Red Sky at Morning

Chapter

Six

THUNDER ROLLED SULLENLY in over the ocean, lightning flashes outlining the whitecaps that scurried up the beach and ruffled the water’s dark surface.

Most of the island was still dark, the condos squatting on the edge of the land silent and brooding, their windows blank and featureless in the predawn hours.

From one outward facing window, however, a faint light poured.

Anyone insane enough to be walking out along the beach in the storm would have seen a profile outlined in it as someone stood inside the dry, safe building watching the surge of the waves.

“Wow.” Kerry leaned against the counter, feeling the cool surface through the thin cotton of her T-shirt. “Glad I’m not out there.” She turned her head as the toaster released four slices of fragrant cinnamon raisin toast. “Ah.” A moment later the toast was resting on plates and she was spreading softened butter over it. They were so used to waking up early that even today, when their usual morning run was out of the question, they both were up and rambling around the condo.

Dar was in her study catching up on mail, and Kerry set the plates of toast and scrambled eggs, along with two glasses of orange juice and coffee, onto a tray before heading in that direction. For a moment she paused in the doorway to watch her lover, hard at work behind her desk, before she continued on and set the tray down on the small table nearby. “Anything catastrophic?”

“Hmm?” Dar looked up, her face outlined in luridly ghostly phosphor light. “I got a compliment on you from Intratech. Whatever you did with BellSouth yesterday got them back up and running.”

“Really?” Kerry looked pleased. She set the plate of toast and eggs down, then handed Dar her orange juice. “Bottoms up.”

Dar took the glass and leaned back, hitching her knee up to rest against the desk’s edge as she sipped at the brightly colored beverage.

“Nasty out there, eh?”

Kerry took a seat on the couch and tucked her legs up under her, leaning on the broad padded arm as she selected a slice of toast and nibbled on it. “Very. I hope it calms down before we have to get out of here.”

98 Melissa Good Dar looked thoughtfully at the window as a lightning strike hit somewhere close, causing a wicked cracking sound. She picked up the phone on her desk and dialed a number, listening for several seconds before it was answered. “Morning, John. This is Dar Roberts. How’s it looking?” She cocked her head as the lightly accented voice answered, then grunted. “That’s what I thought. Thanks.” She hung up and eyed Kerry. “Ferry’s not operating.”

“Oh, gosh. You mean we’re stuck here?” Kerry asked ingenuously.

“I’m devastated.”

Dar smiled. “I can see that. I’m not sure the company would feel the same way, though.” She gazed at her inbox. “I can just imagine what yours looks like if I’ve got three pages.”

“Eek.” Kerry got up and circled the desk to peer at Dar’s screen.

“Well, some of those are from yesterday, Dar. I cleared my box before I left work last night.” She scanned the headers. “Some of them are duplicates of mine, too, I can tell you what h— Dar?” Teeth were nibbling on her hip, and she glanced down to see mischievous blue eyes peeking up at her. “Do you give a poo about the mail?”

“No,” Dar responded cheerfully. “I just wanted you to come over here,” she chuckled. “It’s not like either of us can do anything about the weather, Ker.”

Kerry leaned over and kissed Dar’s head. “That’s true. I’ll call Ops, though. We might have staffing issues if people can’t get to work, and I think I just heard they’ve got power outages in the southwest.” She felt Dar’s arm circle her leg. “Hey, after that, maybe we can go car shopping.”

One of Dar’s arms moved, and her hand curled around her mouse, clicking on a closed window and opening it. “Funny you should say that.” The new window revealed the Lexus website, snazzy and sleek looking with various models of the automaker’s wares appearing and disappearing. “Look what I found.”

“Ooh.” Kerry nudged her. “Move back so I can sit down.”

Obligingly, Dar scooted back in the huge leather chair and gave Kerry room to perch on the edge of it, wrapping herself around her lover’s body and peering over her shoulder as she took possession of the mouse. “It’s pretty cool. You can choose your model, pick a color, tell it what you want inside, and send an order to the nearest dealership.” She paused. “And get it delivered.”

A grin split Kerry’s face as she pointed and clicked. “Now this is my idea of car shopping.” She nodded in approval. “There we are...the little SUV.”

“It’s cute,” Dar commented. “Like you.”

Kerry paused, and glanced over her shoulder so they were nose to nose. “Thank you. I’m glad we’re not mentioning the Hummer this morning.”

Dar’s nose twitched, and then wrinkled up into a grin. “They don’t Red Sky At Morning 99

have as neat a website.”

Kerry bit her playfully, then returned her attention to the screen.

“Let’s see...pick a color first. Hmm.” She scrolled through the possibilities. “Crimson, green, blue, black, white, silver, or gold. What do you think, Dar? The black is kinda snazzy.”

“Not in Florida. I’m not into poached partner,” Dar remarked. “Go light.”

