Max Highfield arrives at an exclusive library and reflects that he once would have felt out of place there, but his fame and money now make him feel entitled to enter any room. Even so, Max still focuses on small status anxieties, such as whether the porter has safely stored his trainers. In the library, Max finds Henk van Veen reading Spinoza on a green leather sofa, and the two begin with light conversation that shows Henk’s calm intelligence and Max’s more superficial confidence.

Max thanks Henk for meeting him and quickly turns to business. Henk says he expected Max because Max’s current agency is having problems, implying that Jeff Nolan’s collapse has made clients restless. When Max asks whether Jeff is really dead, Henk confirms that Jeff is no longer his concern and treats Jeff’s death as the natural result of a violent life. That answer, combined with Henk’s composure, signals that power is shifting away from Jeff and toward Henk.

Max then asks whether Henk would take over his close protection if Max joined him. Henk immediately offers Max what he wants: full twenty-four-hour security, the ability to choose from Henk’s people, and two million a year to serve as an ambassador. Max also hands Henk a card saying Max is dead, which functions as a threat and gives Henk another reason to criticize Maximum Impact for failing to protect him. When Max asks whether many of Jeff’s former clients have come over, Henk effectively confirms it, saying, “The seagulls follow the trawler.” Satisfied, Max agrees to sign a contract, and Henk promises that nobody will kill him.

As Max leaves, he notices an elderly woman silently crying over a book about grief. Curious because he has never managed convincing tears as an actor, Max watches her and then approaches with a misplaced offer of an autograph, assuming his fame might matter to her. The woman says she does not know who he is and tells him to remove his hand from her shoulder. Max accepts the rebuke but interprets it through his own self-centred lens, ending the chapter with a comic display of vanity and emotional cluelessness.