A/N: I own nothing to do with Artemis Fowl.

Chapter 3: Bad News

Holly and Trouble walked into the commander's office to see Artemis waiting impatiently in the waiting room.

"There you are. I've been waiting forever." He said.

Holly stuck her tongue out at him and Artemis surprised her by sticking his own tongue out at her.

"Now that's immature." Trouble commented.

Artemis shrugged. "People seem to forget that I am only 14 ½ and have almost never acted immature in my life. Unlike Captain Short here." He said.

Trouble expected Holly to blow up at Artemis but she merely shook her head at him and walked into the commander's office.

"You wanted to see us commander?" she asked.

Vinyaya smiled at the trio. "Please sit down. I'm afraid that we have some bad news."

"I told you." Artemis said to Holly.

"Excuse me?" Vinyaya asked, surprised.

"I told Holly that it would be a crises of some sort." Artemis said.

"Yes well anyway. As you know the two demon warlocks, Qwan and No1 were supposed to show up for debriefing but when they didn't, Foaly checked the security cameras in the house they're staying in. We're lucky that the demons are so oblivious to technology because they didn't even notice the camera."

"What happened?" Holly asked nervously. Trouble was surprised to see her and Artemis looking very nervous. He didn't know how close the warlocks, Artemis and Holly were. Sharing consciousness kind of does that to a person. Vinyaya sighed, pointed a remote at a screen on the wall and turned it on.

The clip showed several hulking demons stomping over to No1 and Qwan. The warped demons were bigger, stronger and had horns. Poor No1 and Qwan never had a chance when the demons jumped on them. Then they saw the demons lift up the warlocks and take them out of the room. Two demons that hadn't been involved in the attack looked at each other.

"Why did they do that?" one said to the other.

"Those two warlocks are part of the reason why we aren't on the surface right now. They are also partially responsible for getting rid of Abbot."

"Oh. What are they going to do with them?"

The second demon shrugged, "Kill them maybe. Hey you want to get a rabbit for dinner?"

"Sure!"

Vinyaya turned off the clip with a grim look on her face. Holly and Artemis looked horrified.

"What about their magic?" Holly asked.

Artemis looked at her. "Obviously they used all they had in the time tunnel. They haven't had time to do the ritual yet. Also as you know, we are all very tired." He said.

Vinyaya nodded. "We have to get the warlocks back. Artemis, any ideas?"

The genius frowned and suddenly put his hand under his hazel fairy eye. He looked at Holly.

"Holly do you by any chance know if No1's taken a bath yet?"

"Why?" Holly asked.

"Well when we were exchanging No1 for Minerva, I sprayed him with a tracking spray that Foaly supplied. It would have been back up if they got away basically."

Holly's confused face cleared. "Yeah. That would help, we'd be able to find them easy. I don't think No1 has taken a bath yet. I guess I should do the ritual before we go. The time tunnel kind of drained my magic."

"Right, you go do the ritual, come back down, we'll see if this works than go rescue our demon friends." Artemis said. "I don't know about you but I'd feel very bad if anything happened to them. I guess it's an aftereffect of sharing consciousness."

Trouble was feeling left out of the whole thing so he said. "What do you mean sharing consciousness?"

Holly looked up from where Vinyaya was handing her an aboveground visa.

"Er Artemis can explain. I have to go."

With that she ran from the room. Trouble looked at Artemis.

"Do you think this will work?" he asked him.

Artemis shrugged. "It's worth a shot. Now if you excuse me I need to ask something of Foaly."

He got up and left the room leaving only Vinyaya and Trouble. Trouble hastily got up and said. "I guess I'll get back to work."

Vinyaya looked up. "I want you to help them alright, Kelp?"

Trouble nodded and left the office.