."
The centaur snorted. "Yeah well, that's the idea," said her friend.
"Shut up."
"Captain, you whine too much," shot back Foaly as he proceeded to leave the room. "Oh and before you go and toss back smart insults, do go to bed first. That is, if you can handle it. One violent gesture and you might slip and break your delicate neck. That'd be a shame after all the stress you gave the warlocks." With that, the LEP technical genius shut the door and walked away, laughter shaking his shoulders.
Holly scowled at Foaly's disappearing form. Annoying. So annoying. Nonetheless, as annoying as the centaur proved to be, he was right. As usual. SO annoying. The elf stood up and slipped into her bed. Although her legs stuck out at the end quite a bit, she was still of the slim build of the elven fairy people. With some degree of comfort, the hazel-eyed fairy fell asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
The nurse returned fifteen minutes after Mercury had sent her out. After ensuring that no one was following or monitoring him, the thief quickly demanded the answer. Staying in one place for too long made him antsy. However, he had used the time to devise another strategy to move about the hospital. It was extremely risky and needed to be done with utmost speed and precision. A minute's delay could prove fatal.
"Captain Holly Short is registered in room P13 in the seventh floor," said the nurse, as if in a dream.
The thief smirked and then said, "Good job. Now I have one last thing for you to do for me. Make as much of a commotion as you can on ALL floors. Trip all the alarms that you can and evade capture. You will not remember me. Now go."
The nurse nodded and walked out of the room. It took only a minute before a fire alarm switch had been tripped. The electricity in the building was automatically switched off except for the red, flashing bulbs that indicated paths to emergency exits. Most of the hospital was plunged in a dim atmosphere. Even better for Mercury.
The thief slipped out of the room and hurried along the corridor, sliding like water between various employees, patients, and guests who were running around frightened. An earthquake alarm was then tripped, followed by an emergency patient alarm. Mercury spotted various LEP officers beginning to run around in order to contain the situation.
Resisting the urge to laugh insanely, the thief slid inside the stairwell and sped up. His plan was working like a charm. The nurse caused a lot of noise in one end, while he moved in to the other end. It wouldn't matter if he tripped a few alarms anyway because everybody would assume it was just the mad nurse's doing. He knew they were probably going to be waiting for him at Holly's room, but not all of them would be there. Even if they were, he was not afraid of any LEP officer. They could be easily taken care of.
The thief sped past the seventh floor entrance, noting but disregarding the cameras installed in dark corners. The stairwell opened up to a long hallway with various identical doors dotting each side. The one to his left was labeled P49. Mercury quickly ran to the right, dodging the fairies moving about in a hurried manner. Many patients were being escorted out now, some with considerable difficulty due to the fact that a lot of equipment was needed to sustain them. He rushed past them. If he moved fast enough, he could make it to where Holly was before anything happened to her.
In a matter of minutes, he was descending rapidly down the hallway of choice. The hallway was dimmer here, and there were not many fairies running around. It was quiet as well despite the various alarms going berserk. There was one sprite standing guard in Holly's door, and he was quickly dispatched before the sprite even knew he was there. He paused, a rare action. Hesitantly, he leaned against the door, adrenaline and excitement making his heart beat fast. What would he find beyond the doorway? He had not been able to complete the spell on Holly.
He bit his lip and chastised himself for his uncertainty. Silently, he opened the door and stepped to the side. He knew he was invisible in the dim gloom, but he was not going to take chances. There was silence. He peeked in and saw no one there, but a bed and its occupant. The lights were switched off. A head of hair peeked out on top of the pillow. He approached with absolute silence, zeroing in on the figure atop the bed. From a hidden sheath, he withdrew a dagger. The blade was slim but strong. The poison it contained shone fairly and coldly in the darkness. In that moment where he was poised to sink the blade on the still form's head, darkness rushed to claim him. The shadows were deep and opaque, engulfing his body until all that could be seen were his eyes. They too were beginning to be lost. Then he swung, the cool metal singing a high-pitched requiem as it arced in the air and fell irrevocably.
Bright, hot, white lights flooded the area with as much subtlety as a tidal wave. The fairy underneath the sheets rolled quickly to one side and flipped up a neatly hidden Neutrino Blaster from underneath the sheet. The knife stabbed the pillow where her head had been moments before. He cursed and quickly withdrew it. That was a mistake.
He was hit several times by the Neutrino. Despite the fact that the armor he wore underneath negated most of the blasts, he could feel it sizzling through his cells. He cursed.
"Like, freeze, Mercury!" rang a shrill, high voice. Mercury was momentarily distracted by it, and he looked to where the fairy was in position of firing at point blank range. In the darkness, it would have been impossible for any fairy to tell without some sort of aid, but the thief had also been gifted with night vision. He couldn't hold back the surprise and he drew breath.
