Red Sky At Morning - DK4 (62 page)

She willingly perched on one arm of Dar’s chair and wrapped herself around her lover, giving her the requested squeeze. “How’s it going?”

she repeated, glancing across to the monitor.

Dar threaded one arm under Kerry’s knee and let her head rest against the blonde woman’s chest. “I recovered the data,” she answered, after a brief pause. “Alastair says it’s up to me to decide what to do with it.” Kerry exhaled, resting her cheek against the top of Dar’s head.

“You going to decide now?”

Dar shook her head.

“How about we go home, then? I’m pooped,” Kerry said.

“Okay,” her lover agreed.

They sat there in silence for a little while, only the soft squeak of the chair audible as they rocked gently together.

“Wanna go get some ice cream?” Kerry finally said.

Dar perked up a little. “Mm.”

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“That little parlor on the beach? You, me, and a sundae?”

“Oh, yeah.” Dar finally smiled. “Lead on. I’m right there with you.”

After Dar carefully locked down her data, they got up and left the room, shutting the lights off. Arm in arm, they walked to the elevator, leaving the problem temporarily behind them.

THE PARLOR WAS busy, but they found a table near the back windows and settled into it. Dar half turned in her seat and leaned her back against the window, easing her arm onto the table for support.

Despite the crowd, a server wound her way over to the table immediately and presented herself, giving them both a big smile. “Hi guys! Tough day?” she asked sympathetically. “Haven’t seen you in here in a few weeks.”

Kerry gave the girl a wry look, acknowledging there were worse places to be a regular at. “We’ve been swamped,” she agreed. “Two of the usual.”

“You got it.” The girl scribbled something on her pad. “Want a couple Cokes while you’re waiting?”

“Sure,” Kerry agreed, leaning back and extending her denim-covered legs as the girl left. The parlor was a simple place—tile floors and Formica tables lending it a cafeteria look, along with fluorescent lighting that did not flatter it any.

But the ice cream was rich, and completely overindulgent, so when they visited they dismissed any lack of décor as merely incidental.

Kerry actually liked its plain functionality. It reminded her of a small corner drug store she and her sister used to frequent on their way home from school, with its cracked vinyl stools and chipped counter. They’d gone there enjoying the illicit thrill of it, knowing if their parents found out, they’d both be punished in a heartbeat.

Made the sodas taste better, she’d always sworn. The memory brought a smile to her face, even after all this time.

“What’s so funny?” Dar asked, her fingers plucking idly at the paper napkin on the table.

“Life, sometimes,” her partner responded. “I was just thinking how in my life, whenever something was supposed to be bad for me, I went right after it,” Kerry added. “Ice cream sodas, chocolate, beer—”

“Me.” Dar snuck it in craftily.

Kerry looked at her, then laughed. After a moment, Dar joined her as they both enjoyed the moment together. “Yeesh, how true that is.”

Kerry wiped her eyes. “Me, the Midwestern Republican rebel.”

“You forgot Christian,” Dar reminded her, reaching casually over and capturing Kerry’s hand.

“Ah, yes.” Kerry twined fingers with her. “Twelve years of orthodox indoctrination just so I can sit here in South Beach holding hands with you.” She rolled her head to one side and regarded Dar. “It’s
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funny, though. One of the things they try so hard to teach you is to do

‘the right thing.’ What they never tell you is how to know what that is.”

Dar nodded somberly. “I know what you mean.”

Kerry leaned on the table a little. “Dar, you don’t really feel sorry for those guys, do you? I mean, yeah, they were friends of yours once, but remember being in that hospital, okay? And remember how all of us almost got in a lot of trouble because of them.”

The waitress returned with both their sodas and their ice cream.

She set them down, and the women applied themselves to the serious business of eating for a moment before Dar decided to answer.

“I know they’re wrong, Ker,” she said, licking a bit of hot fudge off her spoon. “But yeah, I do feel sorry for them. Maybe I wouldn’t have at one time in my life, but I do now, and it’s your fault.”

“My fault?” Kerry looked up in surprise, getting the words out around a mouthful of banana split.

“Your fault.” Dar dabbed a bit of whipped cream on Kerry’s nose.

“You gave me back my conscience,” she said. “Now I have to make peace with it before I have to go do what I need to do.”

