The Expats

Soon after discovering the gun in Bill’s office, Kate and her family go on holiday to the German countryside. Kate continues to think about Bill and Julia’s mission, wondering if they are indeed assassins.

Using a payphone, Kate dials the phone number she saw in Bill’s office. She reaches an American woman in Luxembourg named Jane; Kate suspects that she is one of Bill’s affairs. As she makes her way to the museum, Kate thinks about her growing attraction to Bill, perversely drawn to the danger of having sex with him.

At the museum, a middle-aged American man talks to her. When Kate realizes they are alone, she acknowledges the man as Hayden.

Kate gives Hayden the photo she took of Bill and Julia at the nightclub. He immediately confirms that neither one is a CIA agent. Kate explains her theory that they may be trying to assassinate someone at the palace. Hayden is skeptical and asks Kate why she is so invested in them. He cautions her not to get in too deep or else she might learn something she would rather not know. Kate remains firm, so Hayden suggests meeting with his contact in Berlin.

When Hayden and Kate notice that someone is following them, they split up. Kate follows the stalker until he gets into a car, which she realizes Julia is driving.

Kate convinces Dexter to change their next destination to Berlin, extending their trip by a few days. While touring around, Kate is surprised to recognize Hayden’s contact as the driver who had picked them up on their very first day in Europe. She gives him the business card and the lip balm that she stole from the Macleans’ apartment. The next day, he informs her that Bill’s and Julia’s real names are Craig Malloy and Susan Pognowski. He confirms that they are not married, and that they are agents of the FBI on a special assignment with Interpol.

Kate is relieved to know that her suspicions were warranted and speculates on the nature of the Macleans’ special assignment in Luxembourg. When Hayden calls, she tells him what she has learned. She wants to find out why the agents are there as a way to reassure herself that they aren’t coming for her or Dexter. Hayden assures her that the only people who would want to come after her would be the CIA. He tells her to meet with Kyle, his contact in Geneva.

When Dexter arrives home late and doesn’t pay attention to his son, Kate becomes frustrated. His muddy shoes also prompt her suspicions. She remembers seeing Dexter with a man she didn’t know once back in Washington, DC. She had asked Dexter if he had done anything special that day, and he told her he hadn’t.

Kate ranks the possible reasons Interpol could be in Luxembourg and realizes that it is unlikely that they could be there for her or Dexter.

When Dexter tells Kate that he can’t make it home from Zurich in time for Thanksgiving, she decides she can no longer suppress her suspicion of him. Later, after Dexter returns home, he announces that he has earned a huge bonus for liquidating assets at work. Kate tells him that she wants to go skiing in Geneva for their Christmas holiday.

Kate follows Dexter to work the next morning. When she reaches the building, she assesses that she has no way to get in except through the front door.

At a playground, a boy named Colin is injured. Colin’s mother, Claire, asks Kate if she can look after her daughter, Jules, while she takes Colin to the clinic. Kate reflects on the life that mothers like Claire have, worrying only about their families.

The following day, Kate bumps into Julia, from whom she has tried to distance herself. Julia is with her father, Lester. Kate asks where he has flown in from, but Lester evades the question. Julia invites Kate and Dexter to dinner. Dexter arrives home early and fixes a loose bureau drawer during his spare time, much to Kate’s surprise.

Over dinner, Lester asks Kate and Dexter for travel recommendations around Europe, but they are unable to suggest much that would suit his taste and budget. When Lester expresses his surprise that Dexter’s banking job isn’t able to afford them five-star hotels and fine dining, Dexter clarifies that his job isn’t in banking per se, but in information technology and security, which forces him to think like someone who would attack the bank’s computer systems. Dexter indicates that part of this includes thinking about human weaknesses “that make […] humans let down their guard” and “[t]rust people they shouldn’t trust” (232).

Later that night, Kate repeatedly thinks about telling Dexter what she knows about Julia and, by extension, Lester. She decides not to.

Kate offers to take Dexter to the airport for another business trip to London. Dexter packs a key ring into his computer bag. After he places the bag in the back of the car, Kate surreptitiously takes the key ring and places it in her pocket. She momentarily thinks Dexter has caught her, but he merely checks his bag to make sure he has packed his charger.

After dropping Dexter off at the airport, Kate proceeds to his office and gets inside with the key. A keypad stops her, as she cannot guess the combination. When she gets home, Dexter calls her from an unknown number, indicating that he has misplaced his key ring and needs the flash drive attached to it for work. Kate pretends that she has found it in the car, so Dexter asks her to access a program for him using the drive. Following his instructions, Kate activates a password generator that will allow Dexter to unlock his computer. Dexter explains that he needs to have his password generator on a separate device for extra security.