“Okay.” Kerry clicked. “How about white?”

“Not living out here. You’d be washing it every day.”

Kerry eyed her. “Is this why you ended up with that gold color?”

She resumed clicking. “Oh, I like the blue, Dar. I don’t care if it’s dark.

I’ve got a dark car now, and it’s not so bad.” She admired her choice.

“Yeah, I like that.”

“Hmm.” Dar cocked her head.

“Now, what’s next... Ah, interior.” Kerry reviewed her choices.

“Oh, leather, definitely.” She selected it. “I’ve really gotten into this stuff since I’ve met you.”

One of Dar’s eyebrows lifted sharply. “Me? Why?”

“Leather car seats, leather couches, that leather vest, those leather boots you got me,” Kerry murmured. “I have nightmares of being visited by PETA sometimes and having to escape out the back.” She clicked on the added options. “Hmm...what do we have here? Heated seats? No thanks.”

Dar was still snickering over her comments. “I never thought about that. I just like the feel of leather, especially in stuff I’ve gotta sit on.”

Kerry laughed softly. “Me, too.” She paused and gave her lover an assessing look. “Hmm. Could I talk you into a pair of leather pants?”

“Sure.” Dar settled both arms around Kerry. “As long as you wear them,” she amended quickly, hearing the chortle. “I had a pair, long time back. I only wore them once.”

Kerry paused, and turned again. “Once?”

Dar nodded. “They squeak,” she explained. “I scared the crap out of myself every time I moved.” She felt Kerry start to laugh and she held on as her lover dissolved into helpless chuckles. “Ahem. Weren’t we discussing heated seats?”

“Mine’s plenty warm.” Kerry gave her a sultry, over-the-shoulder smirk. “Oh, you mean for the car. Right.” She returned her attention to the screen. “CD player, check. Sunroof, check. Four wheel drive, check.

Extra electrical package, check.”

“It’ll be nice when they do integrated satellite cellular,” Dar commented. “And put in a laptop mount.” She peered over Kerry’s shoulder. “Air bags and ABS? Good.”

“Yep.” Kerry reviewed her selections, then had the website provide her with a three-dimensional view. “Looks good. I like it.” She investigated further. “Lease, you think? Yeah. Okay, here we go.” She sent in her request and added a digital wallet and signature with her 100 Melissa Good personal information. “Oh yeah, I like this, Dar. Much more fun than getting a car the old-fashioned way.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Dar freed a hand and took a swallow of coffee.

“It’s sort of exciting to go to the dealership...in a sleazy, carnival kinda way.” She chewed on her toast. “I remember the first new car I got. I’d been saving up for months, and I just decided to go one night, and not tell my parents.”

“Oh boy.” Kerry took a bite of the toast held so invitingly nearby.

“What’d you get?”

“I traded in an eighty-five Malibu.” Dar smiled in memory. “It was paid off, so that, plus the down payment I had, pretty much guaranteed me just about anything I wanted on the lot. I felt like a kid in a toy store.”

Kerry pulled the plate over and started sharing forkfuls of eggs with Dar. “Uh-huh.”

“I looked at little ones, big ones, musta driven that salesman nuts,”

the dark-haired woman said. “It was such a weird feeling. I finally narrowed it down to a choice between this little sports car number that was really cute and a pickup truck.”

“A pickup truck?” Kerry fed her some eggs.

“Mm. I was such a little redneck,” Dar admitted. “Besides, Daddy had a pickup truck.” She leaned back and drained her juice glass. “So I ended up with a charcoal gray pickup with racing stripes and a roll bar.”

“And fuzzy dice?” Kerry muffled a smile. “Hey, don’t give me that look. I used to have a pair of trolls hanging from my rearview mirror. I had to settle for something a lot more conservative, though. My parents allocated cars to us every year, whatever manufacturer was trying to woo my father.” She got up and retrieved her own coffee, standing before the window and gazing out. “The first time I got to pick my own car was when I moved down here.” A smile crossed her face. “I was so damn sick of teak panels and snooty hood ornaments. I remember passing by a Ford dealership and seeing the new Mustangs, and boy...I was right there.” She laughed. “Vroom vroom...a convertible muscle car. Damn, that felt good to drive off the lot in.” Kerry sighed. “I felt like such a rebel. My parents almost had a heart attack when I told them.” She turned and looked at Dar. “How did your folks react?”

Dar grinned. “Well, it was one of the few decisions I’d made that we all agreed on,” she related. “It was an extended cab, with space in the back for Mom, so I became the official driver in the family. Dad loved the truck, and Mom loved not having him drive, so for once, we were all on the same page.”

Kerry tried to imagine what it would have been like to have had that kind of relationship with her parents. She couldn’t do it. Her mother had been horrified when she’d told her about the Mustang, and her father had told her in no uncertain terms that the car would be left Red Sky At Morning 101

behind when she came home from Miami. Thoughtfully, Kerry wondered if it was at that moment she’d decided she wasn’t ever going back. Certainly she’d gone a little over the line after that, staying out and breaking all the rules she’d lived under for such a long time.

