Tropical Storm - DK1 Read online

  “You’re not a nerd,” Kerry objected, aware that she was really blushing badly now. “Are you?”

  “Sure I am, and so are you,” Dar cheerfully informed her. “Good work, Kerry, you single-handedly validated my choice of assistants, started your own little legend in the making, and I didn’t even have to do a thing.”

  Kerry basked in the warm approval, soaking it in with a shy pleasure.

  96 Melissa Good

  “Thanks, but I didn’t mean to.” Her face scrunched up in a wry grin. “What a way to start off, huh?”

  Dar rubbed the back of her neck and chuckled. “There are worse ways.

  Listen, it’s almost noon. Let’s go down and get some lunch, then I’ll give you the tour.” She peered at Kerry’s cup. “I see you found the kitchen all right.”

  Kerry nodded. “Yeah, nice setup. I like the microwaves because I usually bring in little frozen tray things for lunch.”

  A dark brow rose. “We have a cafeteria,” Dar remarked dryly. “But if you prefer cardboard food, sure, go right ahead. They do ask that you don’t overcook fish sticks, though, it takes us weeks to get the smell out of here.”

  “Do… Is the cafeteria your eating place of choice?” Kerry inquired. “I mean, god, that sounded funny, what I mean is, it is any good? A lot of them aren’t.” She grimaced. “When I think of cafeterias, I think of the one in college.

  Ugh.”

  “Mine too.” Dar admitted. “I ended up eating mostly ice cream and cheeseburgers for four years.”

  Kerry chuckled ruefully as she stood up. “Pizza and sub sandwiches. I still smell textbooks whenever I get delivery pizza.” She followed Dar out of the office and over to the elevator. “Guess that’s different now, huh?” she commented as the doors slid open and they entered, having the elevator to themselves.

  “Nope,” Dar confessed a touch sheepishly. “Cheeseburger, fries, and a milkshake is still one of my regular favorites.”

  Kerry eyed her trim figure and blinked. “You sure don’t look it. You must work out like crazy.”

  Exhaling softly, Dar said, “Takes up a good bit of my spare time, yes. It’s a way to work off the frustration, too.” She waited for the doors to open, stepped through them onto the second floor, then led Kerry to an open set of double doors from which enticing smells emanated.

  Dar attracted attention, Kerry noticed immediately. The minute her new boss cleared the door and entered the line, eyes shifted to her and nudges started. Puzzled, she looked at the taller woman, trying to figure out if there was something odd to cause the stir, but aside from Dar having her jacket off and her sleeves still rolled up, exposing tanned arms, she looked… Well, not like everyone else. Kerry picked up a tray and joined the line behind her, setting the puzzle aside for the moment. “Whoa, lot of choices,” she commented in some surprise.

  “I don’t put up with mystery meat,” Dar said, reviewing the selection.

  “And I pick the café vendor.”

  “Ah.” Kerry watched in bemusement as her new boss quietly requested the meatloaf and mashed potatoes, then added a large glass of milk to her tray, along with a piece of cake. She sighed and selected a chef’s salad and a glass of grapefruit juice, and followed Dar over to a corner table. “I feel like everyone’s watching me,” she murmured, as they unwrapped silverware.

  “They are,” Dar replied blithely. “You’re the new kid. Something this exciting hasn’t happened here since a Lufthansa 747 flying over dropped a wheel-bay door on top of us and it crashed through the atrium.”

  “Tch…Dar!” Kerry protested, as she nibbled a bit of ham. “I’m serious.”

  Tropical Storm 97

  Blue eyes glanced up at her over a forkful of potatoes. “So am I,” she replied honestly. “I’m high profile, everyone knows who I am, so when I take on an assistant, which has never successfully happened before, it’s big news.”

  She looked at her assistant. “I did warn you about that, right?”

  Kerry sighed. “Yes, you did.” She glanced around furtively, catching more than one set of eyes watching them. “But this is like having lunch in the San Diego Zoo if you’re the panda.”

