In a rented house near Brennan, Captain Jack briefs his assembled operatives on the mission to attack the president. The men—bomb makers, engineers, shooters, snipers, and fedayeen—have all altered their appearances. Djamila is absent, as her role in the mission as a woman might provoke negative reactions. The men were handpicked as older, educated soldiers who have all lost immediate family to conflicts.

Captain Jack details the extensive security measures they will face: a 27-vehicle motorcade, sealed roads, a bulletproof podium, countersnipers, and magnetometers. Using a Secret Service training video that Hemingway gave him, he presents attack diagrams, assigns positions, and orders the ambulance disabled and the president’s physician, Dr. Bellamy, taken out first. He warns the shooters that they will likely die, telling them in Arabic that their deaths will carry them to paradise. After a practice session, Adnan notices Ahmed muttering and grows suspicious. Later, Captain Jack meets a North Korean colleague at a Pittsburgh hotel.

Reuben arrives at Union Station on a restored 1928 Indian Chief motorcycle with a sidecar. Stone rides in it with him to Old Town Alexandria and a rare book shop called Libri Quattuor Sententiarum, where Caleb has an ownership interest. Inside, they meet the owner, Douglas, and Stone leads Reuben to a basement room where a hidden mechanism in the fireplace reveals a priest’s hole. He retrieves a leather-bound journal filled with newspaper clippings and a square leather case.

Alex arrives at Kate’s Georgetown address—a massive mansion—and is greeted by the elderly Lucille Whitney-Houseman, who goes by Lucky. She makes him a strong Jack and Coke and regales him with stories of knowing every president since Truman. She reveals that Kate rarely brings men home and that Alex is the first with a gun, which thrills her. Kate appears and announces that they are going to dinner at Nathan’s. Lucky gives Alex a thumbs-up, saying that is where Kate takes men with “potential.”

Stone asks Reuben to stop at Arlington National Cemetery and stands silently at a grave marker. Nearby, Carter Gray arrives to visit his wife Barbara’s grave. The narrative reveals that Barbara and their daughter Maggie were killed at the Pentagon on 9/11. Gray feels intense guilt for surviving because he was running late. Gray notices Stone and Reuben, and when he is done, he walks to the headstone they had stopped at. He is shocked to read the name John Carr on the headstone. He knows the grave is empty, part of a cover-up he orchestrated. Gray realizes that the legendary CIA operative might be alive.

At Nathan’s, Alex and Kate share personal histories. Kate explains her role at Justice, investigating crimes against political prisoners. They exchange backgrounds: Kate’s gymnastics dreams and her stint as a Vegas croupier; Alex’s upbringing in Ohio, playing guitar with his Johnny Cash-obsessed father, and his inspiration to join the Secret Service after seeing Clint Hill’s heroism during Kennedy’s assassination. As they leave, they encounter Jackie Simpson with her father, Senator Roger Simpson. Jackie pulls Alex aside to apologize, explaining that her father pressured her into revealing information.

The Camel Club meets at Stone’s cottage. Stone presents his research: Over 18 months, numerous terrorists allegedly killed by other terrorists were identified only by fingerprints and DNA because their faces were destroyed. Stone theorizes that Johnson manipulated the NIC database, substituting fingerprints of unknown dead men for those of supposedly killed terrorists, giving them clean identities as “sterilized weapons.”

Meanwhile, Alex and Kate walk along the Georgetown waterfront. Alex lists inconsistencies in Johnson’s supposed death by suicide: the improbable swim, clean clothing, and barely damp note. They discover an old rowboat hidden in a drainage ditch with a bullet hole and a possible bloodstain. Alex cannot report it without revealing that he disobeyed orders to end his investigation.

Captain Jack receives a coded warning that Gray accessed the dead men’s files and has been mentioning “the resurrection of the dead” (214). He is instructed to switch to handwritten coded messages.

Djamila, on her 24th birthday, drives a practice run through Brennan. Despite her mission, she finds herself increasingly attached to the Franklin children.

After Alex’s date with Kate, they play piano together and share a passionate kiss. Afterward, as he drives down her steep Georgetown street, his brakes fail. He crashes into a tree, fights off an attacker, and realizes that his brake line was cut at Kate’s house. He runs back to Kate’s house and spots the glare of a rifle scope aimed at the carriage house. Alex fires at the sniper and bursts inside the house to take Kate to safety.

The Camel Club breaks into Reinke’s house in rural Purcellville. Caleb and Milton stay in Caleb’s car as lookouts, while Stone and Rueben go into the house. Stone uses the cat to map the security system’s motion detector zones and jimmies a window with a professional kit.

Approximately 30 minutes earlier, Peters and Reinke broke into Milton’s house, unaware of his hidden surveillance cameras. They find a receipt with the name Chastity Hayes. Afterward, they find Tom Hemingway in their car’s back seat. He scolds them for their failures and takes the receipt. Peters and Reinke head to Reinke’s house to rest.

Gray drives to CIA headquarters and retrieves a file on John Carr, a legendary operative and assassin. The file ends with Carr’s faked death and burial at Arlington, an operation Gray oversaw. Gray fears that the man he saw at the cemetery might be Carr, coming back to seek revenge. On September 11, Gray performs his annual memorial, reading Bible passages to photos of his wife Barbara and daughter Maggie.

Hemingway reflects on the previous night’s failures. He looks at a portrait of his late father, Ambassador Franklin T. Hemingway, assassinated in China. Tom’s fury over his father’s death has only intensified with time.

Inside Reinke’s house, Reuben discovers financial records showing that Reinke purchased an enormous long-put option on the S&P 500—a massive bet that the market will crash. Stone theorizes Reinke knows of or is helping to create an imminent catastrophe.

Milton and Caleb see headlights approaching Reinke’s house, but they have no cell signal, and so no way to contact Stone and Rueben. Caleb drives past the house, blasting his horn. Stone and Reuben escape out the back just as Reinke enters the front. They collide with Peters coming in the back door; Reuben’s punch sends him flying. Caleb’s Malibu strikes Reinke as he escapes, and Stone swings his helmet into Peters’ head. The Camel Club escapes, leaving both agents unconscious.

The next morning, Sykes tells Alex that the police found no evidence of foul play in his car crash; the brake line apparently failed naturally. Sykes questions Alex’s stability and assigns him to exterior White House perimeter duty.

The Camel Club commends Caleb’s bravery, and he tells them that he removed his license plates before the chase. Milton learns that his house was broken into. Stone decides they must retrieve his hidden surveillance footage. Meanwhile, Adelphia sees Alex at the park and tells him about Stone’s expert fighting in the park.

In Brennan, Captain Jack continues final preparations. The ex-National Guardsman has perfected his use of the prosthetic hand. The engineer and chemist leave smoke bombs at local businesses.

Alex learns that he has been assigned to the advance team for Brennan’s visit to Brennan, Pennsylvania. Over dinner, Kate tells him that she is determined to investigate with the Camel Club despite the danger. They decide to find Stone and go to his cottage at Mt. Zion Cemetery. Kate admires Stone’s library, noting he reads Solzhenitsyn in Russian. Adelphia arrives and makes a pointed remark about those who seek truth needing to be truthful themselves. Stone becomes uncomfortable and asks them to leave.

Driving Adelphia home, Alex senses that she is holding something back. Kate reveals that she is starting a vacation and suggests investigating Stone and his friends. Alex reluctantly agrees it is the lesser of two evils.