Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series

Chapter Eight

"ALL RIGHT, LADY. I don't know what you think the rules are here, but let me let you in on a little secret." The biggest of the port security men addressed Dar. "You don't own this place. We do. So step aside and let this guy do his job, okay?"

Dar didn't budge. "No." She stated flatly. "I don't own this place, but I own this gear, and you're not touching it."

"We are going to touch it, and you're going to just move aside and let us." The security chief stepped toward the equipment in question, clearly expecting both Dar and Kerry to move aside. Cheryl was already standing near the wall away from them, and the security guard from ILS was behind them.

"Kiss my ass." Dar suggested. "And make sure your lawyer's on speed dial."

The security officers shifted and looked at their leader. Dar was standing in front of the equipment rack, leaning against it in fact, and showed no signs of moving. Kerry was standing next to her, also clearly challenging their authority with her hands balled into fists and planted on her hips.

"C'mon, we need to get this done." The port technician said.

"I don't really see what your point is." Kerry said. "There's no attack coming from here."

"Not according to this." The tech held up a sheaf of papers. "There's a probe coming from this location, and frankly, I don't give a shit what you think my point is. I think we should call the cops and just have you thrown out and shut down. This is a security area."

"Is that what you want, lady?" The security chief asked Dar, as he stopped within reach of her. "Why not just move, make it easy for all of us?" He suggested. "Because the fact is, this is government area, and I can throw your asses out of here if I want to."

"You can try." Dar warned, in a soft voice.

"Excuse me." Kerry finally felt her interjection would be appropriate. "I tell you what. We'll let you look at our equipment..."

Dar gave her an outraged look. "Kerrison."

Kerry reached out without looking and put a hand on her partner?s back. "If you can explain to me how it can be affecting your systems when there are no wires connecting us to you?" Kerry finished.

The security officials turned and looked at the technicians.

"Can you explain that?" Kerry gave Dar's back a little scratch, feeling the shift as her partner relaxed a trifle.

The security chief turned to the port tech. "Can you?"

"Sure they'd say there's no connection." The port tech laughed.

"They're not stupid." He held up the papers. "This trace shows it as coming from this location. Can you explain that?"

Kerry stepped forward and reached out for the papers. "Let me see them."

"No way." The tech jerked them back.

The security officer turned to Kerry. "Can't you just let him look?" He asked. "It's almost quitting time, lady. I don't want to be filling out paperwork all night, y'know?"

"No." Dar reasserted herself. "This is a secure network. Nothing goes on it that isn't our hardware."

"Okay, then you're admitting to hacking us. That's pretty clear. So get them out of here, and let's do what we need to do," the tech said. "We're wasting time."

"Our time," Dar said. "But if you throw us out of this room, you'll be wasting more than that. Your boss better be ready for a very expensive lesson." Instead of standing back, she now advanced on both the tech and the security guy. "And your boss, if you decide to put a finger on anyone." She warned the bigger man. "Because I don't give a damn what rules and what regulations this damn piss poor port runs under, I guarantee if I go high enough up in the chain around here, someone's going to get FIRED." Her voice rose with each word until the last one was a shouted bark. "Now get the hell out of here!"

Kerry planted herself squarely behind her partner, her heart beating fast as she hoped the men would back off. Not that she doubted Dar's threats were real--after all, she knew darn well they were in the right--but the men looked like they were used to getting their way, and she didn't want to see Dar hurt.

"Wall." A new voice interrupted the chaos briefly. The men turned as Andrew slipped into the room, ducking around the desk to end up next to Dar. "What's all the hollering about, Dardar?"

Kerry relaxed against the rack, reassured now they weren't going to get bruised in any way. The ILS security guard, apparently emboldened by the new arrival, also came around the desk and stood facing the bad guys as well.

Cheryl slipped around and came up next to her, wide eyed. "Jesus." She whispered. "What in the heck's going on around here?"

Good question. Kerry observed the bristling antagonism in the room, and felt compelled to try and circumvent it again, though her first attempt had been a dismal failure. "Okay, folks." She edged around Andrew's bulk and got in front of him. "Tell you what. This is going nowhere. How about you show me what makes you think anything's coming from here, and if it's our stuff, we'll let you look at this end."

Dar actually growled, low and deep in her throat. Kerry decided to pretend she didn't hear it, and waited for the technician to answer. "It's the best deal you'll get. Otherwise, I think we're really talking police here, because without seeing that, I agree with Dar. You're not getting access to our corporate systems. No way."

The security chief decided to take control now. "Give me that." He reached over and grabbed the papers from the tech, who squawked in protest. Shuffling them, he handed them over to Kerry, holding out a hand to stop the tech from advancing. "Stop it. I'm not missing my beer because of you."

Kerry glanced at the trace, her eyes flicking over the details as she moved closer to Dar. "Here." Dar put a hand on her shoulder and read the page as well. "What do you think?"

Dar's brow creased. The trace without a doubt contained one of their addresses, but...she leaned closer. "That's not our router." She indicated the resolved name. "Someone's spoofing us."

