Storm Surge

by Melissa Good

"McLean," the magnate barked gruffly. "Good start. You lot showed up on time. I hate slackers, like this godson of mine."

  Hans smiled benignly.

  Alastair reached the table and took Sir Melthon's extended hand in a firm grip. "We try not to slack, though I have to tell you this time difference smacks the heck out of us." He released the man's hand and turned. "Let me introduce my team here."

  Dar stood quietly waiting, letting Alastair's genial introductions of the sales team roll past her as she waited her turn. She was pretty sure that he would introduce her last as he usually did when they were in a group. She wasn't sure if it was something to do with her being a woman, or just her being her, but she realized the magnate at the end of the table was waiting as well as he looked right at her the whole time.

  "And of course, our Chief Information Officer, Dar Roberts," Alastair concluded, turning to give Dar a nod, "the architect of our infrastructure."

  "Sir Melthon." Dar inclined her head in response, meeting his eyes. "It's good to meet you."

  The magnate stood up and walked around the table to where she was standing, shooing the others out of the way. He stopped in front of her, his head nearly but not quite even with hers, and put his hands on his hips. "You the git who kicked my godson in the rear?"

  "I am," Dar replied mildly, aware of Alastair's widening eyes behind him.

  "You're one of those smart mouthed women, aren't you?" Sir Melthon accused. "One of them who think they know everything?"

  "Absolutely," Dar agreed. "I wouldn't be here otherwise. I don't waste my time on small potatoes and two bit thinkers." She could hear the air being sucked out of the room around her, and wondered if the two European sales managers were going to pass out right on the conference room floor. "I don't think you do either."

  Sir Melthon grunted. "Hah." He turned and went back to his chair. "What's the world coming to, hah?

  Foreign women in my boardroom. Scandalous!" He looked at the rest of them. "Well, you idiots! Sit down! You think I'm going to talk to you getting a crook in my neck? Especially that smart mouthed woman! Sit!"'

  Everyone hastily grabbed for a chair except for Dar, who meandered around to the other side of the table and set her laptop case down first before she took a seat in one of the comfortable leather chairs. "Nice," she commented to Hans in German.

  "It will get better. He likes you," Hans advised her, in a low mutter. "I think perhaps he wants to take you to bed."

  Dar nodded, steepling her fingers as the sales team prepared their presentation. "Did you tell him I was married?"

  "I did so," Hans replied, in a regretful tone.

  "To another woman?"

  The German half shrugged. "Not so much."

  Dar chuckled under her breath and removed her laptop from its case, opening it and starting it up. "This is going to be a party I can tell already. He's going to love it when Kerry gets here." Hans smiled and folded his hands over his stomach, beaming contentedly at the room.

  "THAT IT?" Kerry nudged the box she'd carried and lifted into the flatbed of the pickup into place. She stood up and dusted off her hands, glad she'd decided to keep her tank top on to work in as the afternoon sun warmed her skin.

  "Ugh. I hope so." Mike sat down on the tailgate of the truck. "That was hard work."

  "You carried three boxes." Kerry took a seat on the edge of the truck side, resting her elbows on her knees and removing the pair of leather work gloves she'd put on. "Give me a break."

  Mike looked up at her. "Hey. We're not all athletic like you are." He swung his legs a little, watching his sister out of the corner of his eye as they waited for Angie to join them. As he'd expected, Kerry did in fact have visible muscles, but they weren't the kind you saw on sports shows or in those freaky infomercials.

  They were just there, along her arms and shoulders, under the skin where you could see them move when she did. They didn't look bad, he decided, and they didn't look like a guy's, either. But with her cropped hair they presented a picture of her that didn't match the one he'd held in his head for a very long time.

  She leaned back and crossed her ankles, resting her hands on the truck side and tipping her head back to look up at the sky, and Mike felt suddenly that this was a person he really didn't know that much about. "Hey Ker?"

  "Hm?" She rolled her head to one side and looked at him. "Just kidding, Mike. I'm glad you showed up even if you didn't carry a box. It's good to see you."