She’d actually been lucky, now that she looked back on that wild period. She could have gotten herself into a lot of real trouble and not just ended up suffering a few hangovers and barely remembered near misses, the last of which had scared her so badly it finally knocked some sense into her. She’d been more careful after that, but she was still aware of that potential wild side, something she doubted she wanted Dar to ever see.

“Well. I’m going to go work on my inbox, so I don’t feel completely guilty about being trapped here in my underwear with you.” She winked at Dar. “Come visit me?”

Dar responded with a frank grin, visible in Kerry’s mind’s eye as she left the study and headed upstairs with Chino trotting at her heels.

“JESUS.” KERRY TUGGED her hood closer and bolted for the front door of ILS, crossing from the drenched air into the climate-controlled lobby with a sense of being slapped in the face with the chill. As she hit the tile, she lost her footing and slid, yanked to a halt by the frantic grip of the security guard as she passed the station. “Whoa! Thanks.”

“No problem, Ms. Stuart.” The guard patted her arm. “Careful there; it’s the Lord’s own rivers raining out there.”

“No kidding.” Kerry shook herself, scattering droplets of water over the tile, which she correctly assumed would be easier to clean than the carpet upstairs. “Much more of this, and we’ll have to close the parking lot. The water’s up to some hubcaps out there.” She turned, getting a brief glimpse of Dar’s taillights as she turned out of the lot and headed south. “Hope Dar doesn’t run into trouble driving.” She glanced at her watch and sighed, turning to walk across the cold lobby toward the elevators. The rain had let up a little, the winds abated just enough to allow the ferry to commence operation, and they’d reluctantly decided that playing hooky from work the week after they’d both been gone for days was probably not the best idea in the world.

Rats. Kerry punched the elevator button and waited. It wasn’t that she didn’t like her job; she did. The door opened and she entered, turning and hitting the button for the fourteenth floor. She just liked spending time with Dar more, that was all.

“Morning, Ms. Kerry.” The doors had opened at the tenth floor, and Brent edged on behind a rubber-wheeled AV cart.

“Morning, Brent,” Kerry replied politely. Brent had been avoiding her for a few months, since the night he’d found out about her and Dar’s relationship. She suspected he didn’t approve of her lifestyle, and she felt a little sad about that, since she’d developed a fondness for the 102 Melissa Good young tech. “Who’s that for?”

Brent had been staring intently at the wall, and now he glanced briefly at her. “Requisition 23343, ma’am.” He returned his eyes to the wall.

“Well,” Kerry exhaled, “I hope the requisition enjoys it.” The doors opened and she held them while Brent moved the cart off the elevator.

“Did the equipment for Accounting come in?”

“I don’t know, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.” Brent turned and wheeled his cart away, keeping his head down as he walked.

Kerry made a mental note to talk to Mark about his tech, then headed for her office. She heard raised voices halfway down the hall and raked a hand through her still-damp hair as she readied herself for another fractious day.

THE CAMP WAS positively gray when Dar got there. The heavy rain had turned the ground into a slough of sheeting ripples of water, broken by heavily rutted areas of mud where marching recruits and multi-ton vehicles had passed.

The guard didn’t even blink at her this time, he just waved her through; and she navigated the puddles cautiously as she made her way into the main parking lot. “What a mess.” She regarded the steady rain with a critical eye, glad she’d brought her all-weather gear. She pulled up her hood and fastened the front clasps, then opened the door and slid out, her booted feet sending a respectable splash out in all directions. “Glad I remembered these, too.” She closed the door and started toward the command building, ripples moving away from her toward the edge of the lot as she walked.

The Marine beside the door opened it as she approached, and she gave him a nod as she went inside the building, taking in a breath of the brass-scented air with a renewed twinge of nostalgia. She took the stairs up two at a time and walked briskly through the upper hall entrance, turning right and crashing headlong into Chief Daniel, who had been headed just as quickly in the other direction.

Dar hopped back a step, reaching out in pure instinct as the chief bounced off her and slammed against the wall. “Hey. Sorry about that.”

The chief ripped her arm out of Dar’s grasp and glared at her. “You really should watch where you’re going, ma’am.”

“Well, I would, but my eyeballs don’t extend out on stalks and reach around corners,” Dar replied. “And I left my handheld radar at home. So, either accept my apology, or just get the hell out of my way.”

The chief wrestled her best stiff upper lip into position and dusted herself off. “We didn’t expect to see you here today.”

“I bet.” Dar smiled engagingly at her. “We left off at Battle Operations yesterday, didn’t we?”

The chief’s jaw jerked and her lips twitched, but she merely extended Red Sky At Morning 103

a hand in the direction she’d been originally going. “After you.”