"Oh, sure."

"It's an MCI router." Kerry told him. "The building's lit with Bellsouth. You should know that."

The tech grabbed the paper back and looked at it. "No way."

Dar shifted her position and now leaned her arm on Kerry's shoulder. "Sorry. She's right."

"Someone making trouble for you all?" Andy asked his eyes fastened on the techs.

"Shit." The tech put a fingertip on the paper. "That's the damn Seaport center router."

The other tech looked at it then silently shook his head, his expression altering to glum.

"You couldn't have checked that before you dragged our asses over here?" One of the other security men asked. "That lady spotted it in a half second."

"I wasn't looking at that, I..." The first tech was turning red. "We just ran a check on that IP and it was assigned to them." He pointed at Dar. "And they just put up an office here. What would you think?"

The security chief now appeared impatient and bored, rather than impatient and menacing. "Okay, so it's not them. Let's get out of here, and you can figure out who it is, right?" He edged away from Dar. "Sorry about that, but you know security's a touchy subject around here. We got a lot of merchandise going through the port."

"Uh huh." Dar snorted. She reached over and grabbed the papers back. "Give me that. I've got a lot better chance of finding the damn pirate than you do." Inside, she was rattled. Seeing their own IP structure in the trace had made her heart race just long enough to make her lightheaded before she realized the source wasn't inside their network.

Someone was taking a lot of time and effort to cause trouble, all right. Question was, who? Was it hackers still trying to embarrass her, or... Well, hell, what were the chances some hacker would pick this particular target?

"You can't have that, it's restricted information." The tech protested.

"Yeah, well, she sure looks like she can do more with it than you can, buddy. Move." The security chief knew when to cut his losses. "Next time you call us, try to have your act together, huh?" He and his men herded the techs out of the office. "Sorry again."

"Jerks." The second security guard muttered, shaking his head. "Get us all tangled up for no reason."

Dar folded the paper in her hand in half, sharpening the crease with intense, precise motions. She waited for the men to leave and disappear around the corner before she half turned to look at the rest of the people in the room. "Hi, Dad," she murmured. "Was I yelling loud enough for you to hear me outside?"

"Naw." Andy retrieved his cell phone and held it up. "Kumquat sent me a note thing."

Kerry sat down on the edge of the desk. "What the heck was that?" She looked up at Dar. "Can you trace it from those notes?"

"I don't know." Dar half shrugged. "But I guess I'll find out." She added, "I'm sure someone was trying to make it look like we're doing something wrong."

Kerry's eyes darkened. "Oh, I can't imagine anyone would want to do that," she replied sarcastically. "But Dar, who says they won't try it again? This location's so vulnerable."

Cheryl sidled up, with a worried look on her face. "She's right about that." She gave the security guard an apologetic look. "No offense, Charles, but you wouldn't have stopped those guys if they'd charged in here."

The guard didn't look embarrassed. "No, ma'am." He agreed. "But I would have called the police. We're not bouncers." He looked at Dar and Kerry. "Ah, not that?"

"Why not? I've got a black eye. Maybe we moonlight." Kerry remarked dryly.

Andrew chuckled under his breath. Dar gave him a look, then folded the paper into quarters and stuck it in her back pocket. She walked past them to the rack, circling it as she considered her options.

The box on the wall was connected to their gear by a set of conduits running through the drop ceiling.

Dar walked over and grabbed a chair, dragging it behind her until it was behind the rack. She climbed up onto it and punched the ceiling panel up, shoving it up and into the framing as she stuck her head up into the dark space.

The rest of the room's occupants looked at each other. Cheryl gave Kerry a slight shrug, and then she went back to her desk and sat down. The security guard sidled back out to his station in the hallway, leaving Kerry and Andrew standing in the center of the space.

"Long as there ain't no more hollering, I'm going to get back to mah work." Andrew said. "Them fellers don't much like when folks wander off."

"Thanks for coming over Dad," Kerry told him. "I just wasn't sure what was going to happen."

"No problem, kumquat." Andy told her. "You find anything up there, Dar?"

"Dust bunnies with fangs." Dar sneezed. "Thanks for asking," She looked down for a moment, "and thanks for coming over to make sure we weren't in trouble."

Andrew patted her leg. "No problem, squirt. See y'all later." He headed for the door, giving Cheryl a brief nod as he passed her. "Lo."

"Hi." The office worker waggled her fingers at him. "Bye." She waited for Andrew's tall form to disappear beyond the door before she looked at Kerry in question, her brows lifting. "Dad?"

Kerry nodded. "Hers, not mine unfortunately." She pointed at Dar. "He's doing some work on one of the other ships."

Cheryl peered at the now empty door. "Is he working for them?" She indicated the next pier.

"He's working for us."

"Ahhhh." The office manager smiled, giving Kerry thumbs up. "Nice."

