“That’s it.” Kerry slapped her hand on the counter. “I’m out of here.” She looked up expectantly. “How much?”
The clerk glanced at her, then up at Dar. “Um…” She cleared her throat.
“I took care of it,” Dar said quietly. “You were too busy squealing.”
Kerry put her hands on her hips and looked first at the clerk, then at Dar.
“I
will
get you for that,” she warned, then shook her head. “Thank you,” she added, picking up the bags. “Now, let’s get out of here before you start telling me they feed the parrots live mice.” She stalked out, leaving Dar to exchange amused looks with the clerk, and pick up her own purchases. Dar strolled out after her, feeling quite pleased with herself—for several reasons.
IT WAS CLOUDING over by the time they got back to Kerry’s apartment, and Dar tipped her dark head back to regard the clouds as they walked towards the door. “Looks like a front’s coming through.” The wind rose and whipped their hair around them. “Good thing we’re not out on the water, this could get nasty.”
“Brr.” Kerry hopped up on the sidewalk. “I must be getting used to the warmth down here, that wind feels cool.”
Dar only barely kept herself from wrapping a friendly arm around the smaller woman.
Jesus, Dar.
she admonished herself.
What the hell happened to
the ‘I don’t like to be touched’ person you used to be? All it takes is one five-foot-four-inch blonde with pretty eyes to turn you into a huge, dripping pile of mush?
“Yeah,”
she commented simply.
“Well…” Kerry keyed in her new code and opened the door, standing back to let Dar enter. “I, um…” Suddenly, she didn’t want Dar to go home.
“Hey, I picked up some stuff the other night, to try a new recipe. You game?”
There was so much she had to do at home, Dar reflected. Work lists and projects she had to take care of. She could see the imperfectly hidden hopefulness in Kerry’s eyes, though, and she smiled inwardly. “I’d love to, but I’ve got to log in and take care of some stuff.”
Kerry smiled happily. “Computer’s all yours. I’ll get the fish put away.”
She gestured toward her desk, and moved past it to put the packages down on the dining room table. “Listen, I picked up a copy of the
X-files
movie. We could watch that afterward.”
Dar settled into the comfortable desk chair and flipped the computer on, cracking her knuckles lightly. It felt good to be part of someone else’s plans for a change. “Hmm, I’d like that.” She waited for the connection to complete, then logged in and set her mail to downloading while she started up a session with the mainframe. “Oh, crap.” She reviewed an Urgent Notify. “Ouch.”
Kerry finished tucking the containers of fish into the tank without opening them, allowing the temperatures to equalize, then she wandered over
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and peered at the screen. “What’s wrong?”
“Damned airline tried to backup its print servers…and blew one.” Dar sighed. “All of domestic printing is down for them.”
“What does that mean?” Kerry asked curiously.
“You ever check in at an airline counter?” Dar asked as she flicked through the report.
“Sure.” Kerry laughed. “A lot of times. Why?”
“You ever need a boarding pass?”
“Yeah.”
“You ever need your bags tagged?”
“Sure.”
“You see all those lists the stews check passengers off on?”
“Um…”
“Ever had to buy a ticket at the counter?”
“I’m getting a clue here, Dar.” Kerry patted her shoulder. “What do they do if this stuff’s down?”
“Hand write everything.”
Kerry blinked. “Oh my god, I’m glad I’m not at Newark.”
Dar turned her head and gently kissed the hand resting on her shoulder.
“Me too. It’s going to be a lousy night to fly.”
Mushball.
The hand lifted and caressed her cheek. “This close to the holidays, too.”
“Can you do anything?” Kerry asked, enjoying the feel of her soft skin.
About what?
Dar wondered.
Oh, right. The printers.
“Well, it’s their server.
We just carry the data.”
“They don’t have a backup?” Kerry asked. “Where are those servers?”
“Charlotte. They maintain them long distance.” Dar leaned back against her.
“Do we have a backup we can lend them?”
Dar crossed her arms and thought. “Hmm. Damn thing’s a beast box—
quad Pentium II, hundred twenty eight megs of ram. They have a RAID five array on the thing, and normally they’d just plug the array into the backup box. But they upgraded the operating system on the primary and hadn’t gotten around to doing the backup yet. And, they have different controller cards.”
“Not supported?” Kerry winced.
