The Heist

trap.
    “Willie can be the honey trap,” Kate said. “She’s good at it.”
    “She’s going to captain the yacht,” Nick said.
    “How is she going to do that?”
    “She’s had boating experience.”
    “Little pleasure craft. This is a freaking expensive boat.”
    “The boat is all computerized. She’ll pick it up in no time. We’re talking about a woman who once took a freight train for a joyride. And the real problem with her being the honey is her age. She’s too old. Griffin will be seeing her in daylight. Do you want to hear the rest of the con or not?”
    “Not! I’m not doing this.”
    “Of course you’ll do it. You’re a team player. We’ll lease a yacht out of Benoa Harbor in Bali. The yacht will run into engine trouble and end up stuck in the waters off Griffin’s island. We’ll hang out on the island while the yacht is being repaired. You’ll entice Griffin to the point of insanity while I nose around and see if I can figure out where the money is.”
    “He’s not going to have the half billion dollars in cash in his sock drawer or even in a safe. You won’t find it on the island,” she said. “At most, he might have five hundred million rupiah stashed in a hollow coconut somewhere.”
    Nick nodded. “The money is in a bank account. The key is to find out where that bank is, and Griffin’s password so we can access his account and empty it. Once we’ve done that, or at least have a line on the information, you lure him onto the boat, we overpowerhim, and we take him on a ride into international waters, where we leave him floating in a dinghy for the U.S. Navy to apprehend.”
    “It doesn’t seem very well thought out.”
    “Of course it’s not, it’s only the broad strokes. I’ll fill in the blanks as I go along.”
    Kate put her glass and the Snickers wrapper on the table. “I have a better idea. We use the yacht and a cruise as our cover. We anchor near Griffin’s island in darkness, then I go ashore, grab him, and bring him back to the boat.”
    “He’ll have protection.”
    “I’m pretty tough.”
    “We’re not.”
    “You and Willie will stay on the boat. I don’t need you.”
    “You might, and while I can handle myself, I’m much faster with my mouth than with my fists.”
    “No one is asking you to kick ass. That’s my department. I’ve done this kind of thing before.”
    “If what Bolton wanted was a military strike force, he wouldn’t have put the two of us together and funded this operation. He knows as well as I do that what this situation requires is finesse,” Nick said. “If Griffin comes to the boat willingly, and
then
you put a gun to his head, nobody gets hurt, and no alarms are raised.”
    “Okay, fine. Have it your way, but Willie needs to be the honey trap. Some men like mature women. And she’s got bigger boobs than I do.”
    “True, but that’s not the way it’s going down.”
    She did an eye roll that was so massive it almost gave her a headache. “I was in the U.S. Navy. In case you have forgotten, that’s the branch of our military that operates on the water, so I know athing or two about operating boats and navigating the high seas. Besides, you said these yachts practically pilot themselves.”
    “They do if you already have a natural affinity for piloting vehicles. That’s not your super power. It’s Willie’s.”
    Kate flopped back onto the bed and squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t want to be a honey trap. I hate that stuff.”
    “All you have to do is be smart, sexy, and seductive and make Griffin want you enough to get on a boat with you for a little erotic cruise. How hard could that be?”
    “I’d rather punch him in his face.”
    “And you wonder why you’re single.”
    “I don’t wonder,” she said. “It’s a conscious choice. With the job I have, I don’t have time to commit to a steady relationship, but that doesn’t mean I’m a nun.”
    “You play around?”
    “Define ‘play around.’ ”
    Nick grinned at her. “If you have to define it, you don’t do it.”
    “I’ve been busy. Besides, what sort of person do you think I am? And if you think I’m going to sleep with Derek Griffin, you’re wrong.”
    “I’m not asking you to. I’m asking you to make Griffin
believe
that you will if he gets on the boat with you.”
    “It’s not that easy,” she said.
    “Sure it is. Just show some boob and thigh, maintain eye contact too long, lick your lips, invade his personal space,