The chap­ter opens with CIA offi­cer Anna Sorensen wak­ing David Sla­ton in his quar­ters to deliv­er urgent news. She reveals that the pri­vate jet linked to his miss­ing fam­i­ly, reg­is­tered under a shell com­pa­ny tied to North Korea’s SSD, has been tracked from Mal­lor­ca to Urumqi, Chi­na. Sla­ton ques­tions the jet’s des­ti­na­tion, and Sorensen explains that Urumqi is a tran­sit hub, sug­gest­ing the flight will refu­el before con­tin­u­ing. How­ev­er, she admits track­ing domes­tic Chi­nese flights is near­ly impos­si­ble due to diplo­mat­ic con­straints, frus­trat­ing Sla­ton, who accus­es the CIA of inac­tion.

Sorensen spec­u­lates that the jet’s final des­ti­na­tion is like­ly North Korea, giv­en its own­er­ship and flight path. Slaton’s anger and des­per­a­tion sur­face as he con­fronts her about the agency’s lim­i­ta­tions, empha­siz­ing the per­son­al stakes of his family’s abduc­tion. Sorensen, though sym­pa­thet­ic, remains con­strained by oper­a­tional pro­to­cols. The ten­sion between Slaton’s urgency and insti­tu­tion­al bar­ri­ers under­scores the chapter’s cen­tral conflict—balancing per­son­al resolve against sys­temic obsta­cles.

Mean­while, Chris­tine and Davy remain cap­tive aboard the jet, land­ing in Urumqi. Chris­tine observes their sur­round­ings, not­ing the airport’s aging infra­struc­ture and Asian-oper­at­ed air­lines, con­firm­ing their loca­tion in Chi­na. She main­tains a com­posed facade for Davy’s sake, mask­ing her fear while sub­tly gath­er­ing intel. Their cap­tors, led by a scarred, author­i­ta­tive fig­ure, remain tight-lipped, shut­ting down her attempts to learn more. The jux­ta­po­si­tion of Christine’s qui­et resilience and the loom­ing threat height­ens the sus­pense.

The chap­ter clos­es with Christine’s forced pho­to ses­sion with Davy, hint­ing at the cap­tors’ manip­u­la­tive agen­da. The par­al­lel narratives—Slaton’s race against bureau­crat­ic iner­tia and Christine’s pre­car­i­ous captivity—converge around the unan­swered ques­tion of their final des­ti­na­tion. The ten­sion between agency lim­i­ta­tions and per­son­al stakes, cou­pled with Christine’s pre­car­i­ous sit­u­a­tion, sets the stage for an esca­lat­ing cri­sis.