Chapter 38

At a WISE safehouse, a rookie reviewing the mixer's guest list suggests sending Twilight reinforcements. Sylvia refuses, warning that inexperienced agents in enemy territory would be handed straight to the SSS, and describes Eden Academy as a front line of the cold war.

In the courtyard, Loid introduces himself while mentally noting how little the public record reveals about Donovan since he withdrew from view. His offer to bring an apology gift to the Desmond manor is deflected with an unexpectedly bright smile, and every attempt to make amends for Anya's punch gets politely waved off. When Damian protests the insult to the family, Donovan wears his son down with weary sighs until the boy apologizes for speaking up.

Loid steers the talk toward the frustrations of parenting, and Donovan agrees in stark terms: children may carry your blood, yet they remain strangers, and genuine mutual understanding between people is impossible. Suspecting he has just glimpsed the philosophy behind Donovan's saber-rattling politics, Loid concedes that full comprehension of another mind may be arrogance, but argues for meeting people halfway and creating room for dialogue anyway. He then flatters the family by praising Damian's school report on his father's work, claims Anya talked of nothing else at home, and floats attending a National Unity Party seminar. Donovan ends the exchange by recalling Loid's name, which the spy tallies as a victory alongside memorizing every face on the security detail. As Loid departs, he and Donovan trade quietly suspicious glances.

Left alone with his father, Damian struggles for words until he remembers Anya vowing to confess her failure, then blurts out his Stella Star, his weak reading score, and his prize-winning griffin from art class. Donovan offers flat congratulations, calls the meeting a whim, and walks off with an instruction not to disgrace the family name, which Damian eagerly accepts. Watching from inside the school, Twilight judges that the closer father and son grow, the better Plan B's odds become. At home, Anya sleepily mumbles about battling a superboss alongside her father, leaving Loid mystified.

Sylvia rejects sending backup to the mixer, keeping Twilight alone on the operation.

Donovan reveals a core conviction that people, family included, can never understand each other, handing Twilight his first real read on the man's psychology.

Emboldened by Loid's words and Anya's example, Damian reports his achievements to his father and receives a rare, if cold, word of praise, while Donovan leaves having remembered the name Loid Forger.

The chapter opens Volume 7 at 23 pages, adapts into Episode 25, and puts Loid, Damian, Ewen, Emile, and Donovan on the cover. A WISE rookie debuts in the opening scene.

Loid privately acknowledges that solving conflict through dialogue is an idealistic notion for a spy, yet resolves to keep pursuing understanding regardless, framing the chapter's central exchange with Donovan.