Chapter 1
Bad News
Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon was bored. For the past few months, she had been given the most uninteresting assignments a Recon elf had ever experienced: no aboveground missions or disasters since the last Artemis Fowl thing in Chicago. To her horror, Holly sometimes caught herself wishing for the days when she had piloted shuttles through narrow chutes and trekked through the most distant places on earth with the Mud Boy and his bodyguard Butler. Do I miss him? she had asked herself countless times, before coming to the conclusion that yes, perhaps a little. In truth, Artemis had been the source of most of her excitement and adventure during her term as a Recon officer, and he had grown to something Holly could nearly identify as a true friend before the mind wipe that had sent him, Butler, and Juliet into their old lives. Lives free of memories of the People.
Ending her reminiscences with a firm shake of her head, Holly sealed her visor as she made her way into the dark tunnel ahead. Two renegade goblins from the former B'wa Kell triad were hiding just a few feet around the next bend, according to her Optix x-ray, armed with nothing but spent softnose lasers left over from the rebellion a year and a half ago. Assisted by Chix Verbil, who was reduced to flying shuttles on missions since the injury to his wing, Holly had followed the goblins here and was aiming to capture them. Finally.
"Come on out of there!" Holly called. "You're out of ammo and out of luck, goblins. In the name of the LEP, I order you to come out with your hands up where I can see them."
The only response was a hurled fireball that landed several yards short. Holly rolled her eyes as she drew her Neutrino 200. Goblins. All the same.
She shielded herself automatically, though in the blackness around her it wasn't really necessary. Carefully, she stepped forward. Closer, closer-
"Holly!" Her earpiece crackled as Verbil's voice came through the reception. Holly nearly leapt a foot in the air before realizing what had happened. Lowering her voice to a furious whisper, she replied, "Shut it, Private! I'm trying to corner the hostiles! And since when are you on first name terms with me?"
"Sorry, Cap'," Chix blustered, "but we got ourselves a situation. Real urgent, Foaly says. Code Red an' all that. He says the goblins can wait."
"D'Arvit!" Holly swore. "What's going on? And what did the commander say?"
Strangely, Chix was sounding frightened: an emotion not often associated with the mischievous sprite. "I dunno, Cap'n Short, Foaly didn't say much, but he said he wants us back now. The commander isn't there: Major Kelp had him call us in."
Confused, Holly terminated the connection, stepping out of the tunnel towards the battered shuttle where Chix was waiting. Foaly was right-the goblins could wait. There was something wrong here. She activated a link with Foaly as soon as she entered the shuttle, motioning wordlessly at Verbil to take them out as Foaly's voice buzzed into her headset.
"What's going on?" she said at once, not bothering with pleasantries.
"Hang on," came Foaly's distracted voice. "No-okay, never mind, just checking something. Holly? Are you coming in now? What about the goblins?"
"I thought you wanted me to leave them!" Holly said, exasperated. "What's this whole Code Red thing? Fill me in."
The tech centaur let out a long sigh before answering. "Julius is missing, Holly. He went up E1 to check out some unidentified radio signals I picked up about twenty klicks away from Tara, and I just...lost him."
"Lost him?" Holly demanded. "You mean...?"
"No, no," Foaly hastily assured her. "He's alive-I'm staring at his vitals right now, in fact, thanks to that chip I patented that I insisted we put in every suit. I think we can assume he's been captured, because he's unconscious and without his helmet or gun."
"D'Arvit. This is not good."
"Tell me about it."
Holly tried to remain calm as she replied. "Alright, we'll be there in a minute. Hold off the briefing until we get there."
She switched off her communications link and took the copilot controls in front of her with both hands. "My turn, Private," she told the sprite beside her. "I need to get something out of my system."
The briefing began as soon as Holly and Chix nosed into the docking bay. After saying good-bye to Chix, Captain Short raced for the conference room, slipping into the darkened chamber just as Foaly typed in the commands to project footage onto the screen at the head of the room. Ignoring stares of disapproval, Holly slipped into the empty seat next to Trouble Kelp silently as Foaly began to speak.
"The view up here is feed from Commander Root's helmet cam," he explained as the images flashed past. It was twilight, a beautiful time of day, and the sunset was streaking the sky. Root was apparently not taking any time to admire the view, because the footage flew past unwavering. Foaly hit the fast-forward button after a few moments, scanning the tape until he found the part he was looking for: Root's descent.
"Here," the centaur said, clopping over to the other side of the projector to get a better vantage point. "This is the important part. He lands near where the signal is coming from and moves to enter the forest."
Through the speakers came the sound of leaves crunching underfoot, and, after a few seconds, the commander's growled request for a satellite map of the woods ahead. As they were downloading into his helmet, Root turned quickly and shielded, drawing his tri-barreled blaster as he did so. The LEP officers, all on the edge of their seats, gazed upon a seemingly abandoned stretch of moor that was now in Root's line of vision, but before they could fully comprehend what they were seeing, there was a cracking noise, a slight whine, and then a gasp as Root was hit by whatever projectile had been fired at him.
At that moment, Trouble felt Holly stiffen in her seat beside him, and he glanced worriedly at her. She was staring rigidly at the screen, which Foaly had just paused. The centaur was looking grim. "I figured maybe it was some guy shooting up the woods or a hunter who had missed, because for another five minutes the commander is left alone, but later, we hear footsteps off camera, and we lose video. Someone has him. We're sure."
Trouble felt something in the pit of his stomach contract. Someone had the commander.
"D'Arvit!"
A/N: Well, how did everyone like it? It's my first attempt at an Artemis Fowl fanfic-reviews and comments are most welcome indeed. Chapter 2 is nearly finished, actually, so expect that to come soon as well...