The Price of Time Read online

  Korovin leaned forward and locked on Grigori’s eyes. “Every ambitious scientist, executive, lawyer ... and politician would give his left nut for that competitive advantage. Hell, his left and right.”

  Grigori nodded.

  “And it really works?”

  “It really works.”

  Korovin reached out and leveled the buttons, stopping both timers and pausing to think, his left hand still resting on the clock. “So your plan is to give Russians an intelligence edge over foreign competition? Kind of analogous to what you and I used to do, all those years ago.”

  Grigori shook his head. “No, that’s not my plan.”

  The edges of the cornflower eyes contracted ever so slightly. “Why not?”

  “Let’s just say, widening the funnel does more than raise IQ.”

  Korovin frowned and leaned back, taking a moment to digest this twist. “Why have you brought this to me, Grigori?”

  “As I said, Mister President, I have a plan I think you’re going to like.”

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Tim Tigner began his career in Soviet Counterintelligence with the US Army Special Forces, the Green Berets. That was back in the Cold War days when, “We learned Russian so you didn't have to,” something he did at the Presidio of Monterey alongside Recon Marines and Navy SEALs.

  With the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tim switched from espionage to arbitrage. Armed with a Wharton MBA rather than a Colt M16, he moved to Moscow in the midst of Perestroika. There, he led prominent multinational medical companies, worked with cosmonauts on the MIR Space Station (from Earth, alas), chaired the Association of International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, and helped write Russia’s first law on healthcare.

  Moving to Brussels during the formation of the EU, Tim ran Europe, Middle East and Africa for a Johnson & Johnson company and traveled like a character in a Robert Ludlum novel. He eventually landed in Silicon Valley, where he launched new medical technologies as a startup CEO.

  In his free time, Tim has climbed the peaks of Mount Olympus, hang glided from the cliffs of Rio de Janeiro, and ballooned over Belgium. He earned scuba certification in Turkey, learned to ski in Slovenia, and ran the Serengeti with a Maasai warrior. He acted on stage in Portugal, taught negotiations in Germany, and chaired a healthcare conference in Holland. Tim studied psychology in France, radiology in England, and philosophy in Greece. He has enjoyed ballet at the Bolshoi, the opera on Lake Como, and the symphony in Vienna. He’s been a marathoner, paratrooper, triathlete, and yogi.

  Intent on combining his creativity with his experience, Tim began writing thrillers in 1996 from an apartment overlooking Moscow’s Gorky Park. Decades later, his passion for creative writing continues to grow every day. His home office now overlooks a vineyard in Northern California, where he lives with his wife Elena and their two daughters.

  Tim grew up in the Midwest, and graduated from Hanover College in 1990 with a BA in Philosophy and Mathematics. After military service and work as a financial analyst and foreign-exchange trader, he earned an MBA in Finance and an MA in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton and Lauder Schools on a full-ride scholarship.

  The Price of Time

  Tim Tigner

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Writing novels full of twists and turns is relatively easy. Doing so logically and coherently while maintaining a rapid pace is much tougher. Surprising readers without confusing them is the real art.

  I draw on generous fans for guidance in achieving those goals, and for assistance in fighting my natural inclination toward typos. These are my friends, and I’m grateful to them all.

  Errol Adler, Martin Baggs, Suzanne S. Barnhill, Dave Berkowitz, Doug Branscombe, Kay Brooks, Anna Bruns, Diane Bryant, Pat Carella, Ian Cockerill, Doug Corneil, Lars de Kock, Robert Enzenauer, Hugo Ernst, Rae Fellenberg, Geof Ferrell, Andrew Gelsey, Emily Hagman, Cliff Jordan, Andrea Kerr, Margaret Lovett, Debbie Malina, Peter Mathon, Joe McKinley, Jim Niles, Rosemary Paton, Michael Picco, Connie Poleson, Lee Proost, Sharon Ring, Robert Rubinstayn, Gwen Tigner, Robert Tigner, Wendy Trommer, Alan Vickery and Sandy Wallace.