Winds of Change Book Two

by Melissa Good

  “So you decided your reputation was more important than a bunch of major contracts your new business is based on?”

  Dar looked him right in the eye. “Yes.”

  “You’re an idiot.” Bridges stepped aside. “Get the hell out.”

  Dar reached for the door, hauling up short as it swung inward and revealed the highly inconvenient and slightly rumpled form of the president. “Ah.” She took a step back. “Hi there.”

  “Well, hello there, ladies.” He came inside and shut the door. “Second time today I heard yelling coming from this room. What’s the scoop?” He looked at Bridges. “Thought we were supposed to see that new computer thing today.”

  “Not today, sir,” Bridges said. “I’ve decided to change companies. Didn’t like what I saw from these here people.”

  “Yes, excuse us.” Dar went to step around the president, stopping when he held a hand up.

  “Now hold on,” Bush said. “All I’ve been hearing this morning is how nifty this new thing is. Sounds like it was a success to me. So why make a change? What’s the deal here?”

  “Sir, we can discuss it later,” Bridges said.

  “Or we can discuss it now,” the president countered.

  Bridges looked frustrated and annoyed. Kerry got the sense he was used to getting his own way and was also used to having his suggestions accepted without question. She felt her Handspring buzz in her pocket, but left it where it was, waiting for Bridges to answer.

  She didn’t feel apprehensive either way, which was a little strange.

  “Ladies, why don’t you sit down here and let’s just hear this out,” Bush said. “Mike? I’m sure we’ve just got some kind of misunderstanding. Right?”

  He pulled out a chair and waved Dar into it, then repeated the process for Kerry, seating himself between them as Bridges very grumpily took a seat across from them. “Now.” He put his folded hands on the table. “What’s the scoop?”

  Bridges just stared moodily at him.

  “You want the short version or the long one?” Dar finally said. “The short version is we were instructed to do something and we chose to do otherwise. Mr. Bridges did not appreciate that.”

  “How come?” The president asked, in a mild tone. “I mean, how come you didn’t follow the instructions?”

  “Because she’s an idiot,” Bridges said.

  “Now, Mike, I don’t think that’s true,” Bush said. “I know all about idiots, after all. I get called one often enough.” He smiled at both Dar and Kerry. “So how come?”

  Dar cleared her throat gently. “Because it went against my honor to do so.”

  Kerry felt the silence drop over the room. She watched the faces of the two men at the table and sensed Dar had selected just the right words. She saw the president’s expression shift and Bridges move in his chair, settling more square onto it and folding his hands on the table.

  “Well then,” the president said, after a long moment. “I know a little about that, too.” He eyed Bridges. “So, Mike, did this cause us a real hassle, or you just ticked off because you didn’t get listened to?”

  Bridges frowned. “It’s a publicity thing,” he said. “Could be a problem with Congress.”

  Bush shrugged. “Full moon rising could do that. Tell you what. Let me let these ladies show me their new computer thing and we let things lie quiet for a little while, see what shakes out,” he said. “Something’ll come along to distract ‘em, and if it doesn’t, we’ll make something up.”

  Bridges sighed.

  “Ladies?” Bush stood up and stepped back. “Don’t you all worry. Mike’s just got his nose out of joint. He gets that way sometimes. They don’t give him enough bran in the staff mess.” He opened the door and lifted his hand to wave. “Talk to you later, Mike.”

  “Sir.” Bridges rested his head against his fist, letting out a grunt of irritation as the door closed behind them.

  ANDREW STOOD BESIDE the loveseat Ceci was sitting on, watching the big screen television mounted on the far wall. His eyes were fastened on the angular face the camera was pinned on, listening intently to what Dar said. “Huh.”

  “I have no idea what the dickens that kid’s talking about,” Ceci said. “And neither does that reporter.”

  Andrew cleared his throat. “I do believe she just told that there feller something about that bank thing that broke yesterday.”

