Storm Surge

Chapter Seven

"SO, IT IS agreed."

Dar watched in utter relief as Sir Melthon and Alastair clasped hands. She avoided looking at her watch, resting her chin against her fist instead as she waited for the rest of the niceties to be finished. The negotiations hadn't been that lengthy, but it was late, and she was tired, and she was very much looking forward to that nice big bed with its fluffily soft pillows.

"Good deal," Alastair said, briskly. "It's been a pleasure spending the evening with you good folks, but now it's time for me to get my team some rest so they can start planning the integration transition tomorrow."

Sir Melthon nodded, looking tired himself. "Right," he said. "We can pick up tomorrow at lunchtime. I will have my lot set up a workroom, and we'll put a spread on. Mimosas will start the day off right, eh?"

"Sounds great." Alastair waved at his group. "Let's go people." He picked up the signed contract paper in its folder and tucked it under his arm as the rest of the ILS team stood up and started their goodbyes.

Dar stretched her back out, and let her hand rest on the back of her chair. She waited for Alastair to move toward the door, then followed him with a casual wave toward the rest of the team. "Goodnight, gentlemen."

"Good night, Dar," Francois responded. "See you tomorrow."

Hans caught up with them as she reached the door. He smiled, as he opened it. "It was a good day, yes?" he asked Dar in German. "Long, but good."

"Long, but good," Dar agreed. "I think everyone pretty much got some of what they wanted."

"That is very true." Hans was at her shoulder as they walked down the long, curving staircase that led to the ground floor of the big mansion. "I think he is happy. He likes your boss."

"I like my boss." Dar smiled. "In fact, today he's on my A-list."

Hans chuckled.

They reached the outer door that was opened for them by a uniformed doorman. Another was standing by, holding their jackets. Dar took hers and escaped in the chilly, very early morning fall air and took a minute to shrug into the soft leather as they stood waiting for their cars.

"Damn good way to end the night," Alastair commented.

"Any way you'd have ended it would have been good at this point," Dar said, dryly. "I thought we were going to have breakfast over foxhounds or something at this rate."

Alastair chuckled. "He's a tough negotiator, but I think we'll do all right." He stepped forward as the first of the cars pulled up. "C"mon, Dar. We're in the same place."

Dar didn't argue. She settled in the back seat of the sedan and pulled out her cell phone, checking the time on it before she dialed.

It rang twice, and then was answered. "Hey." Dar listened, but heard only a quiet humming in the background.

"Hey, sweetie," Kerry responded. "Are you finally done?"

"Mmhm." Dar leaned back as Alastair shut the door on his side and the car started to pull away. "How'd it go?" She guessed not that bad, just from her partner's tone.

"Not bad," Kerry promptly confirmed. "We're on our way to the pub now."

"Glad to hear it."

"How'd your part go?" Kerry asked, after a moment of quiet.

"You've got your work cut out for you," Dar informed her. "Bring your pencils and a bucket of patience."

Kerry's smile was audible through the phone. "Don't worry, I will. Were they tough?"

"A little."

"Want anything from here?" Kerry asked. "I have some shopping time tomorrow."

"You."

"Anything else?"

"You."

Kerry chuckled. "Okay, you got it." She exhaled and there was a faint sound of traffic that floated through. "That really wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be," she admitted. "I think I worked myself into a lather for no reason."

"Well." Dar glanced at Alastair, who was peering out the window with deep and abiding interest. "It's a good thing for them they didn't give you a hard time," she said. "I'd hate to think I was stuck here babysitting Alastair when you needed me to kick some ass."

Her boss turned his head and looked over at her, eyebrows hiking.

Dar grinned at him.

"Is he there?" Kerry asked. "You didn't say that in front of him did you?"

"Sure did," Dar cheerfully acknowledged. "What the hell. It's 2:00 a.m., and I'm so wiped if we had a problem I'd have to FedEx myself a box of brain cells to take care of it."

Alastair snorted, and leaned back, lacing his fingers behind his head. "Glad that fella didn't tell us to meet him for breakfast."

"Me too," Dar agreed. "Anyway, I just wanted to find out how your speech went," she addressed Kerry again. "Go have fun, and buy your sibs a round on me, okay?"

"Absolutely," Kerry said. "Bye hon, get some rest."

"I will. Later." Dar closed her phone and put it away. "I think he was trying to see if he could wear you down and get those last set of concessions."

Alastair snorted again. "Listen, he may be a big shot royal whatever, but lady, I've played poker with slicker men than he ever will be," he said. "They're big here, and I like their setup. Good properties, good business model, but in terms of volume it's one of our smaller contracts."

