I do not own any characters or ideas created by Eoin Colfer
A/N I think that this chapter is kind of like Series of Unfortunate Events. (I don't own any of that either.) You think something is going to happen, but then it doesn't. That's kind of what it's like. So this is a warning. Signed: Lemony- I mean, Cablubershnibermier.
Chapter 14- Bad News and Victory
Holly woke up in a dark room. She found out that her hands were tied behind her back and that she was on a chair. There was a man in the corner, sitting on a chair and watching her with great interest. He smiled when she awoke.
"So I was right! The fairy woke up before the dwarf! Damien owes me ten bucks!" he said happily. Something about his voice sounded strangely familiar.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"I'm Gordon," he replied with a grin. "Your captor and owner of the toxic factory at Haven." She was shocked.
"I thought that Johnson was the owner of that place," she told him suspiciously.
"Was. But I'm the new owner. So get used to me, little fairy," he warned her menacingly. With that, he pulled out a gun, and shot a dart into her.
Butler was getting tired of having to buy new cars. This one was courtesy of one of his only friends. His schedule was too busy to be making friends, hence explaining the "one of his only friends" part. It was a Pontiac Wave. Not the best, but he would have to deal with it. Artemis was in the back seat, in one of his usual meditation trances. He had been in one spot for about two minutes and had moved about two inches. Damn traffic. Sirens sounded behind him and it gave him and idea. As usual, the citizens moved to the side as quickly as possible to make room for the five police cars. Butler turned the car to the side quickly and brought up the rear of the cars. This allowed him to go much faster. Of course, there were those who shouted out angry protests, but Butler didn't mind. Finally, he got out of the traffic jam. He drove for about ten minutes more. And then he saw it.
Paradise Hotel loomed overhead like a big airplane. It had no particular structure, pretty much a rectangle with tubes sticking out of it and leading to other smaller parts. Some police cars already stood there, sirens on. Don't these guys know how to sneak up on an enemy undetected? Butler stopped in front of the building, just as Artemis came out of his trance. They got out, and walked past the officers, straight to the doors.
"I'm sorry sir. I'm afraid the area is being closed down for a while," said a cop, putting his hand on Butler's shoulder.
"You're here for Damien Johnson. We're here for him too. I'm Domovoi Butler. This is Artemis Fowl. The police called us here to help out," Butler quickly lied.
"I don't know anything about you guys showing up," he responded. Artemis cut in all of a sudden.
"You're going to need our help to catch this criminal, like it or not, officer. He is dangerous and only we have survived his dangerous tactics. You walk in there and he'll either:
A: Run away
B: Weasel his way out of it
C: Open fire.
So you see, officer, this man is a dangerous crook that might be planning his escape this very moment. I will talk to the Munich police chief about your poor performance. Maybe if you had been a bit quieter, we might still have a chance on catching this crook." The officer stood there, dumbfounded at the young man's speech. Butler and Artemis walked away.
"Were you planning that on the way here?" Butler whispered. Artemis grinned.
"Must have been the pine fresh scent." They both chuckled at this.
"Hello officer Daniels," butler greeted the waiting officer across the lobby floor.
"Domovoi! Artemis! You can't be here! It's too dangerous!" he yelped in surprise.
"He's a dangerous enemy. You'll need our help," Butler said, sparing Artemis the need to say the speech again. Jeff was still thinking about it when an elevator opened. Butler and Artemis quickly hopped in.
"Hey!" Jeff protested. But it was too late. The doors closed before he had a chance to reach them.
"So?" Butler asked Artemis.
"Room 514," Artemis replied. Luckily, the register computer was still showing the whereabouts of Johnson. They ran out of it once they were able to squeeze through the elevator doors. Once they reached his door however, it opened for them. And out walked Johnson. He had a blue suit. Blue jacket, blue pants. White shirt, black tie, and black shoes. He had a green gym bag slung around his shoulder.
Artemis never failed to be surprised at Butler's gunmanship. Now he had someone else to be amazed by. Johnson reached behind himself at the same time that Butler reached to his inner breast pocket. They both pulled out guns at the same time. Butler aimed the Sig Saur right at Johnson's face. Johnson aimed a Medusa revolver at Butler's face. They cocked the guns at the same time.
"Wish I could say it's nice to see you mammoth, kid," Johnson sneered.
"Same here," answered Butler.
"And here!" said Artemis. He then noticed that Johnson had his right foot hooked around the door. Oh no! Johnson swung his foot, thereby closing the door. At the same time, he jumped to the right. At the same time, Butler shot a bullet. It grazed Johnson's arm. Butler sped inside. Johnson managed to scramble up and close the door right in Artemis' face. It was a whirlwind of pain. He now had a cut on his forehead. The elevator doors opened, and the officers jumped out of it.
"Oh no! Kid!" Jeff shouted. He bent over Artemis and seeing that he was alive , gave a sigh of relief. Both the cops entered the apartment. Artemis also got in shakily. He saw Butler just getting up from the floor. He too was bleeding at the forehead.
"What happened?" he asked his bodyguard.
"I took a vase to the head," he said. Ouch. Butler and the other police officers disappeared through a door. Artemis stayed behind and instead surveyed the room. It was big. He saw a fireplace in the corner. Ah yes. Three of the top suites have fireplaces. Artemis hurried to it and took out the fire poker. Perfect. He had been looking for a weapon. It was light, strong, almost like a sword made just for him. He swung it a couple of times, but then heard the noises of running get closer. He pressed himself right on the wall beside another door, a good ten meters from the one everyone disappeared through. It opened and Johnson ran out, so quickly that he didn't notice Artemis. Artemis ran to the phone, grabbed it, and smashed it on the floor as hard as he could as to attract attention.