  He grinned. "I was gonna say pretty much the same thing. So much crap has gone on the last couple of years, it's been a bitch, you know?"

  "I know," Kerry agreed. "It's been tough for me--all that stuff."

  "Yeah."

  "I'm glad I have Dar's family around," Kerry said, gazing at her work boots. "I don't think I was ready to not have anyone but me and her. I missed having people around me and her folks are amazing. They're at our place now, dog sitting."

  "They seem really cool," Mike agreed. "Dar's mom scares me."

  Kerry chuckled. "She's hilarious. There's so much of her in Dar, and neither of them will admit it. Dar looks like her Dad, but really her wit is just like her mom's."

  Mike got up and climbed into the bed of the truck with her sitting down next to Kerry. "We had some fun before, though. It wasn't all bad, growing up together. I didn't think so, anyway."

  "There were good times," Kerry said. "I had fun with you and Angie. I wish we could have stayed like--around ten. Once I started growing up is when things got weird." She pondered the boxes around them. "I'm really glad I didn't figure out I was gay until I left home."

  "That didn't go over really well," Mike agreed. "Was it weird for you?"

  Kerry thought about those long, confusing days, and after a moment of silence, she nodded. "It was really hard. For a while I wasn't sure. I knew if I had to tell the folks it would be the end of me being a part of the family." She paused. "I thought a lot about whether it was worth it."

  "Telling them?"

  "Living," Kerry answered briefly.

  Mike turned and looked at her with a shocked expression.

  Kerry looked back at him. "You have no idea what it's like," she said. "Being hated that much for something you can't change."

  Mike was silent for a minute. Then he nodded. "You're right. I have no idea what that's like. I think--well, I know the folks thought you were just being stubborn, or rebelling or whatever." He frowned. "It was like, why did you have to do that?"

  "For a long time I didn't. I lived with knowing I was going to have to say something sometime, but I was too scared to take the next step, until the day I met Dar." She studied her hands, her thumb rubbing against her ring. "Then I knew I couldn't pretend anymore. I had to fish or cut bait, as they say in the marina."

  "Ang and I felt..." Mike paused, "well, we kind of felt like you picked Dar over us."

  Kerry glanced up at him. "Actually what I did was pick me over the rest of you," she answered. "I decided my being happy was more important than my family, and you have no idea how much it hurt to have to make that choice."

  Mike was quiet for a few minutes. They both looked up hearing the house door close, and saw Angie making her way toward them with one last box. "I'm glad you picked you, Ker," he said, in a serious tone. "You're one of the few people I know who, honest to God, is happy."

  "Hey you two." Angie thumped the box down. She was in jeans and a sweatshirt. "That's it. I'm over packing. Anything else goes to charity." She pushed the box into the truck and sat down on the tail. "Jesus, what was I thinking keeping all that stuff?"

  "Eh." Kerry leaned back again, relaxing. "I have to admit, if I had to move now with all the toys and gear and what not Dar and I have, I probably would need to hire a moving company myself. So are we ready to get this stuff over to Mom's? I need some time to get changed for the shindig tonight."

  "You going like that?" Angie pulled one knee up and wrapped her hands around it. "I have to bring the camera for Mom's face if you do."


  Kerry considered it, then a cool draft hit her between the shoulder blades and she looked up at the sun. "Nah." She decided. "I'll throw a sleeved shirt on. I'm going to freeze my ass off if I don't and it's not worth the freak out." She got up and went to the other side of the truck, putting her hands on the side and vaulting over it to land with some grace on the other side.

  "Okay, we'll wait out here for you," Angie agreed.

  Kerry raised her hand and waved as she trotted off toward the house, taking her gloves off and stuffing them in her belt as she went.

  Angie leaned back against the wall of the truck and reviewed her pile of stuff. "Not that Mom's not going to freak out as it is, us pulling up in a pickup in jeans," she remarked. "But what the hell. Kerry didn't rebel until her late twenties, maybe it's our turn."

  Mike eyed her dubiously. "You're not going to get a tattoo are you?"

  His sister gave him a look.

  "Just asking."

