Avery nodded. “That’s why I’m here.”

“So here’s how this works. Passports are difficult. Not impossible, but difficult. At least, if you want them done right. You want something. . .” He waved his hands, searching for the correct English word. “Shit.” He shrugged his shoulder. “You go anywhere. You want something good, you come to André. That’s why my price is my price. So I’m going to ask, even though I know the answer due to our mutual friend’s . . . background, I guess you’d say. But there’s a lot of work involved for me producing a believable passport. Some liability, too. So, I must ask, can you afford?”

“Yes,” Avery said without hesitation.

This man charged $5,000 to produce a single American passport. Legitimate, believable passports that would, André claimed, pass scrutiny by any customs agent on the planet. Of course, the validity of that claim could only be proven in practice. It could only be confirmed when the one using the passport handed it to a customs agent as they tried to enter another country. At that moment, André’s claim would be either true or false. At that moment it would also be too late to complain if things went wrong. If some sensor beeped when the document was scanned, and some warning was triggered, their “mutual friend” was shit out of luck.

“I figured the price was not an issue,” André said. “Now, timing. When do you need this?”

“As soon as possible.”

André held out his hand and twitched his index finger. “Give me the photo. Let me see what I’m working with.”

Avery produced the photo from her purse and handed it to André, who opened the folder he had taken from the safe and laid the image onto a template to check the dimensions.

“Good quality. Right size.” He nodded his head as he analyzed the photo. “Okay, this’ll take me a week. I’ll need twenty-five hundred now, twenty-five hundred when I’m done.”

“And the five hundred I just gave you?”

“I told you, that got you in the door.”

Avery was in no position to haggle. She produced another envelope from her purse and handed it across the coffee table. André quickly fingered the cash to make sure the count was correct. He stood and walked back to the front door, his silk bathrobe swirling like a cape behind him. He peered through the peephole and then opened the door.

“Out you go,” he said. “Come back in a week.”

CHAPTER 26 - Brooklyn, NY Wednesday, June 30, 2021

CHAPTER 26

Brooklyn, NY Wednesday, June 30, 2021