A/N: I tired to make this chpater look more presentable than the priveous ones. It must be without any misprints, but if you see some, report immidiately. Thanks for reivews, by the way!
Chapter Seven: Two of Us
As soon as Artemis finished retelling his plan, preparation for it has begun. The plan was extremely simple: enter the building with fake gold, capture the villain, free the hostages and leave. When Holly looked at him with the clear question 'And how are we going to go that and stay alive?' in her eyes, Artemis only shrugged and answered that they would act on circumstances.
Two of the brothers were to make a solid hologram of the gold. On the question about how a hologram could be solid, was received an answer that it was only their problem.
There was also another matter in the preparation process raised by Artemis. "I need a gun," he stated to Holly.
"What for?"
"I can't go there unarmed. And don't tell me you don't have the authority to give me one."
"Then use yours."
"It isn't useful in this situation. Firstly, I don't want to kill anybody and secondly I didn't bring any extra magazines with me. And 13 bullets is not enough."
"Your aim is so bad that so many bullets isn't enough for you?" Holly asked with mockery.
"My aim is quite all right."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, it is."
"Okay. I'll let you use one of our blasters but you must choose your weapon yourself and then you will show me if your aim is as brilliant as your brain is."
"I accept the challenge. But my aim surely isn't brilliant, just accurate."
They went down to the Police Plaza shooting gallery and stepped up to the guns' display. There were at least thirty of them.
"So which one will you choose, Arty?" Holly asked not without taunting.
'Anyone can work out, but no one can have an understanding of guns without special training.'
Holly considered herself a specialist in the area of fire weaponry, so she was quite surprised when after several professionally checked out guns Artemis chose practically the best model used in the LEP.
"Why exactly this one?" she asked, trying to at least somehow redeem herself.
'Maybe he just looked at the numbers.'
"I prefer my gun to be light and powerful. This is my choice. Shall we proceed?"
"Yeah. Ten moving targets?"
"Why not? It is you who is challenging me."
Holly shot first, hitting the center of every target. Artemis followed suit not missing a single one. When the targets were brought nearer, Holly received another shock of her life (the first one was after the discovery of Artemis' fairy secret.)
"They look good together, don't they?" Artemis asked, looking at the exact two holes, one beside the other on every target.
"How did you learn to shoot so well?"
"You can't so any less with Domovoi Butler as your teacher. But I don't exactly shoot, I calculate the options for the bullet to get right where I want it to. So am I worthy of carrying the fairy gun on our extremely dangerous mission?"
"Okay, okay. I agree that you are quite a hit man, even if the thought of you mastering shooting gives me the creeps."
"Don't worry. I've never killed anyone and have shot only three times in self-defense. To me guns are the very last weapons in any conflict."
"And who did you defend yourself from?"
"One Japanese mafia boss didn't like that I had retrieved some pieces of art that belonged to Japan cultural legacy. He considered them his own property, so he sent three assassins into the manor."
"But you said it was completely secure with all your surveillance equipment!" Holly exclaimed, sounding worried.
"Well, the equipment won't help when if you are asleep and attacked by professionals. But you see, I have a special device connected to my bedroom door. It can be activated or shut down only from inside the room. So when the door is opened with the device switched on, a siren starts wailing, waking firstly me and then half of the house.
So that trio slammed the door open, activated the siren and ended up with bullets in their legs. I sent them back with 'encouraging' words to their boss."
"But they knew about the siren already. They could've attempted another attack while taking your device into consideration."
"Mesmer does have its uses," Artemis said with a wink.
"You know, Arty, even if you are older now and your business is straight, and you protect the People and on the whole seem to be a changed-for-good individual, there is still that sly, naughty criminal inside of you."
"The question is, my dear Holly, if that is a bad thing or a good thing."
…………….
The Opal Laboratories loomed gloomily in the darkness of the night. Not a sound or a movement indicated the presence of life in the building.
