Tropical Convergence

Chapter Eighteen

KERRY GLANCED AT herself in the mirror and grinned impishly, adjusting the strapless front of her dress with careful fingers. The one nice thing about New York was, if you wanted fast, stylish shopping, you had it in spades all around you. She and Dar had gotten in and out of the stores in under forty five minutes, and now she was reviewing the results.

"Nice," she complimented herself. The dress she'd found was a deep, forest green silk with a tiny embroidered pattern, classic and plain, reaching just down to her knees. It was sleek, and fit her curves nicely, and even the prospect of sitting through an opera couldn't put a damper on her mood. "Hey, sweetie?"

"Yes?" Dar's voice floated out from the bathroom.

"How about we find us some place to dance after the show?" Kerry asked. "Go out and party. I think we're due it, after your brilliant solving of the problem here."

Dar poked her head out of the bathroom. "You consider dancing with me a party?" she asked in a quizzical tone.

Kerry looked over at her. "You are not a bad dancer," she stated. "So don't give me that. C'mover here."

Obediently, Dar eased around the door jamb and came over to join Kerry in front of the mirror. She was dressed in a snazzy blue number an inch or two longer than Kerry's, but with much the same cut. "But sure, if you want to, I'm game." She picked up Kerry's brush and started brushing her partner's pale hair. "That looks really good on you."

Kerry turned her head and looked up. "Likewise, and thank you." She smiled warmly. "Shall we go the opera, madame?"

Dar tossed the brush onto the dresser and gestured toward the door with a grand flourish. "After you." She picked up the small clasp purse that held her wallet and electronics, and followed Kerry as she half walked, half danced toward the hallway.

"Heh."

Kerry turned as they reached the elevator. "What's so funny?"

Blue eyes blinked innocently. "Nothing."

The doors opened. "Uh huh. Go on." Kerry indicated the opening.

"Oh no. Ladies first," Dar drawled. "Please."

Kerry gave her a suspicious look, but she entered the brass and glass lined car and waited for her partner to join her before she pressed the button for the lobby. They started down, and halfway she found herself having to equalize her ears. "Oh, egh."

"Mm." Dar pressed her thumb behind her right earlobe. "I don't like having to do this without getting wet." She looked up in time to see a very devilish expression on Kerry's face. "What's that look for?"

Kerry closed the distance between them and leaned against Dar as she laid a hand on her cheek and kissed her on the lips. "Mm."

Dar forgot about being in a hotel elevator. She slid a hand around Kerry's side and continued the kiss, allowing the passion to build between them even as the car slowed, and bumped gently to a halt.

They parted just as the doors did, and the echoing buzz of the crowd in the lobby filtered in. Kerry licked her lips and took a step back, taking a steadying breath before she dared look up again.

Dar's face had a definite flush to it, and her eyes held a dark twinkle that came very close to making Kerry simply punch the button for their hotel floor and forget all about the damn opera. "Well. Made me forget all about my damn ears," Dar commented. "Shall we?"

Kerry half reluctantly exited the elevator, giving the small group of people waiting to get on a polite smile. She waited for Dar to catch up to her, then they both continued on toward the door to the street. "Dar? Have you ever been to the opera?"

Dar simply laughed.

"I went a few times," Kerry admitted, as they emerged into the warm night air. "I have to admit I missed the popcorn and Raisinettes."

Dar led the way to the curb, bypassing the hard working door man who was busy getting cabs for people. She fixed her gaze on an oncoming yellow cab and hailed it.

The door man gave her a respectful look and hurried over to open the cab door. "Ma'am?"

"Thank you," Dar responded graciously, ducking inside the cab and scooting over as Kerry joined her. "Radio City Music Hall," she instructed the driver.

"You got it," the man responded cheerfully, pulling away from the curb and into the busy traffic flow with little regard to either oncoming cars or the lives of anyone in his own.

Kerry slid her hand into Dar's and clasped it, settling back happily into her seat to watch the city go by. "Boy, I'm glad you got that problem cleared up. I'd hate to have been spending the night in that office."

"Uhm." Dar removed a small case from her purse and offered Kerry one of its contents. "Even though I took them down in the middle of the day? I saw you squirming over that."

"Well..." Kerry selected a small candy and put it into her mouth, grimacing a moment later. "Flamingos on a shoestring, Dar...you could have told me that was sour."

Dar sucked on her candy contentedly. "Sour tangerine," she agreed. "They had lemon, too."

Kerry resolutely swallowed the offending bit of confection. "It wasn't the choice I'd have made," she admitted. "But you know that. I tend to be...a little more conservative than you are."

