Allies and friends

"So this is the situation as I see it, Miss Croft," Artemis Fowl was saying, finally rising from the lounge settee. He had been talking for the past two hours, explaining the events of the past years and why he exactly he had abducted her. "And hopefully," he continued, "you will condescend to see it as well."

He paced the room, glancing at her face momentarily, as if for a retort. Which came in good time.

Reddler kept a straight face, but the amusement lingered in her voice.

"And you expect me to believe this," she said. It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes," said Artemis. His voice was dead serious.

"Aww, really?" asked Reddler, cocking her head. "it's a bit too bizarre to believe, and you know I think so, so lets not waste any more time, Mr. Fowl."

There was a strange look on his face as she spoke his name for the first time. It vanished in a second, and he was back to snappy self.

"You want proof," he said.

"Obviously, yes," said Reddler, looking bored. "You're not a very good negotiator, did you know that?"

Artemis ignored her. "Very well," he said, with a nod to…apparently, no one. "I give you proof."

Very dramatic, Reddler wanted to say, but before her mouth even started forming the words, something else seemed to be forming rapidly. The very air in front of her was beginning to convulse, contorting into wavy shapes, and every inch of it was pulsing like a giant ripple. Colors materialized like clouds of spray paint, and then there it was, floating right before her eyes. A small…person--at least that was what it looked like, and more so like a girl—dressed in some sort of regulation clothing, and on its back were…

"Wings," whispered Reddler in amazement. "You're a fairy."

"You don't sound too surprised," remarked Butler.

"Actually, we presumed the existence of fairies quite some time ago. I caught some of their chute architecture when I was working the nuclear scans. We examined them, and then concluded that there was some sort of subterranean intelligence behind this," said Reddler.

"How did you know that we were fairies?"

"Now that was a hunch. We quite forgot about the whole thing, and then one of you guys showed up on thermal interference scans. At first we couldn't figure out what it was. Then we zoomed in, et voilà! Wings!"

"Oh gods. Root will have my hide for this! It's enough to have a retrieval squad here to mind-wipe her in seconds," said the fairy, going very pale.

"Anyway, we were really excited at first, finding an entire civilization by ourselves. My partner and I decided to study the scans, and we found some pretty tricky bits of building there. We realized that the creatures who built them had to be quite advanced as well. And advanced civilization spells advanced gizmos. Weapons, I mean.

"We figured that you guys did have the hot stuff, you also had to be pretty peace-loving not to dominate us. I mean, the things us humans do these days is enough to make anyone go nuts. So if we did expose it all, we knew what would be coming next. Main-scale war, exploitation…you know the works. We're not saints, fairy, but my partner suggested that if you guys were decent enough to give us our space, the least we could do was give you yours. Live and let live and all that crap."

The fairy girl looked relieved. "So you're saying that only one person besides you, knows about us?"

"Yes," said Reddler.

"And who is that?" asked Butler.

"My part—my ex-partner. My best friend, Eric Shaw. He's dead," she said, her voice barely audible; the last words almost a whisper.

"I know. I heard. I'm sorry," said the fairy sympathetically. Reddler's face was blank, but she said nothing.

"My name is Holly Short," she said, tucking her helmet in the crook of her arm. The look on her face was friendly enough.

Reddler nodded. "Uh…I take it you're on his side?" she asked, motioning to Artemis.

"Yes, we're fr—I mean allies…just allies," said Holly hesitatingly.

Reddler considered this. She studied the fairy girl keenly. She wasn't tall, about three and a half feet at the most. But she had to admit that Holly was rather striking. She had short auburn hair; and her hazel eyes weren't very large, but had a fire in them like Reddler had never seen before. It was rock-hard determination. Her dearth of height was made up for by her willowy figure.

Reddler wondered whether if ally was what Holly Short was to the infamous Artemis Fowl, and the doubt showed on her face.

It was ten to two at night. The manor was quiet and dark, dimly lit with soft shaded lights. Reddler roamed the vast expanses of its corridors in her slippers making as little noise as possible. Butler had said that she was free to move about in the house, provided she did not use the phones or try to escape. He had borrowed some DNA scanners from the People, and random lasers would start shooting when she even as much as set a toe out of the house.

Reddler felt a strange sense of exhilaration, feeling free after being held captive for so long. The halls were empty, but she knew that she was being constantly watched by close-circuit cameras. Even so, she tried to ignore this fact as she paced the immense place.

The Fowl's grandstanding in society was reflected in the absolute richness of the décor. Intricate oils adorned the walls, and as Reddler noted, almost all of them seemed to depict the generations of the criminal heritage.