"I know," Dar said. "Didn't think it paid to mention that though."

"Not at all," her boss cheerfully agreed. "And besides, I like to think we give all our customers top notch service, no matter what size the contract." He glanced at Dar. "I don't recall you ever asking if any of your high wire act shenanigans were worth the size of the deal."

"Huh," Dar grunted in agreement. "Yeah, never really mattered to me," she said. "But all in all, it's been a good day."

"Sure has," Alastair said. "Everything go all right for Kerry?"

"Yep."

They were both quiet for the rest of the ride to the hotel, and they got out in the subdued quiet of early morning to a mostly empty street and a dim, very sleepy lobby.

"Evening," Alastair greeted the doorman as they entered. "Well, Dar, I think it's safe to say we can all sleep in. Give me a buzz if you want to do brunch before we go over. If his menu tonight is any indication we'll probably get whole pheasant or something for lunch."

"Sure." Dar got her key out as they rode the elevator up and walked down the stately hallway that held their rooms. She left Alastair at his and went gratefully to her own. She pushed the door open and let it shut behind her.

It was cool inside, and quiet, and smelled unnervingly like chocolate. Dar smiled as the scent hit her nose, and she rested her hand on the back of the chair in the room as she kicked her shoes off and looked around for its source.

Near the bed, she spotted it. A small tray was sitting on the table, a silver pot squarely in the center of it. Even from where she was, she could see the faint steam coming from the spout and as she walked over. She recognized little dishes of condiments meant to be added to the waiting cup.

Dar pushed these aside to retrieve a small, white card, turning it over to read the words on the back with an already knowing smile. "Thank you, Kerrison." She put the card down, and inspected the dishes, selecting a few mini marshmallows and a gummy bear, dropping them in the cup, then pouring the steaming hot chocolate over them.

She left the gooey tidbits to melt as she removed her suit and returned it to its hanger, trading it for her long T-shirt and bare feet.

She glanced at her laptop, then deliberately turned her back on it and went back to the bed, pulling aside the already turned down comforter and sliding under it, appreciating the smell of clean linen mixed with cocoa surrounding her.

She picked up the cup, lifting it toward the window. "Here's to you, Ker," she said. "Hope you like the cake at the pub." She took a sip and smiled, and wiggled her toes in contentment.

KERRY LEANED BACK in her bench seat, resting one arm along the back of it as she picked up her frosty mug and took a sip of her second beer. Having traded her suit for a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, and having her speech behind her, she found herself to be in a good mood, and happy with the world around her.

"What in the hell was that one chick's problem?" Mike asked, around a mouthful of jalapeno popper. "Did she have a tulip stuck up her butt or something?"

"Who, Stacey?" Kerry tried to remember just what had been Stacey's problem. Her first beer had put enough of a displacement between her and the event that it took an effort, and she used the arrival of her coconut shrimp appetizer as a delay tactic while she rummaged in her memory.

"She was the one you beat in that debating championship your senior year, wasn't she?" Angie spoke up. She had a luridly colorful fruit drink in front of her and she was happily sucking the pineapple from it. "I remember she pitched a hissy fit at the Palace afterward."

"You remember that?" Kerry found she did also, but very vaguely. She hadn't known Stacey that well. They'd gone in different social circles, just one of the many girls not too different from her and her sister that she'd known. "I sort of remember that debate." She put her beer down and selected a shrimp to nibble.

"I remember because I heard her mother yelling at her in the bathroom at the Palace that night." Angie sucked her daiquiri through the straw. "She was blaming the fact that Stacey had spent the night with her boyfriend before the debate on her losing it."

Kerry made a face. "Ah, yeah, now I remember," she said. "I forgot all about who I was debating because I was scared spitless having father in the audience," she recalled. "I could have been facing Ronald McDonald and it wouldn't have made an impression."

"Oh yeah." Mike reached over and stole one of Kerry's shrimp. "What a big deal he made out of being there. I think every freaking paper within a hundred miles was straggling in the back of that place taking pictures."

Kerry glanced casually around, but the pub was quiet, and she didn't see anyone she knew around them. Not really surprising given that it was a Monday night and it was fairly late. There were a few men at the bar, and two groups of younger people near the pool table, and there was a low strain of Celtic music playing she found familiar. "I think that was one of the few times we had our picture together in the paper."

She had a copy of it that she had saved. A slightly tattered bit of newspaper tucked in a protective sleeve she'd stuck in a scrapbook of her school years and ended up taking to Miami with her. She and her father standing next to the wooden school podium she'd only recently spoke at, her father with his hand resting on her shoulder, a pleased and satisfied expression on his face.