  “Hm.” Ceci regarded the familiar figure. “She looks good on television, Andy. Maybe we should have taken her to acting class. Remember that agency that wanted her for commercials?”

  Andy looked around at her, both eyebrows hiking up.

  “Okay, maybe not.” Ceci chuckled as Dar stopped talking, waiting for the next question. She was at some desk somewhere and she looked relaxed, her elbows resting on the surface and her hands folded.

  She did look good on camera, the blandness of the cubicle walls making her dark hair and pale eyes stand out. When she started talking her speech was crisp and confident. You just got the feeling she knew what the hell she was talking about.

  Dar always had. Even in the wretched youthful arrogance that drove Ceci insane, there was always an understanding, at least on her part, that as annoying and aggravating as it was there was always truth in what came out of that mouth. “Did she just tell that reporter the guy who replaced her there was a one balled unicorn?”

  “Yeap.”

  “CNN’s getting bold in its old age.”

  “Yeap.”

  Ceci shook her head and went back to watching Dar field questions, shrugging off the accusations of the former board members, downplaying

  the chaos her mother knew was going on as long as a few hours

  previously.

  Master of her element. Ceci smiled. “Sharp kid, our daughter.”

  Andy grinned wholeheartedly. “Sharp as mah old boot knife.”

  Ceci extended her legs and crossed them at the ankles, feeling a new sense of contentment as she watched the screen. The sight of Dar’s face no longer igniting in her any feeling of regret over their mutual mixed history.

  Dar glanced off camera briefly and smiled and it was easy to guess who she was looking at. “I thought she said they weren’t going to get involved in all that stuff,” Ceci said after a bit. “But that...they said they’re at an ILS building, right?”

  “That Virginia one. I recognize it,” Andrew said. “Dar probably went out there to fix ever’thing up. Got tired of all the yapping.”

  “Maybe they’ll leave her alone now.”

  “Maybe that there dog’ll turn that tail around and fly off.”

  “Idiots.”

  Andrew snorted, then glanced up as he heard the doorbell ring. “Who all’s that?”

  Ceci craned her head around him and peered toward the door. “Oh damn it, my x-ray glasses are on the table. Can you toss them to me?”

  “Lord.” Andrew got up and went to the door, opening it and moving forward to stand in the opening. “Yeah?”

  The young, copper haired girl on the landing took a step back. “Oh. Hello,” she said in a doubtful tone. “I was looking for Ms. Roberts.”

  “She ain’t here,” Andrew said. “What’cha want with her?”

  “Andy, stop scaring that kid.” Ceci edged her slim form around his. “Well, you’re the young lady from the Island Market, aren’t you?”

  The girl nodded. “My name’s Kristie,” she said. “Sorry to bother you. I’ll come back.” She started to back up. “Thanks.”

  “Eh eh eh.” Ceci held up a hand. “Hold on there, kiddo. I think we need to talk to you.”

  Kristie stopped and eyed her uncertainly.

  Ceci crooked her finger at her. “Don’t worry. I won’t kill ya. I just want to talk to you. I think you owe me that after the trouble you got my child into.”

  “I didn’t mean to,” Kristie said. “That’s w...I mean, I wanted to apologize.”

  “C’mon in.” Ceci pushed the door open. “Maybe yo
u can do more than that.”

  “ALL RIGHT NOW, let’s see what we got.”

  They were seated around the small work table on one side of the big office. Dar was showing the demo on her laptop, her screen turned so that the president could see it.

  The surreal nature of the moment wasn’t lost on Kerry. She was seated on the other side of the table, watching the man alternate his attention between the computer and Dar, head cocked slightly in an attitude of listening.

  “So you can just ask it whatever you want to, right?”

  “Right,” Dar said.

  “Sounds easy.” The president inched over. “Can I try it?”

  “Sure.” Dar turned the keyboard over and pushed back in her chair, extending her legs under the table.

  Kerry watched him peck out a question. “Eventually Dar wants to make it so you can just talk to it,” she said. “Speech recognition is a little tough.”

