Page 33 of Freedom Fighters
Joshua laughed. The chuckle began slow and soft, then evolved into a full hearted belly laugh that had people turning their heads to see what was so funny. He reached out for the glass of scotch the barman put in front of him and raised it. “You sneaky son of a bitch,” he said and sipped the scotch. He sighed. “I can’t give it to you interest free.Not even for family. They’d skin me alive.”
“You could give me a family discount,” Nick said. “Think how good you’ll look when you retrieve the company’s expensive asset for them.”
Joshua shook his head and looked at Oliva. “I told Nick he should hit up international corporations for a loan, months ago. Never thought he’d turn around and put the squeeze on me.”
Olivia smiled. “You have skinin the game, Joshua. Nick is giving you a chance to get your mine back.”
“Yeah, I know.” Joshua winked at her and turned back to Nick. “How much do you need?”
“Not nearly as much as you’ve already sunk into the mine,” Nick told him. “Twenty million.”
Joshua’s jaw dropped open. “Twenty million?”
“I have three Black Hawk helicopters I want to buy, just to begin.”
“I don’t know anything aboutmilitary transport, but I suspect even one of them is a lot more than twenty million,” Josh replied.
“About fifteen million, new,” Nick said. “These are used and I can probably get them for about eight million each. I’ll use your money to put a goodwill deposit on them. About five million for the three, as we already have them in our possession. The rest will be used for equipment and supplies.”
“I had no idea war was so damned expensive,” Joshua muttered. He glanced at his watch. “How soon do you need it?”
“Today,” Nick said. “Olivia and I have been shopping all day. The bill is due by end of business.”
“There goes my sleep for the next twelve hours,” Joshua said philosophically. He almost sounded cheerful.