She walked further into the darkness, and suddenly felt very alone. It was the house, the place where nightmares began, the place where time had stopped. She waited, feeling the tiniest wisps of terror curl back in place.

The time was eight to two.

The walls seemed to have an eerie phosphorescence, almost glowing in the near-blackness. The silence in this part of the manor was frighteningly intense, almost deafening. Reddler curled her fists in apprehension as she listened to the steady pounding of her heart.

There was a small sound, and Reddler almost jumped. She inched towards the source of the sound, and her hands rested on the cool carvings of an ornate doorknob. Without thinking, she turned it and went inside.

Artemis Fowl was resting on a high-backed armchair, studying the various images on one of the several monitors in front of him. After every five seconds or so, there would be a soft 'ding' and another image would be superimposed on top of the others.

"Had a nice walk, did you?" he said, without turning to meet her.

"That's the kola peninsula. A SAT image…how did you get it? Those are protected by the Russian government."

"You're very observant," he said, gazing at the computer screen. "Yes, this is the bay of kola. This image has been sent to me by my father's abductors, the Russian mafiya. This is the place where I have to meet their proposal."

Reddler moved closer.

"Proposal?"

"Yes. I have to give them money," said Artemis, finally meeting her eyes. His deep blue pools burned into hers. Reddler suddenly felt strangely exposed in front of him. The moment he looked at her, the air seemed to turn into liquid. It was a moment that novels stated as undressing with his eyes. Stamping down the tingling in her gut, she tried to converse as normally as before.

"And then, will they release your father?" she asked, her voice shaking only very slightly.

"Unfortunately, no," he said, sighing. "I'm only buying myself more time."

"Why is that?"

"Because I have to think of a plan to deliver you to them and then, getting you back unhurt," he said simply.

"Oh," said Reddler, lost for words. "I …I thought that I was expendable, the way you're treating me."

Almost as soon as she had said that, Reddler was shocked with herself. She didn't mean to say it, but she blurted it out before she could stop herself. And now she was disgusted, feeling like a poor sport.

She watched Artemis anxiously for his reaction. She thought that he would yell at her and send her back to that musty cell. But he didn't do that. He only sat there, looking thoughtful, his handsome features accentuated by the sharp glow of the monitors.

"I'm sorry," she said, trying to make it up. "I didn't mean that."

Artemis didn't say anything. His eyes considered her fiercely, and Reddler swallowed a gasp. He gazed at her for a long time, and then abruptly stood up and left the room in silence.

He didn't smile.

It was drizzling the next morning when Reddler decided to walk down the greens as she had done with Eric three years ago. The earth smelt grassy and damp from the continuous rain. Dark, angry thunderclouds billowed in the sky over the skerry. Shivering slightly in the cold breeze, her alert eyes moved over the grounds, methodically memorizing every detail. There had been some landscaping changes since her unfortunate escapade. For one thing, there were lesser places to hide, as additional cameras were placed over mounds and ridges. Even so, she tried to work out an escape route, feeling the old thrill of a challenge coming back to her.

Suddenly there was a soft whiz at her shoulder, and Reddler instinctively ducked low. Crouching, she saw a figure silhouetted in the distance against the dark clouds, and recognizing the shape, she jogged forward.

"Practicing your shooting skills?" she asked.

"Only out of habit," grunted Butler. "These things have details hard to memorize." He showed her the object in his massive hands. It took her a moment to realize that it was a gun. It had odd markings and twisted metal branching, and looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. Towards the nozzle, a spiral tube of coolant frothed with a bright blue haze.

"Wow," she said, fingering its smooth surface. It didn't feel like metal at all. "Is this an LEP gun?"

"Yes," said Butler, firing another shot. A rapid dart of energy thrust out in a narrow, heated jet.

"Nonlethals," said Reddler, studying it for a while. "backed by atomic power. High on impulse energy, low on emissive radiation. It's incredible…how did they store the energy? Power cells, I suppose. But how can atomic energy power cells be so small? The smallest of them that I know of are the size of a suitcase."

"You're cleverer than I thought," crackled a tinny, high-pitched voice. It seemed to coming out of a speaker, which, after a glance at Butler's lapel, she realized it was. There was small, grey clip-on badge with wires poking out from the sides. Reddler guessed that it had been torn apart and put together again. Must be Artemis' handiwork. It was so like him, stealing stuff from the fairy people. The cocky voice wrenched her out of her thoughts. "But, my pretty mud maid, you're forgetting something else that we have and you humans don't, and I'm not talking about brains."

"Pipe down, Foaly," snapped Butler irritably.

There was a delighted whinny. "Want to take a wild guess?" said the centaur.

