Tropical Storm - DK1 Page 24

  She stopped breathing. “Uf…”

  “Weight belt,” Dar said matter-of-factly. “You need it to compensate for the air in here.” She patted the vest and smiled.

  “Owf.” Kerry nodded in understanding as her lungs started working again.

  Dar put her own belt on, adjusting it a little and scowling, then she set her mask in place. “Okay, just do what I do. You’re going to let go, and let yourself sink. Just breath normally.”

  It was the oddest sensation, Kerry decided, as she obeyed and let herself start to fall through the water. The regulator’s bubbles kept a steady stream of sound around her, but she looked around as she went deeper, seeing the sun’s rays bend and lose their color.

  Not far, as Dar had said, and in fact, if she looked up, Kerry could see the solid bottom of the boat just above her. But down here… She leveled out and floated just above the bottom, which was covered with a thick coral formation.

  144 Melissa Good Her eyes widened as a school of small, brightly painted yellow and blue fish went right past her, their fins brushing her skin lightly, like butterflies. Past them swam larger, more solitary fish, their bodies undulating back and forth as they surveyed the reef in regal splendor. A tiny, darting red fish zigzagged past her and fled, followed by a larger, flat, black fish with an eye on each side of its body. She glanced down and pointed. A lobster was making its way across the bottom, its spiny shell flexing as it moved.

  Just watching her, Dar nodded. The older woman was floating, her arms folded over her stomach and her legs half bent. She lifted one hand and made an okay sign with her fingers, then raised an eyebrow in question. Kerry nodded vigorously, almost unseating her regulator. Dar nodded back, then moved off very slowly, motioning her to follow.

  They stayed down for about twenty minutes, while Dar gave her a little tour and pointed out things not to touch. The reef, for one; every touch on the coral was a death sentence to it. Fire coral for another, which could sting human skin badly. Puffer fish, which had spikes; eels, which she wouldn’t have come within a hundred yards of anyway; and other various creatures.

  Then Dar gently led her up to the surface, swimming up the anchor line until they both broke through the waves, and removed their regulators.

  “Oh my god, that was amazing!” Kerry blurted immediately. “Did you see those silver fish? They were making faces at me!” She pulled her mask off, and pushed her wet hair back. “And those purple things. What were those purple things? There were these little translucent squiddy things, too. What were they?”

  Laughing, Dar held up a hand. “Whoa, take it easy. Let’s get back on the boat and we can talk about it, okay?” She had Kerry hand her the gear, and she put it onto the deck, then lifted herself up and extended hand to the smaller woman. “Here, grab on.”

  Kerry felt herself being pulled up and she grabbed the railing, getting onto the deck far more easily than she had anticipated. “Wow.” She smiled at Dar in delight. “Thank you! I really, really mean that.”

  Dar smiled back. “Always like to see another convert.” She chuckled, ducking into the cabin and coming back out with two towels. “ Let’s get dried off, and I bet you’re hungry.”

  Kerry felt her stomach growl. “Okay, I give. How did you know that?”

  Dar’s tanned fingers waved dismissively. “Diving does it. I am too.”

  They sat in the sun, drying off and sharing lunch as Kerry peppered her companion with questions about sea life. Dar stretched out on one of the cushioned benches, putting her hands behind her head and closing her eyes as she answered. Kerry eventually ran out of queries and took the other bench, relaxing against its slightly rough surface with a contented sigh. “Ill wind blows nobody whatever, huh?” she commented wryly.

  “Mmm.” Dar turned her head slightly and regarded the younger woman.

  “You could say that.” She studied the slim frame, sleek in its purple fabric, then her eyes closed again as the sun bathed them in rich golden light. “Glad we remembered sunscreen.”

  “Uh huh,” the fair-skinned woman agreed. “Otherwise, I’d turn the color of a lobster,” A silence fell, and Kerry mused thoughtfully to herself for a bit, Tropical Storm 145

  then she turned to ask Dar a question. She bit it back when she saw that Dar was peacefully asleep. With a contented smile, she shifted to get a little more comfortable, then let her own eyes close as well.

  A SEAGULL, ARCHING overhead and complaining, nudged Dar awake, and she reluctantly opened her eyes, slightly startled by the low arc of the sun .

  Oh damn. She yawned and stretched, rubbing her face with one hand as she sat up. The boat was bobbing gently, and she glanced around, not seeing her companion until she half stood and spotted her on the very front of the bow, her knees tucked up against her chest as she gazed out at the horizon. The sun was hitting her from the back and brought out gentle red highlights in her otherwise blonde hair, and Dar felt a smile on her lips she really had little control over.

