An extended series of emails to PostPal customer service shows that Sara’s calls have been dropped and her funds used without any actual time spent on the phone. PostPal refuses to refund her because of service minimums. Later emails show that the system described Sara as sick, preventing Elias from visiting her, and the scheduling system breaks. Sara confirms that her account is still active, despite her lack of emails.

Sara dreams about getting lunch in a French bistro with her husband. He caresses her and touches her sexually, but when she looks at him, he is Hinton; she tries to scream but moans with pleasure. She wakes and sits in shame and misery for a while before the morning check.

Sara reads historical databases and considers how much information the RAA must be missing, as many people don’t use the sleep devices. She thinks about the girlfriend of her former roommate who won a grant and used it to go off-grid, dropping out of her PhD to resist technology. Although this was 12 years prior, Sara now understands the woman’s reasoning. Sara tries to search for the woman on the internet but can only find her name and a few published papers. A facial recognition search reveals a picture of her. She gave the newspaper an alias, and she wears a bandana in other pictures. In response to growing surveillance, many people, like the woman, are now Twenty-Thirders, using technology for less than an hour a day from a secure connection.

In the laundry room, Toya explains that the interviewers shredded her entire history, her dreams, and her abstract behaviors, and her detainment has been extended again. Toya and Sara try to read in the heat, but eventually take off their shirts, which should be allowed since the laundry room is a restricted area. Hinton confronts them about the lack of shirts, insulting Sara’s breast size. He forces her to layer on multiple shirts until she can barely move.

Sara later goes to Marcela and agrees to help her write the letter. Marcela says that she’s found out that Lucy is a scammer and is getting sued by a victim. Sara thinks about how she hasn’t done anything as extreme as the other people in detention, yet she has been trapped just as long.

The chapter starts with a series of emails between Sara and her attorney, Abdo. Abdo repeatedly reminds her to follow the rules and keep her head down. Her case is plagued by government shutdowns, unexpected delays, and a computer malware incident that destroys her case file.

Sara dreams that she finally gets a hearing, which is held in a former pre-K classroom. An RAA agent, a Safe-X case agent, and a Dreamsaver representative interrogate her. Abdo is late to the hearing and inattentive throughout their harsh assessment of her. The Safe-X representative cites multiple disciplinary actions, one of which Sara has no memory of, but Abdo refuses to defend her, The Dreamsaver employee says that her dreams have been increasingly violent. They call her a murderer, and she wakes with a jolt, falling out of her bed. She remembers being denied entry to a concert despite having tickets when she was 15, resulting in an usher assaulting her. After she kicked and shoved him, security dragged her out of the venue.

At breakfast, the women discuss the new brand of tea, and Sara learns Toya got assigned an extra three months. Eisley is still resistant to the idea that the women in the center could be innocent, believing they have done something to deserve their treatment. Sara tries to explain that the algorithm and the RAA look for negative evidence instead of positive evidence, giving them a bias against the people they retain. Eisley is dismissive.

Later, Sara waits in line for an hour to call Elias, but he answers coldly, explaining that he is working. He gives her little information about the kids and seems actively distracted. She confronts him about forgetting her birthday and not emailing, but Elias blames her for making his life hard by being uncooperative during retainment. He apologizes quickly, but she hangs up on him.

Sara’s medical report from Safe-X is replicated on the first pages, including her allergies, women’s health notes, behavioral history (including the associated risk factors), family history, and medical history. The doctor notes that she denied Sara anxiety medication despite her diagnosis, which elevates Sara’s risk. Sara’s surname is misspelled throughout the document.

Sara spends time in the windowless worship room with the nonfunctioning device meant to project sermons; while Safe-X is supposed to respect and provide for all spiritual and religious needs of their retainees, this is the only accommodation they offer. She dwells on the meaning of dreams in religions, specifically in Islam, and considers how much she resents Elias for being a good father. She catches herself smiling at the idea of all of Joseph’s dreams shaping religion and quickly controls her face back into neutrality.

