Alternate ending to Artemis Fowl- chapter 5: To the rescue

Disclaimer: I don't own the Artemis Fowl series.

Somewhere high over Germany, One day earlier:

Juliet checked the weapons, for the literally hundredth time since they had gotten onto the jet. Sighing Artemis put the plane on autopilot and walked up to her. "Juliet, stop worrying. Everything is going to work out just fine." Juliet stopped reassembling the Sig Sauer and frowned up at the Irish genius. Worry visible on her brow, but with purpose in her eyes, she answered him with a slightly high-pitched voice.

"Worrying? I'm not worrying. Why would I be worried? Your plans always work out. I just hope you haven't lost your touch in your six month absence. Maybe we should play chess just to be sure that–" Artemis rolled his eyes. "Juliet, you can't tell me you're not worried. You have been viciously cleaning the guns over and over again, aside from the fact that you can't stop the anxiety from showing in your body language and mimic. As to your question if I have, as you said lost my touch, I can reassure you, I have most certainly not. Now let's go over the details of the plan, shall we?" Juliet noticeably relaxed. "Finally. I already thought you wouldn't tell me anything."

Several hours later the jet's board monitor gave off an annoying sound, effectively disrupting the conversation Artemis and Juliet were having. Artemis stood gracefully from his seat on one of the expensive leather airplane seats and calmly walked into the cockpit. "We've reached Israel. I'm going to land the jet in approximately thirty minutes on the outskirts of Negev." Artemis slid into the pilot's seat and turned the autopilot off. He was adjusting some of the settings, readying the plane for the landing process as Juliet joined him in the cockpit and flopped down onto the seat of the co-pilot.

"Just tell me one more time why you want Opal to know that you are back in the world of the living." Artemis pinched the bridge of his nose. "Listen Juliet, I understand that we would have an advantage if Opal thought I was dead and didn't know who attacked the camp in Negev, but the point is that the risk of her uncovering the truth eventually, is too high and our possible and unique vantage point would be gone. She will be shocked by the news when they reach her and in the way we are going to deliver it, she is bound to make a mistake."

"And what if she doesn't? Make a mistake, I mean. She will be hunting us and we will have no advantage. And if she does make a mistake, what kind of slipup are you looking for anyway?", Juliet snapped.

Artemis shrugged his shoulders. "At this point, I don't know. A flaw in her system. We are scrambling for information here, Juliet. All we know is that Opal reigns over the leaders of the world with an iron chain, imprisoning thousands of people and fairies alike and all we know is that Butler is here in Israel. Nevertheless she doesn't know that. At best Opal will think we know the locations of all the others and reinforce her guards there. The moment she does, we will know. I only have limited access to her computational system, but any change in orders I would be able to intercept."

Juliet stood slowly and laid a hand on Artemis' right shoulder. She nearly whisper-choked out her next words. "Let's just hope there are any others left." Artemis bit back an outburst of emotion and gripped the yoke even tighter, turning his knuckles white in the process. His stoic poker face with a tint of anger and determination was back in place by the time he answered. "If there aren't, I at least want Opal to know who exactly is coming for her."

Juliet straightened her back. "I better go gear up. Yell when you want me to put on my seatbelt or just flash the 'Fasten your seatbelt' sign." With that she was off to the table with the guns stacked up on again. Probably rechecking them. For the one hundred first time since they had gotten onto the jet.

The plane touched down in the middle of the desert. About an hour's walk away from the camp where Butler was being held. Where her brother was being held. Juliet put on her sunglasses and stepped out of the jet. Her heart was pulling her south towards the only blood-relative she had left. She took a glance at her watch and started walking north. Every step felt heavier than the one before, but she believed in Artemis' plan. So she kept on walking.

Artemis left the jet about 20 minutes after Juliet had left, a laptop bag swung over his shoulder, binoculars hanging around his neck and a smartphone in his breast pocket. He on the other hand went down south. Already despising the heat and sun burning down on him. He walked until he came to a small hill, occasionally cursing his new body that was still stiff and not used to walk for 45 minutes straight in the desert. On the other hand, Artemis thought, he had never been an athletic person, because quite frankly, he never really needed to. Normally, Butler would have driven him or Holly would have flown. Just the thought made his heart ache. Hopefully he was up to the task ahead. Artemis slowly climbed the hill, lying on his stomach at the top of the hill to oversee everything that was going on beyond. He mentally made a note to change into yet another of his suits later.

