Artemis Fowl sat, as usual, in front of his computer screen. He had lost a great deal of his freedom since the return of his father but being a boy genius had managed to work his way around it. He was currently surfing the internet for information on events within the last…well…he didn't know how long, he seemed to have misplaced part of his life and it was taking all of his free time to work out why. His endeavours had led him to believe that the last thing he was doing was bringing back the family fortune since the disappearance of his father, but this was where his memory ended. He had but one piece of evidence that the last however long existed, a tiny contact lens, mirrored somehow too. For what purpose he didn't know, but he had only two weeks before he was due to be sent away to boarding school where his activities would be limited to say the least.

Holly Short awoke, and it took only seconds for her to realise she was running late. She hurried past Root's office 40 minutes later, a new record for her. She had almost cleared the corridor when she heard her name bellowed from inside the office

"SHORT!! Where do you think you are going??"

Holly sighed and entered the office, her eyes meeting that of the purple faced Commander at his desk.

"What's the problem Commander?" She asked in her calmest and most respectful tone, it couldn't hurt to try.

"Where do I start?" He asked, rubbing his forehead. "It looks like we have another Mud person trying their luck. A sprite in Ho Chi Minh City was questioned about the Book. We caught up with the Sprite and she revealed that this wasn't the first time that had happened. She described the first time to us. She said that he had been a young mud man, possibly Irish, accompanied by a large mud man" Root was reading off his report sheet "the boy gave her whisky, with holy water mixed in, and offered her spring water to counteract it and a virus which feeds on alcohol to return her magic to her. She accepted and the boy had the book for thirty minutes. After he promised to administer the booster, she collapsed. She continued her healing work, for unknown reasons, and it was not long before she was back on the Rice Wine which was how she came to meet the second Mud Person. Until that happened she did not speak about the first incident as she knew quite rightly it would get her into serious trouble with the LEP, but she swears she had no choice because the holy water would have killed her. This would cause great concern had the subject not already been dealt with." He broke off for a moment and looked at Holly.

"Fowl." She said. The boy had used a plan that seemed typical of him, it had to be him.

"Indeed" commented Root, he continued "The second mud person however, used stealth, no bargaining necessary. The sprite didn't see much of them. She felt a sharp pain and then nothing save for a shadowy figure, of middle height, in front of her, she presumes it was a mud person anyway. The sprite recalls waking up about half an hour later with the book still in her pocket. The only way we know the Mud Person touched it was through some pretty serious scans."

Holly was silent for a moment, she thought hard, then spoke quietly.

"Could Fowl have retrieved his memories and be trying again?" She asked, but she knew the answer already, if he had retrieved his memories he would know everything he needed and would not need the book. She didn't want to accept the fact that there may be another who knew.

"No" replied the commander shortly "We have been monitoring Artemis' communications since the mind-wipe. He has been doing a lot of surfing, but nothing related to the People. That means there's another one."