Winds of Change Book Two

by Melissa Good

  Dar reached over and tweaked her nose. “Not with me, okay?”

  Kerry looked up to find herself being watched with wry affection and a mature understanding that made her feel suddenly like a high school kid again. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I just don’t want to ever start down that path with us.”

  Kerry’s eyes dropped, then lifted. She reached over and took Dar’s hand, lifting it to her lips and kissing the knuckles. “Thanks for being such a grownup.”

  Dar’s eyes twinkled. “If my mother were here to see that, she’d be peeing herself.”

  “If anyone else in this building were here to see that they’d probably be peeing on us,” Kerry admitted wryly. She released Dar’s hand and took a breath.

  “So level. What’s your take on the demo?” Dar asked. “How should I play it?”

  Kerry studied her face for a moment. Then a faint smile appeared. “Okay,” she said. “What I think you should tell these people is the truth. Just lay it out. They’re not idiots. They know the politics. Don’t whitewash what could happen.”

  “Even if that kills the project?” Dar watched her intently. “They’re going to freak out.”

  “Yes,” Kerry said. “Because it’s going to come out anyway. I’d rather get that out up front.”

  “Bridges is not going to be happy.”

  Kerry shrugged. “I think what matters is what makes us happy. Isn’t that what this whole crazy last month has shown us?”

  “Could be.” Dar smiled. “But thanks. Glad to hear you say it.”

  “That’s what you were going to do anyway, isn’t it?” Kerry smiled back, then sobered. “It’s the right thing for us to do. What stresses me out is that we have all those people back there depending on us now. It bothers me that we could do something that would result in them getting hurt.”

  “Isn’t that what we just did, though?” Dar asked. “You and I decided to retire. Whole fucking planet stops in mid spin and half the country floats off into space. I think it’s just part of our mojo.”

  “Mm.”

  “Anyway.” Dar leaned forward and touched her forehead to Kerry’s. “Don’t ever hold back, okay? If you feel it, say it.”

  “Even if it pisses you off? I was trying not to do that, with all the craziness,” Kerry admitted. “I wasn’t bullshitting you, I just figured there was a better time to mouth off.”

  “Even if.” Dar looked up as footsteps approached. “Ah.”

  Kerry glanced over her shoulder. “Ah,” she repeated. “At least this wasn’t in a dusty old stairwell. Hello, Mother.”

  “We’ll continue the talk later.” Dar squeezed her shoulder and turned as well. “Hi.”

  Cynthia Stuart arrived at their side and produced a smile. “Hello, there. How did your other meeting go?”

  Dar turned and pushed open the door to the hearing chamber. “It went well.” She stood back to let the other two enter. “It’s been a busy day. Hope everyone’s on time here.”

  “Oh, I have no doubt,” Cynthia said. “Everyone is most interested in hearing about this. In fact it was the topic of conversation at a luncheon I just left. One of the senator’s sons is part of the technology office in The White House and he was quite enthusiastic about it.”

  “Uh huh.” Dar walked over to one of the tables, put her bag down, opened the top of it and pulled out the laptop. “Do you have a...” She looked around at the room. “No, probably not?”

  “I think they last retrofitted it with electricity in place of gas lamps,” Kerry said. She felt a flood of humor come through her body, making her feel giddy. “So if you’re looking for a projector, hon, give it up.”

  “Mm.”

  “Did I tell you they had the Titanic hearings in this room?”

  Dar looked up at her, hands still on the keyboard, eyebrows lifted.

  Kerry winked at her, then went over and leaned against the table, facing the slowly filling room. She remembered the last time she’d been here and the face off she’d dealt with.

  An evening of utter aggravation, stress and anxiety that ended peacefully in Dar’s arms. She turned to watch her beloved partner mess with her demo, thinking about their conversation just moments ago.

  Dar sensed the attention and glanced at her. “Something wrong?”

  “Not a damned thing,” Kerry said. “I was just reflecting on the fact that there is no luckier son of a bitch than me anywhere.”