For once.

She wondered what he'd have thought hearing her tonight. Would he have been able to set aside all the crappiness between them and been glad for her success?

"Yeah, what a photo op that was," Mike said. "I remember him telling the paper he thought you might have a career in politics ahead of you."

"Oh gag," Kerry moaned, retreating to her beer. "I'd rather have flipped burgers for a living." She stretched her legs out and crossed her ankles. "We should get drunk and show up to Mother's hung over tomorrow."

Angie covered her eyes. "Let's not," she said. "As you reminded me, I've got to live with her now." She glanced up as the waiter sidled up. "Can I get another one of these?" She ignored Mike's snicker and held up her daiquiri glass.

"Sure." The waiter took the glass. "Your dinners will be coming out shortly, but remember to leave room for dessert."

"Well--" Angie waggled her hand.

"Trust me, you'll want to." The waiter grinned and sauntered off.

Kerry chuckled, taking another shrimp. "Worse comes to worse we can take it home for breakfast." She reminded them. "Cheesecake in the morning's great."

"Hedonist," Mike accused.

"If you think that's hedonism, you've got a lot to learn."

KERRY SAT CROSS legged on the bed writing longhand in a small cloth bound book propped up on one of the pillows.

It was quiet in her room, and in the rest of the house. A glance at the clock told her it was well after midnight, and she pondered a moment before she went back to writing.

Sept 10th, 2001.

Well, today went better than I expected it to. I keep saying that. What was I really expecting? Did I really think they were going to throw rotten apples at me?

I don't know. Maybe I did. I'm glad the younger crowd showed some brain cells and class, and to be honest I wouldn't have minded talking to them a little longer if all of my old classmates hadn't been at the reception.

Is that cowardly? I don't think so. I just think it's normal for someone not to like being insulted like what Stacey did there. What a jerk. But Angie was right. She was a jerk when we went to school here. She didn't become one just because it turned out I was gay.

That was the one thing the kids didn't ask about. They were more interested in how to succeed in business. That's amazingly cool. I may even have to join my alumni society and start tossing them a few bucks if they're turning out people with those kinds of goals.

Does it really matter that I'm gay? It's the 21st century. People shouldn't care at this point in humanity's history but you know, I think it does matter to the older crowd because I think they feel like they're not in control of things and life's accelerating out of control.

I'm used to it. Technology changes every minute. If you spend your life immersed in constant change, then when the world changes around you it just seems normal, doesn't it?

Hm.

I wonder if that's how Mom's coping with everything. Just invest in the change, and maybe you stop stressing about how things used to be, and how you wanted them to turn out, and you just start surfing the wave and living in the minute.

I think I like that. Life is never boring if it's full of change, is it?

I was worrying about what Mom was going to talk to us about tomorrow, but I've decided to just not get mad about whatever it is, assuming it's something I might get mad about. The only power to stress me out she has is the power I give her.

Isn't that great? Only took me how many years to figure that out? I bet Dar would crack up.

Kerry reviewed her words, and chuckled.

After a few minutes, she heard footsteps approaching, and then she looked up again to see Angie in the doorway to her room. "Hey. Thought you were sleeping."

"Andrew was fussing," Angie explained, entering the bedroom. "And I saw your light on when I came back upstairs. Why are you still up?"

"Oh." Kerry glanced at her little book. "I just--it sounds silly but I've started keeping a diary," she explained, a touch sheepishly. "I'm about done. Is Andy okay?"

"Oh sure." Her sister sat down on the edge of Kerry's bed. "He's teething. After you go through that the first time, like I did with Sally, you know what to look for and what to do, but boy, the first time it freaks you out."

Kerry closed her diary up and capped her pen. "How's Sally doing?"

Angie paused, then shrugged a little. "She's confused," she said. "She doesn't really understand what's going on, or why she sometimes is in one place with her Daddy, and sometimes here with me, but for all his other faults Richard doesn't play the blame game so I think she'll adjust after a while."

"Mm." Kerry tried to imagine what that would have been like, and found it hard. "We never had to deal with that," she said. "It would have been weird."

Her sister nodded. "It would have been. Fortunately for the kids, our divorce was a lot like our marriage was--passionless and businesslike."

Kerry winced.

"Hey, it's true," Angie said. "Ker, when I see you and Dar, and hear you talk to each other--you have something I have no clue about, you realize that right?" She cocked her head to one side and regarded her older sibling. "The whole bit with you sending each other notes, and for Pete's sake, sending fudge covered mousse cakes? Unreal."

