by Melissa Good
”Mm hmm.” Dar tugged the covers a little closer, and let her eyes slide shut.
The phone rang.
Dar cursed softly, and untangled one arm, reaching out and capturing the instrument. ”Yeah?”
”Dar, it’s Mark.” The MIS chief sounded pissed.
”What's up?” Dar answered, stifling a yawn. ”Meteor fall on Houston or something?”
”Worse. The overseas gateways are down. Exxon tanker dropped anchor in the wrong place going across the North Atlantic and snagged the cable. Took out three hundred pairs.”
”Ugh.” Dar winced. ”Jesus, can we reroute?” She felt Kerry stir against her, and she stroked the woman’s back lightly. ”Oh shit!
They’ve got a transatlantic sales meeting with four new British clients this morning!”
”I know,” Mark replied, ”that’s why I’m calling. The shit’s going to hit the fan in so many directions, we might as well set up a freaking stand and sell fertilizer.” A soft sound of clicking keys came through the phone. ”One of the pairs that were cut was the admin line. They can’t tell who’s up and who’s down, and they can’t reroute until they get some diagnostics over the cable. It could take hours, maybe all day.”
”Can we buy transponder time and go via sat?” Kerry uttered, very softly.
Dar considered that for a minute.
”Did you say something, Dar?” Mark inquired. ”Thought I heard something.”
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T ell him? What the hell, he knows she logs on from here all the time.
”Kerry suggested a possibility. Switch it to a sat conference and rent uplink time.”
”Oh yeah? Uh, tell her I said hi.” Mark’s voice held a touch of triumphant amusement, despite the circumstances. ”That’s...well, they were going to do a multimedia real time. I’m not sure the sat can handle that kind of bandwidth, but it’s a thought. We’d have to reconfigure all the sets here, and there for the different network type. I’d have to put that on the fiber backbone.”
”Is there any other possibility? Other than the reroute, which we have no reasonable ETA on?” Dar inquired.
”Not that I can see, boss. That’s why I was calling you.” Mark replied. ”Got two for the price of one too. Kerry was next on my list of notifies.”
”Please don’t page me,” Kerry mumbled. ”I left it on vibrate and it’s on the dresser. It always scares the crap out of me when it goes off.”
Dar muffled a laugh. ”Okay, contact Intelsat, see if we can get one, no, get two transponders, and bring some of your people in early to go up and reconfigure the presentation system in the big conference room.” She gave Kerry a hug. ”Good work.” she mouthed.
Kerry shrugged modestly. ”I learned from the best,” she mouthed back, resting her chin on Dar’s breastbone with a contented sigh.
”Okay, will do.” Mark replied, amid another clatter of keys and a rumble of thunder. ”See ya in the office.”
”I’ll bring pastalitos,” Dar remarked wryly, ”and lots of Cuban coffee.” She hung up, then sighed as she regarded the dimly seen ceiling. ”So much for sleeping in.”
Kerry didn’t let go of her. ”Why? Is there anything you can do in the next hour there?” she asked, reasonably. ”It’s going to take at least that long for Mark to get someone at Intelsat to answer him, considering they’re in California and it’s only quarter to six here.” She started a slow, teasing rubbing up and down Dar’s belly, running her fingers over the lightly rippled surface in little circles.
Dar hesitated, torn between a natural urge to pounce on the situation, and her body’s insidious desire to remain right where she was, in this nice, warm cuddle, where she could almost feel the affection surrounding her in the circle of Kerry’s arms.
Unsurprisingly, her body won out and she capitulated, resettling her hold around her lover’s body, and exhaling softly. ”You’re right. No sense in going in there just to pace around the carpet.” The gentle stroking was relaxing her and she felt her eyes flutter closed as she eased forward, finding Kerry’s lips waiting for her.
They were both too sleepy to go too far, but they spent a very pleasant half an hour in nibbling and touching each other, until the reluctant gray light warned them of the growing dawn. Dar stretched and rolled out of bed, offering a hand down to her languidly watching Hurricane Watch
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lover. ”I’m gonna go take a shower. The coffee should be ready.”
