by Melissa Good
“Not for too long.” General Easton winked at her. “Got customers lining up. Don’t forget that.”
Dar and Kerry exchanged another glance, with a completely different set of emotions reflected in it. “Right,” Dar said. “So tell me about Jack’s new squadron. New planes?”
They launched into a military hardware conversation that left Kerry and Mary Easton regarding each other in bemused silence. “Do you like Washington, Kerry?”
“No, not so much.” Kerry had finished her meatloaf, and was now sipping on the blackberry ice tea Mary had served with it. “I spent more than enough time here while I was growing up. Never really liked it.”
“No, I guess not. Gerry told me a little about you having some family issues.” Mary looked at her sympathetically. “My father was a state representative. I did my share of cheese and pâté parties.”
“Yeah.” Kerry smiled. “It can be tough for a kid growing up in that world. That was one of the reasons I wanted my sister to get a dog like our Chino for her little girl. I think she feels it, and they’ve had some family problems so...”
Mary smiled back. “Nothing like a little unreserved love, is there?”
“No. Nothing like it.”
“I was so glad when Jack said Dar was going to take one of the last litter. When she was here, she seemed a little sad.” Mary lowered her voice. “I always felt she missed out not being in the service, no matter what I said before about Jack being out there. It’s a family, you know?”
Kerry nodded. “I know. I’m glad there’s a family now around her.” she said. “I love her parents.”
“The Lord certainly looked after them,” Mary said. “No doubt.”
“I’m sure something was,” Kerry said. “Good people have a way of winning out that way.”
Chapter Six
KERRY STRETCHED OUT in the passenger seat, watching the dark streets go by as they headed for the airport. “They’re a nice couple.”
“They are,” Dar agreed. “I’m glad we stayed and had dinner with them.”
“And got a puppy.” Kerry said. “Was that hasty?”
“I like hasty,” Dar said. “Besides, it’s true. He’ll be company for Chino, and he can go in our RV with us.”
Kerry thought that was going to be more chaos than the casual words indicated, but that was all right. “Let’s make sure the RV has a washable floor.”
“Mm.” Dar turned into the small private airfield, already spotting their plane waiting to one side of a fenced wall. “That’ll be a pleasure to deal with after all the crap we’re going to have to get through with all this.” She shut the car off and got out, handing over the keys to a uniformed valet.
“Thought about what you’re going to tell them?” Kerry zipped her jacket up and followed her into the airfield building, lifting a hand in greeting at their pilot.
“I already know what I’m going to tell them. No.” Dar handed over their overnight bag. “Sorry to keep you so late, Kent.”
“No problem. Friend of mine came over and took me for dinner,” he assured them. “And I took a four hour nap. It’s all good.”
They followed him out to the plane and boarded, trading the cold wind for the smell of leather and a hint of aviation kerosene. Dar dropped into a seat, then grimaced as her phone rang. She removed it from her pocket and glanced at the caller ID. “Uh oh.”
“Uh oh?”
“Alastair.” Dar hit the answer button. “Dar Roberts.”
“Hey there, Dar,” Alastair’s voice echoed softly. “Just wanted to find out how everything went today. Board’s a little anxious.”
Dar sighed. “With good reason, Alastair. I don’t have news you want to hear.”
“Ah.”
Kerry removed her jacket and hung it up in the little closet, as the flight attendant came out with some cappuccino, and a plate of warm cookies.
“You know, Ms. Stuart, I have to say I really wish you two weren’t leaving the company.” The woman said, with a sigh. “I’m sure going to miss you.” She offered the cookies. “The last exec plane I worked the only thing I got to service was vodka and caviar.”
“So you like cookies and hot mocha better?” Kerry laughed, taking a cup and a cookie. “I’ll tell you it’s nice to come back to after a day like today.” She saw Dar’s grimace. “Better get her some milk.”
“Look, Alastair, what do you want me to tell you? Want me to lie? I didn’t ask for this.” Dar leaned back in her chair and gave Kerry a pathetic look. “It was about as welcome as a hemorrhoid.”