"Conservative." Dar reached up and traced around Kerry's tattoo, cheekily visible over the line of her dress. "Uh huh."

"Mm." Kerry grinned a little. "But anyway, you're right. I was squirming. I knew you'd make it come out right, but I really thought you were taking a big risk there."

And she had been. Dar felt the warmth of Kerry's fingers curled in hers, and felt herself at peace with her decision. "I've always been a risk taker," she said. "And to be honest, I didn't really want to spend any more time there myself. So it worked out."

"It definitely worked out," Kerry agreed. "And our friend, the reporter, didn't get his paycheck shot."

Dar chuckled briefly. "That could have gone the wrong way." She sighed. "We got lucky," she added. "Hopefully we can keep it that way. He's going to be sniffing at everything during this damn bid, and we need to win it."

"Because you promised Alastair?"

Dar glanced at her. "No, damn. I didn't tell you," she said. "Slipped my mind, I guess...or maybe I..." She fell momentarily silent. "Anyway, some big shot in the cruise industry called Alastair. He's got almost a hundred ships...wants his tech updated and is going to look at whoever wins this one to do his."

Kerry almost stopped breathing. "That's big bucks, huh?" she finally uttered.

Dar snorted softly. "Alastair thinks it'll save our quarter." She glanced out the window. "Funny how a chance meeting in Orlando turned out."

Kerry stared at the back of the taxi driver's head behind it's Plexiglas protection. "Dar, I almost blew Quest off yesterday and didn't file the bid paperwork."

Dar turned her head completely to one side and looked right at her. "Almost?"

Kerry nodded faintly. "I was pissed off because he kept calling and harassing Mayte. I almost told her to toss the paperwork in the drawer and go home."

"But you didn't?"

"I didn't. She offered to take it over to him and I said to do it." She exhaled. "But it was more important to me to get up and see you. I wasn't interested in Quest." She paused. "Or my job." She turned and met Dar's eyes.

They were twinkling. "Good." Dar leaned forward and kissed her. "Considering I almost blew off a major client and got us both in hot water because I wanted to have dinner with you."

"Is that fair to the company, Dar?" Kerry asked in a quiet voice.

"No. But it's fair to us." Her partner leaned back. "And besides, we won the gamble anyway."

"Mm." Kerry found she wanted very much to accept that answer, and not argue the subject. She often made very different decisions than Dar did as part of their daily work life, and they'd come to understand that their approaches to things were, despite their obvious compatibility, different.

Which was okay. She often learned things from how Dar worked, and she knew sometimes Dar picked up a trick or two from her. Kerry put her head down against Dar's shoulder and fell silent, content to watch the bright lights of the city flash past as the cab driver wound his way through the heavy traffic.

Then they were there. Dar had already handed the driver his fare before Kerry could even so much as grab her wallet, and she reflected that in one area, preplanning, Dar really did have it all over her on a very consistent basis.

They got out and joined a stream of people heading for the doors. The range of dress was amazing, and Kerry found herself almost goggling at the sight of actual mink wrapped around several women's necks despite the summer heat. "Yikes. I'd croak."

Dar spotted a counter nearby. "Want a drink?" she offered.

"My turn." Kerry tapped her on the hip with her purse. "Get us some programs?"

Programs. Dar spotted a woman handing them out, and she headed in that direction. She waited to catch her eye, then accepted two of the handbills. "Thanks."

"No problem, ma'am...can I see your tickets? Maybe I can direct you..." the usher asked helpfully. "It's a big place."

Dar tucked the bills under her arm and fished the tickets from her purse. "Yeah, sure." She handed them over. "That what you're looking for?"

The woman smiled. "Yes, ma'am, these are easy. Go right down front, and it's in the very middle of the row. Best seats in the house." She handed Dar back her tickets. "Enjoy the show!"

"Thanks." Dar studied the tickets in bemusement before tucking them back in her bag. She took the playbills and headed off, intercepting Kerry who was carrying two glasses of wine. "I'm told we have good seats," she informed her partner, trading a playbill for a glass.

"Oo." Kerry opened the booklet. "The Mikado--I'm trying to remember if I've...hm." She read the synopsis. "No, I've never seen this one."

Hearing her name made her look up to see an older woman approaching them, waving one hand. Kerry had to rack her brains to place her, but fortunately she did just before the woman reached them.

"Hello, Ms. Patrick."

"Kerrison! How amazing it is to see you here! My gosh, it's been years!" the woman blurted. She was perhaps in her fifties, with silver gray hair and a sophisticated sequined silver gown. "Are you living up here now?"