  Dar chuckled wryly. “Hate to say get used to it, but…” She straightened, deliberately swinging her head around and staring at each table. The attention shifted away and the sound around them rose conspicuously. Satisfied, Dar turned her attention back to her table companion. “So.” She forked a bit of meatloaf. “What’s new in eucalyptus futures?”

  Kerry bit her lip to keep from laughing aloud. “Good Lord, you’d think they’d never seen you eat lunch before.”

  Dar bit down on her fork, thinking. “Well.” She glanced up at Kerry. “I don’t often. Maria usually brings something up for me.”

  “Oh.” Kerry gave Dar an apologetic look. “Sorry, didn’t mean to take your time up.”

  “Don’t be.” Dar took a sip of her milk. “I usually don’t have anyone to sit with. Anyway, how are you settling in? I see you got to some of the mail. I have a short list of projects I want you to take over.”

  “Short list?” Kerry sat back and sipped at her grapefruit juice. “That was two pages of mail!”

  Dar tipped her glass of milk towards her. “This isn’t a research think tank. I think I did tell you.”

  Kerry reached over and touched her hand. “You warned me.” She sat back again. “The diversity of the accounts here is amazing. What I got from the mails was how much you need to juggle resources to cover everything.”

  “Exactly.” Dar nodded. “Ten pounds of gimmes in a three-pound inventory.” She met Kerry’s gaze squarely. “And I don’t have time to babysit you. You find something that needs a decision? Make it.”

  For a moment, Kerry felt a little overwhelmed, and she slowly chewed a mouthful of her salad to gain some space to think in. At Associated, she’d made her share of decisions, but this was an entirely different animal.

  “Scared?” Dar asked, one brow edging up. “Second thoughts?”

  Kerry washed her mouthful down with a sip of juice. “No.” She lifted her head and returned Dar’s gaze. “I like a challenge.”

  “Fair enough.” Her boss seemed pleased. “So do I, matter of fact.” She wiped her lips. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out fast enough. Everyone’ll figure out you’re a lot nicer than I am and come running to you first anyway.” She leaned back in her seat and rested an elbow on the table, casually glancing around as Kerry finished up her juice. She noticed the way Kerry sat while she ate, upright and with exquisite manners. One hand rested in her lap as the other manipulated her fork, and she quietly chewed small bits of her salad and swallowed without speaking. “That any good?”

  Kerry looked up with a slightly startled expression. “What?” She glanced down. “This?”

  Dar nodded.

  98 Melissa Good Kerry reviewed the remnants of her lunch. “Yeah, it was fine. Why?”

  “Just curious.” Dar nibbled on her cake, content to relax as Kerry finished up. The crowd had thinned out a little, and the noise had died down, but she knew they were still the center of attention. She lifted a hand and waved as Duks entered, and the Finance VP swerved and moved in their direction. “Afternoon.”

  “That it is.” Duks nodded, cocking his head towards Kerry. “Is this your new acquisition, my friend?”

  Kerry’s eyebrows hiked.

  “Kerry, this is Lou Draefus,” Dar said. “Everyone’s an acquisition or a depreciation to him.”

  Kerry extended her hand out. “Nice to meet you, sir.” She found her fingers grasped by a strong hold and released. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “And the same here,” he responded. “I would like to wish you good luck, Ms. Stuart. Don’t let this creature scare you off too quickly, eh?”

  Dar rolled her eyes.

  “I’ll try not to,” Kerry replied politely, as he raised his hand and retreated back to the food line, where he was joined by Mariana from Personnel. “
He’s funny.”

  Dar drained her milk. “More than he realizes sometimes.” Her expression was enigmatic. “If you’re done, let’s get your projects sorted out and throw you into the deep end.”

  “That could get kind of scary,” Kerry murmured as they picked up their trays and deposited them in the washing area. “Better brush up on my dog-paddling, I guess.”

  A tall man half turned and watched them as they passed, and Kerry couldn’t help but notice the animosity in his eyes when he looked at Dar. She waited for the elevator doors to close before she asked, though. “Who was that tall, kind of balding guy?”

  “Peter Weyhousen.” Dar replied. “He’s the government contracts account manager.”

  “I don’t think he likes you,” Kerry observed with regret.

