Hurricane Watch

Chapter

Fifteen

KERRY STOOD BACK and watched the group disperse inside the large, ill lit warehouse, scattering out from the door and trying to avoid the tumbleweed size dust bunnies that were rolling languidly across the stained carpet. It smelled like a cross between a dirty shed and a mildewed garage, and Kerry wrinkled her nose in pure reaction.

But at least it was warm, sort of, and not raining inside. Dar was standing in the center of the room, her hands on her hips and her eyes regarding the space they had to work with, and Kerry noticed the rain dripping off her jacket with a frown.

”All right,” the tall, dark haired woman finally said. ”Truck here yet?” She turned to the facility manager. ”Thought I heard the engine outside.”

He nodded. ”Just got here. I’ll have them stack the boxes over there and start unpacking things.”

”Right. There should be racks with them, and a spool of Cat 5,” Dar told him. ”Better start having people make the jumper cables. I’ll work with Telco to get the lines dropped in.”

”Okay.” He rubbed his eyes. ”Damn, wish we had an urn of coffee in here.” He moved off towards a clump of grumpy looking technicians.

Coffee. Dar wished he hadn’t said that. She could feel the day’s exhaustion catching up with her and she had to make a conscious effort to jump start her brain, turning it to the stuff still undone. The cold had stiffened up her muscles as well, and her half healed knee had been aching for hours, since she’d been standing and walking on it. With a sigh, she turned, almost slamming right into Kerry. ”Wh... oh, sorry.”

Kerry pushed a bundle of clothes into her hands. ”Here, go change.

You’re making my teeth chatter.”

Dar put her hands up in reflex and found them filled with warm, dry clothes. ”Whe...um...thanks.” She gave Kerry a grateful smile.

”Where’s yours?”

Kerry showed her the bag slung over her shoulder. ”I’m going to make a quick run out with Ruth.” She indicated the day manager who had called in the staff. ”When I get back, I’ll change. They’re offloading the routers now.”

Dar nodded. ”I know. Okay, I’m going to start getting the T1's punched down.”

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”After you change” Kerry persisted. ”Right?”

A soft chuckle. ”Right.” Dar followed the hastily lettered signs which indicated the rest rooms, and ducked inside the one marked Wo m en , wincing at the smell of rotted grout. ”Oh god.”

She debated holding her breath, then decided passing out would be a bad idea and simply turned her mind to more pleasant thoughts as she quickly stripped out of her soaked clothing. It was almost a sensual experience pulling on the clean, dry denim over her chilled legs, and she quickly tucked the flannel shirt Kerry had retrieved into them, buttoning the jeans closed and tugging on her sweatshirt as well.

”Damn, that feels good,” she commented to the empty room, gathering up her dripping shirt and pants, and draping them over a stall divider, tucking her drenched underthings into the pants pockets.

Then she sat on the edge of a water basin, tugging on a pair of thick, warm socks and her dry sneakers, letting her hands fall as she finished and reveling in the simple pleasure of being warm and dry after so many hours of damp misery.

She wondered briefly how long it would have taken her to do this on her own, feeling a little guilty about having Kerry nudge her into it.

With a sigh, she stood, wishing she’d thought to bring some analgesic for her knee. She gazed at her damp reflection, flicking her fingers through her hair to order it somewhat. ”Drowned rat,” she told the reflection, which looked wryly back at her. ”No wonder everyone thinks you’re nuts.”

She trudged back out into the open warehouse and paused, trying to figure out where to start. Watching the chaos, she shook her head a little. “Roberts, you are nuts.”

“OKAY.” KERRY PEERED out of the windshield. ”We need to find a place to get sandwiches or something for everyone. They must be hungry.” Of course, she had a personal motive for asking, but it seemed much nobler to think of the group first. ”Any 24 hour groceries around here?”

Ruth looked at her. ”You’re joking, right?”

”Come on. We even had one in Saugatuck.” Kerry eyed her. ”Okay, a Seven Eleven, a Wal-Mart, anything?”

”How about a Big Fat Boy’s Eat ‘Em All?” Ruth asked, with a perfectly serious face. ”They’ve got some good pie.”

Kerry held her breath to keep from giggling nervously. ”Oh, okay, sure.”

”And there’s a Stop and Shop, if you want,” the woman added.

