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 forw
ard 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."
Chapter Two
KERRY TURNED THE page of the book she was reading, enjoying the cool breeze off the water as she swung idly back and forth in the swing chair. It was just past six and they'd left work early after a long, long week.
Fortunately after the party Quest had left them all alone, and neither she nor Dar had heard anything more about the project all week long which had turned out to be a damn good thing.
Disasters tended to come in spurts. This week she'd had to deal with six of them, one for each day and two on Monday that had almost resulted in her being on an airplane to someplace boring and unpleasant.
But she'd worked it out in the end, and now she was blissfully enjoying the quiet decompression of sitting on the deck watching the sun's light slowly fade.
Behind her, the glass door slid open releasing a puff of chilled, garlic scented air along with Dar's tanned and mostly bare body. "Hey." Kerry lazily rolled her head to one side as Dar joined her on the swing chair, dressed in only a pair of soft cotton shorts and a colorful scarlet sports bra. "What are you up to?"
"About six and a quarter." Dar put her feet up on the stone porch balustrade, flexing her toes against the warm surface. "Busy week."
"Uh huh." Kerry laid her book down and let her head rest against Dar's shoulder. "I'm glad it's over. Between my fubars and your hackers, I wanted to call Florida Power and Light and have them take the power out again." She leaned closer and sniffed Dar's skin curiously. "Why do you smell like bubble gum?"
"I was playing ball with Chino and her new toy." Dar displayed a clump of cream colored hair dusting her shorts. "It's a giggle ball, and it smells weird."
"A giggle ball?"
"Uh huh." Dar said. "Like you." She reached over and tickled her partner who obliged her by giggling and smacking her hand.
"Dar!" Kerry tried to tickle her back, but found her hands caught and gently held. "You punk."
Dar released her, as she chuckled. "Yeah, I've been a punk all week. I'm driving the Ops crew nuts. I think they wish I'd go back to yelling at people in meetings."
"That's not true. They love it," Kerry said. "I heard them in the break room. You were the entire subject of conversation the last six times I went through there." She added, "At least until they spotted me. Then it switched to soccer."
"Soccer?" Dar sounded pleased nonetheless. "Yeah, I've been giving them some pointers as long as I'm taking over the console." She wiggled her toes contentedly. "Been sort of fun."
"They're in awe of you, you know that, right?" Kerry smiled, rocking them both a little. "Hey, I've got an idea--you up for a night dive tonight?"
"Oo." Dar's eyes lit up. "Yeah!"
Ah. Kerry felt the stress of the week slip away from her. Warm air, warm water, and the stars. "You'll protect me from cuttlefish, right?"
"With my life." Da
r promised.
"I'll grab dinner, you grab the towels. Let's go get deep."
"C'MON, CHINO." Kerry herded their pet onto the back of the boat watching her frisk about, and busy herself smelling every square inch of it. After watching the dog for an indulgent minute, Kerry continued on into the boat's cabin and put down her armful of supplies.
She set the full pot of spaghetti and meatballs on the small stove, putting the locking arm in place to keep the contents from becoming interior decoration when Dar started the boat moving. The wine she put in the small fridge to chill, along with the dessert, a six pack of yogurt, and some baby chocolate milk chugs.
The boat rocked lightly, announcing Dar's presence and a second later she joined her in the cabin. She dropped a mesh bag containing Kerry's gear on the deck and tossed her own nearby. "We're outta here."
"Go go Gadget." Kerry went to stow the diving gear. "I'll get us loose."
Dar ducked outside and headed up to the controls while Kerry dodged the curious Chino and hopped onto the dock to untie the lines. The sun had just gone down, and the breeze had picked up, tossing her hair back as she jumped back on board. "Okay!"
The low rumble of the diesels starting up vibrated the deck beneath her feet. Chino barked in surprise, and backed up as the water churned behind them. Normally, Kerry would go up and join her partner as they motored out, but she knew if she did their pet would stand at the bottom of the ladder and bark, so she parked herself in one of the wood and fabric deck chairs instead. She was barefoot and wearing a sleeveless muscle t-shirt. She completed her outfit by snagging one of Dar's baseball caps and putting it on backwards to keep her hair out of her eyes once the wind came up.
Chino went over to stand near the edge of the deck as they backed into the quiet marina waterway, her tail wagging idly as she watched the other boats go past.
Kerry stretched her legs out and leaned back as the island slowly receded, the lingering bands of sunset still painting the sky to the west.
It was warm, but with the breeze, very comfortable. Kerry allowed herself a few more lazy moments until they reached the buoy and Dar kicked the engines into higher gear. Then she pushed herself to her feet and got to work preparing their gear for the dive.
Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series Page 3