Artemis scrambled for his binoculars. Not 500 metres away was a large field divided by tape into ten rows and each row consisted of 10 squares. Each square had a side length of about 5 metres and in every single one of them was a man shovelling. Between the rows armed soldiers stood watch. Searching the rows, Artemis nearly missed the square on the second row to the far right. His heart ached at the sight of his loyal bodyguard and most trusted friend. He had lost weight and looked utterly exhausted, hadn't shaved in a while and wore tattered clothing, but it was without doubt Domovoi Butler shovelling in the ground of the Israeli-desert.

The first part of the plan had been simple enough. Juliet was to go to a small village in the North and bribe a person into delivering a burner phone to the general of the soldier-run camp. Artemis had done a complete background check on the camp in Negev through the small loophole in Opal's computational system that he still had access to. In order to not mistake a prisoner from a person of the village, the soldiers had handed out cards to the villagers. These villagers could also go into the camp at any given time for free rations in exchange for done work or any kind of important product. Plan A was Juliet bribing a person into going and delivering the phone. Plan B was to either buy or steal a card from one of the villagers, but then Juliet would have to deliver the phone herself and that was risky, too risky.

Artemis' smartphone chimed and a single letter made Artemis nearly leap in joy.

From: Juliet

A

Artemis wasted no time in pulling out his laptop and set to work, all the while keeping watch on the camp. Always one eye on his friend.

Juliet and Aiken, a seventeen year old Israeli boy, rode on a small carriage towards the camp. They past the line of walking prisoners being escorted back to the camp and Juliet kept an eye out for her brother, but in the crowd of a hundred tired and hopeless souls she couldn't find the face she had been yearning to see for four months. Crushed she settled back down. After about ten minutes she told Aiken to stop the carriage. She handed him the phone and fixated Aiken with her eyes. "You know what to do. Don't blow it. Or I swear –" Aiken just nodded. Juliet handed him the money, then she swung off the carriage, hurrying to get off the road. She didn't even bother looking back as Aiken set of in the direction of the soldiers' camp.

Artemis had followed the train of prisoners and guards for some time now. Butler as well as the other prisoners had been handcuffed. They were nearly at the basis. From this point of view it looked like a medieval castle converted into a military fortress. Two towers adorned either side of the gate. Three more were connected to the ones at the gate through stone walls circling a huge courtyard. At the top of the tower on the other side of the basis was the antenna and main server, linking the camp digitally to the world beyond. Where was Juliet? Artemis' smartphone chimed again.

From: Juliet

In position.

Artemis split from the crowd and started sprinting lowly around the walls. This was the hardest part. For him at least. He wasn't allowed to take longer to reach the tower with the antenna undetected than the prisoners needed to reach the gate. Just as he reached the tower, a scream pierced the air suddenly. Artemis took a glance at his watch and panic began to sweep through him like a tidal wave. He was too late. Already sweating and disgusted with himself, he started to climb fast. He hated this.

Juliet had scaled the left tower of the gate effortless. It felt good to finally do something athletic and meaningful again. She really missed her wrestling times. For being a military fortress, it had major flaws. When climbing the round tower from the front, neither the guards on the wall nor the guards at the gate saw her climbing and on top of the towers were no guards stationed. Just as Artemis had said.

She crouched on the top of the tower, set off the message to Artemis and watched the guard patrol the wall to her right. That had been the only valuable in Artemis plan: The guard. He knew that it would only be one guard, but in which time lapses said guard would patrol the wall, Artemis couldn't predict. Everything was timing now. The prisoners were approaching. Juliet peeked over the cordon to once more look for the familiar face in between the prisoners. This time she saw him. She halted at the sight of him. Hold on, she thought, I'm here, Dom.

5 minutes went by. 10 minutes to eight pm. Juliet screwed the silencer onto the Sig Sauer she had taken with her. She counted the seconds now, took aim at the female guard's shoulder that was leading the train of prisoners and pulled the trigger. The woman hollered in pain and the guards were on full alarm almost immediately. Juliet turned to the hatch in the middle of the tower's platform. It was a trapdoor that needed a special chip card to enter. The red light irritated her. It was supposed to turn green any moment now. Artemis was supposed to plug into the server and get the hatch open for her. But the red wouldn't turn green.

