Author's Note: I do apologize for the EXTREMELY long delay. There's a lot of projects I'm working on, and they eat up so much time in addition to my day job. I can't promise it's going to get any better any time soon, either. You can always follow my blog and website (found in my profile) if you want to keep up to date on what I'm doing.

Chapter 8

Sean Broderick did not look like a man nearing 40. Artemis would have guessed just from the face that appeared on his monitor that Broderick wouldn't even have hit 30. A head of short red hair without even the slightest fleck of grey, smooth skin without even the slightest hint of wrinkles... Artemis knew that wealth allowed you resources to fight the effects of age, but he didn't think it was thatgood yet.

"Artemis Fowl the second." Sean grumbled with a voice that bordered between disinterest and annoyance. "What can I do for the son of an irksome business partner? Try and make it quick; I have a staff meeting in twenty minutes."

And so Artemis told him. About three minutes in, Sean held up a finger to stop him.

"Give me one moment." He then turned his head off-screen, presumably to open a communication to someone else, and said, "Ingrid. Cancel my staff meeting. Reschedule for 8pm. Thank you."

Then he turned his attention back to Artemis. "Alright, Fowl Junior. You've got my undivided attention. This elf you've been fucking. Where is she?"

Artemis pursed his lips and bit his tongue. He knew from Butler's notes on Sean that the American held little use for proper decorum or sensibilities, and did not mince words or soften his language even when tact would be to his benefit. Living in a world than needed him a lot more than he needed the world allowed that behavior, Artemis supposed.

But that didn't mean he wasn't going to curl his lips at such a crude description of his relationship with Holly. "Major Holly Short is outside my office. I'd request you not be so crass."

Sean ignored the attempted correction, instead saying tiredly. "Get her in here."

"Why?"

Sean rolled his eyes. "Because I have questions that you won't be able to answer. She will. Get her in here."

Artemis began to feel sorry for everyone who knew him as a teenager. Because he suspected how he felt talking with Sean right now was how others must have felt talking to him. On one hand, Artemis understood that when you had something that needed to be done, it was best to get it done than waste time with pleasantries.

On the other... life had slowly showed him how irritating it could be to deal with such a personality.

Taking a deep breath, Artemis slid his chair back, and stood. "I'll be not even a minute."

He left his office, into the living room, and said with clenched teeth, "Broderick wants to question Holly."

Butler nodded in affirmation to the former elf, and so she stood. Artemis slid his arm around her waist, and said, "A word of warning, he is every bit as abrasive as Butler claims."

Holly flashed him one of her trademark smirks, "Like I haven't dealt with abrasive people before."

She changed her tune within about a minute of talking directly with the man on the other end of the video call. "Major Holly Short." Sean said flatly, "I am to understand that you were LEP, correct?"

"Yes, Mr. Broderick."

"Well that's about as useful as fuck all." He replied. "The LEP has nothing to offer me other than lessons on how to drive your organization straight into the ground via gross incompetence."

Holly clenched her teeth, and used Artemis's steadying hand on her knee as comfort. "I... really wish I could disagree. I trust that's not what you wanted to ask me."

"When you visited the Fey den, what was the Magister's name?"

"Zartoo."

Sean's hands folded in front of his face. "Well that's wonderful." He declared in a voice that implied that it was anything but wonderful. "Were there any other Fey you were introduced to... at least by name?"

"Nebanazar... he was..."

"The claysmith, yes. He's the one that handles the transformations, and of course you would have been introduced." Sean interrupted. "Hardly necessary to mention, as that should have been obvious. Anyone else?"

Holly grit her teeth again, forcing back annoyance, and telling herself that this was just like dealing with the Artemis of old. She could manage him... she could manage this man. "No. Any other Fey I met was not named."

"No mention of a Vanzant?"

Holly shook her head. "No."

From behind Sean, a woman's voice interjected. "Vanzant is old even by Fey terms. It's not out of the question that he would have stepped down or ceded some responsibilities to his protege."

Sean spoke again, though he remained focused on the call. "I don't like power shifts. I especially don't like power shifts among the Fey. And I really don't like power shifts among the Fey that I don't know about."

Artemis couldn't help but notice the hint of animosity. "Odd that you would say that about your allies."

Sean's green eyes went dark. "The Fey are not my allies, Fowl Junior. Hell, I trust them less than the fairies. But they have an important use, and I'd rather have them where I can keep an eye on them rather than have them doing God-knows-what in the shadows."

Holly licked her upper lip, and nervously asked, "Mr. Broderick... why do you distrust fairies?"

He leveled a steely, disapproving glare in her direction, "I am asking the questions here, elf, not you. Am I clear?" When Holly nodded sheepishly, he added, "Which brings me to my next question... what exactly did the Fey say I could do for you?"

Holly blinked, "They didn't say, honestly. Just that your address was a place of sanctuary."

"Well, they were mistaken." Sean snapped. "I do not run a home for runaway elves that make stupid decisions." Then with a glare at Artemis, he growled, "And certainly nothing for idiot humans who decide to go pussy diving with some damn fairy."

The woman's voice interjected again, this time louder, implying that she was closer to the microphone. "Sean, dear. A word."

"Not now." He growled.

"Yes, now." She retorted, not the least bit intimidated. "Mister Fowl, Major Short, we will just be a moment."

"Do not move." Sean warned. "You stay right where you are until I get back."

The screen went black, and the camera at the top of Artemis's laptop started flashing red to indicate it had gone on standby. "I wonder who that was." Holly asked.

"That was Miss Rachel Doe." Butler answered from just outside the door. Apparently, he had moved to that position following Holly. "Although nowadays it is more accurate to call her Mrs. Rachel Broderick. They married in May of 2008, if I remember correctly."

