Throwing Rocks

Chapter 15

Artemis Fowl is not mine, but the OC is!

I'm not really sure a diamond can do all the things Artemis implies it can, but teachers are always banging on about how it's the hardest mineral, so whatev. Read and Review.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Good to see you." Holly said between bites of the carrot stick Juliet had provided. "It's been a while."

"You as well. How's Foaly?"

"Great. He's engaged!" Both of the females in the room gave a squeal of delight. Butler sighed, use to the enthusiastic response his little sister had to such pieces of new. Artemis winced, though not because of the news, just the frequency of the girl's shrieks

"The wedding is next spring. The Commander managed a huge visa package for a destination wedding, you know, in honor for his 'Great services to the People' during the B'wa Kell rebellion. He's been gloating about it forever. Can't get him to shut up, even when I threaten to take his hoof moisturizer away. " She grumbled. "I think we can accommodate you, Foaly would love it you could come."

While Juliet grinned with pleasure Artemis gave only a small smile.

"Wonderful. My congratulations to the Groom. They've been dating for a while. About 5 years, right?"

"Yes. Oh, and just to remind you, stay away from the Nettle wine this time, guys."

"How can you get such a big hangover from a wine made for people of such ting proportions?" Butler groaned.

Holly only grinned wickedly, returning to her carrot and waved for Artemis to start telling his news. The mud boy had something on his mind, might as well let him spill already.

"There's not much to tell, really. It's been pretty dull-"

Spotting Butler's rolling eyes and Juliet's mischievous grin, he broke down and finally spilled.

"I've met someone. Her name is Tara-"

Holly settled down for one of Artemis's usual rambles, the ones about his latest invention, discovery, or girlfriend.

"She's amazing, we're a lot alike-"

After about three minutes she interrupted. "Great, Artemis, really. I'm happy for you. But you know this visit isn't strictly social. I have a problem. Or we, the People, have a problem. Though not as serious as we usually deal with."

"So if we screw up on this one, the world as we know it won't end?" Juliet asked hopefully. She had only been really involved in two missions like this, but hated the thought of Dom constantly in danger from an unseen force.

"Technically, it could. I'm not sure." Holly gave a brief smiled. When did they ever have assurance of the ending? "They say it might, but frankly, I'll be willing to bet it's a load of centaur dung. Just a show to keep good relations."

"Who exactly is 'they'?"

"The demons. It's stupid, really…fool's errand, if not that, a waste of LEP time and money."

"Explain, if you would. What is it they want?" Artemis asked.

"Quin and No.1 have kept order for a while now, but they recently discovered some ancient text. Some text that claims the demons once held a stone scared to the tribe. It had some mythical power, or something-"

"Mythical my foot. With our luck it'll be cursed, cursed and existent."

Holly went right over him. "I'm not sure why they need it, or what it does, but the point is, they need it. And we have to find it, as a symbol of friendship."

"And you think it might be on the surface."

"It was lost when one of their own traveled through time. He got fried, we're not sure when. The corpus was thought to be a dinosaur, thank the gods, but some English diamond company got it's hands on the rock."

"Holly." Artemis said slowly. "What kind of rock is it? If some diamond company has it that means it might be of value."

"Yeah, it's like a… toppy, tophaz…top-"

"Topaz?"

"That's it! What is it?"

"A very shiny, expensive, rare rock. But still a rock. Why are you involved?"

"Sect. 8 is in charge of demon affairs, so we get to go on the merry hunt for the rock. And I'm the officer they requested."

"So why are you here? I haven't recently brought any stones lately. Although Mother may have."

"No, Artemis, Mrs. Fowl prefers sapphires."

Holly looked at Artemis. "I just need your brain. Maybe some contacts, or leads. But you haven't been following this? I thought you still hack into our system to keep updated."

"How recent is this?"

"Less than two months. The tribe doesn't know yet, else they'd be scrambling up to the surface to 'fight the humans', and we'd have rebellion. But we've still been busy. We had to coax quite a lot of info out of them, read the text ourselves, lean names…why are you blushing?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Holly stood by the projector screen sipping a bottle of Irish spring water, the only kind of bottled water allowed in the Fowl Manor. The others sat in various places about the study, staring at her. Artemis impatiently tapped his foot. While he hated twitchiness such as this from others, himself doing did not cause a problem.

