Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series

Chapter Three

THERE WERE DISTINCT advantages to working from home. Kerry leaned back in her chair and put her feet on her desk, propping her keyboard on her lap at a comfortable angle. Wasn't something she could do at work, at least not during business hours and she appreciated the difference as she peered at her screen and continued typing.

"How's the line working?" Dar entered with her laptop. She took a seat on the small couch across from Kerry's desk and opened it. "I messed with it this morning." Chino ambled in after her and curled up on the carpet near Kerry's desk.

Kerry looked up. "Great. It's a heck of a lot faster since you put DSL in. I thought you had squirmies over the security with it though."

"Eh." Dar had focused on her own machine. "I tested it. It's all right, as much as any remote connection is." She replied. "And the surfing's a hell of a lot faster."

"That's for sure." Kerry watched Dar work for a moment, and then spared another thought wondering why she'd given up her comfortable sprawl on the couch downstairs for the smaller confines of Kerry's office. She really didn't think the need to ask about the circuit prompted it, since Dar seemed content now to sit quietly pecking at her keyboard.

Just wanted to be close? Kerry found herself smiling at the thought, since she'd been regretting the fact that her own laptop hadn't contained her needed files so she could move down into the living room.

They'd had a light dinner, and then gone to the gym together but the subject of Dar's working on her project hadn't come up even once since they'd gotten home. There was something left to be said about it, though and Kerry suspected that those words were behind this instinctive drive they both seemed to have to be in the same place at the same time so when the words came out, they'd be there to hear them.

Until then, though, she was happy just to continue working; typing out an initial assessment of the ship project for the team meeting she'd scheduled the next day while Dar persisted in her programming project. They worked together in a comfortable silence, broken only by the rattle of keystrokes and Chino's dreaming whines.

"Know what I wish?" Kerry asked idly, as she waited for the deck plans of the ship to insert into her document.

"Uh?" Dar grunted in question.

"Wish we were at the cabin. I feel like a midnight salt water swim."

Dar paused and looked up. "Hmm." She shifted the laptop a little.

"We could go in the pool." She offered. "Not as romantic, but there's no seaweed and sand either."

Kerry tapped the enter key and continued typing. "Eeeeehhh...it's not really private enough for what I had in mind." She heard Dar's keystrokes stop, and she waited a second before she looked over at her to find sharply raised eyebrows and a slight grin facing her. "Don't you give me that look. It's your fault. You turned me into a hedonist."

Dar pointed a thumb at her own chest, and widened her eyes.

Kerry stuck her tongue out.

They both went back to working, but the faint grin remained on Dar's lips as she typed. After a few minutes, she paused again. "Know what I wish?"

"Does it involve hot fudge?" Kerry murmured, erasing a sentence and drumming her fingers on her keyboard as she pondered a replacement.

"Heheh." Dar snickered softly. "Save that thought for later. No. What I was wishing for was that we could go back about three weeks and start over again."

Ah. Kerry wiggled her big toe. "Before Orlando?"

"Yeah."

Kerry added a paragraph, and then paused again. "What do you think you would have done different?" She asked. "I mean, about the show or dealing with them or..." She kept her voice casual and her eyes on the screen, not wanting to stifle any revelations.

Dar was a little funny that way. If she said something, and you came back with 'what did you mean by that?', she often stopped her train of thought and switched to something completely different. It was almost like on a personal level, she didn't deal with being challenged while she was trying to communicate something

Dar shifted her position, wiggling her shoulders into a more comfortable spot on the couch. "Keep my mouth shut a lot more, for starters." She scrolled her touchpad with one finger and put her other hand behind her neck, stretching the muscles out with a grimace. "Handled the two of them better, maybe."

"Ah." Kerry ran the spell checker on her document. "I don't know, honey. I don't think most of that was us. They came into this whole thing gunning dirty."

"Mm. Well, I don't think it's going to get any better," she replied. "One of the reasons I don't want to be involved."

Kerry thought about it as she watched the spell check end. She scrolled up for another view of the report, scanning it lightly with her eyes. "Maybe you're right," she finally said. "Why don't we just table it for a while, let me get the whole process started, then you can see what you think."

They both continued in silence for a little while. Dar reached down and scratched Chino's belly, then at last tipped her head back and raised her eyes from the screen. "What I think is...that sounds a hell of a lot like what I said to you when you didn't want to be the Vice President of Operations."

Kerry looked over her shoulder and batted her eyelashes.

Dar smiled and shook her head.

"Dar, don't worry about it." Kerry said. "We'll just work it out."

Chino woke up and flipped over, sneezing. She got up and went to Kerry's side, standing up on her hind legs and giving Kerry a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you, sweetie." Kerry took hold of her muzzle and kissed her on the head. "I love getting kissies from you almost as much as I love getting kissies from your mommy Dar."

A moment later, she found herself encircled by Dar's arms. Teeth closed gently on her earlobe. She could feel the intensity of the emotion behind the squeeze that nearly stopped her breathing.

"Damn, I love you." Dar whispered.

Kerry reached up and cupped her partner's face, pulling her forward a little and kissing her on the lips. She then pressed her cheek against Dar's and exhaled, a low sound of contentment sounding deep in her throat. "Damn, I love you."

"Know what I think?" Dar reached over and pulled the wireless keyboard out of Kerry's hands, setting it on the desk. "I think work's over. Want to join me and a glass of champagne in the hot tub?"

Kerry abandoned her machine without a second's thought. She swung her legs off the desk and stood up, hooking her fingers inside the waistband of Dar's shorts and following her as she walked out of the office and started down the steps. Chino bustled past them reaching the bottom landing and whirling around in a circle as she waited for them to catch up.

As they reached the dog, however, the phone rang. Dar glanced at the clock on the entertainment center, and her brows lifted. "Who the hell's calling here now?"

