Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series

Chapter One

DAR POURED HERSELF a glass of juice, then returned to her desk and settled back into her leather chair. A thick, white printout was already in her inbox. She lifted it out and plopped it down in front of her as her computer hummed in the background, collecting her email.

Security reports. Dar winced slightly as she started reading. "Damn, what a mucking little troublemaker I am." She shook her head ruefully. "Aye, yi yi yi yah...Mark I owe you dinner, at least for this one." Her fingertip traced one intrusion attempt that had come perilously close to finding a crack, being turned aside at the very last second by the random roaming parser that dipped continually into the data stream and examined the traffic it found there. "Wow."

The parser had been around since a twenty something year old bored Operations Manager had put it in place years ago and recently had to defend keeping it. Dar hadn't really expected to have her stubborn insistence in leaving her code in place vindicated so explicitly, but she was never one to look a gift goat in the ass either.

She opened a new mail window and typed rapidly. Next time someone tells me we don't need any of my old programs, they're fired. She reviewed it, then sent it on its way to Mark's inbox. Satisfied she went back to reviewing the report.

A soft knock interrupted her a few minutes later. Dar put the page down and leaned on her elbows. "C'mon in."

The door opened and Maria poked her head in. "Good morning, Dar."

Dar leaned back in her chair and studied her assistant. "Morning." She lifted a hand and curled a finger, beckoning Maria inside the office. "Siddown."

Looking slightly apprehensive, Maria did so, taking a seat across from Dar in one of her comfortable visitors chairs. "Si?"

Dar steepled her fingers. "I have a meeting with Mariana in about an hour over your little incident at that restaurant last week."

Maria sighed. "Dar, I am so sorry."

"Shh." Dar waved her off. "Don't apologize. I only wish you'd gotten some pictures. The two of them were up to no good, and I'm happy Kerry didn't end up there with them."

"They were very nasty women, Jefa."

"I know." Dar said. "The problem is, they're also a huge honking pain in the ass, and it's to their advantage to make us look as bad as possible."

Maria sighed. "We should not have gone to that place. It was a wrong thing to do, Dar. Even if you do not say so."

Dar shrugged. "And at that tech conference, I shouldn't have challenged every hacker on the planet to break into our systems. But I did, and here we are." She nudged the stack of papers. "So, what I want you to do is just let me handle it okay?"

"Jefa?" Maria looked confused.

Dar got up and walked around to the front of the desk, perching on the corner of it. "I'll meet with Mariana and take care of whatever bullshit she got handed. Kerry's up to her ears in this damn bid, and I don't want her bothered with it."

"Okay, Dar, if you say so." Maria still looked unsure. "But the policeman came to us on Friday, and I spoke with him. I think it is fine. He said to me that what they were was some nuisance?"

Nuisance. Dar chuckled inwardly. "All right. Listen, I'm going to need to schedule a security meeting after lunch. Book the big conference room, and get all the operations department heads in there."

"One o'clock?"

"That's fine." Dar nodded.

Maria started to get up, but paused. "Dar, I did not get to ask you-- did this thing you were in New York for go all right?"

"It did."

"Was Kerrisita a good help for you?"

Dar's blue eyes twinkled warmly. "Couldn't have done it without her."

Satisfied, Maria stood up and headed for the door. "Is good. Mayte will be very glad as well. She was very concerned that everything would go nicely."

Dar went back to her seat and dropped into it, pulling her report back over. A motion on her screen caught her attention, and she looked over studying the security alert flashing.

Damn. "I think I'm going to end up embarrassing the hell out of myself with that damn challenge." She exhaled, resting her head on her fist. "What an idiot I am."

KERRY CAME AROUND the corner of her office entrance and plowed into her administrative assistant. "Whoa!" She hauled up short and put a hand out to steady Mayte, who had bounced off her. "Hey, Mayte."

Mayte's eyes widened. "Oh, Ms...Kerry. Hello. Good morning." Her expression was a cross between apprehension and concern. "You are here so early."

"C'mon inside. I want to hear all about our rock 'em sock 'em admins." Kerry grinned indicating her office door. "I've got a staff briefing at ten, but we've got some time to talk."

Mayte followed her inside and closed the door, and stood a little awkwardly beside Kerry's desk. "Kerry, my mother is very upset with us. She said for me to come to you and to apologize."

Kerry put her tea mug down on her desk and came over to face her assistant. "Why?"

"Because we should not have confronted those ladies."

"Ah." Kerry folded her arms. "Well...I'd agree with you, except that...remember the story Dar said for you to ask me about, when you told us what happened?"

"Yes." Mayte fastened her eyes on Kerry's face.

"Once upon a time, back when Dar and I first started seeing each other..." Kerry turned and wandered over to the window, peering out. "And we were still keeping it secret from everyone..."

"Except my mama."

Kerry chuckled. "Uh...er...yeah, except for her. From everyone else, though," she amended. "Mariana and Duks asked us out to dinner. We knew Mariana suspected what was going on, so we were trying really hard to pretend we were just friends while at the restaurant."

Mayte merely watched her, fascinated.

