by Melissa Good
“Of course.” Kerry smiled. “You said you wanted volunteers.”
Dar sighed. “Figures he would. I wonder if anyone else will.”
Wonder if anyone else won’t, Kerry amended silently.
Chapter
Fourteen
CECI CAREFULLY PUT her hands precisely behind her back and clasped them. So, this is where Dar and Kerry work. Her eyes traveled up and up and up to see the top of the atrium skylight, then back down across the marble and steel walls to the pretentious fountain in the very center of the space.
Somehow, she resisted the urge to yodel. The temptation to hear the echoes was almost overwhelming.
A security guard ambled over and handed her a piece of plastic.
“There you go, ma’am. That’s your badge.”
Ceci accepted it and clipped the item to her shirt. “Outstanding,”
she complimented the guard. “Does it check for radiation hazards as well?”
The guard cocked his head in puzzlement. “Ma’am?”
“Let’s go.” Dar had come up next to her. “Thanks, Devon.”
“Any time, Ms. Roberts.” The guard ducked his head politely at Dar. “Haven’t seen you here on the weekend in a long time.” He managed not to look too curiously at her beslinged arm. “Have a good day.”
“Thanks.” Dar led the way across the huge lobby toward the elevator, Kerry a pace behind her and followed by her parents. She felt a little unfocused from the drugs, but still fairly alert. “Did we tell Devon to be on the lookout for the JAG rep?”
“Yes,” Kerry replied. “Twice.” She swiped her keycard into the elevator receptacle and held the doors when they opened. “All aboard.”
“Tell me, Dar,” Ceci commented as they rode up. “Do you rent out mausoleum space in this place to South Miami Cemetery?”
Dar was leaning against the mirrored wall, staring at her reflection.
An extremely grumpy-looking, slightly scruffy figure with a scowl was looking back at her. With an effort, she wrestled a little of her normal work attitude into place. “No.” She eyed her mother. “We charge too much,” she replied. “The American Cryogenic Society has the top floor, though.”
Kerry chuckled. “That explains why it’s so cold upstairs all the time,” she remarked. “I had to wear a parka the first few months I worked here.”
Red Sky At Morning 231
The doors slid open and they left the elevator, moving along the very quiet hallway, past closed or darkened doorways. No one on fourteen worked on the weekends, save the operations group on occasion, and it was pleasantly unchaotic for a change. “Wish it was like this all the time,” Kerry muttered. “It’s usually Circus City at this time of day.” She swiped her card at the front door to Dar’s outer office and heard the lock click.
Andrew reached around her and worked the handle, pushing the door open and allowing them into the darkened interior. “Cec, this ain’t half nothing. That there place in Houston’s got this beat hands down.”
Ceci strolled in and looked around curiously. It was a good-sized space, with seating on one side and a neatly appointed desk on the other. Across from the main entry was a set of inner doors, and one had a plaque on it. She looked at it as Andrew flipped the lights on.
Dar’s name and title.
With a sense of surreality, she followed as Dar opened the door to her office and went inside. It was light, Ceci noticed, and as she cleared the door she saw why.
Good Goddess. She stopped and stared. The place was huge: floor-to-ceiling teak paneling framed two walls; the other two were floor-to-ceiling plate glass, giving a breathtaking view of the sea all the way to the horizon. The room was filled with light from outside, which fell on the fine wood furnishings and the curved expanse of Dar’s desk.
Against one wall was a comfortable-looking leather couch, and against the other, a credenza with a neatly put up silver tray holding a now empty pitcher and glasses.
Ceci noted a few other things. That the desk was absolutely spotless and contained exactly zero clutter, something she’d noticed about Dar’s study in the condo. Remembering what a wreck her daughter habitually kept her adolescent room in, this seemed almost funny. The only things on the desk were the computer screen and keyboard, Dar’s trackball, her in and out box, and a...Ceci walked closer and squinted...and a pair of Siamese fighting fish in a small, interlocked Lucite tank.
Interesting choice. Ceci eyed her husband, who was rocking slightly on his heels, his brow tensed in thought.