"Only one way to find out." Kerry went over to the side table and picked up the cordless phone, keying the answer button and putting it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hey, sis." Angela, Kerry's sister, replied. "Busy?"

Dar had cocked her head to listen. Now she gave Kerry a pat on the butt and pointed toward her own bedroom, mimicking stripping out of her clothing as she walked past.

"A little. What's up?" Kerry gave her partner thumbs up, and then dropped into the couch. "How are you? How's the munchkin?"

Angie cleared her throat. "Munchkin and I are fine," she said, and then hesitated. "But we're kinda looking for a new place to live."

Kerry blinked. "Huh?"

"Richard found out about Brian." Angie said. "He filed for divorce."

"He's divorcing you?" Kerry sat straight up, her voice rising. "No shit. Really?"

Dar kept one ear on the conversation in the living room as she changed out of her t-shirt and shorts. She was halfway glad Kerry's family had conveniently provided a distraction, to chase the subject they'd both been dancing around, out of the way for a while.

It would be easier, she thought, if she knew what the hell her problem really was. As Kerry had hinted, she'd thought she was past the bullshit. Kerry thought she was past the bullshit. So why was she doing everything in her power to avoid having to deal with the ship project?

Dar glowered at her reflection in the mirror. Stormy blue eyes were reflected back at her, and she scowled, feeling a mixture of frustration and impatience with herself. Could she really just toss the project off on Kerry's shoulders, knowing how important it was, and how much Alastair was counting on her?

On the other hand, could she really justify not trusting Kerry to handle it? Dar sighed. "Fuck." She addressed herself. "I think you need a head enema."

"Yeesh." Kerry interrupted her self-chastisement. "Poor Angie!" She entered the bedroom and halted as Dar turned, her expression altering to one of sultry interest. "Hmm. Maybe I should convince her to try something other than guys for a little while."

Dar put one hand on her hip. "Oh, I'm sure that'd be a popular suggestion. Especially for Brian," she said. "What happened?"

Kerry pulled her t-shirt off. "Angie thought she'd blown him off about Andy's blood tests, but I guess he got suspicious. He had DNA tests done without her knowing."

Dar snorted. "Nice!" She slipped behind Kerry and undid her bra, giving her a scratch between her tanned shoulder blades. "So she's going back home?"

"No." Kerry folded her bra and set it on the counter next to her already folded t-shirt. "Oh, my mother offered, sure, but Angie, she wants to get out on her own."

"With Brian?"

Kerry didn't answer for a moment, and then she turned and faced Dar. "She's not sure."

Dar cocked her head in question.

A shrug. "She said she doesn't want it to be a case of he needs to take care of her now. She wants to do it on her own." Kerry put her hands on Dar's waist, rubbing her thumbs on the soft skin there. "Maybe I started a family trend. In any case, she was asking what the housing prices were like down here."

"Ah."

Kerry eased forward and brushed her lips over the curve of Dar's breast. She felt Dar's fingertips run up and down her back and it encouraged her to move closer, fitting her bare body to Dar's and reveling in the sensual jolt it gave her. "Y'know, water sounded good..."

"There's water in that bed." Dar suggested, kissing her neck.

"Just what I was thinking." Kerry gladly gave up the idea of the hot tub, and started exploring Dar's skin instead. "Mm...maybe I should tell Angie..."

"Shh." Dar bumped her toward the bed. "If we start telling the heteros, they'll all want to be gay." She tumbled with Kerry into the center of the bed, as they both chuckled.

"HEY, COL." Kerry carried her teacup into the break room and set it down. "What's up?" She asked, waiting her turn at the hot water spigot.

"Same old, same old." Her friend replied, with a grin. "Hey, any chance of you making it out to the beach this coming weekend? We've got a 'cue planned."

Kerry dunked her teabag up and down a few times. "Hmm. Let me get back to you on that. Maybe. Hey listen, are there any units open in the complex?"

"Mine?" Colleen asked. "Two, I think. Why?"

Kerry poured a little milk into her tea and put the bottle back in the refrigerator. "Might need one on short notice." She explained. "You going back to your office? I'll fill you in."

Colleen picked up her coffee mug and followed Kerry out into the hallway. She caught up with her friend a few steps down. "So, what's up?"

"My sister," Kerry said. "Following my very bad example. C'mon inside and I'll tell you all about it." She entered her office, toasting the newly arrived Mayte with her cup. "Morning!"

"Morning, Kerry." Mayte smiled at her, as she went to her desk and slid behind it.

Colleen trailed after Kerry as they both entered the inner office, and Kerry shut the door before going to her own desk and taking a seat. "I get this call last night." She said. "My family's hit the Enquirer again."

"Oh no." Colleen sat down across from her. "Now what? Is your nephew an alien?"

"Worse." Kerry sipped her tea. "A bastard and his father found out about it." She watched Colleen's eyes widen in amazement. "Did I forget to tell you my sister had an affair with my ex-boyfriend?"

"Jesu." Colleen covered her face with one hand.

"Hmm. Thought for sure I told you that one. Anyway, Richard found out and he's suing Angie for divorce. She was hinting about places down here so I figured..."

"I get the picture." Colleen held her hand up, palm out. "Let me talk to the landlord and see what he's got open. I know there's a one bedroom, but I'm thinking for her a two would be better, right? How's she going to survive? I thought you told me she's a housewife."

Kerry sighed, leaning back in her chair. "She is. She can do some light office work, though, and she's not stupid. She knows how to use a PC, do some bookkeeping, that sort of thing."

Colleen made a face.

"I know." Kerry acknowledged the grimace. "Honestly, Col, she'd be better off going back to Mom's house, but I'm not really the one to tell her that, you know?"

"Mm." She nodded. "I know. Is she cut out for Miami?"

"Was I?"

"You didn't have a kid, and no skills." Colleen said with blunt honesty. "Not that I'm knocking her looking for something new, eh? It's just that I think she doesn't realize you got where you are because you earned it."

