Sitting at her dining room table, Sloane receives the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Lab report. Kashmir's DNA is "Excluded." Portia sold her a paperless horse — a con. The investigation becomes personal.

Sloane posts a message on an equestrian forum about a stolen stallion named Ranger. A signal flare. It works. Mr. Smith — The Fixer — surfaces. The anonymous client seeking stolen property has a face now, or at least a contact.

Drawing the Architecture of Deceit diagram at her table, Sloane notices Harley's frantic pacing. She realizes she has been unconsciously flooding the room with the chemical scent of her own terror. She has been alone too long. She calls Austin Rivers. The isolation ends.

After Sloane publicly confronts Conrad at his CIT lecture, he directs CIT's supercluster to launch a brute-force packet storm against her home IP address and bank gateways. She arrives home to find her alarm blaring, her keypad code overwritten. She is locked out of her own security system. Her finances are severed. She cuts the phone line and flees into the night.

Sloane is a fugitive. An arrest warrant has been issued. Austin Rivers enters through the alleyway garage and extracts Maxxwell and Harley while Detective Vinton Miller pounds on the front door. The dogs make it out. Sloane does not come back.