by Melissa Good
Dar took a breath before she pressed the phone to her ear. “Gerry?”
There was a soft knock at the door. Kerry frowned, then scrambled to her feet and trotted over to it, peeking through the eyehole. “Uh-oh.”
She hesitated, then realized she really had no choice and opened the door. “Hi.”
“Howdy there, kumquat,” Andrew drawled. “Y’all going to let us inside there?”
Oh boy. Kerry slipped outside instead, closing the door behind her.
DAR GAVE THE condo door a curious look as she listened to the voice on the other end of the line. “Gerry, we’re not equipped for that.”
Dar closed her eyes against the throbbing she could feel growing in her neck. “I have security teams that can protect data, sure, but this is a damn Navy base.”
“I’m aware of that, Dar.” Gerry’s voice was uncharacteristically serious. “The trouble is, we can’t shake a team loose to go down there for at least forty-eight hours.”
Red Sky At Morning 223
By then, it would be too late. “Damn.”
“John Taylor from the JAG office is on a plane headed your way,”
General Easton stated. “He’ll handle the official part, but if there’s any way your people could protect the evidence—”
“Gerry, people could get hurt,” Dar said. “This isn’t the kind of thing we get involved in. Corporate double-dealing, yeah, but smuggling? I’m responsible for these people, and for their safety.” She paused. “And I don’t know how many bastards are implicated.”
Injudiciously, she shifted, and stifled a gasp. “Shit.”
“Dar?” Gerry spoke quickly. “Are you all right?”
Dar bit her inner lip for a long moment, then exhaled as the sharp pain receded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just twisted something.”
“Well, listen, my friend, I’ll find some other way of doing this,”
General Easton replied. “If nothing else, we’ll just round up the lot of them and start shaking.”
The unfairness of that, Dar acknowledged, was exactly what she’d been afraid of. “Hang on a minute, Gerry.” She put the phone down and let her head drop back on the pillow, thinking hard about her options.
Was it dangerous?
Be honest, Dar. Sure it is. Look what happened to you last night, and Chuck was a friend of yours. Dar rubbed her forehead. This was a military base, full of sailors and Marines, an unknown number of whom could be involved in criminal activity and react with violence.
But...
If she didn’t help, innocent people could and probably would get blamed, and the criminals would probably get away. Dar mulled that over. Question was, how could she help Gerry, help the base, protect the innocent, and keep her people safe at the same time? “Jesus, Paladar,” she murmured to herself. “What the hell do you think you are?”
Finally, she picked up the phone again. “Gerry?”
“What’s that? Oh, still here, Dar.”
“Let me see what I can do.” Dar heard herself say the words, and wondered how she was going to back them up. “Maybe I can get a small volunteer team inside.” Then an idea occurred to her. “With an escort.”
There was a momentary pause. “Dar, do me a favor, eh? Don’t take chances. I want to see your whole family this Christmas. Been waiting for that for a long while now.”
Dar evaded the question. “See if you can contact that JAG staffer, send him over to my office. We’ll get things moving here. Talk to you later, Gerry.” She disconnected and put the phone down on her belly, considering what to do next.
IT WAS A crowded doorstep. Kerry stood effectively blocking the entrance, despite her relatively small size. “Dar’s on the phone,” she 224 Melissa Good explained. “It’s business.”
“Uh-huh.” Andrew crossed his arms. “Not like we’d know one word in six she was using.” He eyed Kerry curiously. “Something bothering you, kumquat?”
“Me?” Kerry exhaled. “Uh, no, no. I’m fine.”
“How’s Dar?” Ceci asked casually.
Ah. “She’s... Why are you asking me that?” Kerry temporized.
Dar’s parents exchanged knowing looks. “All right, kumquat.
What’s going on?” Andrew asked. “I knew something wasn’t right.”
Oh boy. “It’s—”
“She get hurt last night?” The question snapped at her.
“Well—”
“That little half-assed bastard hurt my kid?”