Kerry looked around at her office, hand-picked and hand-decorated by Dar, filled with knick-knacks and cute, yet mute, symbols of their partnership. A brief grin crossed her face as she sipped again at her tea. "True." She acknowledged. "But I think what she wants is to make it on her own before she lets Brian come back into her life and it reverts to stodgy traditionalism."

A soft knock came at the door. "Yes?" Kerry raised her voice.

The door opened and Mayte stuck her head in. "Kerry, the conference room is booked for your meeting at nine, but Mr. Mark says to tell you he is running a little late. Something about a wipe-up."

"Uh, oh." Kerry winced. "I think he means wipe out. That doesn't sound good. Okay. Thanks Mayte. I'll start the meeting without him. Hope he's all right." She shook her head, and reviewed her page of mails, most of which were marked with red urgent flags. "Yeesh. What a way to start the day."

Colleen stood, and chuckled wryly. "Well, my friend, I'll be on my way to start my day, and hope it's not nearly as raucous as yours. I'll let you know what the landlord says." She waggled her fingers at Kerry and headed for the door.

"Bye Col." Kerry turned her attention to her inbox, clicking on the first red flag. It was a plea from marketing--on a new account. She leaned forward and studied it thoughtfully, then shifted her window over and clicked on their network diagram. When it came up, she typed in a circuit identifier and scanned the results.

Her fingers drummed lightly on the keyboard. "Marginal." She nibbled the inside of her lip. The new account wanted a guaranteed amount of bandwidth, and the minor pipe they were running on, an offshoot of the main network in a far out part of Oregon, was approaching their self-imposed saturation limit.

Should she agree and hope for the best? Should she ask for a bandwidth increase? They wouldn't get any more money if she had to make a bigger pipe there, unless they could bag more business in the area.

After a moment's more drumming of her fingertips, Kerry went back to the mail program. She hit reply, and typed a response. "Okay, John. I'll go for the guarantee, but you guys better understand that's a very tight area. Nothing else goes in there for any existing customers and that pipe stays that size unless you book me more business."

She hit send and then sat back. After a second, she went into her sent mail file and selected the note she'd just delivered, forwarding a copy of it over to Dar. "Juuuuust in case."

Then she went on to the next note, another plea, another account, another decision to justify. Kerry found herself wondering how long it was before Dar had gotten tired of handling stuff like this? She'd developed a technique of scaring the hell out of everyone so much no one asked her for favors, and so she had a lot less of the kinds of emails to deal with than Kerry currently did.

Kerry was perceived as 'nice'--she knew it, and she knew that often played in her favor, but in cases like this, it often caused her to have to make calls she really shouldn't have to, just because people knew they could approach and ask her for it.

So, was Dar's way of operating really more efficient?

Hmm. Kerry exhaled, then jumped as Gopher Dar appeared, chittering at her from behind her mail window. "Yow. You little stinker." She laughed, clicking at Gopher Dar with her mouse. Today her little pal had on a t-shirt and overalls, and was wearing a baseball cap with the letter K on it.

Gopher Dar shook his finger at her and then pulled out a placard, sashaying across Kerry's screen so she could read it. "Nerds Rule, huh?" She chuckled. "Dar, Dar, Dar."

"Yes?"

Kerry jumped again, despite herself. She turned and gave her boss a mock glare. "Wench."

Dar sauntered over. She was dressed in jeans again, and carrying a shoulder pouch full of various nerdy things. "I'm going to the main patch closet. If anyone's looking for me, tell 'em I've got my head up a router somewhere."

Kerry gazed affectionately at her. "You going to be lying on the floor all day again? Here." She pulled a small sheepskin pillow from her large desk drawer and handed it to Dar. "Park your buns on that."

Dar accepted the fluffy thing and held it up. "You want me to walk through the hallways carrying this?" She laughed. "Kerry, I don't need a duff muff."

"Well, tell them it's my muff." Kerry replied, with a twinkle. "Actually, it's for your head. It's not good for you to have your head on the cold concrete, honey. I don't want you getting sick."

Dar tucked the pillow under her arm and sketched a salute at Kerry as she headed for the door. "Oh." She paused with the door half open. "Good decision on Oregon." Then she scooted through and shut the door after her, leaving Kerry in momentary silence.

"Thanks." Kerry said to the closed door. "Nice hat on the gopher." She added with a grin as she spotted Gopher Dar now sleeping in the corner of her screen, the hat tilted over his eyes.

With a shake of her head she went back to work, checking her watch for the time. It was nearly eight, and she had to get through the rest of her red flags before she left for her meeting at nine, and for a minute she wished she were working with Dar on her project instead.

"Bad Kerry." She resolutely clicked on the next mail.

IT HAD BEEN a very long time since Dar had wandered down to the first floor of their building and into the big central core telecom room. She propped the door open from long habit, looping a piece of old Ethernet cable tied around a conduit, just for that purpose, over the door handle and proceeding inside.

It was far from a glamorous place, concrete block walls lined with rack upon rack of circuit cards, cables, and routers. It also held two big UPS units to power the room if they lost outside electricity, its own air conditioning unit, and a, thankfully, raised floor so she didn't actually have to lie on concrete.

The walls were covered in steel conduit that lead to every other floor of the building, and there was a set of bright red pipes that indicated the lines coming in from outside. Those had tiny camera attachments to one side that allowed a fiber optic thread to penetrate the pipe at the top and give the security department visibility through the conduit to its terminus outside.

There were also cameras pointed toward them inside the patch room, a bit of extra insurance Dar had installed a year or so back. It never paid to take chances, and admittance to this particular room was restricted to four people inside the company, she being one of them.

Kerry and Mark were another two, and the fourth key resided in Plano in the hands of the corporate security officer, in case of disaster.

