Artemis- Sodium Pentothal Drip

“You are right to laugh, Captain Short. For a while there, I did believe
in all that under-the-rainbow crock-of-gold blarney, but now I know better.
Now I know about the hostage fund.”
Holly struggled to keep her face under control.
“What hostage fund?”
“Oh, come now, Captain. Why bother with the charade? You told me
about it yourself.”
“I—I told you!” stammered Holly. “Ridiculous!”
“Look at your arm.”
Holly rolled up her right sleeve. There was a small cotton pad taped
to the vein.
“That’s where we administered the sodium pentathol. Commonly
known as truth serum. You sang like a bird.”
Holly knew it was true. How else could he know?
“You’re crazy!”
Artemis nodded indulgently. “If I win, I’m a prodigy. If I lose, then
I’m crazy. That’s the way history is written.”
Of course, there had been no sodium pentathol, just a harmless prick
with a sterilized needle. Artemis would not risk causing brain damage to
his meal ticket, nor could he afford to reveal the Book as the source of his
information. Better to let the hostage believe that she had betrayed her
own people. It would lower her morale, making her more susceptible to
his mind games. Still, the ruse disturbed him. It was undeniably cruel.
How far was he prepared to go for this gold? He didn’t know, and
wouldn’t until the time came.
Holly slumped, momentarily defeated by this latest development. She
had talked. Revealed sacred secrets. Even if she did manage to escape, she
would be banished to some freezing tunnel under the Arctic Circle.
“This isn’t over, Fowl,” she said at last. “We have powers you can’t
possibly know about. It would take days to describe them all.”
The infuriating boy laughed again. “How long do you think you’ve
been here?”
Holly groaned; she knew what was coming. “A few hours?”
Artemis shook his head. “Three days,” he lied. “We’ve had you on a
drip for over sixty hours . . . until you told us everything we needed to
know.”
Even as the words came out, Artemis felt guilty. These mind games
were having an obvious effect on Holly, destroying her from the inside
out. Was there really a need for this?
“Three days? You could have killed me. What kind of ...”
And it was that speechless quality that sent the doubt shooting
through Artemis’s brain. The fairy thought him so evil, she couldn’t even
find the words.

- Artemis Fowl, Chapter 6