Johnson turned around and fired. He was about a centimeter off. Butler blasted through the door, just as Johnson blasted out the front door.
"Damn!" barked Jeff. They set off in pursuit with the Butler first, then Jeff, the other cop, and then Artemis. The chase continued for a while. They went through one of the tubes. There was a sign that read: Pools and Jacuzzis. They all hurried through all the doors that the chase took them into. They also noticed that people were heading away from the pool area. It must be closing time. Soon, they found themselves in the men's change rooms. Johnson took a couple of shots over his shoulder. Everyone dodged it. But it hit the fire emergency sprinkler. All of them turned on, soaking Artemis' suit.
"Great!" he shouted. Johnson took one more shot over his shoulder. Jeff got hit in the arm. However, he had been trying to dodge. So he slipped and because of all the water, made a small pool of blood.
"Nooo!" shouted the other cop. He knelt beside him. Jeff got up and continued running. What a brave soul.
When they were all in the pool area, they saw a dead bodyguard and an empty room. It was big and the pool was amazing. But Johnson was nowhere to be seen. Artemis raised his fire poker, ready for anything. Butler took the west side of the pool, and Jeff and the other took the east. Artemis stayed right where he was. At the moment he was feeling very scared. No matter how far away from Johnson he was, he had a gun. The man that would risk anything to kill him was hiding in the same room. Somewhere… BAM! The sound of an explosion jerked everyone's head to the source. All Artemis saw was a splash in the pool.
"NOOOO!" this time it was Jeff. Artemis ran to the other side of the pool. There, in the water, was a patch of red water. And under it, sinking further and further down was the other cop. "LENNY!" Jeff cried hopelessly. It was a disturbing image. Lenny was sinking to the bottom of the deep end with a steady line of blood streaming out of his heart. Butler ran to the door that Johnson had entered. It was the Jacuzzi room. Artemis entered behind him. Suddenly, a violent opening of the doors behind Artemis made him turn around. The reinforcements had arrived. It was the S.W.A.T. Artemis looked at them in awe. One of them grabbed him and pulled him far away from the doors.
"What the devil do you think you're doing?" Artemis retorted.
"Getting you out of the crossfire zone," he responded.
Once Artemis was out of the "crossfire zone," the other departed. He now went to move Jeff away from the pool, out of the building. Hmm… you would think that he would do that to me. The S.W.A.T. officer arrived all of a sudden and grabbed him once again.
"What are you doing!" he asked again.
"Getting you out of here," came the reply.
"No! Let go of me you big dope!" Artemis snarled. He put me down when we reached Jeff.
"Can you take him out of here safely?" he asked.
"Yeah, sure," replied Jeff sadly.
"No you wont you imbecile!" Artemis responded. Jeff gripped him strongly and took him to the door leading out of the poolroom. "Now we both have a reason to go after Johnson," Artemis pointed out.
"What are you suggesting?" he asked suspiciously.
"I'm suggesting that you help us get Johnson and avenge your friend," Artemis replied with a grin.
"How?" he asked again.
"Well, you're going to have to leave the force. After that, well, you're going to help us," Artemis explained.
"I'll think about it," he said, no emotion in his voice. They got outside to see some bad news approaching. It was a helicopter. It began to lower. A uniformed man shouted something through a voice amplifier, but the chopper was too loud now. It went up again. But this time, hanging at the end of a ladder, was Johnson.
"Shoot him!" Artemis shouted. But no one was listening. It took off, leaving no sign of success behind. "You idiots! Why the hell didn't you shoot? He was right in front of your bloody faces! What, are you a retarded bunch of-" he was cut short by the uniformed man.
"That's enough, boy!" he snarled. Artemis whacked him across the face.
"WHY DON'T YOU SHUT UP AND ROT IN HELL? THAT MAN IS DANGEROUS! YOU JUST LET OUT-" Jeff grabbed Artemis and pulled him back.
"Shush!" he warned Artemis. Artemis slumped on the wall of the hotel, slowly sliding down the wall until he was sitting. Then he did something he hadn't done in a long time. He cried.
They arrived at their new home.
"Artemis," Butler managed to say before he went upstairs. "We just won a victory for Haven. And we can still save Holly," he explained.
"What do you mean?" Artemis asked grumpily. Butler pulled out a floppy disc from behind his back and smiled.
"Johnson saved all of the Haven operation plans into one disc. I managed to sneak it out of his bag right before he made his escape," he said happily, waving the disc into the air. Artemis wiped the tears of his face.
"We have a lot of reading to do," he said, spirits rising by the second.
Meanwhile, in the helicopter… Johnson searched the gym bag like a dog would dig for a bone. The disc wasn't there. Then he remembered how the mammoth had jumped on him back at the hotel. He had it now.
"DAMN IT NO! I'LL KILL YOU BOTH!" he shouted. It could be heard twenty meters away.
A/N Hehe. I liked that one. I hope you did too. Kind of long, I know but was it good? Only one way to find out. I'll shout review later, though. By the way, I'm nearing the end of this baby. The end of my first ever fanfic! Oh I can't wait! REVIEW!