”Both,” Kerry nodded firmly. ”Um, the restaurant first. Do they take credit cards?”

Ruth just laughed.

”Okay then, the stop and shop first, maybe they have an ATM.”

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Kerry sighed.

The other woman put the car in gear and headed out, driving the dark back roads for twenty minutes before pulling into a lonely looking, but fairly well lit convenience store. They got out and entered, and Kerry wasn’t surprised to find they were the only patrons.

She went to the obviously brand new ATM, standing in a place of pride near the Slurpee machine and selected her corporate card, swiping it and keying in her ID number. She considered a moment, then entered an amount, idly imagining an electronic gasp from the machine as it thought about her request. Finally it grudgingly gave up the cash, and she tucked her card away, turning around and prowling the aisles thoughtfully.

What a selection. She sighed, going up to the cashier, who was watching her with sleepy eyes. ”May I have a box, please?” The man gave her a puzzled look, but went into a back room and came out with a cardboard carton, which he handed to her wordlessly. ”Thank you.”

Kerry took it over to the shelf and scooped the meager choices of Twinkies and other goods into it.

She stuck to recognizable items, leaving some dubiously packaged sweet rolls behind, and lugged the box up to the front. ”Ring that up, please,” she told the man, before she went to the freezer case and studied it.

A brief grin crossed her lips, and she tugged the case open, retrieving an item and bringing it back to the cashier. ”Okay.” She paid the man, then claimed her box and followed Ruth outside.

”I can’t believe you’re doing this,” the woman commented, opening the trunk for her and watching as she put the box inside.

“Why?” Kerry straightened. “Those people are going to be working all night. They don’t run on batteries.”

“Most people your level just give orders and don’t care,” Ruth said bluntly, as they got back into the car. “And from what I heard about your boss, I didn’t think she did either.”

Kerry leaned her arm against the door and rested her head against her hand. “She cares,” She said, simply. “Way too much sometimes, I think.”

“DID THEY SEND an Ethernet hub?” Dar leaned on the newly assembled racks, and watched as yet another box was unpacked. The musty smell of the warehouse was almost completely overrun with the scent of newly opened electronics, and the worn and dirty carpet was covered with tired looking techs busy making cables and assembling wiring harnesses.

”Yeah, it’s over there.” The man she was addressing pointed without looking up, busy on his task and oblivious to the asker.

Dar didn’t mind. She went over to the box he’d indicated and stuck 200

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her head inside spotting the item she was looking for and tugging it out, pulling it free of the bubble wrap packing and dusting the top off.

”Great.”

She limped over to a hastily set up table and set the box down, pulling a small pocket knife out of her jeans pocket and slitting the tape on the top of the container. Her eyes scanned the device, then she lifted it from its nest of packing and carried it over to the first rack, sliding it into place above the first of the routers and screwing it down. ”There, if the patches are ready, we can start hooking these damn things up.”

”Right,” The facility manager agreed wearily, plugging the hub into power. ”At least they sent surge suppressors, but I’m glad we found those extension cords in the basement here.”

”Mm,” Dar agreed, flipping the switches on the installed routers.

”Oh shit.” She rubbed her temples. ”I need a damn straight through serial cable and 9-pin to program these damn things.”

John cursed softly. ”Christ, all right. Let me see what we have.

Maybe I can have someone wire a piece of Cat 5 in serial.”

Dar leaned against the rack for a moment, then straightened and moved over to where the Telco technicians were screwing down two huge blocks and wiring. ”How’s it going?” she asked, examining the jacks. ”Nice.”

The nearer tech looked up. ”Just about done. Ya got lucky, lady.

This is the only multi jack in this part of the Carolinas. I got no idea how you got inventory to give it up to us.”

Dar's nostrils flared. ”I’d tell you, but I’d have to kill you,” she joked faintly, recalling a twenty minute, top of her lungs, cursing in two languages conversation with a mid-level infrastructure manager at the phone company. ”Can we start plugging in?”

He finished one last screw into the peeling paint on the punch down board. ”Yeah, you got drop cables?” He looked up as Dar lifted a handful of the requested items. ”Oh, right.” He took the handful and started plugging them in while Dar connected the other end to the equipment. ”What time is it, anyhow?”