Juliet improvised and jumped onto the wall, landing soundlessly as the guard approached the tower. The guard's reaction wasn't fast enough. Juliet spun and her jade ring, woven into her ponytail connected with the guard's temple, knocking him unconscious, before he could even do something as trivial as scream. She pushed him over the cordon, snatching the key-card in the process and went through the door at the side of the tower.

Artemis had reached the top, pulled the laptop out of the bag and plugged it into the server. What if Juliet had been caught? What if she had been killed? What if he was alone? From the top of the tower he could see all the prisoners ushered through the gate into the yard. A message from Juliet let all the tension and worry in Artemis dissolve. She was in. Without his help. They were back on trek. He set his smartphone next to his laptop and took a glance at his watch. 5 minutes to the full hour. 2 minutes until he called whoever Juliet had bribed into giving the burner phone. An officer stood at the front of the lined up prisoners. Behind them were the guards that had lead the prisoners back to camp. Artemis wasted no time, digging up dirt on the commanding officer in the front and started dialling a number on his smartphone.

Meanwhile Juliet had infiltrated the ranks of the guards, wearing a uniform she had snatched up in the village. Well, she had knocked out the guard stationed at the village and robbed him of his uniform. By the time that soldier was found, Artemis, Butler and Juliet would already be high above the clouds. As she joined the guards watching the prisoners, she attached small devices to every guard's neck as she passed. The devices were so light, no one noticed a thing. Juliet's job was done. Now Artemis had to work his magic.

The phone in Aiken's hand vibrated and the boy picked up. A cold voice on the other end of the line gave him an order. To hand the phone to the commanding officer. Aiken carefully walked up to the man in question currently holding a speech to the prisoners. All eyes were on him, but he wasn't a prisoner, so he wasn't a threat. He extended the hand with the phone and signalled the officer to take it which he did. Aiken breathed a sigh of relief. With enough money in his pocket to get his family through the rest of the year, he left the camp.

"Hello General Staines, you might not know me, but I know you, your wife and your children. Most importantly I know about your mistress in one of the villages nearby that you have quite a chat record with. Turn the speaker on or I assure you, your wife is going to find out about the little affair you were having, thus taking everything you had worked so hard to achieve, away from you."

Artemis spoke slowly but in an emotionless voice he hadn't used in sometime. It felt foreign to his own ear. A look at his watch told him 10 seconds left to the full hour. The general put him on speaker and Artemis smiled. "Tell Opal Koboi the hunter hunts again." And with that he hang up and simultaneously pressed enter on his laptop, emitting a signal through the antenna to every advice Juliet had attached. Nearly every guard fell down, rendered unconscious by an electrical shock. Juliet took out the rest.

Artemis unlocked every door in the military fortress, unplugged his laptop and made his way to the yard. By the time he arrived, it was nearly empty. The commanding officer as well as every prisoner had fled. Probably the officer from the prisoners and the prisoners from this camp, Artemis mused.

Juliet opened Butler's handcuffs and leaped into his arms. Butler struggled with her weight, but hugged her tightly nonetheless. "Jules, I'm exhausted. I can barely stand." He sat Juliet back down. She still beamed up at him, nodding understandingly. Butler's eyes landed on Artemis as he was walking over to the siblings. "It's good to see you, old friend. Although I must say, you look awful."

Before Artemis could process what was happening, Butler was engulfing him in a crushing hug. "The last time I saw you, six months ago, you were lying in my arms on the grounds of Fowl Manor. Dead. How is this possible? Please tell me this is really you, Artemis and not just an illusion." Still in the hug, arms pinned to the side, Artemis tried patting Butler's back, but only managed to reach his side. "I am here, Butler. This isn't a crux. I will fill you in on the way to the jet about what happened as of yet, but first let's get out of here."

With a gruff 'Okay' Butler let go of Artemis, looked at him with watery eyes shortly and then said: "Before we go, you two don't have water with you by chance." Juliet tossed him a bottle and the three made their way out of the gate towards the plane.

Upon seeing the jet Juliet stopped short and turned to the genius walking between the two trained fighters. Said prodigy halted as well and turned to her. "Is something wrong, Juliet?" "Just one simple question, Artemis. Now that Opal knows that you are alive and we have Butler back, where exactly do we plan on staying? We can't very well go back to Fowl Manor. She'll be searching there first." Artemis smiled at her and kept on walking. "That's why I asked you to put everything useful from the Manor and barn into the jet. We won't be flying to Fowl Manor. In fact we won't be going to Ireland at all." "Then which country do you plan to go to, Artemis?" They stepped onto the plane. "France."