Chapter 5: Conspiracy
Jon Spiro was so not there. At least that's what Juliet would say. According to Holly, it seemed as if he was ready to crash into Haven in any minute when she met him. But it had been almost twenty-four hours, everyone had gotten a good night's sleep, and Holly and Root were loaded to the brim with magic. But he still hadn't come. They were all getting tense, so Holly tried to brighten up the mood with some light talk.
"Artemis," Holly began. "I almost forgot, I have to ask you something."
"What is it?" Artemis asked.
"How in Frond's name did you ever lie through the mesmer?" Holly asked. "You are absolutely impossible to predict. And don't take that as a compliment."
Artemis smirked. "Ah. For that question my answer is – I don't know."
"Oh, please tell me that the great Artemis Fowl doesn't know everything." Holly snorted.
"I don't know everything," Artemis replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "All I can tell you is that before I was under the mesmer, I was in a state of panic. You know that I could have done anything to hold on to my memories. Would have." He paused.
Holly urged him to continue with a wave of her hand.
"When I was actually put under the mesmer though, I didn't feel complete relaxation or bliss, as one is supposed to. I felt an urge. An urge to play a trick. To fight the mesmer. I found it fairly easy, and I remembered the laser disk. Is it really abnormal? My theory is that I was desperate because Foaly had discovered all the evidence I had hidden. Desperate enough to lie, that is."
"Yes, I suppose so," Holly replied. "But then again, you are far from normal, so it might have been easy for you. Anyway, we have to get ready. Spiro might be here anytime." Holly left the room, and Artemis and Diana were left alone once again.
"Artemis," Diana said. Artemis turned to face her, unable to suppress a look of surprise. Diana had called him by his first name. He didn't allow many people to do that.
"Yes?" He replied after a moment's hesitation.
"Don't you ever smile?"
"Yes, Choi, I do smile. I smiled when I was having a conversation with Holly just now. Didn't you notice?"
Diana sighed. "No, Artemis. That was a cynical sneer. At least that's how it looked to me." The relationship between the two teens had softened, so Diana was talking like her usual self. She had always felt uncomfortable using a bombastic vocabulary or a formal attitude like Artemis.
"I must correct you. That was not a sneer, Choi. It was a sign of amusement, and therefore a smile. Or a grin. Whatever you desire to call it. But not a sneer."
"Okay, whatever you say. That's how it looked like to me." Diana stood up from her chair. "By the way, Artemis. Did you think about what I said yesterday?"
"What do you mean?" Artemis asked, although he already knew. "And please don't call me Artemis. I don't approve of that for most people."
All signs of friendliness in Diana's voice vanished. "All right. I get it. Fine. So I guess a child prodigy doesn't need any friends after all, Fowl. That's fine with me. Who wants to be friends with an egocentric, big-brained criminal mastermind? I certainly don't." She started to leave.
She's wrong, Artemis thought. I do need a friend, no matter how intelligent I am. I'm not the Artemis who abducted innocent fairies once before. However, I believe she doesn't know that.
I doubt she'll ever know if I don't tell her now.
"Diana," he called out quietly.
It was Diana's turn to be surprised. She turned and stared into Artemis's deep blue eyes, tranquil and emotionless as usual. But when she examined them more closely, she realized that they looked slightly embarrassed. He opened his mouth to say something and then closed it.
"What," she snapped, annoyed. "Did you forget what you were going to say or something?"
Artemis looked back into her eyes. "I do want to be your friend. Will you be it?"
Diana was totally taken aback. She looked shocked for a millisecond, and then she smiled. "Sure."
Artemis slowly smiled back. It was not a smirk, a grimace, or a sneer. It was a pure smile.
Chicago, Illinois. USA
A small goblin peeked out from the sewage pipe. So this is how outer earth looks like. To him, though, Chicago looked like a 1950's version of Haven. Obsolete, obsolete, he thought as he tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for his employer. Me, working for a Mud Man! If it weren't for the money, I'd tell him to shut up and mind his own business… But for a half a ton of gold, being an employee of someone, even a Mud Man, is not so bad.
Keeth Gates was the Artemis Fowl of the underworld, metaphorically. He was wanted all over the LEP. With a few ingenious tricks up his sleeve, and fantastic technology even surpassing that of the fairies, Keeth was never caught, and was now assumed dead. The only goblin ever smart enough to outsmart the LEP. Keeth was overly proud of it.
A tall man emerged from the shadows. Keeth could tell even from a distance that this guy was EVIL! As he came closer, Keeth found it very hard to look up at him. He was too tall.
"Keeth Gates, I suppose?" Jon Spiro said. "Good evening."
"Good evening to you, too." Keeth grinned. "At your service."
"Straight to the point, then," Spiro said. "Take me to Haven as fast as possible."
"Haven, sir?" Keeth could hardly believe his ears.
"Yes," Spiro replied simply. "Don't tell me you can't do it. I might have a sudden urge to decapitate you. And don't just take me there. My job is always a stealthy one. As stealthy as possible. We don't want to be spotted by the LEP, do we?"
"Certainly not, sir," Keeth said. "But why do you wish to go to Haven?" Then he added hopefully, "Are you planning to destroy the LEP?"
"No," Spiro said, smiling. "I'm going to demolish them. I'm going there to seek revenge, and I felt that you had the exact same goal as I. Although you escaped every time you commit a crime, there were several times when the LEP ruined your so-called 'infallible' plans. Correct?"
"Absolutely," Keeth agreed. "Those LEP officers always show up in the wrong place, at the wrong time."
"To tell you the truth, I was once defeated by the fairies. With the help of a human by the name of Artemis Fowl."
"Artemis Fowl? Oh, yeah, I heard of him. Isn't he the little boy who was the first Mud Man ever to discover the existence of the People - on his own?" Keeth knew Artemis Fowl well enough. He was notorious to most of the People, but an idol to Keeth's fellow criminals.
"Yes," Spiro said. "But Artemis Fowl has now been mind-wiped, so that makes me the only human who is aware of the fairies. Being who he is, I'm sure he would have found a way to regain his lost memories, but it has only been a few months. He wouldn't be aware of the situation this time.
"So here's what will do. We abduct a fairy by the name of Holly Short. I hear she's a Captain at the LEPrecon unit. And then, you and your fellow goblins will start an invasion with me. Understood?"
"Deal," Keeth replied. "But before that we have to find a way to go through the sewage pipe and stay as clean as possible."
Spiro grinned before he realized what Keeth had just said. After he did, he groaned. "Isn't there another way?" he began to ask. But it was too late. Spiro was pulled into the pipe by Keeth, and was now nowhere to be seen.