"No." Kerry shook her head. "I live in Miami. I'm just in the city for a few days on business." She half turned. "Ms. Patrick, this is Dar Roberts, my partner. Dar, Ms. Patrick was a professor of mine in college."

"Nice to meet you," Dar replied politely. "Professor of..?"

"Computer Science," the woman supplied. "What kind of business, Kerrison? I know when you graduated you said you wanted to do something in management, but..."

And she'd been quite sure, Kerry suddenly recalled, that Kerry wouldn't end up in anything like that at all. "I work for ILS." She tasted a deep sense of pleasure in the words.

"Do you? How marvelous!" Ms. Patrick looked vaguely surprised. "In what area? I seem to remember you really liked design."

"I'm the vice president of global operations."

The woman blinked at her in silence for a long moment. "Oh," she finally managed to get out. "Isn't that lovely?"

"I think so," Dar interjected. "Best vice president we've had in years."

The woman looked up at her in puzzled silence for a moment, then a visible light bulb went on over her meticulously coifed head. "Oh my...are you that Dar Roberts?"

Dar merely looked at her, refusing to dignify the question with the obvious answer.

Ms. Patrick backed away. "Well, isn't that great...nice to have seen you, Kerrison. Have a nice time at the show."

Dar waited for the woman to disappear into the crowd, before she turned to her partner. "Enjoy that?"

"Uh huh."

"Good."

They took their drinks and headed into the main hall. Just inside the doors, after surrendering their tickets, they both had to stop and look around in frank wonder.

"Holy catfish." Dar craned her neck and peered around at the vast, grand, art deco infrastructure. "This is gorgeous."

"Uh huh," Kerry agreed, blinking at the bright sunset themed colors, which reminded her unnervingly of Key West. "C'mon." She took Dar's arm and lead the way down the aisle.

They settled into their seats, and now that she didn't have to worry about bumping into mothball smelling matriarchs, Dar was free to take in the immensity of the theatre, from its delicate stage arch to the sloping seating. It was an amazing place, and she found herself looking forward to watching whatever it was that was about to start going on.

The Mikado. Dar studied her program. Ah. Japanese intrigue. Maybe there would even be a sword fight. She stretched out her legs, pleased to be in the front row with all the extra room.

Life was good. She glanced aside at Kerry, who was merely sitting, her program in her lap, and a benignly contented look on her face. "Quarter for your thoughts?"

Kerry chuckled, folding her hands over her stomach and exhaling. "I was just thinking about what my family would give to have front row center seats at Radio City," she admitted. "Going to the theatre in Manhattan was the be all and end all of anyone's social agenda where I came from."

"Ah." Dar wiggled her fingers. "Getting into the X-rated movies for free was where I came from," she responded, with a droll grin. "I got really good at picking the locks on the movie theatre back door."

Kerry started laughing. "Do you realize the first X-rated movie I ever saw was in your living room?" she whispered, catching the stern looks from their neighbors despite the fact that the show had not yet started. "Jesus, people...chill out!"

"Well." Dar leaned closer to her. "Would you be talking about X-rated movies in front of your family?"

Kerry hastily covered her eyes with one hand and bit her lip.

"Didn't think so."

A short time later, the house lights began to lower. Kerry tucked her fingers inside Dar's once more, and settled down to watch, resolving to enjoy the moment, the night, and the sense of occasion, even if opera wasn't her favorite thing on earth.

IT SEEMED ONLY a few minutes later when the lights were coming back up, and the show was over. "Wow," Kerry murmured. "That was pretty cool." She joined the audience in enthusiastic clapping. "What'd you think?"

"I liked it," Dar agreed. "Funny story, catchy tunes," she added. "And pretty girls. What more could you ask for?"

Kerry chuckled. "Hm...with a lead girl character called Yum-Yum, I should have known you'd like it."

Dar half turned and gave her a mock outraged look, putting one hand on her hip. "Kerrison!"

Green eyes batted their lashes at her with devastating Midwestern innocence. "Yes?"

"Let's go get ice cream." Dar stood up and extended her hand to her partner. "I think you need cooling off."

Kerry accepted the aid, and was lifted gracefully to her feet by a smooth contraction of Dar's arm. "Why thank you, ma'am. After you?"

They walked out hand in hand, going along with the slow flow of the audience as it filtered through the tall, beautiful entranceways and out into the lobby. There was a buzz of conversation, and Kerry found herself smiling as she took in a crowd once very familiar to her. "Honey, I'm going to go use the restroom...meet you by the bar, there?"

