Holly had made it to Tara.
"Any leads Centaur?" She muttered into her helmet mike.
Holly had only managed to get to the surface with difficulty. Most of Haven was either malfunctioning or turned off, only the pieces of LEP equipment that weren't connected to the main frame or were connected to the portion of Foaly's servers that hadn't been hacked yet were usable. Luckily for Holly Foaly had managed to manually sever the connection between the Helmet communication system and his main server. Although, the communication system used LEP satellites to transfer information it was still susceptible to the unknown attacker, albeit not directly.
"Well, the Hacker is fluent in Gnomish and at this point we are assuming it's not Artemis, agreed?"
"No D'Arveting shit."
"Ok I've managed to triangulate a ruff location by analyzing which satellites were used to hack my system. Only the ones orbiting over the side of the world the perpetrator is inhabiting could have been used so..."
"Spare me the technical details Foaly my friend is missing."
"Well Artemis's Laptop, and presumably Artemis is in Northern Europe." said Foaly. Holly's face turned an admirable shade of red.
"Above or below ground?" She replied, her voice calm despite her physical appearance.
"Well I haven't got enough information..."
"Thanks Foaly! Thanks a D'Arveting lot - he is in Europe. Now there's a breakthrough that narrows it down a lot. Northern Europe, WOW." Even Foaly could hear the sarcasm dripping in Holly's words, but he chose to ignore them.
"Just doing my job..."
"Bye Foaly." Holly switched the Centaur's voice off and took off heading towards Fowl Manor. Perhaps Butler had made some headway, or perhaps he hadn't. There was only one way to find out and that was to ask.
~Several Hours later - Fowl Manor~
Holly swooped down towards the Manor and found that the window into the kitchen at the side of the house had been left open.
"Butler!" She yelled, landing on the floor with a thump.
Butler who had been waiting for the Elf to arrive came into the room though the open doorway at the opposite end of the room.
"Holly! Do you have news?" Asked the Man Servant."
"They're in Northern Europe last I heard." She said coldly.
"Did Foaly check the communicator you gave Artemis?"
"It's dead, must have been disabled..." Holly looked down apologetically, then she jumped suddenly.
"Holly!" yelled a voice in her ear.
"What? WHAT!?" exclaimed the Elf putting a hand up to her ear.
"They moved!" said Foaly. It was like Christmas had come early.
"Foaly I don't think that that's a good..."
"No it is, because now I can narrow in on their location!" Holly looked perplexed. You see," began Foaly, "when..."
"So where are they we haven't got at day!" Holly interjected quickly before Foaly could start explaining.
"They are underground below Scotland." noted Foaly.
"Big move, the British Isle." said an exasperated Holly. She rolled her eyes as Butler did an uncharacteristic face palm.
~Again several Hours later~
Butler pulled up outside an old and rather large looking warehouse and he and Holly both exited the car.
"I think warehouses should be outlawed." said Holly, "Shit always goes down in warehouses." she spat.
"I think," contemplated Butler, "That that would only exacerbate the problem." Holly sighed.
"Maybe, let's just check this out, okay?"
They walked up the door. The building was old and the door and windows were boarded up. The siding and roof were mostly aluminum, although the door itself was steel.
"It would be easier..." Began Butler eyeing the door.
Holly blasted the steel lock with her neutrino, slicing it open. It took a few moments for the lock to come apart but the wooden boards cut like butter under her beam.
"Or not." He finished when Holly was done. She smiled.
"I always do things the hard way."
"I can see that." Butler would have chucked if it had been a different day.
The door still required some force to open but Butler was more than capable of providing it. Holly gasped upon entering the space.
"This is an old - AN OLD - LEP terminal. This port hasn't been used in years!"
"Wait, aren't old LEP terminals dismantled (?) or at least hidden or secured more effectively than" He waved his hand, "this?"
"Usually." said Holly. Butler sighed.
"Opal is as resourceful as she is cliché."
"Opal?"
"Come on Holly." Butler tilted his head, "You don't have to be a genius, which," He tapped her helmet, "I thought we had access to."
"I don't like jumping to conclusions." Foaly broadcasted through Holly's helmet.
"Foaly, there are two of them, you don't have to jump, there's a stepladder." said Butler.
"I don't do stepladders either!" huffed Foaly in response.
"Foaly...!" growled Butler. The unseen Foaly rolled his eyes.
"Is there a shuttle there?"
"Nope," answered Holly, "but there is a port for one and I think it's functional."
"Isn't that too good to be true." said Butler in response.
"Oh yea. Yeeeeeaha, it is." said Foaly slapping his control panel. "But isn't everything?"
There was a moment of pause before Holly interjected.
"So off we descend."