Disclaimer: Although I share many things in common with the great Eoin Colfer (including initials *grin*) owning the Artemis Fowl books is not one of our similarities. And the opinion of Mulch being the best character isn't mutual either; he definitely underestimates the power of Root. And thinking that having Juliet become Artemis' Butler is anything more than kinky… Well, we are quite different. But if I did have rights to the AF books Juliet wouldn't get near Arty with a ten-foot pole.
Thanks to: Both Kitty Rainbow and Lady Game for looking over various parts of this chapter while it was in progress.
And thanks for reviewing to:
Tie Kerl – Who would be cruel enough to name the kids Romeo and Juliet…? I would obviously. Although I do favour Alix and Felix for twins.
Skywise – Thankooes. Your comments and reviews are always very nice.
The Seasyngr – Not a Liam Brambling fangirl!!! AHHHHH!!!!! I personally am absolutely dying to kill him off. Damn plot for not letting me do that.
Skye Firebane – I think that Johann fits Butler best now – you've converted me. But isn't Romeo so evil? Isn't it evil enough for your gory, evil tastes?
Ophelia who is insane – Thankyo for your praise and comments. I used the most standard and accepted scale for IQ rating in here but there are other tests were the standards are higher and a genius come in at about 240.
Eleida – I love your cute reviews that always insist that you wrote a better review in your sleep.
Mignonne – Thankyou for your comments. ::Hands over a plushy Foaly toy because I promised I would.::
Kyoko-san – Pist, I've got a Gary Stu instead. See… ::points down at Liam:: Thanks, although I'm sure I'm writing Artemis OOC – maybe that's just me being paranoid.
Lady Game – Poor Liam? You already pity him? He's going to be the leading expert in pain before I'm through with him.
Spider-elf – If I don't keep going I've give orders to Lady Game to shot me. So I probably will.
Mage Kitty – At least someone's rooting for Holly. Everyone seems to think that Liam's the one going through the most pain here. But why isn't anyone rooting for Root? ::thwaps self:: That hasn't come up yet…
Idria – Thanks, I'd forgotten about those few little mistakes since it's been a while since I've looked over it all. And I try to make shorter sentences but it's not really in my style.
Moonlight – Thank you. Although I wouldn't know how genii speak either so I'm probably very wrong. At least when I write Liam OOC it only looks like a character twist.
TrisaniSlytherin – You only have to wait two days. I'll probably have to wait another month before I get to see chapter 9.
Chapter Eight
Physiology and Psychology
"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter; so it's only when their fellows and comrades reject them that the true evil can be seen."
- Anonymous
"We're elves, idiot. Now are you going to invite us in or are we going to be still here when the sun comes up?"
Liam blinked at them in shock and numbly moved out the doorway so that there was room for Root and Holly to move in past him.
"You don't get it kid. You actually have to invite us in."
Liam's mouth was incredibly dry but he opened it and made a reasonable attempt at 'come in'. Root growled that it was good enough and pushed past into the entrance hall. Artemis slowly moved past his classmate to shut the still open door with a resounding clank. And Liam came to his senses.
"Elves? Are you serious? You can't be serious. That would be... If there are elves in the world how come no one knows about them? It would be impossible to hide a species on the earth unless it was in the middle of the Amazon or on Antartica. This is another of your mind games, isn't it Fowl? You hired some dwarves to dress up and come here and pretend to be elves just to make me uneasy. And you were just sprouting things with no meaning when that man called you!"
"No I didn't. And that 'man' is a Centaur."
"You did! You had to! This is just silly. Elves? Centaurs? Not even a kid would believe that. How stupid do you think I am? You're completely unbalanced. Next thing you'll be telling me that you've met a Leprechaun and stolen their gold."
Root spoke up. "Actually, Fowl did do that. And now you've met a LEPrecon officer as well. My name's Commander Root and you're going to get over your disbelief very quickly because Fowl seems to think we need help as much as you do. Although, why the Mud Boy would want to help us at all is beyond me."
"You're... you're really an elf?" Root nodded. "But you can't be a leprechaun because they wear knickerbockers and tri-point hats and those little shoes and are tiny."
