by Melissa Good
Chapter
Eleven
KERRY ENTERED THE conference room and gave a smiling nod to the assembled group as she slipped into a chair halfway down the table. It was the first meeting she was going to attend without Dar’s comforting presence by her side, and she was a little nervous. She put her PDA down on the table and glanced around, folding her hands together.
The meeting was to coordinate a project to replace the current technology they were using for their huge intranetwork with a more advanced type, and that affected virtually everyone in the company. Dar had meant to attend, but she was in the middle of straightening out a huge problem affecting the entire West Coast and had told Kerry to just go on, take notes, and not to agree to anything.
Easy enough. She was a little worried about Dar, though. The morning had started out fine, but after she’d taken care of the day’s urgent morning e-mail, she’d stopped by to check on something and found her boss standing by her window, staring out at the water with a grim expression. Something was bothering her. Even after only two weeks, Kerry could see it plainly. Dar had given her brief answers, a dismissive attitude that had surprisingly hurt. But there was this meeting, and they had work to do, so there was no time for her to ask any more questions.
So she sat here, instead, worrying about someone she barely knew and sitting in a meeting she was barely prepared for. Kerry sighed. Good thing it’s Friday. She glanced up as a tall, bearded man stepped to the head of the table and sat down, shuffling some papers in front of him, then looking at her with an unpleasant frown.
“Do I understand we’re not deemed important enough for Ms. Roberts to be here?”
Kerry bit her tongue for a minute, then cleared her throat. “Actually, she’s cleaning up a mess out in the western region. She asked me to sit in for her.”
The younger man sitting next to him winced. “Ouch. The Pacific deal?”
Kerry nodded. “She forced Unisys to ship those mainframes a week early, and she was pushing some of the folks out there to get a team out for install.”
The bearded man didn’t look any happier, but he grunted and focused his attention on his papers. “Well, all right, let’s get started with this.” He glanced at his neighbor. “You have a technology presentation?”
Kerry settled in, opening her PDA and scribbling a few notes as the lights dimmed and a circuit diagram flashed on the screen.
Tropical Storm 115
DAR TOOK A sip of the water on her desk and focused her attention on the woman sitting in front of her desk. The Marketing VP was busy outlining a new scheme and wanted Dar’s input on whether or not their current infrastructure would be able to handle it. She took a breath and swallowed, forcing down the nausea that had added itself to her daily headache, today’s being worse than usual, so bad that she suspected what she was suffering was actually a migraine.
It had started with a spell of tunnel vision, the edges of her sight becoming a whirling, sparkling blurriness. The pain had started at the base of her skull and was working upward, the throbbing so bad it was making her stomach upset. The Marketing VP’s voice wasn’t helping. Eleanor had an unfortunate nasal voice, and Dar felt herself losing her concentration, wanting nothing more than to curl up in a dark place and tune the world out.
But she couldn’t. There was too much to do, so she grimly sucked down more water, calculating whether she could risk downing another four or five ibuprofen. “Looks good, Eleanor. We can work out the bandwidth, but I’d write in the overhead for additional T3s into those contracts.”
The woman scribbled a note, nodding. “Yes, we can do that.”
The phone rang, and Dar punched the speakerphone button. “Yes?”
“Dar, we’ve got a problem.” Mark’s voice was irritated. “T and T
requested Internet access for some of their senior techs, and they’ve got an open TCP/IP stack on their boxes. I can proxy them, but there’s a chance someone can get into them from that damn intranet they support and hit us from the inside.”
“Fine. No,” Dar uttered, resting her head on her hand. “Tell T and T
nothing doing.”
“I did,” Mark replied. “But Alai’s complaining up and down the place and chewing my ass.”
Dar took a breath and released it. “Tell him I said no,” she answered evenly. “Tell him if he has a problem with that, he can call me directly and I’ll tell his little, punky, unintelligible ass no.”
Momentary silence. “Okay,” Mark answered slowly, drawing out the word.
