50 pages • 1 hour read
Artemis
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Chapters 8-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary
After seeing the blood on the wall at Trond’s apartment, Jazz reports the incident to Rudy using her Gizmo. She then runs. Jazz calls Kelvin asking for a loan and some assistance, and he helps her create a new identity for herself. Jazz checks the news on her Gizmo and sees the reports of Trond and Irina’s murders. Lene is left alone; Jazz expresses her sorrow for Lene. Jazz realizes that the murders were likely revenge for the sabotage, which means she herself is also at risk.
Jazz flees to a maintenance access nook in Bean Down 27. She feels the weight of all the stress and the lost opportunity to lift herself out of poverty. She is back where she was 10 years ago, cold and alone. She calls her dad to tell him to stay with someone else, knowing he is not safe at home. He begs her to come with him, but she refuses.
Resolving to face this adversary on her own, Jazz decides to track down Jin Chu to get the details on ZAFO. She suspects Trond saw more profit in aluminum production than he explained to her, and she hopes Jin has the details. Jazz disguises herself as a sex worker by purchasing new clothing and getting her hair done. She deduces that Jin is staying at the Canton Artemis for the familiar atmosphere and food. The hotel will not let her up to the room, but she sees the room number on the computer screen by using her compact mirror. She then hangs out at the bar until she receives a proposition from another guest. Jazz refuses his up-front payment and follows him to his room. She fakes a call on her Gizmo, closes the door on her john, and heads to Jin’s room. She uses a screwdriver to open the door only to find “a grizzled Latino man [sitting] on the bed, his right arm in a sling” (156). He lunges for Jazz.
Two letters close the chapter. Kelvin updates Jazz on some business and asks about Tyler. Jazz asks for more insulation and informs Kelvin that Tyler is no longer her boyfriend but that she does not wish to elaborate on the subject.
Chapter 9 Summary
Jazz reacts to the man with the knife by thrusting her handbag between them. She punches him in his injured arm and locks him outside the room. She then calls the front desk. The security guard’s presence causes the man Jazz has dubbed “Lefty” to flee. After a brief conversation with the security guard, Jazz searches the room. She doesn’t turn up anything of note, but she does notice the safe is locked. She uses her compact powder and knowledge of Star Trek to unlock the safe. The safe contains the ZAFO box, inside of which Jazz finds a fiber-optic cable.
Jazz takes the cable, as well as some chocolate, to Svoboda. Svoboda agrees to analyze the cable. Jazz offers to pay him; he feels insulted by the offer. Jazz gives him her new alias contact information.
Jazz next tries to catch the murderer. She places her Gizmo in a populated and observable area, the Arcade District. She grabs dinner and watches where she stashed the device from a window. Rudy shows up at her table. Jazz is surprised, but Rudy seems less interested in her than in finding Trond and Irina’s killer. Rudy tells Jazz that Sanchez Aluminum is owned by “O Palácio, Brazil’s largest and most powerful crime syndicate” (167). O Palácio uses the aluminum company to launder money. Jazz looks out the window and sees the killer, Lefty, locating her Gizmo. She accuses Rudy of taking a bribe to lead Lefty to her and then runs. She expects Rudy to chase her, but he jumps out a window after the killer.
Jazz makes it back to her hideout on Bean Down 27. She researches Sanchez and discovers that Loretta Sanchez runs the company’s lunar operation. Loretta also developed the method used to process the anorthite. An email from Jin Chu asking to meet up interrupts Jazz’s research. She sets up a meeting for the next day at her father’s welding shop.
Chapter 10 Summary
Jazz arrives three hours before the meeting to prepare. If things go poorly, she plans to use the shop’s blow torch as a weapon. Jin shows up and tells Jazz how he sold the ZAFO information and sample to Trond and then sold the information about Trond to O Palácio. He confesses to selling Jazz out to O Palácio as well. Jazz tries to get Jin to tell her what ZAFO is, but instead Jin apologizes to her: He made a deal with Lefty to save himself and has brought him to the meeting.
Jazz busts off one of the wall-mounted valves and darts to the air shelter. She uses a length of pipe to keep the door secure as neon floods the room. Soon Jin and Lefty lie unconscious on the floor. Jazz set off the fire alarm before entering. Knowing the fire brigade will now call him anyway, she also sends a message to Rudy.
Rudy takes Jazz, Lefty, and Jin into his office and makeshift jail. Administrator Ngugi comes to consult with Rudy. Rudy ties Lefty, whose real name is Marcelo Alvarez, to the murders of Irina and Trond. He will be deported to either Norway or Russia, as those were the countries of origin for his victims. Jin whines about being held, so Administrator Ngugi tells Rudy to deport him back to China. She then tells Rudy to release Jazz. Rudy protests, but the administrator insists, as Jazz is an Artemisian.
Jazz meets up with Dale at Hartnell’s Pub, per their agreement. She and Dale get drunk, and Jazz wakes up the following day with a hangover. After chugging some water, she goes to Svoboda’s to learn about ZAFO. Svoboda bounces with excitement as he explains the cable to Jazz. It is a fiber-optic cable that requires no relays or boosters because the transmission suffers zero attenuation—attenuation being “the amount of light that [gets] lost to heat during transmission” (188). ZAFO, or zero-attenuation fiber optic, cables will be worth trillions of dollars, as all of Earth’s telecom cables will eventually be replaced with them. Jazz absorbs the information and leaves Svoboda.
