The Heist

“Pass me the caviar.”

Part of Kate’s training as a Navy SEAL involved learning to adapt to adversity, to be able to rest and recharge in virtually any environment, no matter how extreme or unpleasant it might be, whether she was on an ice floe or lying on gravel in the open desert. So she figured she could manage to spend the night in a humid cave.
    Willie was on her Really Big Adventure and up for anything. She’d just spent six weeks in jail, so she looked like she was going to be fine. She’d gone on a grave-robbing spree, snatching scraps of material off altars to the dead to make a pillow.
    Kate suspected it would be different for Nick Fox. He appreciated his comfort and rarely settled for anything less than the finest accommodations. To her surprise, Nick stretched out on a slab of rock, put his hands behind his head, and went to sleep. He might as well have been reclining on a chaise in their villa in Bali. Damn,Kate thought, you have to give credit where credit is due. The man can adapt.
    Unlike Willie and Nick, Kate wasn’t ready to go to sleep. She wanted to explore a little and size up the guards at the mouth of the cave. She retraced her steps to the cave opening and looked out. The two Javanese men were standing on the ledge, their guns slung over their shoulders and their backs to the cave opening. They were looking out at the view and smoking kreteks, Indonesian clove cigarettes that made a crackling sound when the guards inhaled.
    “Yoo-hoo,” Kate called. “Can I bum a smoke?”
    The men jerked to attention as if they’d been electrocuted. The guard nearest her swore in Indonesian and shoved her back into the cave, wagging his finger at her.
    “Do not go here,” he said. “This is very bad behavior.”
    Kate smiled to herself. They were lazy and untrained. They thought their guns and knives were all they needed to keep their prisoners in line. This was a good thing for her and unfortunate for them.
    In the morning, Kate and Willie were taken down to the house, where they sat on the scrub grass outside and were served rice pancakes and fruit for breakfast by the exhausted-looking chef and his wife. Bob emerged from the house wearing some of Griffin’s clothes and sporting a panama hat. He was obviously ridiculing Griffin, who sat frowning on the veranda. The pirates gathered around, amused by the caricature, none more so than Bob himself, who couldn’t stop smiling.
    “You’ve got quite a setup here,” Bob said to Griffin. “But there’sone thing missing that would truly make it paradise. You know what that is?”
    “Your absence?” Griffin said.
    “Women! Surely you didn’t come here to build yourself a monastery. Or are you just waiting for the right one to miraculously drift ashore?” He ambled over to Kate. “Is she the one?”
    “Leave her alone,” Griffin said.
    Bob ignored him and grinned at Kate. “What if your father doesn’t come up with your ransom? Would you stay here in paradise if this fool paid for you?” He looked over his shoulder at Griffin. “What do you say? Would you like to buy her from me?”
    “I’m not for sale,” Kate said.
    “Of course you are,” Bob said. “You won’t marry a man unless he’s rich, unless he can give you the things you want, and Daniel here is loaded. Well, not quite as much as he was before I came along.”
    “That’s enough, Bob,” Griffin said.
    Bob glanced at Griffin. “Who are you to tell me what to do?”
    “The man who has the fifty-year lease on this island. I’m not some rich tourist passing through. Her father pays and she’s gone. But after I pay, you’ll still have to deal with me.”
    “Not if I kill you,” Bob said.
    “And risk enraging the Indonesian authorities who’ll be deprived of their generous bribes? And what about them?” Griffin gestured to the Torajan villagers who stood in front of their huts, watching the show unfold. “Their tribe was dying before I came along. Who do you think pays for the condos in Sulawesi where their families live now? If you kill me, they’ve all got to come back here to this rock. They won’t be too happy with you about that.”
    “You think that scares me?”
    “It should,” Griffin said.
    There was a reason Griffin was so successful in his business, Kate thought. He could be tough. And he wasn’t stupid.
    The Torajans mined the salt from the sea, using a system as old as the tribe. The process was simple. Water was lugged from the sea in