"What is it?" Holly asked, noticing Artemis' frown.
"I've just been informed that the whole Police Plaza's electric power was 'mysteriously' shut down and can't be restored for at least three hours."
"So?"
"It means that OB is out of business and can't help us. We are on our own."
"Marvelous!" Holly hissed, kicking a nearby rock that broke one of the windows. "Firstly we couldn't have any back up and now we don't even have the techs on our side! Just the two of us!"
"I don't remember it ever stopped you before, Holly Short. And especially don't forget that you are with me."
"What can two people do against an army of maniacs who are after their blood?!"
"Nobody said anything about an army, stop panicking. I was often underestimated, Don't make the same mistake. I will protect you."
"I don't need any protection! I can fight for myself!" Holly shouted, feeling insulted.
"Then do that and let me do the talking. We are going to enter and leave the building alive and with Foaly."
"Don't overestimate yourself."
"You'll thank me for it afterwards," Artemis threw over his shoulder, opening the door and disappearing behind it.
"Hey! Wait for me!"
The corridors were also dark and lifeless.
"Nobody seems to be welcoming us here," Holly whispered, her Neutrino at the ready. "Could've at least told us in what room to meet him in."
"He knows we are here. The cameras are following us. And as for directions… He must be in the main control room, which is unfortunately on the second floor."
"Why unfortunately?"
"I don't really fancy myself jumping out of the second floor window. And without windows there is one exit less."
"Huh. You think too much, Arty."
"It never was a problem to me, especially in situations like these. Oh, our escort has arrived," he remarked, seeing two armed fairies turning the corner. Their facial expressions told about their lack of sense of humor.
The guards wordlessly followed Holly and Artemis to large black doors and arched them into a spacious and well lit room. In the center of it stood a control panel with numerous monitors. The chair beside it was occupied by a small figure which belonged to a black haired pixie.
"Artemis Fowl II and Holly Short, what an honor to see you both," the pixie uttered, seizing the newcomers up.
"Unfortunately, we can't return the honor without knowing who we are talking to," Artemis responded in a polite but firm voice.
"Oh yes. I am not as famous as you to be instantly recognized. My name is Vincent Kopoi, the older brother of Opal Koboi."
Whatever reaction to the announcement he was waiting for, Koboi didn't receive. Holly scoffed and Artemis shook his head. It wasn't clear if it was because of disappointment of boredom.
Meanwhile Koboi continued his welcoming speech. "The night is still young, I am sure we will spend a pleasant time together discussing - "
"I am sorry to interrupted," Artemis interjected, "but we don't have any spare time for chitchat. We came here to make an exchange. Let's talk like businessmen then."
Koboi made a dissatisfied grimace. "Humph, are these ponies so important to you? You don't even want to know how I managed this brilliant scheme?" he asked, clearly proud of himself.
"Firstly, you yourself referred to Foaly and his companion as to our 'favorite ponies' and, secondly, I know exactly why, how and with what means you completed your plan. I admit that it was smart and productive, even if foolish and violent. It also was disgraceful for a fairy. Now, can we proceed?"
"Temper, temper, Fowl. There is no hurry. But if you are so eager to act on business… I don't see your end of the bargain anywhere."
"We left it at the front doors. I hope you understand that two people can't bring up such a weight, especially to the second floor. I am sure your men can easily do it."
Koboi whispered orders to a nearby standing pixie and he left through the same doors Holly and Artemis entered.
'There is no back door or he doesn't want us to know about it,' registered automatically in Artemis' mind. 'Actually, I remember that according to the building plan, there is another door in the back left corner. It can be barricaded…'
"Isn't it the time for you to present your part of the deal?"
"All in due time. I want to see the gold first."
"I am sure you understand that we neither had the time nor saw any need in repacking the gold. S, so we brought it in the package in which it was stored in the repository."
