"It can't be..."
"Artemis, I'm sure it's not what you think... perhaps it's just -"
Holly was cut off by the sound of an alarm shrieking through the concrete catacombs. She started, momentarily dazed by the deafening noise.
Foaly overrode her headset mute: "Holly, get out of there right now! Everyone in that area is heading right for you, right now!"
Artemis pitched in, "Come on, Holly, just get out of there for now. If they're coming to the cell it means Opal must have escaped, so she's somewhere else right now. Just save yourself!"
She sighed, and rolled her eyes. It was nice to have people worry about you, but she could very well have taken care of herself. A pile of unconscious gangsters would have escalated the situation unnecessarily, she supposed. She plotted a different route out of the complex and opened the throttle on her wings, shooting out of the cell in seconds.
*****
Opal was sitting in her squalid prison, feeling miserable, when Sergei rushed through the door. The guard was surprised, and rose to his feet angrily, but before he could protest he was hit by a taser and nineteen pulses per second of high-voltage electricity forced his muscles into contraction, flooring him. The other man strode over to him, quickly cuffing his unconscious body before dragging him somewhere that Opal couldn't see. He returned, slightly out of breath.
"We have to go, now!"
"What?"
"This is the time Mr. Fowl is to meet up with the hit team in St. Petersburg, they will be coming to kill you soon!"
"What! St. Petersburg?"
"No time to explain. Come with me now if you want to live!" Opal nodded dumbly, slightly in shock at the developing situation. She allowed him to drag her out of the cell and down a corridor, dragging her feet on the concrete.
Sergei spoke in a stream of broken English as they ran away from her cell. "They were planning... send Fowl to St. Petersburg... keep him away and get rid of him... when they got rid of him, get rid of you too. So I take you now, take you to safe place. Meet him later"
Opal replied in fluent Russian, eager to avoid any confusion quickly. "What makes you think Artemis will survive being 'got rid of'?"
The Russian smiled sardonically. "Do you think he is going to be easy to kill? He is like cockroach, always get out somehow." She smiled back, viciously; he was right of course. Artemis had outsmarted the mafiya once already, and this 'plan' that they had hatched wasn't nearly intelligent enough to fool him.
She yelped as he yanked her arm round a sharp corner, nearly wrenching it from her shoulder. She shook him off angrily. "Come on, let's go!" she snarled at him, running as fast as her Pixie legs could carry her towards safety.
*****
Holly had easily avoided the searching guards, and was hovering over the mountain at 2000 feet, watching for what was happening below. She couldn't see into the actual complex from above; it far too dense for her limited helmet scanners to detect the heat signatures of the people inside, but she was hoping Opal would emerge somewhere outside, where she could be snatched easily.
However something else distracted her. Artemis was standing in plain sight, staring through a pair of binoculars, seemingly unaware of the sentries converging on his position.
"D'Arvit!" She swore, and tipped herself into a steep dive. It was too late to carry him away without the Russians seeing them. What could she do? She would have to use it, she decided. No other way.
She landed next to Artemis and began fumbling with her belt. "Holly? Are you ok? You're not hurt at all?" Artemis's friendly concern was almost comical, totally oblivious as he was to the situation. He frowned at her frantic action. "What on earth are you doing?"
"Shhhh!" She hissed at him. "We're surrounded! Get on the floor and shut up!" He obeyed immediately, sensing the urgency in her voice. He threw himself to the ground just as Holly found what she was looking for. "Got it!" she whispered, and threw herself over Artemis, flinging the sheet of cam foil over them both.
The next thing Artemis was aware of was a massive thump, as though a giant had trod on the earth right next to him, and he was suddenly falling. He hit the earth hard, and coughed hard, spitting out the earth that had entered his mouth.
"Eugh. Pffth." He recovered and looked around, bemused. "We seem to be underground." He hesitated, thinking rapidly. "Some sort of anticompression device? The earth directly below the ground is displaced, and the space we occupied maintained below ground? Meanwhile the earth above us is supercompressed to..." He knocked the ceiling with his hand, "leave a solid roof of earth over the occupants. Quite ingenious."
Holly ignored his innocent enthusiasm, grinding her teeth. She started to unconsciously fidget, flexing her fingers and clenching her fists.
Artemis noticed her anxiety. "I'm sorry, Holly, I forgot. Are you OK?"
She tried to laugh it off. "Much better for you reminding me, thanks."
The joke bounced right off Artemis. "Don't worry. We'll be out of here soon. It's perfectly safe in here, and it's only natural that you'd be worried. Remember the surface is just above us; nothing can possibly happen."
She rolled her head back, closing her eyes. Of course Artemis knew how to deal with any psychological disorder. The words helped her though, and she let his warm voice wash over her as she tried to let her fear dissipate. She breathed deeply, calming herself down. "I'm alright, Artemis. Thank-you."
