Robert Langdon jolts awake in a Prague hotel after a vivid dream of floating above the city and falling into the Vltava, his mind replaying the trauma of escaping through the suite window into icy water. He notices Katherine Solomon asleep beside him and quietly leaves the bed for the living room, realizing it is just past 9 p.m. and he has barely slept.

At the window, Langdon reflects on Katherine’s claim that her research links dreaming to dying: in both states, GABA levels drop, weakening the brain’s filters and allowing an influx of unfiltered information that produces illogical dream imagery and quickly fades after waking as GABA rises and perception “resets.” Langdon connects the idea to spiritual traditions that describe a weightless “dream body” capable of moving between life and death.

Suddenly every phone in the suite rings at once. Langdon answers and learns from the hotel’s night manager that a U.S. embassy Marine, Kerble, has arrived and says it is critical that Ambassador Heide Nagel see Langdon immediately.

At the U.S. embassy, the Golbm sits restrained in a locked conference room, determined that Sasha Vesna not see herself bound because of her past institutionalization. He believes events are still going to plan, because Gessner’s confession convinced him Nagel is unaware of the conspiracy beneath Threshold and could be turned into Sasha’s ally.

The Golbm reflects that his “PLEASE HELP SASHA” message has taken hold and that Nagel is being forced toward what he views as the only workable solution. He takes her recent response as confirmation: she has said the word he wanted to hear—“asylum.”