Chapter Three: The Lock Up
Artemis thought that it would be a good idea to sit quiet and not kick up a fuss. He trusted fairy security, there was no way he was getting out of here, and so he'd undone Samantha's handcuffs in about half an hour, the code being 714, and so Samantha freed him and her two brothers.
Sam had sat Domovoi on the floor, where he was slumped against the wall as if someone had taken his batteries out, Alexander was curled up on Artemis' lap sobbing miserably and Sam was pacing up and down, her eyebrows knitted, Artemis' frown lines appearing on her forehead.
"Samantha, please, you're making me exhausted just by looking at you, we're not getting out until they let us out, settle down."
Obediently, Sam sat cross-legged on the floor, resting her head on her fingertips, frown lines disappearing almost immediately.
"Dad, I can't take this much longer. Domovoi's brain's mush, Alexander's having a breakdown and you don't know what to do, do you?" Samantha accused, not raising her head from her fingertips.
Artemis shifted guiltily, stealing a glance at the looked door and pulled Alexander's sobbing form closer. "Samantha, we've been here barely three hours. They're not going to keep us in here forever."
Artemis look thoughtfully from Alexander's quivering form to Domovoi, quiet in the corner. Sparks flashed in his brain.
"I wonder if Alex could take the Mesmer off Dom…" He mused.
Samantha raised a sceptical eyebrow.
"How does a person remove the Mesmer? And doesn't it have to be the same person who applied it?"
Artemis shrugged. "I would assume so, but I don't know how powerful Alex is. And to remove the Mesmer, one simply has to fall asleep."
"Well, what else do we have to do. Three minds are better than two."
Artemis scowled. "You're not counting Alex."
"He's hardly Stewie Griffin, is he? Come on, I need Domovoi's wise cracks before I go crazy."
Artemis was wondering how his nine year old daughter had managed to get her hands on a fifteen rated movie. It was only a hunch, but he had a feeling Domovoi was to blame.
Artemis picked up Alexander, who continued to sob and cling to his father's shirt, which was now soaking wet with his tears. Artemis was shocked at how easily impressionable his youngest was.
"Do you want to do magic?" Artemis asked, knowing Alexander was a sucker for his powers. Artemis had banned him from purposely using magic, especially in public, unless it was needed. Besides when he accidentally shielded, he stuck by the rules his father laid with surprising commitment for a boy his age.
Alexander sniffled and rubbed his face in Artemis' shirt when he nodded, successfully using it as a tissue and covering it in baby snot.
"Thank you, Alex. Your manners leave much to be desired. I wonder if you could tell Domovoi to go to sleep."
Alexander looked confused, and when his father set him in front of his brother, he twisted his fingers, the blank, staring look on Dom's face disturbing him a little, and hiccupped the word 'sleep' at him to no avail.
He glanced at his sister and father for further explanation.
"Let me rephrase that, Alex. I want you to force Domovoi to go to sleep, using magic."
Alexander was utterly bewildered. His father wanted him to do what?
How was he supposed to force Domovoi to go to sleep?
Do I tell Dom to go to sleep using magic, or do I tell my magic to
make him go to sleep? He wondered.
"Dom, go asleep!" he ordered. Nothing happened.
"Dom, go asleep now?"
Alexander began to get frustrated. How the heck was he supposed to
do this?
"Sleep." Alexander hissed, stamping his foot. Except it didn't come out as a hiss, it came out as if he were singing.
What the… How did I do that?
He glanced at his father. He was grinning.
So I just have to get really, really mad and I can sing? He wondered.
He looked back at Domovoi. His brother was almost comatose where he sat.
Alexander grinned and clapped his pudgy hands, childishly jumping up and down.
"Alex do it! Alex do it! Daddy see?"
Artemis laughed at Alexander's display along with Sam. "Yes, I'll say
you did. And for future reference, it's 'I did it,' not 'Alex do it,' by the way."
"I do it?"
"Close enough."
Samantha slapped her hand over Artemis' mouth unceremoniously.
"Shhh!" She hissed. "Someone's outside."
Alexander had heard it long before either of them, his sensitive ears picking up everything down to a heartbeat. It proved overwhelming at times.
Artemis heard it too now. Voices outside the door and the clicking of buttons and the jingle of keys.
"Watch the little one, he's got more power than a pixie running hot, him."
"What about the cheeky one?"
"That little shit? Morgan took care of him. He's way under."
There was a click and a screech that set the (conscious) Fowl's teeth on edge.
One of the previous LEP members was standing by the door along with several bulky one meter tall guards and a male fairy in a white lab coat.
The fairy in the white coat stepped forward and introduced himself.
"Hello Mr Fowl, my name is Mr Hans Meyer-"
"We're were too you know," Samantha announced, huffily, indicating her two brothers and herself.
Meyer nodded impatiently. "Yes, yes. I know, I know. Children should be seen and not heard, yes?" He said quickly, snickering nervously. He looked on edge.
Samantha strode forward. She was more than a foot taller than the fairy and despite her age, looked very intimidating.
"You know what, I disagree. Now would you get off our case."
Meyer visibly cowered. "I-I-I… I see you've removed your cuffs."
"Don't underestimate us."
"Samantha, sit down, you're terrifying the poor sap."
Artemis pulled Samantha away by the wrist, wrapping an arm around her, reminding her that she was a naive child.
"Enough, you don't know how these people work, Sammy." He whispered, using her pet name to make her feel childish. It worked, though Samantha knew what he was doing.
"Wise move Fowl," said the officer, smirking.
Artemis scowled. "Don't you wise move me. I want you to tell us what you're doing with us, and maybe we can discuss it like adults."
Meyer nodded vigorously. "Yes, yes. N-no good standing here? hmm?