"That's right, freak, you fell for our trap," said the female smugly. Actually, the only other female LEP field employee besides Holly Short. Lili Frond, the bimbo poster girl of the LEP, took a moment to dramatically tear off her close crop red wig whilst still pointing her Neutrino at Mercury's chest. Blond tresses fell down her shoulders. During her little banter with the thief, several other officers had flooded inside the room. Some blocked the window and the others blocked the doorway. More crowded in the hallway outside and the emergency bars on the windows were activated. "Now drop the weapon and stick 'em up before we're forced to fry you!" commanded Lili.
A trap. He had fallen for a trap. He knew that they were trapping him, but his arrogance had blinded him to the true nature of the trap. He gritted his teeth, anger burrowing deep inside his chest. Cold eyes appraised the situation. Not only had they duped him to go inside a cramped room, but also all the officers were fully equipped elves. Foaly must have noticed that most of the officers who could see him were elves.
"Okay," he said slowly. "I'm dropping the weapon."
"Good, now, t-" Lili never got to finish her sentence. The dagger had dropped point first in the floor, resulting in a small explosion that rendered a hole in the floor. The thief quickly dropped through it, grabbed onto the weapon, and cloaked. Loud curses erupted from the LEP operatives as some quickly gave chase.
However, the thief was near invisible now and was employing all the speed and craft he had in flight to escape. He crashed through a window in one room and quickly took flight. His form shimmered out of visibility entirely in the darkness of the tunnels. Not even elves could see him now.
Nonetheless, as the wind whistled past him, Mercury was far from satisfied. He had yet again fallen for another trap of the LEP's. No doubt, as his master said, that being seen in camera would prove disadvantageous. The game was getting more dangerous. In addition, he had not eliminated Holly as he had intended to do. Father would be enraged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In an extra room in the LEP headquarters, Holly Short slept, a frown forming between her brows. She trembled a little, and her heart jumped. A sigh escaped from her lips and she murmured, "No."
The next day Holly was in the Ops Booth with Foaly. She had insisted that she felt well enough to walk the short way there, and she and her friend had taken precautions to ensure that no one saw her. In light of the near catch of Mercury, the elf also insisted that she wanted the information first hand.
The red haired fairy alternately held her breath with excitement when Foaly told her of the plans and groaned when she heard the feed of Lili playing macho with Mercury. There was a loud explosion, followed by several expletives tearing themselves violently out many fairies' mouths. Holly looked questioningly toward Foaly.
"As near we can tell," shrugged the centaur, "he dropped a concentrated bomb to the floor. Some officers, however, claim that was his dagger."
Holly nodded. "What did Root say when he saw the report for this?" she asked.
"He was red. Ah, that is, he was purpler than usual," snickered the centaur.
The elf smiled ruefully, "There wasn't much the LEP commandos could do besides what they had already done. I just wish that Trouble had been the one to lead the team. If he had been, he would have shot 'till unconsciousness and asked questions later."
Foaly nodded, "True, but the commander is in a lot of stress lately."
"Yes, it's been crazy these last few months for the LEP," affirmed the captain.
"Not only that, but with this lead for Mercury dried up," added the golden eyed fairy, "he has no choice but to send in a Recon agent to that Mud Men school. Let me tell you, that place is a nightmare for Recon. It's a huge cathedral and monastery converted to an up to date school for the rich Mud Men's children.
Apparently, it was an unfinished structure and the Roman Catholic Church would have renovated it entirely if it hadn't been for the government education officials. They bought it from the Church then had aristocrats sign pledges to help build the school. The cathedral and monastery were built in full size plus the modern embellishments. The curriculum is strictly religious, the pay per semester a whopping ten thousand euro, and the parents are required to make many more donations.
The estate itself is around 500 acres and it encompasses an equestrian center, various large sports fields, several large gardens, an Olympic sized outdoor pool, and then just more property. The monastery is a luxury boarding house complete with central heating, plumbing, electricity, and more. The cathedral is even larger! It has six floors and six towers with an addition three more floors in each tower. There are about 200 rooms that house the various classrooms and departments, but the centerpiece is the main floor, which has the room for masses.
It would take weeks to cover that place, and that's not adding in the fact that several of these facilities are hard to get into. Impossible to do it in the time frame night gives us."
Holly bit her lip, "That means we're going to have to do several Recons with several agents if we're supposed to contain the situation soon. What about the time stop?"
