Murderbot reaches the Preservation team's hotel at the far end of the station mall while actively disguising its behavior as human. Murderbot uses new code to mimic subvocal feed speech, blends into plaza traffic, identifies possible hostiles, penetrates the hotel security system, and books a room with Gerth's hard currency card.

Inside the room, Murderbot discovers there is no interior surveillance and uses the large display surface for media while searching the hotel's archived public-area surveillance. Because the hotel is secretly datamining guest conversations, Murderbot hijacks the processing routines, searches for relevant keywords, and finds footage of Ratthi, then Gurathin and Pin-Lee. Murderbot confirms that all three Preservation members are being tailed by augmented hostiles with access to the hotel security system.

Murderbot considers whether the situation might be a trap: GrayCris could be using the Preservation team as bait to discredit Murderbot's evidence, or the team might have been pressured into luring Murderbot in exchange for Mensah. After several tense hours, Pin-Lee, Ratthi, and Gurathin leave their room. Murderbot diverts the hostiles' command feed long enough to let the Preservation team exit without their followers.

Murderbot follows the team through the plaza and shopping areas, noticing that Gurathin and the others know they are under surveillance and are trying to shake a tail. Pin-Lee separates from Ratthi and Gurathin and goes to a kiosk for a local security company. Reading Pin-Lee's reluctance, Murderbot decides to contact her directly and offers to talk in a transit bubble where the conversation can be secured.

In the transit bubble, Pin-Lee confronts Murderbot for leaving, and Murderbot says Mensah told it to learn to do anything it wanted, so it learned to leave. Pin-Lee explains that Mensah was abducted from Port FreeCommerce after meeting DeltFall representatives and families of the victims. GrayCris has demanded that Preservation drop its suit and publicly say so, and the team has come to negotiate a ransom without sufficient money or reliable company support.

Pin-Lee gives Murderbot the key to Mensah's emergency fail-safe implant, but Murderbot cannot reach it, confirming Gurathin's theory that Mensah is being held behind TranRollinHyFa's main station security barrier. Pin-Lee admits she was about to risk hiring a possibly compromised local security company. Murderbot warns that the company is probably playing a double game, and Pin-Lee, exhausted and wary, says she is almost glad Murderbot is there.