Foreign Affairs (A Stone Barrington Novel) by Stuart Woods

Author:Stuart Woods [Woods, Stuart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-10-12T19:00:00+00:00

29

Hedy woke up on a blanket in what felt like the trunk of a car. Her hands and feet were tied, and she was blindfolded and gagged. She remembered the door being kicked in and the struggle but not much after that; she assumed she had been drugged. She had been stupid, leaving the house early to go to the grocery, instead of following Stone’s instructions. She wondered what had happened to whoever was supposed to be following her.

The car came to a stop, and she heard the trunk lid unlatch. A man’s voice, heavily accented, said, “You want toilet?”

“Yes,” she said, and he hustled her to her feet and dragged her across a floor. “You’ll need to untie my hands,” she said.

He did so. He set her down on a toilet seat. “You got two minutes.”

“Close the door, please.”

To her surprise he did so. She got her jeans and underwear down and retrieved her cell phone, then while she peed, she lifted a corner of her blindfold, went to her contacts, and pressed the speed-dial button for Stone’s number. Busy signal. Shit! She texted him: I’m okay but—

The man hammered on the door. “Time up.”

She replaced the phone, got dressed, stood up, adjusted her blindfold, and groped for the doorknob. The door opened, knocking her back onto the toilet. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m not going to scream. Please don’t gag me again, I can’t breathe well through my nose.”

He didn’t, but he retied her hands in front of her and threw her over a shoulder. She was carried a few yards, then up some stairs and dumped into a seat. A safety belt was fastened around her, and a moment later she heard a door being slammed shut. She assumed she was on an airplane. A moment later the airplane began to move slowly. She realized that she was in a hangar, and that the aircraft was being towed outside. She felt warm sun on her face.

An engine whined to a start. A jet, or maybe a turboprop; she knew the difference. Then a second engine. Someone put a headset over her ears, but it didn’t seem connected to anything; she couldn’t hear voices now, but the noise of the engines was muted to a whisper. One of those electronic headsets. She wriggled a bit in her seat. Snug. Not a big airplane like a Gulfstream; she had ridden in her stepfather’s. A smaller airplane, maybe like Stone’s. A Cessna, or a King Air, maybe. Someone plugged the headset into a socket, and she heard classical music: Mozart. It was pleasant.

The airplane began to move again, this time under its own power. It taxied for what seemed a very long time. A big airport? She decided it was a jet, not a turboprop. Less noise. Then it stopped again for some time. Finally it moved and turned and she felt pressed back into her seat with acceleration. The airplane was taking off. After a while it seemed to level off, and she dozed.

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