By the end of Artemis' sentence six pixies brought in a huge cube on a hover pillow, covered with a black cloth.
"Take it off, take it off!" Koboi squeaked, clapping like a child who has had gotten his candy.
The cloth was removed to reveal shiny, golden bars held together by metal beams in such a way so that not a single piece could be taken out.
"Oh, what a beautiful sight," Koboi murmured, tracing the outlines of the bricks. Only now, when he was in a standing position, did Holly and Artemis notice that he wasn't an ordinary pixie, but an abomination with an oversized head, comparing to his small, childlike body.
'Disgusting!' Holly thought, watching him jump around the gold in delight. 'How I wish to just roast him! Ugly freak! And brother of Opal Koboi no less. Craziness surely is their family trait.'
You are probably wondering why Holly hasn't already blasted everybody with her Neutrino, rescue Foaly and escaped.. The problem was that at least ten heavily armed pixies stood around the room intently watching their every movement. Fortunately, Holly and Artemis weren't instantly disarmed for some particular reason.
"What do you plan to do with this gold?" Artemis asked, following every movement of Koboi's hands. "To go aboveground?"
"Does it matter?"
"Well, it matters to me when someone appears in my world with such an amount of money."
"Don't worry. You'll be dead by dawn," Koboi stated half-handedly. In a matter of seconds Holly and Artemis were seized, disarmed and held firmly in place by two pixies beside each one. "You don't look surprised or afraid," he remarked nearing his victims for the first time.
"As I told you before, I knew exactly what your plans had been when I came here. Changing of some minor details doesn't change the bigger picture."
"So you came here ready to die, Fowl?"
"I did not say said that."
"So you plan to escape?"
"Why not? You've got your gold. We brought it on your conditions. We take what we came for and then part ways like true businessmen."
"I don't think Artemis Fowl II would be so naïve to believe that this can happen."
"First of all, I am far from naïve. Secondly, I don't believe this because scum such as yourself doesn't have the honor of keeping his word." Artemis' words were almost indifferent, but his eyes were as cold as icebergs.
"So you went down to insulating? As if your word is valuable! The word of a criminal, a thief, a selfish kid with no future!" Koboi spat into Artemis' face, which remain unfazed by his outburst. Koboi took several calming breaths and suddenly an evil spark appeared in his eyes. "Let's be practical. Let's do a little test. If you complete it, I'll set you and your friends free."
"And what guaranties do you give me? It can all be a flop again."
"Hey, bring the centaurs in!" Koboi shouted to the guards, who instantly disappeared behind the doors. Several minutes later they returned with a huge cage on wheels where two centaurs were having a drugged sleep.
"Let's assume that I believe you. What is the test about?" Artemis agreed, measuring up the distance between the cage and themselves and finding it too long.
"Right next to us is a corridor with my sister's famous DNA canons. If you walk through it and back, you are free to go. What is it with you, Commander? You haven't said a word since coming here."
Deathly pale, Holly only shook her head, unable to utter a word.
'Is he crazy? Artemis will be dead on the spot! What is he doing?!' she shouted in her head, but was too paralyzed with fear to say anything.
"I will do it, but on one condition. I will do it only once, despite any circumstances."
"What a strange condition, but let's do it this your way. It doesn't change anything anyway."
'Oh, it changes everything,' Artemis thought snickering in his mind.
Artemis was shoved into the corridor. Every meter was guarded by canons. It was utterly impossible for anybody to pass unharmed. And, but somehow, Artemis knew the way to do it. At the same time Of course, he wasn't just anybody.
Holly followed his movement on the control panel monitor and couldn't believe her eyes – not a single canon fired! He walked leisurely to the end of the corridor and returned with the same gait. Upon the entering the room, Artemis was grabbed, brought to Koboi and pushed into onto his knees in front of him.
"You tricked me!" Koboi squeaked. "You sabotaged my canons! You knew they wouldn't fire!"
