Moving Target

by Melissa Good

  Shari being the exception, of course.

  She was going to prove Shari wrong this time. Dar tossed the shell into the water. She was going to lose gracefully, take what credit she was due for doing a decent job, and move on. No pulling rabbits out of anywhere, no last minute heroics, no making it happen.

  "Right Chi?"

  Chino trotted back over to her and re-deposited the turtle in her lap. "Growf." She nudged Dar's hand impatiently.

  With a sigh, Dar collected the animal and stood up, brushing sand grains off her leg. "Okay. Let's take it back to mommy Kerry, and see what she says about keeping it," she told the dog, as they started back toward the condo.

  The sun was starting to slant down toward the west, and the breeze off the water made it very comfortable. Even the heat wasn't that overbearing, though Dar stifled a yawn as she walked, kicking bits of beach trash ahead of her as she wandered.

  Then her steps slowed and she came to a halt, her brow creased.

  Chino stopped, came back and grabbed the edge of Dar's shirt in her teeth, tugging in the direction of home.

  Slowly, Dar gave in to the motion, starting to walk again, but this time with an extremely thoughtful expression on her face.

  THE CONDO WAS very quiet when Dar entered and her eyes went to the love seat where Kerry was now curled up on her side, fast asleep.

  She closed the door carefully and edged across the living room, trying not to make any sound as she settled down on the floor next to Kerry, just watching the slow, even motion of her breathing.

  Chino ruined all her stealthy work by clattering over, and poking a cold wet nose right into the hollow of Kerry's eye socket.

  "Chi!" Dar made a grab for the dog, but it was too late and Kerry jerked awake, her eyes nearly coming out of her head. "Damn it. Sorry, Ker."

  "Yow!" Kerry coughed. "What in the hell was that? I felt like a raw meatball hit my face!"

  Dar pointed at Chino's black nose.

  "Jesus." Kerry hauled herself half upright. "That's twice today."

  She rubbed her face with one hand. "Boy, I must have been more tired than I thought."

  Dar released Chino and leaned back against the couch. "Sorry about that. Why don't you go back to sleep? Not like we've got a lot planned for this afternoon." She tipped her head back and regarded Kerry. "Ker?"

  "What on earth do you have in your hand?" Kerry was leaning forward and staring at Dar's closed fingers with intense fascination. "Is that alive?"

  Dar brought her hand over and opened it, revealing the turtle. "Yes, it is."

  "Ooo." Kerry crooned at it. "It's so cute!"

  The turtle cautiously extended its head, and scrabbled at Dar's skin with its four small feet. "Chino found it on the beach." Dar explained. "It's a freshwater--I used to have one when I was a kid."

  "How'd it get here?" Kerry looked up from petting the animal on the head with the tip of her finger. "It didn't swim the cut, did it?"

  "Nah. Probably some kid got it, and let it go." Dar replied. "I was going to leave it, but Chi kept bringing it back to me, so..."

  "So...we're going to PetSmart." Kerry concluded with a grin. "Rocking. I've always loved turtles."

  "Tortuga." Dar pronounced, rolling the R sound a little. "Yeah, we can bring Chino. She loves PetSmart."

  "She loves the toy aisle." Kerry sat up. "Okay, let me go throw water on my face, and we can go get Señor Tortuga a house."

  "Can we get a hermit crab to keep him company?" Dar asked ingeniously.

  Kerry paused, and leaned an elbow on Dar's shoulder. "Tell you what." She whispered, confidentially. "I'll get you a hermit crab, if you tell me what we're going to do to fix this whole stupid mess."

  They were pretty much nose to nose. "Are we doing something?" Dar asked, quietly.

  "There is no way," Kerry leaned forward and gently kissed her on the lips, "that I'll believe you don't have some plan, some way, some amazing solution to keep you, and I from looking like jackasses in front of that camera tomorrow."

  "No way?"

  Kerry rested her forehead against Dar's. "Dar, one of the things I admire most about you is the fact that you never give up. You never back off, you never quit, and you never, ever lose," she said. "That's what caught my eye about you from the moment we met."

  Dar watched the turtle march across her palm, averting her eyes from her partners briefly. "Some people might not think that's a positive trait."

