At 3:48 a.m. in New York, Random House Tower night watchman Mark S. Dole is on duty, proud of his job and passing the time reading The Grapes of Wrath. A black SUV screeches to a stop outside, and editor Jonas Faukman jumps out, frantic and disheveled.

Faukman fumbles at the door, unable to find his key card. Dole lets him in and, after confirming Faukman has lost his backpack, quickly issues him a temporary access card. Faukman insists he is fine despite looking shaken, then heads for the elevators, admitting the manuscript he is handling has become unexpectedly complicated.

Across the street, operatives Auger and Chinburg watch the building. They have tailed Faukman’s stolen SUV after tracking his phone, but they lost audio when Faukman threw the phone away. Auger calls Finch to report what they overheard earlier: a Penguin Random House tech believes one of the Americans in Prague is dead and claims to know who hacked the company’s servers.

Finch dismisses questions about the Prague information and focuses on the hacking claim, pressing Chinburg about their penetration team’s work. Chinburg admits the team had to prioritize speed over redundant anonymity measures, and Finch reacts with cold suspicion, ordering them to discover what the tech knows and “contain it” immediately by any means necessary.

With Faukman’s phone now unrecoverable at the bottom of the Hudson River, Auger and Chinburg cannot eavesdrop remotely. Accepting that surveillance tech will not solve this, Auger packs gear, and the pair prepare to enter the building and get answers in person.