"Now that I look back, I doubt we were fooling anyone, but we were trying hard, and we thought we were doing pretty good." Kerry turned and leaned against the glass. "Until one of Dar's old girlfriends showed up and started needling her in front of all of us."

"Oh, that is terrible!"

"Uh huh. It was," Kerry agreed dryly. "Until I got up and pushed her in front of a tray full of Thai food and she ended up with eel guts up her nose while she swam on the floor in a puddle of peanut sauce."

"Oh." Mayte covered her mouth with one hand and tried not to laugh.

Kerry came back over to her. "So, they're probably pretty lucky," she admitted. "Because if I'd have been there, and they'd have started talking trash about Dar, I would have done a lot worse than dump chili down their shirts."

"Really?"

Kerry's face turned suddenly serious. "Yes." She drew in a breath. "Dar means everything to me. If I wasn't there to watch her back, I'm glad you two were."

Mayte looked a touch overwhelmed at that. "Then, no matter what my mama says, I am glad too," she replied softly. "It did not feel like a bad thing to me." She paused. "Until the policemen arrived."

"It wasn't." Kerry stepped closer, then impulsively held her arms out. "C'mere." She enfolded Mayte in a hug, giving her a gentle pat on the back. "Don't worry about anything. If they make more trouble, Dar will take care of them." She released the girl, but clasped her shoulders. "You guys have nothing to worry about."

Mayte was blushing. "T...thank you."

"Okay." Kerry gave her a pat on the arm, then let her go and perched on the edge of her desk. "Now, we've got a lot of work to do to get ready for this ship bid. I'm going to need some rush orders on equipment, and I'll need you to get hold of Elaine and see what we can do to pressure the vendors."

"I will call her right away," Mayte replied softly. "Did...did Jefa's thing in New York come out...did you fix the problem there?"

Kerry smiled inwardly at the half nervous stutter. "Oh yeah," she reassured Mayte. "Dar had it pretty much resolved before I even got there. I just added some moral support for a couple hours and then we spent some time out in the city."

Mayte's brow puckered a little. "You left so quickly I thought?"

"That I was going to save the day?" Kerry went to her chair and sat down, giving her trackball a roll. "Nah. I just went to be with Dar. Sappily romantic, but true." She propped her chin on her fist and gazed at her assistant. "Occupational hazard with us."

Mayte recovered her composure and smiled. "I hope to be finding that out someday also," she said, as she escaped toward the door. "I will set up the meeting with accounting for this afternoon."

"Thanks." Kerry watched as her assistant disappeared, then she shook her head and took a sip of her tea. She turned to her computer and checked her email. "Ah."

She clicked on the one from the Port of Miami's agent and leaned on her elbow, studying the schematics that had been provided. There were four possible places for the four ships to dock, and she had no idea which spot would be filled with the ship they'd be assigned.

And yet, waiting for that information before she ordered a working circuit was just idiotic. Kerry gazed at the scattered buildings, and pondered her choices. Four docks, four dock buildings, four choices of places to drop a line. The agent did not know which dock would be assigned to which ship.

Well, poo. Kerry sent a note off to Quest, asking him which ship they'd be working on. If she had that maybe she could gently nudge the port agent into assigning it a pier, and if that worked, then she could call Bellsouth and drop the circuit.

And they'd need a satellite. Kerry sent a note off to Mark. They had a regular provider, but she didn't think they knew anything about marine satellites. However, they might know someone who did.

At least it was a start. They had their work cut out for them, though.

Something chittered at her elbow, making her jerk and look up to see Gopher Dar peeking out from behind her mail window. "Hey!" She chased it with her pointer, and caught it by the tail. "Aha! Gotcha!"

"Ooooooo." The Gopher Dar flopped on its back and squiggled causing her to release the mouse button as she started laughing. Immediately, the creature bounced to its feet and scurried away, wagging its finger at her. "Oh, you are so damn twisted." She leaned closer, peering at the thing. "Hey! What t-shirt is that?"

Gopher Dar sashayed across the screen now that he wasn't being molested. He had a tiny white t-shirt on that bore the words "Hackerz suck!" Kerry sighed, and watched as he pulled out a magnifying glass from his non-existent shorts and started peering around her desktop.

Apparently Dar had her work cut out for her, too.

KERRY REMOVED HER sunglasses as she came to stand near the pier wall, gazing thoughtfully at the concrete structures around her. It was so hot the pavement was giving off heat waves, and the place was pretty much deserted here in the noon time sun.

She walked to the edge of the fence and peered through it spotting a couple of maintenance men walking slowly down the empty docks. One was kneeling beside an iron tie cleat painting something on the concrete surface, and another drove a forklift toward a stack of pallets.

"Hmm." Kerry turned and walked to the front of the pier building that consisted of a few glass doors, and a series of garage type roll entrances. She checked her watch, then blew her already sweaty bangs off her head with a long breath and leaned against the wall to wait.

The humidity was almost overpowering. Kerry debated waiting in the Lexus, then spotted a Miami Dade truck trundling slowly her way and decided to give it a chance that her port agent was inside.

