Summary

Part 4 begins in Venice, with Sollers running into Simon and Bayard. They can tell that Sollers has the document, but they wait to see what happens. Simon has quickly climbed the ranks of the Logos Club, and is now a famous young prodigy. There is a fancy Logos Club party and Simon is the hot topic. When he leaves the party, Simon is followed by three masked thugs who corner him, but just as they are about to attack him the two Japanese men from the blue Fuego appear and save him. They tell him that they are friends of Barthes and then disappear while Simon ruminates on the likelihood that he is in a novel. Throughout the chapter there are bits of the history of the Battle of Lepanto cut in without explanation. There is a letter from Kristeva to her father...