They passed through the halls, going through offices, then the chief turned and went through a door into a stairwell. “It’s on the top floor,”

she informed Dar with a brief smile. “We don’t have elevators.” The chief started up the stairs without further words, and Dar shook her head and rolled her eyes before she followed.

The six flights served to give her a nice little workout, and she was in a better mood by the time she beat the chief to the door at the top of the stairs and pulled it open, sweeping her arm forward in a courtly flourish. “After you.”

The chief eyed her narrowly, then sighed and walked past into the hall.

Dar undid the catches on her trench coat and let the edges flap free as she strode down the center of the woven carpet floor. On either side of her, the walls were lined with bulletin boards, and this area had the look of a working space. It was more Spartan than the floors below, and she could just detect the scent of sweat and old wool on the air. The boards held notices of classes and rotations; she caught glimpses of platoon names and the personnel assigned to them, uniformly typewritten with a first initial and surname. She smiled at a brief memory of when she was very young, running up here and searching for her father’s name, hoping against hope he’d been assigned to a base unit and not a ship for the next six months.

She’d usually been disappointed. But every once in a while, there’d been a break, and she’d gone back home in giddy high spirits, looking forward to six months of piggyback rides and Saturday morning games in the backyard.

“Ms. Roberts.”

The chief’s voice broke into her memories and she looked up to face the sailor’s dour expression. “Yes?”

“I don’t care what you think about what you see in here, do not voice your opinion in front of the recruits or my sailors.” The ginger-haired woman’s jaw moved. “Is that clear?”

Dar let her wonder what her response was going to be for a few seconds. “Agreed,” she finally replied. “Even if it’s a good opinion.”

She met the chief’s eyes steadily. “Let’s go.”

They passed through the doors and entered into another world.

Here, the quiet hallways were left behind, and a bustle of activity surrounded them, consisting chiefly of moving bodies in blue denim with serious faces. To one side, a small group of recruits was getting bawled out, their bodies stiffened against the tirade and their eyes strictly to the front. To their left, a row of closed gray painted doors with rubber seals on them called to mind the watertight doors on a ship and, Dar knew, enclosed simulators.

They kept walking, past the open doors of a large open room where a class in hand-to-hand was being taught, the hoarse yells and dull 104 Melissa Good splats of bodies hitting the floor distinctive in the air.

“Chief!” a male voice hollered from just in front of them. A young man with bright-red hair was leaning half out a doorway and gesturing to Dar’s reluctant guide. “That damn sim program’s down again!”

“Wait here,” the chief ordered, heading in that direction.

Dar ignored the order, following the sailor with a look of mild amusement.

Chief Daniel stopped and turned. “Don’t you ever do what you’re told, Ms. Roberts?”

“No.” Dar walked past her and ducked around the redheaded sailor. “One of the major reasons I never joined the Navy.” She evaded a hurrying tech carrying a piece of hardware and let a brief grin cross her face. “This place hasn’t changed.” Three men were gathered around a computer console, and as she watched, one reared back and slapped the side of it in frustration. She walked up behind them and peered over their shoulders as the chief hurried up on the other side. Lines of code were scrolling across the screen, and Dar studied them, head cocked just slightly to one side, blue eyes intent.

“What’s the problem?” The chief pushed one of the sailors out of the way and sat down, punching buttons rapidly. “Did you reset it?”

“Twice,” the displaced sailor told her. “Stupid thing keeps going out. Piece of crap.”

The chief managed to get the display to steady, and she started a reset of the equipment. “Is there anyone in this thing? I don’t want to cycle it if I’m gonna douse a furkin’ admiral or something.”

“No. It’s empty.” The sailor glanced over the equipment into the simulator through a one-way mirrored window. “We took the class out the second time it dumped and told ’em to dry off.”

“All right. Let me just...” the chief muttered.

“Hold it.” Dar’s voice cut through the crowd suddenly. She moved the sailor in front of her aside and leaned over the chief, ignoring the look of outrage. “Move.”

“Ma’am, now you just—”

Dar’s tone deepened and went cold, snapping with an authority they hadn’t heard from her yet. “I said move!”

Purely by instinct, the chief obeyed, sliding out of the chair as Dar dropped into it, her eyes on the screen as her fingers sped over the keys with practiced sureness.

“What are you doing?” the chief demanded.

Dar didn’t answer. She was too busy wracking her brain for codes and logic as she called up the simulator’s program and studied it, her brows knitting tightly as she searched the lines of green letters and symbols.

“Ms. Roberts, what are you doing!” the chief yelled, almost into Dar’s ear. “You do not have the authority to be touching this equipment.”

Red Sky At Morning 105

Dar called up another screen. “Someone’s altered the program.”

She moved the system into an editing mode and started to make changes. “Someone who didn’t have half a damn clue as to what the hell they were doing.”