The truck creaked to a halt and the door opened, and a tall, gray haired woman with a clipboard exited. She came around the end of the truck and approached Kerry. "Ms. Stuart?"

"That's me," Kerry agreed. "Are you Agnes?"

"Yes. Thanks for coming over." The woman gestured toward the glass doors. "Let's go inside." They went from the muggy heat to a frigid interior as she closed the doors behind them, locking the locks again before she went on. "Sorry. We get so many vagrants out here I've got to keep the doors closed or we'd find them under the floorboards."

"Ah." Kerry murmured, as they crossed a large open space, and went through two sliding glass doors into a larger room in the back.

"Okay, this is pretty typical of all four piers," Agnes said. "These are four older buildings we've decided to renovate for the next cruise season, so no one's using them. It'll be better than using the cargo piers anyway. There's no space back there and we'd be moving you every other day."

"Okay." Kerry nodded agreeably. "So this is where they normally put the cruise liners? Where the passengers get on? Because one of the things we're supposed to do is make it so they can check the passengers onboard while they're in the waiting area."

Agnes brightened. "Well, that'll work great then. Yeah." She led the way over to one side of the room. "Over here is where we usually put the boarding agents, and in here is a small office I guess you guys could use. Otherwise, it's pretty open."

Kerry peered into the tiny room, which bore the scars of many years of administrative use. It was grungy, but it had a lockable door, and--she peered under an overturned table--wall jacks. "Okay." She sighed. "Is there a telecommunication closet?"

"Around the back here." Agnes led her through two sliding doors, and they entered a stifling hot interior garage. "This is where they put the luggage," she explained, "so customs can get to it."

"Ah." Kerry grunted.

Agnes opened a closet at the back of the garage and they peered in. On the back wall was a punch down block, and the rest of the room was ringed with power panels. There was one black case on the wall near the door, however, that looked a little familiar. Kerry unlatched it and folded the door open, spotting the mounting hardware inside for a network switch. "Ah."

"That's for the wiring in the building, but you'd have to put your own equipment in there," Agnes said. "Now, the problem is, as I told you, we won't know which ship is going into which pier until they get here."

Kerry closed the switch case. "Why? I mean, you know they're coming, why not just assign them?"

"Wish we could." Agnes waited for Kerry to leave the closet, and then she closed the door. They walked back toward the main building. "But the port won't, since they've never seen these, and they don't trust the specs we were given. The draft or how deep the hulls are below the waterline is really important because the piers vary."

"Uh huh." Kerry could understand that since she knew what a draft was, and knew there were places in some of the smaller islands she and Dar visited that the Dixieland Yankee had trouble getting into because of the draft. "So that'll be..."

"The day they get here. First one that shows up will be assigned, and so on."

Drat, drat, drat. Kerry sighed as she edged through the nonworking doors and back into the air conditioning. "Okay." She put her hands on her hips and studied the space again. "I can't wait until then to drop circuits."

"Yeah." Agnes seemed sympathetic. "I know, the other people that are doing this thing called, and they said the same thing."

"Really? So what are they going to do?" Kerry asked casually.

"Use cellular. Some kind of new process."

Some kind of untested, barely adequate process. Hmm. "Well, I'd use that for one computer, but not for an office." Kerry decided. "Okay, I know what I need to do. Thanks for meeting me down here, Agnes. It's greatly appreciated."

The woman smiled at her. "Absolutely. No problem. Having four ships in here in the summer is a big windfall for the port. We'd be glad to do anything we can to make it good for you."

"Except pre-assign the piers," Kerry said wryly.

"Well..."

"It's okay." Kerry started for the front doors. "We'll manage it somehow."

She bid Agnes goodbye and crossed behind the Agnes' truck toward the small parking lot in front of the pier. Her Lexus sat there in the heat looking very blue and lonely. She slid behind the wheel with a grimace as the hot leather hit the back of her legs. "Ugh."

She started the engine and got the air going, then leaned back and pulled out her PDA. She opened a new message and tapped out a directive, then paused, tapping the stylus on the edge of the device as she thought about what she was doing.

It wasn't really a risk, per se. It was an expense. The question was, should she incur the expense, and accept the cost in order to ensure she had the environment she needed to do the job? Kerry nibbled her lip, counting the days they had left.

Well, she had leverage with Bellsouth. With a slight nod, she sent the message. She put down the PDA then shifting the car into reverse, backed out and drove carefully out of the parking lot

She checked her watch again, then opened her cell phone and hit the speed dial. "Hey, sweetie."

"Hey." Dar's voice sounded relaxed. "Just got out of my meeting with Mariana."

"Aha. How'd it go?" Kerry asked, making the turn onto Biscayne.

"I don't think Telegenics' lawyer likes me."

Kerry chuckled low in her throat. "There's a shocker. Listen, before you tell me more, I'm heading to the Bread Factory. You want a sandwich?"

"Mm, chicken curry," Dar responded instantly. "And that spicy soup if they've got it."

"Okay. Now, what did the lawyer say?? Kerry navigated carefully through the traffic. ?Are they really serious about pressing charges??

