by Melissa Good
“I’ll take that as a no.” Dar continued her task. She looked around and caught one of the console ops staring at her, a look of mixed awe and admiration on his face. “Would you like to run that for me?”
The sailor grinned at her wholeheartedly. “Yes, ma’am, I would.”
Dar grinned back and winked at him. “Smart boy.”
The other console operator turned in her seat and folded her arms 70 Melissa Good over the back of it. “Who are you people?” She was a willowy thin woman with straight, russet hair and an innocent face. Her voice was soft, and thickly Southern.
Kerry, who was closest to her, held out a hand. “Kerry Stuart, and that’s my boss, Dar Roberts.” She shook the red-haired woman’s hand with a firm grip. “Our company’s been asked to come in and see what we can do to make your lives easier.”
“You just did,” the third operator drawled softly. “Lieut’s been on the warpath all week, driving us half crazy.”
“Well, that’s probably our fault,” Kerry told him. “I know your leadership isn’t too happy we’re here, because they think we’re going to find all kinds of things they’re going to get blamed for. But that’s not what our plan is.”
“It’s not?” the girl asked.
“Nope.” Dar studied the results on her laptop screen. “The government’s looking to spend some money here, we’re gonna help them.” Her brow creased.
“Why’re they all freaking out, then?” the towheaded man closest to Dar asked.
The lines of data flashed before her eyes. “You know, that’s a good question.” Dar looked up at Kerry.
“People get comfortable with things, Dar. They don’t like change,”
her lover reminded her. “Even if the change is good.”
“Mm.” Dar finished her capture and closed her laptop. “That’s all I need here for now. Let’s see if we can get into the command and control center.” She gave the operators a half wave. “We’ll be back.”
Kerry heard the whispers and muffled laughs as they left, and she shook her head. She had a feeling this was going to be an uphill battle all the way.
And they were wearing Roller Blades.
DAR PUT HER briefcase down on the scarred wooden conference table and sat, folding her hands together. Kerry took a seat to her right, and the two Navy officers settled opposite them. “We’ve finished our initial review,” Dar said. “I’ve identified three main systems that need replacement of hardware, and I’m going to recommend installation of a new infrastructure to support that.”
Albert and Perkins exchanged glances, but didn’t comment. Kerry could almost read their minds, which were buzzing along the lines of
‘not as bad as we thought.’ “I’ll have the proposal transmitted to the Pentagon by tomorrow,” she told her boss. “And an estimated timeline for install.”
“All right,” Commander Albert said. “You can coordinate with Lieutenant Perkins for that.”
Dar nodded. “That was the easy part.”
Red Sky At Morning 71
Both officers stiffened. “You’re not finished?” Albert hazarded.
“No.” Dar met his eyes. “General Easton has forwarded us status and analysis reports on the existing processes you have in place here for training and implementation. He wants them reviewed.”
Kerry thought the two of them were going to implode, right there at the table. She’d never seen someone turn that red that fast, and her eyes widened a little as the veins appeared on the side of the commander’s temples. “It’ll go faster if you just cooperate,” she told them. “He’s not saying you don’t do a good job here, he just wants to see if there’s a way to make things easier and better.” She leaned forward. “Sometimes you need an outside pair of eyes to look at things—you get too close to the situation otherwise. Really.”
“Lieutenant, Ms. Stuart, would you excuse us please.” The commander bit off his words.
Kerry glanced at Dar, who cocked an eyebrow at her, then she stood and pushed her chair in. “I’ll go find some coffee.” She waited for the glowering lieutenant to join her, then walked out of the room, closing the door behind them. “Would you like to tell me where it is, or do I have to go ask the Marines?”
The woman was grimly silent for a beat, then her shoulders perceptibly relaxed and she shook her head. “Follow me.”
As they strolled along the corridor, Kerry took the opportunity to study their erstwhile adversary more closely. They were about the same size, she realized, and more or less the same age. She’d also detected something familiar in the woman’s speech. “Where in the Midwest are you from, Lieutenant?”
Brown eyes flicked to her in wary attention. “Ann Arbor.”