Reddler rolled her eyes. "Magic," she said.

"Exactly," said Foaly. "Magic. That's what's working our stuff. But I'll admit you guessed right. These are Solinium-powered cells. Atomic, yes, but they go a little easy on the environment. We had our tech warlocks shrink them to miniscule sizes and slipped them onto our guns, and missy, we've got power like never before."

"With an ego to match," remarked Reddler.

Butler snorted, and there was annoyed swish of a tail from Foaly.

"Hey, I made these things. I deserve a little appreciation," he whined.

"Look who's asking," laughed Butler. Reddler smiled to herself. She had heard of the quadruped genius, and she liked him at once. And although it was growing dark with smart flashes of lightning, Butler didn't look half as fierce as before, especially when he was laughing.

"The next time, I'll be making a gun just for you, mud man," grumbled Foaly. "Only you won't be pointing it."

Reddler laughed. "Now this feels like home," she said.

There was a pause, and Foaly's voice crackled on the speakers.

"I like her," he said.

There was another hiss of static, and this time another voice rang out, a much deeper one.

"I hate to break the reunion," said Artemis. "But I have to show you something. Come to the study, all of you."

Dark thunder rumbled low in the distance as Artemis presided over the small group in the study. Butler sat at a terminal, working on a tracer signal. The brown leather armchair looked comically small under his huge frame. Foaly, the much hyped-over centaur, stood close by, munching on a large carrot. He was one of the strangest creatures that Reddler had seen, with a pearly-white back and terribly hairy, clever hands. And he was much taller than she had thought.

"This so wonderfully passé," he said with a sardonic grin. "I feel like I'm in a museum. Would you look at the size of these computers? They'd be illegal in Haven."

"Charming," said Artemis coolly. "Now if you would please put your surveillance skills into this clip. They'd be quite useful, I'm sure. And much appreciated."

Ignoring Foaly's grunts, his fingers flew over the keyboard with practiced ease. A real-time movie clip came up on the screen, and he clicked on play.

At first there was a burst of screen snow and ear-splitting static, but it soon cleared to form a bleary, hazy image. Reddler could make out the deep blue sea with huge chunks of sheet ice floating in the distance. There was a dull gray hull of what seemed like a ship, but she could sense something wrong with its curvature. The camera panned to the right, and caught the shadowed figures of two men standing on the icy deck. There was a tall, dark man who clutched the other person with an animal grip. As the camera focused better, Reddler finally saw who the prisoner was, and it made the color drain from her face.

Artemis Fowl. It was him.

His wrists were tied with rope and his clothes were dirty and disheveled. He looked paler and thinner than the imposing criminal lord that Reddler had remembered.

She thought that she was going to fall; she felt so faint, but then the camera zoomed in on his captor. His image hit her like a freight train.

It was Vitya Kayakova.

Reddler felt a newfound chill wrap around her, and it had nothing to do with the weather.

She returned to reality only to find that all the people in the room had their eyes trained on her. The clip had ended since long, and the only sound in the room was that of her own ragged breathing.

"Are you all right?" asked Butler, peering at her closely.

"I know that man," said Reddler hurriedly, trying to regain her normal color.

"You do?" asked Artemis, leaping out of his chair. He rarely tended to be this enthusiastic. But now there was a newfound energy in his features, as if he suddenly found life interesting.

"Yeah, I do," muttered Reddler, her face darkening at the thought. "He tried to kill—no, abduct me." She cast a sideward glance at Artemis, narrowing her eyes as if to say Remind you of anyone? But Artemis' eager eyes met hers, and she suddenly didn't feel like a rebuke.

She recounted the ambush in the Appalachians as briefly as she could, with Foaly and Butler interjecting at intervals. But Artemis was strangely silent. His stillness was infectious, and soon everyone was musing over the situation.

"Well, what do you make of it?" burst out Holly. "This Easton chap doesn't feel like Mr. Gumdrops, and that's all I can make out of it."

"I think it's quite obvious. Britva wants more money, and he sent us that clip to figure out their location," said Artemis.

"But why do that? If they want the haul so badly, why not tell us where they are?" said Holly.

"Because we knew where they were the last time, remember? And they know we can do it again. And they'll be waiting."

"And what about Easton?"

"He certainly seems to have a friendly hand with Britva. Undoubtedly they are working on something together, something that will profit them both."

"Then I had better get some equipment up here," said Foaly. "I don't want to be running background checks for mafiya globetrotters on some ancient mud machinery."

"So…does that mean you're in?" attempted Butler tentatively.

"Are you kidding? Am I ever out of a Fowl misadventure?" he said gleefully, clopping out of the study.

