Opal Koboi curled up in her Koboi hoverchair like a contented cat. There was no way Short or Fowl could have survived the bio-bombs he had the Brills send after them. Even if Short did survive, the LEP would be on to her like goblins to a stinkworm. Of course, she was quite wrong.

As Holly raided the medicine cabnet for many hours, Artemis made the phone call to Butler.

Ring. Butler picked up on the first ring.

“Artemis!”

“Yes. It is me, old friend” answered Artemis

Butler couldn’t hold back a sigh of relief. “Where are you? I had headed back to our room and found it blasted up”

“Hmm…?” Holly’s helment had started beeping. A proximity alarm flashed. The moving becon was approaching at alarming speed and it was blue. Holly gasped, although Artemis didn’t hear her. 

“We are currently in a surveillance hide in Temple Bar. But never mind that now. That’s not the important bit. The important part is-”

Holly had seized Artemis’s shoulder and dashed out the door. And not a second too soon. A bio bomb with several booster rockets burst through the pod. Every insect in the pod shriveled up and died. Holly started up her wings and left for Fowl Manor with a bickering mud boy on her back.

Merv and Descant breathed a sigh of relief. There was no way Short and Fowl could’ve cheated death again. Hopefully. Miss Koboi had only built two bio bombs, as they were extremely costly to manufacture. If they weren’t eliminated and Opal found out…

 

Foaly banged his head on his keyboard. There was no way. No way.

Foaly was in the Operations booth sweating out the constant verbal abuse administered by Sool. But it wasn’t the barbed comments that was worrying the technical advisor. It was Holly. How could ANYONE believe that one of the best Recon officers suddenly just went mad and decided to shoot her commander? Even worse, he was being forced to help Retrieval find and capture Holly.

Suddenly, something caught the centaur’s eye. The becon dot! It disappeared from view.

“Uh oh…”

“What are you uh-ohing about, centaur?” Sool demanded.

“Holly’s becon dot has disappeared from my radar”

Sool cursed. Already a newly appointed commander and there was already a loose cannon.

“Hm…this could prove a problem”

“Commander! We have a situation!” a LEPretrieval member hollered in Sool’s ear. “before you lost contact, we had found Captain Short with former public enemy number one: Artemis Fowl. After we blasted through the Kronski hotel, she took off with the mud boy”

“What?!” Foaly sputtered. Sool seemed half delighted, half agitated.

“We’ll set a Retrieval course for Fowl Manor tomorrow. It seems unlikely that Short or Fowl could make it there in a day. Sign out a survalience upgrade, centaur and we’ll send in the Retrieval”

“Have you considered the possibility that Fowl is behind all this and everything was set up somehow?” Foaly asked. After Artemis was mind wiped, it was highly possible he had reverted to a crimminal. Not to mention it took away the idea that Holly really did shot the Commander.

“I don’t take opinions from civilians. And besides, you are telling me that Fowl could have made the Commander’s murder so convincing? Short is a bad egg, simple as that” Sool left the Operations booth, leaving Foaly fuming.

Butler arrived at Temple Bar. The cham pod shorted out and it was as plain as day after the bio bomb detonated and the radiation bounced off the walls long enough to cause ample damage. It was clear to Butler that Artemis was no longer there. Butler sighed and headed to Fowl Manor, unaware that he was expected…

Okay, this MIGHT stray a little from the script. I dislike the Opal Deception and I didn’t REALLY understand it that well. I might not even use the whole “Zito Probe” thing. The Opal Deception was really confusing!

Holly and Artemis were five miles south of the pod and were trying to catch their breath. Too close. One more second and they would’ve been radioactive slop.

“What’s our next move, Artemis?” Holly panted.

“We head for Fowl Manor. My parents are in a spa out of town” Artemis answered.

Two different parties. One common adversary. One same chain of fate… 

Some other stories by Star Jinin:

• Short Update!
• Beautiful Lie
• The Unknown Audience
• Reason to Live
• Death Note

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