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payable when the artifact is safely returned and in our possession. This is to be a simple transaction for us all, and you are expected to cover all incurred expenses related to this little…adventure. Including, of course, any transportation costs. Are we clear on that?”
    Cutter glanced at Chimp-man, who remained enigmatic. Who are you really? The payout was far more than he had ever been offered for any job like this, so it made him extremely apprehensive to take it. The amount was about three times what they were paid up front for the failed job in Ecuador. It was tempting. Perhaps too much so. Money was talking.
    What do I have to lose?
    “Okay,” Cutter said without any further consideration. He sensed surprise from Morgan at his easy and rapid acceptance of the first offer. His usual play was to hold out for at least one or two more rounds. Often, he would walk out of a deal just to see if they’d come chase him down. The desperate ones did. Which was just about every job he’d been offered.
    “Good,” Wayland said with just a brief hint of nervous release.
    Cutter figured the guy would make an excellent mark at the poker table. He would welcome pitting himself against Wayland anytime the guy wished to play because, right now, Cutter knew that he held the winning hand and had not yet placed his final bet down on the table.
    One more round. Just for kicks.
    Wayland opened a thick manila folder stuffed with papers. “We have arranged papers and passage for you and your team. Your arrival will be marked as a corporate flight inbound to our mining operations in Koni. This is assuming your travel means are by private jet, which I assume you have been briefed on by Ms. Crow along with where it is you will be landing?”
    Right . Cutter nodded an affirmative. He actually did not know. She hadn’t told him yet.
    Wayland glanced at Chimp-man. “But—to maintain the operation’s complete secrecy, we will be unable to supply the proper official travel visas necessary for entry into Russia. Although, I assure you, the appropriate people have already been contacted, so your entry and exit should not be an issue for a team with your…shall we say, unique abilities?”
    Not good . Heading into Russia uninvited was not the best way to make friends there. But these clowns were spending a whole bunch of US dollars to make things happen quickly. Those same greasy skids could lead to a whole mess of new troubles, or they could make him some new friends. He’d been to Russia once before and found that the appropriate paperwork only mattered in the larger cities or when one got too near the sensitive military sites. All other places were under the control of local bureaucrats, who were usually out to line their own pockets and didn’t much care about official protocol, which he’d learned was a relic of those raised in the former Soviet Union.
    Wayland tapped the folder in front of him with a pen. “You will have full use of one of our company planes and its pilots if you wish.”
    Cutter watched the man carefully. It all was supposed to seem like a simple shoot and scoot mission to retrieve the artifact. A little too easy . That was exactly what he had thought the last time before everything had gone south. So, there were probably a million glaring reasons not to accept the job. But on the table were a couple of million other reasons to take it. And, if he could somehow prove once and for all that his wife had been right about the origins of the artifact? That what she had told him was indeed true? Well, then, that might just be the single good reason for going.
    It was a calculated gamble, certainly, and he really had nothing to lose by taking it. His own life didn’t matter so much anymore. It hadn’t been going all that well lately.
    He held up two fingers. “Two million, up front. Two more when the good doctor is returned safe and sound along with your artifact. And we supply our own transportation.”
    Wayland