  “‘Specially when you sound like I do.” The president looked up and winked at her.

  “Any variance is tough,” Dar said. “Unless you talk like Kerry does. But you can write algorithms that can deal with tonal variations.” She glanced at the screen where the database was pondering a response. “I’ll have it practice on my dad.”

  The screen cleared and returned some data. “So, what it says is it found nothing in the current data flow that referenced your name and the word jackass,” Dar said. “Remember this is just a random test database.”

  The president chuckled. “Okay how about this.” He pecked the keys again. “How about, tell me something about rockets and the US East Coast.” He hit enter. The screen hesitated then responded, this time with a full page of detail. “Well now, look at that.”

  Dar nodded. “It found some email that referenced those terms and some song lyrics. The human operator will probably want to see some additional detail about the first, but maybe not the second.”

  Bush nodded and hit the key for the first return. “So this’ll show me that actual mail, huh?”

  Dar nodded.

  “That’s going to freak everybody out.” He studied the screen. “Ain’t it?”

  Kerry sat forward and rested her elbows on her knees. “In reality, it’s something that any Internet service provider can do right now,” she said. “They see all your data so if the police wanted, they could have them capture all the traffic you send and receive and turn it over.”

  Bush blinked. “Really?”

  “Sure,” Dar said. “It’s what I could have done when I was at ILS. Capture every bit of information going in and out of the Pentagon and sold it to the highest bidder.”

  The president sat back in his seat and regarded her. “I don’t think I like that idea,” he said. “Here’s the problem with all this technology stuff. We don’t have a handle on it. It’s too wide open.”

  Dar considered the question. “It’s true the Internet changed

  everything,” she said. “It connected the world in a way that I don’t think anyone was ready for. But the truth is, bad people do bad things and use whatever is available to do what they do.”

  Bush nodded. “That’s right. I did a study on that, if you can believe it. Telegraph, telex, Morse code, fax modems, all that. But now this here everyone connected thing makes it too easy for them, too hard for us.”

  “So this is a tool to help counteract that,” Kerry said. “But you have to put it in the hands of trusted people. Really trusted. This would be so easy to use for someone to persecute people for a lot of reasons not related to national security. You know what I mean?”

  He produced a wry smile. “Lot of things can be used for good or bad,” he remarked. “But I thought someone told me all this stuff was...” He frowned. “Encrypted? So you can’t see it?”

  “Technically that’s true,” Dar said.

  “But there’s a way around that?”

  “Yes.”

  Bush nodded slowly. “Tell me something.” He hunched forward, resting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together. “What do you ladies think? This thing a good thing for us to do?” He looked from Dar to Kerry. “This right?”

  Silence fell as they all sat there, thinking.

  Finally, it was Kerry who cleared her throat and spoke first. “The truth is, if someone wants to hurt us bad enough, they will. They’ll find a way. If it’s known that we can do this.” She pointed at the computer. “They’ll find a way around it.”

  Bush glanced aside, then back at her. “That’s probably true.”

  “So what I think is you should tell everyone you decided not to do this,” Kerry said. “Tell them either it can’t be done, or it’s not right, or whatever you want to make people think it’s not being done.”

  The president watched her face thoughtfully. “But do it.”

  Kerry nodded. “That’s what my father would have said to do. He would have called this playing to the beliefs of the people.”

  “What about you?” He glanced at Dar. “You think that’s the thing?”

  “I think you should do it because it can be done. And if we can do it, whoever’s against us can do it, too. It’s stupid not to,” Dar said. “But I don’t disagree with Ker’s slant on it.”

  Another silence fell. Dar found herself wishing they were home. All the excitement she’d felt about demonstrating her program evaporated away into doubt and uncertainty of where they would be tomorrow and what new problems she’d face.

  She felt a little down. She wasn’t sure if she cared what they did with the app now. If they decided to just cancel it she sort of felt like she might be glad. In fact, if they finished up now she and Kerry could go see the Air and Space Museum.

