“I can definitely see why they would want to keep this secret, and why someone would want to steal it,” Carter said. “If our giant South African decided to sell this technology to China or North Korea, it could reshape the world as we know it.”

Nic shook his head. “All because of a souped-up battery. What do we do now? Maybe we could reach out to Yoshida. Tell him we know what they were developing and try to get back into the loop.”

“Let’s hold off on that a minute,” Burke said. “I texted Albert—”

“Allanon, please, Sir Eric.”

“Sorry, I texted Allanon earlier and asked him to break into the passenger lists for flights coming into Vegas over the past few days.”

Carter narrowed his eyes. “Why are we violating federal laws to get passenger lists? You realize I could request that kind of information legally. We do work for the FBI, remember?”

“I didn’t want to take a chance of throwing up any red flags. Remember when we first met Yoshida? He wore clothes that looked like they came from a local gift shop, and he said that the airline had lost his luggage.”

“That’s right. He was in flip-flops and a Las Vegas T-shirt.”

“Two things about that. One, flight times from Washington, DC, to Vegas are about five hours. There’s no way he could have flown in after learning about the incident. And two, even if he had, he would still be wearing the same clothes he had on for the flight. Allanon, did you find anything for me?”

“Yeah, your Mr. Yoshida flew in first-class on Delta, the day before your incident.”

“Are you suggesting that Yoshida knew that the robbery was coming?” Carter said. “He knew what was about to happen and flew in the day before to be ready for it?”

Burke shrugged. “It seems pretty suspicious to me that he would just happen to fly out the day before all this goes down. And if he had some kind of credible intel that the facility was going to be attacked, why not have fortifications in place?”

“He told me that they were his people, and he seemed genuinely upset about their deaths,” Nic said.

“Spies lie for a living.”

“I don’t know guys. The flight thing is purely circumstantial. Loria lives out here. They could have had a meeting scheduled. And if he was in charge and wanted that tech, why not just walk in there and take it himself?”

“Because I think we made an incorrect assumption from the start,” Burke said. “We assumed that the primary goal was to steal something, but I think that this plan was designed to accomplish multiple objectives. A major question we have yet to answer is how did our giant South African friend and his two female accomplices even learn about the secret lab. They knew what was down there, and how to access it. All information that they could have received from Yoshida.”