"You idiotic human! Get over the fact that fairies exist! Captain Short here is very heavy and--"
But Liam had murmured 'fairies?' in a small voice and crumbled to the floor.
* * * * *
Artemis looked down at the limb body of Liam Brambling lying on the marble. "At least he's stopped asking those annoying questions."
"Fowl..." growled Root. "That was not amusing. You could have told him about us before we showed up so it wouldn't be such a shock. You only didn't because you thought it would be funny. How very immature. Hol-- Short's incredibly sick and all you can do is play mind tricks."
"I didn't--"
"Don't even bother with it, Fowl. I don't care. I just want to know what this is and how to fix it and if I could get all that without having any contact with you then I would." Artemis looked down at his shoes and kept silent. "Where should I put the Captain?"
"Through here, Commander. You can put her on the couch for now and I'll get Marcus to bring another bed in. And to pick up Brambling from the hall."
* * * * *
Briggs the Dwarf and bomb engineer for the AAA, felt a warm breath on the back of his neck and tried to focus through the creepy sensation on the parts in front of him. It was a simple bomb - not fancy or elaborate, just doing its job in the most efficient way possible. A very, very efficient way, Briggs reflected.
"It's almost ready." It was rumination, not a question.
"Yes, Sir."
Briggs felt the fairy back away slightly to lift into the air, hovering above his servant.
There was a knock on the door and a respectful pause before one of the low-ranked elves entered the room, bowed before Quentin and then finally raised his head – still not meeting the eyes of the Sprite.
"I have what you asked for."
"Good. Leave it on that table." The elf hurried over and placed a wrapped parcel down reverently. Then he turned back to Quentin with have a question in his eyes. "What are you waiting for? Leave."
He scurried out without so much as a fear-filled glance back over his shoulder.
Quentin waited until the sounds of panicked running faded and then slowly sank back to floor level, approaching the table. He stripped the dull wrapping with quick movements and gave the item a glance before half-covering it once again and sweeping from the room.
From the corner of his eye Briggs saw what looked like a video camera through the packaging. But what Quentin Thyme would be doing with a video camera was beyond guesswork.
* * * * *
When Liam awoke it was with a decisively groggy feeling and a fierce throbbing at the base of his skull. He couldn't quite remember what had happened but he must have fallen or hit his head quite badly judging from the severity of the headache. He tried to open his eyes but that hurt somewhat so he decided to keep them closed until he either drifted off the sleep again or he felt slightly better. He listened, almost detached, to the voices around him. He couldn't quite recognise who they belonged to but they were close by.
"--why doesn't that work? Isn't magic supposed to be able to cure anything? It can give some back their sight and graft a finger which has been ripped off but it can't cure this disease?"
"Foaly said that it's probably because it's a manufactured illness. A false disease. No fairy has ever really researched into how our magic works. We don't really need doctors or medical scientists very often because most races of The People can cure themselves and those that can't can be simply cured by another - usually an elf. We don't know if it identifies diseases and cures them or something else - like maybe if the mind says the body has a disease it flushes everything which isn't natural out. So if it's the first thing, our magic wouldn't be able to heal anything made because it couldn't recognise it. And why did you contact us if you thought that Holly would be able to cure it as soon as she got it?"
"I didn't remember healing magic. I was thinking too ... human … to remember about it. From what you've said it sounds as if magic works as your immune system. It identifies the pathogen through something - probably like human T-cells recognising the protein coat - and then it destroys it. But knowing why magic doesn't work to cure it doesn't help us figure out how we can cure it."
There was silence for a minute or two as both contemplated the problem - not realising the level of camaraderie between them now they had a common problem.
"Well firstly, we can't figure out a cure before we know what it actually is. And we won't have a hope in figuring it out till Butler gets back with my equipment that I could use to test their blood for foreign substances. And I won't even know what I'm looking for in Captain Short's blood because if your magic does make up the majority of your immune system then your blood work and anatomy will be radically different anyway. I really don't know how helpful any of this will be."
"It's better than the alternative of a fairy medic trying to figure it out. They wouldn't know where to start with blood testing and ... whatever else you were talking about. Immune systems and all that. I hate to admit it but Mud Men are better at us for bodies and anatomy. You are the only person who could be able to help us."
