by Melissa Good
"Two months, " Dar repeated, unmoved. "We have a certain degree of leverage."
The man looked at Sir Melthon, and shook his head.
"McLean, is this rot?" Melthon turned his head and peered at Alistair. "I don't need a load of hot air. I have a wife for that."
Alastair didn't turn a hair. "Nah," he said. "If Dar says two months, it's two months, and probably earlier," he said. "She rebuilt an entire networking center in one night, y'know. Reliable as the day is long."
The magnate snorted. "You willing to lay a bet on that?" he asked. "You do it in time or the whole deal is off, how's that for a bet?"
"Sure." The genial Texan didn't so much as glance at Dar. "But I'll tell you what, we do it in two months, and you toss in a contract for the rest of your network. How's that for a bet?"
Dar stood quietly waiting, gaining a new appreciation for her boss's always surprising wheeling and dealing side she didn't get to see very often. Usually she was pulling Alastair's ass out of the fire. This time, they were both playing a somewhat dangerous game of poker that was making the sales reps eyes bug out.
Sir Melthon studied the gray haired man sitting next to him, his hands resting relaxed on the table.
"Sir," the man next to him murmured, "this sounds dangerous."
"Hah!" the magnate barked suddenly. "Damn straight it does." He turned to Dar. "Well, smart mouthed woman, get to talking. We've got a bet on." He held a hand out to Alastair. "Good enough for you, McLean?"
"Absolutely." Alastair took his hand and gripped it firmly. "Dar? You were saying?"
Everyone turned back to Dar, and she collected her train of thought looking back at the screen. "As I was saying, the question is, how do we support this project until I can upgrade those pipes?" She illuminated two other lines, a pulsing blue one that landed in London, and another in Germany, with a heavy tracing of smaller, green lines between them. "Here's how."
"Wait." The man still standing near the screen held up a hand. "This is our premier product. We can't rely on a single line back to the States. What if it goes down? Even for--ah...two months?" His voice expressed extreme doubt.
Dar walked over to her laptop and put the control down, trading it for her keyboard which she studied for a moment before she started typing. "Here's the average response time across that circuit to our London hub." She enhanced the display, showing the statistics of the two links. "Here's what happens when it goes down." She executed a few keystrokes, and the blue line landing in London went dark.
"B..." One of Dar's own sales reps started to stand up.
The rest of the map fluttered, and then the pulsing settled down, the link into Germany growing brighter, and the lacing of green lines expanding to take up the slack. The response time counter, in its small box, remained steady.
Dar let the silence go on for a moment, and then smiled. "I like to sleep at night." She reopened the link and it surged back into place, the map giving that little flutter again. She glanced over at Sir Melthon, catching him with his jaw slightly open. He scowled at her and shut his mouth with a click. "So our proposal is that we will support your infrastructure from our Miami offices until a local hub is in place."
"With local staff?" The man near the screen rallied weakly.
"Of course," Alastair said. "Do you know how much it costs to relocate people from Oklahoma?" He chuckled. "I've told the boys here to get ready to move fast, and bring in as many good people as they can find."
"Hmph."
"We're expecting to start up a support center with at least one hundred people," David spoke up. "And Francois here is handling the logistics and distribution facility near Nantes."
The men looked at Francois, who merely nodded, keeping his fingers pressed against his lip.
"Hah!" Sir Melthon barked again. "What a pack of smart alecks you lot are." He turned to Alastair. "Lunch. Then we'll get down to pen and paper. I've had enough egghead chatter for the morning." He stood up and headed for the door, clearly expecting them to follow.
Dar chuckled and went to her laptop to shut it down. "You know what this business is like sometimes Hans?"
"Pig's tail soup," he answered succinctly. "But he does like you, of that I am sure," he reassured her. "It is mostly an act, yes? That Lord of the British empire loudness."
Dar closed the lid on the machine. "Wait until he sees Alastair's contract terms," she advised him. "That's mostly an act too, that Texas good old boy stuff."