“Gotcha.” The flight attendant went back to the small galley as Kerry brought her cookie over and broke off a small piece, offering it to her beleaguered partner.
Dar accepted it, chewing and swallowing it as she listened. “Just don’t say anything about the government position. The board half figured that was something directed at me personally anyway. I’m going to say no.”
Kerry fed her another piece.
“Well, honestly, Alastair, it was me that got them Gerry’s contract,” Dar said after another long moment of listening. “I get their point, we are international.”
The flight attendant came back and offered a glass of milk, which Dar took after giving her a bemused glance, which she then turned on Kerry, who smiled and took the seat next to her.
“Then I suggest you tell the board we’re going to have to form a US only subsidiary if they want to pursue that. Maybe I can convince Gerry to go that route,” Dar said. “I gotta go, they want to take off.” She paused to listen. “Yeah, I know, Alastair. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
She hung up as they started to taxi and let the device rest on her thigh, turning her head to regard Kerry. “He thinks they’re going to want me to come to Houston again,” she said. “Maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll decide to let me get out of there early.”
“Us,” Kerry replied instantly.
“Us.” Dar took a sip of her milk. “I hope to hell they find someone to take this damn job soon.”
“LOOK AT HER.” Kerry was sitting on their couch as Chino subjected her to a complete and very thorough sniffing. “She knows I was messing with those puppies.”
“Of course she does.” Dar stood looking out of the sliding glass doors, watching the lights of the channel blink in their red and green pattern. “You smell like puppy. You think she’s dumb?”
Kerry studied Chino, whose tail was wagging wildly. “I think she likes it.” She stroked Chino’s thick fur, and the dog settled down and put her head on Kerry’s lap, tail still thumping against the couch surface. “What do you think, Chi? You want to play with your little brother? He’s really cute.”
She glanced at Dar’s back, seeing the tension in her shoulders. “You still freaking out?”
Dar’s hands lifted and then fell again. She turned and came over to the couch, sitting down on the other side of Chino and draping her arm across the back. “I feel bad,” she admitted. “I wasn’t counting on Gerry’s deal.”
“Yeah.” Kerry slid her arm outside Dar’s and stroked the skin of her shoulder through her shirt. “But what you told Alastair was right, Dar. You did get that account for ILS. I remember when it happened.”
“I remember using it to make your numbers work and save your buddies’ jobs,” Dar mused. “But it was legit. That second one, when I coerced him into giving me all those extra contracts to keep my mouth shut on the Navy base, that wasn’t so legit.”
“ILS won, either way.”
“They did.” Dar let her head rest against the couch back. “You know what, maybe I don’t feel bad. Maybe I’m just frustrated at being in such a weird spot with everyone,” she said. “Anything you particularly want to do this weekend?”
Kerry accepted the subject change gracefully. “I don’t know. We’ll figure something out tomorrow.” She held her hand out palm up. “It’s midnight. Want to join me in our water bed?”
“Yes.”
They got up a
nd went into the first floor bedroom, where they undressed in companionable silence, and then eased into the water bed.
The phone rang.
Dar sighed and reached over, picking up the receiver. “Hello?” she said, then paused. “This is Dar Roberts.”
“Ugh.” Kerry eased over and snuggled up next to her, listening to the voice issuing from the telephone. “That doesn’t sound good.”
Dar moved the phone closer to her. “Go on.”
“Okay, Ms. Roberts? Look, I know it’s late, and I’m sorry, but they cut all this stuff over to the new place yesterday and we’re having all kinds of problems with it. I’m getting chewed alive.”
The man’s voice sounded aggravated and upset. “It’s not fair, you know? They just told me to deal with it.”
“Who told you that?” Dar asked, gently.
“Night supervisor in ops, in Miami,” the man responded. “I’m sorry, I’m Jack Bueno. I’m kinda new. I forgot to introduce myself. I know the chain of command and all that but I’m running out of things to tell these customers so I figured I’d put my cojones on the line and see if I could get some help.”
