Stone Investigations (Stone Series Book 4) by Bob Blanton (open ebook txt) 📗

pilot, so it was easy to open his portal in the plane’s cockpit.  It wasstill in the air.  He took a minute to listen in on the pilot’s conversationover the radio.

“Long Beach Airport this is flight . . .”

Matthew was confused.  He took his portal outside the jet tocheck the numbers on the engines.  They were different than they had been atFallbrook.

The pilot chatted with the crew that was refueling the jetthat was sitting on the runway on Catalina.  It took quite a while to refuelwhich was strange since it’d just flown from Fallbrook, well, not really; theplane from Fallbrook was landing at the Long Beach Airport some twenty milesaway.

Matthew did a quick check on Mr. Graham.  He was taking ataxi to the hotel.  Completely weird, “Why would he come to the airport topick up a suitcase?”  Matthew tried to check out what was in the suitcase;it was a bit difficult since the taxi was still moving, but based on what hesaw, it was just regular luggage.

Once the plane was refueled, the pilot started it up againand taxied toward the hangar.  When he got there, the copilot opened the rearhatch and slid a large crate to the edge.  A truck had driven up to the planeand they moved the crate onto the back of the truck.  The copilot closed up thehatch and the jet started to taxi toward the long-term parking.  Matthewskipped along the side of the terminal and headed toward a side building thatwould give him a better view of the jet, with the sun over his shoulder.  Hewanted to get another view of the jet’s numbers and would need the extra lightso he could zoom in.  How could they have changed?  Once the jet finishedparking, Matthew zoomed in on the numbers.  Up close they looked a bit odd. Not quite the crisp black on white that they appeared to be from a distance.  Ashe examined them more closely, he could tell that the area around the numberswas different from the paint on the rest of the plane.  Then it hit him.  “Digitalpaint!”

As Matthew was turning to leave, he noticed a woman waswatching the truck that had picked up the crate from the plane.  She was edgingalong the far end of the building Matthew was using, but around the corner. Suddenly she jerked upright.  Matthew zoomed in to check it out.

“That’s right, don’t move.  Now back up toward me so we’reout of sight,” a man ordered.  Matthew could see that he was holding a gun onthe woman.  She looked pretty calm for someone with a gun pointed at her.

“Hey, I was just looking.”

“Yeah right.”  The guy reached under the woman’s jacket andpulled a gun out of the small of her back.  He stuck it in his pocket.  “Who doyou work for?”

“The freight company.  They think Jimmy there is stealing.”

“Nice try.  Hands behind your back.”

Matthew recognized the copilot from the jet.  He pulled a ziptie out of his pocket, keeping the gun pointed at the woman’s head.  “I’m goingto tighten these up.  If you move, I’ll shoot you right in your spine.”

Matthew started to move toward the two.  He figured he couldblock the copilot’s gun with his portal and take him out, but first, he wantedto make sure he was the bad guy.  Why would the copilot care about a womanwatching them unload a crate?

“Kid, don’t move!”  A gun pressed against the back ofMatthew’s head.  “Brad, we’ve got another one.”

“Do you need help?”

“Just keep her covered and I’ll take care of it.”  The copilotpushed the woman against the wall of the shed while the pilot zip tied Matthewand pushed him along toward the jet.  “Let’s put them in the jet and see what Stanwants to do.”

“Okay.  Now you two don’t make a scene or we’ll just have tofinish this right here.”

Matthew allowed himself to be pushed along.  The pilot openedthe jet back up and forced the two prisoners into the jet.  “Take them into theback and zip tie their feet.  I’ll call Stan.”

Matthew zoomed his portal over to Jack so he could listen inon the phone call.

“Stan, we had a couple of spectators watching us unload thepackage.”

“Who are they?”

“Don’t know yet.  The woman had a gun, the other one is justa kid.  Brad is going to search them now.  . . .  Brad,any ID on that woman?  And make sure you get their cell phones and turn themoff.”

“Yes, boss,” Brad said.  He didn’t seem to like beingordered around.  He searched the woman’s jacket and pulled out a small wallet. “Her ID says Barbara Peters, DEA.  Nothing on the kid.”

Matthew had used his portal to hide his wallet in one of theseat pockets.  He didn’t want them to connect him to Emily since she was at thehotel where Mr. Graham was checking in.

“She’s DEA!”

“Yeah, I heard.  Okay, the story we’re going to tell is, I’vejust been called back to the office.  Get us cleared for takeoff.”

Agent Peters leaned toward Matthew, “Sorry.”

“Not your fault,” Matthew said.

“You two, shut up!”

Brad finished searching Matthew, finding nothing, then pushedhim back into one of the seats while they waited for Mr. Graham to return.  Itwas an awkward wait while Jack entered a flight plan that would take them toFallbrook and Mr. Graham rushed back to the airport.  Unfortunately, thecopilot kept a gun on them the whole time so Matthew wasn’t able to do anythingabout escaping, worried that he would manage to shoot one of them beforeMatthew could disable him.  If he wasn’t zip tied, it would have been a no-brainer.

“Open up!” Mr. Graham was banging on the jet’s hatch.  He ranup the ladder as soon as the door opened.  “Get us in the air!”

He came to the back of the plane where Matthew and Agent Peterswere sitting in the back seats.  Matthew could tell that steam was coming outof his ears.  The copilot handed him Agent Peters’ gun.

“Agent Peters, what were you looking for?”

“Nothing.”

Mr. Graham pressed the gun against Matthew’s right knee. “I’m sure the kid doesn’t know anything, but if you don’t talk, I’m going tostart putting bullets in