There was one thing that Scott could do well though. He was excellent at reading a room. Or a tent, Petro thought.
“Sorry!” Scott said, lifting his hands in the air and offering a small chuckle. “I’ve interrupted something here. I’ll come back later.”
A moment later, Scott left the tent and Petro turned back to Ned.
“What the hell do you want?” Ned snapped.
Petro smothered his amusement and that only irritated Ned further.
Petro lifted his hands in the air. “Nothing. Just letting you know that the drills have reached the efiasia deposit. The extraction teams have moved in and are starting that phase of the operation.”
Finally, some good news! “Okay. Fine,” he said dismissively. When Petro didn’t take the hint, Ned glared at the goon, correctly interpreting his continued presence as a threat to his authority. That realization was compounded when Petro simply gave the other man a slow, annoying smile, then, finally, turned and walked out of the tent.
Ned heard Petro whistling as he walked back to the massive hole in the ground that the mammoth drills had created. The hole was covered by a huge tarp scattered with desert brush so the satellites couldn’t detect the operation. As Ned watched the former KGB officer stroll away, he wondered if the tarps and brush were enough. He had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t.