  Dar’s left eyebrow hiked up.

  Kerry just smiled and turned around, moving away from the table and into the center of the chamber. “Ladies and gentlemen, if we could please get seated since we have a limited time for this demonstration and I know you all want plenty of time to ask questions.”

  There were some surprised looks and some annoyed looks, but Kerry returned a smile to all of them, waiting for the group to settle down behind their desks and grudgingly give her their attention. “The last time we had a conversation you were all wondering how we knew what we knew when we knew it,” she said. “This time we’re going to show you how much information is out there that people like us have access to, and people like you want access to.”

  Now she had their attention.”Or you think you do,” she added. “So let’s get started.”

  IT WAS DARK outside the airplane windows as they flew along the east coast on the way home. Dar had the hood on her hoodie up surrounding her face and she was sound asleep in her seat, her long body relaxed.

  Kerry was close to being the same, but her mind was slower in winding down and so she was quietly sipping some Kahlua and cream as she listened to the drone of the engines in the mostly silent plane.

  The demo went fine. Dar answered questions in a calm and straightforward manner and therefore scared the living crap out of everyone in the room, up to and including Kerry’s mother.

  Outrage, shock, disbelief and calculated interest all wound up in a ball as both the positive and negative of the system’s ability occurred to the distinguished audience in turn.

  They’d shared all that with Gerry Easton, who thought the whole thing was hilariously funny. And she’d gotten a chance to spend time with Alabaster, the Labrador. It made her fiercely miss home and Chino and led to them to take a red eye home instead of waiting until the following morning.

  So here they were, content to leave the politics to the politicians. She’d come around to the decision that whatever happened did. Dar said if they lost the contracts, there would be others and the staff they

  had on board would shift over to those.

  And if no other contracts were found and it turned out they needed to shrink rather than grow, then that’s what would happen.

  They would go on their vacation. They would let the chips fall where they may. And since they both tended to potato chips and not gambling chips, the fallen ones would be taken care of by the tongues of two Labradors. So in the end, what would be, would be. Kerry put her cup down and let her eyes close, turning her head to the right to face her sleeping partner.

  The sounds around her shifted a little and took on a hint of echo and she felt herself start to fade out, glad of a chance to get a nap before they landed and would have to drive home.

  Two flight attendants in the galley just forward of their seats were talking in low tones. Curiously the words sharpened in her hearing as she hovered on the brink of sleep.

  “Boy, I’m glad that computer glitch got cleared up.”

  “No kidding! It’s been a nightmare with flight ops the past two weeks. What was it, two hundred cancels, and those four near bang ups on the ground? Sheesh.”

  “They couldn’t schedule half the planes yesterday. But it was smooth tonight.”

  “Sure was. Don said everything’s running like normal again. Glad they figured out what the problem was, but damn it took them a long time.”

  “Sure did.”

  Kerry opened her eyes and studied Dar’s sleeping profile as the words faded and the attendants moved of
f down the aisle. They did that, she and Dar. Two anonymous women sprawled in seats at the front of a half empty airplane.

  Should they have done it sooner? Could they have? Kerry sighed and closed her eyes, shaking her head slightly. It didn’t really matter, did it?

  Water under the bridge. That was in the past. She couldn’t change it, so they just had to carry on and take each moment as it came.

  “GOOD MORNING, KERRISITA.” Maria waved at Kerry as she passed the open door to her office. “Did you have a nice trip back?”

  “We did.” Kerry paused in the doorway, a cup of coffee in her hand. “Very quiet flight and no traffic when we drove back to the island.” She paused to take a sip. “Which reminds me, I’ve got to find a real estate agent and have them come in this afternoon. Dar and I are going to find a place somewhere around here to live.”

  Maria looked surprised. “I thought you very much liked the place you have?”

  Kerry shrugged. “It’s a condo,” she said. “We want a house with a yard. Some place the dogs can run around and we can personalize more. Dar used to live around here, matter of fact.”

