Moving Target

by Melissa Good

  Dar opened the back door for Chino, then wandered over and started messing with the coffee machine. "Know what I want?"

  Kerry closed her eyes and put one finger against her forehead. "Uhmm...scrambled eggs on cinnamon toast?" She opened the refrigerator and started removing objects from it. "Am I close?"

  "Heh." Her partner snorted. "That, and you, but what I was going to say is that I want one of those spiffy automatic coffee makers we saw at the trade show. The one with the little cartridges?" Dar held her thumb and finger up about two inches apart.

  "The one cup thing with all the choices?" Kerry asked. "Ooo, yeah, that had good coffee. Can we get it plumbed in here? What about one for the cabin? Do they come in colors?"

  Dar started chuckling, as she pressed the button to start the coffee brewing. "I'll check."

  "I think a blue one for here, and a green one for the cabin would be cool." Kerry set out a handful of eggs, and retrieved her favorite grill pan from the hanging rack just over the stove. "Grab me some OJ?"

  "Sure." Dar opened the door and got out the juice, setting it on the counter and retrieving two glasses from the cupboard. Her shoulder bumped the LCD screen mounted to the cabinet, and she glanced up at it as it turned on and blinked at her.

  Nothing was on the screen, so she nudged it aside and poured the juice, handing Kerry hers and leaning against the counter to consume her own.

  Orange juice was all right she decided as she watched Kerry neatly crack the eggs. Apple juice was better, and she really preferred white grape juice, but both were too sweet for Kerry's tastes in the morning, so she accepted the orange beverage as well.

  Life was full of compromises. Kerry got up early on weekends to make her breakfast, she had orange juice, they both took a step toward the middle and each other and, maybe in the process, discovered what had been hard and fast rules really weren't.

  Maybe that was why she was now willing to let this one go. Dar pondered the thought. Let this bid go, and just recoup what she could instead of going after Quest and moving heaven and earth to get him-- to stop him--to make him pay--for playing her for a fool.

  "Honey?" Kerry glanced over. "Stop making bubbles in your juice. It sounds weird."

  "Sorry." Dar finished the beverage and set the glass down. "Why don't I...whoops." A blinking light on the screen had caught her attention. "Huh, he hasn't done that in a while." She reached over and clicked the light, since they'd turned off the voice commands to keep the system from responding whenever they talked to each other. "Alastair."

  "Oh?"

  The picture box opened revealing Alastair's face. He was in his home office, she was surprised to note, and then she realized it was Saturday in Houston as well as in Miami. "Morning, Alastair."

  "Morning Dar!"

  "Hi, Alastair." Kerry called out, keeping her attention on her frying pan. "I owe you a bottle of something very expensive."

  "Ah." Alastair peered around, not able to see Kerry who was out of camera shot. "Well, thanks, Kerry. Did I do something to deserve it?"

  "Yes." Kerry responded, but didn't go further.

  Dar realized Alastair didn't, in fact, know that they knew what he'd said the day before. "You probably don't know it, but your conversation with Mr. Meyer yesterday was being broadcast to an audience of hundreds." She told him. "Including Kerry and myself."

  Alastair blinked, then turned a bit red. "Ah. Well." He cleared his throat. "Y'know, I thought about that after, and Dar, I hope you didn't think I meant you were an idiot when I..."

  Dar chuckled and waved a hand. "Thanks for standing by us, Alastair." She overrode him. "Made my day."

  "Ahah. Yes, well." He seemed abashed. "Well, the fellow was a stinker, you know, Dar? Made my hackles go from the start, and he got me at a bad time."

  "Meeting?" Dar hazarded.

  "Eh? No."Alastair said. "Caught my thumb in the car door."

  "Ow. Sorry."

  Alastair went silent for a moment, apparently absorbing the last bit of news. "Thought you might call me last night to give the scoop," he said, casually.

  Now it was Dar's turn to feel abashed. "Yeah, sorry." She muttered. "We got home late."

  "Yes? So what happened?" Alastair asked. "Been on my mind all night."