"Not anymore."

"Ah, that's good."

"I basically told them since it was off company property, and off company hours, it wasn't a company problem."

Kerry blinked. "Um..."

"And if they wanted to pursue it on a personal basis, I'd welcome a suit that explained why his clients were trying to entice my partner out to convince her what a scumbag I was."

"Ugh." Kerry winced. "Hon, I don't think that's exactly what they were up to."

"Doesn't matter. It was enough to scare him off. Besides, that was the subject matter that made our battling burritos dump the chili bowl, so..." Dar chuckled a little. "Anyway, one less thing to worry about, but listen..."

Uh oh. "Yeah?"

"Maria just told me that Mayte told her that you got an invitation from Quest to a kick off reception at the port this Saturday."

"Just me?" Kerry pulled into the small strip mall that held one of their favorite sandwich shops.

"You and a guest."

"You and me, then." Kerry sat back. "Okay, so here we go again. Can I hope, maybe, that Telegenics will send someone else to do the bid now that it's on?" She got out of the car and headed for the restaurant. "I've just scoped out the port, Dar. It's going to be a pain in the ass working here."

"Uh huh. I figured."

"I'm dropping lines into all four possible spots we could be. I'll just cancel the ones we don't need," Kerry said, holding her breath a little as she waited for her boss's reaction. Dar hated wasting provisioning and she knew it.

"Hmm."

"Two chicken curry on croissants, provolone, nothing else, two spicy soups, one coffee." Kerry told the attendant, still listening to the pensive silence on the other end of the cell. "Hon, I had to. I couldn't risk not having it, and they won't tell us where they're putting the damn things until the last minute."

Dar sighed into the phone. "Yeah. I know. I just--"

"Hate wasting the money." Kerry handed over some cash. "I know."

Dar clucked her tongue a few times. "But you know what? This is your project," she finally said. "So go for it. I've got hacker bees flying around my head like gnats, so that's what I'm going to concentrate on."

Kerry felt uncertain all of a sudden. "Okay," she said slowly. "Are you sure you don't want to..."

"I'm sure." Dar sounded confident. "Kerry, my being involved is only going to make it tough on you, we both know it. In fact, why not take Mark to the reception?"

"Mark?"

"I'm the problem," Dar said.

Kerry frowned. "Can we talk about this later? I need to think about it."

A bit of silence. "Okay," Dar said. "Sure."

"It's not that I don't think you're right..." Kerry said in a rush. "I just...I want to talk to you about it."

"You don't want to take Mark?" Dar hazarded a guess. "If you want, I'll go with you, Ker. I was just trying to make things a little smoother."

"I know." Kerry relaxed a little. "It surprised me, that's all."

"Okay. See you in a bit?"

"Be right there," Kerry nodded, "just getting the sandwiches. See you in a few minutes." She folded the phone and tucked it into her belt, and tried to reassemble her thoughts while waiting for her order.

Dar was right. She knew that. The core of their problem with Telegenics was the personal issue Shari had with Dar. But now, it might even be more than that given what had happened last week. Would Dar's stepping out really solve anything? Or just make it worse? Kerry gazed off into the distance, facing her own insecurity with a grimace. The truth was she didn?t want to face Shari and Michelle alone, and the reasons had nothing to do with business. She wanted Dar there, antagonist or not. Despite her big ideas before she?d gone to New York about how she was protecting Dar from having to be involved, despite her confidence.

Damn.

"Here's your order, ma'am." The boy behind the counter handed her the bag courteously. "Have a nice day."

"Thanks." Kerry took the bag and headed out the door. "For the thought, anyway."

Damn, damn damn.

DAR EDGED PAST the rows of switches, ignoring the apprehensive looks of the on duty techs in the Ops center. She dropped into a seat in the back row at the master console that wasn't generally manned and keyed up some views. She wrapped her hands together and rested her chin against them as she studied the results.

"Ma'am?" One of the techs got up and faced her. "Can we do something for you?"

"No." Dar gave him a baleful look. "Just siddown and leave me alone."

He did so quickly, burying his nose in the console without a backward glance.

As though she could feel Kerry's wry look on her, Dar sighed. "Listen up, all of you."

Four heads turned timidly toward her.

"I'm not trying to be rude, okay? I'm just working on something, and I know this place better than any of you. So don't worry about it."

The techs relaxed. "Yes, ma'am," the one who'd approached her said. "We know that...we just wanted to help you if we could."

"Thanks. Now siddown, and leave me alone."

This time the man grinned a little. "Yes ma'am." He went back to his reports, and the rest of the techs did as well, but the atmosphere was definitely a little lighter.

Dar shook her head and went back to her own display. She called up the network topology, and studied it intently. The main part of the attack had hit them in specific places. Not their external websites, those were bypassed entirely. This had hit them in their tier one interfaces, where the big circuits connected them both to the Internet and their global network.

That meant, Dar reasoned, someone had some pretty solid information on their infrastructure. She didn't like the idea, but knew it was almost impossible to prevent some information from leaking out. After all, the Telcos were big companies with lots of people making generic wages who could be paid to punch up their provider account and read off circuits and patch points.

