“Interesting enough to spend all that money?” She asked her voice carrying a hint of caution.

He looked up and saw the concern in her eyes. “Sonya, I spend that much money on construction every year. And for that, I just get more buildings. But how many times do you get a chance to travel back in time?” He smiled, raising one eyebrow. “Yes, I think the investment is warranted.”

“Full check?” She tilted her head.

“Yes, please. Full background check on Cate Granger and everyone close to her.” He stood. “I’ll have a hardware list for you soon.”

“Valery, this will be very high risk.” She reached out to place a hand gently on his forearm. He covered it with his own.

“I know, but when we feel our hearts racing fastest, then we know we are living life to its fullest.” He patted her hand. “Go now, we have work to do.”

*   *   *

Cate was back in California with Greg and Abby hovering over each of her shoulders as she typed up plans. “We need him.”

Greg was pacing, but stopped and turned. “A Russian exile – are you kidding me? We need his money, sure, but we don’t need him.”

“Inseparable,” Cate said without hesitation. “For the amount of exploration we want to do, and to do it properly, would require a good-sized submersible. I didn’t even stop to think how we were going to get the submersible into that underground sea – Valery pointed out that we’d need a damn big hole to lower it into. That’s engineering on a grand scale, with costs running into nine figures.”

“But can’t we assemble the submersible there? Drop it down in sections?” Greg asked.

Cate turned to him. “We’re not talking about a flat-pack Swedish dining table, Greg. We need a hi-tech machine that will house several crew for up to twenty-four hours and be able to take us deep, even down to a potential crush depths.” She turned back to the screen. “And as the digging is taking place over a cavern it needs all the excavation expertise we can muster. Or rather all the experts Valery Mironov can muster… and pay for.”

“It’s going to take time to source,” Abby said. “Most civilian submersibles are only two-man operations, and deep-dive vehicles have a battery life of around twelve hours, max. So, where’s he getting it?”

Cate shrugged. “Mironov said he had contacts and could organize it within sixty days; I trust him. Besides, what choice do we have? I did some quick research; if we wanted to get a sub that was suitable, it’d need to be built to spec – it’d cost us at least a year in wait time alone. I stopped counting when the numbers screamed past forty million.”

“And that’s his golden ticket, huh?” Greg asked.

Cate looked over her shoulder. “Uh-huh, but I get to pick my own crew… well, most of them.”