The Arctic Incident

The second book in the Artemis Fowl series is set in a world where fairies, elves, dwarfs, goblins, and other magical species live in a technologically advanced civilization called the Lower Elements, hidden beneath the earth's surface. Their police force, the Lower Elements Police (LEP), keeps their existence secret from the humans above.

A psychological profile frames the backstory: Thirteen-year-old Artemis Fowl II is a criminal genius whose schemes were driven by the disappearance of his father. Artemis Fowl Senior, a crime lord attempting to go legitimate, loaded a cargo ship bound for Murmansk, Russia. The Russian Mafiya sank the ship to eliminate competition. A prologue set two years earlier shows two Mafiya enforcers, Mikhael Vassikin and Kamar, recovering a badly injured survivor and identifying him as a valuable hostage for their boss, Britva.

In the present, Artemis attends Saint Bartleby's School in Ireland, where his mother, Angeline Fowl, has enrolled him in counseling. Angeline recovered from a mental health crisis thanks to a deal Artemis struck with the elf Captain Holly Short in the previous book: his mother's sanity in exchange for half the fairy ransom gold he had stolen. During a session with his counselor, Dr. Po, Artemis receives an urgent call from Butler, his lifelong bodyguard. An e-mail has arrived containing a video of a scarred, one-legged man tied to a chair, wearing a sign reading "Hello, son" in Russian. Artemis believes the man is his father and resolves to mount a rescue.

Underground, Holly has been demoted to stakeout duty. While surveilling a disused pressure elevator beneath Paris, she detects movement that has evaded fairy thermal sensors. Her partner is shot during reconnaissance, and Holly defies Commander Root's orders to rescue him. She pursues two goblins from the B'wa Kell, a goblin crime syndicate. They wear human-manufactured reflective suits that fooled the sensors. The goblins' weapon is an outlawed softnose laser powered by a human battery, classified as Class A contraband, the LEP's highest category of banned human-fairy technology. Foaly, the LEP's centaur technical consultant, confirms someone intelligent is arming the goblins. Holly suspects Artemis, and Root authorizes her to bring him underground.

Holly ambushes Artemis and Butler at Fowl Manor, using the mesmer, a fairy hypnotic power, to subdue Butler and transport them to the Lower Elements. Foaly's Retimager, a device that reads physical etchings on the retina, clears both humans of involvement. Root realizes Artemis could be useful: The LEP needs humans to track the B'wa Kell's supplier aboveground. Artemis agrees to help in exchange for fairy transport to the Arctic and assistance rescuing his father.

The true villains operate in secret. Opal Koboi, a pixie tech magnate whose company holds most LEP defense contracts, is funding the goblin uprising. Her partner is Briar Cudgeon, a former LEP commander left disfigured and demoted after the first book's events. Opal planted spy cameras and sabotage devices in all LEP systems during routine upgrades. Their plan: Opal will eventually restore weapons, the goblins will be crushed, and Cudgeon will emerge as savior while Foaly takes the blame. Their human pawn is Luc Carrère, a Parisian private investigator mesmerized into sourcing supplies for the goblins.

Butler goes alone to Carrère's Paris apartment while Artemis and Holly monitor through an iris-cam, a tiny camera implanted in Butler's eye. The mesmerized Carrère fires a fairy weapon, but Butler contains the blast with a prototype shield and disarms him. Carrère knows nothing about goblins. Artemis warns the resolution feels too convenient, but Root dismisses his concerns.

Foaly traces the ransom video to Murmansk, and Root agrees to escort the group to Russia. Meanwhile, Foaly identifies Cudgeon as the traitor through fingerprint analysis, but Cudgeon enters the Operations Booth with a gun, knocks Foaly unconscious, and locks him inside.

In the Arctic, a B'wa Kell hit squad ambushes the group. All fairy weapons are dead, sabotaged by Opal. The goblins trigger an avalanche that traps Butler and Root. Holly and Artemis leap aboard a passing nuclear waste train. Artemis opens a carriage from the roof, but the heavy door slams shut, severing Holly's trigger finger. Root and Butler, connected by piton cord, are dragged free and hauled aboard. When Artemis falls unconscious on top of Holly, he accidentally absorbs her remaining magic through skin contact, leaving her unable to heal. Artemis finds an emergency Ritual kit on a chain around Holly's neck: a sealed sphere containing earth and an acorn that can restore fairy magic. They reach soil beneath the ice and bury Holly's hand with the acorn and severed finger. Magic erupts and restores her completely. Upon waking, Holly punches Artemis between the eyes.

Haven City, the underground fairy capital, descends into crisis as the B'wa Kell wages open war and LEP weapons remain useless. Captain Trouble Kelp orders a retreat to Police Plaza, LEP headquarters. Cudgeon manipulates the Council into reinstating him as commander. Foaly, trapped in the booth, discovers Artemis's confiscated laptop and sends a message revealing the full conspiracy. The group determines they must break into Koboi Laboratories, Opal's high-security corporate headquarters, and restore weapons control. Root identifies Mulch Diggums, a career-criminal dwarf believed dead, as the only fairy who ever infiltrated the facility. They track Mulch to Los Angeles, capture him, and secure his cooperation with the promise of a two-day head start.

Mulch guides the group through a fissure in the chute wall and up through a hollow foundation pillar he filled with clay instead of titanium when he was a contractor a century earlier. Root, Holly, and Butler enter the facility while Artemis stays behind. Artemis later crawls through deactivated plasma gel inside the conduit for the DNA cannons, Koboi-controlled security weapons, and emerges undetected in the inner sanctum where Cudgeon, Opal, and the goblin generals watch the battle.

Artemis contacts Foaly and presses a conference button. Foaly's secret recording of Cudgeon admitting his plan to betray the goblins broadcasts on every screen. The enraged generals turn on Cudgeon, who activates the DNA cannons and blasts every goblin unconscious. Butler smashes through the reinforced door, but Cudgeon seizes Artemis at gunpoint. Foaly then sends a second recording in which Cudgeon describes planning Opal's murder. Artemis tosses the phone to Opal, who attacks Cudgeon with her hover-chair. They crash through the plasma panel, killing Cudgeon. Holly knocks out the surviving Opal. Mulch slips away, claiming his head start. Foaly regains control and ends the uprising by activating subcutaneous sleepers, implanted knockout devices in registered goblin offenders, and reprogramming the DNA cannons.

With the crisis resolved, the group turns to rescuing Artemis Senior. Vassikin and Kamar have moved the hostage to a decommissioned submarine near Murmansk, surrounded by more than 100 soldiers. Butler fires a nonlethal shell filled with Artemis Junior's blood at his father's shoulder, making the shot appear fatal. Vassikin panics and throws the seemingly dead body into freezing water. Holly dives in, retrieves Artemis Senior, and heals him. Artemis phones Vassikin, posing as a ruthless son who wanted his father dead, and offers ransom money for safe passage. The Russians chase the cash, which is fairy-printed counterfeit that will dissolve in 72 hours.

Holly flies Artemis Senior to a Helsinki hospital, where his memories of the past two years are erased. At the shuttleport, Holly gives Artemis a gold coin she has shot a hole through, telling him it is a reminder of the spark of decency beneath his deviousness. Back at school, Dr. Po asks again whether Artemis has found anyone worthy of his respect. For the first time, Artemis smiles and answers yes.