The narrator finds Burdmoore alone in the woodshop and uses the privacy to escalate their alliance. Drawing on his boasts about robbing banks and killing a drug dealer, and his familiarity with old firearms, she explicitly tells him the confrontation with Platon will be armed and that she plans to give him the P38 on Saturday. She frames Platon as the ruin of the commune and rural life, appealing to Burdmoore's desire not to fade out ingloriously. He signals openness, reflecting on his many lives.

She then drives to the town square in the Škoda to run a covert errand. Watching Naïs close down the café and load groceries, she follows her at a distance along the D79, through switchbacks and a narrow gravel lane in the woods, until Naïs turns toward what the narrator believes is Bruno's home. Having mentally mapped the route, she silently thanks Naïs for unwittingly leading her to Bruno.

Back at Le Moulin, she joins a banner-making group and hears plans for the action: Crouzel and other farmers will release cattle onto the D79 to join tractors and milk tankers blocking Platon's path. At dinner she observes René and his partner sitting in tense silence; René leaves abruptly.

Afterwards, René's partner confronts the narrator outside, asking if she is sleeping with René. The narrator flatly denies it, but distracted by thoughts of René coming to her house that night, she smiles. The woman declares her dislike. The narrator mentally retorts that René likes her fine—only later realizing she had spoken the thought aloud, exposing her affair.