Strategic Moves (Stone Barrington 19)

“I’m okay, but everybody in the family is pretty broken up, and I don’t seem to be able to do anything to help.”

“Herbie,” Stone said, “has anyone in the family behaved oddly?”

“How do you mean?”

“I mean, has anyone done anything out of character, something you wouldn’t expect?”

Herbie thought about it. “Well, Stephanie has been pretty cold about the whole thing, and David has been crying, off and on. I would have thought it would be the other way around.”

“Is Stephanie normally a very emotional person?”

Herbie thought some more. “Only in bed,” he replied.

Stone went back to work.

Late in the afternoon Mike Freeman called.

“We closed on the sale of Strategic Air Services,” he said. “The new company is called Airship Transport. We’re meeting in my office early Monday morning. We’ll chopper up to Newburgh, New York, where the company is based, on the old Stewart Air Force Base. Bring your passport and clothes for a couple of days; you won’t need a necktie.”

“Okay. Mike, have you put the proceeds of the sale with Gunn yet?”

“No; we’ll deposit the check on Monday.”

“Put it in the bank until we get back from our trip.”

“Why?”

“I have some concerns about what’s going on at the Gunn company. His sister-in-law, Adele Lansdown, was murdered earlier this week, and I’m not yet certain whether that had anything to do with the business. I was going to put some money with them, but I’m holding off.”

“All right,” Freeman said. “I’ll hold off. We can talk more about this on the trip.”

“See you Monday morning, Mike,” Stone said.

They both hung up, and Stone went back to work.

Stone spent an idle weekend, sitting up in bed watching old movies and reading the Sunday Times. He didn’t even feel like dinner at Elaine’s with Dino.

On Monday morning, Stone packed a bag with rough clothes, put on a parka, and took a cab to the

offices of Strategic Services. He walked into Mike Freeman’s office and was surprised to see someone he knew well.

“Hello, Holly,” Stone said, giving her a hug and a kiss.

“Hello, Stone,” she replied. Holly Barker was Lance Cabot’s assistant at the Agency, and they were old and close friends. “I’d like you to meet Todd Bacon, who’s going to run Airship Transport.”

A young man in his early thirties stood up and offered Stone his hand. He was about Stone’s size, but slimmer in the waist, and had short, sandy hair. “Hello, Stone. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Good to meet you, Todd,” Stone said. He’d never heard anything about the guy.

“We’d better get going,” Mike said. “Your luggage is already in the van.”

They trooped downstairs, boarded a plain van, and were transported to the East Side Heliport, where a six-passenger twin-turbine chopper was waiting for them. They and their luggage boarded, the rotors turned, and they were on their way north. They had a spectacular view of the city as they moved up the East River, then crossed to the Hudson, north of the George Washington Bridge. They descended into what was now Stewart International Airport and landed next to the ramp before a huge hangar. The C-17 was being towed out onto the ramp, and Stone found its size overwhelming.

Stone grabbed his bag and followed the group to the rear of the giant airplane, where they simply walked up the lowered tail ramp and into the airplane. They deposited their luggage in bins as instructed, and Stone took a moment to look around. He was standing inside a cavernous space more than twenty feet wide and high. Ahead of them was an Airstream trailer, strapped down and with various cables and tubes attached. They walked past the trailer and found a dozen first-class airline seats bolted to the floor, then past that to the cockpit, which was big enough for two built-in, double-decker bunks and four jump seats behind the two pilots. The instrument panel was a maze of large glass screens, switches, warning lights, and circuit breakers. It was several times the size of the panel on Stone’s Mustang.

“Preflight’s all done, and we’re ready to go,” Mike said. “Take a jump seat next to me, Stone.”

Stone sat down, buckled in between Mike and Holly, and watched the pilots start the four engines and work their way through their checklists.