”Y’know...” Kerry hopped out of the waterbed. ”It would save time if we showered together.”
Dar’s dark brow lifted. ”Oh it would, would it?” She laughed. ”And save water, too, maybe,” she agreed. ”All right, let’s go.” She lead the way into the bathroom, flipping on the light and ducking into the free standing stall shower to start the water running.
”Mm.” Kerry curled an arm around her, and nipped her waistline.
”You know, Dar, I think the thought of not being able to touch you for two and a half days is making me...um...” She hesitated.
”Horny,” Dar supplied, giving her a quick kiss. ”That’s all right.”
She smiled at the dull red flush that covered Kerry’s neck and face.
”C’mere.” She drew Kerry into the shower, and let the warm, pulsing water cascade over both of them. Then she picked up a natural sponge, added some liquid soap to it, and started scrubbing Kerry’s body.
”Mmm.” Kerry swayed a little, then captured her own bit of sponge and returned the service, rubbing the soft surface against Dar’s tanned skin. She’d gotten halfway around her ribcage before she found herself sliding closer and replacing the sponge with her lips, unable to deny her body’s cravings.
Dar responded, dropping soap slick hands down over Kerry’s hips, pulling her forward and into the intense flow from the shower head.
She let herself forget the time as Kerry’s hands slid up her thigh and then allowed a spiral of passion to take them over, building to a fiery intensity. It left them both shaking as Dar leaned back against the water warmed shower tile and managed to keep her legs from collapsing under her. ”Whoa.”
Kerry sucked in a breath that was half heated skin, and half chlorine tinted water, with the soft tang of their soap on the peripheries.
”Oh...” She caught her breath, and bumped her head against Dar’s arm.
”Guess we’re skipping breakfast this morning.”
Dar chuckled, on an uneven breath. ”Thought that was breakfast.”
They finished showering and got out, wrapping towels around each other and easing into the living room. They could hear faint whines as Chino heard them moving.
”Okay,” Dar sighed, running her fingers through her damp hair.
”Onward to Hell.” She gave Kerry’s blonde head one last kiss. ”Oh Eleanor, you wish you had as much of a life as I do.”
Chapter
Five
KERRY REACHED OVER and flicked her computer on as she sat down at her desk. She glanced at her inbox and took a sip of fragrant, steaming coffee. Leaning back in her comfortable leather chair and smiling a little, she rested her head against the soft surface as she waited for her computer to finish booting up.
It did, and she was logging in when her phone rang. She punched the button. ”Kerry Stuart.”
”Hi, Kerry? It’s John Brown in Charlotte.” The man’s voice sounded harried but friendly. He was a supervisor in the networking office, she recalled.
”Good morning, John. What can I do for you?” She answered cordially.
”Well, um, I got a request from your office, and I just wanted to check it out with someone. I don’t want to do something then get my ass nailed, if you know what I mean. I tried Ms. Robert’s office first, but she’s not there.”
”She’s just down the hall in Ops, but what’s the problem?” Kerry inquired curiously. ”What did we ask for?”
”It’s the fractional T1 we use for the insurance division’s data trans
fer. We got a request to turn their link off and reroute network traffic from your office to the London conference center,” John replied.
”They’re gonna go bonkershits if we do that, so… ”
Kerry's brow creased. ”We asked for that? Wait, no, I mean, I know we’ve got a problem with the overseas links, but we found a way around that. Who made the request?”
Ruffle of papers. ”Someone named Fab…Fabarini or something,”
he muttered. ”I didn’t get the spelling. One of my guys took the call and he gave it to me to check out.” A pause. ”You want me to go ahead?”
Kerry drummed her fingers on her desk. ”No,” she replied evenly.
”In fact, don’t do anything from this office unless you get it from Dar, Mark, or me.”
A long pause. ”Uh, okay,” John replied, obviously confused. ”I mean, usually I wouldn’t question stuff like that. I mean you guys ask for shuffling all the time, but this seemed a little drastic, you know?”
That stupid piece of… ”Yes, I know, but, as a favor to me, just clear everything through Operations here first, okay?”