“Oh.” Kerry ate a bit of chocolate ice cream. “Is that a bad thing?”

Dar tapped the spoon on her lower lip, a thoughtful look on her face. “No,” she decided, shaking her head and spearing a cherry. “Just a damned inconvenient one sometimes.”

Ah.
Kerry reflected on that. Life was damned inconvenient sometimes, if she thought about it. She just had to take the good with the bad, and make her best choices. She sucked on her straw and nodded a little to herself, almost feeling a sense of reconciliation with one of hers.

Almost.

THE SUN PEEKED slowly over a lightly ruffled gray ocean. Across an almost empty beach, a seagull wheeled, searching for a little breakfast for himself.

Dar sat near the shore, leaning against a half-buried, mostly dead tree, and watched the bird circle. Beside her sat her briefcase, on which she rested one elbow as she dug idly into the sand with her bare toes.

It had been a long night for her, lying in the darkness with Kerry’s warm body pressed against hers as she went over and over her options; how they might play out, and what the consequences could be. She’d finally gotten up and showered, dressing as a sleepy Kerry nuzzled her back and wishing the day was already over with.

She’d then come out here, to this beach, to let the cool morning breeze clear her head. It was the same beach she’d come to the night she’d almost fired Kerry, the same beach she’d been coming to for years when she needed a few minutes to ground herself, here within sight of the vast Atlantic that had been her playground since before she could 340
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really remember.

Maybe that’s why she’d always been so damned sure she belonged in the Navy. Dar sighed. Even as a young child, there had never been a doubt in her mind that one day she’d be out there, living on the sea just like her father. It had been a world she’d been completely comfortable with—a world she’d been proud to be a part of.

Nowadays, it was considered a little old-fashioned to be patriotic.

Dar ran her fingers through the grainy sand, plucking out a bit of dried coral and examining it. Her father was, though; once upon a time, she had been, too.

Now? Dar’s lips pressed briefly together. With a slight groan, she pushed herself to her feet and shouldered her briefcase, walking slowly across the sand to the beckoning waves. She kept going until the water covered her feet, the incoming tide washing over her legs up to her rolled up pant legs, bringing with it the clean, tangy scent of the sea.

A bit of seaweed wrapped itself around her ankle, its touch a little prickly. Dar gazed off into the dawn, letting the onshore breeze blow her hair back as the sun lit up the waves.

KERRY SAT AT her desk, cupping her hands around a steaming mug of hot tea as she watched the sun rise through her window. She looked up as a knock sounded on her door, a little surprised. “Come in.” The door opened and Mark stuck his head in. “Morning, Kerry.”

Kerry’s blonde eyebrows lifted. “You’re here early.”

“Yeah,” the MIS manager agreed. “You, too.”

“C’mon in,” Kerry repeated. “Dar’s on a plane up to DC, so I thought I’d get in here and get some stuff done before the phones start ringing.”

Mark entered and crossed the mahogany carpet, settling in the seat across from Kerry’s desk. “Did she get what she needed from that array?”

“I think so,” Kerry said. “Now she’s just got to decide what to do with it. Sticky political situation, you know?”

Mark nodded. “Yeah. Speaking of.” He folded his hands together and rested his chin on them. “You figured out what you want me to do with Brent?” he asked.

“Is he here?”

“Yeah.”

Kerry exhaled. “Okay, send him over. I’ll talk to him,” she replied.

“Maybe we can get some communication going. I...” Another sigh. “It’s really too bad, because he’s a good tech.”

“Yeah,” Mark agreed. “He’s just got some weird hang-ups,” he said. “And talking about that crap—someone else is talking shit around the place.”

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Kerry covered her eyes with one hand. “Karnak says ‘Clarice.’” She opened her fingers and peeked at Mark. “Am I close?”

“She’s a bitch,” the MIS manager stated flatly. “I didn’t like her when she was chasing after Dar the last time, and it pisses me off that she’s walking around here spouting crap.”

Kerry leaned back in her seat and sipped her tea. “Don’t hold back, Mark. Tell me how you really feel,” she remarked wryly. “I know. It’s really taken me by surprise, because I always thought she was a good worker; never had a problem with her before.”

