“Come in!” Lance commanded.
The door opened and a large man in hunting clothes filled the doorway. “The gentleman has said he is ready to speak to you now, sir.”
“Tell him I’ll be right with him,” Lance said, and the man closed the door.
“Did someone make him an offer he can’t refuse?” Stone asked.
“Well, yes,” Lance replied.
“I suppose that involved what you people like to call ‘enhanced interrogation’?”
“His interrogation was certainly enhanced,” Lance said, “but not in the way you might imagine. The offer he couldn’t refuse involved a new life for himself and his family, certain protections, and a considerable sum of money. He will be a very happy ex-spy.”
“More likely a double agent,” Stone said.
“That, while covered by your security clearance, is on a need-to-know basis, and you most definitely do not need to know.”
Lance rose. “Will you invite me to dinner tonight on your island?”
Stone stood, too. “I’m very sorry, but I have a previous engagement with someone a lot more beautiful than you, Lance.”
“Rain check, then?”
“Next time you’re in New York, I’ll take you to Elaine’s.”
“Done.”
The two men walked toward the door together. “The chopper awaits you,” Lance said.
“And when will you make your new offer to Mike Freeman?”
“I have already done so,” Lance said.
“And what did you offer him that he can’t refuse?”
“I’m sure he’ll tell you in due course,” Lance replied. “He may even tell you about the mission we’ve engaged him for. That’s up to him.”
“I’m not going to like it, am I?” Stone asked.
“You may, or you may not,” Lance replied. “Your opinion is of little consequence. Have a nice flight.” They were in the entrance hall now. Lance turned and bounded up the stairs, two at a time.
Stone found his coat, hat, and gloves and walked outside. The rotors of the helicopter were already turning.
“Right this way, Mr. Barrington,” a man standing next to the machine shouted.
Stone climbed aboard, found a headset to protect his hearing, and buckled his seat belt.
The copter rose vertically, banked to the north, and climbed to a hundred feet or so, high enough to pass over the mast of any unsuspecting yacht that might be out for a cold-weather sail.
Stone watched Islesboro come into view, then the airstrip, and he wondered what sort of an offer Mike Freeman could not refuse.
SIXTEEN
Stone got back to the house in the late afternoon, hung up his heavy coat and took off his boots, then found Adele in the living room.
“I thought you had abandoned me,” Adele said, pouting.
“I’m very sorry. I got . . . swept up in a business thing and couldn’t get back until now.”
“A business thing? I thought nobody knew where we were.”
“A business associate happened to fly over the island and saw the airplane parked at the strip, and he insisted on a meeting. Can I get you something warming to drink?”
“I’ll try some of that bourbon you like,” she said.
Stone poured them both a Knob Creek and sat down. They clinked glasses and drank.
“Oh, someone named Mike Freeman called and asked that you call him as soon as possible.”
Stone sighed. “You’ll have to excuse me for a few minutes,” he said. “I’ll be back in time to pour your second drink.” He kissed her and let himself into Dick Stone’s secure office, then called Freeman’s cell.
“Hey, there,” Mike said. “Sorry to interrupt your weekend, but I need to run something by you.”
“Would this be the new offer Lance Cabot has made you?”
“How the hell did you know that?”
“Lance is up here on a nearby island, and he insisted on an impromptu meeting.”
“So he told you about his offer?”
“He told me only that it was one you can’t refuse.”
Mike chuckled. “Well, he’s right. Let me lay it out for you.”
“I’m listening.”
“Lance has a real mission to offer us this time: he wants us to extract a person from a location somewhere in Europe and return him to the U.S.”
“I’ll bet that’s not as simple as it sounds,” Stone said.
“Maybe not, but almost. In our last conversation with Lance he mentioned the C-17 cargo airplane we own, if you recall.”
“I remember; I hadn’t heard about that. What, exactly, is a C-17?”
“It’s a four-engine, jet cargo airplane, very large. It’s very good for us in some situations: we can load half a dozen armored vehicles on it and fly them to a protection mission just about anywhere in the world. It makes us look very good to our clients. The problem with the thing is it’s very expensive to own and operate. Jim got an opportunity to buy it on the cheap from an African nation that had figured out they couldn’t afford it. He formed an air charter corporation, Strategic Air Services, to own and operate it. The idea was that we would defray our costs by chartering it to businesses or countries that had large cargo requirements. Trouble is, what with the world economy in a slump, we’ve had few charterers, and the airplane just eats away at our bottom line.”
“I can understand that,” Stone said, “having owned a number of airplanes that ate away at my bottom line.”
“Here’s what Lance has offered us: he will buy Strategic Air Services from us, then charter the airplane back to us when we have a need for it, at a rate that’s just about the operating costs of the aircraft.”
“I can see how that offer might be hard to refuse,” Stone said.
“By the way, you sold your airplane to Strategic Air Services, so he gets that, too.”
“Okay by me,” Stone said. “But tell me more about this extraction he wants you to do.”
“Here’s what we do: Lance hires Strategic Services to fly to Iraq and ferry a large cargo of matériel back from there—part of our armed services withdrawal from that country. On the way back, we stop at an airport in Europe, to be determined, and pick up the extractee, along with some of Lance’s people, so when we land in the States, it looks like an ordinary cargo flight for the military. We’re paid for the empty Atlantic crossing, the trip back with the cargo, and for the extraction. The profit is considerable. What do you think?”
“I think we’ll want the Agency to indemnify us for any legal problems associated with any part of the mission and from any damage to the airplane while conducting it, since our insurance may not cover government contract use. If he’ll agree to that, then you’re right, it sounds straightforward.”
“Then, as our counsel, you’re not opposed?”
“No; but Mike, I don’t have to tell you how complicated something like this can get, so you want a description of the mission in writing, if Lance will sit still for that, which I doubt.”
“I doubt it, too, but I’ll try.”
“One other thing: if I know Lance, the successful completion of this mission will bring other requests for other missions for Lance, and they’re likely to get more complicated and dangerous as you go along. Don’t let yourself get sucked into something you don’t want to do.”
“That’s a good point, Stone, and I’ll keep it in mind, and I’ll see that you get to read any contract Lance proposes.”
“Mike, there’s something else you should know.”
“What’s that?”
“At our meeting today, Lance gave me a full account of how and why you happened to leave Britain.”
Mike was silent.
“You understand, he knows your whole backstory.”
“That’s troubling,” Mike said. “How do you suppose he came by that knowledge?”