“W...y...” Kerry sucked in a breath. “Yes, that’s what happened, but—”
“Son of a biscuit.” Andrew was visibly angry.
Kerry put both hands out in a calming gesture. “It’s not that bad.
We’ve already been to the doctor’s and had tests done. It’s more painful than anything else.”
“You got her to go to the doc’s?” Andrew had both fists planted on his hips. “I am going to whip her behind for not tellin’ us.”
“Dad.” Kerry gave him a pleading look.
Ceci ruffled her silvered-blonde hair. “Some things just never do change, do they?” she murmured. “Keep your BVDs on, Andy. I can remember many a time I had to drag you kicking and yelling to the base hospital.”
Her husband gave her a look. “That is not the point,” he replied with a scowl. “We are not talking about me.”
“No, no.” Ceci patted his arm. “We’re talking about your daughter.
Remember her? The tall, blue-eyed, dark-haired girl with an attitude and more guts than sense?”
“Hey. She’s got a lot of sense,” Kerry objected.
“Exactly,” Ceci remarked.
Andrew scowled harder. “If I’d a known that little—”
“Yes, which is why Dar didn’t tell you.” Ceci circled his arm with both hands. “Now, come on, let’s go in and see the poor kid. See if you can make her feel better instead of yelling at her, hmm?”
“Ah do not like Dar thinking she can’t tell us something like this,”
Andrew replied. “Ah do not like it one bit.” He nudged past Kerry and opened the door. “Son of a biscuit,” he muttered, leaving Kerry and Ceci behind to gaze at each other in amused sympathy.
“He’ll be nice,” Ceci told her. “He talks a good game, but the minute she looks up at him, he’s going to cave in like one of those marshmallows you toast over a Bunsen burner.”
“I know.” Kerry smiled. “I’ve been on the receiving end of those baby blues.” She sighed and opened the door. “But we’ve got a big Red Sky At Morning 225
problem. I’m sort of glad you’re here.” She followed Ceci inside. “Dar went looking for trouble down at that Navy base.”
Ceci stopped, watching Andrew kneel at Dar’s side. “And?”
“And she found it,” Kerry replied grimly.
DAR SAT ON the couch, watching her father pace. The brick of cocaine was on the coffee table, and her mother was sitting across from her, staring at it in bemused fascination.
Kerry entered and sat down next to her lover, absently slipping an arm around her back and gently rubbing it. “I know it seems bizarre,”
she stated. “We certainly never expected this.”
Andrew halted, and shook his grizzled head. “Ain’t that saying something.” He walked over and crouched down in front of Dar, putting a hand on her knee. “You know who done all this?”
Dar met his eyes, so very much like her own, and shook her head.
“I haven’t had time to analyze all the data we copied, and a lot of the structure is in the programming.”
“You think Jeff knows?”
Dar shook her head again. “I don’t know. I’d have to check the physical documentation, see what had his signature on it or what passed through his personal authorization.”
“What’s yer gut telling you?” Andrew persisted quietly.
That took some thought. Dar focused her mind inward, reviewing the facts she did know and the assumptions she’d made. She was va
guely aware of Kerry’s arm, warm against her back, and she could feel the slim fingers tracing a soft, irregular pattern against her skin.
It felt really good. She leaned against Kerry a little, and the blonde woman’s embrace tightened as Kerry rested her cheek against Dar’s shoulder.
Dar set the puzzle pieces out and examined them carefully. One, she had a situation that was obviously a long-term plan in progress—
the evidence she’d seen indicated it had been going on for quite some time. Jeff Ainsbright had only been in charge at the base for three months. Not enough time. Dar put a tick in that mental column.
Two, whoever was organizing the situation had technical skills beyond Jeff’s, and the general sense she got of the meticulous arrangements didn’t fit the commander’s personality. Dar put another tick in the column.
Three, with the number of people apparently involved, it would be damn near impossible for the base commander to be blind to the fact that something was going on. Dar put a tick in the opposing column.
