Chapter 16 – In which the People should be afraid… very afraid…
"Well, then, Arty boy, you didn't think that I would seriously not run a full scanner on that C Cube the moment I had it in my hands, did you?" Laughed Spiro, his laugh still the rasping gasp that Artemis remembered.
"I am impressed, Spiro, that you managed to build this when your funding is less than a million, at least. How on earth did you manage to replicate the C Cube?" Drawled Artemis, willing himself to be calm.
Ivy, probably from the pain, had slumped forward and was gasping. Her arms felt raw, and her shoulders may as well have been non-existent from all the response she was getting from them. Silently cursing to herself for not being able to heal herself, she struggled into a sitting position, wincing whenever she moved her elbows. Her mother was right – she had dislocated her elbows.
"You still can't make me power your machine for you. If I don't release by my own free will, then you just won't get the result." This would have been a small triumph, had her mother and her uncle not looked at each other and laughed out loud at it.
"My dear, there was another reason for placing all those vows on you. We were hoping not to have to resort to the Lightning Vow, but it was necessary in the end." Smirked Spiro, revealing his yellowed teeth.
"What?" This was probably the first time a singular syllable had escaped from Artemis's mouth since he was three. It was more than unbearably embarrassing, especially when it was uttered before his enemy!
"So then, you wanted to make me break my vow, and then direct my energy flow into that … that… thing? Well, sorry to disappoint you all, but my vow has already been broken."
Silence came flooding in like a torrential rainfall on a tropical rainforest. The silence was so still and deafening that Artemis would swear later that he could hear dust particles hitting the cold, stone floor.
The absence of sound was broken by Ivy's mother, whose perfect features were maintaining their perfection, even though her eyes were wider than that perceived as normal and her lips were pouting in a rather childish manner.
"That is impossible, girl. You can't have gotten enough time to break free of your Vow this early in the proceedings! It's just impossible!"
A laugh tore itself from Ivy's throat, "Oh, mother! If only you knew how easy it is for me to break free now…"
Here, Fowl interrupted the nice little family chat (not!) and dropped the bombshell, as it were,
"If you are talking about the magic I know she possesses within her, then you are gravely mistaken. Of course I am unaware of the powers of nature that dances upon her fingertips. And I am obviously ignorant to her easy manipulation of various basic elements. I don't even know what you mean when you talk about Vows…"
Melissa turned to her daughter, and, seeing her standing there with no mark of a burn on her at all, let out an almost feral scream. Spiro stared at the diminutive girl, and the pale boy who had outsmarted him once before. It was ridiculous! How could he be beaten twice by the same boy?
Whether it was due to stress, insanity or both, we will never know. However, the fact that Spiro reached out towards the machine and flicked a large, important looking switch and pressed the big red button was enough to get both the adolescents worried. The metallic, unemotional voice that emitted from it next, however, was probably the scariest moment.
At least, what it was saying was terrifying.
"Scanning for revolving frequencies. Scan complete. LEP Scopes online." Everyone froze at this comment. This machine was picking up the LEP Scopes? Artemis hoped sincerely that Spiro didn't have the faintest clue whatsoever about the whereabouts, much less the existence of the People.
However, one look into the dilated pupils of his former rival, and the junior Fowl could see that Spiro knew of the existence of the LEP, and knew what they were for. Of course, he cursed, Melissa must have told him about all of it. Not as if she didn't know who the People were.
"Lebanese TV satellite company, eh? Who was on the other side of the Cube last time it duped me?" Sneered Spiro, his yellowed teeth mocking Artemis.
It was at times like these that Artemis needed a clear head, and couldn't find one. Being in a situation like this somehow made his brain freeze up, so that the usual stream of ideas suddenly went through a drought.
"Ah, now, now, Spiro. Let's not jump to conclusions, shall we? What makes you think that the Cube was lying? It could just be Melissa trying to goad you into helping her by putting me into bad light." He tried his hardest to convert his smirk into a helpless whimper. Needless to say that he failed miserably.