So...

If she was going to design a global threat solution, where would she put it? At the network core? Dar's finger traced a few lines. No, because if the threat got that far, she was screwed. Her fingertip stopped over the exterior access ports. No, it would have to go between their infrastructure, and the outside circuits, and that meant a secure appliance.

However, she couldn't put a bottleneck in the network. That would negate all the hard work she'd done over the last few years to remove the damn things. That meant that anything she put in place had to be able to analyze all the data traffic, and yet, not impede its performance.

It was a huge puzzle. Dar gave the diagram a fond grin. She loved puzzles. If she could solve this one, not only would she be in a position to solidify their network offering, she'd also be off the hook for being the idiot who'd made them a target the size of Antarctica.

She pulled out her PDA and tapped a new message addressing it to their hardware provider. She scribbled a note and sent it off, her mind running over the possible approaches she could take on the thing's programming.

It was exciting thinking about something brand new. Designing the network had been fun too, but she really hadn't created anything that hadn't already been there. She just designed the best possible one she could. This was something quite different.

"Ms. Roberts?"

The voice brought her out of her musing with a start. "Yes?" She glanced up sharply at the console tech.

"Sorry ma'am." The man gave her an apologetic grin. "But you're being looked for." He pointed at the door.

Dar looked up to find Kerry in the doorway, holding a bag and grinning impishly. With a slightly sheepish look, she got up and circled the consoles heading for her partner. "Ah...thanks." She joined Kerry at the door. "I'll be back."

As she left, she sent one last look back at the master console grinned and let the door close.

Yeah. She'd be back.

KERRY PEERED AT her reflection in the mirror as she inserted a jade earring in one ear. The color not only matched her eyes it complimented the sea green dress she was wearing. She stepped back to assess the combination with a satisfied grunt.

"Something wrong?" Dar appeared at her shoulder, glancing curiously at her.

"No...except that this is the second time this week we had to get gussied up, and it's not nearly as much fun as the first time."

"Eh." Dar shrugged one shoulder. "The way I figure it, we'll go for a little while, and then bow out. Nothing says we have to spend all night there."

Kerry inserted her other earring nodding a little in agreement. Her stomach had a few butterflies anyway, since it was going to be the first time she'd seen Michelle and Shari since she'd...well, since she'd blown them off.

No other way to say it, really.

Blown them off and triggered a food attack on them by her staff. Kerry almost chuckled. "Okay. Then we can come back here. How about a swim in the pool when we get back? I bet we'll be all sweaty just from the drive up and back."

"Good for me." Dar finished putting her necklace on. "Do I need to bring my boxing gloves? Or you think they'll be civilized?"

Kerry indulged herself in a moment's fantasy of Dar in her black silk sheath, clobbering their Telegenics competitors with the cute red boxing gloves she used for class. "Heh."

"Was that yes, or no?"

"That was me wishing they'd be uncivilized," Kerry admitted. "Ah well. Let's get going. Want me to drive?"

"Sure."

Kerry walked into the living room, shadowboxing as she walked. "Boom...boom...boom..." She paused as they reached the front door and cocked her head to one side. "Wouldn't it be cool if we had the motorcycle up here? I'd love to pull up on that."

Dar stopped. She leaned on the door and looked Kerry up and down. "Hon, think about that a minute and how you have to ride a bike," she said. "If you think I'm giving all of downtown Miami a view like that, you're nuts."

Kerry looked puzzled, then glanced down at herself. A snort emerged. "Oh," she muttered. "Yeah. I see your point."

Dar opened the door and gestured toward the outside. "Exhibitionists first."

"Nyahh."

PIER 12 APPEARED somberly festive as they walked up the flight of stairs into the port facility. Dar handed the white gloved receptionist their invitations and waited to be checked off whatever list the woman had, then gave her a brief nod as they were allowed past.

A glance at the banners told her that Quest wasn't quite the expansive host he'd presented himself to be. It was clear that the cost of the party was being borne by the Port which tied in with what Kerry had told her about them being glad of the business in an off time.

They rode the escalator up to the second level where there were tables filled with various edible items. A bar anchored each end of the room and both were busy with well-dressed schmoozers taking advantage of the free alcohol.

Dar spotted Michelle and Shari at the far table and steered Kerry toward the closest table, reasoning there was no sense in getting into a fistfight before even getting a beer out of it.

Quest approached them just as they reached the bar looking quite pleased with himself. "Good evening, ladies." He greeted them cordially. "Glad you could make it."

"Thanks. It was a nice thing for you to do." Kerry replied. "I realize we're all competing, but the goal of the project is to give you a solution you can use and that we can implement," she said. "And besides, we're all adults, right?"

Dar handed her a cold beer.

"Exactly." Quest agreed. "I'm very glad you have decided to take that view." He turned slightly and ordered a drink from the bar, then leaned on it and looked back at them. "Especially since one of our applicants has chosen to capture this process on film." He indicated behind them.