Holly allowed herself a cheeky grin. "That would explain why she wasn't bothered by his barking."

"For the same reason you don't listen to me anymore?" Artemis replied.

"Yep!"

Artemis frowned. "You weren't supposed to admit to that."

She bumped him in the shoulder playfully, and that caused Artemis to crack a warm smile. A nervous silence followed for the next five minutes until the screen flashed back to life. Sean Broderick was back at his position, and did not look entirely pleased.

"Fowl, you can vouch for this elf?"

Artemis nodded. "I've known her for years. She's my very best friend. If she was the treacherous sort, she would have had many, many opportunities to have taken advantage of. Hell, if anything, I've been the distrustful one over the years."

"That doesn't surprise me." Sean replied with a scoff. "Alright, here's the deal. There... are things I might be able to do for you, provided you can get here on your own. I've got far too many important things in the air to be sticking out my neck for the two of you and drawing attention from every damn Lower Elements organization that is looking for a reason to pick a fight with the 'mudmen', do you understand?"

"Clearly." Artemis replied. "Thank you, Mr. Broderick."

"You can thank my wife, if you ever meet her." He groused. "She's the one who appealed to my compassionate side." After a pause, he asked, "I assume Domovoi Butler is around somewhere?"

Artemis debated on how to answer that question, when Butler answered for him. "I am."

Sean nodded in what seemed like passing approval. "Good. Listen to him, and maybe you'll survive the trip. Broderick out."

The communication abruptly ended, and Butler gestured for them to follow him back to living room. "Let's not waste time."

Back in the living room, Butler went straight to the point. "I know the Fey told you not to move until they give word, Holly, but as much as I am loathe to say it, Broderick is not a paranoid personality. If he doesn't trust the Fey, it's for good reason."

He met eyes with the former elf, and his unspoken sentiment was clear. If Broderick didn't like fairy-kind, it was for a good reason as well, at least in his mind. Holly, at this point, didn't see much reason to argue.

Butler said, "If this LEAF is as aggressive as you say, I have a hard time believing they aren't already in position, even if legally they aren't supposed to. So we're going to move tonight."

"I'll make arrangements for a flight." Artemis offered.

Butler shook his head. "I have a hard time believing you aren't already deemed a flight risk. They'll be watching for any flights, especially ones leaving the country." He shifted topic slightly, saying, "We're going by boat. A shipping freighter leaves Bristol at 6 am tomorrow morning, and will arrive in New York Friday at 10 am EST Thursday morning."

"By boat?" Holly asked.

"Two reasons. One, the systems on board this ship are rather antiquated. It doesn't have the cloud connectivity that many new vessels do, making us harder to trace. Second, the captain is letting us pay with cold hard cash. That will be seven hundred euro, by the way Artemis. I'm sure you have that on hand."

Artemis pursed his lips. "If I don't, I'm sure there's an Emerald CU along the way."

"We'll be meeting Juliet in New York. She doesn't know our plans... yet. She only thinks I'm arriving for a bit of a road trip across the U.S. Atlantic Coast."

Artemis nodded, "Because she doesn't have 'safe' communications."

Butler turned to Artemis's laptop, calling up a map of the United States. "Even then, just in case we don't slip out completely clean, we'll be taking a long route in a 'safe' car."

The bodyguard's finger traced a rough line, down the Atlantic coast into South Carolina, then west across Atlanta and St. Louis, down into Dallas, then San Diego, Los Angeles, and further up the Pacific coast to the Seattle area. "It will be a long trip, without question, but I don't want to take any chances."

Artemis put a comforting arm around Holly's waist. Neither of them could disagree with the plan, understanding the need to be cautious. For the first time in all their adventures, there really wasn't a fallback option. Even in the darkest times, they knew they could count on someone in the Lower Elements, like Foaly, to come through. This time, they couldn't count on anyone but themselves.

Butler kept working on the details of their trip through lunch, setting the ground rules they would need to follow. Stay out of sight. Pay with cash only (as even if Emerald debit cards were 'clean', the servers used to process purchases most likely were not). Let Butler and eventually Juliet do any and all talking. The former bodyguard drilled those points, among others, repeatedly to the point that Holly was getting irritated by it.

"Butler, I've done covert missions before." She grumbled.

"Yes... as the escort, I'm sure." Butler reminded, "But likely not as the one being guarded. You're actually the one I'm worried about. Artemis knows this side of the relationship. You don't."

Holly frowned. He was right, of course. It was an entirely different set of rules than what she was used to, and if she made any misstep, it could be disastrous. It was jarring to realize that she was likely the weak link for once. "Point made, Butler. Sorry."

Artemis hugged her, and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "It will be fine, Holly. We'll get through this."

Butler consulted his watch, then said, "We'll have to get up really early, so it might not be a bad idea to get some rest now while you have the opportunity. Let's have dinner, then rest up for our trip."

Dinner was a quiet affair, with Holly determined to make the most of the last night before their adventure started. She made sure Artemis knew it too, with each suggestive glance and smile, with each "accidental" contact at the dinner table, to the subtle strokes of her foot against his leg under the table.

Butler pretended to not notice, ignoring the "discreet" suggestions, at least until Holly made to attempt to hide it any longer. Shortly after dinner, Holly collected the dishes, and was prepared to take them to the sink when Butler stepped in. "Go on now. Do what you want to do." He said with a resigned smile.

Holly grinned sheepishly, before nearly skipping away, and taking Artemis by the hand, leading him towards his bedroom.

Butler knowingly called out, "I was young once. I know what happens. Just remember you have a very early morning. Don't be up too late fooling around."