The Lost Colony Read Online Free PDF

minutes.”
    Holly turned away from her prisoner. There were half a dozen elves blocking the entrance to the lane. They were LEP, or something very like it. They wore plain clothes with no markings or insignias of any kind. They were official, though. The heavy artillery cradled in their elbows attested to that. Holly noticed with some relief that none of the guns were pointed at her or Mulch.
    One of the elves stepped forward, popping the visor on her helmet.
    “Hello, Holly,” she said. “We’ve been looking for you all morning. How’ve you been?”
    Holly swallowed a relieved sigh. It was Wing Commander Vinyáya, a longtime supporter of Holly and Julius Root. Vinyáya had blazed the trail for all females in the forces. In a five-hundred-year career, she had done everything from leading a Retrieval team to the dark side of the moon, to heading up the liberal vote on the fairy Council. In addition to this, she had been Holly’s flight instructor in the academy.
    “Fine, Commander,” said Holly.
    Vinyáya nodded at the solidifying mass of rock spittle.
    “Keeping busy, I see.”
    “Yes. That’s Doodah Day. The fish smuggler. Quite a catch.”
    The Commander frowned. “You’re going to have to cut him loose, Holly. We have bigger snails to pop.”
    Holly placed her boot on Doodah’s midriff. She was reluctant to jump through LEP hoops, even for an undercover wing commander.
    “What kind of snails?”
    Vinyáya’s frown deepened, cutting a slash between her brows.
    “Can we talk in the car, Captain? The regulars are on the way.”
    Captain? Vinyáya had referred to her by her old rank? What was going on here? If the regulars were LEP, who were these fairies?
    “I don’t trust the force as much as I used to, Commander. You need to give me something before we go anywhere.”
    Vinyáya sighed. “Firstly, Captain, we’re not the force. Not the one you think, anyway. Secondly, you want me to give you something? I’ll give you two words. Care to hazard a guess what they are?”
    Holly knew at once. She felt it.
    “Artemis Fowl,” she whispered.
    “That’s right,” confirmed Vinyáya.“Artemis Fowl. Now, are you and your partner prepared to come with us?”
    “Where are you parked?” asked Holly.
    Vinyáya and her mysterious unit obviously had a serious budget. Not only were their weapons state of the art, but their transportation was way out of the usual LEP league. Within seconds of scraping Doodah Day and slipping a tracker into his boot, Holly and Mulch were strapped into lounger seats in the back of a stretch armored vehicle. They weren’t prisoners, exactly, but Holly couldn’t help feeling that she wasn’t in control of her destiny anymore.
    Vinyáya took off her helmet, shaking out long silver hair. Holly was surprised.
    The commander smiled. “You like the color? I got fed up dying it.”
    “Yes. It suits you.”
    Mulch raised a finger. “Sorry to interrupt the salon chat, but who are you people? You’re not LEP, I’ll bet my bum-flap on it.”
    Vinyáya swiveled to face the dwarf. “How much do you know about demons?”
    Mulch checked the vehicle’s cooler and was delighted to find sim-chicken and nettle beer. He liberated both. “Demons. Not a lot. Never seen one myself.”
    “What about you, Holly? Remember anything from school?”
    Holly was intrigued. Where could this conversation be going? Was this a test of some kind? She thought back to her history classes in Police Academy.
    “Demons. The Eighth Family of the Fairy People. Ten thousand years ago, after the battle of Taillte, they had refused to move underground, opting instead to lift their island out of time and live there in isolation.”
    Vinyáya nodded. “Very good. So they assembled their circle of warlocks and cast a time spell over the island of Hybras.”
    Mulch burped. “They disappeared off the face of the earth, and no one’s seen a demon since.”
    “Not quite true. A few have popped up over the centuries.