Chapter 33 Summary
Officer Charley formally opens an FIR (First Information Report) to document Mark’s alleged abduction, based on her conversation with Samantha. She includes everything Mark shared—his experience of being drugged, transported, and confined—and supplements it with her own observations at the scene. She attaches photographs showing signs of a helicopter landing, disturbed foliage, and the placement of Mark’s wallet and phone under the vehicle. The report is submitted to the CID Southeast Field Office at Fort Stewart, with copies also sent to the Carolinas Field Office at Fort Liberty and the FBI office on St. Croix.
The process brings back memories of her late colleague Agent Mateo Santiago, with whom she’d once grown close. Overcome with emotion, Charley steps out to a local coffee shop, where she symbolically shares a coffee with Santiago’s empty seat, quietly toasting his memory.
Meanwhile, Mark arrives at CIA headquarters dressed in his new civilian attire. After a cheeky comment from the security guard, he meets with Alexandra Conner, who escorts him to a subterranean level to handle his new identity documents. In a secure, windowless room, he meets Greg, an eccentric but meticulous photographer who insists on being recognized as an artist. Despite Greg’s objections to being rushed, the session finishes on time, and Mark proceeds to the NHB building for his next appointment.
There, he meets Dr. Lana Harding, a psychologist from the University of Chicago. Their initial exchange has a light, flirtatious tone, quickly interrupted by Conner, who tasks Lana with briefing Mark on the psychological profiles of the three men involved in the Quest project—Mark’s current mission. Lana suggests they talk outside, noting that she’s already prepared a formal report for him but prefers a verbal debrief to answer any questions in real time.
As they walk through the sunny campus, their conversation turns to Dr. Conner and the controversial nature of the mission. Lana admits she's conflicted—while she doesn’t believe two of the three men pose a threat to national security, she’s less certain about the third. She acknowledges that while intellectual brilliance sometimes borders on instability, the third man stands out as potentially dangerous.