"Of course I knew, you idiot. Would I willingly enter the hall to be blasted into pieces by 28 canons?" Artemis said through clenched teeth. He was disgusted by the way Koboi was treating him. Of course he knew where he was going – to be captured, insulted, played with, degraded in any way – but everything already started to get on his nerves. Now he was quite near to Koboi, so he only needed to wait for the opportune moment.
But that opportunity was again postponed by Koboi's decision to avenge Artemis' trickery in his own drastic way. He went to his table where Holly and Artemis' weapons lay and took Artemis' average gun.
"Mud Men technology is so primitive, but I heard it was quite effective," he said with a malicious smirk. "Any last words, Fowl?"
"Your plan would've worked if you hadn't made one serious mistake."
"And what was it, if I may ask?"
"You should've killed me, not just blocked me."
"Well, I am going to correct it," Koboi uttered, aiming at Artemis' head.
'If he shoots me, Holly won't just remain still. I wish I had told here about the signal. Oh, well - ' Artemis' trait of thought was interrupted when Koboi swiftly moved his hand and in shot in Holly's direction. Her guards sprang aside not to be shot, giving her some space to maneuver. But it was too late – the bullet got into Holly' right side, throwing her onto the floor.
"Now you really angered me," Artemis said in a low dangerous voice, jerking up and throwing his guards away in the process. The murderous look in his eyes made Koboi drop the gun which instantly returned to Artemis' hands. "Now what do you thing about the situation, hahhuh? We could've done it like gentlemen and everything would've been fine, but you crossed the line and now things will get dirty."
"I have ten armed men, pointing their weapons at you," Koboi spat.
"Oh, do you?"
Koboi glanced around and only saw that his men were running out of both doors. They needn't to be genii to understand that they were not on the winning side anymore, and their own skins were much more valuable at the moment. Koboi also rushed to the back door to escape and Artemis let him. There were things of higher priority right now. He took the first heavy object that got under his hand and threw it into the window, soundly breaking the glass. Then he sprinted towards Holly and kneeled beside her.
She was lying motionlessly on her left side, panting heavily. Artemis ripped her uniform above the wound. He quickly inspected it, concluding it was nothing serious, but the blue sparks around it were surely not a good thing.
"Stop healing it, Holly."
"Are you crazy?" Holly hissed, obviously in pain.
"That way the bullet will remain inside you like it happened with Butler, remember?"
"But it hurts, D'Arvit!"
"Hold on."
"I can't."
"You can and you will. Here." Artemis connected his bracelets and the blue shield covered them. Then he took them off and put one onto Holly's legs and the other onto her shoulder. "They will protect you. Tell the ones who come not to touch or move you in any way. I'll be back in twenty minutes and everything will be okay." With that said he rushed out the back door.
'He couldn't have run far. His legs are too short for such activities.' Corridor after corridor, turn after turn, and there was still no sign of Vincent Koboi. He finally found him near one of the windows on the first floor.
"And where do you think you are going?" Artemis asked, shooting into the air.
The sound made Koboi wince and face his hated enemy.
"So you left your girlfriend all alone up there?" he asked over his shoulder, not stopping to work on the window locker.
"She is well protected and she is surely not alone. The LEP have flooded the building, all exits are guarded. Everyone who walks out will be captured. And you are not going anywhere."
"So you are going to kill me?"
"I have quite a number of reasons to do it, don't you think?"
"Name at least one. Maybe because you are a bloodthirsty maniac?"
"Don't try to bid time for yourself by trying to insult me," Artemis' voice was absolutely calm, but his every word seemed to have the weight of a mountain that slowly but steadily crushed Vincent Koboi into tiny pieces. "Firstly, you destroyed the fine town of Haven, then killed my people with rock falls that were supposed to be natural. You abducted Foaly, my close friend, not to mention his wife that had no connection to any of this. You heavily insulted me, calling me a thief and a criminal, and last but not least you shot my girlfriend with my own gun that has been protecting me for three years already. Don't you think it is quite enough for me to wish death upon you?"
