Stoneface (1991)

Edward R. Jones's thriller, published by Donald I. Fine in 1991 and subtitled an Allen Cage novel, follows the ex-convict turned security consultant Allen Cage. Business partners Ben Hollister and John Malone have discovered a coating that promises to transform the microchip industry, and Freeman "Stoneface" McKee, the bully of their Texas schooldays and now a killer and extortionist, has caught up with them; Cage is hired to make him stop. (Open Library)

Watches

Timex Ironman: With Caprita Arciaga in serious trouble, Cage prepares to face McKee. At Banes and Twiford, the security firm where he works, Larry Twiford answers Cage's worry that McKee will check him for a body wire: Paul Banes has fitted a transmitter into the shell of a Timex, with a signal booster good for about two miles depending on the terrain. Twiford takes it from a small leather case, an innocent-looking Timex Ironman with a Velcro band. Cage wears it on a stakeout, reading the time off the dashboard clock because the watch is waiting to be activated (p. 181), and comes to in a car trunk with his hands tied and the Timex gone from his wrist (p. 193). The text names the Ironman line and no reference.

Source text: Larry opened a small leather case and removed an innocent-looking Timex Ironman wristwatch with a Velcro band. He handed it to Cage. (Edward R. Jones, Stoneface, scan cataloged as Donald I. Fine, 1991, p. 156; Internet Archive scan OCR)