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If This Isn't Love
Chapter Eight: Headache
Artemis woke up with a blinding headache. Bracing himself for the pain, he cracked one eye open. Then he quickly closed it again. It seemed that in the time that he'd been sleeping he'd become colour-blind. Because nobody would paint a room that colour on purpose.
Artemis opened his eyes again and struggled to hold a hand in front of his face. The effort made his head pound worse than ever. He certainly wouldn't be walking for a while. But it was worth it to know he wasn't suddenly colour-blind. His hand looked the same as usual. Pale almost to the point of being translucent, well manicured and clean.
But behind his hand the ceiling of the room was the same lime green colour. Hand: normal. Ceiling: impossible shade of green. Hand: normal. Ceiling: impossible shade of green. Eventually Artemis was forced to accept that somebody had indeed painted the room that colour on purpose. The thought was mind-boggling, particularly to Artemis' already pounding head.
Eventually it occurred to Artemis to wander what was going on. The last thing he remembered, he was driving along a road and he was holding a huge emerald. And now, he had apparently been knocked out without anybody noticing and had been dragged all the way to LEP headquarters.
Artemis sat up at a surprising speed, considering that only a few seconds ago he had found lifting a hand difficult. The room spun sickeningly.
The LEP?
A door opened. Artemis stared. He hadn't noticed a door there. The reason being, of course, that it was painted exactly the same colour as the rest of the room, which happened to still be spinning.
But Artemis wasn't interested in the décor anymore. He was more interested in the small figure that had stepped into the room. She was female, and dressed in a uniform that was – surprise, surprise – the same colour as the walls. But the uniform didn't fascinate Artemis nearly as much as the person in it. She was barely a metre tall, but she had the proportions of an adult, not a child. Her ears were pointed, and her eyes were large, almond shaped and hazel.
Yes, this was all fascinating, but what surprised Artemis was that none of this was surprising to him. It seemed perfectly reasonable that Holly should be here.
Holly?
'Holly?'
In the Operations Booth Foaly made a note to himself. He pulled some paper from a drawer – paper, would you believe? Equette just HAD to use all the computer space and not leave a single byte of space for him to record his infinite successes on. It was just plain selfishness.
Foaly sulkily scribbled a note under the heading Result:
Memory re-insertion successful.
Holly scowled. 'That's Captain Short to you, Mud Boy.'
'Holly. What's going on?'
'So how are you feeling, Arty?'
Artemis twitched.
'I've been fine myself. Foaly is good as well. Julius is not so good. We think he may be suffering from temporary insanity, actually –'
'Holly, what's going on?'
'– but he's better than Grub. He was nearly suffocated. And Wing Commander Vinyáya – she's a member of the Council, if you didn't know – has gone even more insane than Julius. Lili is about as bad as Vinyáyá, but slightly more violent.'
'Holly, what's going on?'
'I'm telling you Artemis. We don't know. We're at a loss. There is no precedent for this. The Commander of the LEP has just been compromised in what has to be the most humiliating way possible. Trouble is in command now, and it was him who came up with the idea of bringing you in. So you better be able to help.'
'Holly, I don't even know what – '
'Foaly figured out a way to re-insert memories. You remember the mind-wipe now, right? A re-insertion has never been attempted before. There's never been a reason. We didn't know what could happen. But you seem fine. Does your mind feel broken, at all?'
'I have a headache, that is all. Am I to assume that you are responsible for tranquillising myself and my associates?'
Holly grinned remorselessly. 'That was the funnest part. Foaly even let me press the button.'
Artemis winced at her grammar. 'Honestly, Holly. 'Funnest' is not a word. And I hardly think that tranquillising someone whilst they are driving should have been fun. Deadly, perhaps.'
Holly rolled her eyes. 'Oh come on. Retrieval was watching the entire time. You were healed in no time. And it isn't our fault you were driving. This is emergency. We're hardly going to wait for a time that's convenient for you.'
Artemis stood up and immediately regretted it. He clutched his head and groaned.
'All right, I understand that its important. But I still don't understand what the problem is. And I doubt that even I can concoct the solution to a problem without knowing the problem. I could try, but –'
'Oh, yes Mud Boy. We all know you're brilliant. You'd just better have a solution.'
Artemis smiled. The characteristic vampire smile.
'Oh, trust me. I'll come up with a solution.'
Holly snorted. 'Trust you? That'll be the day.' She tapped her chin in mock thought. 'Yeah, for some reason I don't really think you're the most – ' but Holly's sarcasm was cut off by what Artemis felt was an excessively loud announcement over the PA.
'Holly, bring Mud Boy to VR–1. He can watch the footage.'
Artemis winced at the volume of the voice. 'Headache!' he protested to nobody in particular.
'Yeah, suck it up, Mud Boy. Four years of memories trying to sort themselves out in your head is not going to be pleasant.'
Artemis didn't even bother to ask how Foaly knew what he'd said. He just resigned himself to his fate.
Turning to Holly, he motioned towards the door and gave a sarcastic, old-fashioned bow.
'Lead on.'
Holly smiled. But not a happy-glittery-perky smile. More like a predator smile. A vengeful smile.
'Certainly.' Walking behind Artemis' bowing form, Holly drew her gun and poked it into the space behind the boy's knees. Okay, so maybe there were some advantages to being a metre tall. The Irish prodigy fell gracelessly to the floor. As he got up, somebody who knew him very well might just have been able to see the slight red tinge in his normally colourless cheeks.
Holly, fortunately, had her back turned.
'Hurry up, Mud Boy!' she cackled. 'Wouldn't want you getting lost, now, would we?'
Artemis couldn't believe what had just happened. He'd barely been awake for five minutes and he'd been assaulted, and forced – possible tricked – into helping to find a solution to a problem that he didn't even know. Surely this was a dream?
Then his head gave a particularly nasty throb, and Artemis grimaced. Nope, not a dream.
That would be too much to hope for.
Okay, I know that was crappy and short and achieved nothing, but my thriving social life intervened again. :rolleyes: Not. I'm studying, and this is honestly the first chance I've had to update. Sorry. Review?