  “Hey.” She climbed up onto the bow and settled down at Kerry’s side.

  “You shouldn’t have let me sleep so long.”

  Eyes the color of the sea around them peered at her from under sun-lightened brows. “I just woke up myself. And you looked so peaceful, I didn’t have the heart to wake you up.” Kerry smiled. “I know last night wasn’t very comfortable, so…” She shrugged. “It was kinda like catching up.”

  Dar leaned back against the cabin wall and nodded. “That’s true. Guess we’d better get going on in, though. Power should be back on and I can get you home.”

  “Yeah,” Kerry murmured, resting her chin on her knee.

  Silence settled, save the soft rippling of the waves. Dar finally cleared her throat a little. “Listen, I, um…I wanted to apologize.”

  Kerry’s brows knitted and she turned her head. “For what? Dar, it’s not your fault a storm came up.”

  Dar held up a hand. “No. For what happened with Associated.”

  “Mmph.” There was a brief pause. “Well, it’s all right, I mean, it worked out.”

  “But it wouldn’t have,” Dar admitted with a sigh. “If you hadn’t stood up to me and made me take a second look at what I was doing, it wouldn’t have.” She fell silent for a moment. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I never stopped to think about how the people I was doing it to felt.”

  “Oh.” Kerry absorbed this. “It was hard,” she acknowledged. “I felt like it was so hopeless sometimes, and then when you called. Boy.” She looked out at the water and shook her head. “It hurt.” She glanced sideways and watched Dar’s eyes narrow, her sight firmly focused on the horizon. “But you were doing your job.”

  “Yes,” Dar murmured. “I know. That’s why it puzzled me when, after all that, you wanted to come help me do it to other people.”

  “Maybe the next time something like that comes up, I can get you to think twice again,” Kerry answered simply.

  Blue eyes looked directly into hers. “What if you can’t?”

  Kerry thought about that. “I’ll just keep trying,” she answered quietly. “I have a lot of patience.”

  Dar ducked her head and chuckled. “Fair enough.” She pushed herself to 146 Melissa Good her feet and made her way back to the console. “Hang on, I’m bringing up the anchor.”

  Kerry scrambled off the bow and settled herself onto the cushioned bench, leaning against the railing and extending her legs into the lowering sunlight. The city was backlit in molten gold. Wishing she had a camera to capture the sight, she swung around and kept it in her view as Dar turned the boat and headed for shore.

  Chapter

  Thirteen

  “MORNING, MARIA.” DAR settled back in her seat as the ferry made its way toward the causeway.

  “Dios mío, Dar. You cannot believe the smells in here this morning. It is like a thousand cats pee-peed on the rug,” the secretary informed her. “I have an orange stuck into my nose.”

  “Did mainte
nance arrange for a carpet cleaning service?” Dar inquired, wincing at the thought of the stench. “Never mind, just put me through to Jack Eierdall.” She waited a moment, then a gruff voice answered. “Jack? Dar Roberts.” She listened. “We need a steam cleaner in there today, Jack, not two days from now … That’s not acceptable.” Another wait and protesting tones.

  “I don’t give a rat’s ass about your cousin. I’ll get a commercial crew in and bill you back for it at cost plus if you don’t get ’em in there today.”

  Dar inspected a nail, then flexed her hand where the skin was just a little tight from the sunburn she’d gotten on Saturday. “Look, cut the crap. Bottom line, I see the truck by the time I get there, or I call in Stanley Steamer Corporate. G’bye, Jack.” She hung up the line, then dialed again. “Maria?”

  “Si.” The secretary sneezed. “Oye, excuse me, Dar.” She shuffled some papers. “You have a meeting at eight thirty, remember—the executive committee, and you have three client briefings after that.”

  Dar sighed. “I know. Listen, block out my morning tomorrow, until at least lunchtime, and Kerry’s too.” She paused. “She’s, um…she has to drive me to an appointment I have to go to.”

  After a period of shocked silence, Maria said slowly, “All right, I will do that. Is it…a business meeting? I…”

  “No,” the executive said quietly, “I’m having some tests done. It’s all right, nothing major. I just don’t know what kind of medication they’re going to give me and didn’t want to risk driving myself.”

  “Dios mío. All right, I’ll put that down. I’ll have to cancel your account meeting with Travel and Transport, Dar.”

  “Aw, shucks,” Dar drawled. “Reschedule it for sometime extremely inconvenient to them, will you?”