"Ah." Hans got up and joined her as they walked to the door, the last to exit the room. "So it seems with the big shots acting, the truth of the situation then depends on you."
Dar held the door and smiled. "We'll soon find out."
"That we will."
KERRY TOWELED HER hair dry and paused in front of the bathroom mirror, regarding her reflection. She hung the towel around her neck and leaned on the marble countertop, wrestling with that age old question of women everywhere.
What to wear.
Normally, it wasn't much of an issue for her. She had work clothes, and she had casual clothes, and she had scroungy old rags in abundance. Twice as many as Dar, in fact, and she didn't often spend much time deciding which category to put on.
However, Kerry studied the pale, green eyes in the mirror.
"I think I feel like being a grown up tonight," she announced, putting aside the fleeting notion of wearing jeans to her speech. She finished drying herself off and put on her underwear, leaving the bathroom and crossing the carpet to where she'd laid out her choices.
Without hesitation, she lifted up the crisply pressed suit and hooked the hanger on the silent butler, sliding the jacket off and laying it across the seat as she loosened the silk, ice blue shirt and prepared to slip it over her shoulders.
A soft knock at the door made her eye the closed panel with some wariness. "Yes?"
"It's me," Angie's voice answered.
Slipping the shirt on, Kerry started buttoning the sleeves. "C'mon in." She glanced over as her sister entered, shutting the door behind her. "Hey."
"Hey." Angie dropped down onto the bed, leaning on one hand. "That's a nice blouse," she said. "So you're not going to go strapless?"
"No." Kerry smiled, finishing her sleeves and fastening the front closed. "I decided to present my professional side. Aside from not wanting to come off as a jerk, I always feel like I have a responsibility to encourage girls into IT."
"Really?" Angie's brows lifted. "Is it really that much a guy's world?"
Kerry removed her teal skirt from its hanger and stepped into it. "Well--" She tucked her shirt in and buttoned the skirt, then buckled the leather belt. "Yeah, it is," she admitted. "I think Dar is one of the few female CIO's, and our technical group is mostly guys, though we do try to recruit women."
"Try?"
Kerry went to her bag and removed her jewelry case. "Believe it or not, for some reason, women don't seem to gravitate to infrastructure." She took out a pair of favorite earrings and started to put them on. "I've seen great women programmers, project managers, service delivery reps, you name it. But high tech plumbers? Not so common."
Angie got up and came over, peeking at the earrings. "Ker, those are gorgeous," she said. "Can I see the other one?"
Her sister handed it over. She then retrieved her necklace and ring from the dresser and slid them into place. She brushed her hair out, glancing briefly in the mirror as the already drying, shortened strands settled around her face. "Sure is nice not to have to blow dry this stuff all the time."
"You like it short?"
Kerry took back the proffered earring and inserted it. "Yeah." She studied her reflection, and smiled. "I think it looks more sophisticated. Dar likes it. I keep trying to get her to cut her hair short, but she thinks she'll look like a punk."
"Mm." Angie got up and stood next to her. "Her hair's wavy, though. Your hair is straight. It might look weird unless it was really short," she pointed out. "I'm sure she doesn't want to look like a guy."
Kerry's eyebrow arched. She turned and looked at Angie. "Shaved bald she wouldn't look like a guy," she said, bluntly.
Her sister gave her a wry look.
Kerry made a face. "Sorry," she apologized. "I think I'm getting sensitive in my old age." She brushed her hair out again, feeling a little embarrassed. "Smack me."
"No way," Angie said immediately. "Are you kidding? I'm not hitting She-Ra. Not in this lifetime." She bumped Kerry with her shoulder. "Mind if I come along to the dinner? I know I wasn't in that class, but I'd love to hear you speak."
"I don't mind at all." Kerry was relieved. "I'd love the company." She finished her mild primping and reached for the jacket to her suit. "Thanks."
Angie followed her as she pulled the jacket on and tugged the lapels straight with an automatic gesture, reaching back to clear the short hairs in the back of her neck from the collar. "Is Mike meeting us after for dinner?"