"That must have been a painful thing to confess, Commander? Did it feel worse than a dagger in the heart to acknowledge that 'Mud Men' can occasionally have their uses."
"Shut up, Fowl. I really don't want to have to put up with your lame excuse for wit."
"Sorry." There was some bustling around the room as Artemis checked on the conditions of Holly and Jac. "Where did the term 'Mud Men' come from anyway since you don't seem to mean it as an insult all the time?" said Artemis as he bent over Holly feeling her heart rate and taking her temperature once more.
"You came from the mud. Through evolution you became what you are now. So you are Men of the Mud since that is where your origins lie."
Artemis gave a snort "That's sounds as though you didn't evolve at all. That's impossible. Everyone had to evolve from something else or you'd have to believe in Adam and Eve. Darwinism is just the way it works."
"We didn't evolve from lower races into higher ones. We were made - by The Ancients; by magic."
"Are you serious?"
"It's as true as I know. We were created. The bastards of a people who weren't even really from this earth. They made us and then magic gave us life."
"That's... amazing; such a wonderful concept to think about. Magic as something which can heal someone or help their strength is one thing but something which can create sentient races… Incredible."
"You're acting like a child that's just been let loose in a sweetshop... Or like the philosopher who's just discovered what the question is."
Artemis gave Root a strange glance with bemused query in his eyes.
"Knowing the right question is what you get when you put life together with all its answers and it makes sense. Questions are more important than answers and that's a truth in itself."
"I never imagined you would be one for the philosophical, Commander."
"I'm not! Definitely not! Could you really imagine me as a philosopher? And if you can you are clearly more insane than I had previously thought." Then he changed the subject away from himself with all the grace of a baboon. "Any changes in their conditions?"
"No. Jac's temperature dropped slightly but then it rose again. Hol-- The Captain's fever and heart rate are constant - not a good constant but at least it's not degrading further."
"It's eerie. She hasn't moved at all since she fell sick. I wouldn't have thought her to sleep like that. She's too active, vibrant, to sleep soundly and still."
"She's not sleeping. She's in a coma - if we could check her brainwaves there would be little or almost no activity. She'd definitely not dreaming or in normal sleep patterns."
"Oh."
"But I think Brambling's sleeping naturally now." And this was punctuated with a huge yawn that Artemis tried -and failed - to suppress.
"Go to sleep, Fowl. Or you'll be useless to figure out whatever this thing is."
"But I need to keep an eye on them. They could get worse before morning."
"I can take a temperature and count heartbeats. It'll probably be the only thing I can do and if anything major happens rest assured that you'll be woken. And it's your sleeping time, whereas I'm barely halfway through my day. You need to give your brain rest so that you can be more useful later."
"Right. Well, I'll just... Doesn't matter." And he left the room.
Root wandered past the patients before slumping back down in the chair he'd been sitting in before. Then his actions hit him with the force of a lorry. He'd been solicitous towards Artemis Fowl! And he'd been enjoying their conversation!
He momentarily wondered whether he'd been exposed to some mind-altering disease as well.
* * * * *
In the morning Artemis woke up with a strange feeling in is gut and the engormas face of Butler peering over him.
"Morning, Artemis."
"'orning 'utler…"
"Come on. Your friend Brambling just woke up and I've brought the things you said you needed. And also some extra clothes as I don't think that you'd appreciate being in those ones for another day. And you'll also have to ring your mother. She rang when I was at the manor and was quite worried about you."
Artemis seemed to have woken more completely and he managed a coherent 'thanks' to the promise of clean clothes. But it was still an effort to pull himself out of the bed he had appropriated from Marcus the night before.
* * * * *
Ten minutes later he was wide awake and peering down a microscope after getting a blood sample from Holly. The patients hadn't changed over the night much, only a slight rise in temperature but not enough to be overly worried about for a day if it remained a constant level of change.
It was what was underneath the microscope that was so amazing that even a first year student who hated everything about science might be converted. Even a forty-year-old used car salesman would wish they hadn't dropped out of school all those years ago.
