ART alerts Murderbot that Tapan never left RaviHyral with the others. Murderbot finds Tapan hiding in the main hotel, and Tapan admits she stayed behind after receiving a message from someone connected to Tlacey who claims to have copies of the missing files. Because Tapan asks for help instead of assuming obedience, Murderbot realizes it has a choice, then agrees to protect her and moves her into an untraceable transient room near the port.

In the room, Murderbot and Tapan talk while trying to stay hidden. Tapan explains her belief that fear is an artificial condition that can be fought, and she asks about Murderbot's heavy augmentation. Murderbot gives a partial truth about surviving an explosion and being mostly nonhuman, while ART quietly supports it through the feed. To calm Tapan and fill the waiting time, Murderbot shares entertainment media, and they settle in to rest before the meeting.

Later, Murderbot detects a ping outside the door and discovers the watcher is the same ComfortUnit it sensed during the earlier meeting with Tlacey. When the unit contacts it, Murderbot learns that a public news report now identifies it as an unsecured SecUnit, meaning its rogue status is no longer secret. The ComfortUnit confirms Tlacey sent it, says Tlacey believes Murderbot stayed behind to steal the files, and admits Tlacey does not know Tapan remained on RaviHyral.

The exchange grows stranger when the ComfortUnit says it will not report Murderbot and asks whether it is truly free. ART determines the unit is not rogue and still has an active governor module, which makes its behavior more alarming. The ComfortUnit suggests killing all the humans, then sends a malware bundle that Tapan safely inspects; inside it, she finds a hidden plea: Please help me. Murderbot moves Tapan to another room, concludes the unit may be desperate as well as dangerous, and begins hacking local security and planning for the coming rendezvous.

While Murderbot pretends to sleep and works in the feed, Tapan, frightened, settles close to it for comfort, which deeply unsettles Murderbot but also clarifies its protective instinct. Murderbot finally decides that Tapan must leave and that it should face the meeting alone. It convinces Tapan to return to the transit ring in disguise, uses a better camera hack to erase her movement from surveillance, has ART guard her shuttle, and then heads toward the meeting knowing it is almost certainly a trap.