The chief’s eyes almost came out of her head. “Hold it. I said, hold, ma’am. That is a state-of-the-art system and you can’t just—”

“Sure I can.” Dar’s hands moved in a blur. “State of the art? Gimme a break, Chief. Figures the Navy’d still be using a system prototype designed by a half-baked sixteen-year-old code jockey with an affinity for COBOL.” She made a last change, then saved and recompiled the program. “There.” She reset the system with a set of keystrokes and watched as it reinitialized. She was rewarded with a steady login screen and a slate of green lights, which flickered across the top of the machine with a set of satisfied clicks. “Hoo yah,” Dar muttered softly, for the first time in a very, very long time. She got startled looks from the sailors, but she ignored them as she stood up and relinquished the terminal. “All yours.”

“Ms. Roberts,” the chief’s voice was very cold, “a word with you over there, please.” She turned and walked into the nearest simulator and waited for Dar to follow her, then she shut the door and spun the wheel, locking them both inside.

IT WAS AN engine room, Dar realized as the door slammed shut and she felt the air compress around her. Her pulse jumped and she went still, grabbing hold of the sudden panic that gripped her guts.

“Was that necessary?”

The chief studied her intently for a moment. “Who in the hell do you think you are?” she barked, advancing on Dar and making the small space even smaller. “I thought I told you to keep your mouth shut in there!”

Dar felt her temper rising. “Back off, Chief,” she warned, edging away from the angry woman.

“I most certainly will not back off.” Daniel poked her sharply. “I’ve about had it up to here with you, Roberts, and I am not going to put up with one more minute of your kiss-my-ass attitude!” Her voice got louder, ringing off the metal floor and walls as she backed Dar against the wall.

The room closed in on Dar, and a wash of blood and energy swept over her, warming her skin with startling rapidity. “Back off!” she repeated, the pitch of her voice dropping.

“You listen to me! You either decide to keep your damn mouth shut,” Chief Daniel forged on, “or I’ll—”

She never really saw it coming. One moment her civilian victim was pressed against the wall, the next moment the chief was on the ground, her skull ringing with the contact against the grill floor, with Dar 106 Melissa Good Roberts’s forearm pressing against her chin and a pair of wild blue eyes boring into her like searchlights.

The chief was no coward, but she’d seen that look before, and she had the sense to realize the dangerous situation she’d initiated was rapidly getting beyond her control, so she did the only prudent thing left to her. She let her body go limp, secure in her own tough condition but not stupid enough to challenge the youth and strength she felt crouched over her.

“Back off,” Dar whispered, seeing red for the first time in a long time.

“All right,” Chief Daniel answered, just as quietly. “Easy.” Slowly, the pressure on Daniel’s throat lessened, and Dar eased back away from her, the taller woman’s body rising to a balanced stance, her hands balled lightly into fists that looked fully capable of doing some damage.

It was not the reaction she’d been expecting, having figured Dar for the loudmouthed type that turned into a puffball when blown on hard enough. Her angular features, now settled in darkly savage lines, struck a sudden chord of familiarity but the chief knew she didn’t have time to figure out where from. “Okay, just relax, all right?”

Dar leaned back against the console, the intense surge of adrenaline still making her heart race and causing faint twitches to shiver up and down her arms and legs. It was the closest she’d come to losing control in half a lifetime, and it scared her a little, to know just how easily the chief had triggered that. “That was a very stupid thing to do,” she told the sailor, who slowly sat up and was rubbing her head. “I’m not one of your recruits, and if you ever do that again, I’ll knock you right through that damn bulkhead, you got me?”

“Think you could?” the chief asked softly.

“Yes,” Dar answered with utter sureness. “When my daddy taught me to fight, he made sure of that.”

Daniel studied her for a long moment, then she sighed and got up, rubbing her elbow where it had slammed against the floor. She turned a console chair around and sat on it, resting her arms on the back and gazing at Dar. “All right.” She nodded slowly. “I thought we had an understanding that you wouldn’t spout off in front of my staff.”

Dar let her hands rest on her thighs, her heart finally slowing to its normal pace. “I said I wouldn’t give an opinion.” She skirted the issue.

“I didn’t.”

The chief snorted. “Saying a kid designed the sim wasn’t an opinion? Bullshit.”

“I was the kid,” Dar replied simply. Then she got up and walked over to the hatch, taking a breath before she spun the wheel and released the catches, allowing it to swing inward. The air outside rushed in, and she stepped out of the simulator with a sense of relief to face round, wide eyes that rapidly found other objects to look at.

Then she realized they’d all been watching everything on the Red Sky At Morning 107

monitors. Without a word, she walked past them and into the hallway, desperate for a moment of peace and quiet and a cup of Navy coffee.

THE OPERATIONS MEETING had been underway for ten minutes or so before Kerry entered, giving everyone a brief, distracted nod before she took her seat at the head of the table and ran her eyes over a freshly printed agenda. The staff all started warbling at once.

