At 5:15 a.m., editor Jonas Faukman returns to his office, energized and determined to learn why Katherine Solomon’s manuscript was hacked and deleted. Tech colleague Alex Conan joins him, and they begin investigating when Jonas’s office phone rings from a European exchange.

Robert Langdon is on the line, relieved to confirm Jonas is alive after rumors he was missing. Jonas learns Langdon and Katherine are together; Langdon clarifies that only his phone drowned, not Langdon. They compare what they know: Katherine’s manuscript is gone, and Jonas confirms PRH’s server backups were “wiped clean,” leaving no easy recovery.

Langdon explains he and Katherine are currently at the private residence of U.S. Ambassador Heide Nagel, though he feels uneasy and is not supposed to be calling. Jonas warns Langdon to be cautious about trusting the U.S. government, explaining that Alex traced the hackers to a powerful organization called In-Q-Tel.

When Langdon questions how a venture capital firm could orchestrate hacking and field operations, Jonas reveals In-Q-Tel’s parent organization: the CIA. Jonas summarizes that the CIA uses In-Q-Tel to discreetly invest in national-security technologies and that critics cite the group’s “alarming flexibility” in pursuing its goals—flexibility Jonas believes they have witnessed.

As Langdon absorbs the implication that the CIA may be targeting Katherine’s book, Alex interrupts with a new discovery: a Wikipedia entry showing Heide Nagel previously worked directly for the CIA and rose to become the agency’s general counsel before becoming ambassador. Realizing the danger, Jonas urgently tells Langdon to get out of Nagel’s house immediately.