Dar put her head back up into the ceiling, her eyes tracing the conduit. It moved in an unbroken curve from where it dropped down to her rack, up through the drop panel, bracketed to the concrete true ceiling, and dropped back down through the panel to the box on the wall.

No taps, no junction boxes. Dar felt better. She tugged the ceiling panel back into place, then pulled her way along the drop ceiling as she balanced on the chair, it's wheels squeaking in protest.

"Dar!" Kerry popped up off the desk and grabbed hold of the chair back as it threatened to squirt out from under Dar. "Careful!"

"Ah, with any luck, I'll fall on my head." Dar now carefully examined the box on the wall, unlatching it and swinging it open. With a satisfied grunt, she closed and latched it. "Put a lock on that," she ordered Cheryl, as she turned and hopped off the chair. "No one goes near it, no one touches it, no one does anything to that unless I'm standing here watching. Got me?"

"Yes, ma'am." Cheryl nodded.

Dar dusted her hands off, her eyes falling on Kerry as she reached for the chair to move it back. Kerry had her fingers resting on the rack, a look of quiet pensiveness on her face.

Sensing the attention, Kerry looked up. "Maybe we should stick around here this weekend?" She suggested.

Perhaps they should, Dar acknowledged silently. There was too much going on, too many loose ends for them to just take off out of town. She could see the agreement in Kerry's posture, the slight relaxing of her shoulder muscles that almost, but did not quite seem like a slump. "No." She was surprised to hear herself saying. "We've got a line at the cabin and our cell phones. C'mon." She tapped Kerry on the arm and pointed to the door. "Let's go onboard, and get moving."

Without further argument, Kerry simply nodded, and headed for the door. Dar followed her, wondering if that decision, too, wouldn't come back to bite her in a bad, bad way.

"C'MON, CHI...IN you go." Dar held the door to the cabin open, allowing her family to enter before she stepped over the threshold and followed them inside.

It was dark, close to ten p.m., and later than either of them had expected to arrive after traffic and a stop at a tiki hut. But it had been a nice drive even so, and Dar didn't regret it as she detoured toward the wall switches.

Ah. She turned the lamps on and gazed around appreciatively.

Definitely worth the trip.

Kerry dropped her overnight bag on the couch as she headed for the cabin's kitchen, putting down the bags she was carrying on the stone countertop just inside the door. She whistled softly under her breath as she put away the supplies they'd picked up, listening to Dar ramble around turning on the air conditioning and flipping on the lights.

It felt very good to be here. Kerry opened the cabinet after she finished, taking out a coffee filter and going about the task making coffee. The cabin was now finished, and she leaned on the counter as the hot beverage brewed, looking out over the interior with a sense of pleasure.

The living area had a long couch against the wall, its ends curving around to make a huge seating pit across from a wood enclosed television set. The furniture was overstuffed and comfortable, butter soft green leather that blended with the stone floors and wooden walls.

There were richly woven colored carpets scattered around, and in one corner a large round dog bed that Chino was busy scratching and snuffling. On the walls were a few pictures, one piece of Dar's mother's art, and some of Kerry's photography.

Overall, the impression was one of a richly appointed, if very small, hunting lodge, except it had no tacky animal heads on the wall and there was a distinct lack of testosterone.

Kerry turned around in the kitchen. It had stone countertops of polished and cool granite that framed the gas stove, brushed stainless refrigerator, and blue shutters that closed over the window above the sink.

Rustic. Except that there were wireless access points mounted on the walls near the ceiling. The television was a flat plasma display, and the entire cabin was hooked up to a remote monitoring system that could have let her turn on the air and the coffee from the car on the way down, if she'd really put her mind to it.

But she hadn't. Kerry smiled as Dar appeared from the bedroom, having already traded her jeans and crisp cotton blouse for a pair of shorts and an old, ratty t-shirt. "Know what?"

Dar walked over and leaned on the other side of the counter from her. "You're glad we're here," she said. "So am I."

Yes, she was glad. Kerry sighed happily. It felt so calm and peaceful here in the cabin. The sound of the ocean was audible through the sliding doors that opened onto their big porch--which was a little funny, because their condo on the island was equally quiet, and had an equally close relationship to the sea--and yet, she always felt different when she was here. "I am very happy to be here, yes," she said. "But what I was going to say was, how about a bowl of designer popcorn and a movie?"

"You don't need to ask me twice," Dar replied instantly. "Tell you what; I'll fix the coffee while you go change."

"You don't need to tell me twice." Kerry said doing a little dance as she exited the kitchen, bumping hips with Dar on her way to the bedroom. "Pick something gory."

"Only if you promise not to use that red candied apple stuff on the popcorn." Dar took her place in the kitchen, taking down a set of mugs and putting them down on the counter. "Gave me nightmares the last time."

Kerry chuckled as she entered their bedroom, smiling as she bypassed the neatly made waterbed and the mahogany dressers that held the clothing they now left at the cabin all the time. They'd picked ocean colors for the bedroom--blues and greens, with the odd punch of color, fiery orange and red, as though tropical fish had made an unexpected appearance. On both sides of the floor to ceiling windows were stained glass panels, throwing warm bars of color when the sun slanted through them.