Dar set her bag down and ran her eyes over the racks to re-familiarize herself with the configuration. She'd supervised the original installation in this room, but it had been a while since she'd seen the hardware. She ran her fingers over the patch panels, peeking behind them to inspect the jacks.

Everything looked in order. Dar circled the room one more time, and then she selected a spot on the floor and knelt, pulling out her laptop and a set of cables. She plugged the end of the cable into one of the two master routers and sat down, leaning against the rack and putting Kerry's pillow behind her head to cushion it.

It added a bit of unexpected comfort that was welcome, considering the number of hours she suspected she'd be sitting here on the floor working. Dar smiled, taking an Ethernet cable from her bag and attaching the back of her laptop into the network with it. Kerry was so cool sometimes.

Okay, most of the time. In fact, there were times Dar did wonder what exactly she'd done in a past life to deserve meeting Kerry in this one.

Ah, well. She booted up her laptop and pulled a can of Yoohoo from her bag, opening it and setting it at her side in direct violation of the strict no beverage rule she'd put in place for this room.

The screen came up and she started up her analysis program, and then booted the network monitor. She cracked her knuckles and started typing, calling up the router configuration on one screen while she set the monitor running on another.

An alert flashed. Dar paused and looked at it, surprised. "What the?" She pulled up the monitor and made it full screen, her eyes flicking over the readouts. Her attention zeroed in on one escalating counter, and with a curse, she switched to the router screen and started typing like a demon.

"Son of a bleeping pissant hacker. Wait till I get you--"

"YOU OKAY TO walk from here, sailor boy?" Ceci put the truck in park and peered across the bridge leading to the port. "Or you want me to drop you down inside?"

"Naw." Andy gathered up his hard hat and a small sack lying next to him on the seat. "This here's fine. Don't want them beagle brains wondering nothing." He paused to regard the line of old ships stretching out down the cut while plucking a seam on his jeans.

Ceci watched him with a faint grin. "Well, go have fun then." She nudged his shoulder. "My husband the corporate spy."

Andy chuckled turning his head and giving her a light kiss on the lips. "Just doing Dardar a favor." He opened the door and hopped out giving the side of the truck a slap before he moved off down the sidewalk toward the bridge.

"Hmm." Ceci leaned on the truck steering wheel resting her chin on top of it. "I'm not sure who did who a favor." She made a mental note. Her beloved husband had settled into retirement, but Ceci knew him well enough to know having something to do was coming as a definite relief.

The fact that it was a truly interesting, actually important task, only made it all the better. Had Dar known that before she asked?

Well. Ceci mused. The apple didn't fall far from the tree, to quote a hoary old saying, and very probably her daughter had an inside insight into mentally hyper-driven, restlessly active behavior that she, thankfully, didn't.

In any case, Andy was excited as a kid with a new slingshot, and she found herself surprisingly grateful to Dar for making him that way. She looked around, spotting Bayside just to her right. Hmm.

Maybe she could get Dar a present to say thank you. With a brisk nod, she put the truck in gear and made a swift U-turn, crossing six lanes of traffic with placid non-concern.

Andrew walked slowly down the pier, nodding briefly at the few men wandering in to start work along with him. "Lo." He greeted the foreman who was standing near the gangway drinking a cup of coffee.

"Hey there, ugly." The foreman responded with an easy grin that stripped the insult of most of its sting. "Listen, buddy. The folks inside gave me a good write up on you."

Andrew stopped at the edge of the gangway and leaned on the chain rope. "Yeap? That so?"

The man nodded. "That Norskie said it was nice to have someone who spoke English but kept their mouth shut for a change."

Andy chuckled. "Them fellers inside done chatter a bit, that's true." He allowed. "Didn't seem any too organized, though." He added offhandedly. "Lots of them boxes went all over the place."

The foreman sighed and shook his head. "Yeah, I know. I heard that." He frowned. "Problem is the people who ordered all the stuff for the fixing up didn't palletize it."

"Yeap." Andy nodded.

"So we've got dishes mixed with plumbing fixtures. What a mess." He showed Andrew his clipboard that held reams of receiving invoices. "Look at this. You're going to have an even bigger mess coming in today."

Since he so nicely offered, Andrew took the board and examined the papers. "Wall." He leaned on the chains again and pointed at one of the lines with a scarred finger. "See that there?"

"Yeah?" The man looked at the line warily. "What about it?"

"Way back when, in the Navy, that there used to be called a source tick." Andy told him. "I ain't got a half clue what them boys back in the office do with it, but all them with the same number done belonged together."

The foreman looked around quickly. "Yeah?" He studied the number, then flipped a few pages, and looked at another invoice. "Son of a bitch! Look! Cups, saucers, and silverware, all the same one!" His voice rose excitedly. "If we can get a couple of big magic markers we might make sense of this damn crap. Hang on...I'll be right back. Ugly, you're a genius!"

Andrew watched him hurry off. "Lord." He moved on in search of a roach coach, spotting one outside the walkway. "What the hell these people being paid for I do wonder. Mah kid come in here and this whole basket'd been tossed head over keester by now."

There was a small crowd around the wagon and he joined it, standing in line to wait his turn, then pointing mutely at the coffee and holding up an apple he'd taken from the back of the coach when he got to the front. The vendor handed him a steaming cup and took his proffered money, then moved on to the next guy in line as Andrew set the cup down and put as much of everything he could to get it to stop tasting like watery coffee.

It was already warm, and he was sweating under his t-shirt, but as he walked over to stand near the gangway again and sipped his coffee, he felt good to be there anyway. He leaned against the huge cleat the ship was moored to and crossed his ankles, his military issue boots showing dark against the white concrete.

Two figures approached from down the pier, attracting his attention. He remained in place, however, idly munching on his apple as the two women approached. They were talking as they walked, looking around, but not really paying much attention to the men standing around on the pier.

As they came even with him, though, Andrew dropped his eyes to his cup, cocking his ears to listen instead.