Dar checked her watch. ”Four thirty.” She winced. ”All right, is the fiber drop in?”

”Almost,” the man remarked, moving towards the door.

Dar finished her task, then she stepped back and regarded the assembly of equipment. ”What a mess.” There were wires everywhere, connecting the routers and the interconnecting hubs, not to mention the power cables running everywhere. Green and red LEDS were beginning to blink on the routers, and she ran a hand through her hair, trying to shove back the exhaustion as she figured out what needed to happen next. Oh. Right. She pulled her cell phone out and dialed.

”MIS,” the voice answered.

”Mark, okay, we've got the...” Dar started.

”Circuits up, yeah, I see them, but they aren’t terminated yet,”

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Mark replied, amidst a rattle of keys. ”Shit, that was fast, Dar. What did you do, coerce the entire phone company?”

Dar sighed. ”We got lucky. There were already terminator blocks in this damn warehouse. They just had to assign the pairs.” She found a box to sit down on and took a deep breath. ”That was the easy part.

Now I have to configure the routers, and get the fiber line in, and hope to god those damn mainframes are still running off the generator, or we’re doing this for shit.”

”You sound beat,” Mark commented quietly.

”Been a long day,” Dar acknowledged, letting her elbows rest on her knees and allowing her eyes to close momentarily. ”Wish I had some...” She stopped talking, and looked up as the smell of fresh coffee hit her nose, and found warm green eyes gazing back at her. ”Oh, are you a sight for sore eyes,” she murmured.

Mark chuckled in her ear. ”Tell Kerry I said hi,” he remarked wryly Kerry handed her the large cup of coffee and took the phone from her. ”Hi Mark, can we call you back?” She waited for the answer, then hung up. ”Sorry it took so long. You have no idea how hard it is to find open places up here at this time of day.” She looked around. ”Wow.”

Dar sucked on her coffee without comment, feeling some life come back into her as the warm, sweet liquid hit her stomach. ”I was about to send out a search party,” she advised her lover. ”We’ve got the circuits up, but...” Dar let a tendril of doubt in. ”Damn, Kerry, I don’t know if we can do this. There’s just so much to get done.” She cast a glance over her shoulder at the half assembled system. ”Maybe I was crazy to try.”

Kerry gazed at her in concern. Dar’s face and arms were covered with smudges of dust and dirt from the equipment, and there were dark circles under her eyes, visible even in the dim light. ”Dar, if you didn’t believe this was going to work you wouldn’t have done it.” She sat down next to her boss. ”I brought back food for everyone, that should help, and I can program the routers, if you give me a chance to change first.”The bloodshot blue eyes lifted and regarded her. ”That’s right. You are Cisco certified, aren’t you?” Dar let a reluctant smile tug her lips.

”Go change. I have them making up cables for the laptops. If we both work on it, we can get enough done so that the other techs can get in and start downloading the routing tables.”

”You got it.” Kerry slung her bag over her shoulders and headed for the rest room, changing quickly and hanging her wet clothing next to Dar’s. She returned to find her boss hunched over a box, studying the screen on her laptop.

The silvery reflection flickered over her tanned features, which shifted as Kerry put her own laptop down next to her. ”Okay.” Kerry smiled as a tech handed her a cable. ”Thanks.” She plugged it in, then ran the other end to one of the routers. ”Oh. I’ll be right back.”

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do this,” she muttered, shoving down her annoyance that they’d been unable to locate the hardware group for the facility, meaning that only she and Kerry really knew how to get in and program the complicated devices. ”It’s been a while.”

The scent of cooked food spread through the room and most of the techs had wandered over to where Kerry had left the boxes, leaving Dar in relative isolation as she puzzled through the software.

The screen started to fuzz out and she stopped after what seemed like the twentieth screen, leaning back and rubbing her eyes, as her back protested against her hunched posture. ”I think that’s it,” she commented to Kerry, who knelt at her side. ”Wh...”

”Open wide,” Kerry instructed, capturing her gaze.

Dar stared, uncomprehending, then hesitantly opened her mouth, startled when a spoonful of cold, chocolate ice cream was deposited into it. She blinked a few times. ”Mm.” She swallowed the rich cream. ”Was that Haagen Daz?”