  “Actually, he hates me,” Dar corrected her. “Those two contracts I gave to Associated came from his area.”

  “I hate to think it’s my fault if he got in trouble,” Kerry muttered.

  Dar surprised her by laughing. “Don’t worry about that. Those two contracts were a gift to me, personally, from General Easton. He wouldn’t have had them anyway.”

  She has a nice laugh, Kerry decided. It was low, and more a kind of chuckle deep in her chest than anything else, but it pushed a tiny wicked look into her eyes, and that was interesting to see.

  Dar gave her the promised tour, introducing her to various department managers, all of whom produced that nice, sickly sweet, “Hello, it’s lovely to meet you” kind of smile that you knew would disappear as soon as you turned your back. That was all right, because Dar provided cutting commentary on each of them after they moved on.

  A more thorough tour of the fourteenth floor followed. It was a roughly square floor, with large offices like Dar’s on each corner. Dar’s office was on Tropical Storm 99

  the northeast corner, and the other three were parceled out to executives of the same level. On the southeast corner was Lou Draefus’s office, the VP of Finance Kerry had met at lunch, whom Dar called Duks, then on the southwest corner sat John Dierhdohl, who was the Vice President for new accounts. The northwest corner held the showy space of Eleanor Anastasia, who was head of Marketing and Business Solutions.

  Since Dar was in charge of operations, her little wing included the MIS

  group, where Mark Polenti made a home, the security group, the network support and analysis division, and the small army of infrastructure personnel who worked on providing resources both inside and outside the company.

  Dar was in charge of everything ranging from setting up new circuits for the building, to the maintenance of the facilities (including the air conditioning, it seemed), to overseeing the huge private intranetwork which provided all their customers with connectivity and computing power. If new sales sold an account and promised them seventeen T1 lines with instant fallback, Dar’s group handled the purchasing and designing of the circuits and the installation and maintenance of them. If the contract also provided a half dozen AS400 computers, Dar’s group purchased, programmed, installed, and maintained those as well.

  It was, Kerry realized very quickly, the heart of the company, and now she had a good idea why Dar sat in the privileged position she did. Nobody wanted to piss her off, because everyone depended on her to get their job done. She told Dar that as they ended up back in the executive’s office, and got a wry smile of acknowledgment in return.

  “I knew I made the right decision,” Dar said quietly. “There are people who’ve been working here for years and haven’t yet figured that out.”

  Kerry felt rather proud of herself, on her first day. She thought Dar was pleased with her also, if the smile she’d given Kerry was any indication, and from a shaky beginning, she was feeling pretty good about her new job. She realized something else. What Dar’s title was and what she did were two different things. She was in charge of Operations, yes, but what she really functioned as was the company’s top troubleshooter. If there was a fire, Dar got sent, because on the bottom line, she simply knew what to do, and just did it, without regards to anyone’s feelings, or protocol, or anything else.

  No wonder everyone hated her. If you had Dar Roberts descend into your territory, it meant you had really screwed up, and she was there to bail you out. Not a nice feeling, Kerry realized, as she sat at her desk, reviewing the rest of her new projects. It also meant Dar was impossibly overworked, and Kerry suspected that was part of the cause of her reputation too—she simply didn’t have time to be nice. She had to get in, make a decision, and get out so she could move on to the next crisis.

  Dar had said she’d given Kerry about ten percent of the current projects she, herself, was working on. There were twenty-two projects on Kerry’s work list now. Ten percent. How in the hell does that woman even have time to sleep? I guess I’ll find out.

  DAR WATCHED THE stars come out over the ocean through her 100 Melissa Good window and leaned back, glad of a few moments peace at the end of a very long and very aggravating day. Which would have been longer and more aggravating if Kerry hadn’t worked her magic that morning and resolved Dar’s biggest problem, rendering everything else just bad and not disastrous.

  Her purse slung over her shoulder, Maria came in to bid her good night.

  “You’re late, Maria,” Dar said quietly.

  “Ay, and what should I say for you?” the secretary answered, walking over and standing on the other side of her boss’s desk. “The secretaritas at your doctor’s office had only one slot open, that’s Thursday at two PM. I made that time, okay?”

