This is a crappy chapter, sorry, dudes.

Chapter Three

David knew there was something wrong with his partner when she had hurried out of the hotel room at five in the morning. She had been really out of it lately, and that scared him. Though she thought if him only as a partner, he thought of her as a friend. And he knew that things were really out of whack with her.

Sighing, he answered the phone that had been ringing on the inn table for a few minutes.

"Yes?"

"David, it's Donovan. You're off the Fowl case."

David sat up.

"What?"

"Sorry, that's the orders, you're off the case. Boss wants Smoke to handle this one alone. You're on the next plane out of there, you hear?"

David didn't argue, but his hand gripped the receiver hard.

"Yessir. I'll be gone."

"Good."

Donovan hung up the phone before David could say anything else. David angrily packed his things, knowing he was going to follow those orders. But his partner seemed to really need someone right now.

Looking up at the mansion in front of her, Rowan was impressed. The gate had opened and closed on its own so there was obviously cameras everywhere. The manor itself was pretty amazing compared to her pent house apartment in Chicago. With a swallow and a steeling of her shoulders, she left her rented jaguar and walked up the stairs to the large front door. She knocked three times.

A pretty woman in her mid twenties answered. Rowan recognized her from the files she had been supplied; it was Juliet Butler, Domovoi Butler's younger sister. And almost as dangerous as the body guard himself.

"Good morning, are you here at this ungodly hour for a reason?" the girl asked. She seemed annoyed to be up at six in the morning.

"Yes, Mr. Fowl asked me to see him here," she explained.

Butler looked her up and down, then allowed her in with a frown.

"You can wait here for Artemis. I'll go get him," she said as she led Rowan into a parlor.

Rowan sat down on the expensive furniture and waited in silence. 'Be peppy, upbeat, like any young girl would be,' she thought to herself. 'Don't think about the baby, or the fact that if they find you out one or both of the Butlers would kill her.'

"Miss Smoke, thank you for meeting me," Fowl greeted her as he entered the parlor.

"It was not a problem, I was heading out to go to the gym this morning anyway," Rowan said with a smile she didn't feel. "How's your head?"

"No concussion, but it's still quite sore," he said lightly.

They were silent for a moment. Rowan felt as if she was under serveilance. That was a silly thought, she knew she was. They would be crazy to not have a camera in this room.

"You needed to talk to me about something?" she prompted.

"Oh, yes, I did. I noticed your accent earlier. I wanted to know what you were doing in England?"

That one was easy.

"Summer break from school. I attend Oxford as part of a study abroad program and I thought to visit Ireland during my stay over seas. This is a beautiful country," she said with a smile. Her story was well rehearsed.

"Hmm. No family with you?"

"A friend is staying with me."

"I see. Do you do much with computers, Miss Smoke?"

Uh-oh. "Yes, I'm a journalism major, so I spend a lot of time one the computer. What is this, Mr. Fowl?"

The taller, formidable man approached her. She could see angry flare in his mesmerizing icy blue eyes. "I was recently on my computer last night when I noticed a security breech. It came from a laptop withing a forty-mile radius. I thought you might know something about it."

Rowan smiled and laughed softly. "Mr. Fowl, why would I want onto your computer. And why would you even suspect me?"

"I looked you up on line, Miss Smoke, and your name popped up in some interesting places, such as winner of the junior US Open 1998. And then you seemed to disappear. I wondered why, until I thought about how a golf champion could screw up a shot so bad that it hit another person in the head. Or was that a planned shot?"

"What does this have to do with my computer? And Mr. Fowl, I've never played golf before in my life until yesterday." She stood up. "If you are finished being completely paranoid, I will leave now."

She tried to slide passed him, but he grabbed her arm. He was surprisingly built for a man who didn't work much, he must have spent a lot of time in the home gym.

"I can track and hack almost any computer, especially if they've been in mine, Miss Smoke. Do you care to tell me who you're working for and why you have been planning to assissinate me?"