”Yes,” Kerry informed her, offering up another spoonful. ”And don’t you ask me where I found chocolate Haagen Daz in the middle of backwoods North Carolina, okay?” She watched Dar’s whole attitude perk up, and was convinced if the dark haired woman had possessed a tail, it would have wagged enthusiastically. ”It’s amazing what ice cream does to you, did you know that?”

Dar licked her lips. ”Hey, it beats recreational drugs,” she remarked wryly. ”What did you bring the rest of these guys?”

Kerry glanced over her shoulder. ”The best of Big Fat Boy’s Eat ‘Em All buffet,” she told her boss, taking a spoon of ice cream for herself.

”And a box of Twinkies, Snowballs, Ring Dings, and Mallomars.”

Dar covered her mouth quickly and stifled an almost hysterical laugh. ”Did you get some buffet?” she managed to ask. ”Damn, I thought it was more, uh...”

”You’re joking, right?” Kerry fed her more ice cream. ”I’d like to live to get back to Miami, thanks, and I got the lecture that yes, during the day, it’s much more sophisticated around here, but those places roll up the sidewalks at night, because all the workers go home.”

”Well.” Dar accepted another spoon and chewed it contentedly. ”It was a good idea, though. It might give everyone enough energy to get through the morning.” She paused, and regarded her lover. ”So, no buffet for you?”

Kerry sucked on the spoon. ”Um, no, actually, I...” She made a tiny face. ”I have a weakness for Snowballs,” she admitted, a touch embarrassed. ”That was enough sugar to get me going.”

Dar laughed. ”Ah! I see.” She teased gently. ”Those white ones with the chocolate insides?”

Green eyes batted their golden lashes at her. ”Yeah,” she confessed, a little shamefacedly.

”Wanna share a pack?” Dar inquired, one brow lifting.

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Kerry cleared her throat. ”Oh no, I’m okay. I...” Then she glanced up. ”Well, maybe one.”

Dar grinned, finding the energy to stand up, and stretch. She could feel her own determination returning, and she glanced out over the room, planning her next move.

DAWN BROKE, TURNING the darkness outside to a dull gray as the rain continued. Inside the warehouse it was marked only by a break for coffee, from the multitude of thermos bottles that littered the worktable.

”All right, Mark.” Dar leaned against the wall, crossing her ankles and taking the weight off her knee. ”Can you see them?”

Clicking. ”No. No, wait.” More clicking. ”Ah, yep, there they are.”

Dar closed her eyes in utter relief. ”All of them?”

”Wait, I’m getting Unicenter booted,” the MIS chief muttered.

”Hang on. Hang on, okay, yeah,” he confirmed. ”I’m seeing all the gateways and both backbones.” A beat. ”Wow, tremendous work, boss, that kicks ass.”

Dar let her head rest against the wall. ”I had a lot of help,” she muttered. ”Okay, now I’m going to boot the fiber hub.” She reached over and flipped a switch.

Across the room bodies were slumped on the carpet or leaning against the far walls, and the door kept opening fitfully, letting in cold, damp air.

”I don’t see it,” Mark’s voice cut through her exhaustion.

”Shit.” Dar shoved her body off the wall and examined the piece of equipment. ”I don’t, it’s connected, let me...”

”Did you set the IP?” Mark asked, gently.

Dar thought about it. ”I don’t remember.” She glanced up as Kerry came over. ”Mark sees the backbones and the routers, but not this box.

Did we program it?”

Kerry brought the laptop over and connected it, then ran through a few screens. ”Nope.” She typed in a few commands, then reset the unit.

”Try now.”

Mark clicked a bit, then grunted. ”Got it.” He entered several commands rapidly. ”Needs the secondary table though. Hang on, I’m in there. I can download it from here. Wait, okay.” He sighed. ”Got it, got it. You’re going to have to IPL the mainframes, though.”

Dar and Kerry exchanged glances. ”What?” Dar asked. ”I thought they were up?”

”They are,” Mark said. ”But the ports shut down when you don’t have activity after a certain point. It’s a bug or something. You need to reset them.”

Dar let out an explosive breath. ”Son of a fucking bitch. Mark, we can’t get in there,” she told him. ”Can’t you remote IPL?”

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”Has to be a hardware reset,” the MIS chief responded. ”God, Dar.