“I’m going to start pulling up their network schematics and printing them off,” Kerry said as she headed toward the small door in the rear of the office. “Hope someone left the plotter up and linked.”
“I’ll check it.” Dar went to her desk and sat down. “G’wan and take a seat,” she told her parents as she kick-started her PC. The phone rang, and she hit the speakerphone button. “Yes?”
“Hey, boss.” Mark’s voice echoed slightly. “Saw your IP come active.”
“Don’t you have anything better to do than watch Snoopy?” Dar asked, testily. “Is the plotter active?”
232 Melissa Good
“Hang on.” The sound of a keyboard cut clearly through the connection. “It is now. Let me boot the print server if you’re gonna be sending anything big to it.”
“Diagrams. Kerry’s sending,” Dar replied. “You get some people to come in?”
“Yeah.” Mark sounded preoccupied. “I had to rig a lottery though.”
Dar braced a knee up against the edge of her desk. “What?” Her brow contracted. “Mark, damn it, I told you I wanted volunteers. What part of that didn’t you understand?”
There was a momentary silence. “Um...you said you only wanted six people, boss. I had to do a lottery to get it down to that,” Mark replied carefully. “I had twenty-five of those suckers show up here.” He paused. “Did I do something to piss you off today?”
Dar regarded her hiking boot in mild embarrassment. Get your head out of your ass, Dar. “No, sorry, Mark,” she replied. “I just want to get this started. Give Kerry twenty minutes to get those diagrams done, then c’mon up here.”
“Will do,” Mark replied, then hung up.
“Ahm going to get me some coffee,” Andrew said. “You want some, Dardar?”
“No.” Dar shook her head. “Dr. Steve said to stay away from that for a couple of days.” Awareness of her injury nibbled uncomfortably at her. “Thanks for the offer.”
Her father left, and Dar became aware of her mother’s pale eyes glancing her way curiously. She lifted a hand and indicated the room with wry irony. “What do you think?”
Thus invited, Ceci obligingly got up and toured the room, ending up next to Dar’s desk. “It’s...um...”
“Pretentious?” Dar dryly supplied.
“No, actually it has very pleasant proportions,” Ceci disagreed gravely. “Nice view, lot of open space, clean...” Her eyes and Dar’s met, and she hesitated, a teasing remark on her tongue she wasn’t sure she should utter.
Dar’s cool gaze gentled slightly. “What am I doing in here, right?”
A hint of a smile warmed her features.
Ceci returned the smile. “Nah. I think you fit right in here,” she disagreed. “I especially like the blue jeans; they go well with the teak paneling.”
That got an actual chuckle out of Dar, who plucked at the denim fabric covering her knee. “It’s not how I usually dress here,” she admitted. “Wish it was. Those damn business suits drive me nuts.”
Her mother studied the faded jeans and untucked cotton shirt Dar was wearing, the easiest things she could manage with her arm in a sling. “That strap’s twisted,” she gestured. “Want it fixed?”
For a moment, there was a flash of wary uncertainty in Dar’s eyes.
Ceci merely waited, wishing for the thousandth time she’d made some Red Sky At Morning 233
different choices years back. She was almost sure Dar would polite
ly decline the offer, when her daughter shifted and leaned forward slightly.
“Sure,” Dar said. “Felt a little weird.”
Ceci unbuckled the strap and straightened it, tucking the cotton fabric under Dar’s collar and refastening the buckle. She had to move a bit of thick, dark hair out of the way to do so. “I always wondered what Andy would have looked like with long hair.”
Dar slowly turned her head and both eyebrows arched almost to her hairline. “Dad?”
“Mm.” Ceci nodded, giving Dar’s shoulder a light pat. “There you go.”
“I don’t think he’s ever had it even covering his ears, much less his neck.” Dar relaxed a little, settling back in her chair as Ceci stepped away.
“Nope, he sure hasn’t.” Ceci shook her head. “But when he was your current age, his hair was just like yours, same texture and everything. I remember he let it grow...oh, all of two inches over one summer before he had it buzzed again.” She studied Dar’s angular face and smiled. “I can almost imagine it, now.” It was nice, a wistful thought intruded, to be able to see her husband so clearly in their child, and have it not hurt.
