30 hours ago - LEP Headquarters

Trouble Kelp was not generally an unhappy elf. He liked his job. After years of playing support and slowly climbing the ranks, the authority felt vindicating. And he was good at it too, he thought, admiring the three acorns conspicuously adorning his lapel. Maybe he wasn't Root, not yet, although if his doctor was to be believed about his steadily increasing blood pressure, he was on the right path. Still, there were moments, every so often, when Trouble doubted himself. Moments when the pressures of his job seemed too much and he wished desperately to summon some of the gravitas of his beet-red mentor. Trouble sighed, recognizing one such moment, as the door to his office was slammed open by a very upset LEPrecon captain.

"Captain Short," he sighed.

Holly glared. "Don't Captain Short me, Trouble, you used me," Holly practically spat.

"I did no such thing, I gave you orders prudent to the situation."

"Orders? You didn't say he was going to be mind wiped, Trouble."

Trouble sighed, glancing at the motivational LEP poster prominently featuring his visage that was the lone decoration on his office wall, he idly debated the practicality of installing an escape hatch under his desk. Truthfully, it hadn't been his decision to wipe Fowl. Not that he had any particular fondness for the mud whelp, but he had proven useful on occasion, and Trouble was dubious that in the long term much would be accomplished beyond irritating the Irish genius. Besides, it was a logistical nightmare. Fowl's family was nowhere to be found, for one, apparently extending a vacation across South America that the LEP had somehow not known about, forcing LEPretrieval to work overtime.

"That was need to know, ordered from above. The council either knows something we don't, or wanted revenge, and I can't say I blame them. Honestly, it's above my pay grade. And Holly, you should be glad they were satisfied with a wipe. There were, other suggestions."

Holly balked, evidently not in the mood to be placated. "I don't care what they said, the evidence was circumstantial, there was no trial, no confession, nothing. That was just so wrong, and when he finds out, and he will, what are we going to say? And I was bait. Frond, Trouble, he's my friend. Or was my friend, at any rate. And you are too, or you're supposed to be. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Holly, the fact that we don't have conclusive evidence doesn't mean the Council doesn't. Besides, we have to think about what's best for the People, not what's best for our friends. If there was even a chance that Fowl was behind Cahartez' death…" he trailed off.

Fortuitously for Trouble, Holly's chance to respond was interrupted by a sharp whinny over the intercom.

"I hope its not a bad time, Commander, but you're going to want to come to the OPs booth quick"

"Can it not wait until tomorrow Foaly?" Holly said through gritted teeth.

"I'm afraid not" Foaly said nervously. "See, the thing is, well, if my readings are correct, and they usually are, there's been a spike in Solinium on the grounds of Fowl Manor."

"Gnommish please, Foaly" said Trouble.

"Well, I don't know how to put this simply. Fowl Manor has been bio-bombed."

Holly gasped while Trouble slumped into his chair. Maybe his doctor was right, Trouble thought, he was due for a vacation.

35 hours ago - Fowl Manor

Over the years, Butler had become attuned to his principal's moods. And while Artemis never smiled, he currently appeared, to Butler at least, altogether far too pleased. Or at least, far too pleased for someone who had ostensibly just had their memories erased.

"So, remind me, why exactly aren't we waking up in a back alley wondering how these contacts got in our eyes right about now?"

"Well, the LEP as general policy doesn't dump people in alleys, human or not. To answer your question, though, it likely helps that we weren't exactly mind wiped" Artemis replied.

"And does Foaly know that?" Butler asked in disbelief.

"Mmm" Artemis feigned disinterest. "Not exactly, no."

"Care you explain how? Not that I'm complaining."

"I imagine it has something to do with my being a genius," said Artemis, "and Foaly not keeping up with the latest biohacking trends." In ideal circumstances, Artemis would have preferred a larger crowd, Butler imagined, but in a pinch, he would do. "You see," Artemis continued, "once I discovered a way to encode malware into a strand of my own DNA, it was a piece of cake writing the code to reprogram Foaly's gene sequencer. So, when Foaly thought he was prepping us for a mind wipe, he was in reality granting us access to his entire network."

Although Butler more than anyone had become accustomed to his charge's intelligence, he was beginning to get a sense as to why Artemis seemed so pleased with himself.

"That's rather ironic, isn't it?" Butler wryly chuckled.

"Yes, old friend, I do believe it is," said Artemis, smirking.

32 hours ago - Outside Tara

Butler looked at his watch. Artemis hadn't specified exactly who they were waiting for, only that Butler would recognize their contact when he saw him, which was far from reassuring to the bodyguard, who had not exactly approved of meeting a contact in an unexamined clearing a few hundred feet from a major road.

"Your contact is 30 minutes late"

"I know" Artemis replied icily.

While still several steps ahead of the LEP, the success of the 'plan' was far from guaranteed. There were several intricate moving parts, more costume changes than Butler thought strictly necessary, and a very narrow window of time for each component to be accomplished. In other words, it was one of Artemis' plans. And if the past was any indication, that meant something was liable to go very wrong at any given moment.

At that moment, Artemis abruptly stood up, and the air suddenly grew thicker in Butler's lungs, and a slovenly yet familiar dwarf began ambling out of the woods.

"Mulch, might I remind you, you're late."

The dwarf approached the group warmly, "I didn't have much choice, let's just say a few of our friends on the LEP decided to pay me a surprise visit, and, while I always say the more the merrier, I didn't think you would, eh, appreciate their company here."

"Quite right. Do you have the requisite goods?" Artemis said.

"I'm hurt, have I ever let you down before?"

"On many occasions, in fact," Butler added.

Mulch scoffed. "A dwarf breaks into your house one time and you never let it go."

Artemis tapped his watch. "There will be time for banter later, right now we need to begin setting up the equipment."

"First, mud boy, you're going to need to pay me." Mulch interjected. "I know we're friends, thicker than clay and all that, but I don't think I'd be too popular with the good commander Kelp," Mulch gestured at the crates he had dragging behind him, "if he knew about this."

"Of course." Artemis handed Mulch a folder, the contents of which, Butler surmised, may have been the ownership of a fairly secret Swiss bank account. Mulch, seemingly satisfied, whistled and departed, leaving Butler alone with Artemis again.

"Now," Artemis began, visibly relieved to be back on schedule, "we play the waiting game. Soon Much will detonate the stolen bio-bomb, and we will be one step closer to identifying our enemy, as it were."

"I still don't see why bio-bombing the manor is necessary," Butler grumbled.

"Ah, but this is the best part. We were framed, and anyone sophisticated enough to fool the LEP is certainly smart enough to know the importance of eliminating the evidence. When they see that someone else has beat them to the proverbial punch, they will inevitably grow suspicious. And that, old friend, is when this should become interesting."

Butler sighed, getting into the Bentley. He couldn't argue with Artemis' logic, but one day he was going to have to ask point blank what exactly Artemis considered interesting.