“So you want me to help you?” Dar asked, as Kerry rolled off in the other direction and got out of bed, a mild, bemused expression on her face. “For technical problems?”
“Ma’am,” Bueno said. “I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but your name’s all over the base configs of everything in this center. I hope that’s not because someone has your login.”
Dar chuckled. “No, it’s not.” She rolled out of the bed herself. “All right, hang on and let me get some lights on here and go into my office. See what I can do to get things sorted out for you.”
“Thank you.” Bueno’s voice sounded utterly relieved. “I’m real sorry to get you out of bed. I just didn’t know what else to do.”
“You get points for doing it.” Dar pulled a shirt over her head and trudged from the bedroom into her office, finding the lights already on, and smelling coffee on a gust of air coming across the living room. “Matter of fact, I’m sorry you had to call me. Disappoints me like you would not believe.”
“Yes, ma’am, I get that.”
“Call me Dar. It’s after midnight.” Dar sat down and flicked on her monitor. “By the way, welcome to ILS.”
KERRY RESTED HER head on her hand as she scribbled notes on a light purple notepad with a dark purple pen. It was four a.m. and she’d been recording changes Dar was making in the new datacenter’s networking. “Want more coffee, hon?”
“I want a shotgun and a concrete block construction wall,” Dar growled, making Kerry smile in pure reaction. “I’m so pissed.”
“I know.” Kerry reached over and patted her arm. “How about a chocolate milkshake instead of coffee?” She watched Dar’s profile, as its tension eased and one brow rose, reading the positive reaction with no trouble at all. “Be right back.”
She put the pen down and got up, walking around behind Dar and giving her a brief hug and a kiss on the top of her head before she retreated to the kitchen with a sleepy Chino ambling after her.
Dar had every right to be pissed. Kerry considered that, as she got out the required ingredients for a milkshake. In reality, she herself should be in the trenches getting this sorted out, but she knew getting in Dar’s way and trying to get between her and the staff would just end up counterproductive for both of them.
She’d learned that the hard way. Four a.m. was no time to be getting into an argument with Dar about their respective areas of responsibility, seeing that her boss had spent the last four hours untangling the configuration Kerry’s staff had implemented.
Just wasn’t any point in it. Dar wasn’t mad at her and she didn’t want that to change.
She’d assigned the commissioning of the center out to her infrastructure teams. Apparently, there was a screw up, or to be fair, a design choice made that hadn’t worked out. Dar was in the middle of doing multiple alterations of the systems to fix that, but the changes were extensive, and they impacted already upset customers and she was reserving herself to handle those phone calls to keep them off both the operations and Dar’s back.
Of course they could have called in the groups in question and forced them to make the systems right. From a business and learning perspective that might have been a better choice. But at midnight, faced with a call from a customer facing director in trouble, Dar was in no mood for a coaching moment.
It was what it was. She scooped out some chocolate malt and scattered it over the balls of chocolate ice cream, then added milk to the blender before she started it mixing. “Want a cookie, Chi?” She fished a treat from the doggy jar for the patiently waiting dog, and offered it to her. “It’s weird, huh? All dark outside and us up and doing stuff.”
Chino crunched the treat, scattering tiny crumbs on the tile floor. She sniffed after them, and licked them up, as Kerry poured out two thick milkshakes and debated adding whipped cream.
Sometimes Dar liked whipped cream, sometimes she didn’t, saying it blocked access to the ice cream.
“What the hell.” She added the cream and headed back to Dar’s office, coming in to find her studying her screen, pecking away at her keyboard in absorbed attention.
She set the shakes down and resumed her seat, picking up her pen again. “Okay, so now what did you do to that second core, Dar?”
“Made it virtual across the two chassis,” Dar muttered. “Why in the hell wouldn’t they do that, Kerry? Not only is it our standard, it’s industry standard.”
