As Aoife is rummaging through her handbag, she comes to a grim realization.  The money situation is not good.  She is down to her last few dollars.  This isn’t going to suffice, as Ranger and she had just opened the doors to a new HQ. There is also the prediction of another mouth to feed.  Digging deeper into her bag, she is almost grief stricken when she realizes she is down to her last twenty dollars.  Not knowing who to turn to since Ranger has so much on his mind right now, she feels herself slipping into hopelessness.  

She thought to herself, “I need a plan to make some cash, and I need it now.”

Aoife has always been rather resourceful, and she knows how to use her beauty and delicate nature to her advantage.  She also knows how to come out of nowhere and blindside someone who has managed to get on her dark side.  She is a perfect sum of contradiction and sharp minded deadliness.

Aoife thought harder to figure who could help her from her list of old crew members, then  Respect came to mind, a lowly busybody who hasn't accomplished anything for their old crew.  She smiled as an idea began forming quickly within her mind.

When Aoife was reading the newspaper today, she remembers seeing that Harold Washington was leaving the country to let things cool down after a scandalous affair with some governor’s wife.  His only son Nate, a rather handsome young man of about 21 had been left to his own devices in the city after his finals at The University of Southern California.  He had attended USC just as his father, a prestigious leader in the community had before him.  They also seemed to have the same drunken womanizing qualities.

Seemed daddy was letting the boy sow a few wild oats before he had to buckle down for his Senior year.   Nate himself had been in a bit of trouble last year, also something to do with his penchant for wild women and liquor.

He looked like an easy mark, and Respect was just the girl to reel him in.  She appeared to know a lot about the local hang outs of the college boys, and between the two of them, Aoife is sure they can get daddy to pay out some serious cash.  All they had to do was have Respect lure him in with phony (or not so phony) promises of illicit sexual activity and alcohol.  Aoife would then keep him in hiding at her psychiatric hospital/brothel in Los Angeles.  It seemed rather simple to Aoife as she was thinking it through in her head.  Now all she had to do was get Respect to agree to it, for a fifty percent cut, of course.  Aoife rings up Respect on the telephone and makes arrangements to meet her in a quaint little restaurant outside the city, where they can discuss the plan more thoroughly.

Aoife dresses carefully for their meeting, trying to make herself look younger than her 22 years.  She puts on a simple dress, in a very pale pink.  She wears a pair of stylish flats and a cloche over her flaming red hair.  She keeps her makeup very light and fresh looking. She doesn’t even try to cover up her freckles. She adds a little pearl handbag, and a string of cheap beads and sets out the door.

Aoife tried to return her greeting but Respect's formally polite expression turned to a displeased gaze that was covered by a sip of the wine. “Look, hun, life's not fun' n games. We all gotta do our part.” Aoife said with an annoyed tone at the contrary attitude from Respect.

Signaling for Aoife to sit down while Respect poured a tall one for the senior ranked woman with the label turned for Aoife to clearly see the year of the bottle. “What part?”

Aoife told her story to Respect as convincingly as possible.

“Nate Washington is running loose all over the city while his daddy is out of the country, and you my dear are going to seduce him.  I don’t care what you actually do with him, or to him, or not.  He is going to think you are the hottest thing this side of The Mississippi.  You are going to make him believe that it will take three minutes to get you naked in a private room.  I happen to have access to a psychiatric hospital, where there is a brothel upstairs.  Your job is to convince him to go there with you.  

The key that you were given by the waiter is a key to a private suite at the brothel where you will make him believe his wildest dreams are going to come true.  Then, I will enter the room and take over from there.  Daddy will pay out dearly for his little one, and you will take half the profit.  Now get your lazy ass over to this bar where all the rich collegiate types hang out and start behaving like a little slut.  Just make sure you pick out the right one.

Aoife hands her a picture of the mark and an address of the bar.  Then she says a bit more sharply than she intended,

“Do you think you are capable of this?   If you aren’t I will find someone else.”

Your accountant makes note that $28,015,439 has been wired to Aoife from your account. The note "Hq" was included.

Aoife’s mind wanders back to the events of the last 48 hours as she looks at the wire transfer to her from Respect.  What a wild ride this has been.  It could have worked out better for Aoife, but it could have been much worse.  Respect took off after their meeting and scoped out Nate at the bar.  As she related to Aoife, she wore a tight sexy dress, and wore her hair long and loose.  She found him right away, and as she walked by him she dropped a coin on the floor.  She turned her back and bent over slowly and deliberately right in front of him.  He took the bait and she was on his arm the rest of the night.  They had drinks, laughed, kissed and canoodled well into the wee hours of the morning.

Then he popped the question, so to speak.

“Uhm, would you like to come back to my place and see where this takes us?”

She ends up taking him back to the brothel as planned although it doesn’t take much convincing, and they slip unobtrusively into the room Aoife has prepared for them.  Aoife has had some pretty strange characters in the brothel, but this one has her raising an eyebrow.  It sounds something like a war going on, with screaming and crashing and crying at different times.  But she bides her time and when it becomes quiet, she slips in through a hidden entry in the closet.  Nate is passed out on the bed, and the room is a disaster.  Aoife is not all that shocked after the amount of noise coming from the room.  

Just as she is about to knock him in the head, he sits up and (possibly thinking she is robbing him), he punches her in the face.  She is passed out cold and when she comes to, she is lying on the bed with a cold compress on her check and Respect is sitting there painting her toenails and smiling.  Nate is gone and Aoife thinks that Respect pulled off the job pretty much all by herself.

“You did it Respect, you got the cash!  Well done!  Did you take it to the bank?  How did you manage it?”

A thousand questions are on the tip of her tongue, but Respect isn’t talking yet so Aoife just has to be patient.

Respect finishes her toenails and looks at Aoife drolly.