Kerry made a wry face. "You know, we've always done that," she confessed. "I thought it was one of those things you do when you're--uh...dating. Or whatever." She cleared her throat. "But we just kept doing it. I guess we'll stop sometime. Most married couples I know don't do that."

"But?" Angie watched her, as her words slowed to a stop.

"Dar's parents still do." Kerry chuckled. "Oh well. It's nice though. That was killer cake." She licked her lips in memory. "I didn't even remember seeing that on the menu."

"It wasn't," Angie said. "The manager told me it was delivered from some bakery in Detroit, hand carried."

Kerry had the grace to look mildly embarrassed. "All I had was hot chocolate sent to her room," she muttered. "And you know what? She probably had that all planned way before I called her hotel."

Angie covered her eyes in mock despair.

"So." Kerry cleared her throat. "Are you going to stay with Mom long term?" She turned her pen in her fingers. "I know it's a lot quieter here now."

Her younger sister got up and wandered around the room, pausing to look out the darkened window. "You know, I wish I was you, Ker." She turned to see a pair of blond eyebrows hiked up. "You've got guts, you're successful, you're in a great relationship--"

Kerry remained quiet, since there was no denying any of that.

"But I'm not," Angie concluded. "I'm a typical second child, and you know what? I don't want to risk what I'll have to risk for a sexy, adventurous life. So yeah, I'll probably stay here with Mom, unless Brian decides to make a commitment and then we'll see. Even so, we'll probably end up living with her. She likes Brian."

"Even now?"

Angie chuckled dryly and sat back down on the bed. "With everything that's happened in the last few years, I think she's learned to take her successes where she finds them. She wanted Brian for a son-inlaw, so if it turns out he becomes one, she'll take it even if it's not really what she envisioned before now."

Fair enough. Kerry sighed. "I hope that works out," she said. "But anyway, if you ever do decide you want a radical change, you know where to find me."

Angie smiled. "Sally wants to come down to see her Aunt Kerry's log cabin. Maybe we can visit for a couple of days near Christmas, when it's all snow here, and anything but there."

"You're on," Kerry agreed instantly. "The kids would love it down there. It's right on the beach, and there's a bunch of cool stuff to do all around there, like glass bottom boats and paddle boats and things."

"Great." Angie got up. "Let me let you get to sleep. It's going to be a long day for you tomorrow," she said. "And hey, maybe I can even get Mom to come down and visit for a day. Show her you really don't live in the middle of some third world country."

Eh. Kerry waved at her, as she left. "Actually--" Though she loved her adopted home, very often between the massively immigrant population and the overly graft ridden political scene it did sometimes seem like they lived on one of the nearby Caribbean islands.

However, she figured her mother would actually be pleasantly surprised with a visit to the condo so she was content to let the chips fall where they might on that subject. She got up and put her diary into her briefcase, turned the lamp off and climbed under the covers.

Somewhere, halfway across the planet, she knew Dar would be getting up soon, despite her late night and she wished suddenly that they would be sharing breakfast with each other. She wanted to talk to her partner about the interesting things she'd seen and felt the last few days, and she was already looking forward to her part in the new project and wanting to get started on it.

When she got there, there would be the initial meeting with Dar to find out what Alastair and she had promised as part of the contract. Kerry trusted her partner not to sell her down the river, but there were times when Dar would okay a concession if she thought the contract was important enough and then sometimes they scrambled.

This was an important contract. Not for the size of it, but for the visibility and the foothold it gave them in an area they hadn't really been that successful before now.

It tickled her to no end that she'd been a part of that win, even though she knew that it had been more pure luck than any real skill on her or Dar's part that had achieved it. Take truffles where you found them, Dar had said.

Yum. So she would. Kerry closed her eyes and relaxed her body, hearing the patter of leaves against the window and the soft creaks of the big house around her, until it lulled her into sleep.

DAR WAS GLAD enough to sleep in, spending most of the morning working off some of the mail overload that had built up in her inbox over the past few days. She was sprawled in the desk chair in her sleep shirt, the remnants of her breakfast tray nearby and a pot of coffee still handy.

It felt good to relax for a few hours. The trip had been very frenetic so far, and Dar appreciated the chance to sit back and get her act together before she had to meet with their new clients again. They had a meeting scheduled most of the afternoon, and then Alastair had arranged to host a dinner someplace in London for all of them.

Thursday, they'd meet with the local folks, hopefully all day to keep her mind occupied and off the fact that she'd be suffering the nine or ten hours of Kerry in the air and unreachable while she flew from Michigan through Chicago and then onward to London.