“Kerry, that circuit you were escalating came in.”

“We’ve got six mainframes stuck in customs in Mexico. Midwest OPS wants to know if you can help.”

“The coffee machine just exploded.”

Kerry’s head jerked up at the last statement, and she peered across the table at Enid Petrofax, the MIS coordinator. “What?”

Enid scratched her jaw nervously. “Didn’t you hear the bang? The machine just exploded. We’ve got espresso grounds from the main door to the bathroom.”

Everyone was silent, exchanging startled glances. “Ah.” Kerry sat back. “Well, have we called the company? How in the hell could that thing explode? I realize it’s steam powered, but good grief!”

“Well.” Mark had entered and was now approaching the table, his entire shirt front covered in dark brown liquid and grounds. “I gotta tell ya, that was the stupidest thing I ever saw.” He held up a piece of round metal. “Damn hot chocolate top musta fallen in the espresso handle. It blocked the steam.”

“Ew.” Kerry winced.

“That wasn’t the stupid part.” Mark glared dourly around the table. “We need to find out what technognorp kept pressing the brew button when nothing was coming out.”

Kerry covered her eyes. “Oh, good grief.” She peeked between her fingers at the muddy-looking MIS chief. “Mark, go change. Enid, call Laurenzo Brothers if you haven’t already, and put a note out to the building to remind them we’re a technology company and should act like it.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Enid made a note on her pad. “María already called Laurenzo Brothers. She’s got a cousin that works there.”

“Unbelievable.” Kerry shook her head. “Okay, now...what was that about Mexico? Those aren’t the mainframes for the university project in Illinois, are they?”

John Byers, their Midwest operations manager, nodded glumly.

“Yeah. Next you’re going to ask me how they ended up in Mexico, right? I wish I knew. All I can get from IBM is that they were on one of our POs that had that as a freight address.” He paused and reviewed his notes. “I asked them to fax me a copy of it, but the bottom line is, they want a ton of money to release them out of customs and onto the plane to Chicago.”

108 Melissa Good Kerry leaned back, wishing she didn’t have the headache she did.

The weather, she suspected, was the root cause. “Okay.” She steepled her fingers and rested her lips against the tips of them, trying to figure out what Dar would do.

Something tricky, she was sure, because handing over thousands of dollars into government fingers wasn’t something Dar would have liked. Hmm. She was aware of everyone’s eyes on her, curious and intent, especially Clarice’s at the other end of the table.

What would Dar do?

“Okay. This is what you’re going to do.” Kerry took a breath.

“What’s the closest account we’ve got down there?”

“Tijuana International,” Stacia Brennon supplied, her voice curious. “Why?”

Kerry got up and paced, something she knew her partner loved to do. “Call up the delivery executive for that account. Tell him to take delivery of those mainframes.” She paused and turned, leaning her hands on the back of Mark’s empty chair. “Then write up an inter-divisional transfer between the South American SBU and the Educational, and have FedEx International pick them up on our inter-company account.”

“Ooh,” Stacia smiled, “I like it.”

John Byers chuckled. “Me, too. Stace, you want to call Pedro? I’ll get FedEx on the line.” His eyes twinkled as he glanced back at Kerry.

“Very slick, chief.”

Kerry smiled and walked back around to her seat, dropping into it and stretching her legs out under the table as she cradled her tea mug in both hands. She’d hoped the herbal stuff would settle her stomach, which had been in churning upset most of the morning, but so far it hadn’t, and Kerry hoped she wasn’t coming down with something. “I had a good teacher.”

Chuckles traveled around the table. “That’s what we hear.” Clarice smiled sweetly at her. “Looks like Dar picked a wonderful successor.”

Yeesh. Kerry smiled back at her. “Thank you. I like to think so.” She glanced up as Mark reentered the room, then reviewed the rest of the agenda. “Okay, what’s next? Mark, did we get all of the equipment requests in for first quarter?”

Clarice looked back down at her notes with a smirk, ignoring Mark as he circled around her and took his seat again.

Kerry’s nails drummed softly on her pad.

“HEY, KER, YOU up for lunch?” Mark caught up to her in the hallway on the way back to their offices. “They’ve got some decent-looking fried chicken down there today.”

Kerry winced and laid a hand over her stomach. “Ergh...I don’t think I’m up to that. I’ll go down and have a cup of soup with you, Red Sky At Morning 109

though.” She punched the elevator button. “My guts have been in knots since before the meeting.”

“Flu, maybe?” Mark hazarded. “Been going around, I hear.”

“Maybe,” Kerry agreed, as they entered the elevator and let the doors close. A thought occurred to her, and she shifted her portfolio under her left arm and removed her cell phone from its clip with her other hand. As they reached the bottom floor and exited out of the elevator into the huge lobby, she hit the auto dialer and held the phone to her ear.

