thornhill visits kaplan's hotel room with his mother. vandamm's men enter the hotel. kaplan runs away from them. he goes to the united nations to meet lester townsend. thornhill talks with townsend and learns that townsend does not live in his mansion. one of vandamm's men throws a knife that kills townsend. everyone thinks thornhill killed townsend. a government intelligence agency reads about thornhill. they decide not to help him to protect an agent.