"Actually--"
Kerry sensed a plot at hand. "Let me guess. He wants to come too."
"Well--" Her sister lifted both hands, as she watched Kerry slip into her mid heel shoes. "Why not? We know we don't have much time with you, Ker. Besides, if they start giving you a hard time, we'll gang up on them."
Kerry entertained herself with a mental vision of her siblings batting her old classmates around. She grinned. "Yeah sure, why not?" she said. "Let's go and get this over with." She clipped her Palm in its case to her belt and picked up the keys to the pickup. "Wanna drive?"
Angie chuckled, and then cleared her throat as they headed for the stairs. "Maybe."
KERRY FOLDED HER hands over her stomach and watched as the once familiar landscape whipped by, only half listening to her brother's chatter from the jump seat behind her. In her mind, she ran over what she might say at the dinner, reviewing a few different approaches depending on the reception she was given.
It would be the easiest if everything was at face value. She could talk about what was needed to enter the business world, and ramble on about the state of the technical industry for any length of time without any danger of either scandalizing anyone or being completely understood.
She scratched her nose, wrinkling the bridge of it a little as she acknowledged how stuffy and jaded that sounded even in the privacy of her own mind. It was true, though, that the world she worked in was full of over arching concepts and buzzwords that tried to describe in layman's terms what its functions were. Most of the time it ended up sounding like dystopian poetry.
"So Ker." Mike got her attention back. "You think this is a publicity stunt or something?"
On the other hand, Kerry smiled grimly, her brother had probably spoken aloud what her own primary suspicion was, that her school, always in search of funding, had used the opportunity of its class reunion to gain some press in an otherwise slow year.
What was that about any publicity being good publicity?
"Maybe," Kerry said. "I don't see what it really gets them though, except mention in the paper when the paper covers me." She glanced at her sister. "Did you say the paper was going to be there?"
"Of course," Angie said. She slowed, and then turned onto a busier road. "I'm surprised they didn't call the house looking for you, "she added. "A half dozen other people did."
Kerry blinked. "Huh? They did? Who?"
"Guys wanting dates. We told them off," Mike answered for her, reaching across the back of the seat and flicking Kerry on the back of her neck. "Then Oprah Winfrey called and we told her you were booked for the next two years already."
"Oh damn." Kerry had to laugh. "And herereally wanted to be on Oprah." She twiddled her thumbs a little. "Did I ever tell you guys that I got a call from Face the Nation after the hearing, wanting me to appear?"
"Oh my god you're kidding," Angie gasped. "They would have had a fit!"
"Face the Nation? They're used to weird political scandals." Kerry chuckled.
"Our parents," her sister clarified. "He hated that show."
"They roasted him the last time he was on it," Mike snorted. "Don't you remember that time, Kerry? I thought I sent you an email that he was going to be on. They nailed him on the offshore drilling crap he was supporting."
Kerry's brow creased a bit. "I must have been swamped with something," she admitted. "I don't remember seeing it. That's not something Dar and I usually watch." She spotted the beginning of the brick wall topped by wrought iron gating that marked her alma mater, and almost wished they would keep driving past now that it was here.
"Looks like it's busy." Angie eased the truck into the turn lane, reviewing the line of cars ahead of her. The truck was positively out of place, and she could see the people in the car ahead of her staring at it in their rearview mirror. "Can this go over the top of those little suckers?"
"Bet it can." Mike instigated immediately. "Creep up on that guy's bumper. Let's see if we can freak him out."
Kerry eyed her suddenly radical siblings. "What the heck's gotten into you two?"
"You're a bad influence," her brother informed her. "Everyone always said you would be." He reached over again and tugged Kerry's ear. "C'mon, you only live once. Let's get into trouble."
"Ah. Ah. ha!" Kerry grabbed his hand and held it. "It's not you two who'll get in trouble if we crash this thing. It's in my name," she pointed out. "Let's get inside. Then you can go around giving my old anything but pals wedgies if you want."
Angie chuckled. She eased the truck forward as the line moved, holding down the brake, and then giving the engine just enough gas to startle the car in front of her. "Vroom."