  "Some people might not." Kerry readily agreed. "Anyone who has to compete with you, in fact. But I don't, and I love it."

  Ah. An unexpected revelation. "You do?"

  "I do."

  "You love me being a bitch?" Dar questioned. "Because that's what I am when I do that." Her eyes searched Kerry's. "I'm not sure that's really desirable in a long term relationship, is it?"

  And, there it was. Kerry found herself speechless as she stared at her partner.

  Dar gave her a tiny shrug, her lips pressed together tightly.

  "Y'know." Kerry finally found her voice. "I grew up having to hide who I really was and I didn't half realize just how mind obliterating that was until I met you."

  Dar blinked, looking unsure and a little apprehensive.

  Kerry stroked Dar's cheek gently. "Please don't tell me you think you have to change for me to keep on loving you. Please." She paused, swallowing. "Don't tell me that."

  Dar hadn't expected this conversation to happen like this, so soon, or to hit so hard. Her heart was pounding so fast she could see the flashes from the beats as after images in her eyes, and her tongue felt three sizes too big for her mouth.

  But here it was, and there was no point in holding it back any more. "Well." Dar took a breath. "Everyone in my life's always told me the reason I pushed everyone away from me was because I was who I was." She took another breath. "So I'd rather change that than take a chance on losing you."

  Kerry glanced at the turtle, who had settled down into the palm of Dar's hand. "Don't change." She whispered, looking back up into Dar's eyes. "Don't change a damn thing, Dar. I love every single thing about you."

  "Everything?" Dar sensed the directness in Kerry's rapt attention.

  "Everything."

  "Everything?"

  A touch of sweetly amused exasperation entered Kerry's tone. "Honey, I fell in love with you when you were in the act of firing my ass. How much more everything do you need?"

  Hm. Dar thought about that. "Am I being a stupid, insecure jackass again?"

  "No." Kerry leaned forward and kissed her again. "We both have questions sometimes. We just have to remember to ask them and not keep quiet."

  Sure. Easy for her to say. Dar felt a lot better, though. She still felt like an insecure jackass, but it was hard to be too hard on herself when Kerry's lashes were fluttering against her skin and they were eyeball to eyeball over a turtle.

  "Feel better now?" Kerry gave her a kiss on the nose.

  "Eh." A sly twinkle appeared in the blue eyes so close to hers. "I get a hermit crab?" Dar asked.

  "With a painted house." Kerry promised. "But you have to spill the plan, remember."

  Ah, the plan. Well, Kerry's faith in her notwithstanding--Dar kissed her. "Well, I don't have a plan." She admitted. "But I do have an idea, so we'll see how far it goes."

  Kerry grinned. "I knew it." She did a little seated dance on the couch. "You know what I'm hoping?" She asked, as she got up and started around the end of the couch toward the bedroom. "I'm hoping you found some way to pull a bathtub stopper on those things and they're now stuck in place bailing to beat the band."

  Dar got to her feet and looked around for something appropriate to deposit their new pet in. "Hey Ker? Where'd you store that old fish tank of yours?"

  "You didn't comment on that." Kerry called in from the bathroom. "It's in the closet there, bottom shelf."

  Dar retrieved the tank and set it on the dining room table. She placed the turtle inside, then went into the kitchen to find it someth
ing to eat. "Actually, I'm counting on them making it in one piece." She called back, taking out a piece of lettuce and a few shreds of carrots.

  "Really?"

  Dar chuckled softly. "Really." She carried the vegetation back to the tank and put it down next to their new resident. "There you go, buddy."

  The turtle seemed a bit overwhelmed by its new environment, his feet scrabbling against the glass. But the lettuce attracted him and he munched a bit of it. Dar watched him for a moment, and then she retreated into her study, sitting down behind her computer and giving the trackball a whirl.

  Her desktop came up, with its background of an underwater scene. Dar opened her mail program, briefly reviewing some new entries. One made her frown, and she opened it, scanning the contents before she hit reply. "Kiss my ass." She hit send, shaking her head. "Brainless gitwads."

  "Did you say something?" Kerry entered, pulling a clean t-shirt over her head.

