Le Caméléon >

Having spent five weeks learning how to swim at a YMCA in Seattle while carrying out a Pretend as a nuclear engineer that culminated in avoiding a terrible disaster, Jarod "Spitz" moves on to his next Pretend as a lieutenant in the San Diego Coast Guard.

Posing as Lieutenant Campbell, Jarod exposes Lieutenant Paul Bilson and BM1 Javi Padillo as being responsible for the death of fisherman Tom King. During their smuggling operation, their cruiser accidentally rammed King's fishing boat on a foggy night. Rescuing King would have meant having their operation discovered, so Lt. Bilson forced Padillo to leave King in the water, where he eventually drowned.

During the course of Jarod's investigation he also aids Coast Guard Helicopter Pilot, Martha Poole, in getting the raise in rank that she deserves and convinces Roy Abbot to go in search of his lost love, Magdeline.

Technician Broots is added to Miss Parker's team to aid in the search for Jarod. Meanwhile, Jarod learns something new when Tom King's young daughter teaches him the "proper" way to eat an Oreo cookie. He also discovers the fun of novelty items, including chattering teeth, snakes that pop out when someone opens the can and "fake dog poop." Understanding that what makes novelty items so intriguing is that they are not what they seem to be, Jarod makes a similar point with Miss Parker by giving her both the plastic "dog poop" and the DSA that was recorded on the day that her mother supposedly committed suicide in an elevator at The Centre. For the first time, Miss Parker questions the truth of what she has been told by The Centre and begins the quest to find out how her mother really died.

Miss Parker, Sydney and the sweeper team appear to be close to capturing Jarod when they overtake his cruiser during a high-speed sea chase, but Jarod has somehow managed to get off the boat without them seeing him and they come up empty again.

Jarod paints Miss Parker a portrait of herself as she looked on the day that her mother died and leaves it for her, along with his trademark red notebook, in his room (26a) at the San Diego YMCA.