by Melissa Good
Thanks for the pastries. How’d you know which ones I like? She typed in, and hit enter. After a few more bites, the response came back.
Easy. I picked the unhealthiest ones I could find .
Dar chuckled wryly.
Tropical Storm 273
Good guess , she sent back. They’re great.
She clicked on her mail, then sent Duks back a copy of his report with a few notes. After a few minutes of review, and the rest of the pastries, she got another message.
I’m heading out to the MTC. Anything you need taken care of first?
Nope. Good luck and have fun, Dar sent back. If
you’re back around lunch, drop by.
She set down the papers Maria had given to her and started reviewing them, circling things in a bright purple pen that the sales managers had learned to detest with a deep and abiding passion. The phone buzzed. “Yes?”
“Dar, General Easton on numero dos.”
She glanced at the phone, then punched the button. “Hello, Gerry.”
“Hellloooooo, Dar.” The general’s robust voice came through the phone.
“Just wanted you to know, that flight was pure negligence. A pity, but nothing to do with you, my friend.”
Dar nodded quietly to herself. “Wanted to make sure it was all right, Ger.
Senator Stuart’s daughter was on the flight as well, and he had some concerns in that regard.”
A low whistle. “Wow. Intelligence didn’t pick that up at all.
Howinthehell did you know about it?”
“It wasn’t that hard, she’s my assistant,” Dar told him dryly. She circled another discrepancy with her pen and chuckled to herself. It was going to be an enjoyable meeting.
Easton laughed. “And here you had me marveling at your damn comprehensive detail orientation. That’s rich, you hired that bastard’s kid?
Politically nice, Dar, very nice.” His voice was approving. “Never hurts to have a friend up on Mount Olympus.”
Oh yes, he’d looovvvvee me. Dar bit her lip to keep from smiling. Hello, Senator Conservative-as-grass-grows-up from Michigan. I’m dating your daughter.
Nice ta meet ya. Whoops, watch that ground there as you fall over, it’s a little hard.
“Yeah, well, that wasn’t a consideration, but I do have to keep it in mind.”
Easton chuckled. “Whatever you say. Listen, you up for a visit over Turkey Day? I’ve got an extra spot at the table with your name on it.”
Dar hesitated, playing with her pen. Kerry would, she knew, be home in Michigan over that whole weekend. The thought of staying alone in her condo was suddenly very unappealing. “Gerry, I’d like that,” she replied quietly.
“Thanks.”
His smile could be heard through the phone. “Fantastic! I’ll tell the wife.
She’ll be thrilled.” He paused. “And so will my kid. See you Wednesday night?”
“Sure,” Dar agreed. “I’ll make the arrangements. Thanks again, Gerry.”
He hung up, and she sat back, considering. Kerry’s family was going to put a lot of pressure on her when she was home, Dar reasoned, though the younger woman had been very reluctant to discuss her family with Dar. Well, 274 Melissa Good Washington is a lot closer to Michigan than Miami is. Just in case. She pushed the intercom. “Maria?”
“Si?”
“I need a plane ticket to Washington National the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, coming back that Sunday.”
“Ay, it’s late for that, Dar. One ticket?”
Dark brows drew together. What an odd question. “Yes, one ticket. General Easton invited me out there for the holidays. I know it’s going to be pricey.
Just do the best you can.”
“I’ll take care of it, Dar.” Maria clicked the intercom and she went back to her report, finding a flagrant lie and pouncing on it with a chuckle of glee.
“Ah! José, I have your cojones in my right hand, can’t you feel me squeezing?”
KERRY PARKED HER car in the parking lot and stepped out, locking the doors and putting on her jacket, straightening it with an automatic gesture.
The building was an unassuming one, situated just behind the Miami airport, a single-story structure set on a long, narrow strip of land. The company logo was prominent on the outside, and Kerry gave it a look as she walked to the door and pulled it open as the guard inside unlocked it. “Good morning.” She gave the man a smile. “I’m looking for…”
A woman came around the corner by the desk. “Ms. Stuart?”
