As S. and Sola travel to their destination, S. realizes that his “examination of [the valise’s] contents was cursory at best,” and he concludes that he has become careless. Sola, to S.’s surprise, agrees with him despite the fact that he had not voiced his thought. She adds that he could also be “trusting.” S. tells her that in his experience carelessness and trust have been synonymous. She then asks, “Do you trust me?”

S. demonstrates a sense of cynicism and pessimism with his association between trust and carelessness, and his heeding to the conclusion that he has become careless. It seems as though he still struggling with the loss he faced after the destruction of the ship on The Territory. However, if anyone would offer an avenue out of such a negative attitude, it would be Sola.

In the third round of notes, Eric makes an interesting comment about the excerpt carried on from page 416: “I’ve been exposed; I’ve been wounded; Save yourself; Run.” He writes that he how gets why Summersby’s confession  made so much of how alone he’d been in his life as the only Straka and that he was trying to get new S/ Bouchard to lay off Filomela while at the same time concealing the existence of the mysterious Signe Rabe.

Here we see an interesting web of relationships between people in the world of V.M. Straka. Was Summersby the real Straka? Eric’s comment seems to suggest that he thinks so. If so, what was his connection to Durand‘s alleged daughter, Signe Rabe? Why would he be trying to get people to lay off FXC?

In another note, Eric notifies Jen that the Serin Institute for Literary Studies covered the tickets. Jen wonders where they get their money.

In the last round of notes, Eric and Jen discuss the climate of where they are at the time:

You didn’t tell me it would be this COLD.

I’m the one from California. You should be used to it.

If Covarrubias had been Straka, we could be in the Caribbean.

This just serves to suggest that their search for Straka has brought them somewhere cold. Maybe it was the Swede Ekstrom?