Section Eight Captain Holly Short was just metaphorically leaning back and putting up her feet when Commander Vinyaya contacted her. "I need to see you right away," the leader of Section Eight said over the plasma screen.
"Yes, I was wondering where you'd got to," Holly said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "After all, it's been almost two months since I last saved the world. Really, in the past three years I've done it a mere five times. I was wondering when the next crisis would occur. And let me guess. Artemis Fowl."
"Er, yes," Vinyaya stuttered.
"I should have known. Almost every major event of my career, that mud boy is involved somehow. Even that matter of the Fey Fey Tiara- I'm still not sure why he got into that one." Under her ironic tone, however, Holly gave a mental smile of affection for her human friend. They'd become pretty close after he'd saved her life for the third time.
"Umm..." Vinyaya looked worried. "The thing is... well, it's a bit like the bad old days. We're... not sure if Mr. Fowl is the protagonist of this story."
Holly exhaled sharply. "I'm sure you're wrong," she said sharply.
"Yes, well, we hope so too. Come down here quickly, will you?"
"Yessir." Holly switched off the screen and quickly pulled on her uniform. She left her nettle smoothie warming on the counter as she zipped off downtown. If Artemis Fowl had left the strait and narrow, she wanted to be the first to know.
Once at base, Holly passed quickly through security and barely had time to wave hello to some co-workers before she entered the ops room, where Foaly and Vinyaya were in the midst of a worried conversation. They broke off as soon as Holly entered the room, and their guilty looks confirmed her suspicion that they had been talking about her. This looks bad, she thought.
"All right," she said, collapsing onto the couch. "Fill me in."
Foaly touched a monitor and it came to life. His fingers blurred across the keyboard and the slide show came up on the main screen. He took out a laser pointer and unconsciously slipped into lecturing mode.
"A few days ago I did a routine scan on Fowl's activities. As you are aware, I can no longer access his private files but I searched various organizations such as Interpol. I admit I was curious as to whether Fowl had truly renounced his criminal activities."
Fowl, Holly noticed with a sinking feeling. Not Artemis. Fowl.
"What I discovered was- all mention of Fowl had disappeared. Nothing remained. It was as though Fowl had vanished off the face of the earth without a trace."
"It wouldn't be the first time," Holly cut in. "Artemis disappeared three years ago, too-"
"So then I checked his school records and other such sites," Foaly continued as though he had not been interrupted. "Zip. Nada. Nothing. Fowl is gone, in the minds of the human government.
'Obviously this worried me. So I dug deeper. Hacked the most secure of government and business signs." Foaly sniffed, some of his old smugness back. "It wasn't too hard, I might tell you. They might have left out a welcome mat-"
"Foaly," Vinyaya reprimanded.
He cleared his throat. "Anyway, I think Fowl has stolen some sort of hi-tech software or equipment. I couldn't get anything more, aside from something called 'Project Beta'."
"Why, what happened to Project Alpha? Honestly, these people see too many spy movies-"
"So anyway, I spent a significant amount of time breaking into Fowl's hard drive, and at last I managed it after much effort. What I found was rather disturbing. Fowl had apparently eavesdropped on one of our meetings." He dropped his voice significantly. "The one about the portal."
"The alternate universe one?" Holly asked, surprised.
"How do you know about that!" Vinyaya snapped.
"Oh, you'd be amazed at how much Foaly blathers on sometimes," Holly explained. "So what?"
"Well, by then I was getting pretty worried. After all, Fowl is Public Enemy Number One."
"Not anymore!" Holly cried, standing to defend her friend. "Not after he saved the fairy world four times!"
"Well, he got us into that mess during the Spiro Fiasco. So anyway, I pulled a satellite onto Fowl Manor. He's not there. And his parents, siblings, classmates, and various associates don't appear to have missed him."
No friends, Holly thought sadly. Just 'associates'. Then something struck her. "What about Butler?"
Vinyaya sighed, suddenly looking very old and tired. "We interviewed him- or tried to. He couldn't see us, even unshielded. He-" She paused. "He'd been mesmerized."
Holly sat down with a thump. "No," she whispered. "No, Artemis wouldn't do that. He wouldn't ! He would never use his magic in an unethical way!"
Then she stood up again, blazing with rage. In a deadly calm voice, she asked, "Why wasn't I informed from the beginning?"
"Er..." Foaly avoided her eyes. "Well, we knew you were emotionally attached to Fowl, so-"
"Don't call him that!" Holly cried. "Call him Artemis!"
Vinyaya tentatively placed a small hand on Holly's shoulder. Holly angrily shook it off.
"Get me a direct to the surface," she said. "I'm going after the Mud Boy myself." Then she strode out, slamming the door behind him.
Vinyaya and Foaly exchanged shrugges.
Hahaha! Evil Artemis! Whoot! Review please!