Kerry turned. “Yes. Hello.”
A hand poked out at her. “Lisa Andrews, from the account team. Thanks for coming over. It’s always nice when people from HQ come out and see what we do.” The woman was about Kerry’s height, with ash-blonde hair and a frank, friendly smile. Her pale gray eyes studied Kerry briefly, then she gestured toward the hallway. “I’ll give you the tour, we’ve got about twenty minutes before we start.”
Obligingly, Kerry followed her to the corridor intersection, where the woman turned left. The building was one very long hallway, with rooms on either side. “Down there is the mail room,” Lisa explained, “and the facilities room for the contract. We run some servers down there for them.”
Kerry nodded, having reviewed the account before leaving the office.
“Their web server and two applications servers.”
Lisa paused and blinked at her in surprise. “Right,” she agreed.
“Installation Services are in that suite, and we have an executive area where the account execs have offices and a conference room.” She started down the hallway. “Down this side, we have the training area, then at the end, the network center.”
“Can we go in there?” Kerry asked. “I’d love to see how that works.” She followed the woman down the hall and paused as she scanned her card and opened the door. It gave them access to a large, more or less square room that filled the entire end of the building. Stretched across the floor were rows of cubicles, reminding Kerry of her old offices at Associated. Each cubicle had a PC, and most had technicians inside them, busy speaking to customers. It all looked very professional and very businesslike.
A voice suddenly sounded from the taller walled cubicles just to Kerry’s Tropical Storm 275
right-hand side. “Incoming!” A projectile flew over the wall, and she barely caught it, grabbing it out of the air with a startled look. Lisa’s eyes popped out as Kerry examined the item.
It was a soft foam dart. She blinked at it, then looked up as a head appeared over the six-foot wall, peering down at her. “Hi.”
The man’s eyes widened. “Oh… Christ, sorry. It got away.” He leaned over the wall and held out a hand. “Did it hit you?”
Kerry tapped the dart on her shoulder, then she walked around the end of the cubicle section and peered down the center. There was an aisle between the cubes, with entrances on either side. These were larger than the cubes on the floor, with taller walls and overhead bins. Senior techs, Kerry decided, as she paced down the row and glanced into one cubicle, where the tall man was still standing on the desk. As she appeared, he hopped down and put his hands in his pockets. “What did this come from?” Kerry asked, glancing around. The tops of the cabinets were full of toys and small figurines. Beside her, Lisa looked mortified.
The man cleared his throat and pulled a large colorful gun out from behind a set of books and handed it to her.
“Mmm.” Kerry took the item and examined it, pulling back the mechanism and putting the dart in place. She raised it and released the trigger. The missile went flying, smacking into the door at the end of the aisle.
Heads popped out of the cubes and looked at her. The denizen of the end cube reached out and plucked the dart off the door, where it had stuck and glanced back down the row. “What in the hell is going on here?” the woman asked, pulling off her headset and hanging it down around her neck. “David, are you shooting people again?”
“Not me.”
The tall man smiled brightly. He pointed at Kerry. “She did it.”
Kerry sauntered down the row until she was at the end cube and plucked the dart from the woman’s fingers. “You guys support these?” she inquired, holding up the gun.
The woman’s eyebrow rose. “Stress relief,” she explained. “For when you deal with the customers who can’t find the on/off switch.” She leaned out.
“You’re not supposed to shoot visiting suits with them,” she accused the tall man, who smiled charmingly.
“Are the customers really like that?” Kerry asked, aware of Lisa’s hovering form. “Doesn’t sound like the proper respect for them.”
The woman paused. “Want to listen to one?” There was a challenge in the invitation.
“Sure.” Kerry smiled, put the gun down and pulled up a chair from the next cube over. She was handed a spare headset, which she put on, and she moved a little closer as the technician resumed her seat.