Using the credentials that Dexter gave her, Kate manages to unlock the keypad at his office and enters. She activates his office computer, using the same credentials to partially unlock it. However, it requires Dexter’s thumbprint for full access. Kate looks around and realizes that the office is better suited to an investment banker than a security specialist. She continues to look around and panics when she sees that there is a security camera in the room.

Kate worries about how she will explain her actions to Dexter, and she wonders how the details of Dexter’s office play into her theory about Interpol’s presence in Luxembourg. This causes her to think about how killing Torres forced her to leave the field for a desk job.

Shortly after Dexter returns from London, he and Kate attend the American ambassador’s Christmas party. Dexter hasn’t had a chance to review the security footage of Kate breaking into his office, which delays their confrontation. At the party, Kate sees Bill talking to a woman named Jane. Kate realizes she is the same Jane whose number she had found in Bill’s office, confirming that she and Bill are romantically involved.

Kate goes up to Julia and learns that she and Bill plan to go skiing in the Alps near Geneva as well. Julia proposes getting their families together over the holidays. She assures Kate and Dexter that all of this was a last-minute decision for her and Bill.

Later that night, Kate sneaks into a restricted hallway and finds Jane and Bill having sex in one of the rooms. The couple nearly discovers her, but Kate runs out of the hall just in time. She is about to escape into the kitchen when she sees Dexter and Julia exit through the kitchen door. They take her into the kitchen and offer her some ice cream, suggesting that they had gone there to find it.

The novel flashes forward to the day of the Prelude. Kate discovers that Dexter and Julia knew each other in college, back when she was still using the name Susan Pognowski. Kate reflects on how much she has come to like her life in Paris. However, she also reconsiders her relationship with Dexter, knowing now that he lied to her about Julia. She tries to justify his reasons for lying. As she walks through the streets of Paris, she has a sudden realization about Julia’s message to Dexter.

The Moores arrive in Geneva for the Christmas holiday. Surprisingly, Dexter still hasn’t confronted Kate about breaking into his office. She thinks about Dexter and Julia’s possible affair. At a café, Kate meets Hayden’s contact, Kyle, and gives him the photo of Bill and Julia.

Three days later, the Moores and the Macleans go skiing. When Dexter and Julia decide to take a break, Kate and Bill go up the mountain together. During the ascent, the lift stalls. Kate and Bill are suspended in the air when he asks her if she has “ever been afraid for [her] life” (275).

In a flashback, the novel reveals that Eduardo Torres had been a failed presidential candidate from Mexico, who hoped to unite the Latin American nations. He went into exile in New York, hoping to eventually return and overthrow the government. Torres had requested Kate’s presence at his hotel in Washington. There, he explained his situation, before pulling out a glossy photograph that greatly distressed Kate.

Kate and Bill ski aggressively down the slope, nearly getting into an accident. At the bottom of a trail, Kate sees Kyle and meets up with him on the lift going up the slope. Dexter joins them. Kate and Kyle pretend not to know each other, so Dexter introduces himself. At the top of the slope, Dexter introduces Kyle to Bill. Going back down, Bill asks Kate who Kyle is, suggesting that he is aware of what she is trying to do. Kate denies knowing anything. At the end of the slope, Kyle tells Kate that Bill and Julia are investigating Dexter.

Kyle indicates that Dexter has been suspected of committing cyber theft. Julia and Bill interrupt them, calling them over to eat at a bistro. Bill asks Kyle if they have met before, but Kyle denies it. Kyle excuses himself to use the restroom, and Kate excuses herself shortly after to follow him. However, Julia joins her. Kate slows down to let Julia walk ahead of her. When she reaches the restrooms, she approaches Kyle, who tells her that Dexter is suspected of stealing 50 million euros. Kate contemplates telling her husband what she knows, but she is unsure how to explain how she had arrived at her discovery.

Kate gets back to the table as Dexter explains his job to Kyle, indicating that what makes a good hacker is social engineering and the ability to exploit human weakness to his advantage.

The novel flashes back to the night after Torres threatened Kate. Worried over the safety of her newborn son, Kate travels to New York and sneaks into the Waldorf Astoria, killing Torres’s bodyguard. Kate then breaks into the suite and kills Torres, which alarms the baby and the woman in the bedroom.