Categories > Books > Artemis Fowl > The Charity Case
Chapter Four: Treachery
Artemis sighed in frustration. This was really far too much stress for one adolescent; of course, he had no one to blame but himself. It had been two weeks since his airport attack and he was still no closer to finding out who was behind it. He had spoken to Butler about it and they both agreed that the potential assassin was both an amateur hit-man, he had missed a ridiculously easy target at close range, and he was most likely one trying to avenge a personal grudge, no one who wasn't acting in anger shot at someone in a place as open or as crowded as an airport like that man had. However, aside from these deductions Artemis was at a complete loss. He had exhausted all his sources and he still had no idea who would be angry enough with him to try and kill him.
There was also the problem with Matt; despite a valiant effort on both their parts the two boys could simply find nothing to bond them. Matt had tried to understand higher science and mathematics but no matter how much Artemis tried to simplify them they were still way over Matt's head. Likewise Artemis had tried to take an interest in skate boarding but there was only so much attention he could pay to something that amounted to nothing more than an elaborate way to hurt oneself. He had already dealt with several kinds of pain on his adventures and he saw no reason to inflict anymore without even having the motivation of saving some lives.
That brought about the third problem. As much as he hated to admit it Artemis sorely missed his fairy friends. Now that Holly was a civilian it would be much harder for her to come to the surface and almost impossible for them to arrange a meeting. It was true they spoke every so often but it wasn't the same. To make matters worse she hadn't even called recently, apparently things weren't going well at her detective agency. Artemis hoped that she was getting along fairly well though; he hated to think she might be living on a street.
There was a knock at the door interrupting the boy's thoughts, a moment later Matt walked in carrying what appeared to be all the text books he had and then some. Lately the young English boy had taken to having Artemis help him study the material his classes were covering. It had only taken Matt a few days after orientation to realize just how intense his education at St. Bartleby's would be compared to his old public school and that things would be much easier over-all if Artemis helped him along.
With a sigh the young genius turned away from his desk and prepared himself for another evening of grim patience. He didn't mind teaching Matt, in fact he quite enjoyed it, but it was infinitely annoying to have to correct all the teachers' mistakes before being able to get through to the boy.
"Are we going to be working with any particular subject tonight?"
"Well I'd like to go over everything we're doing in general again," said Matt, "but we also have a test on The Lord of the Flies in our English class tomorrow. We should probably study for that especially."
"I suppose I'll have to come in to take that then," said Artemis with resignation.
Matt looked slightly sad for a moment, it was times like this that Artemis saw that the boy was really quite emotional though he tried to hide it. "I wish you would come to class more often Artemis, it's so dull when there's no one to talk to."
The previous year Artemis had proven his intellect to his teachers on countless occasions so he had been allowed to skip a grade this year and was now enrolled in most of Matt's classes. The total number of days Artemis had actually attended these classes was currently at two now, it had only taken that long for his teachers to get fed up with him and give him passes to the library every day.
"Well it's really the teachers' fault. If they didn't massacre their subjects so much I would be able to stand sitting through them." Suddenly he noticed something odd. "Matt, what happened to your face?"
Matt touched his left eye self-consciously, there was a vivid purple bruise forming around it. He was slightly surprised Artemis hadn't noticed it sooner but he had seemed distracted when Matt had first entered the room.
"Oh, this thing is nothing," he said with false cheer. "I just fell."
Artemis didn't say anything to this remark but if his expression could be translated into words it would have been something along the lines of "It is an insult to my intelligence and yours if you think I'm going to buy an excuse that pathetic so you had better tell me the truth or at least something a little more possible." Matt wished he could take a picture; it was a very funny face.
"Alright, I get it. I did actually fall, but it was into someone's fist. After that I also managed to have my stomach fall on that fist several times, it was quite embarrassing clumsiness on my part."
Artemis's eyes widened, "Someone beat you up? Who? Why?"
Matt shifted uncomfortably, "It wasn't that bad, Butler happened to be walking along the field we were on and he broke it up pretty fast."
"That doesn't make it alright. As long as you're at this school you're my responsibility and I need to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again!"
Artemis was surprised at how adamant he felt about this. It struck him as a personal blow that this boy who actually wanted to be his friend should be hurt without his knowledge. He wondered why Butler hadn't told him what had happened. Matt was quiet for a few moments before finally giving in.
"I don't know what their names were but there were three of them and they were defiantly upperclassmen. It seems they don't like the idea of a pauper like me being in their school." He looked up at Artemis. "What do you think I should do?"
What to do indeed, they couldn't just go to the teachers, bullies here tended to have half-a-dozen alibis set up before they even finished planning their cruelties. Any investigation into these alibis would just make them angrier the next time they targeted Matt. This was a bit of a dilemma.