Of course, Dar realized she herself had been in the same state just the other day, but ever since Kerry's near miss in the storm, she'd found herself a nervous wreck whenever her partner flew. Kerry, on the other hand, had put the event in the past and didn't mind the travel and didn't seem to stress when Dar flew.

When they flew together, naturally, it didn't bother her. Dar decided not to think too much about why that was, and went back to her inbox instead. She clicked on a note from Mark, and opened it.

Hey boss!

Practice went good today. I think we'll do okay, so long as we don't have to do stuff like hit or catch softballs. So far, we're really good at wearing funny looking pants, and tripping on cleats.

We miss you guys. How's it going?

Mark.

Dar grimaced a little. She clicked on the little video embedded in the mail and waited for it to spool up, then watched as she got a Mark's eye view of two of her employees crashing full into each other and bouncing back at least four feet. "Nice."

She shook her head. "At least Ker and I won't be the worst ones out there. " She clicked on reply.

Hey Mark.

I hope the team can at least not knock each other over by the time Ker and I get back because if that's what's gonna happen we'll be laughing so hard we might as well just forfeit and go get drunk.

Meetings are going well--be ready to start this one up running because these people are skeptics. I hope that damn hub's going to come online soon because if there's one customer who's likely to push our SLA's to the limit it's this guy.

Throws decent meals though. We had prime rib of some creature or other for dinner and unlimited bottles of grog.

D

She went on to the next mail, glancing down at her news ticker piddling along at the bottom of her screen. "Slow morning." She flipped over to the network monitoring screen that always, from habit, ran in the background and she viewed the gauges she seldom saw at this hour of the Miami morning.

Nine o'clock in the morning here, four o'clock in the morning at home. She rested her chin on her fist, observing the traffic patterns. She could see the heavy usage fluttering across their internal networks both in Miami, and in the big data center in Houston. Backups, probably, unending streams of data being copied to their storage arrays, mirrored to make even that precaution redundant.

Dar respected that. She knew her team took the need to cover her ass very seriously, and she knew her peers in the company depended on that to make sure if something inevitably did happen, they could recover from it with no harm done.

A blinking blue light caught her attention, and she shifted her gaze to the Houston links, watching the big routers there chewing over a healthy size chunk of traffic, which she realized was the government financial data stream going through its nightly reconciliation.

Between the offices, the parallel tie lines were quiet. They didn't share much data, since Miami was the commercial hub and Houston the governmental one, but traffic like payroll and mail, corporate shares and intranet servers were quietly replicated so that the IT operation to most people was pretty much invisible.

Just how Dar liked it.

Just then, her messenger software popped up. Dar blinked at in surprise, half expecting it to be Kerry. It wasn't.

Ms. Roberts? Sorry to bother you.

Dar recognized one of their night net operators. No problem. She typed back. What's up?

We're having a little problem with the Niagara 3 node. We were going to call Mark but we saw you come online.

Dar cocked her head, marveling in the fact that the ops crew felt they could approach her now in so casual a manner. Respectful, but casual. She accessed a secure shell session and navigated through the net to the node in question, one of the three that surrounded the New York area to handle the stupendous amount of traffic there. Yeah? What's the problem?

We're seeing routes being injected and then squelched. We think it's a circuit issue but the local exchange up there swears no trouble found.

LECs lie like fish. Dar informed him. Let me take a look.

Node 3 was her newest, an interlink to Canada that had only been online a few weeks. She poked around in the router, pecking away happily at the device as she went through its configuration. She checked the logs, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, and then she went through all the interfaces one by one. Ah hah.

Ma'am?

Found it. Dar typed back. Give me a sec. She reviewed the flapping interface, a little surprised to find a timing mismatch coming in from one of their major service providers. She watched the errors for a minute, and then she experimentally changed a setting, watched, and then changed a second. The interface settled down and stopped its gyrations and after another minute the data commenced flowing normally.

It looks great now ma'am!

Dar smirked, and then cut and pasted the circuit information into her notepad and got out of the router. Anytime. She typed back. Now I have to go find out why the damn vendor changed his clocking without telling us.

So it wasn't the LEC?

Not this time. Dar confirmed. Service provider.

Well ma'am, sorry about that but you just won me a bet here, and now Chuck has to go out and get me Dunkin Donuts, so thanks!

Dar laughed out loud. She pasted the information into a new message, and addressed it to the vendor with a couple of snitty pecks and sent it on its way.

Have a Boston Crème for me. Later. Thanks again, Ms. Roberts. Have a great day.

Well, she'd certainly do her best. Dar glanced up as an incoming mail binged softly. She was very surprised to see it was from the provider she'd just yelled at. She opened it.