"I'm telling you, Shari. It's going to take three weeks to get the damn wireless gear in here, and even then the best I can hope for is maybe a two megabit pipe to that rented office over there."

"We are not giving those bitches one flat dime, Michelle," the taller, older of the two women retorted. "I don't care if we have to move the office here. Rent space in that damn Catholic trailer. I don't give a shit. I've got other people working on screwing ILS, so I'm not going to sit here being screwed by them in the meantime."

"Well, hell," the shorter woman replied. "I say let's bury the hatchet long enough to get a connection, for Pete's sake. I need the access to the system, Shari! I can't run the hardware part of this with a fucking tin can and a roll of string!"

"Fine." The taller woman stormed onto the gangway, brushing right by Andrew as she did so. "Do whatever the fuck you want. Go screw the little blond rat you're lusting for. Maybe that'll get you what you want."

The smaller woman stopped at the edge of the gangway. She glared at the other woman's retreating back, then glanced at Andrew.

"Mornin'." Andrew tipped his coffee cup to her.

With a disgusted look, the woman turned and stalked off, her heels clattering loudly on the concrete.

"C'MERE...C'MERE..." Dar was focused intently on the screen, her body arced forward and hunched over the laptop. She had three windows open, and she was running traces in all of them, using a fourth to scramble rapidly after the would be hacker as they probed the gateways into her network.

It was a tough balance, trying to follow the hacker around while at the same time not revealing her presence and at the same time running traces on him to find out where he was from.

Instinctively, she'd thrown up a zone around the router he was attacking, locking off the security to her login alone, and restricting all inbound traffic to reroute through her analyzer. So there was no danger in letting him poke around because there was literally no place for him to go.

And maybe she could learn something about what he was looking for if she let him keep looking. But the probes did not seem to have any particular intent. The hacker was looking for something, anything, as though he was just opportunistically searching for any crevice.

Which, if she thought about it, made a peculiar kind of sense given the jerk wad challenge she'd tossed out there.

Without looking, Dar picked up the can of Yoohoo and took a swallow, then set it down quickly as her nemesis apparently decided to give up and backed out of the gateway. "Ah, ah, ah..." Dar glanced at the trace and then chuckled wickedly. "Ah, gotcha."

She followed him back out, away from their hardened entry point, back through the backbone he'd come in on, back to his own front door.

He vanished, his IP disappearing behind a firewall, but before he did Dar got one last bit of information from him she hadn't expected, an unusual port that she took a chance on and went in after him.

She never expected it to work, but the next thing she knew, she was in the raider's gateway router, a bland, innocent prompt facing her with a pound sign that rang alarm bells so loudly she had to look up to make sure she wasn't actually hearing them in real time.

For a moment she just sat there fingertips resting on her keyboard, letting her heartbeat settle down.

Okay. Dar took a deep breath. From where she was she could do damn near anything, far more in fact than the hacker could have done to her network if he'd gotten as far as she had.

It seemed a perfect opportunity. She could find out where this guy was from and what were his motives. Maybe turn the tables on him? He'd been pretty confident he'd get to her. Now she could chase him down to his very desk and...

Paybacks? Dar drummed her fingers, feeling a rising instinct that she knew from long experience to ignore at her own peril.

Carefully, she screen capped where she was, then very deliberately she clicked the X box on her command window and took herself out of the alien gateway.

If she could set up a trap, so could he, and the stakes were a lot higher for her if she was caught snooping inside someone else's network. If Mark had done it, well...he was her security chief. But to have the CIO of ILS get caught red handed breaking in?

No. Much as her fingertips itched to do it, that open router with a

pre-set enable password...that was just too easy.

"Guess I'm really not that hotshot punk anymore." Dar announced to the blinking routers. "Ah well." She sighed.

Then she sat back and pulled her bag over, taking a swig of her drink and pulling out an apple. She set it on her lap and pulled out her pocketknife, slicing the apple in half. With one eye on the monitors, she pulled out a tube of peanut butter and squeezed a blob onto the apple, taking a bite of it as she freed her other hand to type in a command.

Now, she could find out more about the hacker. She had a spoofed IP he'd been using, but the router she'd dropped into had a real one, and finding out who owned that was a relatively--

Dar blinked at the screen. A square was blinking in the center of her screen, with a simple, red heart in the middle of it, beating slightly.

Then a message appeared. Okay, so it's not Gopher Dar, butit gets my thoughts across, right?

Dar clicked on it, and answered back. Definitely. Where are you?

In my meeting. We're getting a price list together.

Dar watched her trace finish, and then exhaled, her eyes narrowing. Well, Telegenics just tried to send a hacker in here.

Big surprise. Kerry's snort could almost be heard.

No, it wasn't, but it was definitely a two edged attack, Dar realized. If they were coming after her and, as she suspected, trying to lure her into a trap--what would happen if they realized she'd already laid one for them?

Hey, Dar?

Dar took another bite of her apple, and typed a one handed reply. Yeah?

Mark says his alert monitor is going bonkers and no onecan get into the master router. You got any ideas what's up?

Oops. Tell him to relax. I'm doing something. Dar put the apple down and rattled the keys, resetting the router security and giving access back to the automated systems. Better?

A few seconds of silence, then He's not hyperventilating anymore. Must be. Can you take a break and come up just to hear the recap?

Dar drained her Yoohoo, looking thoughtfully at the question.

Yeah, be right up.

She needed to think about what she'd just seen, anyway.

"WHAT DID YOU think?" Kerry asked, as she and Dar walked down the hallway toward her office.

Dar glanced at her. "About your presentation skills, the plan, or how cute you look in that outfit?" She asked, with a rakish grin.

"What," Kerry sighed in mock exasperation, "am I going to do with you?" She shook her head, giving a wave to Mayte. "Get in here." She added pulling the door open and standing back to let Dar pass.