“And you can tell him from me, if he’s so stupid he can’t understand a simple concept like network security, we can find him a new position painting stripes outside in the parking lot of the Bank of New Zealand,” Dar continued, her voice deepening into a growl.
Longer silence. “I think I’ll let you tell him that,” the MIS chief finally replied with a hesitant chuckle. “I don’t want to deprive you of the pleasure.”
The throbbing got worse, and Dar suspected she was near throwing up, the very thought of which made her head hurt even more. “Thanks.” She hung up, then looked at Eleanor “Are we done?”
The woman blinked at her. “You all right, Dar?” she politely inquired.
“Not that you usually aren’t in a foul mood, but this seems a bit much, even for you.”
Blue eyes pinned her mercilessly. “Are we done?” Dar repeated testily.
The woman stood and shook her head. “Yes. Have a nice…weekend, Dar.” She paused. “Or whatever.” She walked out, closing the door behind her 116 Melissa Good with an unnecessary force and gave Maria a look. “She’s got a bug up her ass today, doesn’t she?” Her eyes fell on Kerry, who had just entered the office and was now standing near the secretary’s desk. “Oh, sorry, honey, you’re still kinda new, aren’t you? Haven’t gotten sick of her yet? My god, you’ve lasted six times as long as the others. You must be some kind of saint.”
Kerry gazed at her. “I like my job, and my boss,” she replied mildly. As the woman just shook her head and walked out, Kerry turned her attention back to Maria. “She has been pretty upset all day; is something up?”
Maria shrugged. “I tell you…something is wrong, but she won’t say.”
The secretary lowered her voice. “I worry. She got a call from the doctor today, early this morning. She’s been so quiet since.” She nudged Kerry. “You better go in, she was asking where you were.”
“Okay.” Kerry sighed, then picked up her offering of coffee and gently tapped on the door, pushing it open as she heard the low response. She entered to find Dar seated behind her desk, her arms resting on its surface.
“Hey, you looking for me?” As she moved closer, she noticed the pale tinge to her boss’s normally tanned skin and she set the coffee down, peering at the taller woman in concern.
“Yeah. “ Dar exhaled. “Um…those contracts, the ones Duks wanted reviewed. Did you take them? I can’t seem to find them.” She rested her head on one hand, her eyes closing briefly. “Thought I had them in the bin there.”
“Dar?” Kerry circled behind the desk and knelt at her side, putting a hand on her arm. “Hey, are you okay?”
Dar’s brows creased. “Yeah, I’ve just got a lousy headache,” she admitted. “It’s driving me nuts.”
“You look terrible.” Kerry leaned closer. “Why don’t you lie down on the couch?”
“Just…” The older woman drew herself up, taking a long breath. “I’m all right. I need to find those contracts, I told Duks I’d get them back to him this afternoon.”
Kerry studied her for a moment. “I was reviewing them, but I thought I brought them back. Let me check my office. I’ll see if I can find them.”
Dar nodded and let her head rest on one hand again. “Good enough.”
Kerry walked toward the small door which led to the back corridor between their offices, then stopped and turned, taking her courage in both hands and returning to the desk. “Dar?”
Blue eyes glanced up at her in minor annoyance. “What?”
Kerry perched on the edge of the polished wood. “Um…listen, why don’t you go home?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Kerry,” Dar said testily. “There’s noth…” She clamped her jaw down tight, as her stomach threatened to rebel and closed her eyes. “Damn it.”
“Dar?” Kerry’s voice took on a cajoling softness. “Come on, let me take you home, okay? You can lie down. I know you’ll feel better.”
“I can’t.” Dar protested wearily. “There’s too much to do.”
“I’ll do it. Come on, I’ll drop you off, then I’ll come back here and finish stuff up,” Kerry coaxed. “Hey, it’s Friday afternoon. You can get out of here a few hours early, can’t you?”
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Dar stared at her. The sea green eyes warmed and gentled as the blonde woman regarded her, and suddenly Dar just wanted to give in. “Well…”
“C’mon, you’re white as a sheet.” Kerry gave her a worried frown. “Dar, please, I don’t want anything to happen to you. I’d have to run screaming from the building if it did.”