  "Not to you." Dar fished in the small wooden box near her monitor, and removed a business card. She opened a new mail and typed in an address from it. She paused to think, resting her chin against her laced fingers as she considered what it was she wanted to say.

  Kerry settled on the couch, tucking her feet up under her. "Can we get Dad to sink them?"

  Dar chuckled.

  "You know he could."

  "We probably could get them stopped." Dar flexed her fingers, then started typing. "Hold on a minute, I'm thinking in German."

  German? Kerry's ears perked up. "Hans?"

  "Ja."

  Hm.

  "YOU HAVE GONE out of your head." Hans' voice sounded remarkably clear, given it was coming from a continent away. "Do you know what time it is here?"

  "You called me." Dar reminded him dryly.

  "Do I know what time it is?" Hans asked, not missing a beat. "How could I know when I get these very strange emails in the middle of the night?"

  Dar gave her trackball a whirl, studying the information on her screen. "So you're sure it's Gilberthwaite? Intercontinental Holdings?"

  "As sure as anything in this business can be sure," Hans said. "My sources are respectable, and it seems they have quietly bought two hotel lines recently."

  "Ah." Dar scrolled down. "They're pretty big."

  "They are not Marriot Corporation, but yes." Hans agreed. "And so?"

  And so. Dar reviewed the corporate data, her eyes searching for connections between the bland points. Intercontinental had picked up properties that were mostly older, mostly converted chateaus, castles, country mansions--you name it.

  They were modestly successful. Customers liked them, and they'd gotten on the hotel A lists, pushing their theme of the grandeur of yesteryear.

  That made the ships fit in with their corporate plan, all right. "Okay." Dar mused slowly. "This is the pitch. You listening?"

  "Most surely, I am listening." Hans replied.

  Dar felt her mind going a mile a minute. It was a feeling that had been familiar to her for a long time, but not so much recently. She'd almost forgotten how much she liked it. "I'm sure they already have a management system."

  "They do. One of my competitors."

  "So what we have to do is sell them yours, riding on my pipes."

  Hans was silent for a long moment. "We have to do that?" He finally queried. "Why?"

  "You don't want to sell your system?"

  "I do." Hans protested. "But what advantage can we offer to these people? You cannot be thinking of going cheaper than my competitor. I will not allow it."

  Interesting reverse psychology, Dar considered. "No, not for this guy." She reluctantly agreed. "He goes for quality, which is why he should go for us."

  Hans laughed, but there was no mocking in it. "You know, I agree!" he said. "In fact, that is exactly how I will--what you call--pitch to him.

  He should buy my system and your hardware because it is simply the

  best, and that is all there is to that. It is good. I will call them."

  "Great." Dar paused to take a breath.

  "I can go back to sleep now, yes?" Hans asked pointedly.

  "Sure," Dar said.

  "Then a good night to you, Dar. Please give my regards to your delightful wife."

  "Thanks. Night." Dar hung up the phone, not entirely satisfied with the conversation. "Hm."

  "So, what was that all about?" Kerry asked. "Did he go for whatever it was you were asking?"

  Dar scowled. "Not sure." She half shrugged. "I think he did, but not with the urgency I really wanted." She sighed. "Well, we could just hint that we've got something in the works."

  Kerry frowned. "I hate vague hints," she said. "Almost as much as I hate not knowing the plan."

  Blue eyes blinked guiltily at her. "Sorry." Dar murmured. "C'mere."

  Kerry got up and circled the desk, peering at Dar's screen. "Okay. I'm here."

  "I asked Hans to find out who was in a position to acquire those four ships, and do something intelligent with them. After he made jokes about half the companies in Europe, he came up with three." Dar clicked on a window. "I ran analyses on them, and we came up with two that have balance sheets so bad they couldn't buy a Happy Meal, and this one." She pointed at the screen she'd been reading.

  "Ah."

  "They own a lot of old time, classy places."

  Kerry grunted. "And you think they're after the ships?" She glanced at her partner. "Why them, and not Starwood, or one of the big multinationals from this side of the pond?"

  Why, indeed? Dar found herself in the position of trying to explain a hunch, one of those intuitive decisions she often made and seldom regretted. Kerry had been one of them. "Just feels like a European company is in this," she said. "So anyway, I wanted Hans to pitch his distributed management system over a network we'd provide."

