Damien briefs Angelina about the Strauss situation (although he does not go so far as to reveal what he discussed with Thielo alone). This causes her to go check on Thielo and be a little obnoxious about who the victim might have been.
Alexandra has a dream about a little girl, living in a familiar house in Germany... the little girl is playing with some tinker toys and seems quite pouty and rude. The girl says that she only gets the things that Alexandra throws away, and she wants more, specifically the big high school play. She offers to trade Alexandra for other memories - she knows who Alexandra killed - and then threatens to tell Lexa about them if she doesn't get her way. Lexa says she's rude. She says, "A psychiatrist once called you improperly socialized." Alexandra talks about the dream with Thielo when she wakes up, and he delivers the proper noncommittal noises.
That Saturday is the first such in April, and the team is sent to the Trinity site, to see who else turns up, check out the site, and pick up some trinitite (the glass created by the blast, which is of course not allowed to leave the area). They drive down and join the caravan to the site. Esteban wanted to take Tina but got talked out of it by Angelina, who he then bet that the mission wouldn't be dangerous.
Two cliomancers are immediately apparent - they are trying to get to the front of the pack going to the site, for one thing. The old woman confuses the young man, making him remember Gavin as his enemy for a moment, long enough to delay him, confuse Gavin, and let the old lady get the charge. The team gets their license plate numbers for later but doesn't contact them.
Esteban, wearing the ruby glasses, notes a solitary man with a strange shimmer in the glasses. It proves to be a shadow, following him... a duplicate of his own form. This is considered weird. Gavin keeps an eye on him while Esteban attempts to get some trinitite.
Esteban's first attempt fails - he makes everyone ignore him, but one guard does notice when he picks up the glass, and he has to put it down. Later, he makes everyone pay attention to him while Angelina stomps a small piece into the hollow sole of her shoe.
Meanwhile, Gavin watches the man (who looks like a Midwestern uncle, with golf shirt, slight paunch, and graying hair) put a rose down at the memorial and hears him say something in some Asian language. He finally decides to go talk to him.
There is a bit of mild verbal fencing and vague statements. Gavin notes that the rose looks like the one Sam bought - the stem is snapped off in the same way - and asks about it. The man, who introduces himself as Sam, claims that the other Sam wouldn't mind this use. Gavin remains unclear as to whether that means that this one killed the other and took it from him.
Gavin asks what the rose is for, and gets more answer than he bargained for. The man knows who Gavin is, and asks him if he knows about the thrones and the hole in one of them. Gavin cautiously admits that much, and Sam tells him that the hole was going to be the ascension of the Communist - there was a perfect communist in China in 1945 who was going to ascend, and was being killed by his comrades (obviously less perfect communists themselves) when the atomic test occurred. Somehow, this threw off the ascension, leaving the hole.
He goes on to draw the Yellow Sign, and says that this is what has come through the hole, from somewhere else. He wants Gavin and company to find someone to fill the hole. It can't be another communist, it needs to be like a communist ideal but different, something new. Communism, after all, was corrupted and killed by what happened. Gavin asks how long they have. "Six", replies Sam.
On the ride back, Esteban asks Gavin if the mission was dangerous. "The missions itself wasn't dangerous, but it may lead to more danger than we've yet dealt with." He doesn't say anything else, though, until they get back to the Ranch. Luckily, Esteban and Angelina have each other to argue with and so don't worry about it too much.
At the Ranch, Gavin calls a meeting with SILVER, Damien, and Orchid, and tells them what he's learned. They talk a lot about what sort of thing would replace Communism. Everyone is disturbed by the idea that the world ends in six more ascensions. Angelina doesn't believe it, though.
There's also some discussion about who this Sam was. The general consensus is that he must have been Sainte-Germaine, which would explain both his incredible knowledge and his strange appearance to the ruby glasses - his symbol is himself. In the end, reports are written up and the rest of the Inquisition is alerted.
"We'll probably have to do it. We're the Inquisition's crack ascension team."