Hurricane Watch - DK2 (23 page)

Dar regarded the blue and green waves. ”Maybe.”

A soft exhalation. ”What happened to you, Dar?”

It was almost funny. ”I found out there was more to life than the next email, Mari.” Dar snorted softly. ”Unfortunately for the company.”

She turned. ”I’m not going to stand by while that bastard attacks Kerry, and since you won’t do anything about it, I will.” A pause. ”I have.”

Mariana leaned back in her chair and exhaled. ”I know you think this is all my fault, Dar, and I’m sorry you think that.” She looked up, but Dar wouldn’t meet her eyes. ”Maybe you have a point. I should have jumped on him sooner, stopped some of that stuff when it first started. I just thought you had it under control, and if I interfered, it’d just get worse.” She paused, to give Dar a chance to speak. When the other woman didn’t, she sighed. ”By that gauge, I should have also stepped in and separated you and Kerry when I found out you were seeing each other.”

Still no answer.

”But then, you should have done that yourself,” Mariana continued, ”and if you had, we wouldn’t be sitting here.”

Dar’s face didn’t change expression. ”Go on. Put the blame all on me,” the dark haired woman muttered quietly. “I’m used to it.” She turned her head towards Mari. “It’s my fault I fell in love with someone.

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So it’s my choice to leave.”

“Dar,” Mari exhaled. “For pete’s sake no one holds that against you.”“Everyone holds that against me,” Dar cut her off. “Didn’t you just say you should have stopped it when it happened?” She shoved the pictures across the desk. “That’s what he wanted put in the papers, that’s what Michelle sent to Alastair. Every goddamned person within a hundred miles of here wants a piece of my personal life, so screw it.”

She turned back to the window. “It’s my life. You don’t own me anymore,” Dar exhaled. “So put the damn paperwork through and find someone else who gives a damn.”

“You trying to convince me or yourself that you don’t?” Mari asked, in quiet voice.

She didn’t get a chance to answer because the door opened and José barged in. ”What is this I hear? You are quitting?” José asked, his voice incredulous.

”Yeah,” Dar answered, turning and going back to her desk. ”You can cater the party, José. Congratulations. You won.” She typed a message into her mail program and sent it. ”There, I just told Alastair; that should make it final.” She stood and picked up her briefcase, slid her laptop out and left it on the desk. ”I don’t have many personal items here.” She picked up her dolphins and glanced at her fighting fish. ”I’ll see if Maria wants those.” She dropped her badge on the laptop, and her pager with it.

”Wait, wait.” José held up a hand. ”What do you mean, I won?”

Dar gazed at him. ”Isn’t this what you wanted? You hired a man you knew was an old enemy of mine and gave him explicit instructions to find my weaknesses, and exploit them. He did. I’m gone, you won.”

Her tone was cold and mocking. ”Congratulations and good luck. I hope you screw up the company so badly, they have to recall the entire office.”

”I did not do...”

”You certainly did,” Dar shot back. ”Want to see the email you sent him?”

The phone beeped. ”Dar, Mark on line numero uno,” Maria’s voice floated in.

“Thanks, Maria. Can you call a cab for me, please,” Dar asked, crisply.

”Si,” the secretary sounded puzzled.

”Thanks.” Dar hit the button. ”What is it, Mark.”

”Northeastern backbone’s down,” the MIS chief stated. ”They can’t locate the problem.”

Dar drew in a breath. ”Find someone else to deal with it, Mark. It’s not my problem anymore,” she replied evenly. ”Give ‘em about an hour to choose someone to replace me.”

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replied, then hung up.

Dar shouldered her briefcase and glanced around. ”Well, I’m going home,” she stated flatly. ”Have fun.” She limped over to the door and opened it, then went through. Maria was standing near her desk, her face rumpled in concern. ”Maria...”

The Cuban woman came around the desk and approached her.

”You are leaving? For good?” she asked, visibly upset.

”’Fraid so,” Dar replied gently. ”Thank you, for everything, Maria.

You’re a good person, and I appreciate all you did.”

Maria wrung her hands, then she stepped forward and gave Dar a hug. ”God bless you, Dar. This place doesn’t deserve you.” She glared at José, who was just coming out of Dar’s former office. ”And you are a piece of caca. I hope God strikes you outside with a bus.” She went to her desk and picked up her purse, then walked out, slamming the door behind her.

