60 pages • 2 hours read
Stuart GibbsCharlie Thorne And The Last Equation
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 33-41Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “The Navel of the World”
Part 2, Chapter 33 Summary
Charlie thinks through Einstein’s decision to leave the clue inside the Sherlock Holmes book. She believes that Einstein must have made it possible to decipher because he hoped “whoever was clever enough to find Pandora would also be intelligent enough to use it wisely” (261). She wonders if, rather than some specific clue inside the book, Einstein had intended the decoder to consider the character of Holmes himself. She recalls that one of Holmes’s most famous lines is “It’s elementary” and suddenly understands. She rushes to Milana, saying she knows where to find Pandora, but before she can explain, Mossad agents appear and place them under arrest.
Part 2, Chapter 34 Summary
John listens to an encrypted radio as the Mossad arrests Charlie and Milana. He had hoped that the Mossad would simply kill them. John calls Alexei and tells him that the Mossad has Charlie and Milana and that he must intercept them. He also lies, telling Alexei that Pandora is in London and that John is arranging their flights. However, when he is off the phone, John continues with his plans. The Furies have been useful to this point, but he no longer needs them.
Part 2, Chapter 35 Summary
The Mossad agents, led by Semel, take Charlie and Milana through tunnels beneath the Old City. When Milana warns that the CIA will not be pleased, Semel retorts that the CIA thinks they are traitors and wants them arrested. He then asks where Pandora is. He knows that Charlie is the one who has figured it out and threatens to kill Milana if she does not cooperate. Milana attempts to appease Semel, claiming that the US would certainly share Pandora with the Israelis once they found it, but Charlie disagrees.
She explains that whenever a civilization has found a new military advance, they never share it, preferring to use their advantage to “wipe out everyone else” (275). Whoever finds Pandora first will become the strongest nation on the planet, as has always happened with new military advances, like the “longbow, the machine gun, the tank, the nuclear bomb” (276). She adds that she has no loyalty to the CIA, but she does have loyalty to Milana and will not help Semel if he kills her.
Believing that Charlie is bluffing, Semel threatens Milana again. Charlie tells him that Pandora is hidden in Copenhagen, Denmark, which Einstein visited in 1933. It is a convincing lie, and Semel lowers his weapon. They then reach the end of the tunnel. Momentarily blinded by the sun, they are unprepared for attack.
Part 2, Chapter 36 Summary
Someone shoots Semel in the shoulder and then orders the other Mossad agents to drop their weapons and release Charlie and Milana. Furiously, the Mossad agents comply. Charlie realizes the voice belongs to Dante, and they rush out to find Dante waiting by a stolen Humvee with two unconscious Mossad agents. Dante tells Charlie to drive so that he and Milana can use their guns. They drive off, followed quickly by two more Mossad-owned Humvees.
Charlie leads the Mossad in a car chase. Dante explains that after the Furies retreated, he followed the Mossad. When Semel took Charlie and Milana into the tunnels, he deduced where the tunnel would end and waited for them there. Milana asks Charlie if she was telling the truth about Denmark, and Charlie says that was a lie, but she does know where Pandora is. Finally, they lose the Mossad. Milana explains to Dante that they believe John betrayed them, and Dante says the Mossad will have the airport locked down. In response, Charlie says she needs to call her banker.
Part 2, Chapter 37 Summary
John disguises himself as a diplomat and buys a plane ticket to get out of Israel. As he boards, Alexei calls to tell him that the Mossad lost Charlie. John is shocked but realizes he knows where she is headed. He tells Alexei where to go and that he must kill Charlie because “she is the only thing that can stop us” (293). Alexei agrees, and John boards his plane.
Part 2, Chapter 38 Summary
Charlie calls her bank in Switzerland—the kind of bank that deals in large amounts of money and does not ask questions. She opened an account when she stole the $40 million and let it accrue interest. Now, she makes a single call while Dante steals a new car, knowing the Mossad can likely track their own stolen Humvee.
Charlie explains that she has just ordered a private jet from her bank. She also has one more idea to distract Semel long enough for them to board the jet, but she needs to buy another phone.
Part 2, Chapter 39 Summary
In Mossad Headquarters, Semel monitors his agents in the field. He sends agents to guard the airport and all roads across the border. An agent says they have tracked Charlie. She was spotted buying a phone, and they can now track her signal. Semel believes that Charlie, though she is brilliant, is still a child and has at last made a mistake. He sends his teams to intercept her.
Alexei and his remaining Furies, listening to the agents on a police radio, race to reach Charlie before the Mossad agents do.