Unmagnified Holly's blood was a deeper red than human blood and with a sparkling sheen that must have something to do with fairy biology. Highly magnified, Holly's blood was a warping, dancing mass of bright blue. The magic in her blood looked almost alive and it was forming more patterns than a kaleidoscope in a tornado. It was a wonderful thing to watch. It… drew you in. You could almost feel the magic dancing under your own skin just by looking at it.
But he couldn't see anything which was probably more unusual for a fairy.
"Commander?"
"Yes, Fowl?"
Artemis removed himself from the tantalising image of Holly's bloodwork. "Could you have a look at this? I really can't know what's natural for a fairy."
Root grunted something that could have been a 'neither' but gestured for Butler to bring him a chair to stand on so he could look in the microscope at the current height. He looked in it for a few moments before shaking his head and tearing his eyes away from what must have been just as drawing to him.
"I wouldn't have expected that, but I wouldn't know what I should have expected either. In case you haven't noticed I'm not exactly the sciency-type."
"Well… Butler!" he called across the room, "Could you bring another needle and vial?"
"Why would you..? Oh. Oh. You're not?!"
Root's eyes widened and he looked positively scared and then glared at Artemis as if waiting for him to burst out laughing. He did. But he still held out a hand when Butler came over and grasped the needle. And chocked over his laughter, "I think you might need to hold him still. The Commander has a little problem with needles I believe."
Root looked as if he wanted to deny that but then he realized that if he did he would then have to take the injection without any form of complaint. He opted to clench his jaw and not so subtly sidle away from the two grinning humans.
"Come on Commander, it's not all that bad. Barely a pin-prick."
Root glared at Butler and didn't move any closer. "Why do you need to get my blood anyway? They're the one's who are sick!" he exclaimed with a gesture over to the two occupied beds on the other side of the room.
"Because I need to know what I'm looking for in Holly's blood. If I don't know what a norma- physically healthy – fairy's blood looks like how can I know what makes a fairy unhealthy?"
"It's just for Captain Short's welfare, Commander." Said Butler in a soft voice.
Root swallowed noticeably and rolled up the sleeve on his tight LEP uniform, holding it out to Artemis.
Artemis nodded his thanks and drew the blood without saying anything. Root's face cringed in pain and he looked positively sick the one time he looked down at the vial slowly filling, but then resolved to not look down again and just to take it without argument – and preferably without retching.
He felt a slight twinge as the needle left his skin and then a much more welcome – almost pleasurable – tingle as his magic healed the spot. And sighed in relief. And opened his eyes to see Artemis placing a small quantity of the likewise inhuman blood on a slide and peering at it under the microscope.
He waved Butler over and bade him to have a look at the slide as well. And then called Root over as well.
The healthy blood had the same basic composition as Holly's blood had but with the most noticeable difference of the blue 'cells' (which were slightly darker and duller than Holly's) were immobile and simply drifting aimlessly.
"I bet that if we were to put a pathogen in that blood sample we would find that the magic would be instantly active." He said as he pulled the slide of Root's blood off and replaced it with Holly's once more. "At least we know now that there is definitely a physical element which is moving in the blood stream; although whatever it is could be everywhere in the body. Well, it's a start at least." And he looked back at the first sample, squinting in concentration.
* * * * *
A reasonable time later when Liam came back into the room after having a shower, the sample had changed yet again to a small sample of Jac's blood. Artemis went over to his neatly organized chemicals and plucked on from the rest, taking it back over to the microscope. He dropped a tiny amount into the blood and then watched the reaction through the magnified lens. Nothing much happened so he took another drop of blood and tried a different experiment with that.
Root was pacing the room, straying towards Holly's bed more often than would be completely natural. Butler was sitting calmly on a chair to the side of the room and, although he didn't look to be doing much it was obvious that something reasonably serious was going through his mind.
Since Liam didn't want to interrupt either of the men – although he was still having an extremely difficult time thinking of Root as a man, or even as human, or, more specifically, as anything other than human - and was fully weary of watching over his sister without results or change. So he moved over to stand by Artemis' shoulder and attempt to either help or engage him in conversation.
He watched the seemingly random processes that Artemis was handling and resolved to not being able to help – however hard it was to admit that to even himself. So he asked a question that was positively terrifying in it's implications for someone like
"Why do you know how to do all this, Fowl? This isn't exactly a school science assignment."