  “That is so nice. Would you like me to make those arrangements?” Maria asked. “I have how you call them, the contacts?”

  “Sure.” Kerry smiled. “That would be awesome, Maria. You know us,” she said. “Something on the waterfront with a slip for the boat and a yard.”

  “Si.” Maria nodded. “I will have my cousin come in to talk with you. She and her husband have many clients in this town and also, Coral Gables.”

  “Sounds good.” Kerry toasted her with her coffee cup and headed off to her office. “Good morning Mayte,” she said, entering the outer chamber. “You ready to move down the hall?”

  There were boxes scattered around, half full. “Ah, Kerry, yes.” Mayte paused in the act of putting papers in one of them. “I like the new office very much but I will miss being around here with you and my mama.”

  “You needed your own space,” Kerry said. “Dar and I will be just fine here, right Zoe?”

  The younger girl smiled from her place kneeling in front of another box. “Yes, ma’am,” she answered. “I will do my best.”

  Kerry smiled and entered her own office and its sedate sunniness. There was a distinct scent of waxed wood from the floors and fresh paint from the walls, and as she crossed through the beams of light from the window she felt a sense of contentment.

  She heard Dar’s voice on the phone from the room next door. A moment later her presence was detected and Chino came trotting in with Mocha at her heels. “Hey, kids.”

  Chino came over and sat down next to her chair, tail wagging.

  Kerry sat behind her desk and put her cup down, reaching for her mouse to wake up her desktop system. She studied her screen and chuckled, starting on the first of her list of new mail, glancing up at footsteps to see Mark entering. “Hey.”

  “Hey.” He came over and sat down, picking up Mocha to pet him as the puppy came pattering over. “Guess what?”

  “What?” Kerry started sorting through her mail.

  “Pete got a call from the old place,” Mark said. “They told him they were straightening stuff out and did he want to come back.” He scratched Mocha behind his ears and the puppy yowped, tilting his head back and poking his tongue out. “He said he told them thanks, but no thanks. But at least they sounded sane again.”

  “It must help that things are working again,” Kerry said. “And boy am I glad that’s done.”

  Mark nodded. “The way the big D did it—that was slick, you know? Got those guys in Herndon to do it. And they recorded the whole thing.”

  Kerry nodded. “I don’t blame you for not wanting to touch that, by the way,” she said. “I was glad Dar didn’t either, though at the time I was ready for it to get done any way she could.”

  “I felt like a chickenshit,” Mark admitted. “But man, I so didn’t want to go in there. It gave me creeps just standing at security, even though those guys were totally cool and would have let me up if I asked them to.”

  “The guys at Herndon were pretty glad to see us, too,” Kerry said. “Until I told them the government wanted to hire them.” She shook her head. “Not sure how that’s all going to work out.”

  “They really going to take all those contracts?”

  Kerry glanced up at him and nodded. “They lost trust,” she said. “I still can’t believe they were that stupid.”

  “Wow.” Mark said.

  “Speaking of stupid.” Dar came to stand in the connecting door, leaning against the frame of it. “Hamilton just called. He said he’s got a meeting with the lawyer from the ousted board members in about a half hour. He’ll let us know what comes out of it.”

  “Tell him to tell Richard.” Kerry took a sip of her coffee. “Maria said no process servers have shown up here yet so who knows what’s going on.” She pushed a folded newspaper across the desk toward Dar. “No sign of anything in the news.”

  “Which is probably good news,” Dar said. “So let’s move on.” She winked at them then returned to her office, with Chino at her heels.

  “She’s right,” Kerry said. “So, I got your note about the data center. Dar and I talked about not doing that, but now I think we should. Talk to me about the location.”

  “Sure.” Mark got up and came over to the desk and put down a folder. “So here’s the deal, it’s a giant freaking datacenter that one of the big boxes put up and then the county tanked ‘em. So it’s all ready for us.”

  “You guys can get this rolling while Dar and I are on vacation, right?”

