Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation

**Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation** is a novel by author Stuart Gibbs. It was published on September 17th, 2019. It is the first novel in the Charlie Thorne series.

## Blurb

*"Charlie Thorne is a genius. Charlie Thorne is a thief. Charlie Thorne isn’t old enough to drive. And now it’s up to her to save the world… Decades ago, Albert Einstein devised an equation that could benefit all life on earth—or destroy it. Fearing what would happen if the equation fell into the wrong hands, he hid it. But now, a diabolical group known as the Furies are closing in on its location. In desperation, a team of CIA agents drags Charlie into the hunt, needing her brilliance to find it first—even though this means placing her life in grave danger. In a breakneck adventure that spans the globe, Charlie must crack a complex code created by Einstein himself, struggle to survive in a world where no one can be trusted, and fight to keep the last equation safe once and for all."*

## Detailed Summary

Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation starts off with Charlie and her friends attempting to ski off of Deadman's Drop (a very steep and high-up drop), a challenge so insane and dangerous, no one had attempted it that year. Charlie, a mathematical genius, had no trouble doing so; she simply calculated the angles of her skis, the slope, how much she needed to bend, et cetera. It was friends who truly got lucky, managing to not get seriously injured. Charlie was proud of herself for her minor accomplishment, until she recognizes CIA agent Milana Moon in the crowd watching her.

She takes to her skies, and runs away, with Milana and fellow agent Dante Garcia hot on her trail. Later, Charlie would learn that Dante was her half-brother. Eventually Charlie escapes them on skies, only to be captured while trying to escape with a pickup truck. Milana and Dante task Charlie with finding the Pandora Equation, giving her Einstein's backstory for the equation and informing her they has no idea what's in it. They pursued her to do this by threatening to send her to prison. Dante, Milana and Charlie then proceed to board a flight to Israel, with a few pit stops for refueling. During one of these Charlie attempts to escape and fails. This is when Milana learns of Charlie and Dante's relationship, him being her half brother.

Charlie Thorne, Milana Moon and Dante Garcia arrive in Israel in search of the Pandora Equation. Upon arrival, they meet with CIA Israeli operative Leah Bendavid. They head to the Albert Einstein Archives at the University of Jerusalem in search of clues. Whilst searching the back room, they find the Pandora Equation and decidedly make off with it to deliver it to the CIA. Charlie is then attacked by the Furies while waiting outside. A firefight ensues; Charlie is injured, and Marco is killed by fire from Alexei Kolyenko. Charlie retreats and makes her way to the safe house. Milana and Dante pursue and are captured, along with Charlie. The Furies attempt to force Charlie to give up the answer as to what Pandora is, as she had already figured it out. Charlie, concocting a plan as to when the perfect escape time is, then proceeds to disarm the Furies. Milana and Charlie escape, but Dante is left behind, unable to escape for the moment.

Shortly after escaping the Furies, Charlie and Milana are ambushed by John Russo, a former CIA agent who faked his death to work with the Furies. They narrowly escape, and Charlie leads Milana to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to work on deciphering Einstein's clue. Upon decoding it, Charlie and Milana are arrested by the Mossad, the Israeli military, who also want to get their hands on Pandora. Milana and Charlie are led through a tunnel underneath Jerusalem, and interrogated by the Mossad as they walk through it.

At the end of the tunnel, Dante, who had been deserted by the Furies at the safe house, rescues Charlie and Milana. They steal a Humvee and escape through the city, the Mossad not far behind. Eventually, they outrun the Mossad, but they still aren't out of the country. Charlie calls her banker, who promptly delivers a plane to Jerusalem for her, Milana and Dante to escape on. While they near the airport, the Mossad homed in on a car, mistakenly thinking Charlie was in it. Charlie had taped the phone she'd called her banker on to the bumper of the car while escaping, so the Mossad would home in on it and think it was her.

At the airport terminal, Charlie, Dante and Milana are ambushed by the Furies. A minor gunfight ensues, until Dante shoots a fire extinguisher, temporarily blinding the Furies. They escape onto the plane barely in time, the runway on fire behind them. At this point, every member of the Furies is either dead or injured at this point. Although they'd escaped the Furies for good now, they still had the Mossad and John Russo, who'd betrayed the Furies to look for Pandora himself, to worry about.

While on the plane to California, where Charlie had decided Pandora was hidden, Charlie solves another clue, helping her zero in on the exact whereabouts of Pandora. It should also be noted that while they are flying, the Mossad is tracking their jet's location. John Russo already had flew out of Jerusalem while betraying the Furies, so he had an hour's head start on Charlie. Meanwhile, ex-Mossad agent Benny West and his crew are ordered by Isaac Semel, leader of the Mossad, to tail Charlie and ambush her once she'd landed and found Pandora.

Charlie, Dante and Milana land, and head for the Mount Wilson observatory, where Pandora is hidden. Charlie is able to find it, and crack the code to open the small box Pandora is hidden in, but as soon as she does, Milana forces her at gunpoint to hand it over. She'd been more loyal to the CIA than to Charlie. before Milana can take Pandora from Charlie, Charlie drops Pandora's box, which turned out to be highly combustible, and everyone is launched backwards. Ironically, this explosion had saved Charlie and Milana, as John Russo had opened fire on them right as Pandora's box had exploded.

Charlie had retrieved the envelope after the explosion, and was now escaping into the woods with it. John Russo was hot on her heels. Charlie catches John off guard as he is about to shoot her for Pandora, and throws a rock at him. The shot goes high, and hits a propane tank. It explodes, and Charlie hugs the ground to avoid injury. John Russo hadn't been so quick, and is thrown against a tree and paralyzed. Charlie gets up after the explosion, and sees Pandora falling off the cliff. She grabs Pandora and goes down into the cliff with it. She manages to stay uninjured, and, unable to contain her curiosity, looks at the equation. After Charlie sees Pandora, she finds a way to escape the flaming gorge, as the Mossad is questioning Dante and Milana as to Charlie's whereabouts. At the end of the book, Dante tells Milana that Charlie made it out alive.