  Oh. Ugh. Dar took a seat on one of the stools and hooked her feet on the rungs. "Well, nothing good, to be honest," she admitted. "After you blew off Meyer, I found out he'd staged the whole damn thing and everyone and their grandfather was watching it outside the office we were in."

  "Tch."

  "So then Quest showed up."

  "He's quite an interesting fellow." Alastair remarked. "Did you know his father was a ringmaster in the circus?"

  Kerry snorted softly. "Well, now doesn't that explain a few things."

  "Eh?"

  "How did you know that, Alastair?" Dar asked. "You know this guy?"

  "Believe it or not, the wife does." He admitted. "Fifth cousin's third uncle's stepson or something like that. Called me up once and asked me to give him a job--had no skills, no prospects. I had to turn him down, unfortunately." He added. "Realized it was the same chap just the other day."

  Kerry turned her head and looked at Dar.

  "Interesting," Dar said. "Well, he showed up, we told him we were all finished, and the bastard took off and ran."

  "Eh?'

  Dar clasped her hands between her knees and looked at her boss. "He took his ships, and left. Apparently he was the one scamming all of us, including Meyer. He did it to get the upgrades. He's selling the damn things to some hotel consortium over in the EU."

  Alastair's jaw dropped. Literally.

  Kerry peeked around into camera range. "That was kind of how we felt, too."

  "Buh." Alastair spluttered. "Good god, Dar! He took us? For all that?"

  Dar nodded.

  "And we...you...we...just let him go?"

  Dar's brows quirked. "Alastair, I love the company, and you, but standing in the way of a forty thousand ton ship ain't my idea of how to go."

  "B--"

  "We're going to track them down over in Europe." Kerry cut in. "I'm sure legal can do something."

  "All the good that'll do. Jesus, it'll cost twice what we spent." his voice trailed off. "My god."

  "Everyone was in the same boat." Dar muttered. "He just scammed us, Alastair. I knew it was some kind of rig, but one inside another one..." She ended up just shrugging uncomfortably.

  "Well, I'll be a son of a bitch," Alastair finally said, after staring at her in silence for a few seconds. "I'll be a son of a bitch." He seemed at a loss. "Ah, well. You know the funny thing there, Dar? That Meyer fellow called me back last night and didn't say boo about all that!"

  Kerry finished the eggs and scooted them neatly onto the pieces of toast she had ready. "Jerk." She muttered under her breath. "Wonder what he wanted?"

  "Really?" Dar shifted, leaning back against the counter.

  Alastair now seemed a touch embarrassed. "He apologized, you know. Said he'd been under some horrible pressure, you know the story."

  "Uh huh."

  Alastair watched her face as though judging something. "Say, listen, Dar."

  "Here it comes." But Dar half smiled, a touch of wryness in her expression. "What did he want, Alastair?"

  Kerry picked up a piece of toast and walked over, handing it to Dar as she leaned on the counter next to her and moved into camera range.

  "Ah." Alastair glanced at her. "Well, listen, he told me he's going to try to salvage something out of this whole mess, and I guess we all are, huh?"

  "Mm." Dar grunted.

  "So he wants to do a little wrap up with you, and the rest of those fellows, just to see what they can come up with," he said. "And hey, he did say you'd scooped 'em. Be good for us, huh?"

  Ugh. "I don't want to give him a damn thing," Dar said.

  "Well, Dar..."

  "Did you tell him I'd do it?"

  "Me?"Alastair pointed at his own chest
. "Lady, were you not listening to that phone call? I gave up trying to tell you to do things ten years ago. I just...well, I just told him I'd ask, that's all."

  "He's a skunk, Alastair." Kerry chimed in.

  Dar glowered at the camera.

  "Be some kind of offset, y'know, when I have to tell the board about this fiasco." Her boss reminded her, gently. "Not gonna be fun, Dar."

  No. That was true enough. "I know," Dar said. "And I wish I could tell you I have a magic answer to how we're going to recoup that money, but honestly, Alastair, I can't."

  "Ah."

  Damn it. Dar sighed. "Guess some good publicity won't hurt." She conceded. "I'll try to come off as intelligent as possible given I was taken in just like the rest of them were."