“Nope. They’d need a duplicate of their existing box.” She closed her eyes and concentrated. “Let me think.”
Kerry obliged, massaging her neck lightly with a gentle touch. “When we were doing the Disney project, I thought we had some pretty powerful resources up there—those Alpha boxes I was plugging into, for instance.”
Dar cocked her head. “I wonder…” She reached over and typed a request in the database. “No, those are dual processor, but… Wait a minute.” She drummed her fingers on the desk, then unclipped her cell phone from her belt and dialed a number. “Brent? Dar Roberts.” She glanced at the screen. “Listen, you’ve got a backup server we use for the Sprint account, right?”
“Well, yes, ma’am, we do,” the man answered hesitantly. “Haven’t used it in forever, but it’s still back there.”
“Good. Dust it off and get it over to the server room,” Dar told him.
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Melissa Good
“Disconnect it from their backup lines, under my authority.”
“Okay.” The man was more than happy to comply.
Dar hung up and dialed again. “Isis? Dar Roberts here. I understand you’ve got a little problem.”
“A little problem?” The woman’s voice was clearly incredulous. “I don’t have a single printer working in all of the continental United States. That’s not a problem, that’s a high-order cluster, Dar.”
“What’s the prognosis?” the tall executive asked, circling the listening Kerry with one arm.
“Don’t ask. They’re trying to build a duplicate, but it’s going to take HP
about six hours to fly the controller board out there from Washington State.”
The woman sighed.
“What’s a ten-minute uptime worth to you?” Dar drawled.
“If you’re joking, Dar, I’m going to fly to damn Miami and punch you,”
Isis replied. “What’s it worth? My undying gratitude.”
“I have a backup server set up in Charlotte, you’ll just have to plug in your array. It’s got the same architecture as your old one.”
“God bless you, Dar. Goodbye, Dar.” The woman spoke rapidly and hung up.
Dar chuckled, then turned to her companion. “Very good idea, Kerry, thank you.” She gazed fondly at her. “The traveling public thanks you.”
Kerry grinned. “Hey, I do my best.” She gave Dar a quick hug then went back to the fish, setting up Dar’s tanklet while her boss continued to check her mail. The fighting fish were swimming in their little bags, watching her suspiciously. She waved at them as she cleaned out the tank, and filled it with fresh water. “You think this stuff will make the water okay?” She held up the container of bacteria they’d gotten.
“Hmm?” Dar turned around and peered at her. “You’re asking me?” She chuckled softly. “I think it’ll be okay. The guy said they’re pretty sturdy fish.”
She turned back, hesitating before she opened up the file Mark had sent her. It was a complete, a very complete, outline on Kyle Lewis. “Did you know Kyle was discharged with prejudice from the Marines?”
Kerry looked up with a start. “Oh, I forgot you did that. Um, yeah, I did.
He really resented that, but I never knew why. He just used to tell people he’d been set up.” She put the top on Dar’s fish, and smiled at them. “There you go.”
The two fish explored their new home suspiciously, immediately heading for the twinned bridge where they could keep an eye on each other. Kerry wandered over to where Dar was sitting again and perched on the corner of the desk. “Yeah, that’s him.”
The picture Mark had included was of a handsome, sharply featured man with silvered hair and direct, intelligent hazel eyes. Dar glanced over his record, then flicked her eyes to Kerry’s face, which was cool and expressionless. “He was in charge of a training exercise that went bad—six men died and three were wounded.”
Kerry nodded a little. “You think he was framed? That’s what he says.”
A shake of her head. “I don’t know. Based on the report, it seems pretty cut and dried. He told the group to go ahead into an area that had been
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blocked off as off limits due to a live mining exercise,” Dar said softly. “Two of the three injured had their legs blown off.”
The blonde remained silent, then they both looked up at a tap on the door. “You expecting someone?” Dar asked quietly.
“Colleen’s out shopping, she thought I wasn’t going to be here today,”
Kerry answered, just as quietly, as she moved across the carpet and peered out the security hole. Her eyes widened. “It’s Kyle,” she mouthed back to Dar.
Another tap. Dar motioned her back and she came to her side.
“Tell him you’ll be right there,” Dar whispered.
Kerry licked her lips, her heart pounding in reaction to seeing Kyle’s face.
“Coming!” she called out. “Hold on.”
