In a surveillance command room made of reactive tech glass, Rosabelle watches multiple live feeds of James Anderson in Ark Forest, including animal-eye perspectives. She processes the significance of his lineage—son of Paris Anderson and brother to Aaron Warner—and the chaos his presence has already wrought. James’s physical competence and endurance are on display as he traverses difficult terrain, self-extracts bullets, and makes camp, which unsettles Rosabelle after having seen him massacre soldiers earlier.

Commander Mona Damani monitors alongside Rosabelle, praising Klaus’s successful prediction of James’s moves and calling the operation a triumph. Damani explains that withholding details from Rosabelle was strategic: by failing to kill James and pleading for Clara, Rosabelle appeared weak, prompting James to subconsciously cast himself as her protector. Damani emphasizes how this outcome was anticipated by Klaus and is being leveraged.

Rosabelle struggles with the invasive scale of Ark’s surveillance and Klaus’s reach, realizing the program’s intent is to direct choices while preserving the illusion of autonomy. She recognizes that such power could eradicate resistance by making people believe their obedience is self-chosen, but she forces herself to police her thoughts to avoid treasonous conclusions.

Meanwhile, the feeds show James bathing in a lake exactly as predicted, joking about surveillance and “robot meat,” and exhibiting a disarming mix of playfulness and menace. Rosabelle is disturbed by her involuntary physical attraction to him and notes details about his scars, inferring that healing does not erase all injuries. She recalls their first encounter and wonders if her throat-cut mark persists on him.

Damani briefly leaves to reprimand staff over a minor deviation in James’s predicted phrasing, betraying anxiety about program precision. While Damani is gone, Rosabelle contemplates the promise Klaus made: if she completes this mission, she and Clara may finally be freed from deprivation and punishment tied to their parents’ crimes.

Damani returns visibly irritated and, without explanation, demands to know if James has opened Rosabelle’s letter, ending the chapter with a new point of tension regarding previously undisclosed communications with James.