Frustrated by the lack of progress with recruitment targets, Nate receives advice from Gable that his desperation is counterproductive. Gable suggests deploying surveillance on Dominika, and Forsyth assigns Nate to run the team himself. Nate meets the team: Jaana and Marcus Räikkönen, longtime CIA assets known as VERONICA and ARCHIE—a couple in their seventies with nearly 40 years of surveillance experience.

After two weeks, Marcus reports that Dominika demonstrates considerable street skills and uses tradecraft to observe Nash’s arrival at the pool from the Torni Hotel. However, she appears lonely and not currently operational.

Nate and Dominika agree to meet for lunch at an Afghan restaurant in Pihlajisto. Both conduct extensive detection routes beforehand. Dominika exits her apartment through a coal chute window she previously picked open, allowing her to start blocks away from her front door. VERONICA follows her onto the Metro undetected, while ARCHIE signals Nate with an all-clear.

At the restaurant, they discuss their fathers and careers. Following Gable’s guidance, Nate shows some vulnerability about his family. They argue about Afghanistan and Vietnam, and Dominika says she considers him a friend. At the Metro platform, Nate kisses her on the cheek before she boards the train. During their separate journeys home, both reflect on the growing personal connection between them.

Nate’s reports on Dominika, assigned the cryptonym GTDIVA (or DIVA), attract significant attention at Headquarters in the US. They establish restricted handling and request an updated operations plan and operational tests. Forsyth warns Nate about inevitable interference from Headquarters and advises deferring work with translator Tishkov to avoid running two Russians from the same embassy simultaneously. Gable counsels Nate not to sleep with Dominika before he recruits her.

In the SVR rezidentura, director Volontov berates Dominika for slow progress and unsubtly suggests increasing intimacy with the American. Furious, Dominika confronts him about ordering her to seduce Nate, then storms out. Alone that night, she considers revealing her SVR status to Nate to sabotage Volontov’s operation. During dinner with Nate at an Italian restaurant, Dominika deliberately drops her cover by revealing that her boss’s name is Maxim Volontov. Nate understands the significance but maintains his composure.

A restricted cable arrives at the CIA Helsinki station: MARBLE is traveling to Helsinki under cover of a trade delegation and wants to meet. Nate leads intensive preparations, casing locations for brush passes and brief encounters, and a nonofficial-cover officer rents a room at the Hotel GLO as the secure meeting site. The preparations cause Nate to miss his regular pool meetings with Dominika for six days. When they meet for coffee, he is distracted and postpones their planned trip to Suomenlinna.

Watching for Nate to appear at the pool from the Torni Hotel, Dominika realizes that his six-day absence means that he is meeting his agent. She understands that reporting this would trigger a massive SVR mole hunt. Recalling the injustices she has suffered, she decides to protect Nate and his agent. The next morning, she lies to Volontov, claiming that she has nothing to report and inventing a plan to invite Nate to dinner at her apartment.

Dominika befriends Marta Yelenova, a rezidentura colleague and retired Sparrow. Known as the Queen Sparrow, she served in KGB honey trap operations for nearly 20 years. One night, Dominika confesses everything to Marta: her mission against Nate, Sparrow School, the Ustinov affair, and her decision not to report Nate’s operational activity. Marta understands that Dominika has committed treason but supports her decision and warns her to be careful.

MARBLE’s Helsinki visit proves highly successful and yields numerous intelligence reports on SVR operations in Europe and North America, including information about a suspected high-level mole in the US. MARBLE also establishes cover for future travel by initiating an operation against a Canadian trade minister. Nate receives a salary increase for his handling of the meetings. After MARBLE departs, Gable advises Nate to pursue his relationship with Dominika, and Nate admits that he genuinely missed seeing her.

Marta helps Dominika craft deceptive contact reports showing slow but steady progress with Nate, keeping Volontov satisfied. Noticing their friendship, Volontov confronts Marta, accusing her of being a bad influence on Dominika. When Marta insults him and references Ustinov’s assassination, Volontov threatens her with reassignment. After she leaves, unsettled by her reference to Ustinov, he calls Vanya Egorov on the secure line. Egorov instructs him to do nothing, quoting a Stalinist aphorism about eliminating problems by eliminating people.

