Stuart Woods_Stone Barrington 12

the boat with Stone and Dino.”
    â€œGood.”
    â€œNow, all of you listen to me: Nobody shoots anybody unless he’s shot at first or is about to be shot at. Is that perfectly clear? If any shooting happens there’ll be a very thorough inquiry, and each of us will be held responsible for any action outside the legal use of firearms.”
    Everybody nodded.
    â€œWe’ll keep in touch by cell phone. We’ll set them to vibrate, and they’ll make less noise than radios. I want everybody to have loaded weapons and two spare magazines. I’ll have an assault rifle, in case we need more firepower, and I have a shotgun in my car.”
    â€œSo do I,” Rawls said.
    â€œWhat I don’t have is more than one armored vest. I’m required by regulation to wear that, and the rest of you will be going in bare chested.”
    â€œSo to speak,” Holly said.
    â€œAnd I don’t want anybody to get shot, so you must all use extreme caution. We may be up against three men, and we don’t know what kind of weapons, if any, they have. We’ll make simultaneous entry to both buildings, entering front and back.”
    Seth spoke up. “There’s no back entrance to the boathouse, just stairs going up from the dock underneath.”
    â€œGood. All right, everybody check your weapons and ammo,” Young said, looking at his watch. “We have a long day up here, and it gets light early. We should be in position by three-thirty A . M . In the meantime, get some rest, and we’ll leave here at three.”

59
    S TONE, DINO, HOLLY AND SETH went out to the dock and got the picnic boat ready for departure. The skies had clouded up, and darkness was complete. Seth got the engine started, and the lights from the dashboard instruments and the GPS plotter offered a little light in the cockpit.
    â€œLook,” Seth said, pointing to the plotter screen. “The creek is on the electronic chart; that will make it a piece of cake to find, even in the dark. All we have to worry about is moored boats and rocks, and I pretty much know where those are.”
    â€œLet’s go,” Stone said. “It’s going to start to get light soon, and I want to at least be in position off the creek before that happens.”
    Seth moved the boat away from the dock, and at idle speed they began moving up the inlet, away from the harbor. They could hear nothing, except the rumble of the engine. Seth increased power a little. “We could go faster, if we use the spotlight,” he said.
    â€œAs long as we can navigate safely in the dark, I’d rather not announce our presence,” Stone said.
    Then, without warning, they heard the whine of a big outboard engine, and a Boston Whaler flashed past them, rocking their boat with its wake.
    â€œShit,” Seth said. “I didn’t hear that coming; he must have been doing twenty knots.”
    â€œWas that Caleb’s boat?” Stone asked.
    â€œHard to tell with no light,” Seth replied. “Lots of Whalers hereabouts.” They continued their way up the inlet, passing moored boats along the way, making seven knots, according to the speedometer. “Creek up ahead,” Seth said. “One o’clock and a hundred yards.” He throttled back to idle.
    Â 
    HAM BARKER WATCHED from the rear seat as Ed Rawls’s Range Rover turned onto Caleb Stone’s driveway.
    â€œLights off,” said Sergeant Young from the front passenger seat. “I don’t want ’em to know we’re here until they open the door.”
    â€œBMW convertible dead ahead,” Rawls said.
    â€œThat’s the twins’ car,” Young replied. “They’re back from Nantucket.”
    The car stopped, and Ham and Lance got out of the backseat.
    â€œLance,” Young said, “you and Ham go around to the back door and make sure your cell phone is on. What’s the number?”
    Lance gave it to him, and he tapped it into his own phone and pressed the send button. Lance opened the phone. “I’m on the line,” he said.
    â€œGood,” Young replied. “If you hear any kind of commotion or yelling, kick in the back door and come in with your weapons drawn. You’ve got a flashlight; use it if you have to.”
    â€œRight,” Lance said, and he and Ham began to walk to the rear of the house.
    Ham drew his Colt .45 auto, racked the slide and flipped the safety on