Prax hires a starving young man in a cramped Ganymede hole to recover security-camera footage from Mei’s day care. Because the official security archive is inaccessible, the young man uses the camera’s local cache, which has been accumulating unmonitored since the lockdown. Prax pays in fresh produce, reflecting how far Ganymede’s economy and food systems have collapsed.

The footage runs backward through the aftermath of the attack: medics, corpses, soldiers, the damaged door, and finally Prax’s own frantic departure. When the recording reaches the time before the attack, Prax sees Mei leave with Dr. Strickland and an unidentified dark-haired woman. Prax is overwhelmed with relief because Strickland knows Mei’s medical needs, but he is also alarmed and wants to know where Strickland took her.

The young man refuses to trace Strickland and Mei any farther without a box of chicken and sauce, which Prax cannot obtain. Back in Prax’s dim apartment, starvation and exhaustion make Prax increasingly confused, but Prax forces himself to make lists as Prax did in childhood under pressure from Prax’s father. Prax remembers sixteen children from Mei’s therapy group and writes down a plan to check security, UN outreach, Mars outreach, and finally to get help.

At the security station, Prax reports that all sixteen children Prax could remember from Dr. Strickland’s patient group are gone, proving to Prax that the disappearances are not random. The security worker is too overwhelmed by Ganymede’s broader collapse, including murders and desperate civilian reports, to respond meaningfully. Prax realizes no official help is available and that Prax’s own deteriorating condition could end the search for Mei.

Prax heads toward the relief center for food but walks into a crowd on the edge of a food riot. While trying to escape the crush, Prax recognizes James Holden near the loading bay doors from the famous broadcast about the Canterbury. Remembering the note at the bottom of Prax’s list, Prax decides Holden is the person to ask for help and walks toward him.