Stuart Woods - Swimming To Catalina

“You’re sure you can do this, Stone? I mean really confident?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I’ve got something like two hundred hours in this airplane.”

“This same one?”

“Several just like it.” He pulled onto the runup pad at the end of the runway, revved up to 3,000 rpms, checked the magnetos, the oil pressure, and the temperatures, then called the tower. “Ready for takeoff on Twenty-one, VFR departure to the west.”

“Cleared for takeoff,” the tower controller replied.

Stone taxied onto the runway, eased the throttle all the way forward, and released the brakes. They were off the ground in less than a thousand feet.

“Where are we?” Dino asked.

“Open your eyes, and you’ll see,” Stone replied.

They were crossing the beach now, and they could see the dim outline of Santa Catalina Island in the smoggy distance.

“That’s where we’re going,” Stone said. He leveled off at a thousand feet. “Watch for other airplanes; we don’t want a collision.”

“Acollision?” Dino cried.

“Help me avoid one, okay?” He consulted the chart to stay well out of the Class B airspace surrounding LAX. “Down there is Marina Del Rey, where I’ve been spending a lot of time lately.” He dipped a wing so that Dino could see out the left side of the airplane.

“Don’tdo that,” Dino said through gritted teeth.

Stone pointed out another light airplane off the coast and made a course adjustment to avoid it. “That’s what I was talking about,” he said. “Watch for more.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Dino replied.

They flew along for ten minutes without speaking while Catalina grew larger in the windshield. Stone pointed again and put the nose of the airplane down. “Look at that,” he said.

“The big boat?”

“Let’s get a closer look.” He descended to five hundred feet and flew past the yacht on a parallel course.

“Her name isContessa, ” Dino said.

“That’s the one we’re looking for; she’s on her way back from Marina Del Rey to her mooring off Catalina.” The yacht was slowing now as she approached the anchorage, and Stone circled. “See all those little things floating in the water? Those are empty moorings. They’ll be full this weekend, so tonight is a better time for us to go.” The yacht slowed, and a man in a small boat drove up to her mooring and tossed a rope onto her decks, where it was received by another crew member.

“Two aboard,” Stone said. “One at the helm.” As they watched, the man in the small boat turned toward the harbor and went away. “The skipper told me he could run her with a mate when the owner isn’t aboard.”

“Well, it’s a very nice boat,” Dino said. “Can we go back to land now?”

“Look at the anchorage; I want you to have a good idea of where we’re going when we come back here.”

“Yeah, yeah, I see it, now let’s get back to land, okay?”

“There’s a life jacket in the back seat, in case we have to put down in the water.”

“Just shut up and get me back to land,” Dino said.

“All right, we’re done. Aren’t you enjoying the flight?” They hit a patch of bumpy air, and Dino clung to his seat.

“Not much,” he said. “Get me out of here.”

Stone turned back toward Santa Monica and tuned in the recorded weather information. When they were ten miles out, he called the tower. “I’m a 172 approaching from Catalina for landing; I have information bravo.”

The tower came back. “Enter a left downwind for Twenty-one; you’re number three for landing after a 182 and a Citation.”

Stone entered the traffic pattern as the other Cessna landed. “I have the Citation,” he said to the tower.

“Keep the Citation in sight, cleared for landing.”

“Jesus, will you look at this city,” Dino said, at last seeming to appreciate the view.

“Yeah. There’s LAX, where you landed, right over there; the tall buildings are downtown L.A., and over there on that hill you can see oil wells.”

“They have oil wells in a city?”

“I think the oil wells were there first,” Stone said, “and nobody’s going to shut them down until they’re dry.” He turned at right angles to the runway, then turned onto final approach.

Dino was finally taking an interest in the flight. “You found the airport,” he said.

“It’s easy, when you’ve got all these instruments.”

“And there’s the runway right in front of us.”

“Where it’s supposed to be.”

“Look at all the cars; they look like hamsters.”

They flew across the road at the edge of the airport, and Stone set the airplane down lightly and taxied off the runway. A moment later they were stopped in front of the hangar, and he shut down the engine.

“Hey, that was fun!” Dino said. “Let’s do it again sometime.”

Stone burst out laughing. “Come on, let’s call Rick and see about that boat.”

Late in the afternoon, Stone took Dino shopping. They went to the chandlery at Marina Del Rey and bought two sets of sailing waterproofs in dark blue, a large roll of duct tape, two heavy, rubber-encased flashlights, and a set of socket wrenches. Stone also bought a large-scale chart of the area, laminated in plastic.

“What’s all this stuff for?” Dino asked.

“It will be easier to show you than to tell you,” Stone said.

They arrived at Rick Grant’s house at eight. Rick got them a drink, then led them into the back yard, where Barbara Tierney was grilling steaks.

“She cancook?” Stone asked.

“Isn’t it amazing?” Rick said. “I’m gaining weight since she got here.”

Dino went over and introduced himself to the beautiful woman, then they all sat down at the table.

Rick handed Stone a set of keys and gave him a berth number at the Long Beach marina. “It belongs to my ex-brother-in-law,” he said. “It’s a big Boston Whaler with two one-hundred-horsepower outboard engines and a lot of gear.”

“Sounds ideal,” Stone said.

“He wants five hundred for the night.”

Fair enough. Stone peeled off the money.

“I don’t want to know the details, either before or after,” Rick said.

“We will preserve you in your ignorance,” Stone laughed. “Before and after.”

“What, exactly, have you got in mind, Stone?” Dino asked.

“Didn’t you just hear Rick say he doesn’t want to know?”

“Yeah, but…”

“I’ll tell you later.”

Barbara set plates of spinach salad on the table, and the three men began to eat.

“Let’s talk about general strategy,” Rick said. “What’s your plan?”

“Beyond tonight, I don’t have much of a plan,” Stone said. “I’m just trying to shake them up, to let them know that they’re notentirely in charge, cost them some money. If I can do that, then maybe they’ll start to make mistakes that we can capitalize on.”

“Won’t they think Calder is behind this?”

“He knows nothing, and he’s a very fine actor, remember? He’ll convince them of his ignorance.”

“What if they hurt the girl?”

“They don’t have any way to relate what I’m doing to Arrington. They’re just having a run of very bad luck, and the only thing they can assign to it is what Dino said to Sturmack on the phone.”

“What did you say, Dino?”

“I said that Stone was getting them from the grave,” Dino grinned.

Rick laughed a lot. “Well, you’re right, they’re certainly having a run of bad luck. They’ve had an expensive motorboat sunk, two of them have been arrested-what next? They must be wondering.”

“I’m not going to keep them in suspense,” Stone said.