"Nah. I'll go with you." Dar laid a hand on her back as they edged through the press of bodies. "Know what?"

"You're hungry," Kerry replied without missing a beat. "I hear you growling back there even over this circus." She jumped a little as Dar growled in her ear, ending the noise with a rumbling purr. "I'm fairly sure there's at least one restaurant around this place."

Dar chuckled, as she pushed the bathroom door open for both of them, extending her arm easily past Kerry's body. "This was really nice," she commented. "Remind me to send Alastair a box of cookies or something for it, will you?"

"Sure." Kerry found herself a partition and entered. She idly listened to the conversations around her as she went about her business. She heard Dar's low, vibrant voice exchange a mutual excuse me, and then a sharp, very New York accented tone complain bitterly about the quality of toilet paper.

Kerry pulled off a few sheets and examined it. "Hey, Dar?"

A soft throat clearing nearby. "Yes?"

"You see this here fancy napkins they put in here?" Kerry put as much of a drawl as she was capable of into her tone and was rewarded with a muffled snicker. "I'm going to take me some of these and put them on the table back home."

"Okay, Forrest," Dar replied through a rumble of laughter. "You do that."

Kerry finished up and went to the sink, washing her hands while still chuckling under her breath. She wiped her fingers dry and turned to wait for Dar, exchanging glances with a tall redheaded woman also standing by waiting.

"That's a gorgeous tattoo," the woman commented, with a faint nod toward Kerry's chest.

Kerry blinked, suffering a moment of bewilderment before she looked down at her shoulder and realized the woman was talking about her. "Oh. Thanks," she murmured, peering back up with a bit of sheepish look. "Haven't had it that long."

"You have it done here?" the woman asked, turning her arm to display the point of her shoulder, which had a cobra on it. "I had this done last month."

The cobra was nice, but Kerry noticed it lacked the vibrancy of her own decoration. "No, I had it done down in Miami," she replied. "There's a guy there who's a really good artist."

"Yeah, no kidding." The woman leaned closer. "That's very cool." Her eyes studied the mark. "Who's Dar?"

"That would be me."

Kerry resisted the urge to look up and over her shoulder. The redhead didn't, however, and she straightened up and took a step backwards when presented with Dar's towering intimidation.

"Well, anyway, congrats on a nice tat." The woman retreated further, grabbing a napkin off the counter before she left the bathroom, taking her somewhat disappointed looking cobra with her.

"Ready?" Kerry gave Dar a smile as she led the way out of the bathroom with her sauntering lover behind her. "You know, that was nice."

"What was, the TP? I'll get you a double case of Charmin at Costco when we get back, okay? You can keep some in your desk drawer."

"That lady liking my tattoo," Kerry said. "But I'll remember that offer. I don't know what the heck the facilities people were thinking last month, but the stuff they changed to reminds me of grocery bags."

They walked outside, accepting the shock of going from icy chill to muggy heat as something natural. "What's your poison?" Dar asked. "I had Italian last night, but I'll do it again if you want."

Kerry licked her lips. "Mm...let's walk down a little bit and see what we find. I don't know if I'm in the mood for that."

The streets were busy around them in a way Miami never was. Their hometown had no central downtown area and was in no sense a walking city. It was far more a huge urban and suburban sprawl, extending up and down the coast for three counties made up of clusters of shopping surrounded by clusters of residential areas.

This was a nice change, really, Kerry thought. It reminded her a little of the trips she'd occasionally made to Chicago with her debating team, when they'd get away for the afternoon and roam the downtown near their hotel, finding anything that didn't smack to hell of home.

Like Garrett's popcorn. Kerry licked her lips in memory, even after all these years. Or the pieces of thick pizza they'd shared on the sidewalk, looking up at the huge, towering buildings. It had been very different than her few trips to Manhattan with her family, that's for sure.

Ah well.

Dar took her hand again as they strolled along, passing brightly lit store fronts and places that became suddenly familiar to them from television. "Hey, look." Kerry pointed. "That's where you always see people standing with signs looking like goofballs on the Today show."

"Uh huh," Dar agreed. "Isn't that where that huge Christmas tree goes?"

"And the ice skating rink, yeah," her companion said. "Can you ice skate?"

Dar pondered the question briefly. "Yes," she finally admitted. "Chinese?" She directed Kerry's attention to a storefront one level up. "I could go for something spicy."

"Sounds pretty darn good to me." Kerry led the way over to the restaurant. They had just gotten seated when first hers, then Dar's pager went off. "Oh, pooh."

Dar removed her device from her purse and keyed it. "Ops center. Never good news."