Kerry nodded. “You sounded local. I’m from Saugatuck.” They stopped at a coffee station and busied themselves in silence for a moment as they poured cups. Kerry was aware she was being covertly watched, and it made her ears twitch. “Want to sit down for a minute while they finish yelling at each other?”
Without answering, the other woman led the way to a utilitarian table with two bench seats. She put her coffee down and straddled one, resting her elbows on the table and keeping her gaze firmly fixed on the beaten Formica top.
Kerry took the seat opposite and composed her thoughts briefly.
“We’re not as bad as you think.”
“Do you know how often we have to go through this?” Perkins lifted her head and glared. “Everyone thinks they know how to do our jobs, so they come waltzing in here, change things all around, and two months later we’ve got to go back to doing it the old way because it’s the one that works.”
Kerry’s eyebrows lifted. “They send in consultants every two months?”
“No.” The other woman sighed. “Every goddamned newly made 72 Melissa Good admiral they put in charge of this place.”
“Oh.” Kerry took a sip of the coffee and held back a wince at the pungent strength of it. She was abruptly reminded of Andrew Roberts’s affection for tar sludge, and now knew where he got it. “Well, we’re not admirals.”
“No, you’re even more clueless about what we do,” Perkins snapped.
“That can be a plus,” Kerry answered mildly. “And as far as I’m concerned, yes, you’re right, I’m clueless about the Navy. But I’ve got a good understanding of the government and how it works, because my father’s a senator.”
The lieutenant grunted, tensing muscular forearms as she lifted her cup.
“Dar, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about the government, but she’s got a good understanding of the Navy,” Kerry told her, hiding a smile as the other woman’s head jerked up in surprise. “She was born here, on this base.”
One of Perkin’s eyebrows lifted, very much like Dar’s often did.
“She’s a Navy brat?”
“Yep,” Kerry agreed. “She sure is. Her father just retired, as a matter of fact.” Should have told them that first, her mind analyzed. Might have made the day a lot more pleasant. “So between the two of us, we’re not that clueless.”
“Commander Albert know that?” the lieutenant asked. “About her?”“I don’t think so, no. Not unless Dar mentioned it before, and I don’t think she did,” Kerry replied. “Why?”
For the first time, a smile appeared on the other woman’s face. “Just wondered.”
DAR WENT TO the window and looked out, ignoring the man behind her who was yelling into his telephone. She let her eyes wander over the familiar confines of the inner courtyard, noting the new sheds and walkways that dotted the grassy area. A smile appeared on her face as she eyed a thick hedge, remembering times spent huddled inside the center of it in a tiny space she’d dug out for herself, hidden from adult eyes.How many hours had she spent in there? In the leafy warmth, green filtered sunlight trickling through the leaves and spilling over the ragged pages of whatever book she’d been poring over that week.
Reading had opened the world to her, a love she shared with her father,
but a skill only reluctantly displayed to her peers on the base.
There were no points for being a bookworm in her childhood world.
So she’d saved her books for that little private space, absorbing the Red Sky At Morning 73
words greedily, reading years ahead of her age from almost the very start.
The phone slammed down behind her, and she reluctantly left her memories behind and turned, leaning back against the windowsill.
“Done?” Albert looked about as frustrated as anyone Dar had ever seen.
His face was beet red, and there was a small tic jerking the side of his mouth upward in disconcerting rhythm. “Look, Commander—”
“No. You. Look,” he got out from between gritted teeth. “I am not going to have some half-assed civilians coming in here and telling me how to run my operation.” He slapped his desk. “The base commander’s on his way here, and let me tell you, lady, he’s not going to put up with it either.”
Dar exhaled. “Commander, I think you’re overreacting,” she told him.“No, ma’am, I am not,” the naval officer shot back. “To have you come in here and evaluate our computers, well, I don’t like it, but no doubt you know your business.” He pointed at her. “But the Navy’s my business, and madam, I don’t need you telling me how to do it.”
Dar sighed and shook her head. “This is a waste of time.”
