End Games - 11 Read Online Free PDF Page B

think the Crucifixion was big, wait till you see the Apocalypse.’
    More food arrived and they ordered another round of Diet Coke with sliced lime. Then the aisle was full of noises. The girl sitting at a table opposite reached for her mobile and started talking her boyfriend through the best route to the restaurant. Martin eyed her appreciatively. His line was that if they were legal they were over the hill. This one looked border-line.
    ‘Babe,’ he commented.
    Jake dismissed her with a glance.
    ‘Ringtone sucks. So how come you need to go out there?’
     
    ‘Because if Aeroscan finds the treasure, we need to move fast. The movie cover is good for the search, but once we start digging it’s a whole different ball game. Anything we turn up is legally the property of the Italian state. Cultural heritage bullshit. Just breaking ground will be a felony, so we’re going to need a work crew who can be trusted not to talk later. I’ve got a plan for that, but now Pete’s out of the picture I need to be there to head up the team in person. I also need clearance from you on the hired help angle.’
    ‘What’s the deal?’
    ‘Contact of mine works for one of the big US contractors in Iraq. He’s found me some able-bodied guys who’ve never left the country in their lives and arranged, for a consideration, to have them given passports and sent to Jordan. From Amman they’ll fly into Italy on tourist visas and assemble at the site to carry out the excavation and transfer of the treasure to a storage facility rented by the film company. No Rapture Works footprint.’
    Jake toyed with his peeled guinea pig in teriyaki sauce on a bed of collard greens.
    ‘And after that?’
    ‘We’ll need to discuss details once I have a chance to perform an assessment at the mission location, but I can tell you right now that export/import is going to be a bitch. I mean, we’re talking like drugs here.’
    ‘I mean the Iraqi guys.’
    ‘They go home.’
    ‘And tell everyone about their excellent Italian adventure?’
     
    A decisive headshake.
    ‘They won’t.’
    ‘How can you be sure?’
    ‘You don’t need to know, Jake. Just trust me.’
    ‘Quit bullshitting.’
    Martin sighed.
    ‘Okay. When the six of them get back, my contact invites them to dinner at some place in downtown Baghdad. He hands over some counterfeit cash with a few real bills on top, then fakes a phone call and says he has to run, business shit going down. The Iraqis couldn’t care less. They’ve been paid and here’s all this great Arab food they’ve been missing so much. Few minutes later a car draws up outside, the driver sprints away and … Well, you can figure out the rest yourself.’
    He brushed away the service dude, who was trying to interest them in seaweed ice-cream made from llama’s milk.
    ‘You mean like permadeath?’ said Jake. ‘Man, that’s heavy. Couldn’t we just –’
    Martin shook his head as decisively as before.
    ‘No, Jake. If we go ahead on this one, we’re going to need total deniability and cut-outs at every stage. That’s the way it’s got to be.’
    ‘What about this contact of yours in Baghdad?’
    ‘He doesn’t know who I’m working for, never mind what we’re doing, and he doesn’t want to know.’
    ‘But he knows we’re setting it up to have those guys killed, right?’
    ‘Yeah, plus whoever else is in the restaurant and on the street outside. Sure he knows. But he says the thing about working in Iraq is after a few months you quit worrying about that stuff.’
    Jake put on a sick smile.
    ‘I guess we’re not in Kansas any more.’
    ‘You can be back in Kansas any time you want,’ Martin replied. ‘I can pull the plug on all this right now and no one will ever be any the wiser. We’ll tell the director the project’s tanked, wind up Rapture Works and pay off Aeroscan. All you have to do is say the word. But if we hit pay dirt, which just could happen as early as tonight, then we’ll be looking