His eyes widened slightly, but he smiled anyway. Holly missed the slight surprise. "No problem. Now, what's going on up there?"
There were voices above them, and footsteps actually passed over their head. They heard yells of alarm, shouted instructions and dogs, barking. They heard some men stop directly above them, and speak urgently:
"Did you hear?"
"Yes, the hostage escaped. And we still haven't heard from St. Petersburg."
Next to her, Holly felt Artemis exhale heavily in relief.
"Shit! How can he have done this?"
"Apparently he didn't. The boss thinks we had a mole, that someone else has taken the hostage. There's no way Fowl could have gotten here from St. Petersburg in that time anyway."
"A Spy?"
"I reckon so. Must have been an inside job anyway, no way anyone could have sneaked in there without us knowing."
"Did you hear that two of the guards have gone missing? No-one has any idea where they are."
"You think Fowl killed them... or that one of them might be the spy!"
"Well, duh. Anyway, there's no way one man can have got far. So we're patrolling the perimeter to try and find him. That means you guys too!"
"What! We're not on sentry duty tonight!"
"Idiot, this is important. You think anyone cares about your beauty sleep tonight? Just do your god-damn job."
There were a series of arguments, filled with threats and curses. Artemis and Holly huddled in their hole, absorbing every revelation. Eventually it was decided that five of them were patrolling this area, and the one in charge seemed to leave.
Holly trembled slightly. "I guess that's it. We're trapped here."
She tried to keep the panic from rising in her voice, but Artemis noticed. He tried to lighten the mood. "I guess we forgot to pack a Mulch Diggums this time around. I thought I'd forgotten something."
She forced a laugh at his sad attempt. "You must be getting senile in your old age. I didn't realise humans decayed quite this quickly." She felt slightly gloomy as she said this. It was true that Artemis had aged far too quickly. Human lives were far too short. In less than a decade he had grown to effectively the same age as her, and by another few decades he would be considered old. A few more and – but no. She couldn't think about that. Artemis Fowl could never die. He would find some way to outwit the passing of time. He already had once.
She glanced over at the young man, who was still a boy for her. Despite his strong body he looked frail to her, and she suddenly realised how little time he had left, even in the prime of his life. A sort of grief rose in her, and a bitter thought came to her head: Koboi is welcome to that loss. That's not something I would want to have to live with.
He smiled at her, noticing her worried look and mistaking it for her claustrophobia. "Relax Holly. We're still safe here."
"What's the plan then?"
"I suppose we have to stay here. Butler will come soon enough. I just hope Opal can be trusted to the mysterious 'spy' that seems to have rescued her for us." His tone was jovial, unconcerned.
"Aren't you worried?"
"Hugely. But logically no-one would kidnap her if they did not plan to make some sort of escape from danger, and likewise no-one would rescue her just to place her in another danger. It's not like I can do anything right now anyway."
She smiled despite herself. "You haven't changed a bit, have you?"
He smiled back, genuinely. "Of course not."
"I wish I had your arrogance."
"Now that's not very friendly. Why would you say that?"
"What do you call it then?"
He thought for a second. "Self-assurance?"
She laughed at him. "I would say that's the same thing."
Artemis chuckled, unused to being laughed at, though mature enough to appreciate that it was a friendly gesture. "It's all a question of degree." Oh dear, he thought jokingly, am I flirting?
The moment of laughter over, Holly was feeling nervous again. "I wish I had your talent for controlling your emotions."
Artemis frowned. "I wouldn't say that either. It's all about rationalising it. I could panic about Opal, but it wouldn't change the situation, and the only thing I could do was make things worse by acting irrationally." His expression softened, and he continued. "Conversely, rationally you know that, even if by some one in a million chance Foaly's technology failed, you would be safe, being only a few inches below the surface."
Holly rolled her eyes. "I wish I had your talent for rationalisation then." Her voice wavered slightly.
Artemis shifted himself over to her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You have a phobia: an extreme and irrational fear of something. It's much harder to control something like that; you're doing great so far."
"Don't. Patronise. Me."
"I didn't mean -" Artemis began, then stiffened as Holly slipped under his outstretched arm and leaned in against his chest. Then he relaxed, and let his arm fall around her shoulder. He squeezed her slightly. He had forgotten how small she was. He felt her relax, the tension dissipating from her body.
"Thanks, Artemis."
"No problem."
Hey. Been on holiday so that's why I haven't updated in quite a while. Good news is I wrote the end to this whilst I was away, so I guess you'll get that earlier!
This chapter is a bit... well I expect most people will see what's coming next. Oh and don't read after this, what I'm going to say might be a slight spoiler. OK?
Basically I want some feedback on where people think this story is going. I think from the reviews that most people aren't going to like the result I have planned. I'm not sure whether I should make it more conciliatory to what people actually want or just say sod it, you get whatever I want to write. OK so I worded that bad. I'm not gonna give anything else away, but some feedback as to what people see happening would be. As always R&R!