Kerry turned her head to see a cameraman and an assistant over in the far corner. "Why did you let them?" She turned back to Quest. "I thought you wanted this to be low key."

The man shrugged. "Once it was out, it was out. No point in hiding it anymore. This way, we get some good press for free. What can I tell you?"

Practical. Dar silently agreed. "Look at it this way, Ker. One day you'll end up watching yourself on the Discovery channel."

"Travel Channel." Quest corrected her succinctly. "They've already signed the deal. My people weren't that thrilled, but they never put a restriction in the contract so we're stuck with it."

Dar studied him. "Be a lot of pressure for Telegenics to win the bid then," she remarked casually. "Otherwise, makes for bad TV, doesn't it? No happy ending for the little guy."

"Doesn't it?" Quest tipped his drink toward her then walked off in the direction of the camera crew.

Kerry strolled away from the bar with Dar at her heels. They both stopped in a relatively empty spot reviewing the room together. "Hmm," Kerry said. "Why does this whole thing just get slimier and slimier every time we turn around?"

"The smell of mildew is in the air. Let's go see what they've got over there." She nudged Kerry toward the canapé table. Halfway there, she realized they'd been spotted by Michelle and Shari, but she just kept walking one hand coming to rest on Kerry's back as they reached the line. "Ker?"

"I see them." Kerry observed the choices. "Oh, look, hon...lots of little potential weapons. I bet those stuffed potato puffs would sting."

"Contain yourself, Jesse James." Dar handed her a plate. "Maybe it'll be civil."

"Maybe our dog will learn to fly."

Dar offered her plate up to the uniformed attendant and watched as he placed several canapés on it. Her peripheral vision picked up their adversaries approaching and she took a moment to sort out her possible responses before she turned and made eye contact with them. "Evening." She decided on a gracious nod.

Kerry's shoulders squared visibly before she looked up. She merely returned the stares evenly, allowing Dar to do the communicating for the both of them.

"Evening." Michelle responded, taking a breath to continue. But after a second, her jaw closed and she merely picked up a plate and continued down the line.

Shari glared at both of them. Dar lowered her head slightly and subtly altered her posture as an icy edge came into her eyes.

The camera man from the filming crew closed in focusing on them tightly, and with a twitch of her lip, Shari also turned and went down the line, cutting in front of them and grabbing a plate of her own.

Kerry smiled pleasantly at the cameraman. "Hi."

"Hi," the man returned her greeting cheerfully. "So, what do you think about the party?"

"It's been just charming so far." Kerry said. "Hope it stays that way." She added just loud enough for her voice to carry.

Neither of their adversaries turned, but both backs stiffened.

The man moved off to follow Shari and Michelle followed by another man who was talking into a recorder.

Kerry removed a generic puffy something from Dar's plate and popped it into her mouth chewing with thoughtful vehemence. After a second, she stopped chewing, and, with a weird expression on her face, hastily washed her food down with a swallow of her beer. "What was that?"

"The establishment of primate dominance as a vestige of our biological lineage," Dar replied succinctly. "Or did you mean the spicy mushrooms and anchovies? Thanks for trying it for me, by the way."

Kerry digested both pieces of information. She took another swallow of beer to get the last of the taste from her mouth. "Ook, ook."

"Me Jane, you Jane, you know how it is." Dar sounded more than amused. "Let's go talk to those guys from Cangen. I think that second one in the corduroy trousers used to work for us."

"Cords in summer?" Kerry muttered, as she followed her partner across the tile floor. "Bet he didn't work for us long."

JUST HER LUCK, it would be the bathroom again. Kerry found herself face-to-face with Michelle as she stepped up to the sink and leaned forward to wash her hands. The red haired woman was dressed in a caramel colored cocktail dress that did not flatter her at all. "Hi."

"Hi." Michelle responded. "I've got to hand it to you, Kerry. You surprised me."

Kerry concentrated on washing her hands. "Did I?

"Yes." Michelle leaned against the sink and waited for the other woman washing her hands to finish up and leave before she continued. "I thought you were civilized."

"Ah." Kerry straightened up and reached for a towel. "Well, you know, most of the time I am." She faced Michelle squarely. "But you stomped all over my last nerve to such an extent that I just lost the ability to deal civilly with you. Isn't that a shame?" She tossed the balled up paper towel into the basket and walked past. "Good night."

"Kerry."

Michelle was, if nothing else, persistent to the core. Kerry debated a moment, then paused and waited. "Yes?"

"I know you think we hate you..."

"No," Kerry interrupted firmly. "I don't think that at all. I think your partner hates Dar, and you both will do anything to beat us. I don't mind competition, just don't put a friendly face on it. Be square."

Michelle folded her arms over her chest. "We can compete and not be enemies." She suggested. "I know there's an issue between Shari and Dar, no question. But you and I always got along."

"Until you starting playing dirty tricks."

Michelle's eyebrows arched. "Says the woman who sent thugs from her office to attack me?"

The characterization of their staff just struck Kerry as sadly funny. "They didn't go there for that," she told Michelle. "They just wanted to let you know I wasn't coming." She paused. "I had to leave town on unexpected business."

