Stone Barrington 06-11

thing.”
    “Well, you seem to be doing okay,” Billy Bob replied. “Let’s give it a whirl. Say, where’s the boy?”
    “I lost him trying to turn this thing. He was trying to keep you inside, and he went out.”
    “And I had grown so fond of the little shit,” Billy Bob said. “To think he gave his all for me. Hey, why aren’t you turning?” He nudged the back of Stone’s head with the assault rifle.
    Stone started a right-hand turn, keeping it shallow. He was making a wide arc to the east, now, and they were over Fifth Avenue before he was headed south.
    “You know,” Billy Bob said, “there are an awful lot of cops around Times Square, and they probably have snipers set up by now. Maybe a nicer spot would be Rockefeller Center, and you’re right on course.”
    “Oh, shit,” Stone muttered.

    “I can put a grenade right into the skating rink,” Billy Bob said. “The area will be jammed with tourists this time of year.”
    “Why are you doing this?” Stone asked. “What’s in it for you?”
    “I know I’m not getting out of this alive,” Billy Bob said. “I may as well make a splash.”
    “Look, I can fly this thing to Teterboro right now. Don’t you have an airplane out there?”
    “Not anymore, Stone.”
    “Then hijack one. There are always a dozen jets on the ramp with their engines running, waiting for passengers to arrive. Take one and get the hell out of here.”
    “And where would I go?”
    “Iceland doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the United States.” This wasn’t true, but maybe Billy Bob didn’t know that.
    “Iceland doesn’t have an extradition treaty? I’ve never heard that.”
    “Few people know about it, but it’s true.”
    “Bullshit. I don’t believe that for a moment.”
    “Then…” Stone was about to make another suggestion, but he was interrupted by the sound of the engine sputtering and dying. The helicopter began to descend.
    “What the hell is wrong?” Billy Bob shouted.
    “I don’t know,” Stone replied. He was scanning the instrument panel, looking for a warning light or some other reason. His eyes stopped on the fuel gauges: One of them showed full, the other empty. He found a lever and shoved it sideways, changing tanks. The engine came back to life, as if it had never been starved for fuel.
    “Good work, Stone.”
    But now they were low over Fifth Avenue. Stone eased the throttle forward, and the chopper began to climb again. “What’s wrong with Mexico?” he asked.
    “Too far. They’d shoot me down before I could get there.”

    “Then go offshore and head for South America. They can’t shoot you down over international waters.” This was a lie, too.
    “You know, you might have something there.”
    “So, we’ll head for Teterboro?”
    “Yeah, but not yet; first I want to lob a couple of these grenades into Rockefeller Center, see how they perform. Call it a test.”
    “You do that, and they’ll never stop looking for you, Billy Bob. Come on, you’ve got money offshore, right? Head south and lie low. Find some nice spot and buy a house and a few girls. Eventually, they’ll get tired of looking.”
    “You make it sound so inviting,” Billy Bob said.
    “It’ll never happen if you fire those grenades,” Stone said. “The cops will blow us out of the sky; they’ll be finding pieces of us around midtown for days. But, right now, they’re standing off. We can make Teterboro.”
    “That’s a very tempting thought, Stone,” Billy Bob said.
    “Turning right for Teterboro,” Stone said. He eased the chopper into a right turn. Then he felt the gun barrel at the back of his head again.
    “I don’t think so,” Billy Bob said.
    “Come on, why not?”
    “Because I’m tired, Stone. I’ve run out my string, and this is going to be my last day on the planet. Yours, too. You know, I’m really sorry about the boy; he was a sweet kid.”
    Stone leveled out heading west. He wasn’t going to be complicit in this. If he and Peter were going to die today, then they weren’t going to take hundreds of others with them. If a grenade had to go off, then the Hudson River, he decided, was the best place for it to happen. He didn’t think Billy Bob would have time to fire one and reload from the case before he could dump the helicopter into the icy river.
    “Hey, you’re headed in the wrong direction,” Billy Bob said.
    “No, I think you really want to go to Teterboro; that’s the best deal.” They had crossed