In a sun­lit Dubai morn­ing, Rosie enjoys break­fast on a ter­race, antic­i­pat­ing a meet­ing with Max High­field before the Dia­mond Con­fer­ence. She hopes to glean infor­ma­tion from him, dis­guis­ing her inter­est as a pro­pos­al for him to star in a film based on her book, with Steve as a fic­tion­al movie pro­duc­er. Her anx­i­ety is notable; until Max is found, Amy remains in jeop­ardy, rais­ing the stakes of her mis­sion.

Sud­den­ly, a large fig­ure inter­rupts her thoughts. It’s Vasiliy Karpin, an impos­ing man in swimwear, known for his wealth. Rosie rec­og­nizes him and feels vul­ner­a­ble with­out Amy’s pro­tec­tion against this man, who has been close­ly pur­su­ing her. Faced with Karpin, Rosie labyrinths her way through her thoughts, decid­ing to engage cau­tious­ly. She firm­ly states her break­fast rule: she won’t dine with any­one who wish­es to kill her. Karpin, unfazed, claims he has no such rules, intro­duc­ing him­self.

As Rosie pre­pares for an encounter that could go south, she sar­cas­ti­cal­ly ques­tions whether Karpin is there for an apol­o­gy or a more grim rea­son. Karpin amus­ing­ly ref­er­ences a less-than-flat­ter­ing com­par­i­son of his looks as a “bull­dog chew­ing a net­tle,” which Rosie deflects by claim­ing it was a mis­trans­la­tion.

In a sur­pris­ing twist, Karpin pulls out a copy of her book, *Dead Men & Dia­monds*, ask­ing Rosie to sign it for his sis­ter-in-law, Yev­dokiya-Ivanov­na. He recounts a humor­ous exchange that led to him jok­ing about a hit on Rosie, assur­ing her he no longer intends to harm her. Humor gives way to seri­ous­ness as Rosie ques­tions whether he’s hired some­one named Eddie Flood to do the job instead. Karpin claims igno­rance of Flood.

Rosie feels a mix of relief and con­fu­sion. The con­ver­sa­tion ends with Karpin’s play­ful sug­ges­tion of his readi­ness to ful­fill any future ‘hits’ she might need—an absur­di­ty that leaves Rosie both amused and per­turbed. After Karpin departs, Rosie’s mind races as she recalls the sus­pi­cious fig­ure of Eddie Flood, who she believes might not be a threat to her but rais­es ques­tions about his true inten­tions.

In Chap­ter 86 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Misty eager­ly awaits the dai­ly arrival of the 42 bus after school. As Patch steps off, she affec­tion­ate­ly jumps into his arms, show­cas­ing the deep con­nec­tion they share. At six­teen, Patch has exit­ed school to work at the Bell Lewis Com­pa­ny, endur­ing a chal­leng­ing rou­tine that includes four dai­ly bus rides to the mines. His ini­tial expe­ri­ences under­ground are tough, marked by the daunt­ing envi­ron­ment of the mines and inter­ac­tions with old­er work­ers. Despite the harsh con­di­tions, he adjusts, embrac­ing the rou­tine of drilling, blast­ing, and haul­ing in a dark and cold set­ting that trig­gers mem­o­ries of Grace.

Dur­ing his first week, a co-work­er inquires about his roman­tic life, to which Patch responds affir­ma­tive­ly, indi­cat­ing he has “a girl.” As Misty matures into a beau­ti­ful young woman, their rela­tion­ship flour­ish­es, char­ac­ter­ized by shared adven­tures in nature, culi­nary mishaps, and grow­ing inti­ma­cy. Patch is both sup­port­ive and amused by her cook­ing attempts, endur­ing dish­es that some­times test his palate. Amidst this, the Mey­ers observe their daughter’s romance with mild amuse­ment, believ­ing Misty will even­tu­al­ly over­come her youth­ful infat­u­a­tion.

In the fall of 1978, Misty earns her dri­ver’s license, and the two love­birds embark on a trip to Petra. While Misty stays warm in her Mer­cedes, Patch meets Car­ol Birch, a moth­er whose daugh­ter, Melin­da, went miss­ing four years pri­or. Their con­ver­sa­tion on the icy streets of Petra under­scores the painful real­i­ty of loss and the heavy bur­den of hope that Car­ol car­ries. Patch leaves with a pho­to­graph of Melin­da, ignit­ing a sense of melan­choly as he reflects on his own quest for Grace.

Upon return­ing home, Patch pins Melinda’s pho­to­graph to his bed­room notice­board, shar­ing a spe­cial moment with Misty under the stars. Their inti­mate exchanges reveal Misty’s con­cern for Patch’s safe­ty in the mines and their play­ful ban­ter about cup­cakes. While Misty excels aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, Patch’s search for leads about Grace brings a sense of anx­i­ety, as he grap­ples with the fear that his efforts may ulti­mate­ly be in vain. The chap­ter encap­su­lates the blend of youth­ful romance, loom­ing uncer­tain­ties, and the weight of unre­solved loss, fram­ing their world against the back­drop of a harsh real­i­ty faced by Patch.