Late at Maximum Impact Solutions, Susan Knox sits alone in the boardroom studying Jeff Nolan’s file on François Loubet while Bloomberg News plays in the background. Susan does not know whether Jeff is alive or dead after his bullet-riddled, blood-soaked car was found, but because Jeff is unusually resourceful, Susan cannot assume he is gone.

To look for signs of life, Susan repeatedly tries Jeff’s many phones and checks several of his bank accounts. She finds large balances and ordinary standing payments, including gas, broadband, and charity donations, but no recent activity beyond a fuel purchase in South London several days earlier. The lack of phone use and spending suggests that if Jeff is alive, he is deliberately staying off the grid.

Susan then focuses on Jeff’s material about Loubet, hoping it contains some clue to Loubet’s true identity. The emails from Loubet grow more threatening while keeping an oddly cheerful tone, and Jeff’s scribbled question marks show that Jeff had already been trying to identify both Loubet and the person called Joe Blow. Susan reaches the same conclusion Jeff did: the file reveals almost nothing.

The final pages, a sparse client identity form naming Loubet and an Indonesian bank, confirm how little hard information exists. Susan realizes she has no way to identify Loubet or Joe Blow from the documents, and with Jeff missing the company offers her few trustworthy options. She briefly considers Henk van Veen, but Susan is not sure she can trust him either.

With no useful lead and fearing that more people could die, Susan decides she needs outside help. She concludes that Amy Wheeler is her best available option and resolves to share the files with Amy so someone else can examine them.