"Do you think you could recognize these three if you saw them again?"
Matt nodded, "I definitely could."
The criminal mastermind smiled vampirically, "Then I think I have a plan."
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Several time zones away Daniel Crane touched a bruise, very similar to Matt's, which he had received a few days before. He had no doubt he deserved the injury, he had been stupid, undeniably stupid.
Two weeks ago he had let his anger get the better of him. When he had learned the Fowl boy would be out in the open for the first time in weeks he couldn't resist going after him. What had resulted was a scenario so embarrassing that anyone who had even read a book about assassinations would have hung their head in shame. To his credit though Daniel Crane was not an assassin, he was an art thief.
What few people understood in the criminal underworld was that he and his partner Andrew Sparrow were not mere art thieves. They were the art thieves. Almost every major art theft within the past decade had been organized or at least been involving the two and their lawyer business front. They were held the world over as the top of their trade. They were untouchable.
Or so they had thought.
Artemis Fowl had not been a name they had attached much worry to. They knew he was a child-genius and a criminal mastermind but his crimes were in a different field than theirs, a comrade of sorts, not an enemy. Then, seemingly overnight, he had changed. He had started robbing thieves, and then making himself into a modern-day Robin Hood by giving away what he had taken.
This might have still not bothered Sparrow and Crane but then Artemis went after them. He stole the jewel of their crown, The Fairy Thief. Their reputation crumbled, people started questioning if they were losing their touch; business was going down the tubes and it seemed their life's work might be ruined.
As if that wasn't enough, he had kept stealing from them! Artemis probably didn't know who had previously been in charge of the seven masterpieces he had recently returned to the public but they all went back to the same source. They knew that something had to be done about this outrageous boy and they had decided it would be best to finish him. Crane had tried to this himself but he was an anger-prone lawyer not known for his aim. It had been a horrible blunder and now the boy would be on high alert.
He had defiantly deserved that punch.
Andrew Sparrow had been pacing the room for the past five minutes speaking Russian into his cell phone. Finally he hung up and turned to Crane.
"You're lucky, I finally found someone willing to deal with our little problem after the botch job you did on it. He says he's going to wait a few months for the boy's suspicions to go down but it'll be done."
"Good," said Crane with an evil sort of smirk, "now we should focus on our real business. I hear there's a delightful painting called the "Old Woman in the Wood" showing in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston this week, maybe we should take a look."
Artemis sighed in frustration. This was really far too much stress for one adolescent; of course, he had no one to blame but himself. It had been two weeks since his airport attack and he was still no closer to finding out who was behind it. He had spoken to Butler about it and they both agreed that the potential assassin was both an amateur hit-man, he had missed a ridiculously easy target at close range, and he was most likely one trying to avenge a personal grudge, no one who wasn't acting in anger shot at someone in a place as open or as crowded as an airport like that man had. However, aside from these deductions Artemis was at a complete loss. He had exhausted all his sources and he still had no idea who would be angry enough with him to try and kill him.
There was also the problem with Matt; despite a valiant effort on both their parts the two boys could simply find nothing to bond them. Matt had tried to understand higher science and mathematics but no matter how much Artemis tried to simplify them they were still way over Matt's head. Likewise Artemis had tried to take an interest in skate boarding but there was only so much attention he could pay to something that amounted to nothing more than an elaborate way to hurt oneself. He had already dealt with several kinds of pain on his adventures and he saw no reason to inflict anymore without even having the motivation of saving some lives.
That brought about the third problem. As much as he hated to admit it Artemis sorely missed his fairy friends. Now that Holly was a civilian it would be much harder for her to come to the surface and almost impossible for them to arrange a meeting. It was true they spoke every so often but it wasn't the same. To make matters worse she hadn't even called recently, apparently things weren't going well at her detective agency. Artemis hoped that she was getting along fairly well though; he hated to think she might be living on a street.
There was a knock at the door interrupting the boy's thoughts, a moment later Matt walked in carrying what appeared to be all the text books he had and then some. Lately the young English boy had taken to having Artemis help him study the material his classes were covering. It had only taken Matt a few days after orientation to realize just how intense his education at St. Bartleby's would be compared to his old public school and that things would be much easier over-all if Artemis helped him along.
With a sigh the young genius turned away from his desk and prepared himself for another evening of grim patience. He didn't mind teaching Matt, in fact he quite enjoyed it, but it was infinitely annoying to have to correct all the teachers' mistakes before being able to get through to the boy.
"Are we going to be working with any particular subject tonight?"
"Well I'd like to go over everything we're doing in general again," said Matt, "but we also have a test on The Lord of the Flies in our English class tomorrow. We should probably study for that especially."
