Merlin definitely worked fast—once the agreement was reached, he paid the owner of the food processing plant twenty grand up front just to sweeten the deal before asking the Acker family's agent in Africa to prepare the remaining cash.

Cash was the best solution, too, as they didn't want to leave a trail, so a wire transfer was a no-go.

Still, it was not hard for the Ackers to prepare 200 grand USD out of the blue, but the difficult part was yet to come.

Not only did they have to send a team