She loved this room. Kerry unfastened her jeans and slipped out of them, folding them neatly and putting them on the shelf inside the closet. She put her hiking boots next to them, and then removed her shirt, hanging it up as she traded it for a shirt of Dar's that hung down halfway to her kneecaps.

Chino trotted in to find her, tail wagging as she spotted Kerry and rushed over to bump her knees. "Hi, sweetie. Did mommy Dar send you in here after me?"

"Growf."

"Okay, well here I am." Kerry reached down to pat the dog's head. "Are you glad we're here too?"

Chino wagged her tail even more furiously. The Labrador enjoyed the cabin almost as much as her owners. Her favorite activity was chasing the crabs down the beach just outside.

Kerry gave the soft ears one more scratch, then she patted her leg and headed back out into the living room. Dar was just coming out of the kitchen with the coffee cups, and she paused to put them down on the counter as Kerry passed her. "Ker?"

Willingly, Kerry detoured, swinging around and coming nose to nose with her partner. "Yes?"

Dar leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips. Then she rubbed noses with her. "I love you." She rested her forehead against Kerry's. "Do you care if it rains tomorrow?"

"Hell no."

"Me either."

Kerry leaned in for another kiss, then reluctantly backed off and ducked into the kitchen. "How do you feel about milk chocolate and caramel?" she asked, removing a package of popping corn from the refrigerator.

One of Dar's eyebrows waggled. "Lose the corn, shorty." She drawled, in her sexiest voice.

Kerry started laughing.

"Wasn't the reaction I was going for," Dar complained.

"Harumph." Dar took a sip of her coffee.

Kerry looked at her and left her corn to pop as she climbed up onto the counter and leaned across it, capturing Dar's lips just as she managed to swallow. "You can drizzle me whenever you want, my love." She leaned even closer, whispering in Dar's ear, "But caramel hardens in really, really awkward places."

Now it was Dar's turn to laugh, almost making her coffee spill.

Satisfied with the reaction, Kerry got down off the counter and retrieved the small containers of sweets, sticking them in the microwave to heat up as the corn started popping in the popper. "You know, I'd love it if it rained tomorrow. I would absolutely adore a day to just lie around and be a complete bum."

"You can do that if it's sunny." Dar walked around the counter, handing Kerry her coffee.

"Nah. If it's sunny, I just have to be outside messing around on the beach, or in the water, or on the bike..." Kerry demurred. "I feel so guilty being a couch potato when it's pretty out."

"Eh." Dar had no such problem, having learned to take her slothdom where she found it. "Well, if it's nice out, I'll fish for dinner. How's that?"

Hmm. Kerry removed the corn from the popper, putting it in a huge round bowl. She drizzled her additives over it and tossed the corn. "I think that sounds spectacular." She looked over her shoulder at Dar and grinned.

Dar grinned back. They took the corn and the coffee and curled up together on the couch. Kerry leaned back and felt the aggravation of the week dissolve as Dar wrapped both arms around her. Even the tension of the ship, where the wiring had slipped behind schedule, eased into that place she reserved for things she had limited control over.

John was going as fast as he could. The conditions in the ship were hellacious; there was intermittent power and no air, and even Dar had come off the vessel shaking her head.

Kerry could not change the conditions. All she could do was press John to meet his commitment because time was running short and she had a deadline herself.

Here, she could release all that, putting it aside until Monday. Even in the condo that was hard to do because all she needed was to walk outside and she could see the ship from there. In the cabin, there was only peace, the sea, and the warmth of Dar's body pressing against hers.

She picked up a piece of popcorn and offered it to Dar, who accepted it, licking the chocolate drizzle off her fingers as she took it between her teeth. "Can I ask you something?" She looked away from the opening credits of the hack and slash movie her beloved partner had selected and peered back over her shoulder.

"Sure." Dar opened her mouth and poked her tongue out, looking inquiringly at the bowl.

Kerry placed another corn on her tongue and watched it disappear. "I was a lot more pissed off about all the bullshit talk at the office than you were."

"Was that a question?"

"Erm...no. I guess I was just..." Kerry paused. "I guess you're just used to it, huh?"

Dar's hold tightened. "No." She gazed reflectively past Kerry's shoulder. "I just knew none of it was true, so I didn't care."

Kerry's brow creased.

"The last time I heard stuff like that, it was," Dar clarified quietly, "And the time before that, and etc." Her shoulders moved in a faint shrug. "All I felt was just this sense of relief, honestly. As long as you know the truth, nothing else matters."

There were faint reflections in the depths of Dar's eyes. Kerry disregarded the movie and the popcorn, half turning to lay her hand gently on Dar's cheek. "Nothing else does matter," she said. "I never thought about that, you know? About how it was before for you."

"Mm." Dar blinked peacefully at her. "It sucked," she said, "especially the last time. Everyone took a..." She paused a second, "certain glee in our very, very public breakup."

