Artemis Fowl: Wreaking Havoc

12. Distributing the Plan

Artemis Fowl was the master of deduction. He could figure out whole identities using deduction; and at the moment, with so little information to work his plan on, it was his only friend.

The boy genius sat cross-legged on the floor of his study, thinking. So far, he had come to the conclusion using both deduction and extensive fairy research that Bay, the exiled fairy – who had to be the one behind Holly’s brainwashing – wasn’t using an alien form of magic: it was simply a mutated form of the basic fairy magic the mesmer. Evidently, it was called the mesmera and was both incredibly powerful and nearly useless to whoever could use it. It was, as Foaly had explained, a mutation, a new characteristic added to the gene pool that allowed the fairy in question to control one individual absolutely but at the cost of almost too much magic for it to be worth it. Anyone could be controlled solely using the voice, with no eye contact required, but the drawback was that if anyone else heard the commands the magic would be doubled, tripled, quadrupled – depending on how many ears the magic affected. The fairy behind the mesmera would find their magic sucked dry if they weren’t careful. There were only three fairies known in history to have had the mesmera.

“That’s the only explanation,” Foaly had said. “It makes sense. Exiled fairies can no longer recharge their magic; they’re stuck with what they have left. I’d make a guess that Bay only had enough for, say, one fairy to place under the mesmera. That’s the only real good thing I can see about the mesmera; once you’ve been under it, you can be put under it again at the cost of no magic. That’s why Bay wanted Holly so bad; maybe he didn’t have enough magic to control anyone else. But why he needed a fairy at all is strange.”

Artemis mulled over this now, taking notes every now and again. Indeed, why did Bane need a fairy?

“Or, to be more precise,” he said, talking to himself, “Why a LEPrecon officer?” One could almost hear the boy’s brain working furiously. At last, he sat up straight with a triumphant air. “Of course! The Alpha Drive! That’s the key to all of this.”

He glanced behind him at his desk, where a slim, telephone-like gadget sat. It was roughly the size of a cereal box, albeit a cereal box with an input and a large button reading TRANSMIT TO ALL DEVICES in the centre. Suddenly, he felt incredibly stupid. It was all so obvious now. His head clearing, Artemis stood up. There were several things he needed in order for his carefully forming plan to work. First, he needed an old friend. Second, he needed two friends who currently resided under the same roof as himself.

“I expect Caballine is missing you.”

Foaly, who had been sulking in one of the many guest rooms with his laptop sitting companionably by his side, looked at Artemis rather suspiciously.

“Yes, she would be,” he agreed. “I should just go back. It’s not as if those guys are out to get me, right?”

Artemis nodded. “You’re right. I would advise you to go, if only to see how she’s doing, but I have a favour to ask of you as well.”

Foaly clip-clopped over to Artemis, laptop now under his arm. When Artemis Fowl the Second asked for a favour, you could be sure it wasn’t going to be a request to buy an ice cream on the way.

“I need time stop towers,” said Artemis, getting straight to the point. Foaly’s mouth dropped open almost comically.

“That’s – that’s illegal!” he exclaimed, backing away and tripping over his hooves. “I – no, no, no. I can’t do that. As tight as we are, Artemis, I can’t do that.”