Winds of Change Book Two

by Melissa Good

  He nodded. “There’s just not a lot of trust out there these days,” he said. “People want their privacy and they don’t want anyone in their business.”

  They both heard footsteps and the patter of dog toenails approaching. Dar looked over to see Kerry heading their way. “I’m not sure you can have it both ways,” she said. “All the freedom of the public Internet and privacy, too.”

  Post sighed. “There has to be a way,” he said. “Some way to make just looking around anonymous.” He got up as Kerry neared the boat. “But I know you’ve got things to do. Thanks for the chat at any rate.” He offered his hand, which Dar took and pressed. “Have a good morning.”

  “You too,” Dar said as he hopped off the boat onto the dock. He gave Kerry a brief smile as he passed her.

  “C’mon, Chi.” Dar got up and walked over as the dog gathered herself and hopped on board. “Glad you showed up,” she said to Kerry.

  “What was that all about?” Kerry stepped over onto the deck and put Mocha down to go sniff. “New neighbor?”

  “Something like that.” Dar opened the door to the cabin, stepping back as Chino bustled inside ahead of her. “Guy was looking for someone to build him something that lets people Internet surf without being eavesdropped on.”

  Kerry stopped and regarded her in surprise. “Really?”

  “Mm.”

  “Interesting coincidence?”

  Dar shrugged. “I’m going to get the hamsters going. Untie us?” She headed up the ladder onto the flying bridge and got herself settled behind the controls. She started up the engines and checked the gauges, listening to the sound as they rumbled to life.

  “Okay, we’re clear.” Kerry climbed up and sat next to her as she gently applied power. “I locked the dogs inside in case they get any funny ideas about jumping overboard.”

  “So I hear.” Dar swung the bow out as she got clear of the dock and started out of the packed marina. “Here we go.”

  Kerry put her feet up on the lower shelf of the console and leaned back as the breeze picked up around them. “So that was an interesting visit.”

  “It was. Not sure if it was a legit question, or something someone’s floating out because of the press we just got, or someone fishing me from inside the CIA.”

  “CIA?”

  Dar smiled. “You never know. I told him to go talk to ILS about building his clients a private network.”

  Kerry started laughing. “You didn’t.”

  “I did. Why not? They do that. I figured regardless of the reason for the question, that won’t get me in too much trouble. He said someone from A&T sent him. Think that was your buddy?” T

  “I think I should ask him,” Kerry said. “I don’t like the timing of that, Dar. Maybe it was someone from ILS wanting to cause us trouble.”

  “Ker.”

  “You never know, right?” Kerry said. “Frankly I’d rather have it be the CIA testing us to see if we were going to spill some details on the project. That, at least, would make sense to me.”

  “This guy said he knew about the black box they’ve got tapping everything,” Dar said after a brief pause. “I told him there’s no way to get around that.”

  Kerry frowned. “Is that true?”

  “The box being there, or not being able to get around it?”

  “Yes.”

  Dar nudged the throttles forward as they cleared the entrance to the marina. “I think the first one’s true since you told them to go do that.” She eyed Kerry, who made a face. “Yeah, I know. As to the second? From a technical perspective, given that it would be an in line tap, there is no physical way to avoid it.”

  “But?”

  Dar remained silent for a moment as she adjusted the engines. “Should I be looking for a way around it?”

  Kerry merely looked at her.

  “Good point.”

  IT WAS LONG past dark as Dar piloted the boat back into the harbor, the engines rumbling softly as she made her way between the lines of yachts to either side.

  There were a few people still out on the piers, some coiling up hoses, others moving boxes of supplies from the land onto the boats. There was a cascade of curiously musical clanking of the riggings as the boats moved slightly on the tide.

  Their slip was one of the outer ones and Dar had no problem maneuvering the boat into it, cutting the engines and sliding in a little sideways as they eased against the bumpers and Kerry hopped off to tie them up.

  It was quiet once she shut power down, the soft creak of the

  wooden pilings and the scuff of Kerry’s footsteps sounding loud and distinct. Dar relaxed a moment, flexing her hands out and letting them rest on her thighs before she got up from the console and turned to head down the ladder.

  She paused when she heard her pocketed cell phone start to ring. She pulled it out and answered. “Hello?”

  “Hello, Dar?”

  She hesitated. “Yes...Jacques?”

  There was a faint sigh on the other end. “Yes, it is me. May we speak for a moment?”

  Dar went back over to the console and sat down. “Sure. So long as you’re not calling to threaten me with a lawsuit—in which case I’ll give you my lawyer’s number—or call me an asshole.”

  Jacques chuckled briefly. “No, it is neither. Though I am sure you know my colleagues wish nothing better than to try and throw some legal trouble your way.”

  “Nice, thanks for a job well done,” Dar said dryly. “Hope they all step off a cliff and croak.”

  He sighed again. “Let us put that aside for a time as at this moment there are other things occupying their attention. I suppose you know what is going on?”

  Dar leaned back and considered. “Yes,” she said. “I know what’s going on. But if you’re wondering if I had anything to do with it, the answer is no.”