  Alastair looked marginally happier. "Well, good decision, Dar. And hey... I'm sure we'll come up with something to tell the board won't we?" He gave her a wry look. "He's going to call you tomorrow. See what you can get out of it, huh?"

  "Okay." Dar conceded. "Do my best."

  "Always do, Dar. Always do." Alastair gave her a more sympathetic look. "You two have a great day, huh?"

  "You too, Alastair." Kerry said. "Sorry we couldn't make it come out better."

  Alastair waved a hand at them then the picture went off, leaving the kitchen in silence. Dar sighed, and started chewing on her egg sandwich. "Wasn't as bad as I expected," she said.

  The nonchalance didn't fool Kerry a bit. She gave her partner a one armed hug, and a kiss on the cheek. "We'll make it look good. After all, we did save all their butts, didn't we?"

  "Bah."

  Kerry gave her another, longer hug.

  DAR LAY SPRAWLED across the couch, reading a diving magazine. She usually enjoyed them, glad of a chance to kick back and read about someone else's obsession.

  In fact, they usually gave her ideas for vacations. She'd pondered asking Kerry if she wanted to do a live aboard dive cruise in some exotic place. Fiji, maybe. Or Palau. It was one more in a list of things she wanted to do with Kerry. She'd come to realize that at some level her growing dissatisfaction with work was related to her resenting their not being able to go and do stuff like that.

  Dar flipped the page, and gazed at an inquisitive seal, caught in mid-bark. She'd always wanted to dive with animals, but somehow her trips over to the other coast had never seemed to have enough extra time for that.

  A soft sound made her look up and over at Kerry, who was draped over the loveseat doing absolutely nothing but relaxing. She had her hands folded over her stomach, and her eyes closed. She appeared supremely content to be doing nothing more than occupying a comfortable spot near enough to Dar for her to touch if she reached out.

  Dar reached out and stroked Kerry's hair with her fingertips.

  A green pupil appeared and peered curiously at her. "Susan B. Anthony dollar for your thoughts?" Kerry said. "Magazine boring?"

  Dar lifted one shoulder expressively. "My head's just wandering," she said. "I keep reading the same paragraph over and over again. I'm over it."

  Kerry flopped over onto her side so she could see Dar better. "Something bothering you?"

  Dar didn't answer.

  Kerry waited, her head resting on the loveseat arm as she reached down and gave Chino's head a pat. She already knew the answer, and in fact, she was pretty sure she knew the answer behind the answer, because she was bothered by it too.

  "Pah." Dar set the magazine down. "I'm gonna go take Chino for a walk."

  Chino jumped up and came over to her, tail wagging as she recognized the word. She nudged Dar's knees as she stood, and followed her to the door, then out and down the steps as they left the condo.

  Kerry considered joining them, but then reconsidered, reckoning that her partner needed a little space. Dar usually signaled that pretty clearly, and usually it took the form of her going out onto the beach to wander a little by herself.

  In the early days of their relationship that would have intimidated Kerry a little. Even later on, she'd felt a sense of apprehension when Dar had taken up one of her funks, and it had taken her a long time before she'd come to understand that when it happened, it wasn't that Dar was mad at her.

  Most often, Dar was mad at Dar, and she knew if Kerry was around, she couldn't be mad at herself for long because Kerry would nibble away at her mood until it evaporated. Sometimes, Dar just needed to stew a little, and when she was ready to be humored, she'd show back up and find a spot somewhere near Kerry.

  So Kerry decided to stay where she was, and picked up Dar's discarded diving magazine and began to flip through it. "Oo." She murmured. "Palau. Man look at those fish." She read the article with more than a touch of envy. "How in the heck do these people all take off weeks and weeks to go out on those boats? Don't they work?"

  It wasn't as though the people in the picture were retired vacationers, either. They were all around her age. "Hmph." She shook her head and turned the page. "Man, I wish we could do that. For like two or three weeks, just go out there and see everything. That would be so cool."

  So why didn't they? An internal voice asked. "Because we both work for the same place, and we can't be gone at the same time." Kerry lectured herself absently. "And you know, that's really getting to be major suckage."

  She turned another page, and absorbed an ad for a new kind of wetsuit. It was cool looking, and Kerry tried to imagine herself wearing it. "Hm."