Dar had closed out her sessions, and now she took Kerry by the shoulders. “All right, just take it easy. I’ll duck behind the door there, and you just let him in and pretend nothing happened last night.”
Kerry sucked in a breath. “I think I can do that.” She nodded. “He’s probably here to take notes and report back.”
“Probably. You keep calm. I’ll be right here. Trust me, Kerry, if he touches you…” Dar left the threat unfinished.
The blonde woman kissed her lightly. “My hero,” she said with quiet insistence. “Okay, you go hide, let me let the slimeball in.” Dar’s presence gave her courage, and she watched her companion tuck herself away behind the bathroom door while she padded over to the front door, taking a deep breath, then pulling it open.
Hazel eyes immediately fastened on her, running over her as though she were a racehorse. Kerry stiffened in pure reflex. “Oh, hello, Kyle. I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I bet.” He smiled at her. “Can I come in?”
“Sure.” Kerry stepped back and watched him enter, getting a whiff of his distinctive cologne as he passed. He was dressed in a sport coat and slacks and was impeccable as usual. “What brings you to Miami?”
“Oh, this and that for your father—as usual.” He turned full circle, regarding the room with a slightly puzzled air. “I thought I’d stop in and see how you were doing.” Now his eyes came to rest on her. “You’re looking good. Put on a little weight, though, haven’t you?” Another smile. “Your mother will be devastated.”
Kerry perched on the corner of the couch, very aware of the silent presence at her back. “Actually, I feel better than I have in a long time. I think I was a little too thin before.” She met his eyes unflinchingly.
“Tch. Not according to your mother.” He shook his head. “You don’t want to disappoint her, Kerry, you know how important appearances are to her.” It was funny, Kerry thought. Not a sound came from Dar, but she could swear she could hear the taller woman’s teeth grinding together. Hers were.
“Well, she’ll just have to live with it, I guess. I leave on Wednesday.”
“Oh yes, I heard you told her you were thinking of staying.” Kyle looked around again. “Nice place, can’t say I blame you.” He looked back at her.
“Now, you know that’s not going to happen, right?” His voice was friendly and sweet. “It’s time you came home and settled down, Kerry. They’ve 366
Melissa Good
planned the wedding for April.”
Kerry looked right at him. “That’s a matter between me and my parents, Kyle,” she stated softly. “So I guess I’ll be talking to them about it next week.”
Kyle came up to her suddenly and frighteningly fast. “You’re going to be a good girl, aren’t you?” he asked softly. “You’re not going to get your father upset now, hmm?”
Kerry swallowed, feeling a lifetime of concession laying on her like a blanket. “I hope not, but as I said, that’s between them and me.” She deliberately remained seated, her arms crossed on her chest. His eyes bored into hers, and Kerry knew if Dar hadn’t been there, she would have been in a lot of trouble.
A fingertip found her chin. “Be good,” he warned softly. “I don’t like having to deal with your father when he’s upset. It makes me…anxious.”
Kerry looked past his eyes and up, and found herself staring into a pair of pale blue chips of ice, framed by a set, furious face so close behind Kyle, it was a wonder he didn’t hear her breathing. “Kyle, go home,” she said quietly. “I’m not a kid anymore, and you’re not my keeper.”
He breathed on her for a moment, hesitant. “Now I know you’re going to have to come home. This place isn’t good for you, Kerry.” He reached out to grip her jaw in a sudden, savage move.
It never completed, as he found his wrist held by long, powerful fingers.
Slowly, he turned his head and found his eyes captured by incredibly blue ones in the face of a stranger. “Who the fuck are you?”
Dar smiled, with a total lack of humor. “A friend.” She released his hand, then moved a step closer to Kerry. “Who doesn’t like to see other friends being manhandled.”
“Lady, I don’t know who in the hell you are, but you’d do better for yourself to keep out of my business,” Kyle told her. “Got me?” His voice dropped in menace.
“You know, my father had a name for people like you,” Dar replied in a conversational tone. “But you probably don’t want to hear what it was.” She gave him an amused look, very obviously not intimidated by his threat.
He studied her. “Oh, let me see here, are you Kerry’s…
special
friend?”
His mouth twisted into a sneer.
“No, I’m far worse than that,” Dar responded with a smile. “I’m her boss.” She handed him her business card. “Here, make sure you spell the name right.” She moved a step closer to him. “Now, are you done threatening, browbeating, and insulting my employee?”