Jazz meets with Administrator Ngugi in her office, which is located in the Conrad bubble. She ponders all of the administrator’s achievements and then questions Ngugi about the economics of telecommunication. She never mentions cables specifically, but Ngugi only discusses cable-based telecom, which Jazz calls her on. Jazz pulls out a knife and asks the administrator how O Palácio found her Gizmo. Ngugi pulls out a gun and says she told them.
Chapter 11 Summary
Jazz faces down the gun in the administrator’s hand, baffled at the turn of events. Ngugi explains to Jazz that the O Palácio syndicate had to be stopped for the sake of Artemis. She discloses the precarious situation Artemis is in financially. Ngugi explains that building ZAFO cables will allow Artemis to flourish through economic growth. Fiber-optic cables are primarily made of glass, a bountiful resource on the moon. The ZAFO cables also require less gravity than Earth’s to crystalize the particles, so the moon is an ideal place to construct them. Ngugi tells Jazz how Jin Chu foiled her plan by selling the information about ZAFO to O Palácio. The syndicate would take over Artemis if it gained the economic power of developing ZAFO cables. Ngugi confesses to using Jazz as bait to draw Lefty out and continuing to use her to see what O Palácio does next.
Jazz retreats to her hideout after these dramatic revelations. She feels completely overwhelmed by the turn of events and the adrenaline and anxiety-riddled events of the day. She realizes that “at some feral level [she] want[s] her daddy” (200). Rather than go to him, she goes to Svoboda. He welcomes her into his home and helps her to bed, where she sleeps for 14 hours straight. When she wakes, she begins to plan. She dives into researching the Sanchez Aluminum smelting factory, learning the process for turning moon rocks into aluminum. Svoboda returns; finding Jazz wearing only his shirt, he comments on her chest. Jazz tells Svoboda that she plans to sabotage the aluminum factory.
Jazz heads to Trond’s (now Lene’s) apartment. She expresses sorrow for Lene’s loss. The two discuss options; Jazz encourages Lene to finish what Trond started. Jazz resizes Trond’s watch, inscribed with “the sky is not the limit” in German (207), to fit Lene. Lene agrees to “take the fuckers down” (208).
The chapter ends with Jazz asking Kelvin for the building plans for the Sanchez Aluminum smelting facility from the KSC archives. Kelvin finds them and sends them to her.
Chapters 8-11 Analysis
The novel’s plot turns from a sci-fi heist to a sci-fi thriller in this section. Jazz gets caught between two powerful forces, the administrator and O Palácio. The tension between these two forces causes Jazz to adapt and use her intelligence. She grows and changes from a sullen young adult scraping by to a dynamic and clever person capable of recognizing her limitations and reaching out for help, developing the theme of The Hero’s Journey: Rebirth Through Self-Sacrifice.
Jazz’s first reaction to the crime scene in Trond’s apartment is to run. Though she reaches out to Rudy, she does not trust him enough to rely on his support; just as she responded to the destruction of her father’s shop by cutting herself off, she now responds to an even greater crisis by convincing herself that she must face down the murderer. Her plan to do so only illustrates her naivete further. She dresses as a teenager would guess a sex worker does, in “a bright-red miniskirt so short you could almost call it a belt, a sequined top that exposed [her] midriff, and the tallest heels [she] could find. [She] topped it all off with a red patent-leather handbag” (151). She doesn’t recognize that the kind of sex worker who would meet a client at a costly hotel would likely dress much more discreetly. Jazz’s immaturity continues to show as she escapes another near-death encounter in the hotel room. She again runs, hides, and decides to face the criminals alone. She is thwarted, however, by Rudy. Once again, the officer explains how little she understands the danger of her situation. Rudy knows that Jazz is a small-time criminal but would rather catch a killer; however, when Lefty shows up, Jazz assumes Rudy will target her instead.
When Rudy instead chases the killer, Jazz begins to understand that not everyone is out to get her. Around the same time, her circle of trust begins to expand. The chaotic confrontations with Lefty, Jin, and Administrator Ngugi force Jazz to lean on others. She allows herself to be utterly vulnerable with Svoboda when she sleeps over at his home, and she relies on both him and Kelvin. She also reaches out to Lene when she realizes she can no longer fight this battle alone.
The tight community on Artemis supports Jazz’s growth. Artemis fosters a sense of honor and independence in its populace, as evidenced by Jazz’s conversation with Rudy and Administrator Ngugi. Though Jin has technically broken no laws, he will get deported to China (costing him his job and putting him at risk of retaliation by O Palácio). On the other hand, Jazz has broken the rules with her smuggling and sabotage, but Ngugi wants her to stay: She sees Jazz as a pawn but also as one of “her” people. Artemis’s independence allows Ngugi and Rudy to mete out justice that considers the crime and the criminal. However, the system is flawed, as becomes plain when Ngugi’s full motivations for leniency emerge.
Jazz’s reputation also facilitates her character development: Her business ethics remain unimpeachable even as she staggers through near-death experiences. Though her personal conflict with Dale remains unresolved, Jazz made a deal and meets him for a beer as agreed. Jazz likewise honors the much weightier deal she made with the Landviks. She needs Lene’s money to get herself off the hook with O Palácio, but she also owes the Landviks the sabotage of Sanchez Aluminum. Though Jazz now realizes that she is in way over her head, she stops running and hiding and instead reaches out to others. This change reflects her personal growth as well as the rising stakes of the plot. The moon has always posed a significant threat, as it is inhospitable to human habitation, but it’s the human threats to Artemis’s survival that overwhelm Jazz’s pride and shame for the first time.
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