Chapter 50

An early Berlint morning finds Franky grumbling through pet-sitting duty with Bond, until a chance encounter with a woman walking her puppy at the park inspires him to propose that the dog become his.

Out on the liner's deck, Twilight replays the previous night and concedes he could not decode Anya's behavior at all. The admission stings, but he reframes it: even a spy fears the unknown, and the unknown exists to be overcome. Day two's mission is understanding his daughter. Inside, Matthew tells Heymann and Vides their hosting duties are over, inventing a story about the Greys having a marital blowup, and sends the two bureaucrats off to enjoy the ship.

Anya, meanwhile, wants back into her mother's fight. Imagining Loid's horror at learning that Yor "fights people," she rules out telling him and instead plots to ditch her father and lend a hand alone. The plan disintegrates on contact with the ship's attractions: at miniature golf Loid casually aces every hole while Anya burns half the day failing to sink one, and each successive distraction she stages swallows her attention whole while Loid quietly observes and analyzes her throughout.

At dinner Anya grimaces over her plate, disgusted with herself for having fun instead of remembering Yor. Loid misreads the sour face after a day of apparent enjoyment, worries a rebellious phase has arrived, and asks if she is alright. Realizing she is scaring him, Anya says she just wishes Yor were with them. Loid offers to pass a message through the concierge to see whether Yor has time the next day, then mentions the fireworks after dinner and suggests Yor might turn up there, instantly restoring Anya's spirits.

By the radio, Matthew receives the all-ready transmission and phones the hideout. Yor relays the news: the rendezvous ship signals go, four hours out, time to change into disguises. But the informant has intercepted the same transmission and flags it for the Assassin Leader, who deduces its meaning and orders his team into ambush positions. Seeing a clear corridor, Yor leads Olka, Gram, and Zeb out.

The rendezvous is set: a four-hour countdown begins when Matthew receives the all-ready signal, but the informant intercepts the transmission and the Assassin Leader positions his men for an ambush.

Anya's plan to slip away and support Yor collapses under her own distractibility, while Loid, having accepted that Anya defies his analysis, commits to understanding her. Franky opens the chapter angling to claim Bond as his own dog.

Franky and Bond take the chapter cover despite appearing only in the opening scene, a comic beat away from the shipboard tension.

The chapter is adapted in Episode 32 of the anime and sets up the fireworks-night ambush that dominates the following chapters.