Chapter 19: Sargasso

Ys Street

Holly and Artemis entered the underground room in the lighthouse amid the warm brown smell of coffee brewing. Iris was ready to meet them at the door, a cup of coffee in her hands as she ushered them in.

'You guys stink!' she laughed, setting her cup down on the table beside the door. 'There's a shower down the passage outside, next door on the right. Hold on – I'll get you clothes.' She came back with her arms full of the grey uniform. 'These are for you – Holly, isn't it?'

'Thanks.' Holly passed the Neutrino to her and gathered the clothes into her arms. She took one of the uniforms from the top of the pile and held it up. It was similar to the one Artemis was wearing. 'Ah, I see. These look familiar, by the way.'

'Yep, old LEP uniforms dyed grey,' said Iris, dropping another pile into Artemis's arms. 'My arms were grey for a week after that. Thank me, please.' She sniffed and picked up the cup of steaming coffee. 'Go on then. This place doesn't have ventilation vents, and I don't fancy smelling fish for the rest of the week, if you get my drift.'

There was a small bathroom down the passage, just as Iris had said. Holly came to a stop outside the door and turned to smile at Artemis. 'Want to go first?'

'You go,' he said. 'Ladies first.'

'Ever the gentleman,' she said, shutting the door in his face.

He leaned against the wall, listening to the sound of water falling on the floor in the bathroom. Iris came out to meet him with another cup of coffee.

'Here,' she said, taking the clothes from him, 'have this while you wait. And it's not sim-coffee, mind you. It's callubjous Colombian coffee.'

'How did you get it?' he said, taking a sip of the drink. Iris wasn't lying.

'Why do you think I live here?' she snorted, gulping down her own coffee. 'Nah, kidding. I bunked out at V's after I left the Academy, so when she started this, she asked me if I could stay over, watch the stuff while the gang was away. Not that I'm complaining, but it gets lonely when everyone's out for some time. And the rest have their day jobs – this is kind of like my salary, see? Coffee to keep me going. Rook gets them for me – I don't ask, he doesn't tell – and everyone's happy.'

'Does Vinyáya know about this? That's tantamount to smuggling, in a way,' said Artemis, amused.

Iris winked at him and held up her cup. 'Cheers, Arty boy. I only have this when V's away. She knows, really, but if I don't drink this while she's around, she doesn't ask.'

'Anything else that she doesn't know about?'

Iris shook her head, her streaked hair a blur of clashing colours. 'Hey, I'm not the only one who smuggles stuff. Where do you think we get the weapons and uniforms from?'

'Section Eight? I heard it was merged with the LEP after we returned with the demons.'

'Oh yeah, you got that right. I don't ask her about that, she doesn't come down on me for the coffee. Hell, she doesn't even ask where I get the computers from. I mostly salvage them from secondhand sales. Pathetic, I know.'

'That doesn't sound like the commander.' Artemis handed the cup back to her and took back the clothes. 'Wouldn't LEP check the equipment when Section Eight was absorbed into the main force? And why didn't she ask Holly to join this?'

They were aware of a sudden silence from the bathroom. The door opened slowly and stopped midway.

'Er…' Iris edged back to the main room, grinning sheepishly. 'You have to get V to explain that to her.' She scuttled off quickly with the coffee cups in hand.

'I heard nearly everything,' said Holly quietly, stepping out of the bathroom in the grey uniform. The LEP jumpsuit was rolled in a sticky bundle under her arm. 'And I'd really like to know too.'

'I'm sure she has her reasons,' said Artemis. 'We were away for three years.'

'You could have told me.' Holly gazed at him, her eyes questioning. 'I went aboveground to collect evidence to get you out of Atlantis. I met your mother. And the Council's going to go ahead and mind-wipe you anyway, if Vinyáya hadn't got you out of there. Couldn't you just call me?'

'I lost my phone,' Artemis replied. She's met my mother, he wondered. How did she react when she saw Holly?

'And I've lost mine,' said Holly, wringing her jumpsuit in her fists. 'They took it when I was kidnapped. I guess both of us were at fault.'

'Nobody did anything wrong,' said Artemis. 'We didn't expect all this to happen.'

'What about your plans, Artemis? Is there anything we can do to stop this?'

'I don't have any,' he admitted. 'I had one, in Atlantis, but I'm not too up to date on events in Haven right now.'

