Artemis Fowl and the Master Experimentation

Chapter 7

Holly stood outside the entrance to the building in Thetford Forest. She barged into the building and practically ran down the corridor that they had been down to rescue Faylinn. Holly entertained a few dark thoughts about the gilr as she ran, pushing through the doors at the end of the corridor. She stopped dead and looked about herself. All the doors to the cells around her were hanging open, save one at the end. She peered in each as she made her way down the corridor, towards the closed one, but there was nothing in them, not even the beds that there had been previously, just bare rooms. When she reached the last door she blasted the lock off and pushed open the door that fell off its hinges, slamming to the floor with an almighty crash, like a thunder clap. She looked about the room, but it too was empty, all her hopes were dashed. That was, until she saw a small folded piece of paper. She hurried forwards, looking about the cell for dangers that had yet to present themselves and snatched up the scrap of paper. With trembling fingers she flipped open the note, looking down at the words scribbled in the fairy language.

Captain Holly Short,

I am afraid that you have been caught Short, forgive the pun, I couldn't resist. If you are looking for my little glittering prize, as I know you will be, he isn't here. I must warn you now, continue your search and the end of it will be rather abrupt. For you, at any rate. For my little Mud-Man prize, it's all just beginning.

Master 

"Foaly," she said into her helmet mike, "are you getting this?"

"Yes," said Foaly, "and I'm not liking it one bit."

"I'm getting out of here," she said with a shiver, "I have a bad feeling about this place."

"Wait, Holly, "said Foaly, "it seems they've cleared out. Perhaps now's the time to explore this place, find out what it is. I've checked the records, official and unofficial and there is no record of this place anywhere."

"Alright," said Holly.

She snuck forwards, Foaly being unusually quiet, he seemed as tense as she was. Artemis was his friend too. She switched her filter as she went to the theatre doors, checking with the x-ray that there was no-one in the room. There was nothing, not even the equipment any more. She barged her way through and went to the door on the other side, looking through, searching for other life forms. There were none on her infer-red or x-ray, so she went through, raising her visor. She looked about the room which was cavernous and had small wards on either side with signs indicating things such as 'Pixie', 'Gnome', 'Hommosapien', 'Troll' and 'Sprite'. 

"Look up on the furthest wall," said Foaly.

Holly looked upwards and saw a camera perched like a strange type of bird on top of a little ledge.

"Get the cables and put the wire on the green one. It means I'll be able to see what it last saw."

She walked over to the wall and found a panel that covered the wires of the camera, separating the green wire from the bundles and wrapping a small cable around it, the little spikes on it penetrating the covering and infiltrating the wires beneath.

"Got it!" said Foaly excitedly, "Now get out of there Holly, I have a bad feeling about it."

"You don't have to tell me twice," said Holly with a shuder, running back the way she came.

"Right," said Foaly in the helmets speakers as Holly flew low over the Irish sea, "this operation was bigger than we knew. It goes almost entirely under the whole of that forest! All 20,000 hectares of it!"

"What else do we know from the footage?"

"Well, they cleared out within an two hours after you collected Faylinn. There was a huge amount of staff, mostly nurses and doctors, caring for over a hundred 'patients'."