Hungover, the narrator drinks beer and whiskey for relief at a gas station between her safe house and Vantôme. There she encounters the man she calls "Lemon Incest" in his distinctive topless Chrysler Sebring, blasting Bond-like music. Confronting him about whether he is following her, she gets only an inscrutable smile and his suggestion that she is paranoid. He drives off, and she concedes he was right, feeling relieved rather than watched.

At Le Moulin, planning replaces translation work as the fair is two days away. The Moulinards intend to stage a descent onto the D79 to confront Platon upon his arrival. Aurélie wonders aloud how Platon could possibly be unaware of the planned protest, a question the narrator silently answers: French intelligence is keeping him uninformed.

Pascal pulls the narrator aside to probe her cover story about Hélène de Marche, asking how long she worked for her and where she lives. The narrator skillfully recites details of Vincennes, her dog-walking routes, and daily habits, sensing Pascal needs reassurance to trust her. He then names the unsettling "coincidence" of Platon's visit aligning with her arrival.

The narrator deflects with a philosophical riff on coincidence, then pivots to class resentment, contrasting Pascal and Lucien's connections to powerful figures with her own lowly proximity through a bureaucrat's dog. Pascal laughs, softens, and tells her he values her presence, envisioning a future where she and Lucien settle on the commune, have a house built by René, and possibly children.

Privately, the narrator rejects this vision, reflecting that the only child she would ever have would be one abandoned in a dumpster, and resolves she will remain childless, nursing beers stashed in the Škoda's trunk.