despised the son of a bitch.”
“I didn’t hear any of that,” Stone said. “Did you, Viv?”
“Not a word.”
“You two plan your crime when Viv and I aren’t around,” Stone said.
“The way things are going,” Max says, “we may have plenty of time to plan it. The airplane is still not out at the strip. If we all concentrate and hope hard enough, maybe it will turn up tomorrow. And with luck, Hobo will be sober enough to install your device.”
“I hope we’ll have time to coordinate with the Coast Guard,” Dino said.
“I had a word with the commander yesterday,” Max said, “and he’s on board. He’ll have his cutter positioned to move west as soon as we pick up a returning signal from the airplane.”
“What are we going to use to follow the signal?” Stone asked.
“There’ll be a laptop in the package,” Dino replied, “along with some instructions. They said there’s not much to it.”
“We all know what that means,” Stone said. “It means it’s going to take four men and a dog to get it up and running—if we don’t electrocute ourselves.”
“Stone, you’ve always been a pessimist,” Dino said. “I think that sunset was a good omen.”
“That makes you a fantasist,” Stone said. “You think you can dream what we need into existence.”
“I got a feeling,” Dino said, beaming at them.
“God help us,” Stone replied.
50
The package from Dino’s office showed up on time; the airplane didn’t . . . until late afternoon.
Max hung up the phone. “The coast is clear,” she said. “Tommy is on the way to pick up Hobo. Let’s go.”
There was a plainclothes detective at the turnoff to wave them on, and they arrived to find the airplane where it was supposed to be. Stone opened the engine compartment and rested a hand on a cylinder. “Still warm,” he said.
“There must have been a pickup and delivery today,” Max said.
Tommy rolled up in an unmarked car, then he and another man got out. It wasn’t hard to figure out which one was Hobo.
“Hey, everybody,” Hobo said, waving a dirty hand.
“Let’s get this show on the road while we’ve still got daylight,” Dino said.
“Lemme see what you got,” Hobo said. Dino handed him the unwrapped box. Hobo poked at the contents with a finger. “Okay,” he said, “we got a black box, we got some wires, and we got an antenna. Tommy, will you hand me my toolbox from the car?”
Stone peered into the engine bay. “Where are you going to put it?” he asked.
“How about there on the firewall?” Hobo said. “It’ll look right at home there, next to the voltage regulator.”
“Any problems with a power supply?”
“Well, we don’t want to create a load on the battery. It’ll have to be wired into the avionics master switch, so it comes on when everything else comes on.”
“How about the antenna?”
“I can go to the comm antenna or the nav antenna: your choice.”
“Does it matter?”
“Naw, it’ll broadcast on either one.”
“What about receiving?”
“Okay, I’ll run it to both.”
“Whatever’s convenient and unnoticeable.” Stone looked toward the sun. “I reckon you’ve got less than an hour.”
“Can do,” Hobo said. “Probably.”
Max spoke up. “Hobo,” she said, “get your ass in gear.”
Hobo set his toolbox on the ground next to him and went to work.
* * *
—
As the sun’s rim touched the horizon, Hobo yelled, “Bingo! What’re you going to view the result on?”
“A laptop,” Dino said.
“Is that already equipped to receive?”
Dino consulted the written directions. “It is.”
“Then let’s test it out.”
Dino switched on the computer, chose the proper app, and got a resounding beep for his trouble.
“Up and running,” Hobo said. “That will be five hundred smackers, please.”
Stone produce five hundreds and pressed them into Hobo’s greasy palm. “Okay, put that thing back together and wipe off any fingerprints on anything.”
Hobo did so, then got back into Tommy’s car and was driven away.
“Okay, what do we do now?” Stone asked.
“Drink,” Max said. “And eat. Then we hope Dixie makes another run tomorrow.”
“Dino,” Stone said, “can we monitor this thing from the yacht?”
“Anywhere there’s a Wi-Fi signal,” Dino replied.
“Then let’s get out of here.”
* * *
—
Back aboard the yacht, Dino plugged in the computer, turned it on, clicked on the app, and turned the volume all the way up. “We ought to hear that through the alcohol haze,” he said, and was handed a gimlet.
They raised their glasses and drank, then made themselves comfortable while waiting for dinner.
“Did you coordinate with the Coast Guard?” Stone asked Max.
“I did,” she replied, “they’ll be on