“Don’t talk unless you want the customer to hear you,” she was instructed. “That mic is live.”
Kerry nodded, glancing around. The cube was filled with technical manuals and a few personal items, including several small stuffed animals sitting on the monitor. Various lists of phone numbers were tacked on the wall, along with a sheaf of certification affidavits and circuit diagrams. The 276 Melissa Good technician called up a screen and punched a button on the phone. “Here we go.”
A soft ding sounded, then a voice came on the line. The technician smoothly answered, identifying the support group. “How can I help you?”
“Hello?” a hesitant voice answered. “Um, is this the computer people?”
“Yes, ma’am, it is. What seems to be the problem?” The technician’s voice was calm and soothing.
“My machine won’t work,” the woman answered, a little more certainly.
“Okay. Is there anything on the screen?” the tech asked.
“No.”
“Okay, Are there any lights on the front of the screen?”
“No.”
“Okay. The screen is attached to a computer. Are there any lights on that?” The technician called up the customer account and checked their inventory.
“I don’t have a computer, I just have a screen,” the woman objected.
Kerry covered the mic. “She has to have one, doesn’t she?”
The tech nodded. “Okay, in the back of the screen there are some cables.
One of them goes to the wall, the other one goes to something else.
“Okay.” The woman’s voice was doubtful. “Okay, yes, I see it.”
“Where does the other one go to?”
“The foot warmer.” Now the woman sounded more confident again. “But it’s hot today, so I had to turn it off.”
“Okay, can we turn it on for a minute?” the tech requested patiently.
“But my feet aren’t cold,” the customer insisted.
“I know, but I’d like to try something. Can you just put it on for a minute?”
“Okay.” A sigh. “Oh, the screen just came on. Look at that.”
Kerry covered her eyes, silently mouthing, “I can’t believe it.”
The dark-haired woman chuckled noiselessly and shrugged. “Okay, what’s on the screen?” the tech asked, rapidly typing information into the screen.
“Some letters.”
“Okay, tell me when the green screen comes up.”
“Okay.” A little silence fell. “Okay, it’s up.”
“Can you login for me?” the technician added notes to the trouble ticket on the screen.
“What’s that?” The customer asked. “I never have this screen. My boss always puts it in the blue screen for me.”
“Okay, type in the word res for me.”
“Okay.”
“Now type it in again, but you won’t see it on the screen,” the tech patiently instructed.
“Okay, I…oh! There’s my blue screen!” The woman sounded delighted.
“You’re a genius!”
“Glad it’s working. Okay, now listen—you have to leave the foot warmer on, all right?” the technician told her, closing out the ticket.
“Oh. Well, okay, I guess I can just take my shoes off if my feet start Tropical Storm 277
getting hot,” the woman decided. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, ma’am. Have a nice day.” The tech hit the Release button, then turned her head and raised an eyebrow at Kerry.
Kerry simply patted her on the shoulder and stood up. “Where did you get this dart gun?”
“Toys R Us,” the tall man supplied helpfully. “They’ve got super-soakers there too, if you want to have some real fun.”
“Mmm.” Kerry turned back to the woman who had answered the call.
“Are they all like that?”
The tech chuckled. “No. You get a range, just like in everything else. But we get a fair share of that.” She turned as the phone rang and put her headset back on. “Yes?” A pause. “Can you ping them?” Another pause. “Shit. Okay, what’s the address?”
Kerry turned away, but not before noting the name on the identification tag next to the cubicle. “Okay. Well, that was informative,” she told Lisa.
“Shall we?”
There was an awkward little silence as they left the busy room. “Sorry about that, I should have…”
Kerry up put a hand. “Don’t worry about it. It’s better to release stress like that than on each other. Or the customers.” She paused. “Is there a Toys R
Us near here?”