Sara and the others exercise in the yard; Sara spots men unloading construction equipment and is baffled. Marcela joins her and shares that the guitar request was denied quickly. Sara and Marcela watch the men unload, and Sara realizes they are planning to expand the school to house more inmates. Marcela decides to try again with her request, and Sara refuses to help. She goes inside and notices that construction cleanup was added to the list of jobs for the inmates.

Sara showers and comes out to find Toya, Lucy, and Marcela talking in the hallway. She learns that despite having an afternoon hearing, Lucy has been released. Lucy is cagey about how the hearing went, and Toya confronts her about committing ID fraud, which Lucy hurtfully rebuts, explaining that the customer is suing the entire company regardless of their involvement with the information breach. Marcela accuses her of being a pedophile due to her dreams, making Sara panic, and Lucy gets defensive. Marcela pushes Lucy. The guards appear and confront the women, and Hinton writes all of them except Lucy up despite their lack of involvement.

A Safe-X security questionnaire is reproduced on the first page, including questions about the user’s knowledge of other retainees, except for one question about the behavior of the attendants.

One morning, Sara waves to the basket-making woman, who waves back. She records her dream—she was at a fancy hotel on the Italian riviera and found her mother there, but her mother wants to stay somewhere else. She argues with the hotel clerk about the terms of their room, insisting it is refundable, and pushes him. Her mother died of lung cancer months before the vaccine for the cancer was approved, which grieves Sara. Sara dwells on her brother’s death; she was at a pool party at her cousin’s house playing hide and seek, but she refused to let her brother, Saïd, join her hiding place. The next thing she knew, she was looking at Saïd’s drowned body in the pool and blaming herself for his death. Sara’s family fell apart after Saïd’s death, with her father withdrawing from family life and her mother smoking and struggling to keep the family together. Sara believes the dream represents her guilt at not reading the terms and conditions for the Dreamsaver but wonders if that is a fair expectation.

Sara enters a daydream state, imagining her normal life at home with her children, but is interrupted by Toya, who comments that construction has the highest number of fatal injuries and the highest amount of fraud. She explains that deciding who to investigate for fraud was a gut feeling, not an observable pattern. This disturbs Sara, but Toya points out that they are both going to have to go into different careers, making her previous job pointless.

Sara reads the headlines and notices that the RAA’s chief administrator, James Wesley, is getting married. She is filled with rage at the realization that the man who ruined her life with an algorithm is living an ordinary family life while she is stuck in prison, watched over by people who refuse to view her as a person. Eisley comes into the library, and the officer tries to get Victoria to leave her spot for Eisley. Victoria flirts with him until he cancels the writeup, impressing Sara.

That evening, Sara receives a package from her family—a drawing and a birthday card from the twins and money for snacks from Elias. She relishes the drawing and the fond memories of Elias it gives her and runs to the commissary to buy herself a treat.

Zach Miller, Sara’s cousin with an old criminal record, writes her two emails with updates on her father and advice for retention. Zach reminisces about their childhood and says that her father still blames her for the retainment, believing that she is difficult. Zach’s arrest was on false charges but still affects his record and impacts his family life, with his wife divorcing him. He has trouble seeing his daughters. He asks Sara if he can help her. In the second letter, Zach apologizes if he hurt Sara’s feelings and explains that his case is getting cleared up and his business has been recognized by the town government for community service.

Sara has a strange dream about Albert Finney and a politician asking her to ride carrots through the sky over Los Angeles. She wakes up, confused about whether the dream was sexual, and decides it is just silly. She has a moment of disassociation in the mirror until she unties her hair and loosens her posture.

Sara is forced to exchange parts of her dinner with Toya because the meal is not halal. Sara watches as Victoria leaves with a nosebleed and one of her tablemates steals her food. Eisley joins their table and shares that, after her first hearing, she has been released. Nobody has been released that fast in months. Eisley is shocked to learn that Sara has never had a hearing but still defends the process, insisting that everyone is “just doing their jobs” (166).