Free White Cargo by Stuart Woods Page B

uncomfortable with him, knowing what he did about his past. Now, he was giving him ten thousand dollars and Katie’s Mercedes. What the hell, he thought, he could never do this on his own. He needed Bluey Holland, and he would just have to trust him.
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    That night Cat lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and conjured up Jinx’s face, but it was not the face he had most recently seen. It was younger—twelve or thirteen. He could not quite form her image at a later age in his mind. He wondered if, eventually, he would not be able to remember her at all.
    â€œI’m coming, kid,” he said aloud into the darkness. “I’m coming to get you.”

9
    â€œC AT ? B LUEY. I THINK I’ VE FOUND OUR AIRPLANE. ”
    â€œGreat, Bluey. What’s it going to run me?”
    â€œThe neighborhood of seventy-five grand—that’s purchase price—we’re going to need an annual inspection for five hundred to a grand, a loran navigator, and a fuel-flow meter—call that another six grand. Plus, we’ve got some fuel modifications to do south of here; say, a total of ninety grand all found.”
    â€œOkay, that sounds good. Can I have a look at her?”
    â€œSure, I’d want you to. I’m out at—what’s this bloody field called?”
    â€œPeachtree Dekalb?”
    â€œThat’s the one. The airplane’s sitting out in front of the tower. She’s red and white; her tail number is 1 2 3 Tango.”
    Cat laughed. “I like her already. I’ll be there in half an hour.”
    At the airport, Cat parked near the tower and started looking for a light twin-engine airplane with the right tail number, but to no avail. Then Bluey came out of a hangar and pointed. Cat’s eyes came to rest on a single-engine Cessna, and he came to an abrupt halt. “Jesus, Bluey, youwant to fly us over a thousand miles of open ocean in a single? That thing’s not much bigger than the little trainer I’ve been learning in.”
    â€œListen, sport,” Bluey said indulgently, “let me give you a fact or two about airplanes. First of all, the fatality rate for singles and twins is identical. Second of all, if you have an engine failure in a twin, you have a very difficult airplane on your hands. It takes a lot of practice to fly a twin on one engine, and where I’ve been, they didn’t offer that sort of leisure-time activity. And there are certain advantages in fuel efficiency with a single. Flying over water, I’ll take a well-maintained single any day.”
    â€œWell . . .”
    â€œThis is a Cessna 182 RG, RG for retractable gear. It’s one hell of a lot more airplane than the 152 you’ve been training in. She does a hundred and fifty-six knots—that’s a hundred and eighty miles an hour—on about thirteen gallons of fuel an hour, and I can land her or take off in seven hundred and fifty feet of runway. She’ll lift anything we can put in her with full fuel aboard, and not many airplanes will do that. She’s only got four hundred hours on an engine that’s designed to fly two thousand between overhauls, she’s loaded with good equipment, and she’s got long-range tanks. We’re paying about five thousand over market value, but we’re in a hurry, and airplanes this good aren’t easy to come by. Now, if you want to hang around here for two or three more weeks while I find a decent twin and practice flying it on one engine, that’s okay by me, but this is a damned good airplane. What do you want to do?”
    Cat threw up his hands in surrender. “Sold.”
    â€œGood. How quick can you get back here with acashier’s check for seventy-five thousand dollars, made out to Epps Air Service?”
    Cat glanced at his watch. “It’ll have to be tomorrow morning.”
    â€œThat’s good. I’ll