That, at least, made her smile just a little. “All right.” She surrendered, leaning back in her chair and letting her head rest against the cool leather. She kept her eyes closed, listening to Kerry shutting down her computer, and the faint jingle as she captured Dar’s car keys from the top drawer. “Teach me to hire a debating champion, huh?”
“Come on,” Kerry urged quietly. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Yeah, all right.” Dar pushed herself to her feet, then shouldered her laptop and followed as Kerry lead the way across the room and opened the door. She gave Maria a look as the secretary glanced up, startled. “Maria, I’m, um…”
Kerry held up the car keys behind Dar’s back and exchanged worried looks with Maria.
“You’re…offsite at a meeting,” Maria said quietly. “Emergency calls only, ay?” Dar nodded. “That’ll do.”
Their exit was quiet. Kerry was amazed they managed to escape the building without Dar being stopped a half dozen times, but it seemed they picked the right time—everyone else was either in afternoon meetings or still at lunch. She walked with Dar across the lot, wincing herself at the lurid, bright sunlight that seemed all the odder in contrast to the thunderheads building above them. “Looks like it’s going to rain.”
Dar glanced briefly up, then shielded her eyes against the sun. “Oh, that was a bad idea.”
“Sorry.” Kerry put her hand on Dar’s back as they approached the Lexus.
“You should get in before I do something else that dumb.”
“Eh, I’d survive it. How dumb could it be if it’s you?” Dar muttered.
Kerry had to smile at the compliment. She got the executive settled in the passenger seat, then walked around and prudently adjusted the driver’s side to accommodate her lesser inches. “Where do you live, anyway?” she inquired hesitantly.
Dar smiled wearily. “Get on McArthur Causeway and go east. It’s the last light before you go over the final bridge over to the beach.”
Kerry stared at her in confusion. “Dar, that’s the Coast Guard terminal.”
A faint chuckle. “Not quite. It’s a ferry base just to the west of that.” She exhaled. “Place called Fisher Island. You gotta take a boat to go there.”
Kerry slowly put the Lexus into gear and eased out of the parking lot, turning right and heading for the causeway. “Oh,” she mused. “I’ve heard of that.” She shot her companion a worried look. “Do you have something you can take for your headache? I mean, you look like it hurts pretty bad.”
“The island pharmacy is filling a prescription I got yesterday,” Dar answered quietly. “I think this is a migraine. I’ve never had one before, but it’s really lousy.”
“Ouch.” Kerry turned onto the causeway and proceeded east. “I’ve had 118 Melissa Good those a few times. Did it start off with your vision going weird?” A faint nod confirmed her guess. “Stomach ache?” Kerry inquired sympathetically.
Another nod acknowledged that as well. “It’s a migraine.” The blonde made a face. “I usually find a dark place somewhere to sleep it off.”
There was silence for a bit. “How’d the meeting go?” Dar finally asked, as Kerry was turning right into the ferry terminal and proceeding cautiously through the cone-marked lanes. The ferry was just pulling up, so Kerry put the car in Park and considered the question.
“All right, I guess. The guy who chaired it, Michael something, he was really nasty. He had a bad attitude, but the presenter for technology was good.”
“Michael Districa.” Dar nodded. “Hates my guts.” She opened an eye and waved at the security guard, who lifted a hand in response. “Just drive onto the ferry. They’ll tell you when to stop.”
Kerry obeyed, edging the Lexus onto the ramp, then into its assigned lane, where a white-shirted deckhand motioned her. She braked when he held up a hand, then she watched as he carefully chocked the wheels. Once all the cars were loaded, the ramp was raised and the ferry chugged away from the dock. Now she had some time to shift her eyes to the right and study her companion. “How’d Pacific go?”
Dar kept her eyes closed and leaned her head against the doorframe, which was cool from the air conditioning. “Done.” She murmured. “I had to threaten to close a division, but the bastards finally made it out there.”