Nate invites Dominika to his apartment for dinner in a space that has been swept for surveillance devices. They argue about Russia and the old ways of the KGB. Nate mentions he prefers SVR officers to the old KGB men—a veiled acknowledgment of her status. As she prepares to leave, he kisses her lightly on the mouth.

Late one night, Marta returns to her apartment and is ambushed in her bedroom by Matorin, who ties her to her bed and murders her with a knife, watching her die over several minutes.

The next morning, when Marta fails to report for work, Volontov sends a security officer who finds her apartment empty but seemingly normal. Searches by Finnish police and SUPO turn up a security photo of a woman resembling Marta crossing the Swedish border with an unidentified man, apparently confirming a defection. They formally conclude that she has disappeared.

Devastated, Dominika suspects that the SVR murdered Marta because of her own reference to Ustinov. Her resolve to protect Nate deepens. Vanya Egorov calls a relieved Volontov, reassuring him about the defection and instructing him to focus on the operation with Dominika.

The narrative then reveals the truth: Egorov dispatched Matorin after Volontov reported Marta’s mention of Ustinov. Agents created the false trail at the Swedish border while Matorin exfiltrated with Marta’s body across a secret route near Vyartsilya. The chapter ends with Matorin dragging her body on a sled back into Russia.

Over dinner, Nate and Gable discuss how to move forward with Dominika’s recruitment, which has stalled. That night, a distraught Dominika appears at Nate’s apartment and, speaking in Russian, reveals that she knows he is a CIA officer. She confesses everything: her SVR status, Sparrow School training, her role in the Ustinov affair, her mission to identify his mole, and her decision to protect him after concluding that he was operational. She explains that Marta knew and supported her.

Stunned, Nate realizes Dominika’s choice saved MARBLE’s life. He asks what she wants to do, avoiding a direct recruitment pitch. She challenges him to say what he wants, and Nate explicitly asks her to work with him and steal secrets, appealing to her rebellious nature and need for control rather than ideology or revenge. Dominika does not explicitly agree but begins discussing operational parameters, effectively recruiting herself.

After she leaves, Nate is thrilled but terrified by the responsibility and the execution Dominika would face if caught.

The station establishes a safe house in Munkkiniemi for meetings with Dominika. At her first meeting with all three men, Forsyth and Gable build rapport with her. She assesses their auras, blue and purple, respectively, and begins to trust them. The CIA team recognizes her extraordinary intuition and operational sense. Dominika undergoes a polygraph and passes, though the examiner notes a physiological reaction when Nate’s name is mentioned.

They establish her cover strategy: She will continue filing reports to Volontov that show gradual progress in her relationship with Nate while providing intelligence from memory about SVR illegals. After she smuggles out an original document, Gable chastises her for the excessive risk, and they provide her with a concealed camera.

Nate trains Dominika in denied-area tradecraft, and she successfully executes a brush pass in the Metro and a moving-car delivery. To buy more time and satisfy SVR expectations, Dominika reports to Volontov that she and Nate have become lovers.

CIA Headquarters then tasks Dominika with inserting a thumb drive into a rezidentura computer to enable access to encrypted SVR communications. Despite Nate’s protests, Forsyth insists, and Gable briefs her. Dominika creates a diversion in the file room, inserts the drive for 14 seconds, then retrieves it, narrowly passing a random security bag check by hiding the device in her underwear.

That night at the safe house, Nate and Dominika argue fiercely about the risks she is taking. The argument turns intensely personal, and after a charged moment, she leaves. Alone, Nate reflects on his desire to keep her safe.

Forsyth informs Nate and Gable that the new CIA Director wants to travel from Copenhagen to Helsinki to meet Dominika personally. Nate protests the massive security risk but is overruled. They plan to control the visit as tightly as possible.

At the safe house, Dominika perceives the Director’s aura as pale green—indicating he is emotional and an actor—and finds him similar to her uncle. He is condescending, repeatedly touching her knee while outlining a financial compensation package that includes a recruitment bonus, monthly deposits, additional bonuses, and a retirement fund. Dominika is deeply offended and tells him she is not spying for money. The Director dismisses her, saying money is always useful.

After the Director and his entourage leave, Dominika walks over to Nate and kisses him. They have passionate sex in the bedroom, but hurriedly dress when Gable unexpectedly returns to do damage control after the Director’s visit. Dominika calmly gets dressed and serves him leftover dumplings. Gable immediately understands what has happened, and after Dominika leaves, he confronts Nate about the relationship.