Dar quietly followed, moving down the silent corridor towards the elevator, which slid open as she approached. She got in and turned, leaning against the back wall as the doors closed and it started to move.

KERRY GOT BACK to her office and sat down, staring at her desk for a long time without moving. ”I can’t believe she did that,” she finally muttered. ”I can’t believe she did it without even talking to me about it, like I was some kind of kid that needed protection or something.” She stood and began pacing back and forth.

”I can’t let her do that.”

Pace, pace, pace.

”I know she thinks she’s doing it for the right reasons,” Kerry sighed. ”I know she wants to protect me from all that legal crap, but what she doesn’t realize is that I’m a lot more politically savvy than she thinks I am. She forgets who my father is.”

Green eyes regarded the window. ”Right, so what in the hell am I going to do?” She drummed her fingers on her desk. ”The first thing I need is an ally.” She regarded the phone, and then dialed a number. It rang several times, then went into voice mail. ”Damn it, Mark. Where are you?”

She was answered in a very unexpected way when her door opened and Polenti slipped in, an angry look on his face. ”Oh, you heard.”

”What the hell is going on?” Mark asked, putting his hands on his hips. ”Did she just quit?”

Kerry sat on her desk. ”It’s complicated, but essentially, yes, she did.” She crossed her arms. ”The question is what are we going to do about it?”

”Hold on, can we start with why?” Mark held up a hand. ”Not that I’m not with you in doing something, but I’d kinda like to know what book I’m reading, much less what page we’re on.”

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Kerry pursed her lips. ”Bottom line? She did it because Steven Fabricini was going to make big trouble for me and she traded that for her job.”

Mark looked at her curiously.

”I know, but I’m not going to let her get away with it,” Kerry acknowledged. ”So, first off, how much trouble can you cause him?”

Mark sat down and put his hands between his knees. ”Trouble?

Well, I can boot him off the network, or reroute his mapping so he can’t find his files.”

Kerry leaned forward and caught his gaze. ”No, Mark, not that kind of trouble. The real kind.” Her green eyes glinted.” The kind I know you’re really good at.”

He cleared his throat, blinking at her in surprise. ”I didn’t think you— Well, okay, I can cause him a lot of trouble, why?”

Kerry smiled. ”I would like you to cause him as much trouble as you humanly can, okay?” She ticked off points on her fingers. ”I’m talking credit cards, taxes, driver’s license, legal, utilities, everything.”

Mark’s jaw dropped. ”You’re serious.”

She nodded. ”Damn right I’m serious.”

”Wow.” He rubbed his nose. ”You’re nasty.” He glanced up with a rakish grin. ”I like that.” He got up. ”What are you going to do?”

Kerry’s face hardened and her eyes went cool and calculating “I’m going to start by finding out if this company’s worth working for or not,” she told him, as she circled her desk and looked something up on her screen. ”Let’s see, where was, oh, okay...yeah, there it is.” She dialed a number on the phone, which was answered on two rings. ”Yes, this is Kerry Stuart in Miami Ops. I need to speak with Alastair McLean, please.” She paused. ”It’s urgent.” She put the call on mute.

”Start with turning off his electricity, Mark. I like the idea of him walking into sentient mildew.”

Mark grinned. ”Yes, ma’am.” He trotted out the door, closing it behind him.

Kerry nodded at the door grimly. ”Mess with me, will you? You pitiful little excuse for half baked dog poo.”

”Excuse me?” a male voice asked from the phone. ”Didn’t quite catch that—is this Ms. Stuart?”

”Sorry, I was talking to someone else.” Kerry bit off an embarrassed grin. ”Yes, it is, Mr. McLean. I think we need to talk.”

“Well, ah, sure.” Alastair sounded somewhat uncertain. “This wouldn’t be about the email I just got, would it?”

“Probably.” Kerry leaned her elbows on her desk, fighting to get her head into a political space she never really liked being in. “Listen, Mr. McLean.”

“Alastair, please,” the voice on the other end interrupted. “Anyone Dar thinks so highly of deserves that, at the least.”

Kerry was caught by surprise at that. “Thanks,” she murmured.

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“Are you really going to let this happen?” she asked. “I know Dar has a lot of respect for you, and that sure must be based on something.”

Alastair cleared his throat. “Nice riposte,” he said. “Tell me why, no, tell me what happened, Ms. Stuart. All I have is some rather rambling telephone messages, and Dar’s note. I’m a bit at sea, so to speak.”