Come, you must feel like escaped convicts. Leave the boy there."
Artemis barked a laugh. "I don't think so. No way am I leaving Domovoi here."
"Fine," Meyer shrugged, turning around. His guards gave the Fowls cool stares. "I guess your hands will be full in the event of confrontation."
Artemis ignored the fairy he supposed was a scientist and handed Alexander to Samantha, then hauled Domovoi's limp form into his arms, then set after his hosts, Samantha tagging behind him.
Domovoi was a dead weight, and half way there, Artemis felt as if his arms would pop out their sockets, so he shifted Dom over his shoulder.
Artemis let his gaze wander over the short corridor down which they were travelling. It was grey. God, this was the largest, most depressing shuttle Artemis had ever seen.
They turned into a room, larger than the cell, but still small by human standards. Their hosts were already sitting. Artemis couldn't help thinking that he was leading himself and his kids to their dooms. It was times like this when he needed a Butler.
Artemis Fowl's Diary, Disk 6
Butler seems, of all things, proud, that I have kept to my promise I made when I was seventeen to be what my mother had intended. Not a crime lord, but a good honest man with a decent job and a family.
Nobody can be good all the time, but Butler consoled me that if I simply wasn't on the wanted list, it was good enough.
Honest? Well, there's only a certain amount of honesty my nature will allow. And I have secrets I need to keep. Past deeds and a certain underworld civilisation. But I have come clean with mother and father about those shadier deals. They weren't proud of my actions, but proud of my revelation. To Father, Beckett and Myles, I have given away the secret of the people, but they are bound to keep it between Fowls.
I am a teacher at the local day school. Day schools, I have discovered, aren't all bad. The education they provide might not be in the same league as ST Bart's, but it is so much less stuck up.
And a family. I think I handled that one well. I have a beautiful wife (but aren't all wives beautiful to at least one person?) who understands what I am talking about, who knows me and accepts me for being me, warts and all. (I don't have any warts. Any future Fowl who is reading this and did not understand that saying needs to go back to school) And of course we have Lewis Domovoi Fowl, who, I must say, is insanely handsome and looks a lot like myself.
We (Minerva and I) had a long, hard, grim extended argument over Lewis' name. Minerva wanted, ever since we found him to be a boy, to call him Artemis. I disagree. While I am honoured that she likes my name so, I don't feel the need to push the ridiculing that comes with it onto my boy. I was determined to call him Domovoi (that was the first time I've seen Butler blush) but Minerva wasn't having it.
So a random name it was. Lewis is agreed on. And of course, Artemis Fowl always gets his way, I slipped the Domovoi in there. He is not legally registered yet, so there's still time for me to convince Minerva we shall call him Dom.
Haven City Conference Building. The Smallest Room. Present
"Artemis, the only conditions in which we could even consider that Alexander was to stay above ground would be to mind wipe him, every human, including Mark, Matthew and Minerva who knows about or has seen one of us, or Alexander in action, mind wipe every fairy who could contact you, Holly Short, Trouble Kelp, Foaly the Centaur, the list goes on, render all your children and yourself infertile and remove Alexander's magic. You see how much influence this child has?" asked Meyer, indicating Alexander, who was no longer sobbing, but clutching handfuls of Samantha's hair.
"Hang on," Samantha shot in before her father could so much as open his mouth.
"Miss Fowl, each one of you three has a small amount of magical DNA. Your elder brother by the least, and your youngest with the most, leaving you in between, but still with a lot less than Alexander, here. The DNA can be passed onto children, as we have seen, and there's a high possibility that it would pass on from you. And then we'd be going through the same procedure again, you see?"
"I suppose."
"Now, Mr Fowl, are you really prepared to do these things to the people you know?"
Artemis answered his question with a question. His suspicion was so high, he thought it might be Atlantis again. After all, he was never really shot of it, and still took the medication once a year to ward it off. He'd no compulsions for decades, but still had an odd preference to multiples of five as a young child might have a favourite number.
"I don't understand why Alexander being underground means that we are allowed to have children, while him being above means the opposite. It makes no sense. I don't think you thought your terms through."
Meyer's nervous stutter and wringing hands returned. Fowl had him, Fowl had him.
"L-let's just say t-t-that those a-are my conditions, M-M-Mr Fowl."
Artemis leaned back in the straight back chair, knowing he was onto something. Usually such body language would have shown smugness, but the illusion was ruined somewhat by the five-foot-one six and a half stone unconscious eleven year old he was still holding with his chest against Dom's back, the boy's head resting on his shoulder so that his mouth were wide open, making him snore.
Artemis pushed Domovoi's head down with one finger, a rather sarcastic look on his face when the boy's chin rested on his chest, making him snore all the more.
"I will so much as start to consider your conditions if you allow Domovoi and Samantha to remove themselves from this situation unharmed until we come to an agreement."
Meyer scowled and flicked his wrist dismissively. "Whatever, Fowl, I find you tiring."
Samantha raised her eyebrows to herself. What is this guy? Multiple personality?
Artemis was expecting some disagreement from Samantha but she kept quiet. She was tired, hungry and found she didn't have the energy for much more back chat.
"Good, I'm glad we can agree on something. Dom and Sam shall stay at the Manor until further notice. Any objections you have will have to go through my mother."
Artemis was hardly going to ask permission on where his children stayed, preferring his commanding role. One thing he disliked about this fairy, among his other flaws, was the way his attitude changed at seemingly nothing.
"But Fowl…"
Meyer startled Artemis by his cold serious voice.
"Be warned. The underworld has racism too."
Bit of a naff last line, but forgive me, okay? I'll try to get this into the plot in the next chapter rather than dancing around the subject of this part, eh?