Agent Briggs answers Cassie Hobbes's practical objection to moving to Washington, DC by explaining that her father, Vincent Battaglia, still has legal custody, even though Cassie lives with her grandmother. Briggs says the FBI can present the Naturals program as a selective gifted program and believes Cassie's military father can be persuaded because he worries about Cassie's isolation.

When Cassie asks why she was selected, Briggs admits she was flagged in the system but says he does not know who flagged her or why. Briggs emphasizes that the offer is voluntary, then invites Cassie to question Michael about the program and answers Cassie's own questions directly.

Briggs explains that the program is small and experimental. Its purpose is to train teenagers with unusual natural abilities while also using those abilities to help the FBI from behind the scenes. Cassie would be allowed to leave, but she would have to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

Briggs then raises the subject Cassie has avoided: her mother's case. Although Briggs has no new information, Briggs suggests Cassie's loss gives her a reason to understand the work. Cassie asks what kind of consulting she would do, and Briggs explains that the recruits help with unsolved cold cases according to their specialties.

Briggs identifies Michael as a Natural at reading emotions and describes another recruit who excels at patterns and crime scene analysis. Briggs then defines Cassie as a Natural profiler, someone who can infer a perpetrator's personality and predict behavior from patterns. When Cassie presses him on what kinds of crimes involve those patterns, Briggs names serial crimes, including abduction, arson, sexual assault, and murder, making it clear the FBI wants Cassie to help catch serial killers.

The chapter shifts to a second-person perspective inside an unknown killer's mind. The killer looks at a dead woman with fury because the murder did not unfold as intended; the victim died too soon, failed to become the killer's imagined work of art, and triggered rage by using names associated with someone called He. The killer stabs the body repeatedly, feeling worthless but determined not to remain that way.