Turbulence (Stone Barrington #46)(10)

“The TV says 70 mph at Key West Naval Air Station.”

“I hope to God none of the bridges between here and Miami gets blown out. Just one, and we’re stuck here forever.”

“We have an airplane, remember? All we need is a clear runway and a fuel truck, and we’re out of here. And they’ve secured the fuel truck inland on high ground.”

“Yeah? High ground in Key West is what, eighteen feet? A twenty-foot tidal surge will wipe the island clean, like icing off a cake. And what if the wind blows your hangar away? What will that do to your airplane?”

“Well, it’s insured; so is the hangar.”

“That must be a great comfort to you,” Holly said sourly.



* * *



—

THERE WAS NO NEWSPAPER delivery that day, so they tried to read, or just stared at the TV. Around six o’clock they got dressed and went over to the main house, holding on to the stretched rope the whole way.

Dino and Viv were sitting in the living room. “Hi,” Dino said. “Having fun?”

“So far, so good,” Stone said.

“There’s no TV in here,” Dino said.

“There are TVs in my study, the bar, your bedroom, and the kitchen,” Stone replied. “Anyway, it’s depressing to watch it all the time.”

“I’ll second that,” Viv said.

“Anybody want a drink?” Stone offered.

“I thought you’d never ask,” Dino said. “Come on, I’ll give you a hand.”

They got up and went into the bar across the hall. Dino sat on a stool, while Stone poured.

“Listen,” Dino said, quietly, “what’s your real assessment of what’s going to happen here? And hurry up, before the girls get here.”

“This house has stood here since 1929,” Stone said, “and nothing nature could throw at it has ever blown it away. We’re at eight and a half feet of elevation, so we can stand a tidal surge of ten feet or better, even if our feet get wet. We’ve done all we can do; now we just have to wait it out.”

Holly and Viv joined them, and Stone poured more drinks. Holly found the remote control and turned on the big TV at the end of the room. “Wow,” she said, “it looks even worse on the giant screen.”

“I swear,” Stone said, “I think the eye is turning to the east. I’d feel a lot better if there were twenty miles instead of ten between us and the eye.”

“I’ll take whatever I can get,” Holly said.



* * *



—

THEY HAD DINNER by candlelight in the dining room. At around ten o’clock, the lights went off. They could no longer hear the TVs in the bar and kitchen. The howling of the wind had gone up a notch. Then, after a few dark, quiet seconds, the lights flickered and came on again.

“That’s the generator kicking in,” Stone said.

“That was an eerie experience,” Holly said. “For a few seconds there I thought the generator wouldn’t come on, and this would be even more awful with no lights and air-conditioning.”

“Not to mention all the fun on TV,” Dino said.

Stone spoke up. “I think we should all stay in this building tonight. We’ve got five sofas for the four of us to sleep on. I don’t like the idea of going outside even for as long as it takes to get to the bedrooms. Somebody could get hit by flying debris.”

“‘Flying debris!’” Dino exclaimed. “I hadn’t even thought of that. Thanks a lot!”

As if on cue, a loud bang came from the living room.

Stone walked out to the hall and looked into the living room. “There’s a dent in an aluminum shutter,” he said. “A coconut, maybe.”

“I never thought I would be in danger of being killed by a flying coconut,” Dino said.

“The shutter stood it,” Stone pointed out. “No broken glass.”

“I can tell you from past experience,” Holly said. “A broken window is a very grave danger and greatly increases the damage to a house. If that happens, we have to seal off that room and take shelter elsewhere in the house.”

“Has anybody noticed that we’re all shouting, now?” Viv asked. “Just to be heard over the wind?”

Holly turned up the TV. “There, is that better?”

Much later, everybody took a sofa and stretched out, but nobody could sleep with all the noise from outside. There was no light coming into the house because of the shutters, so no way to tell when dawn came. The Weather Channel had said that the height of the hurricane would be around dawn. The wind was now a sustained shriek, as if from some dying animal that wouldn’t quite die. Then they heard a banging noise from outside.

“More coconuts?” Dino asked from a chair.

The noise came again, and repeatedly.

“This is impossible,” Stone said. “There’s someone at the front door.” He got up from his sofa. “Give me a hand, Dino.”

He and Dino approached the door. Stone put an ear to it, just as someone hammered on it again.

“Help me, please!” a man’s voice yelled dimly.

“Once we open the door,” Stone said to Dino, “it’s going to take everything both of us have got to get it closed again. Are you ready, Dino?”