"Fowl, the year you have spent apart from criminal enterprises has made you even less than what you were before! I may not have one helluva team or my limitless funds anymore, but at least I still my morality in its thousands of small pieces."
If the situation were slightly less threatening, then Artemis would have thought up a plan by now. Unfortunately, with nothing at their immediate disposal, nothing could be done. Not even any fairy magic to help, seeing as the fairies had not been given an invitation to come in yet.
And that was when it hit him. The People didn't need to be under eyeball orders to enter a building, they only needed some necessity to come in.
Not quite believing that he was about to do this, he yelled out as loudly as possible,
"Help would be appreciated right now!"
About two seconds after this outburst, Spiro was staring down a Neutrino 3000 with nowhere to run or hide. Although that may not have been the most shocking thing to his already ruined biological system.
The gun was being held by a very short, very dangerous looking thing that closely resembled an elf. The fact that it was wearing a green jumpsuit with unrecognised acorn insignia and symbols that seemed threatening even when un-translated. There was another one, to his left, that held a dangerous expression of rage and indescribable flame.
Spiro tried to shrink back from the gun, only to find a very small, very familiar looking man looking up at him, tombstone teeth revealed to their widest point.
"Mo Digence! I thought that Pex and Chips buried you! Deep!" Spiro's voice was heightened now due to extreme stress levels. His complexion didn't look too good either. In comparison to Root, it made Julius feel like a century old again, a newbie on the squad.
"Please, Mr Spiro, try to retain some sort of dignity. These are my… ah… associates who helped me to develop the C Cube. And I do not think that they are very happy about you stealing and replicating that technology." Artemis felt back in control. At least, that was what he thought.
"Oh Frond…" Gasped Kelp, staring at the monstrosity before him, "Foaly, are you getting this?"
"Getting it, Major, and I'm not liking it. That thing is a threat to all of us, especially the People." Came an unusually serious voice from the other side of the link. This wasn't good, especially if Foaly was treating it seriously.
"You need us to discharge it, then?" Asked Trouble, still unable to tear himself away from it.
"Yes, that would be brilliant, Major Kelp. Would you like a deep fried pit slug whilst you're at it?" Snapped Foaly, obviously miffed at the fact that some of his technology had been copied.
But nobody noticed it when Melissa managed to get a hold of her daughter and start to methodically attach various wires to her. A gun, with real, if weak, bullets inside, pointing at Artemis's spine was enough to make Ivy stay silent. At the moment, the spotlight was on the fairies trying to dismantle this monstrosity.
Artemis, naturally, was helping them, but with his still limited knowledge of fairy technology, and the situation, it seemed as if every road he led them down came to a dead end. Root, who preferred to keep away from technology as much as possible, opted to sit on Spiro, staring him until he was quivering. This was strange – two medical disasters just waiting to happen, and the giant coronary was winning out.
Ivy wasn't about to let Melissa win so easily. There was no way that she was going to forfeit her power and person this easily, especially not when so much was being offered by freedom.
Whether her next action was born out of calculated risk or sheer desperation, we'll never know, but she somehow managed to force her mouth to yell out the one word nobody ever thought would come from her lips,
"Help!"
Artemis wheeled around, and saw the small gun. He had been training more, and his reflexes were faster, but the bullet still clipped his side. Nothing serious, thanks to the Kevlar, but at that range, and considering Artemis's not-so-impressive weight, he was spun around like a ballerina doing a very bad pirouette.
Seeing that this plan had failed, Melissa dragged her daughter upright, and intoned a hypnotic voice to address the people in the room.
"We are going now. We will not come back. You will leave this place. This place does not exist. We never existed. We are going now. Farewell."
And with that, Melissa deftly twisted Ivy's arm so that she was forced to move her arm. The pain was too much for her; she had never experienced anything like it before! She couldn't help it. The controls that she had built up over the years to keep the elements in check broke down, and all hell broke loose.
