Chapter 4

Murderbot infiltrates a private habitation complex on a corporate-controlled station to extract Mensah's family members from a safehouse. After successfully bypassing security systems, Murderbot discovers that Mensah's marital partner Farai, their juvenile offspring Sofi, and elder Nanja are alive but being sheltered by Supervisor Leonide, a corporate operative, who demands to meet Mensah's agent for reasons yet unknown.

Murderbot arrives at the target installation via ground transport and navigates through a themed ice-cavern arrival level while hacking security systems. The intrusion triggers no alerts, which surprises Murderbot despite expecting a capture scenario. After locating the safehouse—a feedless residence designed to hide inhabitants from complex surveillance—Murderbot enters and finds Farai, who immediately fears Mensah might have come herself. Inside, Murderbot discovers four people instead of three: Farai, juvenile Sofi, elder Nanja, and unexpectedly, Supervisor Leonide, a Barish-Estranza operative Murderbot has encountered before. Farai explains they fled a detention labor camp where people were disappearing and being sold into contract labor. Leonide found them after Farai's encrypted message to Mensah and brought them to the safehouse, a structure designed specifically to hide people from the complex's security infrastructure. Nanja has rigged a one-way hardwired receiver for news access. Leonide claims she simply wants to meet whoever Mensah sent for them, though she hasn't revealed her true purpose. Mensah's family members show no signs of mistreatment or fear of Leonide, though they are clearly stressed. Murderbot decides to interrogate Leonide privately while the family waits.