"Or?" Dar sauntered by, and waited for Kerry to close the door. "You going to spank me? Should have done it out in the hallway. That'd keep the rumor mill going for weeks." She walked over to the small couch in the office and sat down, letting her elbows rest on her knees.

"You're such a little devil sometimes." Kerry walked over and sat down next to her, preferring the couch's soft confines to her lonely desk chair. "And no, I meant the plan. I already know what you think about those other two things." She nudged Dar's shoulder.

Dar wiped a bit of router room dust off her fingertips. "I like it."

Kerry waited. Nothing else followed. "And?"

"And?" Dar reached down and retied the shoelace on her boot. "I think you've come up with a solid proposal. The one question is gonna be the cost."

"Well, sure." Kerry agreed. "But you think the way it's laid out, it'll work?"

Dar leaned back and crossed her arms, giving her partner a sideways look. "Can I ask something?"

Kerry also sat back. "Sure."

"You've done, easy, four dozen accounts without my help," Dar said. "So why do you think you need it on this one?"

Hmm. Kerry crossed her own arms and stared thoughtfully at the carpet, giving the question its due deliberation. Finally she just shrugged. "I don't know." The admission surprised her, possibly more than it did Dar. "Maybe because I know how important this is.?"

"They're all important." Dar unfolded her arms and laid her right one over Kerry's shoulders. "Just run with it, Ker. Don't worry about what I think. Just do what you think is right."

Kerry's index finger traced a light pattern on the denim covering Dar's thigh. "Easy to say, harder to accomplish." She smiled briefly. "So, anyway...what were you doing in the closet?"

"I've never been in the closet." Dar deadpanned, accepting the change of subject. "But I'm glad you asked. C'mere." She got up and led Kerry over to her desk, sliding into the chair and giving Kerry's trackball a roll. "Maybe I'm nuts. But I think I got out of a trap by the skin of my teeth."

"You?" Kerry leaned on the desk next to her. "Trap set by whom?"

Dar looked at her, and smiled grimly. "Someone who'd love to embarrass the hell out of us and plaster it all over the trade press. Look." She called up the screen on her own laptop, which she'd locked in the closet. It still had the screen captures she'd done on it, and her notes.

Kerry bent close, leaning on her elbows as she read, her lips moving slightly. She was aware of Dar's close presence, her breath warming the skin on the outside of Kerry's arm. "Wait, you got right in there?" She said. "Into that router? Holy pooters!"

"Uh huh." Dar rumbled softly.

"Wow. Bet you wanted to go right in there and smack 'em." Kerry mused. "I might have. How did you guess it was a trap? What if it wasn't? What if they're really that stupid?"

"Ker."

A sigh. "Yeah, I know. I just can't help it." Kerry flicked her fingernail against the monitor. "I can't even believe I'm suggesting that. I think my business ethics got chucked in the dumpster when it comes to those two f'ing bitches." She gazed down at her desktop. "Maybe that's why I'm all off balance on this thing, Dar."

"Mm." Dar glanced up as Kerry's intercom went off.

"Kerry?" Mayte's voice broke in. "I have that Michelle Graver person on line one." Though polite, Mayte's voice had a definite tinge of disapproval to it, much like the one her mother's had when necessary.

"Am I in?" Kerry swiveled around and laid down flat on her back, her legs dangling off the edge of her desk. "I have to ponder that for a minute. Tell Michelle to hold on." She turned her head and gazed at Dar.

"Sure." Mayte clicked off.

"Is it unprofessional of me to just want to keep her waiting for the hell of it?"

"No." Dar rested her elbows on the desk and leaned forward, tilting her head and gently exploring Kerry's lips with her own. "On the other hand..." She kissed her again, this time for a longer period. "Making her wait for this is highly unprofessional."

"Oh." Kerry folded her hands over her stomach and let her eyes flutter closed briefly as Dar continued her extremely unprofessional behavior. "If someone walks in right now, I think we'd both deserve to be fired," she finally said, with a small sigh.

"Probably." Dar agreed. "But I'd have to fly Alastair in to fire us, and by the time he got here, something would break and he'd just be asking us to come back."

Kerry's eyes twinkled, but she made a face as she reached across to hit the intercom. "Okay, put her through, Mayte."

"Okay." Mayte responded. "But are you sure? I think the music is very enjoyable for her.?"

Dar chuckled softly. "Mayte, you're sounding more and more like your mother every day." She added watching Kerry's eyes crinkle at the corners as she grinned.

"Thank you." Mayte said. "Mama will like that you said that, I am sure."

"Go ahead and connect her, Mayte," Kerry said. "I wouldn't condemn even Michelle to much more Muzak regurgitated "Nine Inch Nails"."

Mayte clicked off, then after a second, a soft buzz replaced her.

Kerry reached over and hit the answer button. "Operations, Stuart."

"Hello, Kerry." Michelle's voice was a mixture of cordiality and veiled frustration. "Sorry to disturb you."

Dar reached over and traced the edge of Kerry's ear, watching it turn pink after a few seconds.

"Ah, no problem. What can I do for you?" Kerry gamely replied. "Or are you just calling to insult me a little more? It's been a slow morning." She ignored the tiny mewing sounds from very close to her ear.

An audible sigh came through the phone. "Actually, I'm calling you to eat crow, which I know you'll enjoy, and ask how much you want for your blackmail circuit."

Kerry wiggled a little on her back, doing a small victory dance. "To be honest, Michelle--"

"Oh yes, I know you'll be that."

The mewling had altered, growing into a low growl. Kerry glanced at Dar, not surprised to see the pale blue eyes narrowed into slits. Experimentally, she reached over and touched Dar's lip, lifting it to inspect a well formed canine tooth just underneath.

Dar cocked an eyebrow at her, and stopped growling.

"Pass through cost plus five percent." Kerry said. "Take it or leave it." She drew a line up the center of Dar's nose, watching her eyes cross as she tried to follow it, and smiled as she imagined she could hear Michelle?s teeth grinding together on the other end of the phone.

