Jonas Faukman drives a stolen SUV at high speed until he pulls off Route 17 and circles behind MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. In the deserted parking lot, the empty stadium feels alien and ominous, and Faukman checks his rearview mirror to confirm nobody is following.

Trying to calm himself, Faukman checks his phone and worries that Robert Langdon still has not returned his call, reasoning it is already morning in Prague. His call history shows several missed calls from a Penguin Random House IT extension, which he assumes is the security technician, Alex Conan.

Faukman calls Alex back. Alex urgently warns that the hackers who deleted the manuscript may be dangerous, and then, shaken, says he believes they might have killed one of Faukman’s authors. As Alex explains what he has learned, Faukman listens in shock, feeling physically ill at the implication.

Nearby, two operatives, Auger and Chinburg, sit parked on a residential street near the stadium, having tracked Faukman’s phone. They listen to the call through an iPad and are alarmed by the report that an American author has been killed in Prague, uncertain whether it was Langdon or Solomon. Despite the apparent escalation and chaos, they remind themselves that Mr. Finch considers recovering Katherine Solomon’s manuscript essential and will pursue it at any cost.