  "Why?"

  "Why?" Dar gave her a look.

  "No..." Kerry held a hand up. "I know why, but I guess I mean, why us? What does this get us?"

  Dar clicked on a page. "They have two hundred locations," she said. "What it gets us is a major European backbone, which we don't have right now, as a growth platform. It also gets us a foothold in the services sector, which we also don't have, and last but not least..." One more click. "It recoups all our investment in that ship as well as locks our competitors out."

  It nearly took Kerry's breath away. "Whoa."

  "Mm." Dar grunted. "If Hans can pull it off," she said. "He didn't sound too enthusiastic about it, but we'll see."

  "Couldn't we..." Kerry paused. "We've got programmers, Dar. We could do our own system."

  "We could." Her partner agreed. "But it'd take years, which we don't have."

  "Hm."

  "And, if this is Intercontinental Holdings, they're pretty fiercely Euro centric."

  "Ah. We need Hans to front us." Kerry nodded. "It's a great idea, Dar."

  Dar leaned her head against her fist. "Wish I'd thought of it a little sooner." She admitted. "Wonder if any of the rest of them caught on? We could be in a race and not even know it."

  Kerry's cell phone rang, startling them both. She reached for it, flipping it open as a glance showed her an unfamiliar number. "Hello?"

  "You bitch."

  The voice was loud enough for Dar to hear it, and it brought her upright and reaching for the phone. "Give me that."

  "Ah ah ah." Kerry scrambled out of reach. "Excuse me, there's no one here by that name." She responded into the phone in a pleasant tone. "You must have the wrong number. Goodbye." She closed the cell. "I don't remember giving her my cell phone number. Did you?"

  Dar glared at the device, her eyes narrowing.

  "Just kidding." Kerry assured her. "That was a marine line--guess she's still stuck out there, huh?"

  The cell rang again. Dar imperiously held out her hand, palm up. "Give me that thing."

  Kerry hesitated, then she meekly handed it over.

  Dar opened it. "Yes." She answered, in a silken tone.

  "Don'
t you fucking hang up on me again, you bitch."

  "Different bitch." Dar replied. "And I'll hang up any time I like, so unless you've got something even slightly intelligent to say, goodbye."

  Kerry snuggled up to her, wrapping herself around Dar's tall body and angling her head to listen. "You know something." She murmured. "She's the first person, including my father, I hate enough to wish something bad happen to her."

  "I am going to fucking sue your ass!" Shari screamed into the phone.

  "For?" Dar responded mildly.

  "I'm stuck on this piece of shit ship!"

  "And that's my fault how?"

  Silence.

  "Did I ask you come aboard it? Did I ask you to start playing around with the IT systems in an attempt to screw with us? Did I make you so stupid it's a wonder you can breathe and blink at the same time?" Dar went on. "Sorry to have to inject reality, not to mention logic, into the conversation, but frankly you screwed yourself, which is what you should have been doing all along so as not to give the rest of us migraines."

  "Ooo." Kerry wriggled.

  "You." There was a hiss of interference. "This is all your doing! I know it! You've been trying to fuck me over ever since I dumped you!"

  "Stop blaming me, Shari." Dar's voice suddenly went very serious. "You want someone to blame for your troubles, look in a mirror. I don't need to screw you over. I've got everything. You mean nothing to me."

  Silence.

  "So stop wasting my time." Dar finished quietly.

  The line went dead. Dar looked at the phone, then she closed it and let it drop onto the surface of her desk. She looked down at Kerry, who was still wrapped around her. "Well."

  Kerry hugged her.

  Dar exhaled. "You know something? I actually feel sorry for her."

  "I don't." Green eyes peered wryly up. "And you shouldn't either. You were so totally right, Dar. Whatever happened to her, she did to herself."

  "Mm."

  "Not that she'll ever buy that." Kerry acknowledged.

  "No. It'll always be my fault." Dar sighed. "Damn it."

  Kerry sniffed. "Well." She concluded. "If that's the case, I hope they're in hundred foot seas every second they're out there, and run out of Dramamine."