Midnight Brings the Best Revenge

Chapter 4: Discovery

-AT THE SAME TIME ABOVE GROUND-

When Artemis registered the sight that met his eyes, he couldn't help but give a short laugh. Moving slowly into the room was Butler, holding a small, feisty creature up by the scruff of her neck. The creature, who was kicking the air violently, was none other than Captain Holly Short.

"Curse you, Butler!" snarled Holly, still thrashing madly. "Put me down!" She was reaching into the folds of her clothes for some sort of sinister weapon when Butler released her. She crashed onto the ground, bottom first, and made a move to pull the body guard to the ground with her.

"Uh, uh, uh," Artemis laughed, smiling maliciously. "My house, my rules, Short. Rule number one: don't even attempt to attack my body guard."

Now standing, Holly looked coldly up at the boy, an impulsive anger brewing in her gut. Being told what to do by a Mud Man, least of all Artemis Fowl, was not how she liked to spend a mission. However, if she was going to get any information on the murders, she would have to.

"Hello to you to, Fowl," she snapped. "I see you haven't changed since the last time we met."

Artemis's lip curled in enjoyment and distaste while he recalled his kidnapping of the LEPrecon officer. It had been a grand and foolish move, making him very well known down in The Haven. He doubted, however, that Holly had come all the way to his home to reflect on those events over tea and biscuits.

As he tried to decide on a reason for the faerie's visit, Butler grunted, "I found her sneaking on the roof with some choice weapons," here held up what appeared to be a laser gun, "and a print-out map of your house. I daresay she was having a good time trying to break in."

Holly rolled her eyes at the towering man and tapped her foot impatiently. "Look," she said, her tone annoyed, but business like, "I didn't come here to break in and steal your fortune or anything like that. I need information, Fowl, and Root seems to think that you are the person to get it from. Trust me, this is the last place I would go under normal circumstances."

"But?" interrupted Artemis, raising an eyebrow.

"But," pressed the captain, "the Haven is in a state of disaster, and so is your world."

"And tell me, Captain," sighed Artemis, "how do you know that my world is, as you put it, facing a disastrous time?"

Holly smiled a bit and replied, "Foaly."

Artemis turned and walked toward a blazing fireplace saying, "I should have guessed. Nothing gets past that centaur." He paused, gazing into the flames as they licked the logs from his place on the hearth, before muttering, "Confutatis maledictis, Gere curam mei finis."

Butler and Holly glanced questioningly at each other, each expecting the other to know what he said. "What was that, Fowl?" Holly asked.

The boy turned to face them and smiled. "Oh, nothing," he said. "I didn't say a word."

"Yeah right," Holly said, rather sarcastically. "Getting back to the matter at hand, you Mud Men aren't the only ones having murder problems. The Haven has lost 16 to brutal deaths and 21 are still missing."

Butler made a motion to the round card table where he had been cleaning his daggers, and the three sat down, getting ready for a long night of explanations.

"Why am I not surprised?" said Artemis, clucking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Now you said that your commander thought I might be able to provide him with some insight to these cases. Is it because he things I've got a brilliant mind or because he thinks I am somehow at fault?"

Holly smirked. "Take a guess."

"I thought as much," he chuckled, quickly nodding toward Butler. His friend got the message and itched a spot on his ear. The faerie's eyes narrowed at this, but could not think of its possible relevance.

Before she could inquire about the Artemis's actions, the boy continued, "If Foaly is working on this case then I can hardly say that you are at a loss of knowledge regarding the events up here. However, none of us here have the access to the facts that Foaly does, so you are going to have to fill me in on what sort of murders you little faerie people are investigating."

While Holly explained the situation going on in the Haven, Artemis regarded his manicured fingernails, using a small pocket knife to remove any dirt he found. Although this lack of respectful attention itched at her anger, the faerie continued her story without mentioning it. If she was going to tell the Mud Man off for being inconsiderate, now was not the time to do it.

When she finished the gruesome tale, she went on to explain Commander Root's theory that the two cases were connected in more ways than one. "He doesn't believe that the two are being committed by the same person," she told him, "but that the killers are in league with one another."

Artemis scratched his chin and said, "Funny you should say that. I was thinking the same thing." He stood up and motioned for the two at the table to follow him. He led them out of the den and into the hall, which was covered with expensive paintings and antiques. While they walked, he asked, "You mentioned the name Oravano Kei: can you tell me some more about him?"

Holly eyed him suspiciously, knowing that he knew something she didn't, and said, "He's an elf who has had a bad reputation here and in the Haven. He massacred a bunch of folk about twenty years back and then escaped up here, changing his name to Max Dunn. Now he's going by the name," she paused, thinking, "Eomer McFrenzy?"

"Theodore McKenzie," Butler corrected her, glancing over at his employer.

"That's the one," snapped the captain, slightly annoyed at having being corrected by a Mud Man.

They had reached their destination. Artemis unlocked a door and opened it wide: it was a room full of computers. Holly hesitated before entering; even though Foaly used computers, as did half the underground, she didn't like them one bit. They were too smart for something that didn't have a brain.

Butler grabbed two seats, rolling a swivel one to their guest and sitting in a high backed wooden one himself. Artemis placed himself in front of a computer and positioned himself so that Butler and Holly could see the screen. He flicked the mouse and the screen went to a blue desktop, jumping out of its hibernation mode.

"Theodore McKenzie," he told Holly, "is the commander's other connection. All of our murder victims had been in contact with him within three days of their demises."

"Should have guessed," mumbled Holly. "But what has he done? Do you think he's behind this?"

"Possibly," said Artemis. He was typing like a mad man in an open window and clicking furiously as new ones popped up. He stopped when he found what he wanted: Theodore McKenzie's criminal records.

"There are just his records while he was posing as a human," he said, scrolling down to view the long list of events. "It doesn't look like he has ever killed anyone," he reported, "but he did manage to do a number on a few guys who got him angry at a bar."

"I just don't get it," Holly said, frustrated. "If he's not doing this, who is? It's obvious that our problems are being caused by someone with muscle, but your murders have no leads!"

"That's not exactly true," Butler said, speaking for the first time since they had entered the computer room.

Rolling her eyes at him again, Holly laughed. "Don't tell me you two are beginning to believe that stupid vampire nonsense!"

Artemis closed the records and said, "More and more."

This was the last thing holly wanted to hear. "Please," she groaned, not believing her ears. "I thought you two were at least sensible enough to get over that silly idea."

"Well," Butler grinned, "the idea that faeries existed was silly too, but you can see where that got us."

Holly sighed, seeing that she wasn't reaching them. "You probably don't know this, but all the vampires were destroyed centuries ago in this thing called the Burning…"

"The Burning," interrupted Artemis, "might not have been the most successful action."

The faerie eyed her host thoughtfully. "How do you know about the Burning?"

Artemis grinned, loving to share his information. "The burning of vampires wasn't strictly an underground affair. If you had checked your sources carefully, you would recall that some humans got involved in it as well. They recorded the event and have had their descendents happily living under the delusion that all the vampires have perished."

"You're saying that some of them escaped?" inquired Holly skeptically.

"Exactly," replied the cocky boy. "Confutatis maledictis, Gere curam mei finis."

"You said that before," muttered Holly. "What does it mean?"

"It's Latin," he started, "for…"

But what it meant was not revealed, for at that very moment all the computers shut down.

And all the lights flickered off.