The Heist

looking for a way to do it that salvages some shred of his dignity, even if it’s an illusion. Boyd just gave it to him. It’s a shrewd move.”
    “You’re giving Boyd too much credit. He’s an actor, not a con man.”
    “All actors are con men. They get you to believe they are somebody they aren’t and to suspend your disbelief about everything else.”
    Diego shook his head at Char, who stayed put.
    Good sign, Burnside thought. As long as they were still talking, and he wasn’t getting shot or tortured, he was making progress.
    “Do not delude yourself, Mr. Burnside. You will talk, but since you have no loved ones I can torture and kill in front of your eyes, it just comes down to how much agony you can stand and the number of body parts you are willing to sacrifice before you do.”
    “If I am going to die either way, why would I want to give you the satisfaction of getting your money?”
    “To enjoy the sweet release that only death can bring from your unbearable agony.”
    “You want to know what will get me through the agony? The certainty that once the good people of Boriga find out that you’ve lost all of their money, that the all-powerful Oz got shaken down like an old lady, and that all of their misery, mourning, and asskissing was for nothing, they won’t care if they live or die anymore, and they will storm this place and rip you to shreds. And when Char over here sees that enraged horde coming, he’ll switch sides and not look back. He’ll cut off your head, stick it on a spike, and wave it around as his flag of surrender in the desperate hope that it will save his life. So bring it on, Diego, I’m ready to die. Are you?”
    “We’re done,” Kate said.
    “You keep saying that,” Nick said. “It’s almost like you want it to be true.”
    “In case you weren’t listening, that was his closing statement to the jury, and it sounded pretty persuasive to me.”
    “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a very pessimistic person?”
    “Face it, Boyd was overmatched. There’s a big difference between being convincing as Willy Loman in an all-you-can-eat-buffet performance of
Death of a Salesman
and outmaneuvering a top-notch criminal attorney.”
    “The only difference is that we don’t have a buffet,” Nick said. “I wish we did. I could go for some fried chicken.”
    Burnside leaned back on the couch again and looked Diego in the eye. But Diego didn’t seem thrown in the least. If anything, he seemed amused.
    “I like you, Mr. Burnside. You have
cojones
, at least for the time being. I will make you a deal. You will tell me where Derek Griffin is and I will send some people to get him. During that time, you will remain as my guest. If you have told me the truth, you will live. If you have deceived me, then I will cut off your left arm and beat you with it until you tell me the truth. If those terms are not acceptable to you, then I will execute you now.”
    Burnside considered his options. Since there were none, it made his deliberations easy.
    “Derek Griffin is in Indonesia, living on Dajmaboutu, his private island in the Flores Sea.”
    “Why Indonesia?”
    “Because they have seventeen thousand islands, a notoriously corrupt government that’s easily bribed, and no extradition treaty with the United States.”
    “So how are we supposed to find Dajmaboutu?”
    “I’ll give you the exact longitude and latitude. As a bonus, you can have your boys bring you back an actual corpse flower while they’re in the neighborhood.”

Tom led Burnside back to his cell and gave him a tray of beans and tortillas, a glass of sangria, and a book of crossword puzzles. He returned to the house and joined Boyd, Chet, Nick, and Kate in the kitchen. They were all standing around the center island drinking sangria.
    Boyd was ebullient, pacing around, still jacked up from his performance. “That was one of the best acting experiences of my career.”
    “You were terrific, Boyd,” Nick said. “Utterly convincing.”
    “You know why? Because I was given free rein to make the character my own, to fully inhabit him in every way. Thank you for that. And I must say, Neal Burnside was a joy to work with. I’ve never had that kind of freewheeling give-and-take with an actor before.”
    “Maybe that’s because Burnside wasn’t acting,” Kate said.
    “Yes, he was,” Boyd said. “He was acting like he wasn’t scared.My favorite part was the corpse flower bit. I worked on that