He faced Desmond. “You told me you were going to stop them. Expose them. You wanted to meet. I refused. I told you to go public first. I didn’t trust you. Again, I thought it might be an attempt to draw me out, eliminate me before the Looking Glass went live. I gave you the coordinates in the forest.”

“Where we found the metal box.”

“Correct. There were a hundred pounds of C4 under it. I would’ve blown you to tiny little bits if Peyton hadn’t been with you.”

Desmond looked over at her. “Well, thanks for that.”

“I assumed you’d brought her along as leverage. But I needed to know for sure.”

“You let us read your story to see my reaction.”

“Yes.” William walked closer to Peyton. “And to explain. I wrote most of it long ago, for you, Peyton, and for your sister. I wanted you to know what really happened. I thought about sending it to you a million times, but the risk was just too great. I decided it would be better for you to live not knowing, than to die for my peace of mind.”

“Dad…” She began crying again, and William hugged her, held her tight.

Desmond nodded. It made sense. In fact, a lot of pieces were starting to fall into place.

William released Peyton and focused on Desmond. “What happened after you contacted me?”

Desmond sensed that the man was still testing him, trying to decide whether to believe him. He began telling his story, starting with waking up in the Concord Hotel a week ago.

“The message said, Warn Her, with Peyton’s phone number.”

“Warn her of what?” William asked.

“I think I just figured that out.” But before explaining, Desmond wanted to get all the facts out there. He described his meeting with the journalist, being captured, and his time in confinement on the Kentaro Maru. He quickly summarized their escape with Avery, rescuing Hannah, and the Labyrinth Reality app, which he had re-downloaded in Dadaab.

“Before, in Berlin, the app didn’t provide any entrances—no locations. But in Dadaab, it provided us with the coordinates you had given me.”

“Interesting,” William said.

“I must have programmed the app to release the location as a backup plan—probably after a set amount of time if I hadn’t taken control of the situation. Coming here and joining forces with you would have been my avenue of last resort.”

“Very clever.”

“What about the second location—your childhood home?” Peyton asked. “It popped up after we reached the box in the woods.”

“I believe that was a secondary backup plan,” Desmond said, “in case this didn’t pan out. Maybe I figured William might not show, or wouldn’t be helpful.”

“That was prudent.” William motioned toward Peyton. “Let’s go back to the message. Warn Her. Of what?”