“Don’t know, hon. I will ask at the staff meeting I called first thing Monday.” Kerry scribbled down a note. “Is it getting any better?”
“Meh.”
Kerry tapped her pen on the pad. “Would it help for us to go there?”
“Peh.”
“Okay.” Kerry ticked off the items she had to do and wrote a few more notes. “Do you need to add equipment in there? So I can get that prepped?”
Dar scowled. “Let me get back to you on that.” She made another change and reviewed the results. “Holy shit, what a hairball.”
“Ms. Roberts?” Jack came back on the conference bridge. “Whatever you did about five minutes ago really helped Interbank. They’re running normal metrics now.”
“Oh, good.” Kerry drew a small line, and made a note on one of the checklist items. “Good to hear, Jack.”
“Thanks, Ms. Stuart. Sorry you had to get into this too. Getting Ms. Roberts up was bad enough.”
Kerry studied the phone, then looked at Dar. “Does he not know?” She mouthed, inclining the pen toward her own chest, then at Dar.
Dar pressed the mute button. “He’s new,” she said, apparently reading Kerry’s mind. “I don’t think they go over our relationship in new employee orientation. Yet.”
Kerry chuckled, and shook her head. She reached over to release the mute. “No problem, Jack. Let’s just get this squared away so our customers are happy,” she said. “We can worry about who and when and why later.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jack agreed instantly. “That’s what my big problem was. I don’t mind having arguments about doing it this way, or doing it that way, but when it starts to impact the people who depend on us, we can’t be sitting here arguing with each other.”
“Yup.” Dar was busy typing. “That’s the whole point all right.”
“I was surprised,” Jack said, after a brief pause. “I had heard ILS wasn’t like that. One reason I took the datacenter director job here.”
Dar stopped typing and she and Kerry exchanged glances again.
“No offense,” Jack said, after an awkward pause.
“None taken,” Dar said. “Okay, I just made another change, and re-converged everything. See what that does.”
“Okay.” Jack walked away from the phone and they heard a door open, and the airplane engine sound of a datacenter that was cut off as the door closed.
“What he just said bothers me,”
Kerry said. “Because I believed that too, Dar. So what’s going on? Are people that pissed off that we’re leaving that they’re doing this stuff on purpose?”
“Or is it just that we’ve told them to think for themselves and this is the result?” Dar responded. “Not sure which I’d hate more.”
“Mm.” Kerry shook her head back and forth. “Boy that’s a tossup.”
“Ker I wrote our design standards,” Dar said in a serious tone. “It’s not like I just kept it all in my head. It’s on the process server.”
“Going to be a long Monday.” Kerry sighed and made a few more notes, listening to Dar slurp her milkshake as they waited for Jack to come back. “As if it wasn’t going to be long enough already.”
“No kidding,” Dar groused.
Kerry sipped her own drink for a few minutes, then jerked slightly as her own phone rang. “Kerry Stuart.” She answered it without bothering to check the caller ID.
“Hey, Kerry.”
“Hey, Mark. What’s up?”
“I guess I need to ask you that.” Mark sounded glum. “Night ops finally called me and told me the new datacenter’s having problems.”
“Wow,” Kerry said. “Dar’s been working on it for about four hours or so. I think she’s almost done.” She looked up to see Dar watching her over the rim of her glass, a thick white whipped cream mustache on her upper lip. “I scheduled an all hands meeting on Monday to talk about it.”
“They said they were having some issues, but it didn’t sound serious yesterday,” Mark said. “I figured it could wait for us to come in next week.”
“Well.” Kerry exhaled. “By my count Dar’s made about forty changes to the configuration in there. So apparently it was more serious than that.” She took a swallow of her milkshake. “It’s been getting better though.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“She pissed?”
“Yeah,” Kerry said. “I am too, actually. I wasn’t looking to stay up all night fixing someone else’s mistakes tonight.”
Mark was silent for a long moment. “Shit,” he finally said. “Okay, let me start the research. See how we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.”