"Fine." Michelle answered, clipping the word short. "What do you need to get it done?"

"A check and a circuit terminus." Kerry replied. "Just have someone see Mark Polenti at our office in Pier 10 tomorrow. He'll take care of it."

"Fine." Michelle said again. "Thanks. Bye."

The line went dead. Kerry exhaled. "Well, boss, we made almost four percent profit on that insurance policy. Not bad, huh?"

"Brilliant." Dar blew in her ear. "So brilliant, I'm going to leave this other little problem in your hands because when I backed out of that router I didn't want the CIO of ILS to be caught hacking. I remembered I put an industrial spy in Telegenic's camp. What happens if that comes out?"

Kerry eased herself upright, her back not particularly appreciating the hard surface of her desk. It gave her time to think about Dar's question, and consider the impact of it. "Well." She hopped off the desk and walked around in front of it. "How would it come out? It's not like he's not just doing a job, right?"

"Mm."

"Shari never met him, I guess, or she'd be a long squashed mango on I-95 by now." Kerry went on. "So unless he--"

"Hears them talking about us," Dar got up and ran a hand through her hair, "and behaves like he usually does, we're safe. Right?"

"Oh boy."

Dar headed for the back door to the hall that connected their offices. "Worry about it when it happens." She waved a hand at Kerry. "Meanwhile, I'm going to see if I can't find a way to turn the tables on our little bucket of chum."

Kerry sat down in her chair, the leather holding a hint of Dar's scent that surrounded her as she leaned back. What would really happen, she wondered, if Andy was found out? Would it be viewed as a scandalous criminal act, or just a smart piece of business? It wasn't as if, as she'd said to Dar, that Andrew had gotten the job on false pretenses.

He was qualified and more to do what they were paying him for. If he did the work, then what could anyone say, really?

Kerry felt the irony, though. She knew this was something her father would have done in a bare instant, and in fact, he'd readily approve of her tactics.

She grimaced.

That sure wasn't a nice feeling. Yet Andrew hadn't seemed to object to the task either. He'd agreed readily and seemed to think it was a good idea.

So where was the "right" in all this? Kerry opened her drawer and removed a piece of dried apricot from the bag there, putting it into her mouth and chewing it slowly. Was there any right?

Hmm.

KERRY EDGED THROUGH the construction zone in the middle of the ship, and looked around. She spotted ILS's senior electrical contractor near the other end of the space, and hastened to where he was standing surrounded by ship staff. "Jack.?"

The man turned and saw her. "Ah. Ms. Stuart. Glad you're here." He waited for her to join him. "We seem to have a problem here." Only here? Kerry allowed her public, diplomatic cloak to settle over her shoulders. "What seems to be the issue guys?"

"Are you in charge of all this?" One of the men standing around asked her. "I am hearing this person say he needs to turn off power to several decks of the ship."

Kerry eyed him thoughtfully. "Well, sure," she said. "He has to do that to put in more power, and the cabling we need for the new computer systems. He can't do that with the power on."

"What are we supposed to do?" The man asked. "We live here. Would you like to be in this damn heat with no power?"

"I was, just a little while ago, matter of fact," Kerry said. "No, it's not pleasant. But it's the only way we can get the job done, so what do you think we're supposed to do? I'm sure Jack will work with you and shut down a section at a time, not all the decks at once." She turned.

"Right?"

Jack hesitated, and then nodded. "Right."

"But we've got jobs to do too." The man continued arguing. "I have people to administer, services to fulfill. I can't be without power."

"We can move you to someplace that has it," Jack said.

"Certainly not! I have far too many important things in my office!" The man stated flatly.

Kerry folded her arms over her chest. "Okay." She looked him right in the eye. "I understand."

"Good." The man smiled.

"Just give me your name, so I can go back to Mr. Quest, and tell him why we can't proceed with his project." Kerry smiled back at him. "I'm sure he'll understand, too."

The man blinked in shock, then stiffened. "I didn't say you couldn't proceed!"

"Sure you did. You said you can't be without power. We have to turn the power off to go forward. So if you can't be without power, and you won't move to where power is, then we can't go forward."

The rest of the staff seemed content to watch, their eyes shifting between the man and Kerry as though watching an exciting ping-pong match. They all seemed to be deferring to the argumentative man, whose bearing indicated he was used to obedience and authority.

That was all right. So was Kerry, but in a different way. "So, can I have your name?" She asked gently. "Because Jack and I both have other things we could be doing if we're not going to be able to start up here."

"Right you are, ma'am." Jack stuck his thumbs into his jeans pockets, and rocked on the heels of his work boots. "Plenty of projects lined up.?"

"Unless maybe we could work something out with you--maybe we could have our guys move your stuff when we needed to." Kerry read the man's body language and decided giving him an out was a good idea. "We'd be glad to do that."

Jack scowled.

The man snorted, and lifted a hand. "Fine." He relented. "If you have to, you have to. But you must come to me before you turn off anything, so I can make sure nothing gets disrupted."

"Sure." Kerry said. "Jack, can you assign someone from your office to liaise with--" She looked at the man questioningly.

"Pieter Oshousen." The man supplied. "Staff Captain." He gave them all a nod, then turned and walked off, his back stiff.

"Right." Kerry watched as the rest of the staff dispersed also, their attitudes half amused and half disgruntled. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun." She added, once they were gone. "It's like being in an inhabited construction zone."

"Got that right." Jack sighed, scratching his head. "Where in the hell do we start? Every time I try to put a plan together, I keep running into these roadblocks."

Kerry shook her head. "Yeah, I know. C'mon, I think I found us something we can use for a central core, since my first choice just isn't going to fly." She led the way to the stairwell, and started down. "They don't like this idea either, but it takes space away from passengers not crew, so at least they won't stand in our way, and the overall ship management approved it."

