“All you do is stamp each heel firmly on a hard surface, like concrete. It might not work on carpet. The transmitter we can pick up from as much as ten miles away; the tape in the recorder will last for two hours.”
“I don’t understand about the recorder,” Stone said. “Why don’t you just record it at the receiving end?”
“Oh, we will, but we need a backup, in case there’s any interference that screws up some part of the transmission.”
“Here’s what we do,” Rick said. “You go down to the headquarters building of the Safe Harbor Bank and take the elevator up to the top floor, where Ippolito’s office is. Tell the receptionist or secretary who you are and ask to see Ippolito.”
“Suppose he won’t see me?”
“Don`t take no for an answer. I’m betting that his curiosity will be too much for him, especially if he still thinks you’re dead. He’ll see you, I’ll give you odds.”
“Then what?”
“Engage him in conversation; get him to incriminate himself.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that?”
“You’re a good talker, Stone; you’ll figure a way. Just get him talking and keep him talking for as long as possible.”
“And where will you guys be all this time?”
“We’ll be all over that building, just an elevator ride from you. If he cuts and runs, there’s no way he can get past us and out of the building.”
“Suppose he just takes a gun out of his desk drawer and shoots me?” Stone asked.
“Come on, he’s not going to commit murder in his own office, for Christ’s sake.”
Cable spoke up again; he held up a Mont Blanc fountain pen, the fat
model. “More goodies; this little beauty fires one twenty-two-caliber hollowpoint cartridge. You’ll be able to hit somebody at arm’s length—any farther away than that, no guarantees. I’d go for the head, if I were you.” He held up another pen. “Here’s a second one; put them in your inside coat pocket, where a man would normally carry a pen.” He unscrewed the cap and revealed a pen point. “It will actually write,” he said; then he screwed the cap back on. “To fire it, you point it and press down hard on the tip of the gold clip, see?” He demonstrated without actually firing the weapon.
“I don’t see a barrel.”
“That’s concealed under the plastic tip. The bullet will blow the end off the pen when it’s fired.”
Stone took the pens and put them in his inside coat pocket.
“Now,” Rick said, “after you’ve gotten him to incriminate himself, or if anything should go wrong, just say the word ‘police’ in any sentence. If you say ‘cops’ or ‘FBI’ or ‘IRS’or anything except ‘police,’ we won’t move. But the minute we hear that word from you, we’re on our way with SWAT teams. We’ll have the elevator keys, and we can be with you in no more than a minute, a minute and a half at the outside.”
“And if I’m in trouble, what am I supposed to do for those ninety seconds?”
“That’s what the pens are for,” Cable said.
“Okay,” Stone said, “I’ll do it.”
61
Stone sat with Rick Grant and Dino in the parking garage of the Safe Harbor building. Stone took off his shoulder holster and handed it, with the pistol, to Rick. “I don’t think I’d get into Ippolito’s office wearing that, do you?” he asked, slipping back into his jacket.
“Probably not,” Rick said.
Dino, who had been uncharacteristically quiet during the planning of this event, spoke up. “Stone, I got a lot of problems with this,” he said.
“What problems?”
“You’re walking into this place, and you don’t know anything about it. On top of that, all you know about this Ippolito is that he’s a very, very bad guy who has already tried to kill you once. This is not a recipe for a nice day.”
“I take your point, Dino, but I have a personal interest in this; I don’t want to sit around and wait for the feds to take forever to make a case against this guy. I want to hurt him myself.”