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”Sure.” John agreed amiably. ”Better for me that way so I don’t get my ass nailed from Insurance and Banking when they find out their pipe got taken down.” He rattled a few keys. ”Thanks, Kerry.”
”No problem,” Kerry responded, and hung up. She stewed for a moment, then she stood, about to head out the door to find Dar. The phone rang before she could move, though, and she punched the button again. ”Kerry Stuart.”
”This is José.” The VP's voice sounded flustered. ”We’re having a meeting here. Come down. I can’t find Dar.”
Green eyes regarded the phone. ”Sure,” Kerry replied. ”Be right there.” She circled her desk and strode out of her office, heading for the large conference room at the end of the hall. She opened the door, seeing a group of six or seven people inside, and walked on in.
”We were heading right for disaster!” Steven Fabricini was insisting, thumping a fist on the table. ”Can you imagine the egg on our face?” He turned and saw Kerry approaching. ”And you people didn’t do a goddamned thing about it! This is disgraceful!” He threw his hands up. ”If I hadn’t been here, I can only imagine what would have happened!” A pause. ”Nice of you to show up, waltzing in here at nine o’clock.”
Kerry paused and regarded him, then walked around to an empty chair and sat down, folding her hands on the table. ”Mind starting at the beginning? I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
José threw a pencil on the table. ”We have a big goddamn conference with the overseas office in London and the lines are down.”
Kerry nodded slowly. ”The intercontinental trunks, yes. We were notified,” She replied calmly, savoring what she knew was coming. ”I was paged this morning.”
”And you did nothing,” Steven fumed. ”Well, I took care of it. I have the network office tying in some extra lines for us, so we’ll be okay.”
Kerry cocked her head. ”No you don’t,”
She replied calmly.
”Netops cleared it through us, and I told them not to do it.”
”What?” José sat up. ”Are you crazy woman?”
”That’s it! I knew it. You are trying to sabotage us,” Fabricini accused, leaning on his hands.
Kerry exhaled. ”Those extra circuits belong to a live account, which you were going to take down without any prior notification, so yes, I told them not to do it.” She stood and put her hands on her hips. ”And it’s not needed, because we already have an alternate link up.”
Silence. ”What?” José asked again, looking at Steven. ”You said there was nothing.” He looked back at Kerry. ”No one was in your office. We called three times!”
Kerry shrugged. ”No one paged me,” she replied simply. ”Or called my cell phone, or left me voice mail, or contacted Maria. Seems to me someone didn’t try very hard to find out if we were doing something.”
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She brushed a fleck of dust off her sleeve, then she walked over to the presentation computer, and signed into it, hitting the key which would switch the output to the overhead screen. She waited, then accessed their intranet, and started a conferencing session. A list of remote offices popped up, the London one conspicuously in the center.
”There you go.” She glanced up. ”Is there anything else I can do? I’ve got a pretty big inbox to clear before we leave this afternoon.”
Steven wasn’t finished. ”Okay, so who did you steal lines from?” he asked, sarcastically.
Kerry smiled at him, with no humor in her face. ”No one. We bought sat time and used an uplink,” she replied briefly. ”And it’s been done since before dawn, so I guess you can say I’ve been working for three hours longer than you have.” She gave them all a look, then walked around the table and headed for the door.
”You should have let us know,” José interrupted her. ”You can’t blame us for thinking we were high and dry, Ms Stuart. I have a department and company to protect here.”
Kerry turned at the door, and regarded him. ”You’re right,” she told him, sincerely. ”We should have paged you, but we were hoping to get the alternate route up before anyone even realized there was a problem.” she admitted ”I apologize for that. I’ll make sure you get notified the next time.”
José fiddled with his tie. ”Exactly, exactly, yes. Good.” He nodded, then waved at his secretary. ”Get this conference hooked up, will you?”
Kerry slipped out the door, glancing back in as she closed it and seeing the hostile eyes watching her. She sighed and let the lock click behind her, leaning against the wall as she willed her body to stop shaking.
She hated face-to-face conflict like that. All at once, her stomach rebelled, and she got to the ladies room just in time to lose her breakfast, her body violently reacting to the sudden, unexpected stress.
