“All right,” Rodney answered.
Lee narrowed his eyes. His agreement was too fast. What was Rodney’s end game?
He kept his gaze on the man, tension settling into his muscles. “Let’s get into the nitty gritty.”
“We should use Jasmine,” Sam said.
Nhiari glanced at him. They’d been discussing various options for almost an hour now, trying to decide where to place people depending on where Lucas wanted to do the heist. She suspected he’d want to do it close to Retribution Bay because he was there, and there weren’t many authorities left. The most obvious place would be around Coral Bay. “Jasmine?”
“The woman who spots whales and sharks for us when we’re running tours,” Sam said. “She’s still in town. She could take her light aircraft up and act as a spotter for Lucas’s boat.”
“That’s assuming he uses the boat, and not his plane,” Nhiari pointed out. Still it was a good option and if Rodney was indeed working for Stonefish, they couldn’t rely on backup from his department. Though maybe she should call Doug and let him know.
Down the hall a door squeaked open, and a minute later Rodney and Lee walked into the kitchen.
“Lucas rang.” Lee didn’t look at all frustrated. Nhiari couldn’t imagine being forced to spend an hour with Rodney and not wanting to punch something. But then again, Lee was male, and Rodney was working for Stonefish.
Perhaps they should have insisted on listening in.
“What did he say?”
“He wants to take it by boat,” Lee said. “I said I could convince you to let me travel in the truck and I’ll hijack it and drive to the Coral Bay boat ramp. He’ll meet me there.”
Nhiari studied him. It was in line with what they had thought, but he wasn’t telling her the whole truth.
“How are you going to take the truck?” Dot asked.
“I told him I’ll catch the driver and Rodney by surprise,” Lee said.
It was a weak plan. “And what are you going to do with whoever else is travelling in the truck?”
“You can’t both go,” Lee pointed out. “Someone needs to stay in Retribution Bay with Pierre, so at the most, there will be one in the truck.”
“Unless we insist on accompanying the treasure,” Brandon pointed out. “We did find it.”
Nhiari nodded, and while she didn’t want civilians involved, it was a sensible option.
“I can arrange for some colleagues to fly up,” Rodney said.
Lee shook his head. “Lucas will watch the airport.”
“So then they fly to Carnarvon and drive up. He can’t possibly watch every entrance.”
Interesting that Rodney was still pretending to be loyal. Could they rely on him to do what he said he was going to do?
Not likely.
Brandon brought up a satellite view of the area on his laptop. “This is all sand dunes.” He pointed. “We can’t stop anyone going to the ramp before the truck arrives because it will make it obvious to Lucas that we’re on to him.
“Anyone on the ramp when this goes down will be in danger,” Sherlock pointed out.
“Can we get Parks and Wildlife to do some random boat checks?” Dot asked.
“No!” Sam responded. “Penelope is not going anywhere near the boat ramp.”
Nhiari understood his panic. Penelope had already survived one run-in with Stonefish. “He’s right. Any sign of people in authority would make Lucas nervous. He knows we caught the PAWS Stonefish plants.”
“So we need someone on the ground who can clear civilians and people who can stop Lucas,” Dot said.
