Bo smirked, as if Billy should have known the answer. "He's local," Bo said. "Based out of Frankfurt."
"That's convenient," Luis said.
"A lot of the best businessmen in the world are in Frankfurt. Some of them have connections—connections we can use. My contact will be here tonight at twenty-two hundred hours. We'll make the exchange then."
All except Nathan exchanged excited, greedy looks.
"Wait," Carson rumbled. "How much are we getting?"
Bo rolled his shoulders. "He will make us an offer when he sees the goods. Don't worry," Bo reassured. "I'm sure we'll make out."
"And if we don't?" Nathan questioned.
"Then we find another buyer," Bo said. "If I can find one, I can find another. He's not the only fish out there, boys. So, relax. Have some of that good German beer nearby, and we'll leave here at twenty-one hundred hours, get to the rendezvous a little early to scope the place out, and then we do the deal."
"Sounds good, boss," Luis said, nodding.
"I have a few things to take care of before we fly out tomorrow. I'll see you guys tonight. We can leave from here."
"What about Harper?" Nathan asked. He made the query as if asking about the price of a pack of gum.
Bo inclined his head, the look on his face turning stern. "You may want me to tell you not to worry about him, but that's the opposite of what you should do. You need to keep him in the back of your mind. He's out there somewhere. Maybe he's dead in the desert. I doubt it. My guess is he went north across the border into Turkey."
"The colonel sent search teams through there," Billy offered.
Bo responded with a sincere huff. "You think those guys are going to find Dak Harper? He's a ghost, Billy. Just like us. No one is going to find him."
"You don't think—"
"Yes, I do think he will try to hunt us down. It's what I'd do. It's what you would probably do, Carson. I know it's what Nate would do," he gave a nod toward Collier, who was still meticulously slicing the apple. "Which is all the more reason you guys need to lie low. With the money we make from this deal, we're going to be able to disappear. I'm talking new identities, the works. Not even Dak Harper will be able to track us down once we go dark. You understand?"
The men nodded. He stood up and left the other four staring after him for a long moment until he rounded the corner into the hallway. Bo's anger flushed through him with every step. His plan hadn't been to rip off the members of his team, though the thought crossed his mind.
It would be easy to sell off the treasure and leave them all in Germany wondering where in the world he went. With the kind of money he figured they'd receive for the lode, he could disappear—erase himself. For a soldier whose job was to blend in much of the time, doing so with a ton of cash would be even easier.
Still, he didn't underestimate his team. Bo knew all too well that they wouldn't sleep until they had tracked him down. Even as good as he could be at disappearing, it wasn't worth the risk—always having to check over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't in someone's sights. And with Harper still on the loose, that could be a perennial issue.
No, he would do the deal with the German. They would split the money and go their separate ways. Bo didn't tell them about the second part of his plan. He'd been wondering if they'd left the treasure site too quickly, and if there might be more. He told himself not to be greedy, but the thought had stuck with him since the night they'd left Harper to die.
Dak had escaped and tried to return to base. Fortunately, Bo's contingency plan worked. The colonel believed his story about how Dak went nuts and attempted to kill Bo and his men. How Dak had managed to escape the clutches of the men sent to arrest him, Bo still didn't know, but that wouldn't matter as long as he was careful.
Still, if Dak found a way out of that cave, that meant there might be other treasure chambers in there somewhere.
Bo would give it a few weeks, maybe longer, before he ventured back there. Things needed to die down. He would set up his new life first. When his compadres were spread out around the world and couldn't keep tabs on him, he would go back to where they found the horde and see what else was there. Dak's body would there. That was something Bo knew he'd have to deal with, but it was a small detail.
He turned down an adjacent hall and stepped through a door into a recreation area. A pair of basketball hoops hung from backboards on either end, surrounded by a high fence.
Bo continued walking, his pulse calming to its normal rhythm as he reveled in the joy of his victory. He drank in the warm afternoon air as the rays of bright sunlight radiated against his skin.
He would be a very rich man. And if his guess was right, he'd be even richer upon returning to the mountains of Iraq.
Three
Istanbul
Dak opened the door and stepped out of Nicole Carter's bathroom, straight into a fiery glare. The arms crossed tight across her chest didn't make him feel any better.
"Thank you," Dak said, ignoring the barbs flying at him from her eyes. "I had, like, three cups of coffee at that café across the street. Really good stuff, by the way. Strong. Just like I like it."
"I hope you're ready to leave," Nicole spat.
His head drooped so his chin nearly touched his upper chest. His thick beard brushed against the black T-shirt he'd purchased in Tatvan, the name of the town prominently displayed across his pecs in white letters.
"I deserve that."
"Yep. So, thanks for stopping by to resurrect the