"You kidding me?" asked Foaly. "The Fowl Estate was hard enough to contain and it had all that we needed to set up the machines. This place is much bigger, and it has a lot more people. There's no guarantee the number of people we're going to have to mind wipe or mesmer. It's a nightmare to do that much technical operation at the same time. Plus, if the residual trace elements there do signify magic similar to that of Mercury's, it could negate the time stop right in the middle of the investigation and then we're in really deep D'Arvit."
The elf simply sat back in her chair, at a loss for words.
The door hissed open as Commander Root marched inside the room, looking quite red. "Well, Foaly, anything on the tapes?" he asked. "Did the behavioral psychologists say anything?"
The centaur shrugged, "Nothing that we don't already know. Apparently to make a concrete profile we need visual and not just audio evidence."
"D'Arvit," swore the commander.
"What did the Council say, chief?" asked Foaly.
Root glanced at Holly before saying, "They want LEP to pursue Mercury. Given the nature of St. Bartleby's, the most they'll let us do is a fly by."
Holly's mouth dropped open, "I object, commander! St. Bartleby's is our best lead yet. With due respect to the LEP, we haven't been able to capture Mercury and it doesn't seem likely that we ever will in the near future. Reconnaissance in the Mud Man school is vital to the case."
"And what would you do, Captain?" shot back Root. "We have our orders and we cannot disobey them. Frankly, I see no way to cover a thorough reconnaissance of that school."
Holly took a breath, "Sir, I have an idea.." From the way Root's eyes narrowed, anyone could tell he was not in the mood to humor her or anyone's ideas presently. Nonetheless, the elf plunged on recklessly, "Send me in."
The inevitable explosion from the commander was not long in coming. "Have you gone mad?!" he roared. "You can't even fit in a LEP jumpsuit much less get on wings to do a reconnaissance! And you think you can do a recon of a 500 acre estate in one night!"
The elf winced, but her voice remained strong, "Sir, it's impossible to do a reconnaissance in one night. That's a fact. However, the reconnaissance I plan to do will stretch over several weeks. If it works, you can have full coverage. At worst, we could just find out we're wrong and pull out quietly."
"How do you plan to remain undetected?" asked Root sarcastically. "In case you haven't noticed, you don't exactly." Root trailed off, eyes widening in comprehension. Behind him, Foaly gave an eager whinny.
"That's right," breathed the centaur. "You look similar enough to Mud Men. Provided you stay away from medical examinations, you should fit right in."
"You two have gone daft," snapped the commander disgustedly. "Can you even comprehend the risks we're running? You're talking about sending an agent into a completely foreign environment knowing next to nothing about it. A thousand things could go wrong. Oh, and let's not forget that the school is called 'St. Bartleby's School for Young Gentlemen.'"
"Not exactly next to nothing, Commander," objected Foaly. "We know enough about Mud Men to impersonate them for a few weeks. It's perfectly feasible."
Holly nodded vigorously, "All we'd need is for Foaly to give me a fake identity, fake credits, and then I'm a student going through the school. No one will be any wiser if I were snooping around. No attention to fairies. Perfect cover. Commander, this could seriously work."
Although the LEP superior's objections had been vehement, they were now alleviated with sufficient proof. Yes, there dangers, but so did all LEPrecon missions. It was not entirely safe, but it was also much safer than sending in a recon agent in the dark to snoop around for gods knew what. Foaly could tell the cogs clicking in Root's brain.
"Also," he added in an undertone, "it's a way to keep Holly safe. Julius, we know that Mercury wants to kill her and from what it looks like it will only be a matter of time before she's found. Aboveground, he won't be able to move or follow her. She'll be safer there."
Root growled at Foaly, "Don't call me, Julius, donkey boy." But inwardly, he had started to assent to the plan. It was a very dangerous plan, but it was the only way to move forward in a dangerous case. Mercury was a great enemy to the public, and if left unchecked he could do serious damage. "All right, all right, I approve," relented Root finally. "But this operation has to be completely aboveboard. That means Council approval and full regulation implementation. I don't want to be responsible for the life of one of my officers." He looked Holly in the eye, and said with gravity, "Captain, I want you to understand that this is an extremely risk mission. There is a great possibility that your life will be terminated while in this operation. Are you willing to take that chance? You don't have to do this."
Holly licked her lips and nodded. "I've risked my life for Haven before. I'm prepared to do it again. Changing bodies has not changed the way I felt," she answered steadily. Hazel eyes, perhaps her only feature that remained untouched in her transformation, was lit with a fire that was not found in neither hearth or lightning. She was 100% aware and 100% certain.
"Oh and one last thing, Captain," said Root wryly. "How do you plan to go in an all male school?"
The elf had the decency to look abashed, "Well, I got in recon, didn't I?" Foaly's full throated, hearty, horselaugh rang out of the Ops Booth.