"What was that rubbish about your people? I haven't hurt any Mud Men."
"Has you fear made you completely stupid? The canons weren't dysfunctional, they just couldn't find anyone in the area with the human DNA."
"But you are a pure Mud Man!" Koboi yelled with eyes slowly coming out of their sockets.
"I am 78 elf, Koboi. The canons couldn't harm me even with my DNA being 22 human."
"But how can that be possible?!"
"It's magic," Artemis answered with a small smile.
"But that's against Nature! That contradicts with all fairy laws!"
"Oh, yes? And you, as a pure fairy, are telling me this? You, who killed species of your own kind, more than fifty! Don't you think that is against Nature? And for what? For some stupid revenge?"
"She was my sister!"
"She isn't even dead!"
"But she is a pathetic Mud Woman!"
"And do you know why? Because of her greed and being selfishness. You two are quite alike – brilliant on the outside and cowardly on the inside. Every suffering she inflicted upon herself was her own fault and nobody, especially Haven citizens, can be punished for that. If you love your sister so much, go and help her or join her.
Anyway, I don't have time for this. There is a person upstairs, a person very dear to me, who is suffering because of you. I must help her." With that said, Artemis turned and quickly started quickly moving towards the stairs.
"So you are not going to kill me?"
"If it hadn't been for you, I couldn't have been rejoined with my friends. That fact saved your life."
Without his enemy seeing him, Koboi drew out his own Neutrino and sent a blast into Artemis' back. The moment when the blast was halfway through, the building was shaken by an earthquake. It threw Artemis onto the floor and the blast hit the wall. He glanced at the place where Koboi was, but saw only a broken window.
When Artemis finally reached the control room, the very last spark of the shield disappeared. The moaning Holly was surrounded by the young LEP officers who had helpless expressions on their faces. They certainly didn't want their commander to die.
"Let me through," Artemis commanded and everyone stepped out of the way. He kneeled down and inspected the wound for the second time. It was still bleeding, but the situation wasn't dangerous. "Does anyone have a thing knife and a lighter?" One of the troops handed him a long hunting knife, but that was it. No lighter came.
"Right breast pocket," Holly breathed out. Artemis opened the named pocket and fished out an intricate silver lighter. Noticing his puzzled look she explained, "It was Root's."
"Okay, now bite into your sleeve, Commander," Artemis instructed. "You, sit down onto her legs and, you, hold her shoulder." Seeing the officers' hesitating faces, he roared, "Do you want your Commander to die on you?! Do as I say! Her sufferings increase with every minute!" The officers instantly took the needed positions. Artemis tilted his head down and whispered into Holly's ear, "I don't take bullets out on an every day basis, so any wrong movement can make things worse. I understand that it hurts and will hurt even more, but don't move. I don't want you to die, Holly."
The operation went smoothly. Even if Artemis was doing it for the first time, his movements were exact and confident as always. The pain was incredible, but Holly managed to turn her head once to look at Artemis. Not in her wildest dreams did she imagine that the boy she met twelve years ago would be taking a bullet out of her body, would be saving her and not the other way around. She looked at his face. Years changed him, made his features sharper, more mature, but his eyes remained the same. Those eyes – sharp, clever, quick, but at the same time funny and caring. At that moment Holly noticed something shiny in his blue eye. She couldn't believe her eyes – it was a tear! Unshed, but it was still there.
The bullet was finally taken out and Holly exhaled in relief, closing her eyes and letting the magic do its work. She was really weak from the blood loss and overall tension. The fact didn't escape Artemis of course. He took her into his arms and lifted her up.
"I think Foaly and his wife must be taken to the medics. As for us, we are going home."
"Yes, take me home, Arty, take me home," Holly whispered into his chest.
The flabbergasted could only stare at the strange pair.