It rang an unusual number of times before it was answered and she heard Dar’s voice, a slightly hoarse note in it that immediately worried her. “Hi.”

“Hey.” The note modulated and deepened, sounding relieved even through the cellular connection. “What’s up? Problems there?”

“Um.” Kerry wracked her brains for a reason to be calling.

“Well...ah...I just need to know...” She stopped and took a breath.

“Would you believe I just wanted to hear your voice?” She lowered her own and gave the two passing admins a smile. “Mark, can you grab a table?”

“Sure.” The MIS chief waved at her. “Say hi to the boss for me.” He disappeared into the cafeteria, leaving Kerry in relative isolation.

“Sorry.” Kerry returned her attention to the phone and moved toward the plate-glass wall. “Anyway, it was silly. How are you?”

A sigh came down the line. “Tough morning,” Dar said. “I think I went over the line for a few minutes.”

Uh-oh. Kerry found a bench and sat on it, ignoring the passing crowds on their way to lunch. “What happened? The petty person get to you? I knew I should have come down there and booted her in the behind.” Her guts started to ease up a little, and she took a deeper breath. “No wonder my insides are in knots.”

There was a little silence. “Are they?” Dar asked. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Kerry said. “Have been for a while. Between that and the headache I’ve got, I thought I was coming down with something. Are you all right?”

“Pretty much. I found a bottle of iced tea and a balcony. I’ve been standing out here for about ten minutes just watching it rain,” Dar answered. “I think I’ve got your headache’s twin sister. Damn, I haven’t lost it like that in years, Ker.”

“Did you yell at her?” Kerry returned the waved greeting from Duks.

“No.” A sigh sounded. “She backed me into corner and started bawling me out. One poke too many, I guess. I took her down and nearly ripped her head off.”

Kerry stared at the phone in shocked silence. Apparently Dar realized it, because her next words were rushed, almost stammered.

“It just happened so fast... I don’t know what she thought she was 110 Melissa Good trying to do, but I—”

“Wait a minute,” Kerry interrupted. “Just hold it there.”

Dar fell silent.

“She poked you?” Kerry’s voice rose. “She laid a finger on you?

Who in the hell does she think she is? That’s bullshit, Dar!”

“Um...”

“Jesus! You should call that general buddy of yours and get her butt transferred to the bottom of Hoover Dam!” Kerry went on. “Son of a bitch!”

“Ker, take it easy.” Dar’s voice had calmed. “I took care of it. I pretty much think she won’t try that again.”

“Damn straight she won’t,” Kerry snorted. “Boy, wait ’til I see her.”

Dar laughed softly. “Oh, sweetheart, you just made my day,” she said. “Thank you.”

“I haven’t done anything yet,” Kerry muttered in protest.

“Dipwad.”

“Why don’t you get some warm milk and go lay down on the couch in my office for a little while?” Dar was still chuckling. “I’m figuring on taking off from here in couple of hours. There isn’t much I can do without the T1; and frankly, I think I’m going to find more when I get everything sucked down and into the analyzers.”

Kerry imagined the plush comfort of the couch upstairs and smiled.

“Actually, I feel better now,” she admitted. “But be careful, okay? I keep having nightmares of you being buried under the billowing clouds of testosterone out there.”

“I will. Talk to you later, cute stuff.”

“All right,” Kerry replied. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Kerry folded the phone and juggled it in her hands as she leaned back, definitely feeling the knots unraveling in her stomach. Her headache was still there, but the tension she’d felt all morning was dissipating. She stood up and stowed her phone, then tugged her sleeves a bit straighter and made her way into the cafeteria.

DAR BRACED HER boots against the lower railing on the small porch she’d rediscovered near the back end of the training area. There was a small hard bench built against the wall, and just enough cover to avoid being soaked by the still-heavy rain outside.

Ah, Kerrison. Dar sighed silently. What in the hell would I do without you? She’d been thumping herself over her reaction to Chief Daniel, but now she sat back and considered it more objectively. The woman had locked them into a closed place and come at her in a threatening manner, aggressively shoving her back against a bulkhead.

What was the chief expecting to happen? Had she really expected Dar to break down and blubber or something? Dar folded her arms Red Sky At Morning 111

across her chest. Maybe that’s what Daniel had been looking for, to see how far she could push Dar before Dar pushed back.

Or.

Maybe she’d been hoping Dar would take a swing at her, and give her grounds to force the base commander to take action.

Hmm. In that case, her response had been appropriate, with just enough force to prove her point and not enough aggression to get her in trouble. Hey. Dar rubbed her jaw and had to laugh. Only took thirty years for you to figure out how to balance that act. Way to go, Dardar!

