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

to close the portal and open it again where Emily is.”

“Who’s Emily, your girlfriend?”

“No, just a friend.  She’s the only one who knows about myportal, besides you now.”

“And what exactly is this portal?”

“I’m not sure.  I just started to realize I could open aportal.  At first, I could just see through it, I thought I was daydreaming; Iwas able to see things that were far away.  Then I realized it was real andstarted to learn how to control it more.  Now I can do lots of things.  You’veseen most of them, but if you understand physics you can figure out things itcan let you do.”

“So, like that parachute thing, you can’t just make it fly,you needed to use the air to slow us down?”

“Right, it can’t change your potential or kinetic energy, thepower to do that has to come from outside.  But there are two ends, so you canmanipulate one end so that it allows the other end to do things.  Like when wejumped up, I was able to move our end up and we landed on it.  We changed ourpotential energy, the portal just supported us against the ocean floor.”

“Neat trick.  Now, why were you at the airport?”

“Let’s wait until Emily picks us up.  I’d rather not dunk usaccidentally.”

“I guess I can wait.  The sun feels warm.”  Agent Peters laidback to bask in the sun while they waited.

“Yeah, even in November we get nice days.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Are you ready to get wet again?”

“It’s already been thirty minutes?  How can you tell?”

“The sun’s moved about nine degrees since we’ve been here. This time of year, that’s thirty minutes.”

Agent Peters looked at Matthew skeptically but then shruggedher shoulders.  “Are you going to dunk us?”

“No, we’ll just sink down until we’re floating.”

Matthew started shrinking his portal.  When Agent Peters feltthe edge of it, she slipped over it into the water.  Matthew closed it the restof the way.  Once he was floating, he opened it at Emily’s location.

“Hi, Emily.”

“Hey, I just got the boat five minutes ago.  I’m out of theharbor heading north.”

“Okay, let me zoom out and get a reading.”

Matthew zoomed his portal out and raised it high above Emilyso he could see the various landmarks around.  Then he reopened it at Emily’slocation.  “We’re almost directly between Santa Barbara Island and Malibu.  Ifyou have navigation, you should be able to pick out the spot.  It’ll take youabout forty minutes to get here.  I’ll check back then.”

Matthew and Agent Peters repeated the routine to get back outof the water and onto his portal.  Then Matthew made a point of turning aroundwhile he removed his shirt and wrung it out.

“It’s safe to turn around.”

Matthew turned around.  Agent Peters was still buttoning upher blouse.  He made a point of focusing on getting the water out of his shortsbefore he lay back and relaxed in the sun.  He couldn’t totally relax sincethat would put them back in the water, but he could enjoy the heat.

“So forty minutes.”

“I think so, but Emily goes fast when she drives her car, Iprobably should assume she’ll max out the speed boat.  I’ll check in thirtyjust in case.”

“Did she get a fast boat?”

“It looked fast.  Emily doesn’t skimp.”

“And she’s not your girlfriend?”

“She’s almost two years older than me.”

“Oh, too bad.”

“We’re good friends.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“I hear a boat.”

“It’s a bit early.”

“Is it okay if I stand up?”

“Sure.  The boat is a thirty-three-foot Chaparral.  Bluetrim.”

“Wow, she sure doesn’t skimp.”

Agent Peters stood up and peered toward the south.  “Can Ijump?”

“Go ahead.”

She jumped.  “I think it’s her.  I’m going to wave.”

She jumped again and waved her arms.  It took three jumpsbefore Emily spotted her and turned the boat toward them.

“She’s turning toward us.”

“Great!”

It was two minutes before Emily pulled up beside them.

“You’re early.”

“I know.  I figured you would appreciate an early arrival.  Iwas going to start circling until I saw you or you contacted me again.”

“Cool.  Emily, this is Agent Peters, Agent Peters, Emily.”

“You can call me Barb; after this, I think we should be on a first-namebasis.”

“Welcome aboard, Barb.  Matt, was it Mr. Graham?”

“Yes.”

“Wait, you know his name.  And I thought you said your namewas Jason.”

Matthew sighed.  “I lied about my name.  I hid my wallet onthe plane.”

“That was probably smart.  Now, how do you know the guy’sname?”

“We’ve been investigating him,” Emily said.

“Are you two crazy?  You can see how dangerous he is.”

“Wait!” Matthew hissed.  “Let’s get settled in first and headback to Catalina.  We’ll have plenty of time to talk.”

“Right.  Water’s in the cooler over there.  And towels are inthe cabin.  But you seem to both be dry.”  Emily gave Agent Peters a look.  Herblouse was mostly dry, but it might as well be see-through given the slightdampness.

“A bathroom?” Agent Peters asked.

“In the cabin as well.”

As soon as Agent Peters was in the cabin, Emily huggedMatthew.  “I was so worried about you.”

“Me too.”

“Where did you pick her up?”

“We both got kidnapped at the airport.”

“Come on, no way they could grab you.”

“There were two of them, and if I’d tried something they’dhave shot her.”

“So, you told her about your portal?”

“It was kind of obvious when I used it like a parachute afterI pushed us out of the plane.”

“You what?!  You’re crazy.”

“That’s what she said.  No, I think she called me an idiot.”

“Well!”  Emily smacked Matthew.

“Hey, it worked.  Let’s get this boat heading back, we cantalk on the way.”

Agent Peters came up out of the cabin.  “Did you two get yourstories straight?”

“Just the part where both of you jumped out of an airplane.”

“That wasn’t my idea.”

“He told me.”

“So why were you investigating this Graham guy?”

Matthew just waved at her as he started toward the head.

“We’ve been trying to figure out where all the opioids arecoming from.  You know, the new West Coast supplier that’s been in the news,”Emily told her.

“And you think it’s Graham?”

“We’re not positive, but we’re pretty sure he’s the onegetting the money from the distributors.  Two weeks ago, he went to the CaymanIslands with a boatload of it.”

“How much is a boatload?”

“Thirty . . .”  Emily tried toremember the exact amount.

“Thirty-two million two