Chapter 2

It took the entire hour and slightly more to get back to Root's office. As unhappy as Holly was, she knew that the corporal was more miserable still. Though Holly was shorter and had been talking nearly the whole time, Plank's inexperienced legs and mind had found it difficult to keep up with the captain's. For some demented reason, this filled Holly with a measure of glee.

She rapped on Root's door.

A voice bellowed from the interior. "Is that you, Short?"

Holly sighed. "Yessir. Reporting with Corporal Plank, sir."

"About time. Bring 'er in."

Holly opened the door and they entered. Root was seated at his desk smoking a fungus cigar. When he saw them his face went all the redder.

"Get over here, Plank. I want a word with you."

The elf removed her helmet and for the first time Holly saw her face. The corporal's dark red hair stuck to her neck with sweat, which had wet the coffee-coloured skin between her pretty brown eyes. The features were rounder than Holly's, softer, but filled with the same brand of defiance in the face of retaliation. Holly had to fight a smile at the confidence in Plank's slender form; no doubt Root would pick up on it immediately.

He did. It brought a scowl to his face. "Corporal, I imagine you would enjoy a pair of acorns pinned to your chest."

She fixed her eyes on the wall behind the commander and stood at attention. "Yessir, I sure would."

He rocked back in his swivel chair. "Then why in the name of Frond did you and your partner go after a rogue troll? You were far from any civilian traffic and way out of your bounds!"

Plank's face didn't twitch. "Not strictly true, sir. Trolls are civilians under the law as well as other fairies, and this one was creating traffic in a traffic-free zone, initially near a traffic zone. Corporal Hour and I thought it would be our duty to look in on the situation after we reported it."

"Oh, you did, did you?" Root said sarcastically. "Well, let me tell you, it's not."

"I'm sorry, sir."

"I'll bet you are."

"We just thought you might want to have someone on Gland."

Holly started at the name. Root took his feet off his desk and sat up. "Gland? You saw the sprite Gland?" His pointed ears quivered.

Holly stepped forward. "Sir, Gland's the biggest fish the LEP never caught. Think about it: seven fairies murdered in cold blood, multiple nonlethal assault-and-batteries, and dozens of armed robberies and thefts as well as extensive damage to numerous properties. They've been preaching that record for years. He's the only sprite to ever steal human guns and disappear underground for over a decade. Shouldn't you listen to what Plank has to say?"

Root considered for a moment, then scratched his buzz cut. "Fine. Give me what you know. If it's good, I might just let you crawl back to your crummy little grunt's dormitory."

Plank nodded. "Thank you, sir. Hour and I were patrolling the extreme Downtown Perimeter when he picked up movement about a quarter mile from our post using his infrared sensors. The computer matched it with a troll, so we called it in and used our moped to chase it. It stopped in the second tunnel, to establish territory we thought, but instead it took a bag of sorts off its back and laid it down next to a connecting road."

Root stared. "You're trying to tell me that a troll was backpacking?"

"Not exactly, sir. That was when we saw Gland. He came out from the road, grabbed the bag, sprayed the troll, and booked it the same way he'd come."

"How did you know it was him?" interrupted Holly sceptically.

Plank shrugged. "Computer matched the fairy again. And I saw his face. Every third assault or robbery simulation they've put us through in the Academy has involved Gland."

Holly nodded grudgingly. The female corporal continued. "We were going to give chase, but the troll turned vicious. How Gland got it to be tame while the transaction went on, I have no idea, but suddenly the thing went ape on the tunnel walls. About two minutes after that it noticed us, and Corporal Hour got clawed into a corner when he tried to blast it with his tunnel lights."

Holly turned to the commander. "Sir, this is serious. Nobody's ever been able to tame a troll. They're just too wild. And Plank mentioned a spray. That could be some innovative anti-troll technology. What if Gland is using trolls in some kind of complicated plan? The Council upgraded him to public enemy number one three months before Artemis Fowl came into the picture, so Gland can't move around in public places without risking his freedom. Trolls are not traditionally suspects in smuggling cases. They're too big, too mean, and too stupid."

Root stood up and began to pace. "In other words, they're perfect. Provided you could somehow tame them." He looked up. "I don't even know if that's possible. And then there's the question of what Gland is up to. He's notorious for his successful illegal surface jaunts. He can't commit open crimes below-ground anymore, so he could be moving his headquarters to relatively safer climes."

Holly frowned. "The problem is, sir, that in any case, he has an advantage. We've made it virtually impossible for ourselves to catch him down here since he never shows himself, and we're weakest on the surface."

Plank had been listening to the exchange with a closed mouth. Now she cleared her throat respectfully. Both superiors looked at her. "Forgive me, commander, but if I'm following my LEP news correctly, we're not as stuck as you might think. What about Artemis Fowl? He's a genius and a criminal mastermind. What's to stop the force from contacting him again?"

Holly's chest felt tight all of a sudden. Slightly more than a year ago the Mud Boy had helped the LEP retrieve a piece of incriminating technology from the hands of a crooked American businessman. The deal was that Artemis and his associates would be mind-wiped after the job was completed for the safety of everyone. Holly had been so moved by the friendship they had developed that she had pleaded on his behalf for the deal to be altered, so that Artemis would give up half the LEP gold he still owned and destroy all his records of the People. It took some convincing, but finally the Mud Boy had agreed to it, and also to having his memories of fairy dwellings and the entrances to them wiped from his memory.

However, there was one more catch: Artemis was never to be permitted contact with Holly Short again, or with any other fairies if at all possible. Their friendship was deemed too dangerous for continuance. Holly and Artemis hadn't even been allowed to say goodbye; she had been in the living room supervising the destruction of Artemis' fairy records when Foaly informed her through a live feed of Root's final ultimatum and another captain on-site whisked her belowground. The last thing Holly had said to Artemis was, "Go upstairs and get your diaries, we need to incinerate those too." Hardly touching.

She had been surprised to find herself crying occasionally during the first couple of months, simply because she knew she was forbidden to ever see the Mud Boy again. Now she avoided the commander's eyes and addressed Plank. "That won't work, corporal."

Plank frowned. "Oh. Why not, sir?"

Holly was about to reply snappishly when the commander held up a large hand. "Hang on, captain. I think Corporal Plank might have something there."

Holly stared at her commander. "Sir, Fowl is supposed to be cut off from all fairy contact except one-way surveillance! How can you –"

"Because I'm the commander," he growled, "and I have a lot more power than you think. Plank, get back to your supervisor – Major Lie Tup, I assume. I'll have him informed of the situation. No doubt your testimony will be wanted. Until then, keep your mouth shut." He nodded at Holly. "You and I have to have a talk. Head over to ops. I'll meet you there in ten minutes. We'll see what Foaly thinks about hacking Fowl."

He rapped on his desk. "On second thought, Plank, follow Captain Short. And be turning all this over in that head of yours. Maybe you can come up with something equally useable to get us out of the legal mess we're going to be in."