“Good to know,” Stone said, then hung up and buzzed Joan.
“Yes, sir?”
“Please call the yacht and have it moved to Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, in the marina, if there’s space. I’d like it there by mid-morning tomorrow. Faith is back from her training, isn’t she?”
“Yesterday.”
“Please tell her I’d like the airplane ready to taxi at ten AM, destination: the Vineyard. She should call ahead about parking space on the ramp, and she should bring another pilot, even though I’ll be flying left seat.”
“Will do,” Joan said.
Stone hung up and called Dino.
“Bacchetti.”
“It’s Stone. Is Viv in town?”
“Arrived this afternoon.”
“How would the two of you feel about a few days aboard Breeze on Martha’s Vineyard?”
“I think I speak for us both when I say, Hell, yes!”
“We taxi at ten AM.”
“See ya.” Dino hung up.
He went to wake up Vanessa, in the nicest possible way.
She pulled his face into her lap, and shortly, she was wide awake. When they were both exhausted, he said, “How would you like a few days aboard a yacht?”
“I think I would like that very much. Where’s the yacht, and whose is it?”
“It will be at the Vineyard tomorrow morning, and I’m one of its three owners. Dino and Viv will be coming with us.”
“So, I’ll need yachting clothes?”
“Of the more casual kind, and you can shop in Edgartown, if you like. You’ll need one nice dress for dinner.”
“I think I can manage those things. How long will we be gone?”
“A few days. I don’t know how much time Dino and Viv have off.”
“Has it occurred to you that tomorrow is the Fourth of July?” she asked.
“You’re right. I had momentarily forgotten. Then they should at least have the long weekend off. We’ll be lucky to get a marina berth, but that’s okay. We can always anchor in the harbor.”
She bit him lightly on a nipple and summoned him to duty once again.
“I believe you have entirely recovered,” he said, making himself available to her.
“I believe I have,” she replied.
They entertained each other until cocktail time, when they dressed and went down to the study.
Fred came in. “Dinner in fifteen minutes?” he asked.
“Perfect,” Stone said, mixing them drinks.
54
The airplane was on the ramp with the airstairs door open and inviting. Faith and another woman, both in summer uniform, awaited them at the door, as a lineman unloaded their luggage and stowed it.
“I hadn’t expected anything quite so big,” Vanessa said as they climbed aboard. Dino and Viv were already seated in the cabin, drinking coffee.
Stone got Vanessa settled and poured her coffee, then excused himself and went forward to the cockpit. Faith awaited him in the right seat, and the second pilot was settled in a crew seat.
“We’re at the point in the checklist where it says ‘Start engines,’” she said, passing him the handbook.
Stone started the engines and, while Faith ran the rest of the checklist, looked at their clearance, already programmed into the flight computer and displayed on the pilot’s and copilot’s displays. Faith called ground control for taxi clearance, then Stone began to move the airplane. He was aware of some movement behind him so he turned and found Vanessa being buckled into the jump seat and given a headset.
“This I’ve got to see,” she said.
Stone turned back to his work and taxied to runway one. There was no waiting, as the holidaymakers had mostly departed the previous day. He was cleared for takeoff, then lined up and moved the throttles forward. Shortly, he pulled back on the sidestick, and the airplane rose into the air. Faith was working the radios, like a good copilot, and soon traffic control gave them an altitude of fifteen thousand feet, direct to the Vineyard.
He leveled off at the assigned altitude and reduced power to cruise, then checked the screen before him. ETA was thirty-five minutes.
After leaving the New York air traffic center, he was handed off to Boston Center, then was given a descent to five thousand feet, and the island came into view in the distance. “Cancel IFR,” Stone said. “I want a look at the harbor.”
Faith made the call, canceled their clearance, and they were told to maintain the same squawk code. Stone descended to three thousand feet and slowed. “You watch for traffic,” he said to Faith. He swung wide to his right and made a turn, keeping the harbor on his left wingtip. “There’s Breeze,” he said. “We got a berth.”
He leveled the wings for a moment to get them headed offshore before turning for the airport, and he pointed to an area outside the harbor, where a very large yacht was anchored. “Look at her,” he said. “She’s got to be more than three hundred feet; she’d never fit in the marina and not even in the harbor on a crowded holiday weekend.”
He turned left and descended to fifteen hundred feet. “Vineyard Airport, N123TF, six miles out, left base for two four. Anybody in the pattern?” He was greeted by silence.
“No visible traffic,” Faith said.
Stone turned final for runway twenty-four and aimed at the numbers. The runway was only 5,500 feet, and he didn’t want to use it all. He touched down, reversed the engines, and braked, then turned off the runway with two thousand feet to spare. He taxied to the ramp and shut down, while a tractor met him, ready to tow the Gulfstream 500 to parking elsewhere.
A big SUV drove up with his yacht’s captain, Brett, at the wheel. Linemen stowed their luggage, and they were off for the Edgartown marina, chatting along the way.
“Did you get a look at the superyacht outside the harbor?” Captain Brett asked.
“A good look,” Stone replied.
“Three hundred forty feet! Their captain somehow expected to be accommodated at the marina. I heard some conversation with the harbormaster on the radio about it. They were told to drop anchor outside, but they didn’t like it.”
“What’s her name?” Stone asked.
“Tsarina. I got a look at her stern as they departed the harbor.”
Stone found the name a little unsettling. His phone rang.
“Scramble,” Lance said.