This is the sequel to The Council: Chapter 1~ Amy.

The Meeting

Amy stared at the little man sitting next to her, a wide smile breaking through her tired face.

“Glad to see you Mulch. I thought I would get stuck with Grub again.”

Mulch turned his sunglasses up to her and chuckled from under the coat.

“Grub? Grub Kelp? No, he’s locked himself in his apartment, says he has a highly contagious disease and can’t risk spreading it.” Mulch shook his covered head. “Lazy scum. He just doesn’t want to come to work. By the way it’s Mitch Dreggum up here.”

Amy looked at him, laughing. “Why do you need an alias? You’re not in hiding, you’re just picking me up.”

Mulch gazed out at the canyon. “I’m not sure, actually. Just kind of routine by now.” He stared around at the humans passing by and taking pictures of themselves by the famous canyon, smiling as if the land feature was the most hilarious thing the tourists have ever seen. He looked up at Amy. “How much time do we have?”

Amy looked at her watch. “Fifteen minutes.” Mulch nodded and slumped against the bench, giving nervous looks at the sun.

“I’m going to find more shelter. Don’t move.” Then he walked away, toward a small gift shop filled with over-priced snowglobes. Amy smiled after him and leaned against the bench, watching the preppy tourists. Finally, after weeks and weeks, she was going back. Back to the People.

At least once every two months, Amy along with a whole council of students would recieve messages on the handheld given to them by the LEP and travel down underground to meet and discuss any problems the People needed solved. There was one council member from each of the major countries or regions in the world. All of the members were children of extraordrinay intelligence, most of which had run into the People at least once and had evaded memory wipes. Amy was part of this group, having found out about the People four years ago and had been wrapped up in the whole thing since. Others were tracked down because of their brains or past projects.

Amy sat back and wondered what the meeting would be about. The so called “advanced” curriculum at her school was hardly a challenge for her, and the meetings gave her something to do.

After ten minutes or so, Mulch came back holding a snowglobe (”What? They’re ineresting.”)  and motioned for her to follow. Amy walked with him to a heap of rock next to the edge of the canyon. He looked around to make sure no one was looking, and then slipped into a small hole in the rock. Amy squeezed after him and found herself in a small cave, a eight foot by eight foot room and four feet tall. Amy sat down beside Mulch as he tapped certain parts of the wall with a thin piece of metal, then poked the center of the ceiling, and another small opening appeared in the floor next to Amy. She followed Mulch through it and entered a tiled room where a fairy sat at a desk, working a crossword puzzle and glancing once or twice up at the TV on his desk, playing a fairy soap opera. Mulch walked over to the desk and jumped on top of it. The pixie screamed and fell out of his chair, holding the crossword in front of his face as if it could protect him. Mulch laughed and jumped off the desk.

“Nothing gets by you, huh Verbil?” he said, chuckling, staring at the trembling pixie.

Verbil sat up against the wall, breathing hard and looking at the ground.

“I wish you would stop doing that, Mulch. I’m far more alert then you thik I am. I was, um, it was– ”

“A good part?” Mulch said, chuckling and nodding at the TV. “Just buzz us in Verbil, we’re late.”

Verbil grumbled and pressed a button under his desk, alerting a door to swing open. Mulch and Amy walked through it into a large shuttleport. Amy looked back at the door as it swung closed behind her.

“That’s new.” she said. Mulch looked back at the door.

“You mean Chix’s little clubhouse over there? Yeah Foaly added that. Not state of the art, of course, but he felt like we needed more security and this is the best within our current budget. Holly’s not thrilled, but the People have been begging for security against you kids.” The two boarded the shuttle, and within minutes they were in Haven.

“Come on.” Mulch said pushing Amy through the crowds and into a car with tinted windows. “Before too many notice you.”

Amy sat in the car and was immediately driven to Police Plaza. After many more annoying security checks she was in a small, white room, with a bed, dresser, small table, and stocked mini fridge. A giant plasma screen TV was spread across one wall. Mulch looked around the room.

“I always hate coming in here. They really spoil you kids.” he sighed and walked out of the room. “I’ll see at the meeting!” he called and then the door shut behind him. Amy looked at her watch. 17 hours to go.

–*–

16 hours and 50 minutes later

–*–

“Wake up sleepy head!”

Amy fell out of her bed, and found herself looking up at Mulch’s face (how often can you be looking up at a dwarf?). She glanced at the clock and groaned.

“Oh jeez, do we have to leave now?” she said, tossing her hair in a messy ponytail, and stuffing her glasses on her face.

Mulch rolled his eyes. “Stop whining, and hurry. We have to go now. Foaly’s grumpy, and will through a fit if anyone’s late. It’s amazing how much missing cup of coffee can irritate a person.”