Kerry rubbed the side of her thumb against Dar's skin. "Well, if I'd been there..."

"If you'd been there, it'd have been a moot point."

"Okay, well, if I'd been there and we hadn't been together..." Kerry restarted.

"You think that's really likely??"

Kerry shifted her hand to cover Dar's mouth. "Let me finish my over the top declaration, please," she scolded. "If I'd been there, and we hadn't been together, and we were just friends, I would have taken the biggest mallet I could find, and gone around whacking all those bastards on the head like moles." She removed her hand and leaned closer. "Do you believe that?"

"Oh yeah," Dar agreed instantly. "You have the staff scared spitless. They'd rather spill gossip to me than dare to tell you about it."

Kerry's eyebrow cocked. "Really?"

"Really." Dar kissed her. "So yes, Kerrison, I believe that with all my heart."

"Oo." Kerry nibbled a piece of corn. "I feel like such a mercenary." She let her head rest against her partner's. "Grr. You bring out the beast in me."

Dar eyed her, a grin surfacing immediately. "I'd buy that a lot faster if you didn't have that cute smile, Ker."

Kerry solemnly stuck her tongue out, then licked Dar's nose with it.

Dar reveled in their closeness, feeling a simple happiness not only in having Kerry in her arms, but in being here in this place that was so much a part of both of them. The troubles at work niggled at the very periphery of her conscience, but she ignored that, leaving the potential issues for the daylight.

Tonight didn't belong to work, it belonged to them. Dar poked her tongue out for more popcorn, and they then settled in to watch the mayhem.

AS IT HAPPENED, it did rain the next day. Kerry was in her glory, lounging in her pajamas on the couch watching luridly violent, yet curiously satisfying, cartoons. Dar was stretched out facing her, the length of the furniture explicitly planned so they both could relax on it at the same time.

"Mm." Kerry wiggled her toes against Dar's, grinning as she responded. While purchasing leather furniture didn't usually involve measuring for footsies, in their case they'd decided to make everything in the cabin fit them--even the chairs on the porch. Hers was a little smaller with a shorter seat, and Dar's was long enough to fit her legs perfectly. A bit pretentious, perhaps, but as Dar had said at the time, they could afford it and it lasted longer than an ice cream cone so why not?

At least they hadn't had the towels embroidered with Hers and Hers. "Find anything yet?" Kerry asked.

"Nope." Dar had her laptop balanced on her thighs. "So far, nada. That MCI router exists, but they swear nothing in it has got our IP."

"Uh huh." Kerry put her head down on the plush leather couch arm. "You think they're covering up, or just clueless?"

"Eh. Let me threaten more people. I'll let you know."

Sounded like a fine idea to Kerry. She stifled a yawn as she watched the animated characters thrash and dance their way across the screen, reminded suddenly of her little friend Gopher Dar. "Are you messing with that program a lot more?"

Dar's fingers stopped moving, and she peered at Kerry over the top of her laptop screen. "That program." She repeated. "You mean..." She made a face, and chattered.

"Yeah."

Dar continued typing for a bit in silence, thinking about the question.

"I thought maybe you were getting a little bored," Kerry suggested. "So you were using that to keep yourself interested."

"No." Dar shook her head. "Actually, I think I've just been lonely."

Kerry rolled over and looked at her in surprise.

"That's my way of hanging out with you when we're both busy." Dar had most of her concentration focused on her screen, and was unaware of Kerry's rapt attention. "I'd be sitting in my office-- c'mon, you bastard--and I'd be on this stupid, pointless conference call wishing I was out on the boat with you instead, and all of a sudden some new idea for the damn thing would occur to me. New t-shirt, new dance...I finally got the vocal program working the other day."

"I noticed," Kerry replied quietly, now understanding the message it had conveyed.

"Anyway, it's more interesting than listening to people bicker about their budgets."

Kerry studied Dar's angular face, watching the pale eyes flick over the screen with restless energy. "Dar?"

"Hmm?" Dar looked up.

"Do you...not like what you're doing now?"

Dar's brow creased. She thought for a moment, and then cleared her throat a little. "I don't know, really. It's not so bad most of the time."

Kerry got to her knees and scrambled forward, sprawling over Dar's legs to get closer to her. "You liked what you were doing before though, right?"

Dar shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"I took your job."

Dar chuckled easily. "No you didn't. I horse-wrangled you into the position over your protest, if I recall correctly." She set the laptop aside. "Besides, you do it better than I did."

Kerry crawled up further. "That's not the point, Dar." She objected. "Not if you're not happy because of it."

"Happy?" Dar took hold of her and pulled her up further until Kerry was half lying on top of her, their limbs tangled in a warm mess. "I have never in my life been happier."

Kerry rested her chin on Dar's shoulder. "That's not what I..."

"I know. But it's the truth." Dar nuzzled her hair.

Perplexed, Kerry fell silent, not really sure what to say next. Maybe, as Dar had hinted, it was time for her to change and move on to do something else. The thought made her anxious, though, and she had to admit, if only privately, that the last thing she wanted from a professional standpoint was Dar leaving the company.

