by Melissa Good
The meeting stumbled on. Dar exhaled, picking up her new gizmo and glancing at it, then tapping the screen to display the message she saw waiting there.
A smile appeared on her face, and she put the device back down, returning her attention to the screen. “Houseboat,” she muttered softly. “That’s an idea.”
Alastair had been watching her. “Dar, did you say something?”
“No, just taking notes,” Dar replied dutifully. “We’ll need to hike the back haul to the continent if that all comes through. Bring it up through the new Euro hub maybe, or invest in an equatorial tie line.”
Everyone nodded as if they knew what she was talking about, and the round table continued on.
“SO WHAT WOULD be the difference between this and a houseboat?” Dar asked, as she set the anchor and they drifted against the current, coming taut against the line and rocking gently.
“Well.” Kerry finished setting the table, looking up and appreciating the clear, winter cooled sky above them, the horizon just painted with the last bit of sun. “A house boat is bigger, for one thing.”
Dar paused and looked around at the deck of their boat, her brows lifting a little in puzzlement. “This isn’t exactly a dinghy.”
“No, I know.” Kerry chuckled. “Be right back.” She went back inside the cabin of the boat, rolling a little with the motion as she went to the small galley, retrieving a platter of fajitas fixings and a round container of tortillas. She brought them both outside with her and set them down on the table. “But it’s more like a house.”
“The houseboat?” Dar was pouring sangria into wide based glasses. “That would make sense, what with the house in the name and all that.”
“Dar.”
“Hehe. I’m being an asshole. Sorry.” Dar took her seat and relaxed, extending her sweatpants covered legs out and crossing them at the ankles. “I remember seeing houseboats off the west coast, and they were like trailers on pontoons. I’m assuming that’s not what you’re after.”
“No.” Kerry sat down and took a sip of the sangria as she took a tortilla and selected some contents for it. “I just think of stuff like, taking one of them up some of those canals, like in Holland, and seeing something new every day.”
“Hm.” Dar copied her. “That might be fun. I’ll have to look at some of those river cruises they have. That could be a hoot, going through locks and stuff like that.”
“Ah.” Kerry leaned back and regarded the horizon. She was in a thick hoodie, and had sheepskin lined boots on, a radical change from their usual t-shirts and shorts. The weather had gotten colder as the day went on, and now it was in the upper 40s, crisp and chilly out on the water.
But with a pretty sky, and hot chocolate to look forward to, it didn’t matter. “There’s just so much I want to see and do,” Kerry said. “Like, where do you start?”
“Yeah,” Dar agreed. “Well, we know we’re going to start at the Grand Canyon, March fifteenth.” She pulled a packet from her jacket pocket and put it on the table. “We pick up our RV March twelfth in Vegas.”
Kerry paused in mid bite, surprise obvious on her face. “Buh.” She put her tortilla down and picked up the paperwork. “Wow. Didn’t know you...” She studied the contents. “Oh, wow. And the parks too?” She looked up at Dar, seeing the grin working its way around a mouthful of steak. “I thought you were still thinking about the timing.”
Dar shook her head as she chewed. She swallowed, then chased the mouthful down with some sangria. “Me wanting to stay is bullcrap. I still think we should have gotten out in October, but drawing it out now doesn’t do service to anything but my ego. Meeting with the board showed that today.”
“Ah huh.” Kerry nodded slowly, taking a bite. “Bottom line,” she said, after a swallow.
“Victim of my own success.” Dar settled her shoulders a little more comfortably. “You were right.” She lifted her glass and toasted her. “Besides, making plans always makes me feel better.”
Kerry chuckled.
“Plans okay with you?” Dar inquired, after a moment.
The packet was a complete set of reservations, including the plane flight to Vegas, a rental of what looked like a pretty snazzy RV, overnights in cabins, the whitewater trip...Kerry sorted through it all with growing delight. “When did you do all this?”
