Tropical Convergence (54 page)

"We stay inside." Kerry waited for the chuckles to fade. "Drink a lot of this." She held up her iced tea.

"And don't wear much clothing," Shari snarked.

Kerry ignored her. "Well, Mr. Quest? The floor is yours. If you need anything in the way of presentation material, let me know." There was no point in antagonizing him any further, was there? "We're all ears."

Quest hesitated, and then gave her a gracious nod before he got up and walked a little to one side, turning to face them. "Thank you all for coming out here," he said. "I realize it was short notice, and I realize we've all had some personal challenges the past day or so. However, I have a project to get started, and I don't have time to waste on waiting for things to smooth over." He cleared his throat. "So."

They all leaned forward toward him, except for Kerry. She remained relaxed in her chair, slowly sucking on her iced tea. The taste of raspberries and honey filled her mouth, and she let her peripheral vision take in the rest of the table as they waited for Quest to fill them in.

"I've heard a lot of talk the last two days," Quest said. "I've heard proposals, and concepts, and mostly I've heard bullshit."

Kerry's eyebrow quirked, along with the corners of her lips.

"All I've heard is promises and hot air. All of you think you can do the job I need to get done. But all I've seen is paper and smoke," Quest went on.

"Excuse me," Shari started speaking. "What did you expect us to do, bring the technology with us and put it on your desk?"

It was, Kerry acknowledged, a surprisingly reasonable question. "Mr. Quest, you got proposals because that's what you asked for." She threw her own comment in. "Are you looking for a demonstration of the technology?"

"Yeah," Tom Rickenback spoke up. "You called us down here to respond to your request for technical specifications. What exactly did you expect?"

Quest waited them out. He paced near the wall, past the sedately framed international certification certificates. "This is what I expect." He turned and put his hands on his hips, brushing aside the khaki folds of his jacket. "I want to see you deliver. I have four ships I need to fit out for business in less than three months. I want each one of you to take one ship, and put your money where your mouths are."

What? Kerry put her glass down.

"Whoever does the best job for the best price, gets the rest of our fleet." Quest folded his arms across his chest. "Twelve ships."

There was a conspicuous silence after he finished talking. The occupants of the table all looked at each other. Kerry finally broke the tension with a slight chuckle. "Okay, let me get this straight," she said. "You basically want to get your four ships equipped for free, so you figure by tempting us with a contract you'll get that to happen, because all of us are more than capable of putting a network just about anywhere."

It even got a smirk out of Shari, she noticed. Michelle licked the tip of her index finger and made an unobtrusive swipe in the air, before she settled back in her seat and folded her own arms.

Quest shrugged. "You can look at it that way, if you like. But the offer is real, and it's here on paper. So." He walked over and removed four reams from his briefcase and slapped them down on the table. "Put up, or shut up, as they say. Either you're in and interested, or you can take off now, and if you're lucky get a flight out of this place."

His assistant got up and lifted the papers, walking around to distribute them. He handed Kerry hers last, stopping a little short and forcing her to extend her arm for it. "Sorry," he apologized, handing it over. "Here you go."

Quest waited until they all had their copies. Then he closed his briefcase with a snick and picked it up. "I'll be at the Intercontinental," he stated. "Present yourselves with your signed copies there tomorrow if you intend on participating."

His eyes scanned the room. "We expect to be taken seriously. If you can't give us evidence of that, we reserve the right to reject your bid."

"So, you're saying no balloons tied to the paperwork?" Michelle asked in a dry tone.

He signaled to his assistants. "Thank you again, Ms. Stuart, for the use of your facilities. I'm sure everyone was a lot more comfortable here than they would have been at the hotel's conference hall. There's no AC there."

"My pleasure," Kerry murmured.

"Can't believe you haven't fixed that problem yet," Shari commented. "Must be almost as frustrating as living with Dar."

Instead of blushing, Kerry felt the odd sensation of a cold chill flushing through her body instead. She barely recognized the churning fury in time to take a strong hold of it, hearing the soft creak of leather as her frame reacted instinctively and tensed up.