Maybe they should both leave. Kerry liked that idea better. They'd talked around the idea of forming their own business for the longest time. Maybe it was really time to get off their butts and do something about it.

She put her arm over Dar's stomach and squiggled down between her and the couch, liking the view from this end better anyway. She thought for a bit about her own job, and whether or not she liked it as much as she had when she'd started.

It was okay, she finally decided. The one big problem with it was that it never really allowed a sense of completion of anything. It was always one situation after another, after another, after another. There was never really any time when she could sit back and feel satisfied with where she, and by extension the company, was.

Would that ever change? Kerry doubted it. She was about to mention her revelation to Dar, when her cell phone rang, as though punctuating her thoughts with eerie precision. With a sigh, she took the phone from Dar, and opened it. "Hello?"

"Ms. Stuart?"

"Yes?"

"This is Justin in operations, ma'am," the voice replied. "I'm sorry to bother you on the weekend, but I had note in the log about a file transfer on the financial lines?"

Kerry glanced up at Dar, who was now listening. "Yes. Is it happening again?"

"Well, I'm not sure, ma'am. I'm just seeing a lot of traffic on that line, and it's sort of unusual for a Saturday, you know?"

Dar picked up her laptop as Kerry straightened to give her room.

"Yes, I understand," Kerry said. "Okay, we'll take a look at it, Justin. Thanks for calling me. Did anyone from the bank contact you?"

The tech sounded surprised at the question. "On a Saturday? No, ma'am. They sure didn't," he said. "I've notified my boss, and he's checking it out too, but he thought maybe you'd be interested in hearing it also."

Dar switched off the program she'd been using and opened up her network systems instead. "Got that right."

"Your boss is spot on," Kerry told the tech. "Thanks for calling me, and let me know if anything changes, okay?"

"Yes ma'am, I sure will." Justin promised.

Kerry hung up and squirmed around so she could see the laptop screen. "I am getting really freaking annoyed at all this crap, Dar."

"Mm. Sorry." Dar was typing quickly. "My stupid fault." She accessed the circuit in question and reviewed it. "Damn it, he's right."

She sighed. "Same crap as before. I'm going to just cut it off."

"Don't you want to try and trace it?"

Dar's fingers hesitated. "I don't think we can risk it," she admitted. "I don't know what this is, Ker. It's too dangerous on the bank lines." She typed in another command. "I'll grab what I can, then dump the connection."

Kerry watched in silence as she completed the action, and the activity in the monitors fell to normal levels. "Why didn't Mark do that?" She asked, curiously. "Was he trying to track it down?"

Good question. Dar keyed up her messaging program and typed in a question, then hit send. She reviewed the logs of the router, checking the address sources still held in its memory. "Hmm." She frowned and reviewed them again, then copied and pasted them to her desktop. "Ker?"

"Yeah?" Kerry peered at them. The list of addresses was mostly of no interest to her, save one. "Isn't that one of ours? Is that you or maybe Mark coming in remote?"

Dar checked her laptop's configuration. "Nope not me." She probed further. "I don't think it's Mark."

"Another spoof?" Kerry leaned even closer. "But wait, that's from..."

"Inside our network." Dar completed the sentence unhappily. "Now I hope it's Mark. It's gone already." She searched, but found no trace of the offending station. Her machine beeped, and an answer came back from Mark.

I was trying to get a dump. Got a partial.

Dar typed back a question.

No, that's not me, I'm on the protected security range. Mark typed back. That's one of the pool addy's.

"Shit." Dar sighed again. She typed back. Then we need to find out why one of those pool addresses was inside the bank router. Because it's one of the sources of that data parse.

The screen was briefly silent. That sucks.

"No kidding." Kerry felt a sick sensation in her guts. "Someone inside the company is doing this? Is that what we're looking at, Dar?"

"Maybe."

Well, ulterior motives didn't usually show up on the security checks. Kerry thought back over the recent new hires in their division. "Dar, we haven't hired anyone for three months. Are you saying someone might have been here for that long, just lying low?"

"Doubt it." Dar put a series of controls in place. "If it's a pool, it might not be from IT." She debated a moment, then exhaled. "I'm going to put my program in all the border routers."

Kerry winced. "Is it ready?"

"No. But it's better than nothing." Dar called up the utility and started transferring it from her laptop to the remote devices. "Worst it will do is crash the whole net."

"Dar..."

"I know, hon, but we've got very few options." Dar replied gently. "I'll take responsibility for it."

"That's not my issue." Kerry protested. "It's just really hard to fathom having to explain to a zillion customers that they're down because you crashed us."

Dar chuckled without humor. "I'll take the calls if it happens." She finished transferring the program to the first router, then activated it. "I built the network, I can wreck it, I guess."

