Herbie thought about it. “Well, Stephanie has been pretty cold about the whole thing, and David has been crying, off and on. I would have thought it would be the other way around.”

“Is Stephanie normally a very emotional person?”

Herbie thought some more. “Only in bed,” he replied.

Stone went back to work.

Late in the afternoon Mike Freeman called.

“We closed on the sale of Strategic Air Services,” he said. “The new company is called Airship Transport. We’re meeting in my office early Monday morning. We’ll chopper up to Newburgh, New York, where the company is based, on the old Stewart Air Force Base. Bring your passport and clothes for a couple of days; you won’t need a necktie.”

“Okay. Mike, have you put the proceeds of the sale with Gunn yet?”

“No; we’ll deposit the check on Monday.”

“Put it in the bank until we get back from our trip.”

“Why?”

“I have some concerns about what’s going on at the Gunn company. His sister-in-law, Adele Lansdown, was murdered earlier this week, and I’m not yet certain whether that had anything to do with the business. I was going to put some money with them, but I’m holding off.”

“All right,” Freeman said. “I’ll hold off. We can talk more about this on the trip.”

“See you Monday morning, Mike,” Stone said.

They both hung up, and Stone went back to work.

Stone spent an idle weekend, sitting up in bed watching old movies and reading the Sunday Times. He didn’t even feel like dinner at Elaine’s with Dino.

On Monday morning, Stone packed a bag with rough clothes, put on a parka, and took a cab to the offices of Strategic Services. He walked into Mike Freeman’s office and was surprised to see someone he knew well.

“Hello, Holly,” Stone said, giving her a hug and a kiss.

“Hello, Stone,” she replied. Holly Barker was Lance Cabot’s assistant at the Agency, and they were old and close friends. “I’d like you to meet Todd Bacon, who’s going to run Airship Transport.”

A young man in his early thirties stood up and offered Stone his hand. He was about Stone’s size, but slimmer in the waist, and had short, sandy hair. “Hello, Stone. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Good to meet you, Todd,” Stone said. He’d never heard anything about the guy.

“We’d better get going,” Mike said. “Your luggage is already in the van.”

They trooped downstairs, boarded a plain van, and were transported to the East Side Heliport, where a six-passenger twin-turbine chopper was waiting for them. They and their luggage boarded, the rotors turned, and they were on their way north. They had a spectacular view of the city as they moved up the East River, then crossed to the Hudson, north of the George Washington Bridge. They descended into what was now Stewart International Airport and landed next to the ramp before a huge hangar. The C-17 was being towed out onto the ramp, and Stone found its size overwhelming.