  That sounded like a hell of a lot more fun than doing a demo for Congress.

  “Well,” Bush finally said, after pondering to himself for a long time. “Here’s what I think.” He straightened up in his chair and leaned back, hiking up one ankle and putting it on his knee. “I think we’re going to have to show this off, because if we say never mind, they’re all going to think we’re lying sacks of marbles.”

  Ah well. Dar sighed inwardly.

  “I’ll just have to come up with a good story about how we’re gonna lock this up in the depths of the Pentagon and only allow access to it with a gun and a court order by Eagle Scouts,” Bush concluded. “Or something like that.”

  “Will they buy that, sir?” Kerry asked, quietly.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Bush said. “She’s right about the cat being out of the bag. Can be done, so we gotta do it.” He scratched the bridge of his nose. “Sometimes politics are a mess.”

  Kerry almost laughed. “I think my mother agrees with you.”

  “When I demo this for the senators, I’ll skew it to show how the automatic processing works rather than have them ask questions of it,” Dar said. “How it finds connections. I think that’s less intimidating.”

  “Mike was right on that,” the president said in a rueful tone. “I shoulda kept my yap shut. One of them poked the bear one too many times about us not knowing enough to stop those planes and I told ‘em we had something to make that up now.”

  “I remember when it happened, right after, everyone was so angry and...I guess embarrassed.” Kerry said. “I remember thinking, how could we let this happen.”

  Bush was staring past her. “Just be glad you weren’t sitting in my chair,” he said, then he straightened back up and clapped his hands together. “But that’s water under the bridge, right? How about some coffee, ladies? ‘Bout that time of day.”

  “That would be great,” Kerry said. “We didn’t get any sleep last night trying to fix that problem. It’s been a long day.”

  The president got up and picked up a phone, which connected without him having to dial. “Hey, get me a tray with some coffee and some cookies in here, willya? For all of us? Thanks.” He put the phone down. “Now, we got a minute here, tell me about that whole thing with the press. What’s up with all
that?”

  Dar and Kerry exchanged glances. “It’s a long story,” Kerry said.

  “Hey, I like stories.” He sat back down. “Specially when they’re being told by good looking women. Have at it.”

  “THAT WAS WEIRD.” Kerry smiled politely at the guards as they left the office.

  Dar eyed her. “Given what we’ve gone through in the last few hours, I don’t know what part of that you’re referring to.”

  “Yes,” Kerry had to admit. “This is one of the stranger days I can recall.”

  They were being led down the hall by an aide. Dar finally took her phone out of her pocket and looked at it. “Ten missed calls. Glad this thing has a silencer.”

  Kerry checked hers. “Yep.” She thumbed through the numbers. “Here’s Richard. I better call him back once we’re outside.”

  “Did you know you used to be able to listen to analog cell phones by tuning in a radio scanner?” Dar asked, as she put the phone away. “They were radio transmissions in the clear.”

  “You know this personally?”

  “Yep.”

  Kerry digested that as they left the building and started down the sidewalk to the parking lot side by side.

  “Roberts.”

  They turned to find Briggs jogging after them. He waved them forward. “Let me walk you ladies to your car.”

  “‘Bout to get weirder,” Kerry muttered as they cleared the gate. “I can just tell.”

  CECI TOOK A seat in the little garden, while Andy collected the dog toys and started tossing them. She regarded the girl sitting uncomfortably in the other chair. “You know we talked to your father.”

  She nodded, relaxing visibly. “Yeah he told me. I got really pissed off at him. I was so mad. He told me he was going to get them out of here, and you know that’s not fair.”

  “No, it isn’t,” Ceci agreed. “That wasn’t a nice way to pay Dar back for a good deed she did.”

  “I told him that it was so cool for her to come in and get in this guy’s face and he should be thankful, you know? Not get all mean with her.” Kristie looked around, then back at Ceci. “But he didn’t get that. He thought maybe she did it just to get in with me.”