I’m sorry. I knew that in the back of my head, I should have told you before. I didn’t realize...”

No. Dar let her head smack against the wall and she cursed softly under her breath.

Kerry chewed her lip in thought, watching her lover anxiously.

”What if we cut the building generator off and on?” she asked suddenly.

”It’s outside.”

Dar stared at her, then dropped the phone onto the fiber rack and took hold of Kerry, kissing her soundly in full view of the room. ”I love you.” She patted Kerry’s cheek, as she headed past her towards the door.Kerry stood rooted in place, stunned beyond speech. She had her back to everyone and could almost feel the eyes beating against the back of her head. Finally, she picked up the cell phone and cleared her throat.

”Um, hi.”

Mark also cleared his throat. ”Hi,” he responded. ”Guess she liked that idea, huh?”

”Uh, yeah.” Kerry winced as she slowly turned, relieved to see most of the techs still passed out and paying no attention to her. There were a handful of bemused faces, though, and she mustered a weak smile for them. ”I just hope it works.”

”Hey, that sure beats Q bucks,” one tech laughed. ”I think I’ll move down to Miami, they got a better bonus plan.” A round of tired laughter followed.

Kerry scrubbed a hand across her reddening face and sighed. ”I’m gonna kill her for that,” she muttered, then glanced up as Dar reentered the building.

”All right folks, we’ve got fifteen minutes, and we’ll know if this has all been worth it,” Dar announced. ”And if it is, or isn’t, I’d like to say thanks to all of you who hung in there. I know we asked a lot.”

A weary silence fell over them and everyone settled in to watch the routers, whose traffic LEDS were dark. Dar walked over to where Kerry was standing and slid down the wall, clasping her hands lightly in front of her.

Waiting.

Kerry sat down next to her and fiddled with the phone, sitting cross legged and resting her elbows on her knees.

Fifteen minutes passed and there was no change in the lights. Dar closed her eyes and let her head drop in defeat, hardly feeling Kerry’s hand on her arm. Of all the times to fail, she had to pick this one. She refused to hear the disappointed murmur that echoed around the ill lit room, as the tired waves finally crashed over her.

”It was a damn good try.” Kerry rested her head against Dar’s shoulder.

”Not good enough,” came the whispered reply.

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Kerry moved closer, accidentally jerking the power plug of the fiber hub from the wall. “Oh, crap.” She shoved it back in with an annoyed grimace. ”For all the good that’ll do,” she muttered, turning her attention to her lover. ”Hey, c’mon, no one could have done any more, Dar.””Hey!” A tinny voice distracted her, and she lifted the phone.

”What is it, Mark? It didn’t work,” Kerry admitted.

”Bullshit. Yes it did!” The MIS chief yelled. ”I’m getting packets!”

Dar’s head jerked up on hearing that and they both stared at the router racks, where LEDS were coming alive in an electronic dance.

”Son of a bitch.”

Yells were now coming from the techs, who were pointing at the routers.

”Wow!” Kerry let out a surprised and delighted laugh. ”I guess it just took a few minutes longer.”

”No.” Dar looked up at the hub over her head. ”You did it. You reset the optics hub.” She grabbed Kerry and hugged her. ”You did it!”

Dumbfounded, Kerry stared at her. ”I did it?” She jerked around and looked at the plug. ”It was an accident!”

”Waaahoo!” Mark yodeled through the phone. ”Infriggingcredible, Dar! Give that woman a kiss for me.”

Blue eyes now alive with mischief fastened on Kerry's face. ”Oh, I think I can do that.” She stood up and pulled Kerry up with her, as a round of tired cheers went up around the room.

”Uh, Dar?” Kerry whispered frantically. ”Um, you know, I love when you kiss me. I really, really do, but um, could we just kinda...” She jerked her head in the direction of the watching technicians. ”I feel like a video game.”

Dar chuckled. ”All right,” she relented, draping an arm over Kerry’s shoulder instead, and walking towards the now excitedly talking group. She took the phone from Kerry. ”So, everything coming online?”

”Oh, yes.” Mark chuckled. ”Oh wait, there’s the hotline, figures, sun just started coming up.” He rustled around. ”MIS Ops, Polenti.” A pause. ”Hmm? Oh, yeah, we’re up, no problem.” Another pause. ”Yep, that too. The whole network’s online.” A longer pause. ”Yeah, I’ve got her on the other line. Wh...ok...I'’ll relay that, thanks.” He hung up.