  “No, we know that,” Jacques responded surprisingly. “If that was the case, so much as I respect you there would already be legal filings in process. You understand?”

  “Sure.”

  “So there has been an investigation, yes? In no way was it found out that you had any part in this massive failure,” he said. “You did not participate. That is what is understood.”

  Kerry climbed up onto the flying bridge and paused, looking questioningly at her. “Trouble?”

  Dar shrugged. “Jacques.” She mouthed silently.

  Kerry rolled her eyes. “Going to take the dogs in, see you back at the house.” She patted Dar’s leg and retreated down the steps again.

  “Okay, so why the phone call then?” Dar asked. “Jacques, honestly, I’m sorry someone screwed things up so colossally. No one wanted that.”

  “Yes, I knew you would think so,” Jacques said. “The mistake that was made was underestimating your influence. So let me ask you a few questions if I may do so?”

  “Sure.”

  “This thing that went wrong, do you think it was a thing done on purpose?”

  Dar’s brows contracted a little. “Not sure what you mean,” she said. “If someone went in and made changes, sure that was on purpose. It’s very hard to accidentally log yourself into a device and type things into it.”

  “No, no,” Jacques said. “I understand that the action was purposeful. But do you think that the intent, the changes being made, were done on purpose to cause us harm?”

  Oh. Completely different question. “Ah. You mean, was the change done to screw things up on purpose?”

  “Yes.”

  “Have no clue,” Dar said honestly. “From what I heard it was done to put someone’s mark up. You know what that means?”

  “Not so much.”

  Dar considered. “There’s a lot of me in those systems,” she said. “Seemed to me like someone wanted to take that out and put their own stamp on it.”

  “Ah.”

  “So, was it done on purpose? Sure. But was it done maliciously?” Dar shrugged. “I don’t know the guy and I don’t want to guess at his motives. Seems
like a stupid and very public screw up though.”

  Jacques was silence for a moment. “The investigation, it was just finished earlier and the report I was given said there was bad intent in the action.”

  Dar folded her arms and leaned back against the console. “Making the change I could believe was honest desire to take my rep down,” she said. “But making it impossible to go back? Either that was ego way larger than mine, Jacques, or...yeah, maybe there was something behind it.”

  Jacques grunted softly.

  He was one of the few board members Dar liked. She had developed a respect for his practicality and what she’d felt was an honest desire to simply attend to business, caring more about share value and making money than any politics behind it.

  “What are you going to do, Jacques?” Dar asked after a long silence.

  “I have taken the chairman’s slot, yes,” he said. “After some contention.”

  Dar could only imagine that. Jacques was one of Alastair’s biggest allies on the board. “Would have liked to have seen that dogfight.”

  He chuckled dryly again. “I believe you can fix this problem, yes?”

  “Probably. But I’m not going to,” Dar said, a little surprised to hear herself say the words. “That would be bad for both of us.”

  “Yes, exactly so,” he agreed in a mild tone. “I had no intention of asking you to do so. Which I would think maybe surprises you?”

  “Depends on how desperate I think you are.” Now it was Dar’s turn to chuckle a little. “C’mon, Jacques. You didn’t call me just to pass the time of day.”

  He cleared his throat. “To be sure, I did call just to advise you of my new position,” he said in a careful tone. “And also to see if you would speak with me and not just hang up the telephone.”

  “I would never do that, Jacques. You were always fair with me,” Dar said. “I’m glad you took charge. You’ve got an even hand and you’ve been in the mix a long time.” She pushed off the console and went to the rail, looking out over the harbor.

  “You were very close with Alastair,” Jacques said. “He continually defended you and that’s what was the reason for his leaving.”

  “And Hamilton’s I’m guessing,” Dar said.

  “Now that is an interesting story. Hamilton was let go yes, because he refused to follow the board’s directions. But...” Jacques paused. “He is also a large stockholder and threatened to bring suit against the board if they brought suit against you.”

  Dar was charmed. “Good for him.”

  “So this brings me to the real reason for this conversation,” Jacques said. “I would like to ask you for your opinion. I would like you tell me, Dar, what you would do if you were in my position, to resolve all these difficulties.”

  “Huh.”

  “We have many people who have left. We have systems that are not doing well. We have customers who are very upset and contracts at risk. What would you do to resolve that?”

  Dar was silent for a few minutes, thinking. “You need those people who left more than you need anyone’s egos, or to save face,” she said. “You’ll never get them back if you keep your new guys. Get rid of them and call the people who walked out and ask them to come back. Including Hamilton.”

  “It would be very difficult for me to get the backing enough to do that.” Jacques sounded regretful. “There is quite a lot of pride involved.”

  “Money trumps pride,” Dar said bluntly. “They want to lose money? They keep going down this route you’ll lose everything. One of your customers has already called me and said they were thinking of terminating your contracts.”

  “Do they want to offer them to you?”

  “Yes, but I don’t want them. It’s not the direction I want my new company to go,” Dar told him honestly. “I would rather you repair that relationship and keep them.”

  Jacques sighed. “Your opinion walks side by side with mine. I just do not know that I can make this collection of people on the board go along with it,” he said. “Dar, I thank you for taking your time on this Saturday night to speak with me. I wish you good luck with your new enterprise, though it seems to me you don’t need it as you are doing quite well.”