Jack snorted. "Figures." He followed Kerry down the steps, and then though a series of doorways until she stopped in front of one. She pushed it open and stood back pointing inside. With a doubtful look, he stepped past her and entered the space. "Ah."

Kerry entered after them. "Yeah."

Jack turned around. "This is a cabin."

"It is. But it's an inside one and they've actually given me two of them." Kerry agreed. "This one and the one next to it, which is through this connecting door." She shoved the inner door open and looked through.

Both cabins had seen far, far better days. The carpet was an indiscriminate color, perhaps it had once been aqua, and the walls had peeling laminate of an equally grayish hue. There were no beds, but on one wall, a pull down bunk was clamped.

It smelled horrible.

"We'll have to strip both rooms, but I think it's workable, and this wall," Kerry walked over and slapped the inner partition, near the bunk, "backs onto the elevator shaft and all the conduit track ways."

Jack looked measurably happier. "Eh? Do they? Now that's workable." He walked over to inspect the wall, then reached up to push at the ceiling. It gave under his touch, the panel lifting up and showering them both with debris best left undescribed. "Uh...sorry."

Kerry plucked her shirt out, scattering the gunk, and ran her fingers through her hair to send more flying. "No problem." She responded. "Anything up there?"

Her companion flipped a flashlight up and peered into the space. "Lucked out." He grunted. "Not a firewall. This is an easy punch." He turned his head. "Good pick, ma'am. We can work with this."

"Thanks. Now," Kerry put her hands on her hips, "you can start laying cable in, while I get a general contractor in here to make this space livable. I can't even put a rack in here until we put down a substrate and extra AC."

"Yup." The electrical contractor nodded. "I'll get my fiber guy in here, and the cable people. You pick where you want the access closets, or is that a fight too?"

Kerry sighed. "What do you think?"

"Need to know that, 'fore I can have the fiber feller quote the job."

Jack sounded apologetic. "I was going around the decks before you got here. I thought I saw some electrical closets up there you could mount a switch or two in, and they can't use 'em for storage."

"Really? Show me." Kerry followed him out the open door and down the hallway. Could she get that lucky? Electrical closets already had ventilation, and naturally they had power--could she get away with not having to fight the already hostile staff for yet more precious space?

They started up the forward stairs wincing a little as their shoes stuck to the treads. Workmen dressed in ship jumpsuits brushed by them going the other direction without giving them a second glance, but just seeing them made Kerry suddenly wonder about something.

Andrew was in Shari and Michelle's ship. What if they'd put someone in hers? How would she tell? She looked around at the workmen, all of whom looked more or less alike, and most seeming to look right through her in return. Well, she could request all their employment details and have checks run, but?

"Here." Jack led her off one of the stair landings into a side corridor, with cabins on either side. He found one unmarked door and yanked it open, to reveal a small, poorly lit closet with a large breaker box and other electrical piping inside.

It was small and dirty, but Kerry pulled out a tape measure and found a relatively clear spot on one wall of the closet. "We can squeeze a half rack in here," she said. "How many of these are there?"

"Two on each deck."

Kerry snapped the tape measure shut. "Sold." She tucked the tool away. "Put an extra one percent on your estimate, Jack. You solved a huge problem for me. To retrofit space for these things would have cost me a bundle."

A big smile crossed the contractor's face. "Y'know, that's what I love about dealing with you. I never feel like it's always one of us taking, one giving, or turn around." He held a hand out. "Makes my life easier too. I've already got a lot of conduit up there I can use."

Kerry solemnly shook his hand. "Okay. Give me an eight-strand fiber core to each closet, terminating in our snazzy cabin digs, and cable runs to all the places on the blueprints. When can I expect a quote?"

Jack chuckled, as they went back down the hallway. "Tomorrow, maybe. Hey, one thing though, this electrical mostly isn't up to code. Not your gig, but the stuff I have to put in will be. What about the rest?"

Good question. She wondered if that had been part of Quest's plan, since the construction would have to pass local inspection at some point. "I don't know. How about I put you together with their admin people. Maybe they'll let you quote it, if they don't have a contractor already."

"I'd appreciate that." He grinned at her.

Yeah, bet you would. Kerry muffled a smile. She liked Jack but she knew he knew where his best interests lay. However, it certainly wouldn't hurt to have him get more business, and maybe he'd agree to adjust his costs if he could get a bigger volume.

Business was like that. You did a favor, sometimes you got a favor. Sometimes you didn't, but she'd learned that despite what Dar often said and did, you really could get more with honey than vinegar. "Okay, I'm off to go call Roberto. See you later, Jack." She waved at the contractor as they returned to the main deck.

"Oh, Ms. Stuart."

Kerry stopped and turned as she saw the chief purser headed her way. In contrast to the hostility the day before, the woman now seemed anxious to be polite to her. Hmm. Kerry waited for her to catch up and wondered if her fencing with the staff captain had gotten around. "Hi."

"Hi." The woman smiled at her. "Listen. I just wanted to apologize about yesterday. I know you're just here to get a job done, and I was totally out of line going off like that."

Uh huh. "No problem." Kerry replied. "I really do understand how strange it must be for you to have us come in here and just start doing things. We really don't know much about how you run everything." She shifted her body language taking a more casual stance. "And now that I've been around the ship, I can see how tight everything is."

The woman relaxed and her smile widened. "Wow, I'm glad you understand. I hear you found another spot for your stuff. Is it going to be okay?" She edged around a little. "Listen, we've got some coffee over in the mess, can I get you a cup?"

Well, when it came to gift horses, the heads were definitely better than the tails. "Sure." Kerry agreed, allowing herself to be lead on by her new friend. "Maybe you can fill me in on how things work here, you know? So we can all get along better."

"Ah. Glad to." Drucilla seemed far more confident. "You just stick with me."

Uh huh. Kerry produced a grin. Let's see where this goes, because sometimes you just never know.