Kerry covered her eyes as she heard the crunch of the tires. She started thinking of what possible story she could come up with to explain why she'd totaled a rental car. At least Dar would probably find it funny. After no further sounds, she peeked out from between her fingers to see the car ahead of them pulling out of line, and heading off down the street. "What the heck?"
"We scared them," Mike said contentedly. "Weenie!"
Angie pulled the truck up to the next car in line. "Want to see if I can do that again?" she asked. "Get us through this queue in no time."
"Holy crap," Kerry sighed. "No, just chill, okay? Remember, you do live here. I get to go home in a day or so and I don't have to hear all the gossip."
"Screw that," Mike said. "If they want something to talk about, let's give them something. Otherwise they'll make stuff up about you and you know it. I'd rather have them saying we shoved some Lexus into the wall."
The line started moving again, much to Kerry's relief, and she rested her elbow on the doorframe as they made the turn into the entrance of the school and through the tall arched gates.
Mixed memories. She studied the name in the scrollwork as they went under it. She hadn't really disliked school, and she'd been more or less successful at navigating its social labyrinths since she'd been old enough to know better when she'd started attending.
Being Roger Stuart's oldest had brought both positive and negative attention, and now when she looked back on all the little things, the parties and invites, the snubs and the suck ups, she was content to acknowledge that, all in all, it could have been worse.
"Did Dar go to any type of--ah..."Angie paused. "No, probably not, huh?"
Kerry smiled. "Just regular school," she said. "But it wouldn't have mattered, I don't think. She's brilliant. They could never keep up with her down there, and I doubt they could have here either." She paused as Angie pulled up to the attendant, who peered inside with a doubtful expression. "Hi there. Is this Dominos Pizza?"
Mike fell back in the jump seat, chortling.
"Can I get a pepperoni and extra cheese?" Kerry continued pleasantly as the man frowned. "With a two liter of coke?"
"Ma'am, I don't think--" He hesitated, thrown off by the sport truck filled with unexpectedly well dressed people. "Ah--"
Angie removed the invitation from the sunshield and handed it to him. "Maybe this helps," she said. "Before my siste
r tells you we're hauling fertilizer for the dance hall."
The man looked at the invitation, then looked back at them. "Ah," he said. "No problem." He pointed to the left. "Valet parking's over there, ladies."
"Hey!" Mike popped his head up again. "Watch who you call lady, bub!"
"Thanks." Angie closed the window and got the truck moving before they could cause more chaos. "And you say we're causing trouble? Ker, you're the one who was going to show up in a tank top and jeans."
"Shoulda." Kerry chuckled, as they swung around the big, paved circle to the portal cachet, where valets were milling around, taking care of the well kept, expensive cars being dropped off. She had a moment to look at the crowd before it was their turn, her eyes spotting one or two people she was pretty sure she knew already.
Heads turned as the pickup pulled into the valet stand, and she was out of time to think about it. Kerry waited for the valet to hesitantly approach, then she opened the door from the inside and gathered herself to get out. "Okay, kids. Let's go."
As the door opened, the buzz of the crowd got louder, and she got that feeling she often did when she was about to enter a company they were acquiring and face the person she'd been once for the first time. She gave the valet a brief smile and turned to flip the seat forward so Mike could get out. "Evening."
"Ma'am." The valet reacted to her appearance and adjusted his attitude from seeing the truck. "Welcome to the homecoming."
Kerry saw heads turning nearby, and her peripheral view caught the flash of a camera. "Thanks," she said, as Angie came around to join them, and they walked as a group toward the steps. "Ready or not, here we come."
"Can I tell everyone I'm an alumnus too?" Mike asked.
"It's an all girl's school." Angie poked him. "What are you going to tell them, you had a sex change?"
Mike grinned evilly.
"Had to suggest that, didn't you?" Kerry said under her breath, as she saw a group of older women start in their direction. She recognized several as once upon a time teachers, and the lady in front, incredibly still there, as the headmistress in charge.