Ms. Roberts --

We were about to contact you about this issue. We had a service interrupt out of the 140 West Street facility in Manhattan that resulted in a non scheduled recycle of the switch servicing your account.

Dar translated that without difficulty. "So. Someone rebooted the thing accidentally. Sucks to be you."

There was a configuration anomaly that was under review.

"Uh huh, and someone forgot to write the memory before you rebooted it too."

However, the issue seemed to self-correct, so no further action was taken.

Dar hit reply.

The issue didn't self correct. I went into our router and matched your timing change. I don't mind leaving it that way, but get your goddamned procedures straightened out and tell your operations people to get their heads out of their asses and follow the rules next time.

She reviewed the note and hit send with a satisfied little grunt. "Nitwads." She lifted her cooling cup of coffee and sipped from it, then set it back down. With a touch of curiousness, she clicked back to the network map and went into the graphical view of the node again, reviewing the traffic, then checking the other two nodes in the area.

Tons of data, even at this hour. What was it they always said? New York never slept? Watching this she could believe it. With a shake of her head, she closed the monitoring tool and went back to her mail, realizing there was one there from Kerry she'd somehow managed to miss. "Hey!"

She clicked on it.

Dar --

Ah, business. Dar knew a moment of disappointment, but immediately chastised herself and read on. Even using the corporate mail system, Kerry often sent short personal notes to her, and those were always addressed as something other than her name, so seeing one addressed with it made her aware it was probably either a problem or a solution to one.

Reviewing the growth chart, I found a hole here, in the mid Atlantic interchange.

Dar's eyes widened. "Oo!" she said out loud. "Checking up on me, Kerrison? You little scoundrel!"

With the new backhaul contract for the cellular consortium I think we're going to run out of space within six to twelve if the curve maintains. What do you think?

"What do I think?" Dar propped her chin on her fist and reviewed the graphs Kerry had inserted in her email. Her brow creased as she studied the bandwidth usage, then she quickly hunted something up on her hard drive and looked at it, switching between the document and Kerry's mail with rapid-fire flicks of her eyes.

After a long moment of silence, she snorted again. "Well, I'll be damned," she said. "What in the hell are those people doing? They're overshooting their per connection bandwidth by fifty percent." She flipped through the original proposal, wondering if she'd made a wrong calculation somewhere.

"Did they sign up a billion new users or something?" She puzzled over the numbers. "What the hell did I do wrong here?" She went to her browser and clicked on it, calling up one of the consortium web pages. After a moment's studying, her expression cleared. "Ah." She came close to slapping her own head. "Data. Pictures. No wonder."

She clicked over to Kerry's note, and hit reply.

Kerry --

Nice catch. I'll add bandwidth. Looks like they put in new services right after they signed the contract--maybe they figured they could get away with it.

Good work.

D

Then she added two small GIFS, one of a sheep, and one of a rock, and clicked send. Then she got up and stretched, leaving the laptop behind as she roamed over to the window and looked out.

Today, it was reasonably sunny outside, and the streets were full of walkers. Dar suddenly had the urge to be outside as well, and she put that plan immediately into motion, closing down her laptop and heading for the shower.

There was shopping to be had, and cute trinkets for Kerry to be bought, and she thought she saw a couple of street food vendors off in the distance.

Just the thing to start the day off right.

KERRY LAY FLAT on her back on her bed, her hands behind her head as the early morning sun poured into her window. After a moment's rest, she continued her crunches, counting under her breath as she worked through her last set, ending up grimacing on the last few but getting through them.

"Ugh." She spread her arms out and stretched them, waiting for the burn to fade in her midsection. Then she rolled over and got up, twisting her torso and making shadowboxing motions to shake her muscles out as she went to the dresser.

Her laptop was seated on it, whirring through its screen saver placidly until she touched the track pad and it presented her login screen. She rattled in her password and unlocked it, opening her mail program and watching the screen fill with dark lines.

"Aha!" She pounced on the one from Dar immediately, clicking it as the rest of the mail downloaded. She leaned on the counter and scanned the words, a relieved and happy grin appearing a moment later. "Yes!" She pumped her fist in the air. "Score!"

Finding Dar in a mistake was so rare that when it did happen, she spent hours and hours going over the data to make sure she was looking at it from the right point of view until she felt secure enough to mention it.

Dar never seemed to get pissed off about it. Kerry suspected if she approached her in public with the issue, her beloved partner wouldn't appreciate it but she never did, and Dar's reaction either was an explanation of why whatever it was happened to be that way, or else, like this time, a cheerful admission of guilt and an action plan to fix it.