Holly glared at him. "I'm thirsty."

"And you're pregnant. Congratulations. Were you planning on sharing that soon?"

She raised a eyebrow, annoyed. "How'd you know?"

"You had a certain glow about you. Trouble must be proud. Now, about the topaz."

After Butler and Juliet had given their own congratulations, she began. Balancing her helmet on the table opposite the screen, clicking it one. A photo 3D of a sparkling yellow stone appeared between the table and the screen, while words in Gnomish appeared on the left translated to English on the right for Butler and Juliet.

"The company had it in one of their warehouses/showrooms-"

"'Had it'?" Interrupted Artemis. "They still don't have it?"

"I'm getting to that." Holly snapped. She was most definitely pregnant.

"-in their showrooms in London. It wasn't high security because the rock wasn't known about, so they figures if nobody knew it existed, nobody would steal it. But somebody did. There was little media about it, and what little there was wasn't significant. About a month ago someone came in, took it and left. It was an incredibly clean job. Fast too."

"I'm surprised you didn't suspect me."

"Oh, we did." Holly said, embarrassed. The People should by now trust Artemis after all the honorable things he'd done. "After 24 hours, when you didn't contact us, we became concerned. We thought maybe you had figured out some connection between the remains and the rock, and maybe took it yourself. On our behalf, of course." She rolled her eyes.

"If I had know, no doubt I would. But keeping for myself would have been out of the question." Artemis said calmly, use to her sarcastic remarks referring to his criminal past. Still it hurt a little.

"Easy, mud boy. We believe you. Now, the warehouse is in the UK, but our sources claim the thieves are here in Ireland."

Artemis raised one raven brow. "Oh really? My name just went up further on the list, I see. Do you know if your thieves even knew the topaz was fairy-related, or if they stole it for the 'powers'? Perhaps it was even a fairy who stole it. A Mulch copy-cat?"

"We can't rule that out. Artemis, we know nothing. Foaly can't even recognize what they used to cut the case the stupid rock was in! It was very, very clean. They could be anyone. That's why I'm here."

"What information do you have?"

She pressed a few keys and another 3D image came up. It was a map, showing London from a bird's-eye-view. The picture zoomed in to a large building, the rotated so it was now a horizontal view, like you were standing right outside.

"De Beers." Artemis whispered. Butler groaned.

"You know it?" Holly asked.

"Yes." The young man spat. "It's a diamond company. They've very secretive, known to shoot their own employees if they accidentally stay in the mines too long. It's a violent company, ruthless. Very protective of their projects, they also manufacture diamonds-"

"Manufacture? A rock?" Holly asked horrified. Artemis nodded.

"Only so they can keep updated on how to prove other company's' manufactured stones. I've done my best to shut them down, or to at the least get them sued for employee injuries. Did they loose much money in the theft?"

Holly nodded.

"Remind me to shake the thief's hand, when we catch them."

The picture now returned to sky-view, zooming on a sky light, then down into a showroom. A 3D photo of the crime scene. Holly stepped into the image and touched a pedestal near the center of the room. The picture focused.

"The glass is lazer-razor-bullet-steel-iron-just-about-whatever-you-can-chuck-at-it-proof. Very few human tools could do this, and the ones that could would take forever or are too big to bring down from the skylight, their entrance. " She rotated to the top of the case, where a circular section of glass was missing. "No markings,

Nothing. The wire-" She indicated a gray thread that blended perfectly with the gray carpet that covered the pedestal. "-was also sliced by what we assume is the same tool."

Artemis gazed at the scene. "What can cut through anything?"

"Magma? A fairy has access to it, if poured right you could make that hole and not harm the rock. But we can't be sure this is one of the people. Even if it was, we have tools that could do this easily…"

"No, it's human. Completely human."

"I'm lost, Artemis. Form what Holly said, nothing can cut through that in the time the thieves where there. What are you thinking?"

Juliet agreed. "What can cut through anything?"

Artemis's blue-black and hazel eyes glittered with the knowledge of adventure. And challenge. He had another opponent .

"Diamond." He whispered.

It was ironic.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Review. Please. I've, like, updated this 5 times in the last two weeks, don't I deserve one?

-MDQ10