  KERRY DROPPED INTO the swing in the solarium, glad to get off her feet after a day of hauling boxes. She looked around at the quiet, glass lined room, the air rich with the scent of carefully tended plants around the borders of the room.

  It was quiet here, though she could hear voices through the door coming from the direction of the hall where she'd left her sister getting her things arranged in their new surroundings. Surely though this house was almost as familiar to her as her own since she knew Angie spent a lot of time here.

  Ah well. Kerry let her head rest against the chain holding the swing up, savoring the peace around her. She'd always loved the solarium, and now as she leaned back and gazed around her, she allowed memories of scampering around hiding behind the plants surface in her mind's eye.

  It smelled so green, and there was so much for a small child to look at-plants with their big leaves, and the rich potting soil, and the occasional ladybug to capture and watch.

  She glanced back into one corner, where there were now rose bushes, but once had been a stand of potted pines, clustered in a clump she'd learned to worm her way into and which had provided a haven for her. She could still, to this day, remember the Christmas tree scent.

  She stretched her arms out along the back of the wooden bench seat, and rocked back and forth a little, looking up as she heard footsteps to see her mother approaching. Inwardly she bit off a curse, not really wanting to face an interaction with her at the moment.

  "Ah, there you are, Kerrison," Cynthia Stuart said. "My goodness, what a lot of work you children did."

  "It was," Kerry had to agree, as her mother seated herself on the bench across from her. "But we ended up with a lot of stuff that can go to charity, and I think Angie's happy to have her things the way she likes them."

  Her mother smiled. "I think so too. I have to say it will be nice to have at least one of you back in the house. It's been so quiet."

  Kerry relaxed a trifle. "You should have seen us last night. We ended up locking Mike in the truck and having a pillow fight in the living room. Sure you want that much excitement around?"

  "Did you really?" her mother asked. "My goodness and you're all grown up."

  "We're still brothers and sisters." A smile crossed Kerry's face. "We had fun."

  "It certainly sounds like it," Cynthia said. "I'm very glad you have had some time to spend with Angela and Michael. I know they have both missed you."

  "I'm glad too," Kerry answered.

  Her mother cleared her throat. "So you're speaking at the reunion tonight?"

  Kerry nodded. "They asked me to. I wasn't going to go."

  "Why not? After all, you were going to be here this week."

  "I just didn't want to." She'd gotten the invitation.

  Dar had even encouraged her to go, and had said she'd work around the Europe schedule to be there if Kerry wanted to, and wanted her there. "I don't much like being the celebrity freak show, I guess."

  Her mother straightened. "Oh, but surely that's not the--" She paused, and frowned.

  That, at least, made Kerry smile, if only a bit wryly. "Anyway, I'll do the speech then we're going out to the pub for dinner," she said. "So I guess we should get back to Angie's old place so I can change." She stood up, stretching her body out and reaching back to free her shortened hair from her polo shirt collar.

  "Ah, yes of course," her mother said, rising hastily. "We thought perhaps we could all have brunch here tomorrow. Would that fit in your schedule?"

  Kerry's ears twitched. "Sure," she answered, after a moment's hesitation. "I think we're done with packing. What time?"

  Her mother looked pleased. "Eleven, I believe," she said. "Just the family, really. I want to get a chance to chat with all of you alone."

  Uh oh. Kerry nodded. "Sounds like fun," she answered, reasoning that at least if they all were there, the subject could hardly be anything relating to her, personally. "Well, let me get going." She eased past her mother and ducked under an errant limb, heading back into the hall where she could see her brother standing.

  "Kerrison?"

  Urg. Kerry paused and turned, giving her mother a questioning look.

  "I do like that haircut on you. It frames your face very nicely."

  Kerry ran her fingers through the layers near her eyes and produced a brief grin. "Thanks. It got so hot this summer I had to get rid of some of it. I like it, though. I may keep it this way." She turned and slipped out of the door and back into the lit entryway, where Angie was now also waiting for her. "Hey. Ready to go?"

  Angie glanced past her to see their mother emerging, and then gave her sister a wry look. "Ready if you are." She slid her small clasp purse under her arm. "Mom, see you tomorrow."