She kept her eyes on the contract, forcing her hand to move and flip the first page over. After running her eyes over the first paragraph three times without reading it, she finally looked up, giving Shari a bland look. "You want me to snap my fingers and have the power come back on? Sure." Kerry obligingly lifted her free hand and snapped her fingers. "Since you think everything we do requires no effort."

The lights flickered suddenly in the room, and everyone looked up, startled. Kerry straightened a little, cocking her head as she heard a low thrum, then a series of snaps, before the lights brightened again and steadied.

"What the hell was that?" Tom asked. "You forget to pay the diesel bill, Kerry?"

Kerry scratched her jaw in bemusement. "Not exactly," she said. "That was our generator kicking off. We're back on city power," she admitted. "So I guess you can go back to your hotels and get comfortable with Mr. Quest's reading matter."

Quest tilted his head in her direction. "I'm looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow." He started to turn, then paused and met Kerry's gaze. "Thanks for fixing that little problem, Ms. Stuart. Good to see you living up to your reputation." He left the room, with his assistants trailing him as the rest of the people shuffled and started moving.

"Well." Tom eyed the contract. "Got a fax machine I can borrow, Kerry? Now that you fixed the power?" He managed a slight grin. "I don't mind stealing paper and a phone call from you since you'll have the home field advantage down here."

Kerry pressed the radio button on her cell phone. "Mayte?"

A moment later, her assistant answered. "Si?"

"Can you come down to the conference room please? I need something taken down to legal, and there are some people here who need to use the fax machine around the corner." Kerry put the document down, and rested her hands on the table.

"Yeah, he's right," Shari spoke up again. "We should get an advantage written in to make up for the bid being held down here. We have to get everything shipped in."

Kerry remained silent, her eyes dropping to her PDA as she opened it and started to scribe.

John Sellars spoke up, his voice quiet and gentle. "Good call on him getting those ships done, Kerry," he said. "Pretty slick, if you ask me.

He knows he'll get all the bells and whistles, and we'll be fighting each other to cut costs."

"Agreed. He's a player," Shari commented. "But then, so are we all."

"Mm." Kerry looked up from her screen as the door opened and her assistant entered. Mayte walked around the table and came to Kerry's side, keeping her eyes strictly on her boss. "Thanks Mayte." She held out the contract. "Can you tell them I need this reviewed for execution tomorrow? And show these gentlemen to the fax machine?"

"Of course." Mayte gave Kerry a smile. "Did you know we have the power on now? Everyone is cheering, except there were some people who I think really wanted to be sleeping in our office."

"Best news I had all day." Kerry returned the smile. "Tom? You wanted to send a fax? Anyone else?"

"We make our own decisions," Shari assured her. "We don't need our asses covered by our lawyers."

Tom stood up and hefted his bag. "Then you're a bigger idiot than you sound like," he told her briskly. "As well as being one of the biggest boors I've run across in a decade. Ma'am? After you." He courteously indicated Mayte precede him. "Gentlemen...ladies..." His eyes went to Shari. "Whatever. Have a great day."

He left with his associate. John Sellars and his assistant scuttled after him. "We'll take you up on that fax, Kerry, thanks." He gave her a half wave as they disappeared through the door.

That left Kerry with Michelle and Shari, a condition she had no intention of continuing. Accordingly, she picked up her cup. "Excuse me."

Michelle half stood. "Kerry, wait."

Her polite upbringing was sometimes very unfortunate. Kerry paused and waited, one eyebrow cocked in a reasonable imitation of her partner's attitude.

"Can we take you to dinner?"

Kerry almost laughed. "You're kidding, right?" she finally answered. "Come on, people. It's been a tough couple days. You think I'm into sitting and listening to bullshit all night?"

Shari snorted. "You just can't take it." She waved a hand. "None of you people have a sense of humor."

"I have a sense of humor," Kerry replied. "Jerks being rude don't qualify as funny in my world. Sorry about that."

"Well, if you..."

Michelle stood all the way up. "Shari, would you please shut the hell up," she said. "You're not making this situation any easier on any of us."