Awesome. Kerry stepped away from the desk and went to the window, peering out through the teak wood slats at what was going to be a gorgeous day. Though just seven, it was already light outside and she could see a beautiful, almost cloudless sky through the tree branches.

Great day to go out on the lake. She sighed. "Oh well, next time." She turned and went back to the dresser, picking up her laptop and carrying it back to the bed with her. She sat down cross-legged, and studied her mail.

Relatively uneventful. She clicked over and opened her morning report from operations, scanning it lightly until she came across an entry for the northeast sector and saw the outage notation. One eyebrow lifted. "And I didn't get a page, why?" She clicked the report. "Oh, that's why."

Opportunistic of her night administrators. Kerry couldn't really argue with the logic of contacting her apparently available boss, but really, there was a process for that sort of thing. She blinked as a small box popped up next to her cursor.

Hey. Ah. Speaking of the devil. Hey cowboy. What's up? Cowboy? Kerry smiled. I saw the outage report from this morning.

Ah. Dar seemed to reflect on that. I sent a nasty gram to the vendor. I copied you. Looks like someone tripped over a power cable at their New York Corporate Office or something.

Where are you? Kerry asked.

Just about to leave the hotel for the client site. I just got back from walking around outside. It's gorgeous here today.

Kerry smiled again. Here too. I wish I could go out sailing instead of to mom's brunch. Oh well. Are you doing anything tonight?

The sun winked in the window and striped across the bed, warming Kerry's bare legs. She wiggled her toes in it, and wished very briefly and pointlessly that she was having this conversation in person.

Waiting for you.

So apparently the feeling was mutual. I'm not leaving until tomorrow morning, sweetie. I have to get through the day at moms then I talked Angie into going down to the shops near the lake so I can get goofy trinkets for everyone. She paused. Wish I were at the airport taking off right now though.

Kerry cocked her head at the screen. What's so funny?

Tell you when I see you. I have to head out. Tell your crazy family I say hi and try to have a good time, okay?

Okay. Kerry typed. Have a good meeting. Love you.

Love you too, later. DD

Kerry chuckled and closed the window, and then she ran her eye over her mail. Not finding anything really urgent, she closed the program and got up to put the laptop back on the dresser.

"Hey, you up?" Angie stuck her head in the door, blinking in surprise to find her older sister in a pair of shorts and a sports bra apparently wide awake. "Boy, you have become an early bird haven't you?"

Kerry chuckled. "I have," she admitted. "I was doing my traveling exercise routine and then chatting with Dar for a bit. C'mon in."

Angie entered, still in her nightgown. "What's a traveling exercise routine?" she asked. "Is that what you do every morning?"

"No." Kerry turned and leaned against the dresser. "At home, Dar and I usually either go for a run in the morning, or if it's too hot and sticky which is often, we go to the island gym or to the pool," she replied. "I just have a few things I do when I am out of town like some sit-ups and push-ups and stuff."

"You're nuts," Angie informed her.

"I am," her sister cheerfully agreed. "But it makes me feel good to do it, so who cares?" She spread her arms out. "Hey, I even joined a softball team. Our company's doing a league."

"Oh my god." Angie rolled her eyes. "You always wanted to do that. You used to bitch about it all the time I remember."

Kerry grinned. "Yeah, I know. But this was something that just came up. It should be fun though." She folded her arms over her chest. "Hey, want to go roust Mike up?"

Angie grinned back. "Actually, I was going to suggest we do that, and then we go out and grab some breakfast somewhere. I gave my cook the morning off because she had a dental appointment."

"I'm all for that," Kerry agreed instantly. "Let's go for it." She headed for the door. "We can get some ice cubes to get Mike awake."

"Ker?"

"Hm?" Kerry paused at the door, with her hand on the knob.

"You going to go wake him up like that?" Angie asked, pointing at her sister's lack of real clothing.

Kerry glanced down at herself, and then she shrugged. "This is what I go out jogging in," she said.

"C'mon. You can't tell me Mike's more conservative than the ghost of Commodore Vanderbilt."

Angie followed her out, shaking her head. "Guess we'll find out in a minute."

DAR RESISTED THE urge to stick her hands in the pockets of her dress slacks as she entered the big dining room along with the rest of their team and Sir Melthon's people. There was a huge sideboard set up, and everyone was definitely in a much better mood today.

Deal was done. Papers were signed. Now they were partners, and as partners, they were no longer the bad guys so everyone was chilled out and a lot friendlier.

