A dissenter from the Organization surreptitously contacts Veil and supplies him with documentation that one of its highest ranking members, Richard Grace, is the one primarily responsible for the decision to erase his identity. This mysterious man also turns over photos of Veil's deceitful wife, Alyson, in compromising poses with Grace and then offers to furnish Veil with valuable information from the group's dossier on him if he reciprocates by killing Grace. Before long, Veil finds himself in a risky alliance with someone inside the enemy's camp.

Veil's twisted odyssey leads him back to Calaway, the Illinois psychiatric hospital where his ordeal began, and more revelations of what really happened to him while he was held there. Most astonishly, he discovers that former patient Joe "J.C." Carter has joined the medical staff and become one of "them." Veil attempts to convince J.C.—who is conditioned to believe he's Dr. Novik—that he's completely victimized by "them." Veil also witnesses another man, Michael Kramer, undergoing the first phase of conditioning, an ordeal identical to what Veil underwent months ago at the hands of "them."