Sadie and Lucien arrive at the Hotel Richelieu in Marseille, where Lucien's film crew has taken over. Sadie goes to McDonald's with Vito, the extroverted boyfriend of Serge, Lucien's cinematographer. Sadie maintains a genuine but limited friendship with Vito, the only relationship in which she allows aspects of her real self to surface.

Their hotel room walls are stained with blood from squashed mosquitoes. Sadie reflects on mosquito attraction, blood types, and Japanese blood-personality theories. She opens the window to a calming sea view and reminds herself that the next six weeks are critical for the job she has invested over a year in. She reads aloud from the terse Marseille crime novel Lucien is adapting.

Lucien initiates sex despite Sadie's lack of attraction; she submits mechanically to buy herself days of being left alone, mentally treating his body as a tool to climax and conclude the encounter.

Sadie heads toward Plage des Catalans, stopping at a bar to read encrypted messages. She learns that Paul Platon, the deputy minister she is monitoring, will appear in Vantôme, and her handlers indicate she is expected to engineer a confrontation between him and the Moulinards.

At the beach, she witnesses chaos: two brothers had tried to drown a cop in the waves, and CRS riot police tear-gassed the entire family beach in response. The scene crystallizes a plan in Sadie's mind—Platon could be cast as the cop, the Moulinards as the assailants, and Pascal Balmy could be blamed. She resolves it is time to act and finish the job.