Ace in the Hole
- Artemis, having been sealed in his surveillance room by Holly,knows that the LEP are using the troll to secure a cry for help.
- He watches the whole thing unfold and suddenly fullyappreciates how amazing Butler is at his job.
- Now that the troll is gone, Artemis contacts Root and gets anearful from Foaly.
- Root takes the mic and gets Artemis's new ultimatum: thirtyminutes to send in the gold, or he won't let Holly go, and he'll leave her to die when he escapes the time-field.
- Root agrees, knowing this is part of the plan anyway.
- Artemis sits back to wait, now that the LEP has taken the baithe left and will pay the ransom believing they'll get it back when everyone is dead.
- Outside the surveillance room, Butler shoots the doorframe toget the door open and retrieve Artemis—Artemis compliments him on the troll fight, and they both question why Holly healed him when she didn't have to.
- It becomes obvious that Butler no longer believes in themorality of the ransom, and maybe even Artemis is beginning to feel a bit queasy about it.
- Artemis doesn't explain the rest of his plan, which sounds pretty dangerousgiven that the fairies are going to bomb the house, but Butler trusts him and leaves it at that.
- Back at the LEP temporary headquarters, Cudgeon tries topretend that the failure of the troll thing was all Holly's fault because she intervened and healed Butler.
- Root now knows that Cudgeon is just pathetic and trying tosave his own skin, so he pretends there isn't any video of the troll fight and thus no proof that Holly did anything at all.
- Even the sprites that were backing Cudgeon for a while abandonhim, so he does the only logical thing and attacks Foaly; Root shoots Cudgeon with the dart he still has in that false finger.
- Root orders the sprites to load the gold onto a hovertrolleyand send it in; Foaly tells him that they only have fifteen minutes before the time-stop disappears and everyone will be able to see them.
- Foaly radios Holly the plan, and she finds out that Artemisintends to sit through the bio-bomb. Even though they kidnapped her, she immediately thinks about Juliet and gets livid that Artemis hasn't told the Butlers what chance he's about to take.
- Butler displays a pretty alarming level of faith in Artemiswhen Holly tells him what he's about to put his sister through, and Artemis threatens to have Butler tranquilize her again—but Butler isn't so sure he would if Artemis gave the order.
- The ransom gold arrives by hovertrolley, driven remotely byFoaly.
- Butler checks the trolley for booby traps and rips out thecamera.
- Everyone stops for a minute to admire the gold, includingHolly, who then tries one more time to convince Artemis to give up his impossible scheme, even offering magic in exchange for returning the gold.
- Artemis claims there is nothing she has that he wants now thatthe gold is his, but briefly glances upstairs and we get the sense that there is something he wants very much.
- Artemis sends Butler and Juliet to unload the gold, andnegotiates a magic wish from Holly.
- Root and Foaly are sitting outside waiting for something tohappen since they lost video feed, when they suddenly see Holly emerging from the house with the ransom gold.
- Retrieval nabs Holly and sprays a radiation suppressant allover her because that helmet she borrowed back from Artemis's stash was leaking radiation (that's probably not good).
- She's steered toward headquarters while the rest of thefairies scramble to remove everything to a safe distance before the bio-bomb is launched.
- As with Artemis, Holly tries to stop Root from going throughwith his plan, arguing for Juliet as an innocent.
- Root refuses to stop the bio-bomb and calls Juliet a "casualtyof war," shocking Holly.
- Foaly chimes in that if they do survive, Artemis will get tokeep whatever gold he's made out with, based on the rules of the Book.
- With nothing left to do but detonate, Foaly presses thebutton.
- Back in the house, Artemis lets Butler know he gave away halfthe gold, but doesn't tell him why.
- Under the pretense of celebration, Artemis knocks Butler,Juliet, and himself out with tranquilizers in champagne—and for the first time ever, Butler loses faith in Artemis and considers killing him as he tastes the tranquilizer.
- Foaly, Root, and Holly watch as the bio-bomb sails into thelobby of the house, and we learn that the bio-bomb is so advanced that it can be fine-tuned to kill everything in a small area and not touch anything outside of that or cause any damage to non-living things.
- Fowl Manor gets a blue rinse, and Holly is strangely sad thatArtemis turned out to be mortal after all.
- Root and Holly put on blackout suits to protect against anylingering radiation, and head back into the house.
- Everything smells like death as they approach, since the bombkilled all of the insects and animals around the house, too.
- They're not getting any readings for life forms inside, butFoaly tells them that the blue rinse throws all that off for a few days so they'll have to check on foot.
- Retrieval steps through the doorway and immediately everyoneexcept Holly starts throwing up on the floor.
- Foaly does a bit of quick research and they realize thosesymptoms indicate Artemis is alive and the fairies aren't invited inside.
- Holly goes in alone since she was already "invited"via the kidnapping, and checks the cell with the gold first because she assumes Artemis's corpse would be with the thing he loved most.
- There are no bodies to be found, so Root issues an order toretreat—Artemis won, and the rules say he gets to keep the gold.
- They head out so they can escape the time field before itdisintegrates, and Holly vows to be ready the next time Artemis appears. We all know there will be a next time.
- We randomly jump over to Mulch again, who smells thehovertrolley with the gold and surfaces right next to it so he can steal two dozen of the gold bars.
- Mulch stashes the gold down in his tunnel and plans to go intohiding (but be rich while he's doing it) as a human dwarf and live aboveground for a while.
- Artemis wakes up to an unusually cold and angry Butler, whodemands an explanation seeing as how Juliet is still knocked out on a couch and Butler didn't really expect they were ever going to wake up.
- Artemis tries to put him off and we realize just how verydangerous Butler is when it comes to people messing with his sister's safety—sure he attacked the troll, but he appears to be about to attack Artemis here.
- Artemis finally explains how the time-stop works: if you'reawake going in, you stay awake. If you're asleep, you stay asleep.
- We find out Artemis tested his theory by inducing sleep in hismother with pills during the time-stop, which is a little creepy but also guaranteed that his plan would work on himself and the Butlers.
- Butler is satisfied and tells Artemis they should check on hismom. Artemis suddenly gets very anxious that Holly didn't keep her side of the bargain with the wish.
- When they head up the stairs, they hear noise coming from theroom and Butler draws his weapon—but Angeline Fowl reappears and is completely lucid, turning Artemis back into a twelve-year-old boy with a mother.
- Angeline tells Butler to get on the phone and call up someYuletide decorations, because apparently it's actually the holidays and time to celebrate.
- Of course, Artemis's last thought is that he will now have tobe sneakier about his plans if his mother is going to be around. Still though, it's worth the extra work.