”Hey Dar?”

”Yeah?” Dar replied, accepting the cries of congratulations from the crowd.

”Alastair said to tell you he slept like a baby,” the MIS chief related.

”He said you’d understand.”

She let a brief, humorless smile cross her face. ”Yeah, I understand,” she replied. ”All right, let me get off this thing. I’m going to make sure this is stable, then go get some sleep.” The thought of a warm bed and snuggling with Kerry was suddenly overwhelmingly 206

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attractive. ”Later.” She hung up and tucked the phone into her pocket.

Fresh staff was entering the building, cautiously peering around the doorframe until they spotted familiar faces. A supervisor was busy making a schedule, and two other new faces were pulling out monitoring consoles from boxes and setting them up. ”We did it,” Dar stated, in a wondering tone. ”I don’t believe it.”

Kerry exhaled. ”We sure did,” she confirmed.

They both looked up as someone called out Dar’s name. A man trotted towards them, pulling up as he reached their sides.

”Ms. Roberts?” he asked. ”There are some people outside. I think it’s the environmental people. They want to see you.”

Dar went very still. ”Same people as last night?” she asked cautiously.

He nodded. ”Yeah, that same doctor, but she said her boss is here, wants to talk to you.” He made a face. ”They were kinda rude about it,”

he added, then turned as someone called him, and moved off.

Kerry looked up at Dar’s face, seeing the confusion and reluctance there. ”You want me to take care of this?” she asked bluntly.

Pale blue eyes flicked to hers. ”Thanks, but, um, I’d better go,” Dar told her heavily. ”You wait here. It shouldn’t take long, since I don’t really care when they clear the other building now, as long as we keep the generators going.”

Kerry didn’t back off. ”Sure you don’t want company?” She had no idea what was spooking Dar so badly, but she was damned if she wasn’t going to find out. ”Two of them, only fair if there are two of us.”

Dar hesitated. ”Her boss and I have a history,” she finally admitted.

”I gathered,” Kerry answered quietly. ”That was the old history, right?”

A nod. ”Yes.”

”Dar, it’s been a really long night. You’re tired, let me go take care of them for you,” Kerry pleaded gently, seeing the stark indecision in Dar's eyes. ”Or at least let me come, too.”

She gave in. ”All right.” Dar ran a hand through her hair. ”Let’s get it over with, I want to get out of here.” She picked up Kerry’s duffel, and slung it over her shoulder. ”We can just go after that.”

They walked out, side by side, into a gray drizzle.

IT WAS ALMOST like her stomach was twisting into knots. Kerry paced alongside her boss, watching the jaw muscles bunch and relax on the side of her face as they moved around to where the networking office was. Two figures were standing under the overhang out of the rain, and Kerry almost felt Dar bristle as she spotted them.

This was potentially very ugly, she realized, studying the two people. One was Dr. Simmonds, she knew. The other, a taller, stockier Hurricane Watch

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woman with sun streaked chestnut hair was standing quietly, watching Dar like a hawk as they approached. Kerry had an immediate, very visceral desire to kick her in the shins, and had to wonder about her newly found physical nature.

”Hey, Dar!” A voice interrupted them, and they stopped, turning to let a jogging figure catch up. It was the Bellsouth regional manager, who held a hand out to Dar as he came up to them. ”Hear it worked, congratulations!”

Dar mustered a smile, and took his hand. ”You made it happen,”

she amiably told him. ”You guys really came through for us, don’t think I’ll forget that.”

They were close enough for the two women to overhear, Kerry realized, and she saw their faces fall. A grin worked its way onto her face. ”Yes, it really was great working with you,” she added, shaking his hand as well. ”Your techs were wonderful. They got us back up with no problem.” She made sure her voice was a little louder than necessary.

”Well, thanks.” he grinned. ”Can I treat you ladies to an old fashioned country breakfast?”

Dar regretfully declined. ”We’ve got things to take care of, but thanks for the offer.” She nodded towards the waiting women. ”I think the scientists have something to tell us.”

”Right, well, you take care.” He waved, then trotted off, hailing one of the techs nearby.

