Genre Bender: The Honey Trap

[Cammeh]

The point of a genre-bender is to take a well known, genre related trope or story starter and transplant it into another genre.

The Honey Trap

Just picture it: The man with all the secrets, or the high profile and precarious position, is left unattended and alone. Maybe he's just traveling home, or is working late, or is just going for a run in the woods. In walks the foil. Are they a spy? A double agent? Merely a profiteer? It doesn't matter what they are; what matters is that they are out to get what they want, and ruin him in the process. Seduction, deception, whatever it takes to get him to drop his guard and his secrets. Pictures, a taped conversation, just one moment of indiscretion is all they need.

So, how would you tell this story? Forget the Wars, the modern era. Take this scenario and make it your own. What secrets or position does your character hold? Is the foil male? Female? Are they even human? How would you craft this beautifully sticky mess?

 

[Thomas McTavish]

"Why at the office so late Mr. Algar?"
"Just enjoying the view before I return home. I... I don't recognize you. What are you doing here?"
"Alright, I'll just cut to the chase, here. We know about the Device, Mr. Algar."
"What device?"
"Don't play stupid with us, Mr. Algar. Hand over the combination to the vault, we'll retrieve the device and return it after we have reverse engineered a copy without incident."
"I have no idea what your talking about! What vault?!"
"The Vault. The one that contains the plans for the audio-energy weapons. The ones your son designed."
"My son never designed weapons!"
"Not exactly, no. But his plans can be modified into weapons. That's what you're planning to do with them, isn't it? That is what we plan to do with them, anyway."
"You keep saying 'we' and 'us'. Who are you?"
"Names of are no importance, Mr. Algar. History, however, is another story."
"What do you mean?"
"You want to become Governor of this Province, yes? I think it would be fairly difficult to be awarded that position if the Board found out about that incident in Sector 35, September 27, 3216."
"That was years ago, I had all the files--"
"Destroyed, we know. But we managed to piece together the shreds of paper. If word were to leak about that day..."
"What do you want? Money? Supplies? Slaves?"
"We've already told you, Mr. Algar. The blueprints your son stored in your datavault. They may not be weapon designs at this stage but we can use the technology to make them so."
"My son created those plans as a way to better broadcast safety messages across the city ,not to--"
"We understand their intended design but if the power of the mechanism is narrowed into a beam it could be used to create a weapon. That is what we want to do."
"Why?"
"Better protection for the Province."
"You mean for yourselves."
"We are a part of the province, Mr. Algar."
"No. I know you types. You'll just as quickly turn your back on the Province, or worse, seize power of it. I won't give them to you."
"Thank you for the ideas on how to use the technology, but our interests are our own. Now hand over the combination or someone might just dredge up the Sector 35 incident. It won't be enough to get you convicted on the crime you committed but it will be enough to prevent you from ever getting a seat on the Board."
"It seems I have no choice here."
"No, Mr. Algar, you don't."
"Three."
"What else?"
"That's it. Three."
"It's a seven-digit code, Mr. Algar. What are the other digits?"
"Three. That's the only digit. The others are blank."
"That's absolutely stupid."
"That's why I did it. It's so stupid no one would dare think I would use it."
"Now that is the brilliance we know you for. Thank you Mr. Algar. Your services have been appreciated, but are no longer required."
"What? What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that you've been under a lot of stress lately. It's been getting to you. You don't think you can take it anymore. So you broke your window with a chair and jumped three-hundred and seven stories to your death. You always wanted to go skydiving before you died, right?"
"No, no, you can't do this to me! You can't do this to me!! I'M JOHANN ALGAR! YOU CAN'T...!!!"

End of tape.