“Me?” Dar eyed her. “I just told the island travel agent what we wanted. She did the heavy lifting.”
“It’s awesome. I’ll go talk to her this weekend and get all the loose ends tied up.” Kerry smiled, putting the papers away. “Thanks, hon. You’ve made me a very happy woman.”
Dar responded with a contented smile, as she retrieved another tortilla. “She even made reservations for Chino at a pet resort while
we’re on the river. They have hot stone massages.”
Kerry stopped in mid chew. “The pet resort?”
“Uh huh.”
“Do they take people reservations too? I think we’re gonna need it after a week on the river.”
“UGH.” DAR SWALLOWED several Advil, washing them down with a swig from a chocolate milk chug. “Mind if we order room service instead of going out?” she asked, as she heard Kerry return from the bathroom after storing their overnight sundry kits.
“Of course not.” Kerry went over to the luggage stand and removed Dar’s pajamas from it, retreating back to drape them over Dar’s shoulder. “Get undressed, and I’ll see what they have to offer. Do you really think I’d rather go out to eat in downtown Washington and risk running into people who think they know me?”
Dar was glad enough to exchange her jeans and sweater for her long, threadbare t-shirt, folding the clothes and packing them neatly before she picked up a magazine and retreated to the couch in their sedate hotel suite. She curled up in one corner, willing the drugs to quickly settle her cramping.
Pain in the ass. Dar exhaled, and opened the magazine, full of the ocher and sand colors of the Southwest. She’d started feeling it as the plane took off, and resigned herself to dealing with the monthly annoyance. “Should be a pill for this.”
“You mean to prevent it?” Kerry sat down next to her with the menu. “I’ve been saying that for years. At least it was a short flight.”
Short and private. “Mm.” Dar flipped the pages. “I really am gonna miss that jet,” she said. “Spoiled my ass.”
“We just have to get rolling fast enough to get our own, hon.” Kerry studied their choices. “Twice grilled par boiled snails or hamburgers?”
Dar looked at her, one brow arched.
“Yeah, I know. But those conch you brought into the cabin were sort of snail like. I thought maybe you’d gotten fond of them.” Kerry smiled as she picked up the phone. “Hello, yes. I’d like something delivered.”
Dar went back to studying her magazine, looking at the pictures of the rafting trip they’d planned. It looked fun and exciting, and she could almost feel the twisting and turning of the boat going through the rapids.
It made her smile. Even the thought of having to sleep in a tent didn’t really bum her out. “I bet when we’re out there at night, we can see a lot of stars. Like out on the water.”
Kerry leaned on the back of the couch and looked at the page. “You’re really jazzed about this, aren’t you?”
Dar nodded. “I am. I really want to make up for not taking a vacation for fifteen years. It’s going to be pretty cool, out there with that small a group.” She flipped a page. “We reserved for the first trip of the season.”
“April.” Kerry nodded. “So we can take the RV around to all the parks first, and then end up there for the rafting trip.” She exhaled in contentment. “This is going to be so much fun.”
It was. Dar wished they were already on the other side of the remaining two months of work. The thought of going through the stressful separation was starting to annoy her. “Just you and me and Chino, seeing cool stuff. I even got them to send me a brochure for hot air balloons.”
“Yup.”
Kerry closed her eyes and imagined it, the silence of the pre-dawn and the soft hiss of the wind. “Awesome.” She sighed and got up, replacing the room service menu on the desk in the room and retrieving her own pajamas. It was after dark, the flight had landed just after sunset and they had a full day planned for tomorrow, with meetings at the White House in the morning, and the Pentagon after lunch.
Then they had a late night flight home, at their own schedule, with a weekend to look forward to. Kerry slipped into her shirt and put away her traveling clothes. “You think they’re going to mind me being at those meetings, Dar? I could just hang out here if you do.”
“Don’t care.” Dar had her head resting against her hand as she studied the pictures. “They tell you to leave I’ll be right behind you.”