With a sigh, she stood up and grabbed her bottle of peach iced tea, draining it before she made her way back through the small door and into the corner cul-de-sac that it opened onto. Once upon a time it had been a larger suite, and the porch a perk of some big shot’s corner office, but time, and changing needs, had forced the Navy to throw up wood and plasterboard walls to divide up the space.

Dar put a hand on one of the worn wooden doorways and gazed down the hall, debating over what to do next. Her decision was made, however, when Chief Daniel swung out of Operations Center and spotted her, turning on her heel and heading toward Dar with a determined look.

Dar chose to remain where she was, and she leaned against the doorframe, folding her arms and watching the other woman approach.

“Interested in round two?” she asked as Daniel came within close earshot. A ghostly Kerry poked at her and she squirmed. “Or would you rather just go have lunch?”

Chief Daniel opened her mouth to answer, held it open for a moment, then closed it and released her breath with a sigh.

“C’mon. I’ll buy.” Dar straightened up. “We’re both grownups.

Let’s act like it.”

Clearly, the chief had been caught by surprise. She hesitated for a long beat, then lifted both hands a little and let them fall. “What the hell. All right, Ms. Roberts. You’re giving me a pain the size of an aircraft carrier, so I might as well get a meal out of it. Lead on.”

They found a table in the back of the mess and sat down with trays of open-faced turkey sandwiches. Dar opened her carton of milk and drank directly from it, watching her reluctant lunch partner mess with a pile of lettuce and tomatoes.

“So.” Chief Daniel neatly sliced her salad into manageable chunks.

“You’re Big Andy’s kid.”

Dar cocked her head to one side. “Yes, I am.”

The Chief looked up, meeting her eyes. “You could have said that right off.”

“Why?” Dar shot back. “Shouldn’t make a damn bit of a difference.”

Daniel snorted and shook her head. “Can the bullshit, lady. It matters, and you know it does. Did you think you’d have an advantage 112 Melissa Good by acting like a clueless outsider?” She picked up her glass of iced tea and took a sip. “Here I think I’ve got some dumb civ making my life miserable, and it turns out I’ve been hauling around some damn smartass Navy brat.”

“Oh. You mean I could have skipped the howitzer-up-the-ass attitude if I’d told you up front I grew up here?” Dar inquired. “Maybe you should have done your homework, Chief. I have a file on you an inch thick.”

The chief stopped eating and put her silverware down, staring at Dar with a look completely devoid of humor. “What in the hell do you mean by that?”

Dar merely watched her, sucking idly on her milk. She waited for the veins to start emerging on the ginger-haired woman’s temples, then she finally replied. “Relax. There’s nothing outstandingly scary in it.”

She actually didn’t have that much, but the reaction she’d gotten from the comment made her itch to have Mark search further.

Daniel sat there, breathing hard for a moment. “You’re a real son of a bitch, aren’t you?”

A charming smile appeared on Dar’s face. “I can be.” She paused.

“If I’m forced into it.” One finger pointed at the sailor. “So be smart, and don’t.” She set the milk down and picked up her fork, spearing a bit of mashed potatoes and tasting them.

“Sure you weren’t adopted?” the chief shot back.

The corner of Dar’s lips quirked. “I’ve looked in a mirror enough times to know I wasn’t.” She took a bite of turkey. “But feel free to ask my dad if you want.”

Hazel eyes narrowed, and the chief bit down on her fork with a vicious scrape of teeth on metal. Then her face relaxed, and she snorted softly. “No, thanks. I don’t want my fingers pulled off if he hears I laid one of them on his precious offspring.” Her eyes searched the angular, intense features across the table, strange and familiar at the same time.

She felt like kicking herself for not realizing who this bitch was before, then she felt like kicking the damn commander for not telling her.

Bastard. She bet he and Perkins were laughing their asses off at her.

And what was in that file? The chief was uncomfortably aware of the sharp intelligence behind those blue-tinted ice chips that were watching her. Evaluating her. Daniel swallowed and reviewed her options. She knew Andrew Roberts and had a healthy respect for him, but she now realized his often spoken of only child was a danger of a much higher degree.

What the hell was she going to do?

The loudspeaker’s crackle almost made her jump, and she looked up at the speaker just as Dar did, the younger woman’s head tilting to one side as she listened.

“Attention, attention all personnel. We have just received notification that flooding has closed both Card Sound Road and US 1.

Red Sky At Morning 113

Be advised that all deliveries to and from the mainland have been canceled until further notice. If you were scheduled to be transported north today, please see your unit commander immediately.”

Groans rose around them. Daniel snorted and recovered a bit of her balance at the perceptible annoyance in Dar’s expression. “Guess you’re stuck here. Just our luck.” Possibilities, though, started occurring to her.

Dar sighed, ignoring her sarcasm. “I knew I should have stayed in bed this morning.” She removed her cell phone from its clip and dialed a number, holding the phone to her ear and turning away slightly.

Yeah, Chief Daniel mused. Maybe you should have.