  They didn't wear wetsuits much, but as she'd noted in Disney World, they did have the advantage of making you look sort of sexy in a Sea Hunt kind of way. Maybe she'd get one of these for the night dives they did off the back of their boat on long summer nights.

  Kerry flipped the page back and studied the dive charter again. Okay, so the people in it got away for three weeks. Her lips twitched. She could do it anytime, and had a custom yacht to do it with. What was the whining for again?

  Sometimes it was easy to fall into the trap of that whole greener pastures thing, and you lost sight of the lawn you were sitting on.

  Kerry put the magazine down and closed her eyes again, letting her thoughts continue to wander. It felt like she had a lot of extra fragments in her head, making it difficult to concentrate on anything and rather than strain to pay attention, she just chucked it all instead.

  DAR WALKED DOWN to the east end of the island, where there was a small spit of land that jutted out. She sat down on a patch of sand, curling her toes into the grainy warmth as she gazed out over the sea.

  Chino trotted over and deposited a turtle on her foot. She sat down and looked expectantly at Dar, who made a grab for the animal as it scrabbled upside down, its tiny feet waving in the air. "Hey, Chino. That's not a toy."

  "Growf." Chino nosed the turtle, obviously hoping Dar would toss it for her to retrieve.

  "C'mon." Dar examined the creature and found it unhurt. It was a fresh water one, though, so she knew it hadn't swum up out of the nearby Atlantic Ocean. "Were you someone's pet?" She asked it. "I had a turtle just like you once."

  Chino sniffed at the turtle, which pulled its head in.

  "He doesn't like you, Chi." Dar smiled. "I don't think Brownie would have liked you either. She hated cats."

  Carefully, Dar put the turtle down under a piece of driftwood. She had no idea if the animal could survive out on the beach, but she wasn't sure he'd survive if she took him home, either.

  This bit of business taken care of she returned her eyes to the sea, one hand absently scratching Chino's neck. She wondered where the ships were by now, probably many miles out to sea. Were the crews partying?

  Had Quest told them what their fate was?

  Were they all laughing at the four companies they'd duped, and left back in Miami?

  Had the Captain, whom Dar had taken a liking to, thrown Shari overboard yet?

  So many questions.

  So many open issues.

  That's what was really bothering her, Dar realized. Well, that and the fact that she'd been made to look like a
bloody idiot in front of her boss, her partner, and god knows how many other people.

  She fished a shell out of the sand and examined its cracked, ridged edge. It had a dry feeling from the salt and the sand dust and she smelled it, detecting the faint, buttery scent she remembered well from her childhood.

  She had, briefly, collected shells. They were interesting, and she'd spent hours finning up and down the beach shoreline, half in and half out of the surf as the sea alternately tugged and pushed her, teaching her the rhythm of its heartbeat.

  Most of her friends had no use for them. Her father had no use for them, except for the mahogany olive she'd found once--an old soldier of the sea that he'd taken from her and kept in his uniform pocket for god only knew how many years.

  After a while, she'd been at a loss as to what to do with them, so on a whim one morning, she'd gathered them all up--all their colors and varied shapes--and presented them to her mother as a gift, suspecting she'd quietly eject them into a hole in the backyard at the very first opportunity.

  To her bemusement, Ceci had absolutely loved them. The textures and patterns had really captured her artist's eye and she'd spent hours arranging and studying them on mats in the little corner she'd set up for a painting studio.

  Confused the hell out of Dar, but it was the best reaction she'd ever gotten from a gift, so she wasn't about to question it.

  People surprised you sometimes. Shari had surprised her, and after that experience Dar had tried very hard not to let anyone surprise her ever again.

  Kerry sometimes did, but that was okay. Kerry only surprised her in good ways. She'd never yet surprised her in a bad way even when she herself thought she might be, like with the tattoo.

  Dar sighed, and rested her chin on her forearm. The one thing Shari had accused her of that she knew hit home with a vengeance was the fact that she never gave in. She always had to win--always had to pull one out of her hat.

  She could never take losing. Wasn't that what Shari had said? She couldn't take it because that would prove she was just another loser like all the rest of her friends.