She sat through the town halls, listening to the thoughts and concerns of the employees, not unlike the ones with which she was familiar: job stress, training, advancement, pay raises. They were caught in a paradox. Provide the techs the training they were asking for, and chances were they’d leave and go elsewhere, at higher pay. Don’t provide it, and you erode your skill sets and make the account less valuable. Kerry sighed. There really was no good answer. You tried to balance the training with the need and give enough other amenities so that people stayed because they were comfortable with the environment. Their benefits package was a good one, but…
She put the thought away for the moment and checked her watch as she stepped out of the building into the warm sunlight. It felt good after the chilly air conditioning, and she rubbed her arms, then glanced around as Lisa Andrews joined her. “Well, thanks for inviting me down. That was very interesting,” she told the account executive. “I appreciated seeing everything.”
“Anytime.” Lisa folded her arms. “You interested in lunch?”
“Well, I actually have to get back to the office, I’m a little late for a meeting.” Kerry glanced around. “Is there any place around here where I can just pick something up?”
“I TOLD YOU before, José, you can’t margin those circuits,” Dar stated flatly, leaning forward and pinning him with her pale eyes. “I’m not going to approve that.”
The stocky sales executive stood up and threw out his hands. “Then you give me a goddamn way to get twenty percent new sales this year.”
“That’s not my job.”
278 Melissa Good
“It is your damn job, because you won’t let me do mine,” José retorted.
“He’s right, Dar. You’re strangling our marketing efforts,” Eleanor interjected smoothly. “How can we compete if we can’t project capability?”
“You mean, how can you get contracts if you can’t lie?” Dar snapped.
“You’re not projecting capability—you know perfectly well what the growth curve is for infrastructure—you just want to promise clients services we can’t fulfill.” She stood up and faced them, putting her fingertips on the table and leaning over it. “I’m not buying it.”
“Then you’d better start pushing infrastructure, because otherwise, that’s who’s going to have this crap laid on their doorstep. They’re not keeping up with our needs,” José stated triumphantly.
“They
’re not budging, José. You know better,” Dar growled. “You need to get more creative and stop relying on your old fishing buddies in order to get new contracts.”
“Dar, that’s not fair,” Eleanor interrupted, putting up a meticulously manicured finger. “You’re failing to provide us the tools we need to properly sell this company.”
“No.” The knives came out. “You just couldn’t market your way out of a paper bag,” Dar told her. “And you’d better change that, because I’m not approving any bid that overreaches our capability.” She slammed the papers down on the table. “Now, if we’re done with this crap, I have productive work I could be doing.” She gathered up her pad and pens and pushed her chair back, stalking out of the room and slamming the door behind her. She paused to listen to the loud voices starting behind her and grinned, then she exited the flashy offices that housed the Sales department and headed back toward her own domain. It was lunchtime, but she knew she didn’t really have time to go downstairs before the one o’clock conference call. With a sigh, she pushed open her outer office door and gave Maria a smile. “Any disasters I should know about?”
Maria glanced up. “Mmm. Nothing since you left, Dar. You have three messages. I left them on your desk, and I was supposed to remind you of the Government division cocktail party tonight.”
Dar blew out a breath. Damn. I’d forgotten that. “All right, thanks.” She entered her office and closed the door, then crossed the room and seated herself at her desk. A moment later, a soft knock came on her inner door.
“C’mon in.” She felt a smile coming onto her face even as the wooden panel opened, and Kerry’s blonde head poked itself inside. “Hey.” God, it feels good to see her. Kerry was dressed in a dark blue skirt suit and pale blue shirt, and she looked slightly mussed and, to Dar’s eyes, very sexy. Her annoyance with José ebbed away. “Hey.”
A flash of white as Kerry returned the smile, then the blonde woman came in, holding up a bag. “Did you get a chance to have lunch? I brought something back for you.”
“No, and thank you,” Dar replied, leaning back in her chair. “I just got out of a really annoying meeting.”