Charlie discovers via an asset named Inquiline that CIA Special Activities Director Alex Moore falsified lethal Middle East drone strikes as suicide bombings to manipulate foreign policy. After Sarah is killed in London during an arms deal hostage situation by Horst Schiller's syndicate, Charlie blackmails Moore into authorizing field training. Moore sends Charlie to Camp Peary under Col. Henderson with a covert order to fail and eliminate him. Henderson discovers Charlie has a psychological freeze that prevents him from pulling a trigger on a human being. Realizing he is marked for death, Charlie escapes to Europe on forged documents.
Rather than using firearms, Charlie eliminates Schiller's cell using cerebral traps: locking Gretchen Frank in a hyperbaric chamber with concentrated pollen in Paris (causing her to flee into oncoming traffic), rigging the structural supports of a glass-bottomed pool in Madrid to drop Mishka Blazhic sixteen stories, and using an improvised explosive charge on Ellish to extract Schiller's coordinates.
After Inquiline (Davies) is killed by CIA hitmen, Charlie allows himself to be captured aboard Schiller's yacht. When Schiller mocks Charlie and hands him a gun to shoot him, Charlie reveals he hacked the yacht's navigation system to sail into Finnish territorial waters, enabling the Finnish Coast Guard and Interpol to arrest Schiller. Charlie simultaneously leaks decrypted proof of the unsanctioned drone strikes to the press and CIA Director Samantha O'Brien, leading to the arrest of Moore and Caleb Horowitz. In the epilogue, Henderson tracks Charlie to a rural airfield, acknowledges his accomplishments, and lets him go free, allowing Charlie to complete his Cessna and fly into peace.