Summary

Chapter sixteen switches to the Observer’s perspective as he watches Sam and Irina play in the woods, looking at the murder site. The Observer reveals definitively that Sam is not Samantha Geary as it ponders why Sam acts like she is for Irina’s sake. The Observer understands that Sam values her role in Irina’s fantasy and that her pretending imbues her with a sense of self-worth. What the Observer does not understand is why Irina wants Sam to be the missing girl.

It watches as Sam leaves in Karl’s car and as Irina cooks dinner around her father’s drug-incapacitated body. It chooses to follow Sam as she drives to the diner where she works. When she arrives, it watches as she argues with a man, her boss, who expected her there earlier. The Observer does not understand humanity’s...