  “You bet.”

  KERRY WRIGGLED A little into the base of sand she was lying on, gazing up at the canopy of stars overhead and listening to the breeze stirring the sabal palms and palmetto bushes, surrounding the small beach on Dar’s little offshore island.

  She felt mellow and relaxed, tired from a long day of diving and swimming. She was content to lie where she was, being warmed by a nearby campfire and waiting for the sounds of Dar coming up out of the ocean where she was busy collecting them some dinner.

  That would mean she would need to stir and go cook whatever it was Dar came up with. Until then it was just her and the salt-tinged night air and the gentle sounds of the Dixie riding at anchor nearby.

  The weather was perfect. Not too cold, but not muggily hot either. The air was full of the smell of the ocean, the seaweed on the shore and the wood smoke from palm branch fire.

  Here there was no sound of civilization to bother them and only the threat of a curious crab to disturb them. Kerry was glad of the isolation and the opportunity to spend some time with her family without interruption.

  She stretched her arms out and her fingertips brushed Chino’s damp fur, feeling the twitching of the sleeping animal’s dreams as she looked up at the stars and thought about the past little while.

  What had Ceci called it? A cycle of change. Kerry pondered for a moment whether the change had ended for a while, or would continue on.

  The sound of something emerging from the waves made her lift her head and peer past the fire, smiling a little as the moonlight revealed the outline of Dar’s tall form as she trudged up out of the surf. She had a shortie wetsuit on and a tank. She turned and sat down on one of the picnic benches to take them both off, dropping her fins and mask on the table’s surface.

  “Ah, the primordial huntress returns,” Kerry said.

  Dar gave her a droll look, then held up her catch bag. “I have critters for you.”

  Kerry amiably got up and brushed herself off, then walked over and took the bag, handing Dar a towel in return. “It feels like there’s a lobster in here.”

  “Dos.” Dar roughly toweled her head dry, walking over to the folding table and donning the dive coat lying across it. “Nice under there. You can see the moon almost to the bottom.” She draped her towel over a hook under the umbrella covering the table and ran her fingers through her hair.

/>   Kerry hung the bag on another hook, then turned and shifted a big pot of water onto the fire’s sturdy grate. She stepped back as the flames bathed the bottom of it and it hissed gently.

  The heat of the fire toasted her, a counterpoint to the cool breeze coming off the water and through the rough underbrush of the little island that had once been Dar’s hideaway and still had no real name.

  Dar fished a bottle of ginger ale from the cooler under the table and opened it, then settled into a hanging rope chair with a satisfied sigh. “Nice.” She rested her hand on one knee and took a swallow of the cold soda, rinsing it around inside her mouth before swallowing. “What a beautiful night.”

  Kerry took out covered side dishes that had come with them on the Dixie and grinned. “Glad you thought of coming out here.” She kept an eye on the pot, waiting for it to boil, and got out the plates and cups they’d likewise brought.

  “C’mere, little man.” Dar picked up Mocha and set him on her lap, where the sleepy puppy yawned and plopped down, idly chewing on her fingers. “I saw an octopus.”

  “Did you? Damn. Now I’m sorry I didn’t tag along.” Kerry observed the water starting to bubble and took the catch bag off the hook, positioning it over the pot and turning the lever that let it latch on to the edges. “Wish I’d remembered my ear plugs.”

  Dar chuckled as she swiveled a little and watched Kerry grimace in reflex as she unlocked the bottom of the catch bag, dumping its contents into the pot. The glow from the fire outlined her beautifully, catching highlights in her hair as she cautiously removed the bag.

  There were no sounds save the hiss of the water droplets hitting the fire. Kerry popped the lid onto the pot and went back to fixing their plates up.

  “No screams?” Dar asked.

  “Pfft.” Kerry came over with a plate of cut fruit and offered her some. “One more week and we’re off to river rafting. Dar, I can’t wait. Even if we end up sleeping on rocks I don’t care.”