She wondered if Dar realized that. They’d both changed so much, it was hard to say what went on behind those very familiar eyes anymore.
Ah well. “How’s your shoulder doing?” Ceci changed the subject.
“Lousy,” Dar answered, with surprising honesty. “Sorry I didn’t mention it the other day.”
“I’m not,” Ceci replied, with equal honesty, seeing the quickly shuttered wariness in Dar’s eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, Dar. What happens to you matters to me, and I’m sorry you got hurt by that a—”
She paused. “By Chuck, but we both know it was better for him and Andy for your father not to know.”
“Mm.” The door opened and Andrew reentered the room, carrying two cups. Dar and her mother exchanged glances, then Dar smiled.
“Thanks, Mom. Glad I made the right choice.”
Well. Ceci accepted the cup of coffee, feeling pleased, if a touch bemused, by the reaction. I think that was almost a Kodak moment.
She liked it. Ceci moved off toward the window and studied the view, half listening to her husband and Dar in the background talking about the base.
DAR HAD MOVED the strategy meeting into the big conference room down the hall from her office. Kerry had gotten in ahead of her and clipped the network diagrams to the big presentation board, and now she watched as the operations team filed in and took seats.
234 Melissa Good Mark, of course, was in the lead, carrying the backpack Kerry knew held the big network analyzer and its cables. He set it down on the floor and took a seat as the rest of the group settled around him. Kerry’s eyebrows rose as she recognized Brent among the group, but she refrained from commenting as Dar entered from the back door.
The JAG officer and Andrew were with her, and they took chairs near the other end of the conference table as Dar circled it and headed toward the podium. Ceci had seated herself near the window and was watching quietly, her eyes flicking between the charts and her daughter, and occasionally crossing gazes with Kerry herself.
“All right.” Dar’s low, vibrant voice cut through the quiet. She put a sheaf of papers on the podium and drew in a breath, letting her eyes run over her audience. Kerry could almost see the subtle shift as her lover assumed her professional demeanor, and she sharpened her own attention as she listened.
Even in casual clothing, and with her arm in its white cotton sling, Dar still managed to capture the room, the normal intensity of her attitude only slightly blunted by all the medication she was on. Kerry could tell it was an effort, though. There was a persistent crease in Dar’s forehead, she was blinking more than usual, and there was an uncharacteristic slump to her posture that was easily visible to her watching partner.
“We’ve gotten an unusual request from the government.” Dar started her speech. “As most of you know, we were contracted to perform detailed structure and performance analysis on a number of military bases.”
The techs were glued to her every word. They nodded almost in concert, which almost made Dar laugh. “As part of that investigation, information was obtained detailing irregularities in their data, which could extend from minor theft to felonious activities.”
Mark shook his head and let out a sigh. “I was thinking that, boss.
That stuff you sent down stank to hell.”
Dar nodded. “With good reason.” She turned to the whiteboard.
“Normally, I’d have just turned this over to the government at this point.” She spared a glance for the JAG man. “In fact, that’s what was originally intended. However, due to logistics, they can’t get a security team here for at least twenty-four hours, and we have reason to think data destruction would occur before that time.
“Mark, we’re going to need to put the scope in here.” Dar ran a hand over the diagram. “The three critical mainframes are here, here, and here, and we’ll need to pull the drive arrays from all three.”
Mark was scribbling . “We just going to walk in there, DR?”
This was the tricky part. “No.” Dar folded her hands on the podium. “Kerry and I are going in first.” All heads jerked her way. “The guards are used to seeing me, and they won’t react.” At least, I hope they won’t. “Two of you are going to ride with us and duck down in the back Red Sky At Morning 235
seat as we go through the gates.”
“Check.” Mark made a note. “How ’bout the rest of them?”
Dar felt a smile twitching at her lips at Mark’s claiming of his spot.
“A volunteer who’s familiar with the base is going to pay a visit.
Everyone else will go with him.”
