Outside a private terminal at Václav Havel Airport, Ambassador Heide Nagel oversees the plan she set in motion to secure political asylum for Sasha Vesna. CIA Director Gregory Judd has ordered a commandeered “ghost flight” Citation Latitude to fly two unnamed passengers to Langley Air Force Base, and Marine Sergeant Scott Kerble waits with Sasha in the embassy sedan, its trunk packed with her belongings and her two Siamese cats.

Although Nagel feels growing trust in Judd, her CIA experience makes her protect herself with leverage. She creates a redundant dead man’s switch: four IronKey encrypted hard drives containing Dr. Gessner’s interrogation video, with a new sixteen-character password known only to Nagel. She keeps one drive on her, one in her safe, and sends two sealed in diplomatic pouches to attorney friends in Europe and the United States, to be opened only if she dies or disappears.

Nagel is determined to keep Sasha safe, knowing Sasha’s protective alter emerges when Sasha is threatened. She also anticipates the CIA’s imminent “restoration” of the Folimanka blast site—pulverizing debris and sealing it under concrete, gravel, topsoil, and sod—so Threshold’s existence will vanish from public view. As the jet approaches, Nagel instructs Kerble to keep restraints in place until Sasha is handed over, and she gives Kerble one encrypted drive for Judd, offering a clue for the password based on Judd’s favorite Kissinger quote.

Nagel privately believes Robert Langdon and Katherine Solomon are now safe because Judd cannot risk harming them, and she tells Judd that Katherine will not join Threshold after what the agency did to her. Nagel hopes Katherine may rewrite her book, and she focuses on getting Sasha out of Prague before the CIA cleanup begins.

From Sasha’s perspective, the day is full of memory gaps, yet she feels unusually calm and guided by a reassuring inner voice. Hearing she is going to America feels like a childhood dream coming true, even as her ties to Prague—Brigita, her life there, and even Michael Harris—seem to dissolve. When it is time to board, Kerble gently helps her out and carries her cats aboard; at the stairs, Sasha thanks Nagel and breaks down, and Nagel responds that Sasha has already repaid her before embracing Sasha in a long, motherly hug.