Turbulence (Stone Barrington #46)(67)

“Don’t call me, I’ll call you,” Stone replied, then shut down the phone.

“What was that all about?” Kelly asked.

“Lance says there are many Russians scattered around the house, that if we try for the airfield we’ll be arrested or shot.”

“That doesn’t sound like much fun,” Kelly said.

“What are the prez and the F.M. talking about?”

“They’re in dialect, I can’t tell. How are we going to get to the airfield?”

“I’m working on it,” Stone said.

“Wait!” Kelly said. “Petrov said, ‘Do you know, Arkady, there are half a trillion dollars in this room?’

“The F.M. replied, ‘Yes, Alexei, and half of it is yours!’” Kelly stopped translating. “Did you get that?”

“I did,” Stone said. “Are they still in Russian?”

She shook her head. “F.M. said, ‘Half of that is yours; why don’t you just buy England?’ Then they laughed and went back into dialect.”

“Do you think Petrov has 250 billion dollars stashed away?”

“The Agency’s estimate was two hundred billion, but that was a year ago. He could be worth a quarter of a trillion.”

“That’s more than Warren Buffet and Bill Gates put together,” Stone muttered. “The sonofabitch is the richest man in the planet. Why does he need to sell a nuclear artillery shell to North Korea?”

“To make trouble for us, naturally. It’s the cheapest possible way to rattle our military and our government.”

Stone’s satphone vibrated again. He reached inside his pocket, found the switch, and turned it off. “Lance again,” he said. “I turned him off.”

“You’d better hear what he has to say,” Kelly said.

Stone swore and turned on the satphone; it vibrated immediately. He used his napkin again. “What, godammit?”

“Get out of the house,” Lance said.

“What?”

“Get out. You don’t have much time.” Lance hung up.

“What did he want?” Kelly asked.

“He said we should get out of the house.”

“Why?”

“He didn’t say. He just said we don’t have much time.”

“That doesn’t make any sense at all, unless . . .”

“Finish that sentence,” Stone said.

“Unless he’s going to destroy the house.”

“If he does, he’ll have to answer to the National Trust,” Stone said.

Kelly laughed in spite of herself.

“I have an idea,” Stone said.

“What’s your idea?”

“Let’s get out of the house.”

“Okay, let’s.”

Stone leaned over to the duke. “Philip, may I ask a favor of you?” The satphone vibrated again. “Sorry, just a minute.” Stone retrieved the phone. “Now what?”

“You don’t have to get out of the house. Not yet, anyway.”

“What are you talking about, Lance? You scared us half to death.”

“We thought we detected a signal that the shell had been activated, but now we’re pretty sure it was a false alarm.”

“Pretty sure?”

“Pretty certain.”

“Call me anytime, Lance,” Stone said and hung up.

“What was that?” Kelly asked.

“That was Lance saying never mind.”

“Never mind?”

“More or less. Are our two guys still speaking in dialect?”

“Yes. Never mind what?”

“He said they’d picked up a signal that the shell had been activated, but they decided it was a false alarm.”

The duke had been waiting patiently. “I don’t like what I’m hearing,” he said.

“I don’t blame you,” Stone said. “I don’t like it much myself.”

“You said you needed a favor,” the duke said. “What was it?”

“I was going to ask if I could borrow your car.”

“What for?” the duke asked. “Where do you want to go?”

“I want to go to the airfield and look inside that hangar,” Stone said. “Lance says the grounds are full of people who would stop us, so I don’t think the golf cart is going to work.”

“I think my car is a better idea,” the duke said. “My father suffered from a tetch of paranoia; he thought the Communists would try to kill him because he was a duke, so he ordered the car armored—the rear compartment, at least.”

“What about the driver?” Kelly asked.

“He wasn’t concerned about the driver; he figured the Communists wouldn’t kill a workingman.”

“I think we should get into your car and drive to the airfield,” Stone said. “Those people out there are not going to fire on a Bentley.”

“Why not?”

“Because they believe a Bentley would contain someone very important.”

“Well,” said the duke, “I hope to God you’re right. Let’s get out of here.” He and the duchess stood up. So did Stone and Kelly. “I’ll pretend to be giving you a tour,” the duke said.