The narrator, posing as Sadie, refines her plan for the attack at Vantôme's fair. She studies maps of the lake area, the D79, and possible police approach routes, plotting Platon's entrapment and her own escape north on a major highway after the protest is kettled.

She identifies a fire lane—Chemin des Pêcheurs—on Google Earth as a hiding spot for the Škoda during her getaway. Visiting it, she finds it blocked by fallen logs and deep ruts, requiring tractor clearing. She considers paying Crouzel but rejects it because he and his mother are loyal to Pascal and incapable of discretion.

Walking the lane, she observes wild nasturtiums whose leaves seem to nod yes and then no in the wind, and proceeds toward the lake at twilight. In the meadow she notices tiny white clumps on grass blades that turn out to be small snails, recalling Bruno's remark that problems leave when ready.

On the bench where she previously sat with René, she sees an old man with long white hair to his shoulders—unusual for local old-timers. He turns, revealing a penetrating gaze, and walks off down the D79. Convinced he resembles Bruno Lacombe from his decades-old book photo, she follows in her car and pulls alongside him.

She questions him directly. The man calmly identifies himself as Frederic Peyrol of Le Petit Sazerac, denies knowing Bruno Lacombe, and continues walking without looking back. The narrator is left uncertain, watching him recede, the encounter unresolved.