Captain Oldřich Janáček escorts Robert Langdon through the Four Seasons lobby like a suspect. When Janáček steps away to take a call, Michael Harris quickly explains that Janáček already knew the location of Katherine Solomon’s lab and was baiting Langdon into an obstruction charge, so Harris revealed the address to prevent Langdon’s immediate arrest.

Outside in the snowy dawn, Harris tells Janáček he has involved the U.S. ambassador because the accusation against Katherine and Langdon is serious and high-profile. Harris insists Langdon should wait safely at the embassy while Janáček goes to collect Katherine, but Janáček refuses, calling Langdon a suspect and threatening to formally charge him over the hotel evacuation prompted by Langdon’s “fantastical dream.”

After a tense standoff, Harris decides to rush to the embassy for an emergency meeting with the ambassador and promises to come to the lab afterward, possibly with the ambassador. Janáček warns Harris to hurry, then summons an ÚZSI Škoda that skids up close; Langdon gets into the back seat as Janáček makes clear he will not delay interrogating Katherine.

The scene shifts to Harris in a taxi, where he angrily directs the driver in fluent Czech to speed to the embassy. Harris’s bilingual upbringing and path into embassy work are revealed, along with his growing alarm: the Charles Bridge incident makes no sense, yet Janáček’s “publicity stunt” theory has a troubling internal logic. Harris admits to himself that he has been doing “off the book” work for the ambassador—technically legal but ethically gray—motivated by money and the ambassador’s leverage, and he fears it will come back to haunt him.