"What about you, Holly?" asked Artemis somewhat indecisively.

"I'm in," she said, without a moment's hesitation.

Although Artemis did not smile, the relief was evident in his eyes. "Thank you," he said. "Now I want to be alone for a while. I have to think. When I'm done I need you all to come in one at a time. We'll be leaving for Russia today."

Reddler stared at the Rubik's cube in her hand as she sat on a sofa outside the study door. There it was, a jumble of colors compressed into a modest cube. Occasionally there would be a diagonal or blocks of similar colors as her hand worked it over. Patterns among irregularity. Reddler liked Rubik's cubes because they coincided with her thinking. Her memories were in a tangle, and she ever sought patterns in them to bring them to light. She wouldn't have memories without patterns. Right then, as she thought of the cold, dark night when Eric had been killed, she just wished that she could smash the cube and all of its patterns against the wall.

Butler had been in for a long time. Holly and Foaly had been in before him, and both of got to work the moment they left the study. Foaly had set up a vast array of LEP computers—sleek, speedy devices and hooked them to broadband internet. He could now trawl through the entire human database within milliseconds.

Holly, on the other hand had left for Tara to complete the Ritual. Artemis had explained rather ungraciously that keeping up with the constant healing that Reddler needed since she had been abducted, Holly had exhausted quite a bit of her powers and needed to restore them. The way he said it, Reddler expected herself to feel enraged, but somehow all she felt was sense of shame, feeling that she couldn't defend herself and got into scrapes as regularly as a six-year-old. Artemis Fowl sure could make someone feel very small.

At that precise moment, the door opened and Butler strode out.

"You can go in," he said to her, before heading for the stairs.

Reddler stood up, tossing the unconsciously solved cube on the sofa. She took a deep breath and knocked firmly on the door. On hearing a muffled 'yes' from inside, she went in.

Artemis Fowl was sitting with his back to her, facing the window. The wind howled wrathfully as the near-gale conditions forced the clouds into swirling, grotesque shapes near the horizon. There was no rain yet, but the intermittent flashes of lightning made the room look frightening. Artemis, on the other hand, seemed to be quite enjoying this, as he sat drinking in the fantastic fury before him.

Reddler cleared her throat, and slowly, in his own time, Artemis spun around to meet her.

He looked more like a vampire than ever. Startlingly pale in his dark designer suit, the prodigious criminal mastermind had his eyes travel over his hostage before he spoke. He often did this, but every time his deep blue eyes moved over her, she could feel herself miss a heartbeat. And when they were alone, his eyes had a depth that made her skin tingle.

"So, Miss Croft," began Artemis in his usual crisp, businesslike tone. "I want to commence this little tête-à-tête by telling you of my plans. However, I want you to listen to me carefully all through, and I shall not tolerate any interruptions. So basically, none of your cockiness until I finish. Do I make myself clear?"

Reddler bit down the rage erupting within her and tried to answer as calmly as she could.

"Very," she said.

"All right, then. Foaly's already got a lead on our man, according to what Butler says. He's currently in Siberia. We, on the other hand, won't be making a straightforward attack," he smirked, leaning back into his chair. "No, surprises are more my style. Vitya Kayakova is in Italy, and that's where we're heading. Apparently as Britva's right-hand henchman, he is also the keeper of the control codes."

"Codes to what?"

"Interruptions are not very polite, Miss Croft," said Artemis, flashing a look of disapproval. "But the codes are to the key controls of his transport, which is…"

"A submarine," completed Reddler.

"How did you know?" he asked, sitting up again.

"The hull, it was too curved… too narrow, and no markings." She suddenly started. "That's it! If we know the key controls, we can stop them from escaping!"

"Rather witty of you," said Artemis without the slightest bit of acknowledgement. "But you're right. If we can keep them confined, we can surround them with fairy artillery in no time. Simplicity, you see, is what steers this charade."

Reddler paused as a deafening thunderclap rattled the windowpanes. Over the dying vibrations, she shuddered as she spoke.

"And just where do I fit in?" she said unenthusiastically.

Artemis rose from his seat and faced the window. "You are critical to my plans," he said slowly as he walked. "You are what I have to buy more time. As long as I have you, I'm more or less in their favor. They want you, and I have what they want."

"Why don't you just dump me and the ransom and get your father back?" Reddler moved as close as she dared to him beside the window.

"That's not how it works with the mafiya," explained Artemis. "If they see me coming over with their demands in a day, they'll know I have backup by me. They know me better by now. It's wiser to entertain them and…do what they expect me to do, I suppose."

