In Ambassador Heide Nagel’s office, Robert Langdon struggles to process the news that Sasha Vesna is alive and has requested asylum. Sasha is restrained and locked in a guarded room, raising urgent questions about whether Sasha herself is dangerous, whether Sasha’s “alter” is involved, and why Sasha would appeal to a government that exploited her.

Nagel and Katherine Solomon agree that Sasha, considered separately from her violent alter, is an innocent victim of a secret program that abused her as a child and worsened her condition. Nagel points to the note left behind—Please help Sasha—and concludes that helping Sasha is ethically necessary, even though Sasha is simultaneously “two people”: a victim and a killer, and is also carrying highly classified implant technology.

Nagel warns time is short. By dawn, investigators will reconstruct events from Folimanka, link Sasha to bodies and surveillance footage, and identify Sasha as a major suspect—along with Langdon and Katherine. Nagel expects Director Gregory Judd may already know Sasha is at the embassy, possibly through tracking built into the brain chip. She also raises the possibility of a remote “destruct” mechanism that could erase the chip—and potentially kill Sasha—if the CIA fears the technology will be captured.

When Langdon asks how they can keep Sasha out of Judd’s hands, Nagel shocks them by insisting they cannot and must return Sasha to the CIA. Katherine objects, but Nagel argues that Sasha needs specialized physical and psychiatric care that only Threshold’s scientists can provide, given the artificial neurons in Sasha’s brain. Nagel insists Sasha will not return to experimentation; instead, Nagel will force Judd to treat Sasha as the program’s most valuable asset and moral responsibility, backed by Nagel’s leverage and “trigger” if the agency violates terms.

Langdon and Katherine reluctantly accept that, paradoxically, Sasha may be safest at Langley under Nagel’s watch. Langdon asks, “Who will guard the guards?” Nagel answers by committing herself to oversight from within: she vows she will watch the CIA, framing Sasha’s protection as a chance at personal redemption for Nagel’s past complicity and losses, including Michael Harris.