My Artemis Fowl fan fiction

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

A thousand things registered to Artemis's senses all at once upon his arrival to the interrogation room where Zoey was being kept. For some reason, it was raining. Inside. He was sensible enough to decide that it must have been due to emergency fire sprinklers, but it still shocked him a bit. Zoey was tied to a wooden chair next to a small drain where blood was trailing into. Her blood. Artemis glanced up from the blood-stained tile floor to Zoey's scarred arm. The source of all the red dissolving into the downfall of water from the ceiling. The entire room looked like a giant bathroom sink after a five year old had pulled a tooth. It even sounded like one, what with all of Bowler's furious wails. Zoey laughed at him, despite her pain because he couldn't get a secure footing and kept falling down.

"Zoey!" Butler shouted when he spotted her in the chair and hurried over to help untie her. She gasped and cried out when she saw her father. Once untied, she collapsed into his wet arms, exhausted.

"I want to go home." she mumbled into his suit. "Home with you and Artemis." She added, choking back a sob. Butler threw her arms around her and nodded.

"We'll get you home as soon as possible." He said comfortingly, then looked up to glare at Bowler, still sloshing about on the slippery tiles. "But right now, we have something else that needs to be taken care of first." Zoey knew immediately what he was talking about, and broke away to watch her father do what he did best. Butler walked calmly over to Bowler, picked him up by the neck of his shirt and then dropped him in front of Holly. She firmly placed her LEP special-issue faux-leather boot on Bowler's psychotic head and Butler passed her his beloved Sig Sauer.

"Surrender, Mud Man. We have you now." She growled through gritted teeth. Foaly crossed his arms and glared down at Bowler for added emphasis. They obviously weren't happy about almost being captured and exposed to the entire world. Bowler's face was turned to the right with his left cheek pressed against the bloody bathroom tiles. Artemis could see his face, and it was not the face of someone who had been defeated. It was the face of someone with a nasty trick that they were about to pull. Artemis gasped, about to warn the group, but Bowler beat him to the punch.

"I don't think I'm finished just yet...." He grinned sinisterly, then pressed his ear against his shoulder. Artemis was horrified. He had a cell phone clipped to his ear!

"Seraphina. They're in." The door to the room swung open with a hard jerk and slammed into the adjoining wall, leaving a few broken tiles in its place. Joseph Bowler's daughter, Seraphina was pointing a sleek handgun at Holly.

"The little girl..." Zoey gasped, and Butler pulled out a spare gun kept hidden in his left jacket pocket. Seraphina frowned at him, but kept her gun pointed at Holly.

"You wouldn't shoot a sweet little five year old, would you?" She asked innocently, which honestly didn't look so innocent because of the gun she was holding. Seraphina glared at Holly. "I order you not to shoot me. You're just lucky Raven invited you in the mansion, or else you'd not even be here, Fairy!" Holly immediately dropped her gun, appalled at the little girl's assertiveness. She couldn't shoot the girl. She'd been given an order. Bowler surprised everyone by taking the distraction to his advantage and slipping out from under Holly's boot. He pulled out a gun of his own and pointed it at her, and Seraphina shifted her gun to face Butler.

"Don't just stand there gawking, I told her to say that. She's not THAT perfect you know, but she's close." Bowler said haughtily. Butler grimaced and dropped his gun, not willing to harm a small child either. Seraphina grinned at her father triumphantly.

"I love you daddy." She cooed sweetly. He grinned back at her.

"I love you too, sweetie." They instantly snapped their heads around back to their victims after the bittersweet exchange. Talk about a father-daughter relationship, Artemis thought to himself. He didn't have a weapon to draw, and apparently neither did Foaly, so he raised his hands above his head harmlessly. He felt like a fool. Raven led him right into Bowler's trap. He'd never stood a chance. And after saying nothing at all since arriving in the interrogation room, a very wet Foaly had one thing to say, or rather, mutter under his breath...

"D'Arvit."