She leaned against the wall afterward, closing her eyes and hoping her stomach would settle. ”Okay, Kerry, just relax. You’ve been in more tense situations than that. What’s up with you?” she asked herself silently. And it was true, she had, with her father, with Dar— So why did this bastard get to her like this?
She sighed, and trudged to the sink, washing her mouth out and splashing water over her face, which felt overheated. She was just drying her face off with a paper towel when footsteps approached, and she glanced up as the door swung open and a familiar dark head poked in. ”Oh, hi,” she greeted Dar. ”I was just coming to look for you.”
Dar slipped inside and let the door close. ”I was just coming to look for you.” She gazed at Kerry. ”You okay?”
Embarrassed, Kerry nodded. ”Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” She decided Dar didn’t need any more stress of her own. ”I was just making sure the conference went off. I logged on and confirmed the London servers Hurricane Watch
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were accessible from the big presentation room.”
The blue eyes studied her in puzzled concern for a moment. ”Good, good, I’m glad you did that.” Dar glanced behind her then came closer, very gently touching Kerry’s cheek. ”You look really pale. You sure you’re okay?”
Kerry also glanced around, conscious of how public a place they were in. ”Yeah, I’m sure. Something disagreed with me, maybe that meat pastalito I had.” She put a hand over her stomach. ”But I’m fine now.”
Dar stepped back, giving her a relieved nod. ”Oh, yeah, they were kinda greasy this morning,” she commented. ”Well, if that crisis is done, I’ve got another one for us to work on.”
Kerry exhaled. ”Lead on,” she responded. ”What’s up now?” She followed Dar outside and down the hall hearing the faint sounds of the presentation going on in the conference room.
”We took over a manufacturing plant’s IS and we’ve got two mainframes down,” Dar responded.
”And?” Kerry inquired. ”That doesn’t sound too
tough.”
”It’s in Hong Kong,” Dar replied dryly, ”which now has a technology restriction and we can’t get parts in to fix them.”
”Oh.” The blonde chewed her lip. ”That sucks.”
”Mm. ”
”Smuggle the chips inside fortune cookies?”
Dar chuckled wryly as they headed down the corridor.
”DAR?” MARIA’S VOICE broke into her concentration, as she poured over circuiting diagrams. Dar glanced up with a start, aware suddenly of the time.
”Yes?” She asked, checking her watch. Shit.
”Mariana just called. The bus is here.” The secretary said. ”She asks are you ready?”
Dar sat back, regarding the pile on her desk with a look of mild disgust. ”No, but that’s not going to stop this thing from happening, is it?” she muttered in response ”I’ve got a six inch stack of paper I need to go over and three reports that are due.”
She sighed and rubbed her temples. ”Tell her I’ll change and be down in the lobby in ten minutes. You might want to call Kerry, and see if she’s headed down.”
”Not quite,” a soft voice answered from the inner door.
Dar glanced up to see Kerry’s head poking into her office ”Never mind on that last, Maria. She’s right here. ”
”Okay. I will wrap things up here, Dar. Try to have a good weekend, okay?” Even Maria sounded doubtful. ”Good luck.”
”Thanks,” Dar sighed. ”You have a good weekend too, Maria.” She glanced at Kerry. ”You ready?”
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Kerry entered, already changed into jeans and a sweatshirt. ”As I ever will be.” She gave Dar a wry look. ”I finished up everything I could Dar, but there’s still a lot of stuff pending, cleanup from this morning, and what not.”
”I know,” Dar sighed, and stood up, stretching her six foot plus frame out and rolling her neck around to loosen it. ”What a day. All right, let me go get out of this monkey suit and we’ll head down.” She stepped around the desk and held her arms out. ”One for the road?”
Dar got no argument from Kerry. She slid into Dar’s embrace, feeling the cool silk under her fingers that warmed as she closed her arms around Dar’s body. ”Mmm…” She sensed the pressure of lips against her head, and she let herself absorb the sweet feeling, wishing she could just stay like this and not have to get on that damned bus.