Steve Wheeler arrives in South Carolina on a private jet feeling out of place, overheated, and unconvinced that he belongs in America at all. Even so, Steve reminds himself that he has come to help Amy, and he realizes that helping Amy means doing something useful before he even leaves the airport. While thinking about Amy and the way their regular conversations have quietly helped him live with Debbie’s death, Steve decides to investigate the airport where Andrew Fairbanks was last seen arriving.

At the private terminal, Steve notices how small and informal the operation seems and concludes that a place like this will run on staff gossip and personal memory. At passport control, Steve meets Customs and Border Protection officer Carlos Moss and deliberately begins provoking him. Steve asks about security, pushes to see the airport systems, and implies that smuggling a gun through the airport would be easy, hoping Carlos will drag him into the restricted back area for a search.

Steve’s tactic works, and Carlos takes Steve and his rucksack into a security room for a full inspection. During the search, the confrontation softens into conversation: Steve talks about his cat Trouble, his dead wife, and Amy, while Carlos reveals interests of his own, including orchids, blimps, and rock music. Steve then explains why he is really interested in the airport: Andrew Fairbanks passed through on Tuesday, someone picked Andrew Fairbanks up, and nobody seems to know who that person was. Carlos says no local police officer has asked about it and initially refuses Steve’s request to review the CCTV footage.

To break the impasse, Steve proposes a wager: if both men independently write down the same greatest Van Halen song, Carlos will let Steve see the CCTV. Steve confidently chooses Unchained, but Carlos writes When It’s Love, so Steve loses. However, when another staff member announces that the next flight is delayed, Carlos unexpectedly gets time for a break and changes his mind. Carlos agrees to give Steve twenty minutes with the CCTV if Steve tells him everything, giving Steve his first concrete lead in America.