Was it possible Jeff Ainsbright thought, as Dar had, that whatever irregularities he noticed in the books and procedures were evidence of some harmless, petty larceny to which he could safely turn a blind eye?
Three months wasn’t a long time to get a handle on a place as big as that 226 Melissa Good was, after all.
Be honest, Dar, her conscience quietly spoke. If this were just another target acquisition of Alastair’s, would you even be considering the question? Or would you assume the worst?
Dar’s eyes narrowed.
Ceci sat back in her chair and tucked a leg up under herself, watching the silent tableau with fascinated eyes. Her daughter was obviously deep in thought, the blue eyes unfocused and remote, their lids flickering lightly as the mind behind them worked. Ceci had always had respect for the intellect she’d watched Dar develop, despite its edgy restlessness that often made her daughter hard to deal with.
She’d had her child tested, without Andrew’s knowledge, when Dar had come home from grade school one day with a note from her fourth grade teacher informing Ceci that he was giving up on trying to retain Dar’s attention in class. Even then, she’d tested years older than her age, and Ceci had been shocked to find out just how high octane her little fourth-grader’s mind was.
Genius, the doctor had told her, was a two-edged sword. On one hand, Dar’s potential was unlimited. On the other hand, the very fact of that intelligence put Dar on a plateau that separated her at a time in her life when being different was tantamount to a prison sentence.
And there she’d been—someone who’d had a high school education, and had grown up in a family who valued the price of a person’s car more than the depth of their thoughts—trying to deal with decisions on what to do about the whole thing. Ceci had felt so out of her depth raising her child.
Now, watching that same intellect, grown and matured and shaped by Dar’s intense personality into the sharp, incisive force that it was, she wondered if she’d ever have been able to deal with Dar, even if she hadn’t had her so young and been so isolated.
Dar’s head lifted, and the introspective look vanished as she drew in a breath and returned to the here and now. A cool expression settled over her face as she met her father’s patiently waiting gaze. “No.” Dar’s voice was calm. “I don’t think he was involved.”
Andrew’s eyebrows lifted a trifle.
“But I do think he was aware,” Dar went on. “The question is, to what degree.”
Kerry nodded slightly, as though confirming thoughts of her own.
“We won’t know that unless we get all the data.”
“Exactly,” Dar replied. “Call Mark. Have him call in a security team. Make it five or six people, but tell him volunteers only.” She turned and regarded Kerry. “I want them to know where they’re going, and that there’s a possibility of getting hurt. No pressure.” She watched Kerry nod. “We’ll meet at the office.”
“All right.” Kerry stood up and headed for the phone.
Dar looked at her father. “You want to help?”
Red Sky At Morning 227
“Hell, yes,” Andrew responded immediately. “Tell you what. You stay up in that penthouse of yours and rest yer arm, and I’ll take them kiddies down to the base and shake their shorts out clean.” He patted Dar’s knee. “All right?”
Dar’s lips edged up into a tense smile. “I don’t think so. But thanks for the offer, Dad.”
“Dar, I’d be the last one to encourage your father to get into trouble, but it makes sense,” Ceci offered, a trifle hesitantly. She felt a faint flush as a pair of sharp blue eyes pinned her, and reminded herself again of just how little right she had to give her daughter advice.
“Doesn’t it?”
“No.” Dar got up from the couch, moving fluidly around Andrew’s still crouching form and stalking toward the study. “There’s too many ways for someone who knows what they’re doing to stop even one of our best techs from getting what I want.” She paused in the doorway, the restlessness evident in her flexing hand. “But they won’t stop me.”
Dar disappeared into her office, leaving the rest of them to exchange looks.
“Nice try,” Kerry offered, holding her hand over the receiver. “I could have told you she wouldn’t go for it, though.” She returned her attention to the phone. “That’s right, Mark. It’s the base... No, I can’t even start to go into it.” A pause. “Dar wants volunteers. Can we get a few?” Another pause. “No, that’ll be up to Dar... Okay, we’ll meet you there.” Kerry put the phone down. “Okay, that’s that.” She glanced at the study through the half-open door, seeing Dar’s tense form crouched over her PC. “Be right back.”