“That’s what I’ve said all along,” Albert responded. “That’s what I told the base commander, and he agrees with me.”
They heard heavy footsteps approaching, and then a low gruff voice that seemed more a growl than anything else. “That’s the commander now.” Albert looked relieved. “He’ll get this straightened out.”Dar folded her arms and watched as the door swung open, admitting a very tall, extremely burly man with thick, grizzled silver hair and a full, well-trimmed beard.
“All right,” the newcomer boomed as he closed the door behind him with a solid crack. “Let’s just get this cleared up right— Son of a fucking bitch.” His eyes had fallen on Dar, and he stopped in mid-motion.
Albert glanced between his commander and Dar. “Sir?”
Dar blinked as a surprised smile spread across her face. “Uncle Jeff.”
The man covered the space between them with startling rapidity and engulfed Dar in a pair of very large arms, hugging her and lifting her completely off her feet. “Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch. I can’t believe it.” He gave her a squeeze, then released her and took her by the shoulders, studying her intently. “Tadpole, what the hell are you doing here?” he rumbled, then glanced at the dumbfounded Commander Albert. “Oh, hell...don’t tell me you’re the posse the Pentagon sicced on me?”
“’Fraid so.” Dar caught her breath, her mind still spinning with the shock of being reunited with a long-lost part of her past. “I didn’t know they’d put you in charge of this place.”
74 Melissa Good
“Lord God, yeah. Three months back,” Jeff Ainsbright said. “Look at you. Damned if you didn’t grow up gorgeous!” He cupped her cheek with an easy familiarity. “I can’t believe it.”
The door behind them opened, and Dar was aware of Kerry and the lieutenant entering, her peripheral vision catching the shift in body language as Kerry absorbed the stranger in the room with his hands all over Dar. She gave her lover a reassuring smile and caught her eye, then met the tall commander’s gaze. “Feels like it’s been forever since I saw you. Wish I’d known you were in charge here; we could have avoided a lot of yelling.”
Jeff pulled her into a hug again. “Tadpole, if I’d known you were behind this, I’d have just handed the keys off to you and gone fishing.”
Dar watched Kerry bite the inside of her lip to prevent a smirk from appearing. “Well, that’s not what I was hired for,” she told the tall man.
“We’re just here to give our best advice.”
“Damn straight,” the base commander agreed, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Albert, you give this lady whatever she wants, whenever she wants it, however she decides she needs it sliced and diced, you got me?”
“S-sir?”
“What part of that was in something other than English?” Jeff growled, turning his head to glare at the younger man. “Or are you developing a hearing problem?”
“No, sir.” Albert braced. “But I’d like to remind the commander of the discussion we had—”
“Forget it,” the answer came back. “I’ve got a whole different picture now. So you tell your staff to cooperate, or I’ll have every last one of you scrubbing the heads with a box of Navy issue Kleenex, understand?”
“Yes, sir.” Commander Albert got the words out from between clenched teeth.
“Good.” Jeff turned and slung a long arm around Dar’s shoulders.
“C’mon, lemme give you the top brass tour. Well, hello there, young lady.” The commander found a slim blonde woman planted firmly in his path.
Dar cleared her throat gently. “This is my associate, Kerry Stuart.
Kerry, this is Jeff Ainsbright. He’s an old friend of the family.”
Kerry stuck a hand out. “Sir, it’s good to meet you.”
“Same here, Ms. Stuart.” Jeff cordially enveloped her hand in his much larger one and shook it. “Let me take you both to lunch. I think we’ve got meatloaf today. You still like meatloaf, Tadpole?” He gave Dar a grin. “C’mon.”
“Sounds good to me,” Dar agreed, allowing herself to be hauled through the door while guiding Kerry before her, leaving a glowering silence behind them.
Commander Albert waited until the footsteps had receded down Red Sky At Morning 75
the hall, then he looked at his data center manager. “Son of a bitch.”
Lieutenant Perkins grunted. “This could be trouble.”
“Yeah.” The muscular blond man tapped a pencil on his desk. “Get me a report on Roberts. Find out who the fuck she is, will you? I never figured her for military.”
