Hunter and Rink return to Suzanne Bouchard's rented house expecting she may already have fled, but instead find her hurriedly packing. Realizing she believes a strike team could be coming, they decide to reach her before anyone from Arrowsake does. Rink blocks her vehicle in the driveway while Hunter circles to the back door, and both men approach unarmed to stop her escape and warn her.

When Rink knocks at the front, Sue tries to slip out the back carrying bags and a silenced pistol. Hunter intercepts her, disarms her, and is forced into a violent struggle when she assumes he has come to kill her. Sue fights hard despite rusty skills, but Hunter finally pins her until Rink arrives and takes the gun. Only when Hunter insists that they are no longer with Arrowsake does Sue stop resisting and accept that they are not there as executioners.

Once on her feet, Sue remains suspicious and tries to keep options open, even preparing to bolt again before Hunter stops her. Rink explains that seeing her alive changed the situation, and Hunter asks why Mercer never warned her that he had been seen in Panama City. Sue seems genuinely surprised, suggesting Mercer did not know Hunter had recognized him. The conversation then turns personal and bitter as Rink and Sue revisit Mercer's shooting and the old moral divide over what Mercer did in Sierra Leone.

Sue refuses Hunter's warning to leave Mercer behind and says she must protect him. She insists Mercer is not the man Arrowsake portrayed, claiming he was manipulated by the same organization that once controlled Hunter and Rink and that the evidence against him was false or distorted. Her defense of Mercer forces the men to consider that Arrowsake may have lied on a larger scale than they knew, while also making clear that helping Sue could put them in direct conflict with Conrad and the only protection they still have.