Ceci exhaled as Kerry, too, disappeared. She watched Andrew as he got up and crossed to her, then sat down on the tile floor with a sigh.
“What do you think, sailor boy?”
Andrew shook his head. “Ah think this is the goddamndest piece of horse’s butt end I ever did see.”
“Mm.” Ceci could only agree.
KERRY PAUSED IN the doorway, then entered the study and pushed the wooden surface closed behind her. Dar was studying something on her screen, but after a moment she stopped pointing and clicking and looked up.
Blue eyes gave her a direct stare. “Coming to tell me how stupid I am?”
Kerry felt her heartbeat pick up as she heard the tension in Dar’s voice. “Have I ever said that?” she asked quietly, meeting Dar’s gaze with patient honesty. “I don’t think you’re capable of being stupid.”
Dar glanced at the screen, moving her hand restlessly.
Kerry sat down on the couch and rested her forearms on her knees.
“I could question your faith in my abilities, of course.”
228 Melissa Good
“Don’t,” Dar snapped. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“Excuse me.” Kerry gave her a direct look. “You are sending my people into that place; it most certainly does have everything to do with me.” She pushed herself to her feet and advanced on the desk. “I know how to supervise a security sweep, Dar. I’ve been doing it for months.”
Dar avoided her gaze. “This is different.”
Kerry studied her. “Your father was right. You should stay here.”
Her voice gentled to remove any sting. “You’re too close to this, Dar.”
Her lover drew a forceful breath and stiffened. “That’s bullshit.”
She tipped her head back as Kerry rounded the desk and confronted her. “I’m perfectly capable of doing my job, thanks.”
“No one’s debating that.” Kerry sat on the edge of the desk, realizing by the defensive tensing of Dar’s muscles that looming over her wasn’t a good idea. “But this is different, Dar. Think about it. You grew up at this place. These people are your friends.” She put out a tentative hand and covered the larger one resting on the desktop. “I don’t know if I could handle it if it were me.”
Dar’
s face kept its set expression for a moment, then the jaw muscles relaxed slightly, and she blinked. “Because I did grow up there is why I have to do this,” she answered softly. “It’s not that I don’t trust you.” Her eyes flicked up to meet Kerry’s. “But I can’t give you what I know, how I know the way things work there.”
Kerry studied her lover’s face, seeing the pain etched into the tense lines around her eyes. “I’ve seen the layout, honey. It’s just a big complex system,” she protested. “I know how to get it locked down.”
“It’s not that,” Dar answered. “I just don’t want to take a chance.
Too many people can get hurt.”
“What about you taking a chance with yourself?” Kerry countered.
“I don’t want to see you get hurt, Dar.” Slowly, she slid off the desk and knelt, looking up now into Dar’s face. “Nothing is more important to me than that. Not this job, not that base. It’s not worth the risk.”
A faint smile finally tugged at Dar’s lips. “Don’t worry.”
“Dar—”
“You’ll be right there next to me.” Dar touched Kerry’s cheek with her fingertips. “The only muscle I’m going to be using is this one.” She lifted a hand and tapped her forehead. “I promise.”
She wasn’t going to win this one, Kerry knew. She was also smart enough to realize that what Dar was saying was completely true—
they’d have a much better chance of not missing anything with her there. “Okay,” she agreed. “You should take the rest of your drugs though, even if you don’t want the painkillers.”
Dar’s face took on a wry smile. “I do want them.” She sighed and leaned back, relaxing a little now that the fight was over. “I want to take them, and lie down, and just go out for the rest of the day.” Her body felt stiff and achy, and the tension had given her a headache again. “But yeah, I’ll take everything but those, if you wouldn’t mind bringing the Red Sky At Morning 229
others over, and some Advil.”
Kerry nodded. “Sure.” She leaned forward and kissed Dar’s knee.
“Mark and the rest of the team are going to meet us at the office in an hour.”
“Mark?”
