This is one of the strangest sections of the novel. Straka uses the second person, ordering the reader to stay focused on the basket of a bike that carries a bomb. As the bomb detonates, Straka tells the reader to “keep your eyes on the basket–if you insist on keeping them open at all.” It is as if the reader is a part of the novel, as though the reader is standing on the wharf amidst the protestors and the police.

Straka describes how the shrapnel will kill the protestors. Because the bomb is small and crudely built, Vévoda’s detectives will remain safe, but the protestors will still be blamed for the explosion. The bomb will be blamed on an anarchist or a communist, the narrator suggests.

Straka writes that we do not want to see S.’s battered body propelled into the air by the blast. The narrator insists that we do not want to see S. when he realizes that he may have been able to prevent the bomb.

The use the second person narration is incredibly strange, especially because of how the narrator is directing the reader, telling the reader to stare at a single object. This style transports the reader into the world of Ship of Theseus, but also disrupts the narrative of the story. Although we have become part of the story, it feels as though we are not completely alert, as if the explosion has dampened our senses.

Eric writes that this scenes mimics exactly what happened at Calais. Eric is referring to the Calais Riot of 1912. The riot consisted of a demonstration of workers who were employed by an ammunition factory owned by Bouchard. The demonstration ended violently, with workers and police being killed. Eric believes that Straka is modeling the scene on the wharf after the Calais Riot.

Jen suggests that Straka is trying to communicate his exhaustion to FXC. Straka, like S., has had a difficult life, and yet he still has so much work to do.