Amy grabbed the handheld and followed Mulch, trying to keep up with his quickened strides (trying to keep up with a dwarf?). He led her to a large door (well large for Haven), and typed in a number of digits to a pad by the door. It slid open and Amy walked into a room with a table that was pushed against one side of a dense, glassy wall.The table was large and took up most of the small room, with three people sitting around it. One was a Japanese boy, with short, spikey hair, a bright shirt and jeans. His head was on the table but he raised it groggily when he heard Amy walk in.

“Hey Aims.” he said, “Grab a translater. We’re almost ready. Just got to wait for the princess to show up.” Amy nodded and took a device resembling a human headset off a shelf.

“New translaters?” she asked as she fixed it into place.

The boy nodded. “Yah. New and improved, according to Foaly. Personally I don’t see a difference, but whatever.” He yawned and stretched. The boy next to him glared.

“They are different, Lee. The latest in Parafol Industries. The tone quality is improved, plus it holds more lan–”

“I know what it does, Frederick. Relax. What have you been doing the last few weeks, anyway? Besides worshiping Princess Parafol, of course.”

Frederick opened his mouth to talk when a tall, black girl across the table spoke, sharply. “Will you two give it a rest? Five minutes and you’re already at each other. Just sit there don’t even look at each other.”

Frederick turned away, fuming, as Lee laughed lightly and began scrolling through files on his handheld, very similar to the one Amy had. The black girl turned to Amy, rolling her eyes. “Hey Amy, anything new?”

Amy sat down and smiled. “I don’t know. Am allowed to tell you, or do I have to run it by the dictator?” Suddenly the door opened and a tall girl with curly blonde hair walked in and sat at the end of the table.

The black girl grinned. “Speak of the devil.” The tall girl took a translater and sat down at the edge of the table.

“Please take your seats and sit at attention. I have to take roll before we start.” she said, her voice strong and silky. Amy and the others walked to their seats, as the girl at the front pulled up a list on her handheld.

“German representative, Frederick Klein?”

Frederick raised a shaky hand. “H-here.” he said. The blonde nodded and Frederick sighed and began frantically patting down his light brown hair, while breathing fast.

“South African representative, Shainna Loh?”

The black girl raised her hand, rolling her eyes at Frederick. “Here.”

“Japanese representative, Lee Jin?”

Lee raised his hand and mumbled a muffled “Here” into the table.

“American representative, Amy Kandonsen?”

Amy raised her hand. “Here.”

The blonde nodded. “And French representative, Minerva Paradizo? Here!” She giggled and made a mark on the handheld. Shainna and Amy rolled their eyes as Frederick sighed longingly at Minervas laugh. Lee gave a snore from the tabletop. Minerva pressed a button on the edge of her handheld. “Squad 2’s here Foaly. Start when you’re ready.” A cocky voice came from the handheld.

“Very good. Hold on, squad 4 still hasn’t buzzed in.”

Minerva nodded and set her head in her hands smiling at the other four. “Well it’s good we’re on time.” she said giggling again. Amy looked at her.

“No thanks to you! What took you so long, anyway?” she said, angrily.

Minerva smiled at her. “I took a little nap after I got here and I woke up a little later then I wanted to. It took me a while to get ready. Some people take pride in our appearance, Amy. Maybe I could teach you sometime.” 

Amy blushed, suddenly aware of her messy ponytail and pale face. Shainna looked at Minerva cooly.

“Well, Minnie, some of us take pride what we do here more then ourselves. Maybe we could teach you sometime.” Minerva glared at her but before she could say anything, Frederick spoke up.

“Great new translaters, Ms. Paradizo. One of Parafol’s best work, I’d say.”

Minerva smiled and straightened her own translater. “Thankyou, Freddy. But it wasn’t that hard. It only took Arty and me a few hours– oh nevermind, you four aren’t supposed to know the names of the other representatives.”

Shainna rolled her eyes. “Please Minerva how could we not know about Artemis Fowl? With all he’s done for the People in the past nine years. The only drownside is the fact that he’s blind.”

Minerva looked puzzled. “What are you talking about? He’s not blind.”

Shainna grinned. “Oh sorry. But really, Minnie. Why else would he set up a busineiss with a snake like you?”

Both Minerva and Frederick opened their mouths to speak, but before they could say anything, Foaly’s voice came from Minerva’s handheld.

“Okay…we’re ready. Here we go.” Suddenly, the glassy wall the table was pushed against turned completely transparent, and the five representatives looked through it, to find four more rooms, all having transparent, glass walls so that it appeared to be one long room. Three of the rooms each had five human teenagers, like Amy’s room, but the fifth room, the one set right in the middle, had fairy representatives sitting along the table. Amy could see the usual crowd: Holly, Foaly, Mulch, Trouble, Doodah, No.1, a pixie named Hynu, and it looks as if the council had been persuaded to finally let a goblin in. A representative from each of the main fairy creatures. Foaly looked up and down the table carefully, making sure they really were all there. He nodded an turned to Holly. “Ready?”

