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Chapter 2
Whoa!
Somewhere underground, London
The detonator blew.
Artemis didn't think, he acted, diving behind a hill of yellow buckets and thanking Butler's training with all his heart.
The entire room shook furiously. Smoke, dust and shrapnel were flung everywhere in a gigantic cloud and Artemis felt a piece of metal graze his arm, drawing blood.
After ten seconds the confusion died away. Artemis held his breath. The dust settled.
He let his breath out.
The earth shifted, as if some ancient beast was awakening in the deep places of the world.
A deafening roar emanated from every direction. The roof cracked and caved in, collapsing in enormous boulders. A furious shower of cement rained down on him. The light went out.
Artemis snatched a bucket from the pile and jammed it over his head. Just then a slab of concrete came crashing down onto his head.
He was gone…
Artemis woke up.
His head was killing him, nauseating throbs of pain shooting through his cranium. His arm hurt too. Now that he thought about it, his entire body was in pain.
He opened his eyes. No light.
He tried sitting up…WHOA! Bad move! His brain exploded in pain.
He collapsed onto the floor, writhing in the dust and stone splinters.
After several moments the spasm faded and he tried to sit up again, this time without suffering as much damage.
He wiped away the sweat that had collected on his forehead. It was like an oven in there. 'At lease forty degrees' he figured.
He stood up and called, "Juliet!"
"Artemis!" her voice was sacred and weak but not too far off.
"Thank God!" he said, digging in his pocket for his cell phone and flipping it open.
A stark white light came from the phone's screen, illuminating the room and the teenage girl sitting, huddled, in the corner.
When she saw Artemis she jumped to her feet and, running over to him, threw her arms around him.
Artemis Fowl, the great Artemis Fowl, didn't know how to react to this. He had never been embraced by any female other than his mother before. But he wasn't about to object, in fact, he rather enjoyed it ('Rather', isn't the right word. 'Very much', would be more suitable. Or perhaps, 'Extremely'?).
Juliet was crying, tears of both fear and exhaustion.
"You're bleeding." she said, pulling away from him and pointing at his arm.
He nodded, still savoring the scent of her Channel No. 5.
LEP OPS Booth, Haven CityFoaly the centaur swore colorfully, hanging up the phone. His usually perfectly straightened foil cap drooped to one side.
He reached across the desk, in front of which he was sitting, and picked up a second Telephone. He hurriedly selected a number from the speed dial.
"Digence and Short Detective Agency, this is Holly. How may I help you?"
"Hi, its Foaly, I need you to come down here. Fast!"
"Hey! You can't give me orders, you know." she teased.
"I'm not kidding Holly! Please! It's got to do with the Fowl kid."
"…"
"Please, Holly! This is urgent!"
"OK. I'll be right there."
Foaly hung up. He leaned back in his swivel chair, switching on the live video feed from the Gloucester Road station. The boy wasn't on the platform.
Foaly tried the loos. Nothing there either.
Maybe they had left.
He still had one last place he could try: the service rooms. Technically, these where off limit to unauthorized personnel but…who knew with Artemis?
Yes! They were in the janitor's room. A rather scared looking man was lying on the floor. Artemis was standing in front of him. He was speaking.
"…Here are your options. One: You give me the time stopping device and I let you go free. Two: You keep your little toy and you die! Make you choice."
An unexpected pride rose up in Foaly. The boy was going to do it; he was going to rob the sad little man of his prize.
Foaly was just about to go get the champagne. Then, he saw what happened next,
Robson spoke, his voice was familiar, "Hey Fowl! What if I don't like your conditions? What if I choose option three?"
The man reached up to his face and threw something aside. Foaly paused the feed and zoomed in on the object.
It was a mask. The mask of a face he had seen just minutes before on Google.gnom. It was the mask of Phillip Robson.
Foaly switched back to live, hoping to see the true face of the physicist, but was greeted, instead, by a steady roar of noise.
The roof was caving in!
Surprisingly, his video continued as the deadly hail of stone passed.
He waited for five minutes. Nothing happened. Ten minutes. Still, nothing.
Finally, Foaly had the nerve to look up 'Robson's' voice. One result came up.
JON SPIRO
Holly Short and Mulch Diggums entered the operations booth cautiously. The first thing they noticed was Foaly, lying on the floor.
Holly ran over to him, "Foaly?"
She nudged him worriedly.
He rolled over, laughing hysterically.
"…may be making an idiot out of myself!" he guffawed. "Never thought…never thought I'd do that!"
"What the hell are you talking about, Foaly?" asked Mulch.
Foaly didn't answer. He was too busy rolling about on the floor.
"What!" asked Holly, "Calm down!"
"Okay, okay. Fowl just-" He broke down again.
Holly and Mulch waited impatiently.
Foaly took a deep breath, "Fowl just kissed the D'arviting wits out of Miss Juliet Butler."
The duo looked at him, dumbfounded.
He turned around and turned on the largest plasma screen in the booth. It was showing Fowl, in glorious Digicolour (That's not the same as Technicolor, mind you.). His lips where pressed against hers. But that wasn't the best of it. Juliet's hands where wrapped around Artemis's head and Artemis's hands where resting (very conveniently) on her…backside.
Silence ruled for several moments. Then the room exploded with laughter.
Foaly held Mulch in his arms. Holly was slapping the wall so hard, that her fingers became numb. Mulch almost suffocated, as he breathed in a mouthful of saliva.
For the moment it didn't matter that Sprio was back. Nothing mattered, except the fact, that Artemis Fowl had just kissed a girl.
But there was a fourth person who may have been enjoying the scene(which was now being broadcasted all over Haven) as much as the trio in the OPS booth.
That person was Julius Root.
No, Root was not dead.
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Evil cliff! Sorry.