Kerry hid her face in Dar's shirt. "Can you program it to scream if it crashes? At least we'll get warning--"

"Hopefully..." Dar finished her work. "Okay, it's in the number one pair." She monitored the devices with some anxiety, despite the confidence she had in her own skills. You just never did know when something you never anticipated would interact with a program, and send everything all to hell. "I think it's okay."

Kerry peeked at the screen. The gauges were steady, but with the same odd flutter she'd seen the last time Dar's program had run. "Can you dump the warnings here?"

Dar drummed her fingers. "Yeah, I better. Ops has nothing set up to receive them." She keyed in the programming change carefully. "Okay...let me get that on the rest of them."

Dar!

"Whoops...should'a warned him." Dar glanced at the message. Sorry. I'm putting my new code in.

Hey, that address was from inside the office! The server issued it at 2pm. I'm calling security to find out who's in.

Kerry reached across Dar's forearms to type on the keyboard. I want to see that list! KS

Dar glanced at her, a grin twitching at her lips. "Should I get the mallet?"

"This is not funny." Kerry growled. "Dar, if someone inside the office is responsible for that, we need to call the police."

"I know." Dar answered. "Let's just find out what's really going on before we jump to conclusions though." She typed further. "Not that there's any legitimate reason for anyone in our office to be in that router, but I do like to have the facts."

"Grr."

"Then we can whack 'em."

Kerry put her head down on Dar's shoulder to wait, watching the screen with impatient eyes. Someone inside. Her eyes narrowed. Didn't that just suck?

ANDREW PUT DOWN the crowbar he'd just been using, and lifted the cover off the crate in front of him. The hold of the ship was thick with workers despite it being a weekend, and he was careful to prop the cover up against the bulkhead out of the way.

It was hot in the hold, and he had to pause to wipe the sweat off his brow. He was glad he'd picked a tank top to wear to work. The sky was becoming overcast and the breeze had dropped, promising rain later but doing nothing to dispel the mugginess.

He hadn't expected to be called in today. The supervisor had been a touch mad at him for running off the previous day, and Andy had half expected the man to punish him by giving him a few days off without any pay.

That would have been just fine, from his view. There was a nice big ocean right out there waiting for them to be driving over it. Sitting at the helm of their boat was a sight nicer than unpacking boxes inside an old metal sauna box.

But the super had gotten a call, and everyone'd been told to come in the next day. So here he was. A quick look over the side of the ship had confirmed that the ship was still leaking oil, and he was pondering what do about it after Ceci had nearly scared most of the fish out of the harbor when she'd heard about it.

Sometimes, he did forget his wife was one of them environmental types. Andrew scratched his jaw, then shook his head, scattering a few droplets of sweat over the box. Ah well. He'd figure something out.

With a low, melodious whistle, he picked up a shipping invoice and then peered inside the crate, glancing at the sheet for confirmation. The box was alleged to contain boxes for cash registers, and as he pulled aside a thick wad of cardboard stuffing, the corner of stacked gray boxes were revealed. "Yeap."

A yell outside the ship made him look up, and he heard the sound of air brakes releasing and catching just outside. "Now what?" He muttered, going to the hatchway and looking out.

An eighteen wheel truck was parked outside, its driver arguing with one of the guards. Andrew glanced inside, watching the crew around him gathering around the coffee pot for a break. He stepped out onto the gangway instead, and crossed over to the road to listen in.

The trucker was a big, tall, man wearing cowboy boots, a big buckle belt, and with a hat to match, as much a stereotype as Andrew had seen recently round these here parts. Feller even had highway patrol sunglasses on.

"Listen, buddy." The trucker pointed past the guard. "There ain't no gate down there big enough to pull this rig in. I just need to go over there, so get outta my way, okay?"

The guard shook his head. "Sorry, buster. My boss said no one goes through here to that pier, period."

"What's the big deal? It's just a damn road."

"Not to that pier. They don't want anyone going through this pier or to that pier for deliveries. Forget it. So just take off."

"This stuff's got a rush delivery!"

The guard, a young man in his mid-twenties, smirked. "Rush? I don't care. My base said no one, and that means no one. Guess they're just out of luck," he said.

No deliveries to Dar's boat, huh? Andrew ambled closer, leaning against a stone post near the truck. "Now, that don't make much sense." He drawled. "Feller's just looking to pull on through."

The guard looked at him. "Shut up, old man. Get back in there to work. No one asked your opinion."

No one, least of all Andrew, expected what happened next. The trucker, standing within arm's reach of the guard, dropped his clipboard and lashed out, slugging the man across the face with one gloved fist, and sending him sprawling to the ground. "Know what I hate worse than a pissass little punk?" The man growled. "It's a pissass little punk disrespecting people."

Andrew snorted, covering his mouth with one hand.

The trucker stomped back toward his rig, grabbing his clipboard on the way, shaking his head and muttering as he walked. "Ain't got the balls to stop me going where I want to go, that's for damn sure."

The guard got to his feet, and wiped a bit of mixed blood and spit from his face, then removed the baton from the ring on his belt and took off after the trucker. "Son of a..."

