- Thornhill gleefully tells the police he's "valuable property." They don't recognize him until he identifies himself as the man wanted for Townsend's murder.
- Rather than take Thornhill to the station, though, the police are told to take him straight to the airport.
- He protests, but the police ignore him.
- At the airport, Thornhill meets the Professor, who says he knows that Thornhill had nothing to do with the U.N. killing.
- The Professor tells Thornhill to hurry up, since if they don't they'll miss their flight to Rapid City, South Dakota.
- Why Rapid City, South Dakota? The Professor explains that they're after Vandamm, who's an "importer-exporter … of government secrets."
- Vandamm has a place near Mount Rushmore, which is near Rapid City, and the Prof's people have reason to believe that he'll be leaving the country from there to smuggle out secrets.
- They don't know how far Vandamm's spy network extends, which is why they don't apprehend him. They're hoping that waiting will get them more intelligence.
- Instead they want to "set his mind at ease about George Kaplan," the Professor says.
- Thornhill asks if the Professor is George Kaplan.
- The Professor explains that there is no such person. "Believe me, Mr. Thornhill, he doesn't exist. Which is why I'm going to have to ask you to go on being him for another twenty-four hours."
- Thornhill says at first that he doesn't want to continue "being a target" just to protect the Professor's Agent Number One.
- But the Professor emphasizes that the agent won't just be in danger but will very likely be killed if found out.
- Thornhill still refuses—he's been though enough already—until the Professor makes it clear that Agent Number One is...Eve Kendall.
- Thornhill realizes that he's put Eve in serious danger since he's risked exposing their relationship to Vandamm.