Desperate Measures

4

Stone got ready to go down to his office while Faith was still in bed, reading the print edition of the Times.

“Are you going to tell me how those girls died?” he asked.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because, like Dino, I don’t care to discuss it.”

“I can read the paper, too, you know.”

“Then read it, but that subject is not going to pass my lips.”

“As you wish,” Stone said. “I’ve got to go downstairs and at least pretend to work. Can you amuse yourself?”

She smiled. “That won’t be necessary,” she said, “you’ve already amused me.”

“You’ve got two more nights in town, right?”

“And you know how to count!”

“I do. What would you like to do with them?”

“Well, I think it’s best if I go back to my hotel room and watch Jeopardy! tonight, but we can have dinner tomorrow night.”

“Why not both nights?”

“Because we have only one fuck left, and I’d rather it be departure sex, so I’ll have something to think about on my Saturday flight.”

“You’re determined to stick to that rule, then?”

“Unalterably.”

“As you wish,” Stone replied and headed for the door.

“Stone,” she called, stopping him in his tracks. “I absolutely love fucking you. Doesn’t that count for something?”

“Sure, but it would count more if you weren’t counting.”

“When I’ve finished the Times I’ll shower and let myself out,” she said.

“Do you do the crossword?”

“No.”

Stone separated the Arts section from the paper and gave her the rest. “Six-thirty here, tomorrow evening? I’ll have Fred drive you to the airport Saturday morning.”

“I don’t have to be there until noon,” she said.

“See you tomorrow evening.” He ran down the stairs for exercise and went to his desk.

Joan came in with the mail. “Have you read the Times, yet?”

“Sort of, Faith commandeered it.”

“Terrible what’s happening to those girls on the East Side, isn’t it?”

“That’s what I hear, but neither Dino nor Faith would tell me about it. Will you?”

“It’s just as well you don’t know,” Joan replied. “You’d toss your breakfast.”

“I’ve got a strong stomach,” Stone said. “I don’t know why nobody believes that.”

“It’s not as strong as you think,” Joan said, then went back to her office.

Stone had just finished the Times crossword when Joan buzzed him. “Mike Freeman on one,” she said.

Stone picked up the phone. “Mike?”

“Good morning and welcome back.”

“Thank you, good to be back.”

“Did you enjoy the Citation Latitude?”

“I did. It’s a lovely airplane, and I enjoyed all the space. I actually got some sleep on the transatlantic.”

“How would you like to make our swap deal permanent?” Mike asked.

“Are you serious?”

“Well, not permanent without some money changing hands.”

“Why would you want to swap?”

“Because I’ve discovered that we’re using your CJ3-Plus a lot more than we were using the Latitude. It has just the right range and capacity to meet more than ninety percent of our needs. On the other hand, you have lots of longer flights: Key West, Santa Fe, L.A. We’ve put only about two hundred hours on the Latitude, not counting your transatlantic, and we’ve got the Gulfstreams for longer flights.”

“How much money are we talking about?”

Mike mentioned a number.

Stone mentioned a smaller number.

“Let’s split the difference,” Mike said. “Remember, you get to expense one hundred percent of the depreciation; that almost pays for the difference in price. And you’ll continue to enjoy the privileges of our hangar space. If you want to keep your tail number, our shop can do that for you.”

Stone thought about that. “All right, done.”

“I’ll send you a sales contract before the day’s out,” Mike said.

“I’ll look forward to receiving it.” Stone hung up and thought for another minute, then he picked up the phone and buzzed the master suite.

“Yes?” Faith said. “You looking for me?”

“I am,” Stone said. “How would you like to fly a Citation Latitude today?”

“Goody, yes!”

“Get dressed and get down here.” He hung up and buzzed Joan. “Please call the Strategic Services hangar and ask them to refuel the Latitude and have it on the ramp in an hour, and ask Fred to drive me to Teterboro and wait for me for a couple of hours.”

“Will do.”

Stone and Faith did the preflight together. “You’ve never flown the actual airplane, have you? Just the simulator.”

“Right.”

“Then you’re flying left seat today,” he said.

“Where are we going?”

“Nowhere special.”

Faith seemed right at home setting up the avionics and completing the checklist. “Have you filed an instrument flight plan?” she asked.

“No, we’ll go VFR,” Stone replied. “Ask departure for direct Carmel.” He explained the autothrottles to her.

She called ground for permission to taxi. Five minutes later they were headed north toward the CMK VOR beacon. They leveled at fifteen thousand feet, and Stone asked her to do some turns and stalls, then he pretty much ran her through the checklist for a checkride. She handled everything perfectly.

“Okay,” he said, “let’s go back. Ask for the ILS 6.” She contacted New York Approach, asked for the instrument approach, and got it.

Back at the hangar she shut down the engines. “That felt like a checkride,” she said.

“It wasn’t a checkride,” Stone replied. “It was an audition.”