"I read Patricia Cornwell."
Liam became even more bewildered by this partially random statement and tried to understand it. He hadn't even heard of Patricia Cornwell although it was obvious that she was some type of doctor or biological weapons expert.
"Um..?"
"She writes crime fiction."
"Oh." Liam's voice conveyed his even more complex bewilderment.
"And I also have the equivalent of 3 years of medical school."
"Ah." At least that made sense – or, at any rate, more sense. "How on earth did you--?"
"I had to do something with all that wasted time at St Bartlebury's. I had done the Leaving Certificate by 8 – only the second best result in the country for the year because I hadn't been allowed to study the Personal Development section for science. I could get into any course, in any university, in the world. But my Mother didn't consider it appropriate for me to actually go there so while I was forced into that absolutely pointless excuse for an education facility I completed a few degrees through a few UNI's – Harvard, Oxford, Hudson."
"Oh." Liam realized that he wasn't actually saying anything useful or even remotely interesting and tried again. All he managed was: "Really?"
He almost blushed after that but Artemis hadn't noticed since he was still bent over the microscope, hand moving out blindly on occasion to add another drop of something or other.
"Why do you know about these… fairies?"
"I figured it out."
"Right – I could have guessed that. Well… what happened then?"
And finally Artemis' eyes came up from his work to meet his and Liam really wished they hadn't. "Does it really matter what I've done in my life? We have more important things to do that listen to a biography. Such as work out what this is, why it exists, who it's linked to… We might not have time to do anything but work on this stupid thing so lets not waste time while we have it."
"Right." He paused for a moment before, sinking down into a lounge-chair nearby. "Do you have any ideas about why this might have happened?"
"No."
Root had obviously been listening into the conversation as well and sunk into another chair opposite. Liam tried his hardest to look down at Root's eyes and not his long, pointed ears but he had an inkling that he was failing marvelously.
"The most obvious one for why your sister is sick would be your writings – whatever they happen to be. But as to why Holly was given it as well… I wouldn't know a thing."
Butler came up behind them after leaving his cousin Marcus in the hall. "Is there any way that she could be used in a blackmail attempt? If we think that this is the same people who have infected the girl then there is probably the same goals involved. Although it might not be linked in motive and just be a personal attack. I've seen things like this where we have assumed a link, acted as if this was truth and that assumption was wrong. We have to be careful with what we think we know."
"I know that! But we need to try and narrow things down."
"Another thing to consider is why are the People involved at all. Or why the humans are involved if you look at it that way. Root, do fairies have the capability to make bio-weapons like this?"
"Of course we do, Fowl."
"Would you have anyone who would willingly create this though? I know we do, but fairies aren't human, are they? You don't act the same ways humans do."
"I… I'd hope not. But we do have a few people who are ruthless to extremes. At least Koboi didn't actually want to kill anyone. But, in answer to your unasked question, a Mud Man would probably be needed to do it. I can see anyone who had the ability to make this, actually doing so."
"But you didn't see your Cudgeon as anything either, Commander. There is always the possibility."
"This is getting us nowhere! We'll know more when we get a message – instructions – from whoever did it. It shouldn't be all that difficult to tell what species has sent the message."
"Butler's right." Said Root with a certain amount of relief. "So… what do we do now?"
"I'm going to try another test on this blood sample. You can do whatever it is that you want to do."
* * * * *
It was noon before Butler could convince Root to go to sleep, so certain he was that something would change if he wasn't actively worrying over his officer. And it was late afternoon before Artemis felt he had isolated whatever was causing the disease.
It seemed to only move in the blood stream, not passing into the lymphatic system or living within host cells – although he could not be fully sure with his inadequate equipment. He really needed access to more powerful and professional equipment but since that wasn't going to happen he would just have to make the best he could out from what he had.
He felt Liam come up behind him since he really didn't have anything else to do. Liam was almost completely useless when it came to any of this stuff. Artemis felt him standing behind his shoulder in the same way as he had done numerous times that day and was about to spin to glare at him when he spoke.
"You're enjoying this aren't you? You like my sister having some stupid biological disease just so you can act the genius and work it all out while we sit around here useless."
Butler got up from his chair but Artemis gave him a glance and he sat back down.