Mark looked slightly uncomfortable. “She really had a thing for Dar,” he said. “Everyone knew it. Dar finally called her on it in a big meeting we had. Big time.”

Ahh.
Kerry winced. “She didn’t mention that part.”

“You know Dar.” Mark half shrugged. “Clarice finally got over it. I don’t blame Dar, but it was pretty public and I guess now Clarice feels like, well, shit, after all that crap, and now—”

“Now us.” Kerry nodded. “Yeah.” She sighed again. “And that puts me in a really awkward position. But I guess I have to do something about it, huh?”

Mark looked around carefully. “You could just tell Dar,” he said in a low voice. “Let her handle it. After all, she’s, like...in the middle of the whole thing.”

Yes, she could tell Dar and let her handle it.
But Kerry’s whole being resisted that, and in her heart she knew she’d lose a lot of respect for herself if she backed down on this one. “She’s offered,” she told Mark.

“But the woman works for me, so it’s my call.”

Mark didn’t look surprised. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll send Brent over.”

He stood up. “Lots of luck.”

“Thanks.” Kerry shook her head as he left. Feeling the tension creep up her back and knot her stomach slightly, she turned her chair and looked out over the water. It was a great view, she reflected, and it fit the spacious office to which her position entitled her, but along with those perks came the responsibility of making the hard choices. She had a much better understanding now of how Dar had come to be the way she was, as a leader.

Leaders had to step back and see the big picture. For the greater good of the company or sometimes just because of hard dollars and cents reasons that fell within their areas, they had to make decisions that hurt individuals. “What would you have done, Kerrison, if you’d had to integrate a half-rate little software development services company with mostly mediocre employees and a pissant ops manager who told you off?” She drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair.

“Damn, I was lucky she liked me.”

Another knock at the door interrupted her musings. Kerry gazed plaintively at the horizon. “Luckier sometimes than others, however.”

She said, “C’mon in.” As the door opened and Brent entered, she turned 342
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her chair and put down her cup. “Hello, Brent,” she greeted. “Sit down.

Let’s talk.”

Warily he walked over and took a seat, edging back as far away from her as he could. “If you’re gonna fire me, could you please do it quick?” he said. “I wanna miss traffic.”

Kerry sighed. It was going to be a very long day.

DAR GLANCED AROUND as she walked through the Pentagon, feeling a bit conspicuous even though her civilian dress blended in with that of a good percentage of the workers. She’d called Gerry from the airport and he was expecting her, but she felt a curious sense of reluctance as she walked down the austere hallway.

She recalled the last time she’d been here, picking up the government contracts that had, in the end, allowed her to salvage Kerry’s former company and permanently piss off the regional sales manager she’d upstaged. A smile appeared briefly, and she squared her shoulders as she opened the door to Gerry’s outer office and gave his admin a nod.

The woman smiled at her and pressed a button on her phone.

“General, Ms. Roberts is here.”

“Is she? Great. Send her in.” Gerry’s voice boomed through the intercom.

Dar walked past the woman’s desk and opened the inner door, entering and closing it behind her as Gerry put down the folder he’d been looking at and came around the desk to meet her. “Morning, Gerry.”

“C’mere, girl.” He opened his arms and enfolded her in a hug.

“First things first. How’s it having your daddy back?”

Dar put down her briefcase, forgetting about its contents for a moment. She returned the hug. “Awesome,” she replied simply. “When are you going to come down and visit? They’ve got a boat they’d love to show off to you.”

“Ah, munchkin. You got no clue how glad I am.” Gerry rubbed her back and gave it a pat. Then he pulled back and looked at her, shrewdly reading the expression on her face. “Bad news, eh?”

Dar nodded.

Gerry exhaled, releasing her and stepping back to perch on the edge of his desk. “Well, you tried, Dar. Can’t fault you for it,” he said.

“Did a damn risky thing. I’m glad no worse happened.”

Dar picked up her briefcase and laid it on his desk, releasing the locked latches and opening it. She lifted out a thick sheaf of papers secured with a binder clip and dropped it on the blotter pad. “Don’t thank me yet.”

“Eh?”

“It’s there.” Dar closed her case after removing a square box and
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putting it next to the paper. “Hard and digital copy.” Her eyes lifted and met his. “I got all of it out of there.”