"Your way of sending a message?" The other woman countered with a touch of sarcasm. "Nice."

"No." Kerry turned and opened the door. "I didn't send them. I would have just let you sit there and rot." She gave Michelle a last smile, and walked out.

Michelle stood for a moment in quiet thought, her eyebrows lifting. "Now that is a damn surprise." She murmured to herself. "I guess the old divide and conquer isn't flying anymore." With a shake of her head, she walked out of the bathroom and headed across the floor. "I knew I should have stayed at the hotel tonight."

Kerry was ahead of her angling toward the other side of the room where she suddenly spotted Dar and Shari facing off, Dar's body language aggressive and exuding energy.

Michelle sighed gustily. "Oh, crap." She hastened her pace, then, just as suddenly, she slowed again. "You know what?" She said to the air. "To hell with it. If she's opened up her mouth again, let her take the consequences this time. I'm over it." With a nod, she turned on her mid height heels and headed back for the bar.

KERRY REACHED DAR'S side just as she heard her partner say something she hoped wasn't related to Shari's biological origins. "Hey." She put a hand on Dar's side.

"Sorry, that's just bilge wash," Dar replied crisply, then glanced to one side. "Not you."

"Why is giving a customer a low cost solution bilge wash? Because it can be done cheaper than you can do it?" Shari countered.

"Because it doesn't work," Dar said. "Not long term. There isn't a piece of software out there that can't be hacked or modified without firmware backing it up."

"Oh, that's bull."

Dar refused to lose her temper. "No, it's not bull. It's just how technology is. Engineers know that." She exchanged a slight nod with her counterpart at another of the companies. "If you want to have real control of the process, you have to control it at a machine level."

"But hardware costs more." Shari argued.

"Failing costs more than whatever you pay to succeed," Dar said. "If you ignore that, you set up your clients for failure." She continued, "Here's an example. A client puts in production a new application, whose over WAN link bandwidth had never been quantified."

"That's not my problem as the network provider," Shari said. "I sell a service and a pipe."

Dar's blue eyes glinted with sharp glee. "That's the difference between being a business partner and a vendor. I don't just sell pipes."

"No." Shari didn't miss a beat, very aware of the cameraman focusing on them. "You sell insurance, at a premium."

The man Dar had been talking with, interjected a hand wave. "Yeah, but it's like clean underwear. You don't have a pair, boy, you end up needing 'em," he said. "I don't go for all the high priced goodies you do, Dar, but there has to be some ass covering. I don't ever trust just one piece of anything to be the only solution."

"Pithy way of putting it Don." Dar produced a grin.

"In my time, I've seen more software than hardware take a dump, ma'am." He shrugged unrepentantly. "I, for one, do not intend on pushing a low ball I can't sleep at night over just to get a contract."

The cameraman's assistant winced a little at the language, but indicated to his partner to keep filming.

"It's got nothing to do with low balling!" Shari broke in. "It has to do with not waving the latest and greatest and most expensive at people who don't need it!"

"But why shouldn't we offer the latest technology?" Kerry asked. "Isn't that the whole point?" She frowned. "You all talk like using the best and the newest stuff available is a handicap. Hello? We're in the technology business, folks. It changes every ten minutes. If all customers want is a canned, old solution let them go to BestBuy."

"Are you nuts?" Shari now addressed her directly. "People want the cheapest solution the fastest way possible. They don't want to be cutting edge."

"No, but we do." Dar smoothly took back over. "You've got it all wrong, Shari, just like always. People don't want the cheapest solution. They want the one that is most economical for them."

Shari rolled her eyes. "Ah yes, Professor Roberts, who probably barely passed freshman English. I see the difference."

"ILS doesn't pay me to write essays." Dar still maintained her composure. "But if you don't know the difference between economical and cheap, that'll explain things when those companies you sold bargain basement solutions to all fall apart and come crying to a real IT company for a solution."

"You wish."

"No, ILS does pay me for in depth analysis and trending. I don't wish. I know." Dar replied coolly.

The cameraman seemed totally engrossed in the exchange sliding the lens back and forth between the talkers. He lingered on Dar. She noticed, and turned her head slightly to look right into the blank, black eye. She winked at it, and unexpectedly grinned. "Now remember. I'm the bad guy."

The assistant grinned back at her, making an okay sign with his fingers.

Shari glanced around, but apparently did not find what she was looking for. "Well, we'll find out which one of us has the right approach soon enough. Excuse me."

Dar watched her go, feeling a sense of vague personal triumph that she hadn't let Shari's jibes rattle her. Outwardly, anyway. She took a deep breath feeling Kerry move just a little closer to her, her partner's body heat gently toasting her left side.

Did Kerry sense how she felt? Dar let out her held breath slowly, only marginally paying attention to Don's subject change. The cameraman was still standing there fussing with his gear, and the assistant took the opportunity to approach them.

"Well, that was a great piece of film," the man said. "I think that was one of the best we have so far. Ms. Roberts, mind of I ask you a few questions?"

"Well..."

"Just a few?" The man coaxed. "Let's go over there where it's a little quieter."