"I do not like the fact that your sister is ill – if only because it means spending time here with you." Liam opened his mouth to utter another violent and angry retort but Artemis cut him off. "But I am enjoying this."
"What the hell?! You're a sick bastard, you idiot! Why on Earth would you—?"
"I assure you my parents are married."
"Your father's fricking dead, Fowl! And what gives you the right to enjoy this whole thing? I can't believe I even let you into my house. And your bloody fairies! Why would--?"
Artemis' voice was cool and low; Butler could barely hear his answer. "My father is not dead. And you let me into your house - and you're not going to kick me out of your house - because I'm probably the only person who could possibly help you. And even if you did I would still work on this. One – because I have a … debt … to Holly Short." He waved his hand at the bed which the unconscious Captain was occupying. "Two – because I don't think your sister deserves to die because of you." Liam tried to cut him off once more but Artemis beat him to it. "And three – because I like the challenge."
"The challenge?! This… life and death situation is a mere challenge for you? Something to add to your list of achievements? I can't believe you. Actually, I can believe that you are that much of an evil bastard but I really don't want to believe any human is that bad."
"Humans are the only ones, I think, who can be that bad. And you're one of the only people who could possibly understand what I'm saying … Liam." His tone was mocking with a small amount of veiled hopefulness. "Why won't you try to? Don't you do things just because no one else can? Do things for the challenge? Make things which are easy harder just because you want to… because you know you can achieve that which other would think impossible?"
"But this is immoral!"
"Child abuse is immoral. Murder is immoral. War is immoral. The rules of War are even worse. Being passionate about finding out the cause of a disease so you could possibly cure it cannot be immoral."
"I… I don't…"
And with that Liam stormed out of the room to do God-knows-what, although Artemis' guess was to sulk and hopefully, but unlikely, to think about things.
He calmly turned back to his microscope to adjust the focus.
* * * * *
Only when the sky was dark outside and Artemis' eyes were sore from squinting and working through the same things again and again did he leave the converted library. He didn't think he had concentrated on something for so long and with such intensity since decoding the Gnommish over a year ago.
He walked into the kitchen rubbing his eyes and was greeted by the backs of three heads. Liam, Butler and Marcus were sitting watching the TV with a fierce … almost desperation. Liam was the first to notice Artemis standing behind them.
"They're going to go to war. India and Pakistan. A peace diplomat was just killed in the main street of Islamabad."
"Oh God."
"There's nothing we can do about it, Artemis. And things like this happen all the time; it's unimportant in the greater scheme of things."
"But the possibilities for nuclear warfare… Or even chemical and biological is greater than the Cold War. Biological… Do you think that this could be a sideline of Pakistan/India conflict? Taliesin's been writing against possible war so it--"
Artemis' voice froze as a picture of his father appeared on the screen.
"And finally, the long thought dead Artemis Fowl, a prominent Dublin businessman, has been found. He is currently undergoing treatment in Helsinki after 2 years missing in places unknown. His wife, Angeline Fowl, refused to talk to reporters although it appears that Fowl hasn't woken up since being found at the gates of the University 2 weeks ago."
The woman's face changed to the weatherman indicating the cold front that was coming their way. Artemis took a deep breath as the other's turned to look at him.
"Well… I wonder how the media found out."
"Probably the usual way, Artemis."
"I did say that the news would come through the TV, didn't I Butler?"
Liam cut Butler's response off. "Your Dad's alive, Fowl? And you knew? And you're still here?"
"Yes, he is. Yes, of course I did. And yes … I am."
"But… Don't you want to be with your Dad for when he wakes up? Your Mum?"
"This is more important."
"It can't be! Why don't you want to be with them?"
Butler stood up and so did Marcus.
"Liam, I don't think Master Fowl wants to answer your questions and a Fowl never does things which he doesn't want to. Stop being childish."
"But Marcus--"
"Don't, Liam. I'll take the first shift, Butler, I'll wake you at 2."
* * * * *
The next morning it wasn't Butler's face that greeted Artemis upon being roughly shaken awake, but the dour, red face of Julius Root. And if that's not shocking enough to move someone from fast asleep to wide awake in one movement then nothing is.