“She’s a brat.” Perkins picked up a pad and scribbled on it. “She’s from here. Shouldn’t be too hard to figure out who she is. Her dad was Navy.”
“Find out.” Albert nodded. “Find out everything you can. This could fuck up the whole project.”
“Big time,” the woman agreed. “She ain’t stupid. Neither is the other one, what’s her name? Stuart.”
“Hmm.” Her boss pursed his lips. “See what you can get on her, too.” He exhaled in consternation. “We could be in trouble. I need to call Scrooge.”
“Give him my regards.” Perkins took her pad and left, closing the office door behind her.
KERRY FOUND HERSELF seated at a comfortable, if Spartan, table in the noisy cafeteria, listening to her partner and the commander catch up on old times. She cut neat squares of meatloaf and nibbled them, surprised at the agreeable taste. A rakish smile spread across Dar’s face as the commander talked, and Kerry smiled too, charmed at the uncharacteristic, almost adolescent expression it gave her lover.
“So, what’s old Gerry’s beef, Dar?” Jeff asked around a mouthful of mashed potatoes. “He got a surplus he needs to spend somewhere?”
“Nah,” Dar replied. “From what he told me, it’s more a matter of the Joint Chiefs getting crap about making sure the military keeps ahead of the private sector in technology.” She took a swallow from her glass of milk. “They told him to make sure it happened, he figured he’d hire me to do it and save himself some time and heartache.”
“And me.” Jeff grinned, poking his fork in her direction. “I was fixing to toss your civilian butt off my base, y’know, ’til I walked in that office and found out who it was that was putting a mine in old Albert’s pants.”
Dar sighed. “I should have just come to see you first.” She gave Kerry a rueful look. “It would have saved both of us some time and half a bottle of aspirin.”
They ate in silence for a few moments, then Jeff leaned forward, fiddling with his knife a bit. “How’s your daddy doing?” he asked in a curious
ly gentle voice. “I tried to track him down after I heard they’d found him over there, but I never could put a finger on him.”
“He’s fine,” Dar reassured him. “He and Mom are living on a boat nearby my place, if you can believe it.”
“Aw.” Jeff smiled. “He got back with your mamma? Damn, I am so 76 Melissa Good glad to hear that, Dar. It about killed him to leave that last time with her so mad.” He stopped awkwardly and glanced at Kerry. “Pardon me, Dar. I didn’t mean to bring all that up here.”
“It’s okay.” Dar’s blue eyes twinkled gently. “Kerry knows my parents very well.”
“That’s right.” Kerry spoke up for the first time. “We have their phone number if you’d like it. I bet D—Mr. Roberts would love to hear from you.”
“I bet he’d kick your butt for calling him mister.” The commander laughed. “I’d love it. Hey, Dar, listen, Chuckie’s coming in this weekend. Why don’t we all get together and have a night out? I know he’d love to see you, and me and Sue would give up a month’s pay to see Andrew and Cec.”
Ah. Dar’s memory pricked her suddenly as she recalled Charles Ainsbright, Jeff’s son who was her age and growing up was one of her closer friends. Tall, cute Chuckie, with his blond crew cut and snub nose, who had wanted nothing more than to captain a Navy ship. “He finally get his command?”
“You bet your ass.” Jeff beamed. “Wait ’til I tell him you’re here.
He’s gonna float home. He still talks about you.”
Oh boy. “It’ll be good to see him,” Dar allowed. “I’ll see what I can arrange for Friday, how’s that? I think Mom and Dad’ll be glad to come down.”
“Great.” Jeff placed his utensils precisely onto the plate he’d scraped clean. “Tadpole, you let me know if the pinheads down in ops give you any trouble, all right? I’ve got a staff meeting I have to go kick some asses at. You about done here for today?”
“I think so,” Dar nodded. “I was just going to show Kerry around the place.”
“Good deal.” The commander gave Kerry a friendly nod, then walked past and clapped Dar on the shoulder. “See you later, Dar. Drive safe, y’hear?”
