The chap­ter “Sage 9” fol­lows Sage as she pre­pares for a covert FBI mis­sion to record a con­fes­sion from Josef, a sus­pect­ed Nazi war crim­i­nal. Sage reflects on her unex­pect­ed romance with Leo, an FBI agent who con­trasts sharply with her ex, Adam. Leo’s thought­ful ges­tures, like remem­ber­ing her cof­fee pref­er­ences and ensur­ing her com­fort, make her feel val­ued. Despite her lin­ger­ing self-doubt about her scars, Sage notices her smile first in the mir­ror, sig­nal­ing grow­ing self-accep­tance. The mission’s delay—due to her sis­ters’ shiv­ah vis­its, legal approvals, and Josef’s hospitalization—has giv­en her time to rehearse the encounter with Leo’s guid­ance.

Sage’s sis­ters, Pep­per and Saf­fron, are ini­tial­ly skep­ti­cal but quick­ly charmed by Leo, who deflects their cri­tiques of Sage with humor and diplo­ma­cy. Their depar­ture marks a rare moment of har­mo­ny, as Pep­per even asks Sage to stay in touch. Leo’s pres­ence has eased ten­sions, and Sage mar­vels at his abil­i­ty to shield her from famil­ial crit­i­cism. Mean­while, Leo coor­di­nates the mis­sion logis­tics, includ­ing secur­ing a sur­veil­lance van and rehears­ing poten­tial sce­nar­ios with Sage. Their plan involves her wear­ing a wire to record Josef’s con­fes­sion while Leo mon­i­tors from near­by, ready to inter­vene if need­ed.

The chap­ter high­lights Sage’s anx­i­ety about the mis­sion, despite her thor­ough prepa­ra­tion. Leo reas­sures her, run­ning drills where he role-plays Josef’s pos­si­ble reactions—ranging from coop­er­a­tive to hos­tile. Sage wor­ries about men­tion­ing her grand­moth­er, a Holo­caust sur­vivor, fear­ing it might alert Josef. Leo advis­es cau­tion but encour­ages her to trust her instincts. Their ban­ter reveals their deep­en­ing bond, as Leo light­ens the mood with exag­ger­at­ed descrip­tions of a dra­mat­ic res­cue, blend­ing humor with reas­sur­ance. Sage sus­pects Leo down­plays his com­bat skills, hint­ing at his com­pe­tence despite his self-dep­re­cat­ing jokes.

As they final­ize prepa­ra­tions, Sage changes into a sun­dress to con­ceal the wire, a prac­ti­cal chal­lenge in sum­mer. Leo hands her the trans­mit­ter, empha­siz­ing the stakes of the mis­sion. The chap­ter cap­tures Sage’s emo­tion­al growth—balancing fear with determination—and her reliance on Leo’s sup­port. Their part­ner­ship, both pro­fes­sion­al and per­son­al, under­scores the chapter’s themes of trust, jus­tice, and heal­ing. The impend­ing con­fronta­tion with Josef looms, leav­ing Sage poised between vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and resolve as she steps into her role as both inves­ti­ga­tor and avenger.