“No one told you about this weekend?”

“Not in so many words, no.” Alastair responded a touch apologetically. “I understood it went badly. I heard there were some problems, but I thought...”

“Where do I start?” Kerry sighed. “And please, call me Kerry,” she added. “Let me tell you what it’s been like here.”

“Since this morning?”

“Since I started.”

“Ah.” Alastair sighed. “Hold on, let me sit down then. I’ve got a feeling we’ll be a while.”

A LONE SEAGULL circled over the beach, riding the warm air drafts. The soft hush and whisper of the waves was the only sound that came to Dar’s ears, as she sat quietly on the porch with her knee elevated on the nearby chair. Her head was resting against the glass as she gazed, eyes half lidded at the gull.

On the table, a half finished bottle of sweet wine rested with a glass next to it. Dar lifted an arm and filled the glass again, then took a sip, rolling it around in her mouth before she swallowed it. Chino was sleeping on the tile near her feet, the puppy exhausted from her delighted antics at Dar’s unexpected arrival.

The phone had rung several times inside, but Dar had decided to ignore it, preferring instead to gaze across the horizon and evaluate her options.

It felt strange not to be working. It felt even stranger not to be sure that the decision she’d made had been a good one, and not just a half assed one based on a knee jerk reaction.

“I should have beaten the crap out of him myself.” Dar tilted her head back and regarded the sky. “Bet the little bastard wouldn’t have said a word about it.”

She took another sip of wine and swallowed it, then glanced up as her cell phone rang. ”Ah, I wonder who that is, Chino.” She picked up the phone and flipped it open. ”Yes?”

”Hi.”

Dar felt a gentle wave of relief pass over her. ”Hi.” Kerry’s voice was quiet and lacking the angry snap it had earlier. ”Sorry I took off without talking to you.”

”Mm, yeah, that was kinda disappointing,” Kerry told her gently.

Dar didn’t know what to say to that, so she kept silent.

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”You at home?” Kerry asked.

”Yeah.”

”You’re not answering the phone there.”

”I know. I’m outside on the porch with Chino,” Dar replied. ”So, they give you my office yet?”

A soft laugh answered her. ”Well, since I just got out of a meeting where I told two senior VP's to kiss my ass, that’s probably not in my cards today.”

”Mm.” Obscurely, that pleased Dar. ”Which two?”

”José and Eleanor, Mariana went home,” Kerry replied. ”And I’m out of here too. Since the entire division is on strike, there’s no real need for me to be here.”

”Mm, that’s nice. Wait.” Dar sat up. ”What?”

”Must have been something in the cafeteria. Fifty two people in operations, coincidentally, all got sick and had to go home,” Kerry told her, blithely.

Dar sighed. ”Kerry, it’s a nice gesture, but that’s just going to get everyone in trouble,” she informed her lover.

”Dar, I didn’t ask them to do that,” Kerry’s voice came back. ”I don’t think you quite realize just how much these people respect you.

Maria tendered her resignation, there are ten more of those pending including Mark’s, and Personnel’s been bombarded with official letters of censure against Fabricini alluding to everything from pick pocketing to attempted rape.”

”Oh,” Dar murmured.

”And his car got keyed.”

”Oh,” A different emphasis.

”And his tires got slashed.”

”Ah, Kerry…”

”And his electricity, phones, gas, and water got turned off.”

”Kerry.” Alarm now.

”And his credit cards got canceled.”

”Hey!”

”His auto deposit got rerouted into the Women’s and Children’s fund.”

”Kerry!”

”Just kidding about that one.” Kerry chuckled. “Though I thought about it.”

”Come on now, you’re going to get yourself in a lot of trouble,” Dar told her, in an aggravated tone.

”Yes, and I’m perfectly capable of getting myself in and out of that, Dar. I don’t need you throwing yourself in front of situations for me,”

Kerry responded, just as seriously. ”I’m really pissed off that you quit because of me, you know that?”

She had no answer for that.

”Dar?”

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”Yeah,” Dar replied quietly. ”I’m sorry. I guess I managed to screw this up pretty badly.” She regarded the gull glumly. ”Maybe I should have just stayed home today.”

”Dar?”

”Yeah?”

”I love you.”

A faint smile twitched at Dar’s lips. ”I love you too.” She paused.

”Sorry if I overreacted.”