Shari's eyes narrowed, but she closed her mouth with a click of her teeth.

"Thank you." Michelle turned back to Kerry. "How about it?"

Kerry turned to leave. "Sorry. I'd rather have dinner with my dog."

"Kerry. C'mon." Michelle moved forward and intercepted her on the way to the door. "We're going to have to deal with each other for this whole damn project. Let's not start it off this way."

Kerry stared at her, then pointedly at Shari, then back at Michelle.

"Besides, we've got something you might want to hear." Michelle tilted her head to one side in acknowledgment. "You pick the place. I know this has been a battle so far, but I promise you won't regret listening to what we have to say."

On the verge of saying no, Kerry paused, remembering what Dar had said about Shari's plans. Maybe she could get her to put her cards on the table now, and have it be over and done with, before her partner even got home. "Okay," she decided. "My choice, huh?"

"Anywhere you want to go," Michelle assured her. "How bad could it be?"

Kerry smiled. "It's a favorite spot of mine. Out on the beach. I'm sure you'll enjoy it."

DAR BUMPED THE door open with her elbow and proceeded inside. Hans was still hunched over his laptop cursing in German, and the sun was slanting inside the tinted windows to a far more radical degree. She set one cup down next to the programmer and went back to her own seat, settling into it and leaning back. "How's it going?"

"Like crap. Do you know how much I have to change in this to do your foolish test?"

Dar sipped her cappuccino. "Want me to take a look at it?"

"No."

Programmers. Dar cheerfully acknowledged her own species. "Yeah, I'd give you the same answer," she admitted. "Keep your paws out of my code."

Hans glanced up at her briefly, then went back to his screen. "Do you program?"

"I used to," Dar admitted. "Before I went into design and engineering. I still mess with it a little bit sometimes."

"Hmph."

Dar pulled out her PDA and opened it, seeing the stuttering light. She tapped on Kerry's message.

Hi sweetie.

Quest just chucked up strained peas on the conference table. He wants all of us to do one of his old ships and whoever comes in best value wins his fleet contract. I complimented him on getting his ships done for free, but I'm sending the contract down to legal now. Is it worth doing?

K

Oh, ps -- I snapped my fingers and the power came on. I think your geek genes are leaking into me.

Dar snickered. "Oh, that's rich." She shook her head. "Slimy bastard."

"Eh?" Hans glanced at her again.

"Another company." Dar started scribing. "My partner's handling it."

Ker --

My geek what? Glad the power's on. Least I know you'll be comfortable tonight while I sit here babysitting a cranky programmer--must be paybacks.

Quest is a slick operator. I wish I could tell you to drop it, but with the coverage Telegenics has started, we'd look like crap if we gave up now. They'll say we're afraid of them. So we'll suck it up and participate unless you find something in the contract you don't like.

Dar hesitated, and then continued.

I think I found the problem up here. This guy's trying to fix it, and then we'll test. If it's what I think it is, he'll have to rewrite half the program code. He's pissed off. I half want to open the pipes even if it's not the problem. I want to go home.

D

She hit send, and then waited a little. However her PDA remained silent and she set it down on her leg, reasoning that Kerry might be busy. Bored, she pulled her laptop over and set it on her knees, minimizing the network sessions she had open and clicking to her personal storage icon instead.

She had several folders there, but she opened her favorite one, which had pictures of Kerry, her family, and scenes of home in it. They were set in date order, and she occasionally amused herself by just letting her eyes linger over this visible record of their relationship.

One of the ones she liked the best was the one that had caused Kerry the most problems when she went home that first thanksgiving. It was of the two of them, sitting on the couch together. Kerry had one leg slung over hers and they were leaning against each other, grinning at Colleen's camera.

She shifted her eyes to a picture of the two of them dressed for her high school reunion. She was standing behind Kerry in this one, her arms wrapped around her partner's bare middle. The sight of Kerry's mildly embarrassed expression at her skimpy gear always brought a smile to her face. But she looked adorable in her leather bikini, and Dar was always trying to find an excuse to have her wear it since then.