Holly rolled her eyes. “Well seeing as we’re all here and the windows are engaged I kind of have to.” Foaly grunted and looked up and down the table.

“Alright men, women, fairies, we have a problem that has recently arose. Grub Kelp has been found dead in his apartment. No sign of struggle. No bullets, laser marks, signs of bio bombs, or any usual murder methods. And we know for a fact it wasn’t suicide. He was killed by disease, but we don’t recognize the symptoms and it seems to have gotten worse at one moment instead of over time. The details are with your leaders. You have an hour to discuss, then we’ll get back to everyone as a group.”

Amy glanced up and down the table. Almost everyone looked as shocked as she felt. Even Mulch and Doodah looked astounded. Amy shot a glance at Trouble. He was looking at Foaly, forward and at attention, as always. But his eyes were red today and there were dark shadows under them. Amy looked away, as the walls became darker and she found herself once again alone with her team. Minerva was typing something on her handheld, not looking up. Frederick’s face was blank and shocked. Lee had his head off the table and was still staring at the dark wall, where the rest of the council had not long ago been visible. Shainna’s face was red and tear-streaked. She stared at Amy with wide eyes. Minerva set down her handheld and looked at her team.

“Alright, the details are being emailed to you. Please pay attenion.” A holographic report shot upward from Minerva’s handheld. She began to read.

“Kelp was found last night, 8:09 mmt, by a pizza delivery pixie. The pixie knocked a few times and the door, not being closed properly, opened. We have video footage from the apartment buidings security cameras to approve this, which has also been mailed to you. The pixie poked his head into the apartment, yelled for Kelp, who didn’t answer. The pixie was curious and walked into the apartment. He turned a corner and saw Kelp.” Minerva sighed and continued. “The pixie called the LEP at 8:10 mmt and they arrived at 8:14 mmt. They took him to a lab and examined the body. They questioned family members-” she breathed in a shuddering breath. “-and discovered that he has been complaining about a deeply contagious disease. He also left a story of his past few days with a doctor who thought, as many others, that he was over-reacting, since there were no obvious symptoms.” Lee looked up at her.

“So he felt a disease but nobody else could detect it?” he asked. Minerva nodded.

“It seems so.”

Lee began scrolling through the new files on his handheld. His brow furrowed as he skimmed an article. “Hey-” he said setting th handheld on the table. “Look at this.” A holographic image shot up. “The doctors report says that Grub complained of blinding headaches and dizziness. The doctor thought it was just need of sleep and ignored it as important. Yah, yah, blah, whatever, ok. This is interesting. Grub wouldn’t allow the doctor to come to his house to examine him in person because he claimed the disease was outrageously contagious. When the doctor asked how he knew that Grub whispered that ‘they told me it would kill everyone. Don’t come after me.’ Then hung up. Now that’s unlike Grub. Something serious must have happened.”

Shainna nodded and began flicking through her files. “And these descriptions about his last few days. He told the doctor over the phone. The doctor described him as shaky and nervous. Do we have recordings of the conversations?” 

Minerva shook her head, sorting through files. “Not that we know of. There was no reason for the LEP or anybody to record it. We just thought it was Grub being Grub.”

Amy looked up. “Why didn’t the doctor report anything? The odd behavior, the warning? Who is the doctor? The pixie?”

Shainna skimmed a report and looked up. “The doctor was Johnon Sdef, an assistant of Dr. Argon, age 164. The pixie is called Fahd Feew, 96. Works at some new pizza place over by route 342.”

Amy looked at her in disbelief. “Johnon? Johnon Sdef is a part of this?”

Shainna nodded. “Yah, why? You know him?”

Amy blushed. “Yah, we’ve met. Nevermind. The first thing to do is arrange interviews with them, of course. Record them and we can run them by Foaly to see if he can get anything off of them.”

Lee nodded. “Yah, but that’s later. Our job is to figure out what we got from the information we have now.”

“Let’s review from the beggining.” said Minerva. “Look through the descriptions of his days before death.” They all began scrolling through the files, but suddenly the wall lightened and revealed the rest of the table. The other squads looked up, surprised. Lee looked at his watch.

“This isn’t right.” he whispered. “It’s only been twenty minutes.” Foaly looked up and down the table, his face white. The fairies around him looked as shocked and scared as he was.

Foaly spoke, his voice shaky. “We have just gotten word that Fahd Feew has been found dead in his car.”

Some other stories by ambi:

• Update on The Council!! Second chapter!!
• I NEED HELP!!!
• The Council: Chapter 1~ Amy