Kerry regarded her with a smile. “At least we don’t have a Louisiana lawyer with us this time.” She closed the top on the suitcase and went over to the window, looking out at the familiar landmarks. They’d decided to stay in the center of town this time, and if she were on the roof of the hotel she could hit a few of them with a rock.
It felt strange, to look out at that landscape, and yet feel so disconnected from it. She no longer even felt her father’s shadow there, and she was debating whether or not to call her mother, who she knew was here in town in her Senate offices.
After all, she’d just seen her. Right?
“So what if they throw us out?” Kerry mused. “We could go to a museum.”
“We could go have lunch with your mother,” Dar counter suggested. “Or go swimming in the Potomac.”
Kerry chuckled. “I forgot you’re not fond of museums,” she said. “Oh, hey...how about the Air and Space Museum?” She turned to find a much more interested pair of blue eyes watching her. “Ah, better?”
“Air and Space? Absolutely.” Dar put the magazine down.
“Though, I have to admit the first time I wandered into a museum of modern art and saw something of my mother’s it was hoot.” She leaned her head on her hand. “It was some stupid new client meet and greet, and I remember the jackass regional salesman turning to me and saying something snarky like, I’m sure there’s no relationship to you, right?”
Kerry chuckled. “Did you say there was?”
“Sure.” Dar grinned. “Stopped all conversation within hearing. Pretty funny actually. Remind me to tell Mom about that when they get back.”
“Okay.” Kerry squirmed around and put her head down on Dar’s thigh, regarding the swirled plaster ceiling. “So what do you think they’re going to ask you? Hey, maybe they want to make you the US’s chief nerd.”
“Ugh.”
“Nerdmeister-in-chief. I like that. It’s got a nice ring.”
“Last thing I want is to be a federal employee.” Dar draped her arm over Kerry’s body. “Though that would get around the non-compete injunction.”
A knock sounded on the door at the same time as Dar’s phone rang and Kerry unwound herself to get up and walk over. She opened the door and gestured the room service waiter in. She followed him over to the desk and waited, signing the room charge and giving him a brief, polite smile.
He left without commenting.
“Nice guy,” Kerry said to the closed door, before she returned her attention to the tray. She sorted out the silverware, half listening to Dar’s end of the conversation. “Problems, hon?”
Dar rolled her eyes. “Trying to bring the new datacenter live. Having routing problems.” She mouthed. “Give me some ice cream.”
“I was going to suggest we eat that first anyway.” Kerry brought the bowls over. “It’ll melt otherwise, and it looks a lot better than the burgers anyway.”
Dar set her bowl on the sofa arm and maneuvered a spoonful of the chocolate into her mouth, as she listened to the phone. “Well.” She managed to swallow in time. “You know what? I’m not going to drag my damn laptop out, Mark. Get in there and figure it out.”
She got another few spoons down before she had to talk again. “Then we need to hire, in addition to a CIO, a damned senior network engineer.” She listened. “Fine, I’ll talk to Mari in the morning. In the meantime get in there or get someone in there and waste some brain cells on it.”
“CIO and VP ops, and senior network engineer, and network architect, and writer of adorable gopher programming.” Kerry was ticking off on her fingers. “Y’know what, hon? It’s going to be freaking expensive to replace us.”
Dar gave her a look. Then she looked back at her phone in surprise.
“He hung up on me,” she said. “I wasn’t even that rude, was I?”
Kerry ran her mind over the words. “No, you really weren’t. I think Mark’s really pissed off we’re leaving.”
Dar put the phone down and recaptured her bowl. “Is that any reason to hang up on me? I didn’t call him, he called me for help.”
“Mm.” Kerry pressed her shoulder against Dar’s.
“I don’t want them to call me for help, Kerry. I want them to start thinking for themselves. If I have to piss people off to get them to do that, then fine.”
“Mm.”
Dar rested her head against Kerry’s and sighed.