"Hello, Ms. Roberts." The man who had been pounding her mercilessly with questions yesterday was now all smiles. "John Status, by the way." He held a hand out. "No hard feelings, I hope?" He had a distinct, rolling accent that was almost musical.

"Not at all." Dar amiably gripped his hand and released it. "I like hard questions. People who don't ask them either aren't serious about dealing with us, or don't know what they're doing."

Status grinned. "Now there's a good solid saying." He took a seat next to Dar at the table. "I'm the lucky man who gets to be in charge of our company net."

Dar was mutely delighted to be sitting next to another nerd. She left Alastair on her other side discussing grouse hunting with two of the other men. "Gets to be, or is?" She was aware of the servers moving around them and the smell of something roasting.

"Is," John said. "Am. Whatever," he clarified. "I've been here for about a year, and the first thing I was asked to do is hook us up with a global network provider." He glanced around. "From this side of the Atlantic."

"Ah." Dar nodded. "We'd heard that." She gave the server a nod as he filled her glass with something that smelled like apples and cinnamon. "It's been tough for us to grow here because of the bias."

"Eh." John lifted his hands.

"I understand the bias. If the positions were reversed, it would be the same on our side," Dar said. "No one wants to work with people who are different and hard to understand. Our business methods are very polar."

The man sat back. "You know though, most Americans don't understand that," he observed. "They just come over here, and try to ride over people with high pressure sales jobs. They never come in and say, well, here's what we do. You interested?"

Dar smiled.

"Now, understand it helps that his nib's godson came in like a raving loony about you," John said. "We were all saying, if Hans has his knickers in that kind of an uproar must be something to it."

"Hey Dar, your admin people in yet?" Alastair interrupted them.

Dar checked her watch. "Quarter to nine? Sure. Mine is anyway. What do you need?"

"Can you get one of the big portfolios headed this way?" her boss asked. "The one that shows all the lines of business?"

"Sure." Dar opened her phone and dialed her office number. "Excuse me." She apologized to John.

"No problem." John turned to his plate, which had just been delivered, complete with a selection from the sideboard. "Ahh--now that's the thing."

"Hey, Maria. Good morning."

"Ah, good morning Jefa," Maria replied. "How are you? How is the England?"

"So far, very interesting and successful," Dar said.

"Need a favor."

"Of course."

Dar paused, as her PDA buzzed. "Hang on a second." She opened it and glanced at the screen. "Hm. Hey Maria, can you ask Mark to check out what's going on over near Boston? One of the supplemental links just came up and they're using some unusual bandwidth for the links."

"Surely," Maria said. "Is that all, Dar? How is Kerrisita? Is she having a good time with her familia?

Dar closed the PDA. "She's fine, and her speech went great," she told her assistant. "Alastair needs one of the circus tent displays sent over here, can you get that in the works?"

"I will call over to the Sales right away, Dar," Maria said. "Oh, and Senora Mariana has delivered some packages to the office here for you and Kerrisita. I think they are your softball costumes."

"What color are they?" Dar chuckled. "Please don't tell me they're either yellow or purple."

"No, no, it is a pretty blue," Maria said. "And the pants are white. Mayte was showing me hers last night, and they are very, very cute." She paused. "The shoes were very strange. They had nails in the bottom. Is that right, Dar?"

Her boss chuckled, and then glanced down as her PDA buzzed again. She opened it, and after a minute, her brows creased. "What the hell?"

"Como?"

"Maria, can you conference Mark on? I'm getting pages that aren't making any sense. I think the monitor's gone whacky again." Dar paged through the messages.

"Surely. Hold on for one moment, Dar." Maria put her on hold.

"Something wrong?" John asked.

"Ah." Dar shook her head a little. "I think it's just--"

Maria came back on the phone. "I have Mark, Dar, but--"

"Hey! Boss!" Mark's voice echoed through the phone, sharp with excitement. "Holy crap!"

Dar felt a surge of adrenaline, but she wasn't entirely sure why. "What's up?"

"A freaking plane just hit the side of the freaking World Trade Center!"

"Jesu!" Maria gasped. "Madre di Dios!"

Dar absorbed that in silence for a minute. "What? How in the hell did that happen? Someone get lost looking for LaGuardia?"

"I have no friggen clue," Mark said. "But they just put it up on CNN and it's crazy! Smoke all over the place! People freaking out! There's a hole in the side of that thing the size of the space shuttle!"

Dar pressed the mute button, and leaned over, touching Alastair on the sleeve. "Alastair."

Her boss turned and looked at her, his gaze sharpening immediately when he saw her expression. "What's up?"

"We need to find a television. Something's going on in New York."