"Wall, now." Andrew shoved away from the stone pylon and intercepted the guard in two long strides, catching him by the arm and swinging him around. "Son, don't be a jackass."

"Let the fuck go of me!" The guard squalled, lashing at Andrew with the baton. "I'll kick your ass!"

"Boy, don't you do that." Andrew warned, reacting out of instincts honed during many years of experience.

The trucker turned, to see his erstwhile attacker being bent into a pretzel as Andrew put him in a restraint hold and lifted him off his feet. He put his hands on his hips and just watched, as the uniformed man was shaken like a rat, bits of his guard accoutrements bouncing off the pavement and rolling under the truck.

"Ah told you, don't be a jackass." Andy told him firmly. "That there feller's just going to drive that truck over you and make you flatter than a pancake."

"Let go of me!" The man struggled to no avail.

Andrew walked over to the waterside with him, and held him threateningly over the edge of the pier. "Ya like salt?" He inquired. "No? Then just shut your mouth up." He looked over at the trucker, who had climbed inside his rig and started the engine. "Now, don't you be speeding on this here dock, young feller." He cautioned the driver, getting a grin in return.

The trucker honked his air horn in appreciation, giving Andrew a big thumbs up as he drove past the ship toward the next pier.

Andy waited for the truck to clear their space, and then he released the guard giving him a healthy shove across the dock to prevent any errant stupidity.

The guard caught his balance, and turned, starting back toward Andrew with an angry expression on his face. "You are in so much trouble, old man."

"Ah am not in any trouble, son." Andrew merely sat down on the pylon and waited for him, relaxed and calm. He made eye contact with the guard and held it steadily as the man advanced on him, years of facing danger lending a sheen of ice to his composure. "But surely you will be." He added, in a soft tone. "If you keep on keeping on."

The guard slowed as he approached, and then halted uncertainly. Then he backed off, sticking his baton back into his belt. "I'm not going to bother with you."

Andrew smiled.

"I'll just get my boss to get your ass fired." The guard gathered the shreds of his dignity and stalked off toward the small guard house, leaving Andrew in peace on the side of the dock.

Thunder rolled overhead, making him look up at the sky. "Ah do think ah just like trouble." He remarked. "Lord knows mah kid got that from some damn place, after all." After a brief moment, the ex-SEAL got up and headed back across the gangway, chuckling softly under his breath.

DAR REACHED OVER and picked up her cup of coffee, taking a sip before she offered it to Kerry. They were still squished together on the couch, after an hour of tense work on the laptop had at least given them a measure of security over the situation.

"How long does it take security to figure out who is in that building?" Kerry groused, handing the cup back after taking a swallow. "What did they do, call out the dogs to sniff the Xerox supply rooms?"

Dar watched her gauges, her fingers twitching above the keys. "It's a big building."

"Not that big." Kerry listened to the thunder, and then she returned her head to Dar's shoulder. "You know, it's a pity we can't work like this all the time."

"From the cabin or from this couch together?" Dar asked.

"Yes."

"I have a couch in my office."

"It's not as comfortable as this one." Kerry objected, reaching over to type in a few lines, and hit enter. "And there is just no way I could wear my jammies there, Dar."

Dar cocked her head and regarded Kerry's dress that featured adorable little cart wheeling piglets all over it. It consisted of a nightshirt that was just barely legal, but also had a pair of bottoms Kerry seldom wore. "I could post a policy change just for you."

"Uh huh. I can just picture me running meetings like this."

Dar chuckled. "Not a goddamn thing would get done," she said. "Ah...here we go. All right. Now that's looking better." She was at last satisfied with how her program was behaving. "Okay, I think it won't crash now."

"Phew."

Dar now switched to her mail, clicking on a late arrival. "Here's the trace Mark got." She reviewed the results. "Encrypted."

"Can you un-encrypt it?" Kerry asked. "I can't even read the header."

"Hmm." Her partner drummed her fingers on the keyboard. "Not without the..." She hesitated. "Let's wait to see if Mark finds the machine it was coming from. It'll be easier with the key. I might be able to crack the encryption, but it would take me forever."

Kerry typed on the keyboard. Mark -- what is taking so long for the security report?

Dar slipped her arm over Kerry's shoulders, and rubbed her back gently. "This is going to be a big issue. I better warn Alistair."

Freaking all of sales and marketing is here! Mark's answer came back, brimming with disgust. The whole damn floor is packed with them, and they've been sucking DHCP addresses all morning.

"Oh. Crap." Kerry sighed. "That sucks."

Dar considered the screen. "Maybe...maybe it doesn't." She said slowly. "I wonder how many new people they've brought on in the last month."

"They turnover like..." Kerry started to say then her voice trailed off. "But Dar, whoever did this was technically very savvy."

"Uh huh. Where better in our company to hide then, hmm? Last place I'd look for a nerd is in those groups." Dar's tone was grim. "And you know what else?"

Kerry stared at the screen, then up at Dar. "They're all around the presentation rooms."

"Exactly."

Exactly.