  Dar ignored the pounding in her head and smiled. “That’s fine. I think I have a meeting in the morning on Thursday, then a lunch with John D. and his team, so that leaves the afternoon free.” She could see the fatigue in Maria’s face. “Pretty bad day, huh?”

  Maria perched on a corner of the desk. “That poor little new chiquita. She seems very nice, Dar.” Her face looked troubled. “I worry these people will eat her up.”

  “Nah.” The dark-haired woman behind the desk shook her head. “She’s tough. Did you see Jack’s face when he barged in here and said the network mysteriously came back up? I had to check the logs to see what happened.

  Telling him my brand-new, wet-behind-the-ears, inexperienced assistant solved the problem his techs had been working on for twelve hours…god.”

  Dar laughed. “That made my day.”

  Maria gazed at her, the lined face creasing into a faint, puzzled smile.

  “You like her, this little chiquita?”

  “I think she’s got a lot of talent and potential, yes,” Dar answered.

  “Sure.”

  “Ah ah ah.” Maria wagged a finger. “No, no…you like her.”

  A moment of silence fell as the light outside faded and left Dar mostly in shadows. The executive seemed to be asking herself that very question. “On a personal level…” She hesitated. “Yes, yes, I do like her. Why?”

  The older woman sighed. “I been working for you five years, and I’ve never seen anyone else who makes you smile so much.” She added, “Is good.”

  Dar was mildly stunned by the observation, more so when she realized it was true. “I…I guess it’s just nice to have someone who’s bright enough to figure things out. Not like the last bunch I tried in that position.”

  “Ay, right,” Maria agreed quietly, still watching her. “Is good. I hope she works out.” She waved. “Good night, Dar.”

  The executive nodded absently. “Good night, Maria. I’ll see you in the morning.” She waited for the click as the door shut, then she turned around in her chair and leaned back, steepling her fingers and regarding the rising moon. It was huge and hung over the horizon like a summer lantern, sending a rippling river of light across the almost calm ocean. “I hope so, too, Maria…I really do.”

  Chapter

  Ten

  “I THINK THAT will work, but can we use that processor for something else in slack hours?” Kerry asked as she played
with a pencil, pushing it against the surface of her desk and turning it over. “I know the banking group is looking for extra timeslices during their mids. Can we use it there?” She listened to the answer, then smiled and made a note on her pad. “Good, then I’m going to call them and let them know they can count on you for that.” She paused a moment and then continued, “Sure, the chargeback will go towards your budget.” A pleased sound came from the phone. “Nice working with you, too … Yes, that’s right, Stuart, from Operations … Well, thanks. I do try … Good bye.”

  Kerry sat back as she cut the phone off. “Well, there’s another one off the list.” She picked up her cup, strawberry-scented steam wafting from it, and took a sip. “Making a dent.”

  A soft knock came at her door, and she turned as Dar entered, giving her a wry grin as she came over to perch on a corner of Kerry’s desk. She does that, Kerry thought, because it puts us more at a level. Dar was so tall, she towered over Kerry anyway, and when she was sitting down, it just made it all the worse. It’s a nice touch, she thought. “Hi. How’s it going over there?”

  Dar half shrugged. “Like it usually is.” She rested her hands on her knee.

  “Let’s talk about Denver.”

  Kerry felt a little nervous. “Okay.”

  “Two DS3s?” Dar’s brows lifted.

  God, I hate butterflies in my stomach. Kerry collected herself. “They just signed the banking account up there.”

  “And?”

  She hated her palms sweating even more than the butterflies, but she kept herself from wiping them. “They’re central. If we have dual pipes up there, we can use that as a third leg for the backbone in case of primary failure.” Dar studied her in silence. “And I heard a rumor they’re close to re-signing the big retail contract and they’re going international,” Kerry finished. “I didn’t want us to get cut short.”

  Finally, Dar smiled. “Three out of three,” she said. “Good decision, Kerry.

  What you didn’t know is that they’ve been hiding a capacity problem up there from me for two months and that just solved it.” She winked. “Nice work.”