"Get up, Fowl."
Artemis glanced over at the window and noted the grey light of predawn.
"What is it? Has something happened to one of the girls?"
Root gave a mirthless grin. "Holly would have your head if she heard you referring to her as a girl."
"What's happened, Root?"
"We got a package. I assume that it's from the poisoner. Butler's checking it for traps, substances, right now. I thought I should get you."
"Very considerate, I'm sure." Said Artemis as he swung himself out of the bed and pulled on a dressing gown. Looking down at Root, he made a gesture that he would follow.
As soon as they arrived in the Brambling Library where the sick beds were laid out Artemis moved over to the patients to see how their conditions were. Both were worse. Quite a bit worse. Jac's face had a slight yellow tinge and Holly's magic seemed out of control, jumping along the surface of her skin in desperation with an unpredictable irregularity.
Artemis moved over to the table where Butler had carefully opened the parcel which he had found on the grounds that morning. A note lay on the table and, without picking it up, Artemis read it. A message constructed from newspaper clippings was never really done and this message was simply typed on someone's computer and printed in Times New Roman.
Taliesin,
Artemis gave a slight grimace at the proof that he was correct.
As you can see your darling little sister isn't going to continue very long without your co-operation. I'm the only one who has the cure and the only way you're going to get your hands on the cure is if I let you. I've given one temporary dose for the time being just incase the little girl die and you loss your motivation to do exactly as I request you to.
Read careful because if you mess this up I'll be very angry. And me being angry would not look good for your happy family being happy for very long.
You are going to write. And you are going to motivate the USA to become involved with the conflict between India and Pakistan about Kashmir. How, you ask? I don't care how but you are going to do it. And if you don't I won't send you any more of this wonderful solution and you'll be looking at funeral packages.
I trust you're not so stupid, little genius, that you'll feel compelled to show this to the police. Nor that they could do any thing.
Artemis ran a hand though his disorderly morning hair and ended up rubbing fretfully at his neck.
"There's nothing about Holly or the fairies in this."
"I know, Artemis. And there's only one vial of 'cure' in here."
"The writer has some mistakes in the note. His first language isn't English. He might even have used a translator program to write it – but then it should have been even worse."
"I agree."
Artemis ran his eyes over the note once again. "Why didn't he tell Brambling what side he wants the US to get involved for? You can't really entice involvement just generally. Not for something like a possible war. Or maybe you can…" Artemis gave a half-shrug. "At least this charming fellow thinks you can. Where's the 'cure'?"
"Here, Artemis." Butler handed over a small vial filled with transparent, thick liquid. "Shouldn't we wake Liam before we give this to his sister?"
"No. Imagine the panic he would cause. We have to get her slightly better at least, she's very sick now, Butler. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. If it makes things worse, it makes things worse. But we still have to try incase it's the only thing which could make her better. Brambling would just be a nuisance."
Butler nodded and opened a needle, handing it to Artemis.
Just as Artemis was about to inject the needle and it's contents into Jac's arm, Butler spoke. "Would this antidote work for Captain Short as well?"
"Probably not. What I think is the virus is different in make up in both of them. And Holly will probably be getting something similar. Only they don't know she's here. If something turns up Underground I'm sure Foaly will tell us about it."
He injected the substance, keeping the smallest amount aside for analysis and stepped back to see if anything would drastically change.
It didn't.
The phone rang. It was Foaly.
"Tell that idiot Root that he needs to get to the top Tara station A-SAP! I've got a package that was left outside his home and it's about Holly."
"Right." Artemis glanced down at Root, "Commander, Foaly's sending up Short's antidote at Tara."
"Good."
"Thanks, Fo—" But the line was dead.
Commander Root was already out of the room and strapping on a pair of mechanical wings.
* * * * *
In the lower shuttle port of Tara there were three people whose lives are important to us. Foaly the technological Centaur was moving fretfully from foot to foot, waiting for the shuttle with Holly's package on it to leave the station. Basil Rune was talking a few deep breaths to calm his nerves and prepare him for what he was about to do; a knife glinted in his hands. Quentin Thyme suppressed what can only be called an evil grin in favour of a smirk of foreboding.
A video camera light blinked on. It was recording.