Tensions mount at Omega Point as Anderson’s men continue to stay silent, and Sector 45 becomes more unsettled following rumors of a resistance. Juliette goes to dinner, but Castle interrupts, urging her to return to Warner; she hasn’t learned anything useful yet, and Winston and Brendan are still prisoners. Still, Juliette isn’t sure what to ask. She inquires about Warner’s tattoo, but he answers cryptically that “a handful of letters doesn’t always make a word” (174). He pivots to ask Juliette about liking to read. Juliette realizes, with odd relief, that Warner already knows all the dark parts of her past. She tells him about books she encountered at a detention center until she realizes that she’s enjoying confiding in Warner. She hates how comfortable she feels talking to him.

Warner also likes to read, but he mostly began reading because The Reestablishment assigned him the task of deciding which texts should be illegal. Juliette asks if he agrees with destroying culture and literature, and Warner grows uncomfortable, saying he would do things differently if he were in charge. When Juliette presses him on what he would change, he says she asks too many questions. Juliette says this is because he seems calmer, and Warner laughs: Being kidnapped is like a vacation from the brutality of his life.