“Them,” Ceci muttered, just loud enough for Dar to hear her.
The techs all looked around and finally spotted the two guests at the end of the table. Mark waved at Andrew. “Oh, hey.”
“’Lo,” Andrew drawled.
Kerry watched Brent’s face as he focused on the tall ex-SEAL, then returned his gaze straight ahead. She wondered what he was thinking.
“This is Captain Taylor from the military justice department and my father, Andrew Roberts,” Dar introduced them succinctly. “My father’s the volunteer who’ll get the rest of you into the camp. He’s very familiar with it.” She let her eyes rove over the watching faces. “If either of them instruct any of you to do something, do it.” She paused.
“Understand?”
“Gotcha, DR,” Mark replied. “You guys all clear on that?”
The techs nodded.
“Good.” Dar paused, then nodded. “Get moving. Don’t do anything stupid when you’re out there. I don’t want to be spending half the week doing paperwork on anyone. Got me?”
Another round of nodding.
“All right. That’s all.” Dar stepped back from the podium.
Everyone stood and a low murmur of discussion started. Dar exhaled and ran her fingers through her hair as Kerry crossed the room and came to her side. “Ready?”
“I’ve got all the equipment downstairs, ready to go,” Kerry told her. “I brought the portable hundred-gig array along, in case we need to transfer something we can’t just take.” She leaned forward. “And I picked up the black box, so you can run your code on it if you need to.”
Dar considered that. “Good work,” she said. “Thanks, Ker.”
They followed the crowd out of the room and toward the elevator.
Dar found herself between her father and Kerry as they entered the open car, and she leaned back against the mirrored wall, aware of the warmth as they joined her. Slowly, she turned her head and regarded Kerry, who had folded her arms and was gazing ahead of her. Then she turned and glanced at her father, who had adopted the same pose. The rest of the occupants of the elevator were studying the tiled floor with great interest.
Dar’s brow creased. They were all acting a little weird, she thought, then realized it was p
robably due to the very odd circumstances. With a sigh, she let her head rest against the cool surface and waited for the drop to end. The JAG captain had been quiet and reserved and pretty much unhelpful, even after Dar had given him the cocaine brick.
He needed concrete proof, he’d said seriously. That brick could 236 Melissa Good have come from anywhere, and the chief could have just been looking to get someone in trouble. Which was true, Dar acknowledged, and the exact reason she was dragging her butt down to the Upper Keys on a Saturday afternoon when she felt like crawling into bed and passing out.
A hand on her elbow almost made her jump, and she glanced up to see the doors open, and everyone else exiting. “Whoops...sorry.” She gave Kerry a smile. “I was just thinking.”
Kerry glanced up at her and returned the smile. “I could tell.” She linked her arm inside Dar’s, and they continued across the lobby toward the front door. “How are you feeling?”
A little annoyed to be asked again, Dar almost retorted. “I’m fine,”
she replied. “Damn drugs are making me a little light-headed, that’s all.” Deliberately putting more energy into her steps, she pulled free of Kerry’s grip and stalked toward the entrance.
Kerry sighed. “Shit.”
Andrew glanced at her. “Stubborn cuss, ain’t she,” he commiserated wryly.
Kerry looked at him. “Wonder where she gets it from,” she answered with equal wryness.
“Ah have no idea,” Andrew said. “You better git moving ’fore she decides on driving.”
Kerry sighed and broke into a jog, ducking past the straggling techs as she tried to catch up with her partner.
KERRY WAITED UNTIL they were almost at the base before she slowed the pace of the Lexus and glanced into the rearview mirror. She spotted Andrew a bit back, in Dar’s car, and also caught the half-asleep faces of Mark and Brent in the back seat.
It was very quiet in the car. She’d deliberately turned the stereo down to allow her passengers to relax and doze off if they wanted to. In fact, she encouraged them to do just that, knowing Dar would remain awake and alert if everyone else was, just out of sheer cussedness.
But Mark had taken her hint and loudly announced his intention to nap, poking Brent in the leg until the slightly slow-on-the-uptake tech realized what he wanted and huddled down in his seat with a glum expression.
