The narrator returns to the Dubois place and reports to her contacts that Pascal and the Moulinards intend to disrupt the upcoming agricultural fair. Within forty-eight hours, her contacts inform her that Deputy Minister Platon will make an unannounced, lightly-guarded visit to the fair, arranged via moles inside the Ministry of Rural Coherence. Her assignment is to leak Platon's visit to the Moulinards, with the hope that someone among them will attempt to harm him.

The narrator pushes back, arguing Pascal is not reckless enough to attack Platon, but her handlers insist someone in the group is, and they want a trap set. She reflects that working privately, without federal backup or even knowledge of her true employers, makes the job riskier.

That cold first night of September, she struggles to build a fire, accidentally closing the flue and filling the room with smoke. She burns the Céline biography for kindling, watching Céline's face shrivel on the cover. Standing by the fire, she mentally reviews the commune members to identify who could be manipulated into a mutinous attack on Platon: she eliminates the library boys, René (Pascal's loyal warrior), and Florence (in love with Pascal). She considers Nadia too willful to manipulate, and lands on Burdmoore as a possibility, uncertain whether Pascal's treatment of him is hazing or abuse.

As she ruminates, the flue jams open. The next morning, wind blows ashes into the living room and a heavy rainstorm pours water down the chimney, turning the ashes to porridge.