After a rare good meal, Mission hurries down to Sanitation to see Jenine. The downhill trip and the thought of seeing her leave him giddy, and he reflects on how everyone expects him to become a farmer and settle into an easy life he does not want. When he reaches the waste-processing area, he watches Jenine at work among the noisy machinery and waits until she can take her short break.

Jenine greets Mission warmly and brings him to the break room, where Mission has to admit he did not bring her anything because he was exhausted from a tandem haul. Their conversation turns to how hard first-year work has been for both of them, and they share a small, intimate moment drinking water together. Mission imagines a future with Jenine, but that hopeful vision immediately carries the fear that porter work would keep pulling him away from her.

Jenine asks whether Mission has visited the Nest, and says she and some others have been going to help with the children. When Mission asks about Rodny, Jenine says she has not seen him and suggests that IT barely lets him out. Mission hides his worry, but privately feels that Rodny is slipping away into his work and out of the life they once shared.

When Jenine's break ends, she invites Mission to join her and some friends in dropping paint bombs from level twenty-three. Mission refuses because he has other plans and an early start, but he also warns her that the prank can seriously endanger people below. Jenine's reaction makes both of them recognize that Mission's work has changed him: he no longer belongs only to the Up Top, but to the whole silo, which leaves him more isolated from old loyalties and old games. They part with a more mutual, better-timed kiss, but the chapter ends with their growing closeness shadowed by distance.