Kerry sighed and lifted her cell phone, speed dialing and holding the device to her ear as she listened to Dar order for them both. "Hi, it's Kerry Stuart," she said as the line was answered. "What's up?"

"Oh, hi ma'am," the voice answered. "This is Jason. Sorry to bother you, but Mark said I should page out. We had a big forced entry attempt here a little while ago."

Dar's eyebrow cocked up as she caught the tinny sounding words from the phone Kerry was holding a little ways away from her ear.

"Successful?" Kerry asked.

"Ma'am." Jason managed to sound politely scandalized. "If it had been, you'd be talking to Mark right now, not me, that's for sure. No offense."

Dar snorted softly.

"Does Mark have a culprit?" Kerry asked. "Any ideas, or..."

"He's got some stuff he's tracking down. He wanted me to tell you to tell the boss someone was trying to call her bluff."

Dar's eyes narrowed and the planes of her face shifted into a dour expression.

"The boss knows," Kerry said. "If he finds anything, tell him to call us."

"Will do, ma'am."

Kerry folded her phone up and tapped it on the table. "I don't much like the sounds of that."

Dar eased back in her seat, giving the waiter a nod as he delivered two chilled glasses of plum wine. She picked one up and sipped from it before she answered. "It was excessively stupid of me to make that damn claim."

"Oh, well, that's not what I meant..."

"Kerry, it was," Dar interrupted her. "Regardless of whether it was true or not, pissing into an open fire hydrant is just plain idiotic. Mark's going to be cleaning up after that for months." She glared at her wine. "Bah."

Kerry patted her partner on the leg. "It got us good press, sweetie. If Mark can keep them at bay, we can get even better press out of it. I have faith in him, and in your infrastructure."

"Hmph." Dar looked mollified, however. "Maybe if he's got a lead on who they are, I can go back on them and nail 'em," she suggested. "That'd be fun."

"There you go." Kerry smiled at the waiter, who appeared with two bowls of steaming hot and sour soup. "Mm...that smells great."

Dar had removed her PDA from her purse and was scribbling on it. Kerry watched her as she picked up a spoon and sipped her soup. "Mark?"

"Yeah."

"You know what would be cool?"

"What?" Dar glanced at her.

"If we had software that could not only detect stuff like this, but proactively go out and find the jerks trying it and turn the tables on them," Kerry said. "Couldn't you write something like that, Dar?"

Dar tapped her stylus idly on the edge of her PDA. "I don't do coding anymore," she demurred. "I haven't even looked at some of the newer languages..."

"Sure you do," Kerry disagreed. "You write little things all the time. My dancing gopher, that program that keeps track of our expenses, that database thing Maria uses...those are all yours."

A half shrug. "That's just little stuff, like you said." But Dar's voice lacked real conviction.

"Wouldn't it be cool?" Kerry repeated. "That would be such a killer app, if you could have it go out and snag these losers. Find a way through all those backdoor portals and all that masking stuff."

Dar's eyes went briefly unfocused. "Hm." She made a noise deep in her throat, low and thoughtful. "That would be cool," she admitted. "Might fit in with some of the heuristic stuff I was looking at...maybe I could take a look at what the structure might need..."

Ahh. Kerry smiled inwardly. Caught that mind, I think. "It would be awesome."

Dar scribbled several notes, then keyed something, and scribbled several more. Then she hit send and closed the device, folding her hands over it. "So." She turned her attention fully to Kerry. "What were we talking about...toilet paper, right?"

"Toilet paper, and tattoos." Kerry lifted her wine glass, and touched it to Dar's. "And pretty little girls named Yum-Yum."

Dar returned the toast, and they both took a sip. "You know..." Dar looked around. "New York's not so bad after all."

"Hear hear," Kerry agreed, with a smile. "I'm glad I had a chance to play here with you."

The blue eyes lit as a returning smile appeared. "Me, too," she replied. "Ker, I really appreciate you coming up here. I...um..." Dar's gaze dropped briefly, then lifted again. "I really do."

Kerry put her glass down and reached over to cover Dar's hand with her own. "Any time, sweetie. It made me so happy to do it. I about did somersaults in the airplane aisle," she reassured her partner. "I loved being here."

Dar lifted her glass again, and they touched rims, then impishly, she leaned much closer and twined her arm through Kerry's. They drank from each other's glass, and took advantage of the restaurant's trendy dimness to share a kiss that lasted one heartbeat short of a scandal.

Ah well, Kerry reflected, as they parted and picked up their spoons.

If anywhere on earth could handle that, it was New York. It was big enough to handle just about anything.