  Cynthia waggled her fingers at them, as they stood together for a minute. "So nice to see the three of you together. We must get some pictures at brunch."

  They got out the door, and Kerry realized a second later that not bringing a jacket wasn't the brightest thing she'd ever done. The cool air blew right through her polo shirt, and she was really glad she'd decided against wearing the tank. "Brr." She rubbed her arms with her hands. "Where'd the damn sun go?"

  Mike snorted. "Boy did your blood thin."

  Kerry didn't deny it. "Hey, it was ninety three degrees when I left," she protested. "I'm used to walking outside in a bathing suit in September." She scooted ahead of them and unlocked the truck door, sliding inside and shutting it after her to block the wind.

  Angie got in the passenger seat, laughing, and Mike slid in the jump seat also chuckling. "It must be so bizarre not to have winter." Angie shut the door as Kerry started the engine. "I can't imagine it"

  "We have winter." Kerry put the truck in gear and pulled around the big stately driveway. "We have at least two days where it drops below sixty. Dar and I make hot chocolate and wear our footie pajamas." She turned and waited for the big iron gates to open, and then eased out onto the road, looking both ways first. "I don't miss it. I like not having to think about putting layers of clothing on and being able to go swimming at midnight the whole year."

  "Do you? " Mike poked his head over the seat. "Go swimming at midnight?"

  Kerry had stopped at a traffic light, and now she turned and looked at him. "Yeah," she admitted. "When we get home from work sometimes, or in the ocean when we're down at the cabin. We've got a little cove all to ourselves."

  "You guys swim naked?"

  "MIKE!" Angie slapped him. "Of course they don't!"

  "Well, actually we do." The light changed, and Kerry moved forward. "Sometimes," she answered, smothering a grin as she heard Angie nearly swallow her tongue while her brother chortled with glee. "Rebellion has its good points, y'know."

  "Oh my god."

  "Sweet!"

  THE SALES PITCH over, it was time to get down to the real business.

  "We understand that there are companies here with a lot more built out infrastructure." Dar faced the room, holding the remote for her presentation laptop in her right hand. "So your likely questi
on for us is, how in the hell are we going to support this application until we can catch up."

  Sir Melthon grunted.

  "It's a good question." Dar clicked the control, and her laptop obediently responded with a lively, pulsing display, projected against a silver cased, insanely expensive screen set up at the far end of the table. It displayed a reasonably scaled diagram of their global network, long lines of green and blue tracing across the planet.

  "Animated, eh. At least that's more interesting than the last idiots," Sir Melthon interrupted, "bloody boring the lot of them. You put me to sleep, woman, and you can go sell your slides out on the street."

  "That's live, isn't it, Dar?" Alastair remarked from his seat next to Sir Melthon, drawing both the magnate's attention and that of the two men on the other side of him that had been introduced as his business leaders for the project. "That screen there?"

  "Live?" One of the men leaned forward. "Do you mean to say that's showing a real time view of something?" He looked around. "What the devil are you connected to?"

  "It is," Dar responded. "This is a reflection of the main operations console at our commercial headquarters in Miami, Florida." She went on. "I have a cellular link-up to our international gateway and we're backhauling the signal from there."

  The man studied her. "Sorry, go on," he murmured.

  She reviewed the screen. "As you can see, we are very built-out in North America, but we also have a significant presence in South America, India, Africa, and the Far East."

  The man got up and walked around to get closer to the screen.

  "We do have a basic set of pipes in Europe." Dar manipulated the control and a set of green lines grew brighter, across the European continent. "But since we size the infrastructure to the business, we haven't upgraded the port speed to provide a high capacity full mesh. Yet."

  The man looked at her. "How long will it take you to do that?" he asked, sharply.

  Dar studied the screen for a moment. "Two months," she answered.

  "That's not possible," the other man next to Sir Melthon said. "We know it isn't, I'm not being a fly in the ointment here," he said, as Dar turned toward him. "We did a study to put our own network in. It would take over a year, and that's why we're looking to outsource."