Again, apologies! But I got a new laptop! Yay! It makes updating easier, because all the keys work! Whoop!

Writing this is getting a bit muddled. The storyline is sort of hard to get a grasp on for me at this point. I'm very sorry for it being jumpy and vague.

You don't want to hear me waffle, so I'll just get on with it!

Chapter 10

Bingo

"Dom!" Artemis shouted up the stairs. "There's a girl here called Hannah and she wants to speak to you!"

Domovoi's head poked through the banister. "Okay, ta, Dad." He said, hurrying down the stairs. He put a hand on the door and looked at his father expectantly, who was still standing in the doorway.

"Dad," Dom prompted, nodding his head as a gesture to leave.

"Oh, right, sorry. I'll just… nice meeting you, Hannah…"

Hannah smiled brightly up at Artemis. "Nice to meet you too, Mister Fowl. Don't worry, I'm not Domovoi's girlfriend!" she told him cheerfully, with a perfectly straight face. Artemis went red.

"N-no, that's not what I was implying-"

"No, really Mister Fowl-"

Dom glowered at his dad. "Just go, Dad."

"R… right…" Artemis muttered; walking back into the house, feeling slightly dazed. What had that been about?

Dom considered leaning against the doorframe like a 'cool dude' but decided against it. He wasn't up to pretending to be who he wasn't today.

"You didn't pick up your French homework on the way out of the classroom. You must have forgotten." Hannah's intentions sounded angelic, but her voice implied that she had known perfectly well that Domovoi had not picked up the homework as an excuse not to have done it.

"Thank you," he muttered sounding entirely ungrateful.

"The sheet explains what you have to do," Hannah told him, handing over several sheets of paper filled with tasks that looked, overall, quite boring.

"But it's in French," Dom exclaimed. "I can't read this!"

Hannah did an infuriating know-it-all face. "Well, Miss said that you should be able to read it. But if you can't, put it into Google Translate or something."

Domovoi grumbled for a bit, putting the homework on the table in the hallway, with a bunch of letters that looked like bills, and other various things which looked important, but not like they would ever be regarded again.

"Anything else?"

Hannah frowned at him. "You're not really the conversationalist, are you? You didn't even invite me in."

Domovoi raised an eyebrow. "Why should I?"

Hannah sighed as if life were just too hard to contemplate. "Oh never mind, I'll just go. Thank you for that lovely friendly chat!"

She turned, waving nonchalantly over her shoulder, long blonde hair instantly whipped away by the wind.

Domovoi closed the door to find his younger sister standing behind it.

"You certainly have a way with women," she told him. "Not that I'm saying it's the right way, but it's definitely a way."

"Shut up," he responded automatically. She didn't really react. They both stared at each other for a few moments, before Samantha asked the question they both knew was standard.

"Want me to do that for you?"

Domovoi looked over at his French homework and back at his sister. He nodded, blushing madly and handing it to her.

"Thanks, Sam."

"No fuss," she replied, dancing back up the stairs like a fairy, or something.

Like a fairy or something.

Like a fairy.

Dom felt himself start to feel sick. He felt bad for forgetting his brother today, and felt even worse, because it had felt good. But now he remembered, he also remembered the feeling like someone was pulling at his insides constantly. That constant, slightly painful, ache, not specifically for his brother, but for some knowledge. He felt so in the dark, damn it. But he didn't want to ask, because he had a feeling that the reason he knew nothing, was because him mother and father knew nothing either.

Samantha sat cross-legged in her bedroom, going through Dom's homework without even thinking. This is probably the best method anyway, because her mind not thinking was on the same level as Domovoi thinking hard. Or at least that was what she had told herself.

One good thing that came out of this whole affair was that her mother and father were talking civilly. Though it was strained, and Samantha knew that the chance of everything in their relationship ever working out was minimal, it didn't stop the childish sense of happiness that Mummy and Daddy were getting along.

And Alexander. Then there was always Alexander.

And her parents were chasing their tails unless she gave them an idea. What were they? Stupid? Sometimes, she felt like screaming. They were both genii for heaven's sake! This should be mildly challenging at the least!

