Unintended Consequences - By Stuart Woods

49





Stone was awakened in the wee hours by a small noise. He disentangled himself from Helga without waking her, grabbed a robe and a pistol, and padded slowly down the stairs. When he reached the living room he could see in the moonlight that the door to the back porch stood open. That had been the noise.

Silently, he checked that there was a round in the chamber, then he made his way across the living room, checking around him for company, until he came to the open door. He looked around the porch and carefully stepped outside. The chilly night air crept up his bare legs.

“You couldn’t sleep?” a voice asked.

Stone jerked in its direction, the pistol out in front of him.

“Relax, pal.” Dino was sitting in a corner of the porch, hidden in a shadow made by the moon, the sniper’s rifle across his lap.

“You scared the shit out of me,” Stone said.

“I got up to pee and thought I saw something in the harbor.” Dino got up, walked over, and handed Stone the binoculars. “See the buoy way out there? Check the third boat to the left of it.”

Stone stuffed the pistol in the pocket of his robe, took the binoculars, and trained them on the buoy for focus, then swung slowly to his left, to a third boat. “Looks like something fast, around forty feet. There’s a rubber dinghy aft, resting on a boarding platform.”

“It arrived ten minutes ago without lights. I thought that was odd.”

“You were right,” Stone said, “it is odd, a boat running in the dark without lights. It’s pretty bright out from the moon, maybe he just forgot to turn them on.”

“Maybe,” Dino said, “or maybe not. He used a very bright flashlight to pick up the mooring. I think there are two aboard.”

“I don’t see anybody on deck now.”

“Who knows we’re in Maine?” Dino asked.

“Only Joan. I didn’t tell anyone else. Except Stanley, when he dropped us at Teterboro. He was disturbed that we were going somewhere without him and his boys.”

“What’s Stanley’s last name?” Dino asked.

“I heard one of the other guards call him Manoff.”

“That’s Russian, isn’t it?”

“You’re a suspicious man, Dino.”

“I’m professionally suspicious, like you used to be.”

“You think I’m less suspicious than I used to be?”

“Yeah, since you left the department, you’re Sunny Jim.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“No, it’s not. Is Stanley Agency?”

“I think he’s one of a group of civilian security people that the Agency employs to guard their buildings and people. I doubt if he’s a Company officer.”

“Then who knows where his loyalties might lie?” Dino said. “And what effect an important sum of money might have on those loyalties?”

“You have a point,” Stone said, peering through the glasses. “I just caught a glimpse of a red light through one of the boat’s ports,” he said. “It came on for a second, then went out.”

“Some of those little lithium-powered flashlights have a red bulb. Red light doesn’t screw up a person’s night vision.”

“I can see ripples,” Stone said. “They’re moving around inside the boat.”

“So they didn’t just get in, all tired, and go right to bed.”

“I guess not.” Stone braced himself against a porch post to steady the binoculars. “Uh-oh,” he said.

“What?”

“They’re in the cockpit, two of them.”

Dino raised the rifle and peered through the scope at the boat. “And one of them has the moon glinting off his bald head,” he said. “And they’re launching the dinghy.”

Stone ran lightly upstairs, got his cell phone, and came back. He pressed a speed-dial number.

“Are you calling Stanley?” Dino asked.

“Nope.”

“Hello,” a sleepy woman’s voice said.

“Holly, it’s Stone.”

She was instantly awake. “What’s up?”

“We’re at the Maine house.”

“How did you lose Stanley?”

“We may not have lost him,” Stone said. “We said goodbye at Teterboro, and now there are two men on a fast boat in the harbor, one of whom is as bald as an egg.”

“I’ll call you back,” Holly said, then broke the connection.

“Did Holly send Stanley up here?” Dino asked.

“I don’t think so,” Stone said. He looked through the binoculars again. “They’re rowing in,” he said. “I think there’s an outboard on the dinghy, but they’re not using it.”

Dino braced his rifle against a porch post and looked through the scope again. “The bald guy is sitting in the stern, while his buddy does the rowing. And the bald guy seems to have a rifle slung across his body. I could take him out right now.”

“If you do that, it will turn out to be the commodore of the yacht club coming back from a midnight cruise.”

“Yeah, well.”

“Interesting, though—they don’t seem to be aiming for the yacht club dock. It’s more like they’re aiming for mine.”

“Why don’t we go down there and greet them?” Dino said.