Geneva: The Third Gate

At the third gate of seven, Jessie and Jim come to their first real problem. Two pictures from L'Etranger's past which seem unconnected but which they must somehow link if they are to get any closer to the ideas at the centre. An otter thrashing about and a rank full of taxis. This is bloody hard and they're only at gate three.

They have identified obscure family members (Catherine de Clemency, Gerard Rougerie) and recalled unwitnessed conversations from decades before (with Marion Delaunay), pieced together through the untrusted testimony of one-time acquaintances (Jonathan Allen, Martha Linehan), but there is a limit to the number of locks they can pick through homework alone.

Now they will have to intuit, to prove they knew L'Etranger by making a connection which is beyond logic. They have to "be" him, if they can, imagine the puzzles which he might himself have set, untangle his intentions, identify his bluffs.

He must be the only man who could have answered these questions. Not only are they about him; they demand him. That's the whole point of the idea-safe. That's why it's the most secure joint in Geneva.