Part 2, Chapter 40 Summary
Mossad agents close in on an SUV where they have tracked Charlie’s phone signal. However, when they stop the car, they find an unknown man driving. The agents realize that Charlie duct-taped the burner phone to the bumper of the car to lead them away. Furious, Semel orders teams back to the borders and airport, knowing that Charlie has created an opening to escape.
Alexei, listening to this update, is glad that he listened to John, who told him where to find Charlie. He drives to the airport just in time to spot Charlie and the others heading to the area for private flights.
In the private jet terminal, Charlie and the others make their way through the security line without difficulty but just as they are walking to the gate, the security guards receive a phone call. Fearing that the call might be from Mossad, Dante and Milana quickly knock out the unsuspecting security guards. However, the remaining Furies arrive with guns.
Part 2, Chapter 41 Summary
Charlie and the others take cover as the Furies start shooting. Charlie moves close to the gate, but she does not want to abandon Dante and Milana. Charlie points to a fire extinguisher, which Dante shoots, creating a cloud of white foam. Under cover of the cloud, they dash out and run across the tarmac toward their jet.
A man is still pumping fuel, but Charlie screams that they need to take off now. Inside the cockpit, the pilots listen to her orders. They have been ordered to listen to her only. They start to roll, the fuel line pulling loose from the plane and spilling jet fuel onto the tarmac near the fuel tanker. Charlie leaps into the open door of the jet. Milana jumps in moments later as the jet rolls down the runway, preparing to take off. Dante runs to catch up, and leaps in just as one Fury shoots at the fuel tanker. Then, the fuel tanker explodes, igniting the fuel on the ground.
On the tarmac, Alexei watches the jet take off as flames spread. Just before Mossad agents arrest him, he calls John, leaving a message that the girl escaped and is on a plane. At Mossad headquarters, Semel realizes he has lost Charlie and orders his agents to analyze the flight pattern of every jet leaving the area, hoping to determine where they are headed.
Part 2, Chapters 33-41 Analysis
After the brief pause in Chapter 32, while Charlie and Milana hide in the church, the last section of Part 2 kicks off high-energy, fast-paced scenes, including a car chase, a shoot-out, running and jumping into a moving plane, and a massive explosion, all iconic sequences in many action and thriller movies. Unsurprisingly, some of these films have been adapted from spy thriller novels like Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series that initially inspired Gibbs as a young reader. Gibbs similarly appeals to young readers with exciting action while also offering insightful lessons.
One such insightful moment is Charlie’s speech to Isaac Semel after the Mossad arrests her and Milana. Semel accuses the CIA of hiding Pandora’s existence for its own gain, and when Milana attempts to deny this, Charlie surprisingly takes Semel’s side. She then launches into a speech about scientific and military advancements that have changed the balance of power throughout history. Though she is clearly stalling for time and trying to trick Semel into a false sense of security, it is also clear that Charlie believes what she is saying. Her argument that “whenever a civilization has gained a military advantage, their first instinct has never been to share it. Instead, they have used it to try to wipe out everyone else” develops the theme of The Ethical Implications of Scientific Advancement (275). She even uses the nuclear bomb as an example, which was Einstein’s greatest regret since its development was a direct result of his scientific work.
Charlie realizes that Pandora would tip the balance of power in the world and feels she must regain control of the situation. Throughout Part 2, she and the others have faced several setbacks that have revealed Charlie’s limitations and damaged her self-confidence. Now, however, she puts her considerable intelligence and resources to effective use. Like Einstein, she fully appreciates that the potential evil of Pandora outweighs the potential benefits. Therefore, she is determined to find it first and is willing to use every advantage at her disposal, including her enormous and ill-gotten millions, to do so. Significantly, Milana’s support and encouragement have helped restore Charlie’s confidence and given her the boost needed to succeed.
While Milana seems to recognize and appreciate Charlie’s full potential, the other adults in the narrative routinely and severely underestimate Charlie, including not only Dante but also Semel and John. Significantly, it is the men who underestimate her at every turn and the women who understand the depth of her abilities. Unfortunately, although Carter seems to recognize Charlie’s brilliance, she sees it only as a threat rather than an asset, not believing that Charlie is capable of change or selfless action. The men, on the other hand, consistently believe they have the upper hand over Charlie when they do not. Semel, for instance, believes Charlie has made a mistake in buying a phone, not realizing until it is too late that she has tricked him and distracted him from her true objective. Likewise, John continually thinks Charlie can be handled by either the Furies or the Mossad, and he will not have to deal with her himself. Until the very last, he believes that he can remain one step ahead of her no matter how brilliant the CIA believes her to be. This assumption later proves to be his downfall.
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