"I suppose I'll have to come in to take that then," said Artemis with resignation.
Matt looked slightly sad for a moment, it was times like this that Artemis saw that the boy was really quite emotional though he tried to hide it. "I wish you would come to class more often Artemis, it's so dull when there's no one to talk to."
The previous year Artemis had proven his intellect to his teachers on countless occasions so he had been allowed to skip a grade this year and was now enrolled in most of Matt's classes. The total number of days Artemis had actually attended these classes was currently at two now, it had only taken that long for his teachers to get fed up with him and give him passes to the library every day.
"Well it's really the teachers' fault. If they didn't massacre their subjects so much I would be able to stand sitting through them." Suddenly he noticed something odd. "Matt, what happened to your face?"
Matt touched his left eye self-consciously, there was a vivid purple bruise forming around it. He was slightly surprised Artemis hadn't noticed it sooner but he had seemed distracted when Matt had first entered the room.
"Oh, this thing is nothing," he said with false cheer. "I just fell."
Artemis didn't say anything to this remark but if his expression could be translated into words it would have been something along the lines of "It is an insult to my intelligence and yours if you think I'm going to buy an excuse that pathetic so you had better tell me the truth or at least something a little more possible." Matt wished he could take a picture; it was a very funny face.
"Alright, I get it. I did actually fall, but it was into someone's fist. After that I also managed to have my stomach fall on that fist several times, it was quite embarrassing clumsiness on my part."
Artemis's eyes widened, "Someone beat you up? Who? Why?"
Matt shifted uncomfortably, "It wasn't that bad, Butler happened to be walking along the field we were on and he broke it up pretty fast."
"That doesn't make it alright. As long as you're at this school you're my responsibility and I need to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again!"
Artemis was surprised at how adamant he felt about this. It struck him as a personal blow that this boy who actually wanted to be his friend should be hurt without his knowledge. He wondered why Butler hadn't told him what had happened. Matt was quiet for a few moments before finally giving in.
"I don't know what their names were but there were three of them and they were defiantly upperclassmen. It seems they don't like the idea of a pauper like me being in their school." He looked up at Artemis. "What do you think I should do?"
What to do indeed, they couldn't just go to the teachers, bullies here tended to have half-a-dozen alibis set up before they even finished planning their cruelties. Any investigation into these alibis would just make them angrier the next time they targeted Matt. This was a bit of a dilemma.
"Do you think you could recognize these three if you saw them again?"
Matt nodded, "I definitely could."
The criminal mastermind smiled vampirically, "Then I think I have a plan."
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Several time zones away Daniel Crane touched a bruise, very similar to Matt's, which he had received a few days before. He had no doubt he deserved the injury, he had been stupid, undeniably stupid.
Two weeks ago he had let his anger get the better of him. When he had learned the Fowl boy would be out in the open for the first time in weeks he couldn't resist going after him. What had resulted was a scenario so embarrassing that anyone who had even read a book about assassinations would have hung their head in shame. To his credit though Daniel Crane was not an assassin, he was an art thief.
What few people understood in the criminal underworld was that he and his partner Andrew Sparrow were not mere art thieves. They were the art thieves. Almost every major art theft within the past decade had been organized or at least been involving the two and their lawyer business front. They were held the world over as the top of their trade. They were untouchable.
Or so they had thought.
Artemis Fowl had not been a name they had attached much worry to. They knew he was a child-genius and a criminal mastermind but his crimes were in a different field than theirs, a comrade of sorts, not an enemy. Then, seemingly overnight, he had changed. He had started robbing thieves, and then making himself into a modern-day Robin Hood by giving away what he had taken.
This might have still not bothered Sparrow and Crane but then Artemis went after them. He stole the jewel of their crown, The Fairy Thief. Their reputation crumbled, people started questioning if they were losing their touch; business was going down the tubes and it seemed their life's work might be ruined.
As if that wasn't enough, he had kept stealing from them! Artemis probably didn't know who had previously been in charge of the seven masterpieces he had recently returned to the public but they all went back to the same source. They knew that something had to be done about this outrageous boy and they had decided it would be best to finish him. Crane had tried to this himself but he was an anger-prone lawyer not known for his aim. It had been a horrible blunder and now the boy would be on high alert.
He had defiantly deserved that punch.
Andrew Sparrow had been pacing the room for the past five minutes speaking Russian into his cell phone. Finally he hung up and turned to Crane.
"You're lucky, I finally found someone willing to deal with our little problem after the botch job you did on it. He says he's going to wait a few months for the boy's suspicions to go down but it'll be done."
"Good," said Crane with an evil sort of smirk, "now we should focus on our real business. I hear there's a delightful painting called the "Old Woman in the Wood" showing in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston this week, maybe we should take a look."
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