In London, Everett Finch receives encrypted confirmation via Signal that his contingency plans are now active in both Prague and New York. Finch, an American embedded in the European headquarters of the secretive technology organization known as Q, reflects on Q’s true purpose: building advanced tools for a far more powerful, hidden patron.

Finch reviews his own profile and habits—discipline, stimulants, and strategic thinking—and situates his current mission within that larger machinery. He recalls being selected to lead Threshold, an extraordinarily ambitious and highly secret project, and being explicitly authorized to ignore normal legal and moral limits to ensure success.

In Prague, thirty minutes after entering Hotel U Prince, the clay-masked Golěm reaches the closed, subterranean Black Angel’s Bar while it is being cleaned. Avoiding detection, the Golěm slips into a small back room with old public computers still running.

Needing specific technical information to execute the next phase of the plan, the Golěm uses the unmonitored machine to find what is needed. Although the details exceed the Golěm’s understanding, the information identifies the “trigger” required—knowledge tied to a powerful piece of technology hidden deep in an underground lab, sealed in a two-meter-thick reinforced concrete vault.

Armed with these instructions, the Golěm clears the browser history, reboots the computer, and leaves the hotel square energized by the prospect of a revenge that will send shock waves far beyond Prague, targeting everyone deemed responsible.