The weather is good. The sea is calm. S ascends to the main deck and again discovers that there are nineteen crewmen, not including Maelstrom. Like before, S is treated with simple lack of concern.

Most of the conversations between Jen and Eric center on the second footnote of the chapter, where FXC criticizes the “pedantic nonsense” invoked by Straka’s feature of certain objects. FXC reproaches a list of people who she considers as “offenders” to Straka literature, saying: “an overcoat, most often, is simply an overcoat.”

Eric researches on the list of “offenders” and commented:

“A FN is usually just a footnote . Not here, because none of those people exist.”

Eric suspects the footnote contains the solution to a new set of codes.  Later, Jen discovers that the phrase “play fair”  is the key to the cipher. Jen writes:

“Create a string of paired letters–like initials (OH, HU, BW, etc.). Needs to figure out the keyword to decipher it.”

Eric brings up the chapter’s title, “Drifting Twins,” and Jen realizes that FXC is warning Straka about Looper.

The number “19” is again featured. 19th serves a significant function in the book. The letter “S” is ranked the 19th in the alphabetic table. Ship of Theseus is Straka’s 19th book, and Straka wrote a book titled The Black Nineteen. By solving the code, Jen and Eric are one step closer to understanding the circumstance of FXC and Straka. The crew members’ lack of concern about S also shows the hero’s involuntary isolation from the others.