"Go on, boss." Kerry poked her a bit. "I'll go get you a refill." She captured Dar's glass and plate.

Dar gave her a brief, uncertain look, then shrugged and indicated to the cameraman to lead on. "Can't guarantee I'll answer, but you can ask."

Kerry waited for them to move off, before she headed back toward the tables, running her mind over what had just happened. Dar had won the exchange, she realized, and without getting mad in the process. She'd also impressed the television people, and used her charm on them to very good effect.

Wow. Kerry handed the bartender her empty glass. "Can I have a...um..." Beer? Scotch? Something cocktailish to match Dar's newly burnished image? She leaned forward and put her hands on the edge of the bar. "Do you have any milk?"

The bartender paused in the act of pouring a glass of wine and looked at her. "Milk?"

"Milk."

He finished and handed the glass to a woman standing by waiting. "Uh...yeah..."

"I got some ginger ale?" The man offered with polite persistence.

"Milk." Kerry repeated again. "Don't make me go find a Farm Stores."

"Okay." The man gave up gracefully and produced the milk. "Here you go." He handed it over. "I never argue with a woman wearing a snake on her chest."

Kerry almost gave her snake a milk bath, but managed to regain control over her grip on the glass and retreated toward the food table intent on finding something appropriate to go with it.

DAR SAT DOWN at one of the small tables on the far side of the room and fiddled with a table tent as the camera assistant joined her.

He started off by extending his hand across to her. "First of all, I don't think we actually met. I'm Derren Eschew."

Dar warily took his hand and shook it. "People say 'bless you' a lot to you don't they?"

Derren chuckled good naturedly. "Oh yeah." He agreed. "Bless you, gesundheit, want a tissue, have a cough drop...you name it I've heard it six million times since first grade." He leaned back in his seat once they'd released their grasps. "You have a pretty unusual name too, don't you?"

"Roberts?" Dar lifted a brow slightly. "In Miami, sure."

"Hehheh. I meant your first name." Derren clarified. "Is it short for something?"

"I've never been short for anything. No. It's just Dar."

The man opened a small notepad and studied its contents. "You characterized yourself as the bad guy." He looked up at her. "Why?"

Dar paused a bit before she answered, considering her words. "You're framing Telegenics as the good guys," she said. "So that makes me the bad guy."

"Because, they're a little, struggling company and you're the IT giants? David and Goliath kinda thing? They have worked incredibly hard to get an inroad into a very tough business that you seem to own. Isn't that right?"

Dar propped her chin up against her fist. "No." She replied. "That's not right. We only own the contracts we've won, and despite Telegenics opinion to the contrary, we won those contracts by being the best choice for the companies who signed them."

"But they're going out and changing that." Derren flipped a page and made a note.

"Are they?"

The man stopped writing and looked up. "You don't think they are?"

Watchful blue eyes focused on him. "I think it's a tight economy, and they're taking advantage of companies looking to cut expenses to tempt people with short term savings." She stated quietly. "Whether it was the best choice for them remains to be seen."

The man scribbled another note. "Naturally, you don't think so." he said.

"Naturally." Dar agreed, with a flash of neat white teeth. She let her eyes drop to the table, then turned her head sideways as she sensed Kerry approaching. Her partner was carrying a glass and a plate, and as their eyes met, Kerry broke into a warm smile.

"Your company does a lot of work for the government. Isn't that right? Military work?"

Dar nodded.

"Bet you're glad the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy doesn't extend to contractors, huh?"

The question caught Dar by surprise, and she let potential answers percolate for a second or two while Kerry set the plate and glass down, and took a seat next to her. "Why?" She cocked her head. "Despite what you've been told, corporations, even big ones like mine, are sexless."

Kerry came in right on the sexless. Her head jerked a little in as she gave her partner a bemused look. "I leave to get you a drink, and I come back and you're talking sex? I thought this was for the Travel Channel?"

Derren leaned on his elbow. "So working with a bunch of GI's who would be glad to give you the boot doesn't bother you?"

Kerry leaned toward him. "Does it bother you?" She asked. "Did you tell when asked or something?"

A guarded look crossed the man's face, and he straightened up and moved back from the table. "Nah, I just wondered. Politics and contracts make strange bedfellows, I guess." He got up and closed his notepad. "Nice talking to you, Ms. Roberts. Hope we get to do it again." He held out a hand, and clasped Dar's briefly. "Night."

He walked off trailing the cameraman behind him.

Dar studied her glass. "You got me milk." She commented.

"And cookies." Kerry nudged the plate closer. "Have some."

"Wonder what that last part was about." Dar commented, breaking a cookie in half and nibbling it. "Looking for a racy angle?"

Kerry shook her head. "After all, they're gay too." She pointed at Michelle, who had rejoined Shari near the dessert table. "Or maybe that's the angle?"

Dar grunted, focusing on her treat.

Kerry sighed. "Are we having a good night here?"

"Damned if I know." Dar took a sip of the milk. "Damned if I know, Kerry. There's something just not clicking in this whole thing. I'm missing something."

She drummed her fingers on the table. "Something."