The blonde was shrouded in shadow, but Desmond could see that she was still clad in tight-fitting body armor. She looked like a superhero. She held a handgun at her side, ready, but not pointed at him. Her expression was remorseful, apologetic even.

“I had to,” she said.

Desmond was stone-faced.

“We were getting nowhere at SARA. It was a dead end, Des.”

She waited, but he still said nothing, only stared at her.

“This was my backup plan. We needed to get back inside the Citium. I knew the tactical team was at the house, waiting.”

“You could have told me.”

“I needed them to believe it.”

“Like you needed us to believe the rescue was real.”

Avery’s silence confirmed his theory.

He had suspected that the escape from the Kentaro Maru was staged. Now he knew for sure. He wanted to know why. “They let me go because they wanted me to lead them—to lead you—to Rendition.”

“Yes. It’s the only thing they need for the Looking Glass.” She stepped away from the container. “Look, I took a risk. I didn’t want the group to debate it because I knew it was the only option we had. And we didn’t have time for our little committee to vote. It worked out—better than I thought it would.” She motioned away from Desmond’s container. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

Across the aisle, another cargo container lay open, its heavy metal doors revealing cardboard boxes stacked on pallets. The closest box had been torn open. It held hundreds of oblong handheld devices roughly half the size of a cell phone and a bit thicker.

Avery handed him one. “It’s a jet injector.”

She pointed to another box, which held CO2 cartridges. They were small and round, similar to the ones Desmond had used in his pellet gun as a child.

“They’re CO2-powered.”

She pulled another open box closer. It was full of vials. She took a vial and a CO2 cartridge and inserted both into the jet injector.

“This is the cure. I thought if they captured us here in Australia that they might take us to a warehouse like this one.” She waited for him to respond, but Desmond said nothing. “It was the only way, Des. Our only option.”