'Artemis Fowl doesn't have a plan,' Holly said sardonically. 'We fairies are going to be so lost without your help.'

'Holly,' he said, frowning, 'is anything wrong?'

'Oh no,' she answered airily, brushing past him to go back to the main room. 'Just that Haven's in total chaos and the LEP's not making it any better.'

He stared at her retreating back for a few seconds, still frowning, and then he headed into the bathroom. He knew, in some dim way, that Holly wasn't angry with him, despite her odd behaviour. It reminded him of the time after he had confessed that he had lied to her about his mother's illness. This wasn't about him – Vinyáya would have a lot of explaining to do.

Situations booth, Police Plaza

'It appears that Councilwoman Vinyáya is unavailable at the moment,' said Chairman Cahartez, waving the official conical hat as he talked. 'Foaly was unable to reach her. Would you agree to have this meeting without her?'

'Yes,' Pomona Lyess replied.

'Oh yes.' Bresniv shook himself and nodded to the other Council members. 'We don't have time to wait for her.'

'I can't agree to that, Chairman,' said Trouble. 'We need the full Council to decide anything in this crisis. Protocol.'

'We don't have time for that, Commander,' Lyess said, smiling thinly. 'We need to act as soon as possible to ensure that any further threats are contained – '

'Threats from the LEP, you mean?' Trouble smiled back at her with equal coldness. 'I've been getting reports that LEP officers are responsible for this.'

'Those people in grey are the ones doing this, Kelp,' Cahartez said sharply. 'If you have any information on them, I suggest you share it with us and help us to solve this crisis before more people get hurt.'

'I know nothing about them,' Trouble said, unperturbed by the stares he was receiving from most of the Council and officers assembled in the room. 'Perhaps you do, Chairman?'

'Now look here, Commander – '

'Did I miss anything?' said Foaly, bursting into the room. 'Oh, sorry. Was I interrupting something important?'

'No,' said Cahartez, looking irritated. He picked up the remote on the table before him and pressed the button to display a live feed on the large screen. 'This is what's happening in Haven. So you're saying that we should wait for Vinyáya to turn up while these rebels burn down the entire city?'

'Do we have proof that they're doing that, Chairman?' Trouble tapped a finger against the side of his bowl of curry.

'Commander Kelp.' Cahartez's eyes flicked to the bowl for an instant, and then back up to stare at Trouble Kelp. 'I understand that you've been promoted only recently, so you may not be familiar about your duties as a commander. Perhaps you should listen to those who are more experienced in these matters?'

'Enough of that,' Council member Oberon interrupted. 'Can we focus on the main issue here?'

'Thank you, Oberon.' Cahartez gestured to the screen. 'So what do you think we should do?'

'All LEP's out in Haven, Chairman,' said Foaly, clopping over to stand beside the screen. 'All aboveground missions have been canceled temporarily – we've got every officer out there. What else can we do?'

'Who ordered all missions to be stopped?'

'The commanders did,' Foaly said. 'We have our hands full just monitoring the situation below ground.'

'Hmm.' Cahartez turned the official hat over in his hands. 'Can we initiate lockdown?'

'For this?' Foaly said incredulously. 'There are only three situations in which we can have a lockdown: flood, quarantine or discovery by humans. None of those have happened.'

'The Atlantean ambassador's on my case about this,' Cahartez said, still turning the hat over and over. 'Said he doesn't want us to muck up Atlantis when people start to get out of Haven.'

'No. No way.' Foaly waved his hands wildly to emphasize his point. 'No can do, Chairman. People are scared out of their minds – and you want to lock them in?'

'Do have another way then, centaur?'

'Yes. Yes, I do.' Foaly cantered over to Cahartez, grabbed the remote without so much as a by-your-leave, and pressed the buttons to call up different views of Haven. 'Look at that. Will you just look at them, Chairman? We've got shops and homes burnt with Mud Men explosives, people panicking, and some officers – '

'Are you suggesting that the LEP is responsible for all that, Foaly?' said Lyess. 'May I remind you that that accusation constitutes treason?'

'What? No! Will you just open your eyes and see that – well – the people we've accused of this aren't the ones responsible for it!'

'It's Fowl, isn't it?' one of the captains spoke up. 'Artemis Fowl. I escorted him to Atlantis. He planned all this, didn't he?'

'I heard that message,' said Oberon. 'It's him, isn't it, Foaly?'

