Yes, I know this chapter is so short, sorry :P

Erek ran into the room. His hologram's eyes were filled with fear. "Uh...Jake? We have a problem."

"What is it?" he asked, trying to the best of his abilities to hide his panic.

"The jet...something's gone wrong."

No longer bothering to look calm, Jake began rambling hysterically to his ancient robot friend, hoping it would calm his nerves down a bit. "What do you mean something's wrong? What's wrong? Surely it can't be that bad. Right? Right? Please, say 'right'!"

"It's that bad."

Once again, Jake had to force himself to look calm on the outside, as not to scare his friends. Although in reality, his insides were churning. "Well, um, can you fix it?"

"Sure, I can try. But I can't do it in the air. We need to land, and soon."

"But where would we be able to fit a jumbo jet without being seen? Even if you do use a hologram, someone may run into it, and we would not have the room. We can't risk it. It's too dangerous."

"More dangerous than possibly crashing?"

He had a point. But still . . . "Well, maybe we could - -"

That's when Artemis piped in. "I know a place where we could put it. I'll even take a look at the problem. I'm sure it cannot be that complicated with a little thought. Besides, there's someone I need to call."

Jake eyed him suspicously for a moment. He did not trust Artemis, not in the least. The boy was far to reserved. Far too quiet. It was as if he was hiding something. But at this point, he had no other choice. Jake sighed. "What sort of place?"

"I have a house in Luccombe Beach
It is not too far from here. If we go at top speed, there should be no problem."

"Won't people see us?"

Artemis shook his head. "That would be highly unlikely. It is a remote beach that only a few people know about. The houses are well spred out."

Jake thought for a minute, before reluctantly answering, "Fine."

Going at full speed they arrived safely at Laccombe Beach in under an hour (the chee had sped the jet up).

"Oh my god," Cassie said, looking around in awe. "It's. . .it's beautiful. Wow."

And it was. Surrounded by a magnificant garden of trees and wild flowers, was a mansion. It was quite a bit smaller than most of Artemis's other beach houses (which, of course, was still pretty big in comparison to the average person's house), but it was just as he remembered it. Wild and icolated. Perfect.

What if he tried to escape and just left us here? wondered Jake. No, it was unlikely to happen. If Artemis had something planned he would have done it already. Hopefully.

Meanwhile, Marco had to go to the bathroom. It took him more than twenty minutes to find it, even after getting extremely detailed instructions from Artemis. The long, twisted hallways confused him. Marco never really had been very good at following directions.

After coming out he passed the lounge were Artemis was talking on the phone. But, wait a minute, why were there two voices?

He pressed his ear against the wall to eavesdrop on the no longer so private conversation. Yes, there were definitely two voices, that much he was sure of. One of them belonged to Artemis, and the other he did not recognize, but Marco could tell it was a female. I thought Artemis said that no one else ws here. He never did trust the kid. He knew this was all mistake. Oh, why couldn't his life be normal? He decided to listen some more.

"Figures. I should've guessed it was you, Mudboy," said the female voice. Who on earth was he talking to?

Marco couldn't take it anymore, he burst into the room. Artemis did not look at all surprised to see him. In fact, if anything, he appeared rather amused. "Ah, Marco," he said nonchalantly, "I thought I might have heard you."

And talking to Artemis was a little girl, no taller than three feet. Weird. She had light brown skin, hazel eyes, and auburn hair.

"Erm...Artemis?" Marco said, "Who's your friend?"

Artemis sighed. "Holly, meet Marco. Marco, meet Holly Short."

Holly looked just as baffled by all this as Marco. "What's this about?" she demanded. "Tell me right now! I'm not playing any games!"

Marco's eyes moved back and fourth between confused Holly and smug Artemis. He sensed the awkwardness of the siduation. He shuffled his feet uncomfortably. "Yeah...well, nice to meet you and all, Holly. I'll just be...um...going now..." he backed out the door, slowly at first, then broke into a run.

You know what to do. Press that button at the bottom. Come on, press it. You know you want to.