Kerry offered her some butter pecan, and they munched in silence for a few minutes. Then Kerry wiped her lips with her napkin and picked up her own cell phone. “I’ll call him,” she said. “Let him vent at me for a while. Maybe an idea will bounce out of that and he’ll have a brain wave.”
“I love you.”
Kerry smiled, as she hit one of her speed dials. “Back at ya, and hold that thought, because I think this ice cream’s about enough dinner for me so we can head off to that big bed after this.”
Dar wrapped her arms around Kerry and nuzzled the side of her neck. “Sounds good to me.”
“Hey, Mark, it’s Kerry.” Kerry wrapped one hand around Dar’s arm. “Yeah, I know, but you know, it’s gonna happen. What can I do to help?” She felt Dar’s breath warming her ear. “No, honest, I can’t. She’s not feeling well.”
Dar’s brow lifted.
“Yeah, that time of the month. So can I get the vendor on the phone for you? No? Oh, okay, you did? Good. Call me if you need me.” Kerry folded the phone shut and held a hand out. “C’mon. He’s fine.”
“Mm.”
“They’ll get through it.”
“Mm.”
Chapter Five
KERRY TWITCHED HER jacket straight as she followed Dar through the gate toward the security entrance of the blocky office structure ahead of them. She remembered their last visit, and she was hoping this time it would be both shorter and more pleasant.
Dar was presenting her identification to the guard, and she motioned Kerry forward as the man studied them with a frown. “Are we dangerous again?” Kerry handed over her company credentials. “Dar, don’t you have an invitation?”
“No.” Dar waited, rocking back and forth a little as the guard went to go make a phone call. “I have, I think, an email from that guy’s admin telling me what time to be here. Not worth booting the laptop.”
The guard came back. “Okay, Ms. Roberts, I’ve got you on the list, but not this lady.” He indicated Kerry.
“Please call whoever made the list and have her added. I’m not coming in without her,” Dar said in a mild tone. “I was asked to come here, not the other way around.”
The guard looked grumpy and frustrated, but he just shrugged and went back to the little booth guarding the entrance and got on the phone.
Dar hummed under her breath. “Glad I took all those Advil before we left,” she said. “Otherwise I might have seen jail time in my near future.”
Kerry chuckled. “Yeah, glad I took some too. My cramps lasted way longer than usual this time.” She leaned against the fence post and pulled out her new
gizmo, tapping the screen and regarding the results. “You can actually surf the Internet on this thing, Dar.”
“At one bit per twenty seconds?”
“And it has ringtones. You can make your phone ring songs,” Kerry said. “How about if I had jingle bells as my phone ring?”
“How about if you record me singing “Jingle Bells” for your phone ring?” Dar countered. “At least that would be unique.”
“Oh, honey, in a freaking heartbeat.”
Dar grinned, then turned as the guard came back. “Well?”
“It’s okay,” the guard said. “Please come with me.”
They followed him past the booth and in a side door, which he carefully closed behind them before leading them on. The halls were all polished linoleum, and despite the fact it was a civilian office building, there was a touch of the military about it. Kerry kept her eyes slightly down as she walked, just keeping aware in her peripheral vision of the fast moving bodies going in either direction around her.
Then they were going down a hallway and into an antechamber that she last remembered filled with nervous, rushing people dealing with an unimagined disaster.
Now there were four or five people present, quiet, calm, giving her and Dar brief glances and then returning to their work as they passed them by and went into the conference room.
“Please wait here,” the guard said, then left them.
Dar went to one of the comfortable seats and took it, resting her forearms on the table and folding her hands. “Sit.”
Kerry took the chair next to her and settled into it. Her heart was thumping a little, and she was aware of being nervous but she wasn’t entirely sure of why.
Time ran out to think about it, as the door opened and Michael Bridges came in. “Ah.” He regarded the two of them. “You two Siamese twins or something? I only asked for one of you.” He was a tall man, with a craggy face and a spare frame wrapped in expensive silk trousers and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up.