What would her poor brothers do without her? She wondered, as she folded Dom's homework sheets and sat down at her desk, switching on her laptop.

What harm would a little hacking do?

Really, thought Samantha, totally unimpressed. The fairies needed a better internet server if an eight year old could hack it. She surfed through the LEP files with the key word 'Alexander' and didn't get much that she didn't already know. Mostly about how he had to be monitored. She tried searching through again with 'Fowl' and just got a load of stuff concerning one Artemis Fowl II and a big mess about a cube and the kidnap, which she'd been told all about. The disappearance of Artemis Fowl and Holly Short was in there, how their parents had met, she knew. Something involving demons.

Samantha sighed, closing the LEP files as to not get distracted by her father's misadventures.

Then she had an idea. If the Lower Elements Police didn't know Section 8, the organisation that strived to know the secrets that the LEP didn't know, would definitely have the answers.

She searched the database for anything concerning Alexander Fowl.

Of course, using the Fowl name, anything concerning any one of them came up in the search, including a study of the psychological behaviour of some Sylvian Jonathon Fowl.

"I can't believe you two!"

Artemis and Minerva looked up from Artemis' laptop screen, which displayed Foaly's stressed visage. Artemis didn't look in the least bit pleased.

"Samantha, you're being rude, and we're busy. Can this wait?"

Samantha was unfazed. She pointed accusingly at her parents and yelled loud enough to drag Domovoi away from Call of Duty.

"No, it can't! You're so blind! He was right under your noses the entire time, and you two are pissing around asking Foaly!"

"Hay, watch your tongue, lady," Foaly chipped in before Artemis or Minerva could open their mouths. "If my foals ever talked to me like that…" he muttered, going off on a tangent.

"Pissing around… What the hell, Samantha? Stop talking to me like that! We know where Alexander is, remember? We just need to get a case to take to court to get him back!"

Foaly raised an eyebrow at the scene before him. Samantha Fowl was a polite and collected child. Why was she screaming at her parents like that? What had she found?

Then Foaly got it. He needed to hack into Section Eight. Whatever it was that she'd found, it would be there.

It took him only a minute to get into the case-files regarding magical humans. He searched in 'Alexander Fowl.'

Samantha was close to tears. She felt like pulling at her hair and screaming. She felt like kicking something. Someone. Not just because they hadn't seen it, but because she hadn't either. So stupid!

A clicking could be heard from the table where Foaly was displayed onto Artemis' laptop screen as his clicking from his keyboard was picked up by the sensitive microphone on the fairy line. He searched though. Nothing they didn't already know.

What had that girl found?

He broadened the search to 'Fowl.'

"Dad…" Samantha ran forwards and clutched her father's shirt, rather violently, knocking the wind out of him a little. "Dad… You wouldn't believe…" she muttered into his midriff, tears turning his purple shirt almost black.

What I wouldn't believe… There.

There was a file on Sylvian Fowl. Why would there be a file on Sylvian…? Foaly opened it and skimmed down it, his face growing longer with every paragraph.

If Artemis found out…

"Cloning! They brought Sylvian back to life, Dad. They cloned him. He's with Alex…" Samantha began to cry, grabbing fistfuls of her father's shirt and squeezing it as if it would cry for her. "They cloned him. They brought him back…"

Sorry about short-ness again, this one only just made six pages. I really wanted this to be a nine page chapter, but stopping here seemed good.

Samantha has little part in this version, and she's really very clever. I don't think I play up her intelligence enough, and in the final draft, she's very clever indeed, and she finds out a lot of political things with Artemis, so I'm having her discover a lot of stuff in here that Artemis would have originally found. So yes, Arty seems stupid. Sorry about that.

Again, apologies about Minerva. I know, she's just there. I need to get used to her being in the room. I'm finding it hard to write her. Haaaaah…

Also, I'm using Microsoft Word, which gives you a full line break if you press entre once, unlike Works, which I used before. I hope the spacing came out alright!