I Am Pilgrim

Murdoch prepares for his novel mission: “[F]or the first time in my professional life I was out in the cold—I was on a mission without a legend or cover” (506). He plants evidence in his hotel room for Cumali to find and show her brother. Murdoch picks up Bradley and explains he has been seeking a lone terrorist. Bradley is shocked to learn that the plot is not a nuclear bomb, but Murdoch tells him to focus on the key detail: that Cumali is the perpetrator’s sister. Bradley is horrified when Murdoch tells him that the planted emails on his laptop indicate that Cumali herself will be arrested and tortured, while the boy will likely die in an orphanage. Murdoch explains that the horror-inducing scenario is meant to get her to contact her brother. Bradley initially refuses to participate in the most horrifying phase of the plan: kidnapping the nanny and the child, threatening both with death unless al-Nassouri reveals all. When Murdoch reminds him that the alternative is Marcie facing the smallpox threat alone, Bradley accepts the plan.

Murdoch and Bradley return to the hotel, and Murdoch is stunned to realize that his room has been searched by thorough professionals who left almost no trace of their presence The most likely searchers in the area are affiliated with drug trafficking: Murdoch ruefully reflects he should have anticipated the possibility of another encounter with the Nikolaides family.