  “We are,” Dar said. “At the rate we’re going we’ll be able to hire all the people who walked out on you, so if you’re smart, get those board

  asses turned around before you lose the chance to make things right.”

  He chuckled softly. “Do you need an investor?”

  “When we’re ready for that, I know who to call,” Dar replied. “Gotta go. I just parked my boat and it’s getting nippy out here.”

  “Thank you, Dar. I can’t say I will be able to follow your advice, but it’s good to have it,” Jacques said. “Good night to you, and please give my regards to your housemate.”

  Housemate. Dar pinched the bridge of her nose. “Well, I’ve heard her called worse. I will. Good night, Jacques. Good luck.”

  She hung up the phone and stuck it in her pocket, before she closed the weather proofing around the console and retreated back down onto the main deck. She checked the door to make sure it was locked, then hopped off the boat and onto the dock, walking along the wooden pier past the rows of gently bobbing yachts.

  As she came up onto the marina side, she started to take the path leading back to the condo but went into the little island store instead.

  “Good evening, ma’am,” the cashier greeted her as she entered. “We have fresh stone crabs and hand churned chocolate ice cream today.”

  Dar paused and eyed her. “You sure have us pegged,” she said with a smile. “Give me a pound of each.”

  “Yes’m.” The cashier smiled back, a fresh faced young girl with dark streaked blonde hair pulled back into a neat pony tail. “We like to keep track of our nicer residents.”

  Dar brought the box of dog biscuits up to the counter and put it down, waiting as the cashier put together a goodie bag for her. “Are there residents who aren’t nice?”

  “Oh sure.” The girl put the bag on the counter and took Dar’s resident’s card, sliding it into her system. “I mean, there are all kinds of people everywhere, you know what I mean?”

  “Sure.” Dar took her card back. “I’ve run into some idiots here. But most everyone minds their own business.”

  “Most people do, but some people act like because they live here, it gives them carte blanche to treat everyone who works on the island like servants. We’re not.”

  Dar blinked. “Do they?”

  “They do. A man was in here about twenty minutes ago,” the girl said, obviously remembering with irritation. “He got all ticked off at me because we didn’t have fresh goat’s milk.” She handed over Dar’s package. “He actually took a bottle of the stuff we had and threw it against the wall. Can you believe it?”

  Dar took her items and shook her head. “There are jerks in the world,” she said. “That seems like a crazy thing to get mad about though.”

  The girl shrugged. “He’s rich. His family owns like ten properties

  and they go from one to the other. He’s got a big sailboat and a personal assistant. His name’s Grossner. Do you know him?”

  “Nope,” Dar said. “I don’t think we travel in the same circles.” She smiled. “I actually work for a living.”

  “Right?” The girl waved. “Good night, ma’am. Have a nice weekend.”

  “Thanks.” Dar pushed the door open and started down the path with a thoughtful expression. The gravel crunched under her sandals and she hooked the bag by one finger and slung it over her shoulder.

  How narrow a life did you need to have to worry about goat’s milk? She pondered that as she passed between the ring of trees and started to cut across the golf course toward their home. Or was that a different perspective you got when you had so much that worrying about the basics of life never happened so you focused on the sharp points of tiny details.

  Was that part of what was wrong with the board me
mbers? Dar began to whistle softly under her breath. Had they become so used to constant success and plenty that being faced with what amounted to corporate mutiny left them unable to figure out what to do? So what they did was flail around and fire bullets in a circle hoping to hit something that would make them feel better?

  Hm.

  She heard the soft chatter of the sprinklers on the course and glanced ahead to see if they were going to douse her. The path ahead was clear of water, but there were two tall figures moving in her direction and she shifted to one side of the gravel to make space for them to pass.

  “I’m telling you, Tom, that kid was asking for it,” one of the men said as they came even with her. He glanced briefly up at Dar, then lifted a hand. “Evening.”

  “Evening,” Dar responded cordially.

  “Yeah, she might have been, but you should keep in check, Billy,” the other man said as they moved away. “This is a small place. Word gets around.”

  “Like I could care? We’ll just pay off whoever’s in charge. I’m going to go get what was coming to me.” The voices echoed softly, trickling back to Dar’s ears from where she’d come to a halt on the path.

  Coincidence? Or was that goat’s milk boy on his way to bring more trouble to the kid in the store.

  Dar regarded the sky overhead with a somber look then smiled a little, acknowledging that old crusader label maybe wasn’t so far off after all. With a sigh, she turned around and started after the men, pulling out her Handspring and typing in a brief message as she walked.

  SHE GOT TO the door and pushed through it just as the shorter man reached across the counter and grabbed the cashier’s blouse. He twisted his fingers into the fabric and yanked her close to him.

  “Hey!” she barked. Both men turned at the sound and a moment later the man released the girl and stepped back. “What the hell are you doing, buddy?”

  The taller man stepped back uncertainly, looked at the door and edged toward it. “Just a misunderstanding,” he said. “No problem here, lady.”