”You know, Dar, ” Kerry fell into step beside her as they resumed their stroll. ”If I didn’t know better. I’d say those people were disappointed to hear things worked out.” Her eyes flicked to their targets.

”Mm,” Dar murmured. ”You could be right.” She swallowed to get the cotton out of her mouth, and tried to ignore the pounding of her heartbeat, very aware of Shari’s eyes on her. She summoned her coldest, fiercest outer persona, and wrestled it into place.

”Dar?” Kerry's voice dropped to a low murmur.

”Hmm?” She ducked her head a little, nervously clenching and unclenching her fists.

”I love you.”

Dar blinked, then looked up as they came even with the two women. Shari who? ”You needed to speak with me?” she asked amiably, feeling the dread fall away, nudged aside by the living, breathing acknowledgement that Shari had been wrong, all those years ago. Her eyes met her old lover’s, and she gave her a small nod of acknowledgement. ”Hello, Shari.”

”Dar,” the woman answered, in a low, musical voice. Her eyes flicked to Kerry’s face, then an eyebrow rose.

”Sorry.” Dar felt a smile edging her lips. ”This is my associate, Kerrison Stuart. Kerry, this is Shari Englewood. ”

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”Pleased to meet you,” Kerry responded politely, extending a hand, and returning the firm grip with one of her own.

An awkward silence fell. ”Would you two please excuse us,” Shari finally said. ”I’d like to speak with Ms. Roberts in private.”

Dr. Simmonds ducked away immediately, seemingly glad to get out of the situation, but Kerry paused for a long moment, gazing at the chestnut haired woman steadily before she took the duffle from Dar and gave her boss a quick grin. ”See you at the car.”

Dar half turned her face, and winked at her. ”Won’t be long.” She watched Kerry stride off towards the vehicle, ducking her head against the still falling rain. Then she turned back and folded her arms over her chest.And waited. The cool gray eyes studied her, and she returned the look without flinching, keeping her expression noncommittal. Shari hadn’t changed much, save that she’d gotten a bit heavier, and her face had taken on a colder, more predatory expression. She was, Dar acknowledged, still very attractive, and the look of those familiar eyes brought up old and painful memories she tried to shove back down.

”You haven’t changed much,” Shari finally said. ”You still running around doing their dirty work?”

Dar refused to take offense. ”Sure,” she drawled. ”Only now they pay me more to do it, and I’ve got an office in the penthouse.” It gave her quite a bit of satisfaction to say that, and a tiny smirk caught the edge of her lip as the jibe registered. ”And incidentally, if the chemical team finds no trace of your dangerous substance, you’ll find the bill for this sitting on your desk.”

”Oh, they’ll find it,” she responded. ”I wouldn’t have bothered making that up. I was just so happy to hear it was going to screw you up, that I had to come see for myself.” Her eyes wandered over Dar’s body. ”But you pulled the fucking rabbit out of your ass again, didn’t you?” She snorted. ”That sucks, Dar. I should have come over last night, when Anne told me you were tearing your hair out.”

”Sorry to disappoint you,” Dar replied. ”Now, unless you actually have something to say, I have a Jacuzzi and a nice warm bed waiting.”

She let a frank grin shape her lips, watching the minute reaction in Shari’s pale eyes.

A tiny shake of her head followed. ”I’d forgotten how different you look when you smile,” the other woman mused. ”You going to be in town long, Dar?”

Uh oh. ”Just until tonight, then I’m heading up into the mountains for a few days,” she replied, cautiously. ”Why?”

A shrug. ”Thought maybe we could just sit down and talk for a few minutes.” She paused. ”You seeing anyone?”

Dar could hardly believe what she was hearing, and she felt a cool anger start to brew. ”Yes,” she answered quietly. ”Despite your prediction.”

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A soft snort. ”I’d love to meet her?” she wrinkled her nose in question.

Dar caught her balance. ”You just did,” she answered mildly.

”Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to be going.” She gave Shari a nod, then turned and started back towards the car.

”I hope she knows what she’s getting into,” Shari yelled after her.

Dar stopped, and turned. ”You were right about something.” She gazed at her through the icy drizzle. ”I had no idea what love was.” She watched in savage satisfaction as the comment was understood, then she turned her back and walked off.