“Chalk another one up for DR, then.” Kerry smiled, watching as the ferry closed with the island terminal. “They were really worried about that one. I heard Mr. Draefus talking about it on the elevator with that person from Marketing.”
“Mmm.” Dar winced and swallowed hard as her stomach twisted. She was pathetically grateful for Kerry’s driving her home. The way she felt, she’d probably have ended up in Biscayne Bay. “Thanks for making me see reason, by the way.”
Green eyes regarded her warmly as Kerry just barely kept herself from reaching out and squeezing her boss’s arm. “You looked so miserable, I couldn’t stand it.”
A pale blue orb appeared and regarded her curiously. “You couldn’t stand it?”
Kerry took a breath, then released it, unsure of how exactly to explain her comment. She was saved the trouble by the ferry docking, which required her to concentrate on what she was doing. She pulled the Lexus up the ramp, into a welcoming spray of water which rinsed the salt off the car. Then she proceeded down the only road she could see, coming to a T intersection and looking at Dar in question. “Right or left?”
“Right,” Dar replied. “Go to the second inset left turn; the sign says
‘Seaside.’ Drive in, then go into the bay on the end.”
Kerry glanced around curiously. The island featured a small golf course in its center, and the apartments surrounded the perimeter. There wasn’t much car traffic, but she spotted several golf carts whirring along the road, and the trees which surrounded the course isolated the apartments from it.
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She turned where Dar indicated and pulled into a condo complex, which held several clusters of homes, each set at right angles to each other. “Down there?”
She indicated the underground parking.
Dar nodded. “Yeah, first or second spot on the left. Doesn’t matter which one you pick.”
“All right.” Kerry pulled the car into a spot, then set the parking break.
“Here we are.”
“So it seems,” Dar replied wryly. “We didn’t think this out really well, Kerry. If you give me a chance to swallow a few pills, and let this die down, I’ll take you back for your car.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I can take a cab, thanks. You’re here because you don’t feel well, remember?” She opened the door and hopped out, literally.
“Damn, this is a high car. Listen, I’ll just get you settled, then get out of here and out of your way.”
Dar dragged herself upright and got out, leaning against the car as she closed the door
and breathed in the fresh ocean breeze with a sense of mild relief. She led the way up to her door, plucking the package hanging from her mailbox off and glancing at it. “Ah, the drugs. Good.”
“They deliver it here?” Kerry was looking around, her fingers trailing against the thick stonework. She followed at Dar’s back as the taller woman unlocked the door and pushed it open, a waft of cleanly scented air hitting her in the face.
She walked into a spacious room with a vaulted ceiling. The immediate impression she got was of cool, clean openness, with eggshell-colored walls, two dark leather sofas, and marble floors. Her attention was immediately captured by the huge framed print over the couch, a planetscape in dark, vivid, vibrant colors which seemed to jump out a her in the low light. “Wow.”
Dar turned with a puzzled expression, then managed a smile. “You really didn’t expect wooden crate furniture, did you? I thought I gave a better impression than that.”
Kerry walked over to the picture and stared at it. “That’s amazing.”
Dar continued toward the kitchen. “Thanks. There’s an artist who does those. He makes that spidery tracework with live electricity.”
“What?” Kerry caught up with her as she reached the doorway and entered the huge kitchen. “Whoa!” she yelped, turning in a circle and taking in the square room, with its neatly kept appliances. “You could fit my car in here.” She laughed. “I thought my mother’s kitchen was big.”
Dar took a glass from the cabinet and opened the refrigerator door, pouring milk into it from the dispenser, then ripping open her medication bag impatiently. “If you wait for this stuff to work, I’ll give you the nickel tour.”
She got the bottle open and checked the dosage, taking two pills out and popping them in her mouth, followed by a swallow of milk. “Hope I can keep those down.” She grimaced, leaning against the counter as a wave of pain tightened around her skull.
Kerry gently took hold of her companion’s elbow. “Come on. Which way is your bedroom?”
Dar took a steadying breath and straightened up. “I can make it, thanks.”