"So that you can sidestep to formulate a plan?" She couldn't keep the admiration from her voice.

"Exactly," said Artemis, gazing at the distant clouds. "Besides, one of the People is trapped there. I can't fail them, not after all the help they've given me."

Reddler frowned. This fourteen-year old boy was proving to be more puzzling than ever. Most of the time he was an arrogant, cold-hearted individual, but sometimes a streak of nobility would show through, flashing starkly beside his usually icy demeanor.

"Are you forcing me to do this?" asked Reddler, meeting his eyes resolutely.

"No," sighed Artemis. "I can only force you this far. I forced you to my home; I made you believe in this extraordinary world of fairies. Now I've told you of my plans, and whether you help me or not is up to you alone."

"What if I refuse?"

"I'll disable the security systems for the manor. The Lear is docked at Dublin, and Butler will take you wherever you wish," said Artemis in a dismissive tone.

"And…what about you?"

"I'll have to find some other way."

Reddler was silent for a while as she considered the matter. There was no other sound except for the soft patter of rain.

"Please, Reddler," pleaded Artemis softly. "Father doesn't stand a chance without you."

It was the first time she had seen him so desperate. But much to her surprise, she didn't feel pleased; rather she felt a slight, dull ache somewhere in the region of her heart.

"If I'm to help you," she finally said. "You have to promise to give me something back in return."

"Anything you want," he said.

"Do I have your word?"

"Yes," said Artemis firmly. "Now what is it that you wish for?"

Reddler told him, and at that moment, Artemis honestly thought that the preceding silence had been better. There was sadness in her eyes, real sadness, as she spoke. He thought she was about to cry, but she didn't. The grief emanating from her light blue pools was enough to turn his heart to water, and it took all of his strength not to waver.

The Lear streaked the skies over the Adriatic, settling into an easy speed of eight hundred kilometers per hour. Butler had expertly piloted the luxury liner according to Master Artemis' rather complicated flight plan: across Monaco and San Marino, threading along the river Po, and then taking a detour through Bosnia and Herzegovina for a quick refueling stop at Sarajevo.

Holly sat at the window, watching the blue waters below sparkle in the midmorning sun.

"I still don't get it," she said to Artemis, who was sitting at the far end of the cabin helping himself to a glass of iced tea. "What is the point of all this drifting? I thought we had little time in our hands, mud boy, unless you had plans for sightseeing on your mind."

Artemis smirked over his tea. "I thought you had figured that out, captain. Obviously I overestimated your aptitude." He glanced over his shoulder to Reddler, who was reading quietly on the couch. "Want to give it a try?" he asked her.

"The most obvious route to Italy would be from the Mediterranean. That's where all the major flight routes lead, anyway. Clearly the mafiya wouldn't fail to set up watch there. We, on the other hand, are testing a different method of approach: via the north and the north-east of the country. Seems like they haven't got surveillance there, or we would have been intercepted by now. Basing on these facts, I can say that the Adriatic seems to be the safest bet," she said in a bored voice, not looking up from her reading.

"Exactly," said Butler, stooping low to enter the cabin. "You're very good."

Reddler chose not to reply, giving the magazine she was reading a decisive jab instead.

"Everything's proceeding according to plan," he said, turning to Artemis. "I called my contact from Sarajevo, and he confirmed on Kayakova's location. He'll give us the exact coordinates once we hand him the full payment."

Artemis nodded. He'd had Butler position a multitude of spies at select locations all over the world. On payroll.

"Well done, old friend," he said. "I've deduced their position, anyway. If I feel our man's not being very truthful, we can tally his given location with mine and then deal with him. By the way, have you contacted the airport authority at Palermo?"

"Oh yes," said Butler. "As long as they're concerned, I'm ferrying an extremely rich, Irish avid football fan to his suite in Sicily.

And I also mentioned that they would be getting ten percent of tourist charges as profit. They surprisingly agreed to maintain radio silence throughout the rest of the flight."

Gazing into a space somewhere beyond the words in the magazine, Reddler had to admit that it would take a lot to fool Artemis Fowl. A hell of a lot. He was extremely careful, his plans as meticulous as they were ingenious. The airport authorities had been alerted a long time back by the sleek Lear sauntering around the Italian airspace, Artemis must have guessed. It was only reasonable that they send an explanatory notice to the Palermo aerodrome.

"What's that place down below? That looks like a lot of forest cover for an Italian countryside," interrupted Holly, her face squashed into the window.

"We're entering the Messina province," explained Butler, craning in to look. "That's probably Giovanni Zito's Earth Ranch. You know him, he's the crazed environmentalist. Yes that's it…excuse me, I have to take over from autopilot."