Artemis was the first to wake up. Everything was so blurry in his memory. It was like having his mind wiped again, but he could still remember the fairy people. Another memory tugged at him. Something to do with magic. Something to do with… with…
Around him, his friends were stirring, although Spiro seemed to be overwhelmed by all that had happened. Artemis clutched at his side – what had hit him? He guessed at a small calibre bullet, hardly anything to worry about, even at this distance.
"Is everyone still intact and conscious?" Demanded Root, slipping easily into a commander's boots again. "Fowl, your frail bones okay?"
"Yes, I believe I remain intact and unharmed, except for a minor concussion." Frowned Artemis, trying to clear his head.
"Holly, Trouble, you both okay?" Asked Root, gruffness covering a muffled chuckle at the closer-than-just-friends position that his former two best officers were in.
"We're fine, command… er… sir." Kelp replied, slightly stuck as to what to call his former leader.
Oblivious to this, Root turned to another spot, where the machine was, and started to form a name, but then stopped. Something in Fowl Junior's brain clicked. There was something amiss here.
Walking over to Spiro, Artemis checked him for life signs. Unfortunately, there was still a strong, if fast, pulse and heartbeat from the man. Obviously avoiding questioning. Unable to control himself, Artemis Fowl, calm, unemotional, cool, smooth adolescent, reached over to the small gun on the floor and shot Jon Spiro in the leg.
"I'll shoot you in the other leg as well if you don't answer these questions." Artemis's voice was soft, clipped. Dangerous.
They left ten minutes later with a recently healed, babbling man begging to see a courtroom to admit to being guilty. Fairies and humans alike were avoiding Fowl's gaze. This didn't escape the boy genius.
"Alright, what have I done now? I've got the confession from him, haven't I?" Snapped the teenager, for the first time in his life sounding like a normal boy bickering with his friends. Albeit friends who weren't even human.
"You didn't have to shoot the guy! Just hand him over to me and I could have mesmerized him into telling us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth! What did you have to shoot him for?" Demanded Holly, her coffee complexion also turning into a slight rosy hue.
Artemis fell silent. He didn't know what was going on in his mind. For some reason, he just felt unbelievably and irrevocably furious at Jon. It was ridiculous! He was Artemis Fowl, someone who didn't lose his cool at all! How was it that this small thing managed to make him lose it so badly?
Back at HQ, Root contacted Foaly. The they had to immediately switch the speaker to Holly, seeing as Foaly could hardly force out a whole sentence in front of the assumed dead commander.
"But… but… but… the vitals… the suit… the explosion…" This was one of the most treasured moments in Root's life. The pompous centaur, stumbling for words. He held up a hand.
"Not now, Foaly, we can start shouting at each other after we pull out of here. I think that we have trespassed on these people for long enough. They deserve a rest from this old face." Root grinned, and his favourite centaur beamed so much that it seemed as if his lips might have come off the sides of his face if his anatomy allowed it. "By the way, how's Diggums?"
"Oh, he's fine, he's out of prison, and he's part of Holly's team now…"
The ex-commander shot the former LEP Captain a withering glance, that obviously said, 'I'll deal with you later.'
Then Foaly did it. He dropped the bombshell.
"Where's Ivy? Is she going back to Ireland, or is she coming down to Haven with us?" Foaly looked past the monitor screen, "In fact, I can't see her anywhere… where is she?"
All the room's new occupants looked at each other in confusion.
"Who's Ivy?" Asked Fowl, intrigued by the alarm bells going off in his head. He had never known someone called Ivy. Surely, if she were part of the team of fairies or involved in this somehow…
And that was when Kat barged in, shoved her way to the monitor screen, and held a handgun to the Fowl heir's head.
"Okay, 'fess up! What have you done with Ivy, 'cos I sure didn't see her come back with you!"
A/N: Hah! Cliffie!Review people, if you want the next installment! (Actually, even if you don't review, I'm still going to put it up... I love writing too much... :) )
Amethyst Nox