'And we granted him amnesty, in exchange for a complete mind-wipe,' said Lyess. 'Is that fair?'

'We should have decided on a heavier sentence,' one major said hesitantly. 'You never know with Mud Men. He could be up to one of his schemes again, like that time when he kidnapped Captain Short.'

Foaly glanced helplessly at Trouble, for once unable to articulate his thoughts to defend Artemis or the unknown people in grey.

'Gentlemen.' Trouble stood up, silencing the babble that had broken out in the room. 'Ladies. If Fowl is responsible for this like you think he is, then what should we do about it?'

'Kill him,' Lyess replied calmly. 'Like we should have done years ago when we gave him the ransom. We put our trust in the wrong person, and now we live to regret it.'

'If he hadn't helped us during the B'wa Kell uprising, we wouldn't be here,' Foaly retorted. 'Did that slip your mind, Lyess? Not to mention the other time that he stopped the probe from reaching Haven? And what about Hybras and the demons, hmm?'

'If I recall correctly, you were mentioned in his message too, Foaly,' said Lyess sweetly. 'Did that slip your mind too?'

'Enough!' Cahartez slammed a hand down on the table. 'I will not let Haven be destroyed while you people bicker over this. Foaly, I want you to continue monitoring the situation. We'll stick to the current plan for the present. I'll call for another meeting if I judge that the situation has gone beyond control. Hopefully Commander Vinyáya would be kind enough to grace us with her presence.'

The assembly broke up, officers and Council members muttering among themselves as they left the room. Trouble and Cahartez remained in their seats, both not looking at the other in the eye, while Foaly fiddled with the remote and called up more views on Haven.

'Kelp,' said Cahartez, after the last captain had shut the door behind him, 'I need your full co-operation on this. I understand that you're new to your job as a commander, but we don't have time for that. Haven needs us right now.'

'I get you.' Trouble slid the bowl of curry across the table to the Chairman. 'And I want you to explain how LEP weapons were found in the trucks that were transporting your curry. Who signed the paperwork for the old equipment in Section Eight to be sent to the recycling smelters?'

'Now look here, Kelp – '

'We've got evidence, Chairman,' said Foaly, flicking his tail. He was enjoying this – it wasn't often that the commander himself went up against the members of the Council. Trouble was new to the job, certainly, but oh, what a happy change he was to the previous commanders. And that was including Julius Root.

'I don't know what happened to the weapons after I signed the order.' Cahartez refused to look at the bowl before him. 'The Council has the authority to demote you, Kelp. Losing your acorns so early in the job – that would be such a shame, wouldn't it?'

'At least I'm being honest.'

Cahartez stood up, his face carefully neutral. 'I don't know what you're talking about, Kelp. Maybe I should ask someone to replace you in Recon while you take a break. The responsibility's obviously too heavy for you.'

'It's going to be Bresniv, isn't it?' Trouble sneered. 'You nearly lost your face with the Sool fiasco. Don't think we didn't know about that.'

'Commander.' Cahartez placed the official hat on his head and pointed to the door. 'Leave. We'll talk about this once peace is restored in Haven. I hope you know what to do to achieve that.'

'The rot's gone too far, Chairman.' Trouble held the door open for Foaly to trot out before him. 'And it's my duty to dig it out.' He slammed the door behind him and marched down the passage to his office, Foaly on his heels.

'What next, Kelp?' said Foaly, suppressing a grin. 'Going out with the patrols?'

'I might,' said Trouble, scowling at passing officers who stared at him as the pair cut through the crowd in the corridors. 'And will somebody please stop mentioning that damn Fowl boy? Or I might end up killing him myself.'

'Whoa, hold it there, Fowl's innocent,' said Foaly, still trying hard to stop smiling. 'And there's no knowing what Holly might do if you do that.'

'You talking to me?' Trouble stopped abruptly, causing a corporal to crash into him. The gnome backed away and ran off, glancing over his shoulder with fear written all over his face. The look in the commander's eyes hinted at guns. And people getting shouted at. And lots of other unpleasant things besides. Trouble Kelp rarely got angry, but when he did, most officers knew when to step back quietly and shut up.

'I'm going the wrong way!' Foaly exclaimed, with false cheerfulness. 'Oh dear, must be the crisis – I'll forget how to use computers next – '

Trouble marched off, hardly caring what the centaur had to say next.