War changes people

Plans

Artemis POV

The day kept getting better and better. How many things could go wrong in just one day?

Artemis always had the possibility of an organization dedicated to law-keeping knocking at his door at the back of his mind but today was plainly a bad day.

He needed a plan but before that he needed information. He turned his rolling chair completely to Juliet.

'How close?' He said

'Huh?' Asked the winded bodyguard

'How close is Interpol to the house? How much time do we have? How do you even know they are coming?' Clarified Artemis rashly.

'They are at the edge of our former property. A farmer complained to us through the phone that some black SUVs trampled his wheat. I say we have a maximum of 10 minutes until they get here. I can buy you 3 to 4 minutes with talking. More if I use a gun but-'

'No need. 10 minutes is more than enough. When they arrive, show them their way to the living room and I will be there shortly. If they come here earlier buy me enough time to reach 10 minutes. And inform my mother, she is excellent at misleading the authorities.' He said collected although a smile almost crept to his face from the time that Interpol had come for his father. By the time the officer managed to disentangle himself from her he didn't even want to arrest the "poor, misunderstood, kindhearted businessman". This didn't seem to help Juliet's psychological state.

'Artemis what are you talking about? You must leave. You are considered dead and although they don't have any tangible evidence they have reasons to believe you are connected to a multitude of crimes! We must arrange a helicopter to-' She was interrupted yet again

'Juliet' He said and paused to calm her head. When she seemed to calm her breathing he continued. 'Listen to me. I need you to trust me alright? I promise you everything is going to be fine. Now go downstairs, please, and do what I said as our time is very limited.' He said and with that he turned back to the screen where Minerva had been listening without saying anything. Artemis heard Juliet rushing downstairs behind him and the door closing.

'Got a plan?' Minerva promptly asked. It was refreshing to have a person that instead of worrying went right to the gist of it.

'Sort of.' Said Artemis uncertainly

'Do you even know where to start your planning from?' Said Minerva having obviously detected that he was close to zero

'Yes.' He said with a smile in a more self assured tone. 'By you.' She didn't seem to have expected that. 'I need you to close this connection and leave no trace of it on the satellite. Then I need you to continue as I told you before. Take these files I dowloaded from the government.' He said and sent his backup files to her.

They were about 1 terabyte of information and it would take way more than 10 minutes to transfer if his computer wasn't an improved version of the C-cube. The way things stood now it was already at 30%.

'Inside here is all the information I would relay to the People when Holly contacted me. I need you to transfer them now. I don't know how much time it will take for me clear out the air downstairs and time is a luxury we currently don't have. I know I ask a lot of you and I am sorry but you are the only person I can turn to. Will you do it for me?' He asked feeling the guilt looming over him ready to crash him the second he stopped being tense from the circumstances for what he was asking of her.