  “Tch, Dar.” Maria laughed shortly. “You are so bad.” She hesitated. “I have my rosary here. What kind of tests for you, so I’ll know how to pray?”

  Dar blinked at the phone, too stunned to answer for a moment, then she exhaled. “It’s nothing, I … They’re not sure, really, Maria, just maybe a leaky valve or something. It’s really not anything to worry about, but thanks for offering.”

  148 Melissa Good

  “Mi madre.” The older woman sighed. “Ay, good morning.” She held the phone away from her mouth. “Excuse me, what?” Dar heard a muffled exchange, then Maria came back. “Dar, they lost some big thing in New York.”

  “Oh, hellinahandbasket.” Dar covered her eyes. “New York down on a Monday morning. What did I do to deserve this?” She angled the Lexus up the ramp and turned left onto the causeway. “Look, I’m about five or ten minutes out. Have whoever is on duty in the MDF call Netops and find out exactly what’s down, and warn Northeast region, especially service recovery, that we’ve got a problem.”

  “Okay, okay. Ah, good morning. Thank you, thank you, chiquita.”

  Maria’s voice warmed, and Dar could hear another voice in the background, which brought a smile to her face.

  “Dar, Kerry is here, she says she’ll take care of it.”

  “Good morning, Kerry.” Dar chuckled. “Thanks, how was the rest of your weekend?”

  “Eh.” Kerry’s voice was noncommittal. “Let’s not talk about that. Does the term sewer backup mean anything to you?”

  “Ouch.” Dar winced, as she turned left onto Brickell.

  “Yeah, it’s almost as bad as it is in here,” Kerry told her. “Well, I’m going to go call Netops. I’ll try to have a status for you by the time you get here.”

  Maria’s voice came back on the line and the muffled sound of a door closing could be heard in the background. “She is such a nice girl, Dar,” the secretary told her approvingly. “That was so sweet of her to take you home on Friday.”

  “Yes, it was.” Dar swung into the parking lot, noting a wildly careening truck just behind her. The truck pulled right up to the service entrance, and four men got out, pulling out carpet-cleaning equipment. She grinned mercilessly. “Be right up.” She hung up the line and got out of the car, grabbing her briefcase before heading for the doors.

  KERRY CARRIED A handful of papers with her as she slipped down the back hallway and tapped on the door to Dar’s office, hearing the older woman’s voice raised in a growling yell. “Oh boy.” She pushed the door open and slipped inside.

  Pacing back and forth behind her desk, Dar looked for all the world like a well-dressed panther. She was yelling at some hapless person in the network operations center, her staccato barks tossing aside his attempts to explain.

  “Don’t give me that crap, I don’t want to know about how Sprint had a fiber cut under Newark Airport. I want that circuit rerouted.”

  Kerry stopped before she reached the desk and held the top sheet out, then handed it over as Dar held her hand up. “It’s a big problem, Dar. They had an airport transport vehicle go off the ramp and crash down through the communications center. It took out their entire fiber center, including all the internal com at the airport.”

  “Jesus.” Dar’s eyes widened. “Are they shut down?”

  “Yeah, they’re rerouting traffic through La Guardia, but it’s a mess.”

  Fingers drumming on her desk, eyes shifting rapidly, Dar sat down and Tropical Storm 149

  requested information from their database, and drummed her fingers again.

  “All right, all right. Listen up, Netops…”

  “We’re here,” the tired-sounding voice came back. “We’ve been on this since two AM.”

  “You’ve got thirty-seven T1 lines that come down into Newark for T-and-T’s rescom that you handle for the Hub site agreement.” Dar traced a spiderwork of connections on her screen, motioning Kerry over. The blonde woman put a hand on the back of her chair and peered at the screen.

  “Yeah, but that’s carrying terminal res traffic.” The phone crackled.

  “If you shift the endpoint routers at backbone six and seven to one and two, you can send airport com down those, and get the airport back up. Shunt the res functions to dial backup,” Dar said rapidly. “That’ll bring the net back up there, and pass traffic through for the banking centers in New York, who are down right now and breathing fire on my ass.” There was dead silence from the phone. “Did you hear me?” Dar barked, glancing back as Kerry patted her shoulder comfortingly. “Hello?”

  “Uh, yeah. Yeah, okay. We heard you. Hang on, this is going to… Damn it, John, get that Tiger frad configured so we can shift res to backup. Someone call the MTC and tell them we’re doing this so they don’t freak out when the lines go down.”

  “I’m waiting,” Dar called out impatiently.

  “We’re working on it,” the voice responded hurriedly.

  “Work faster,” Dar warned. “It’s 8:52. If those banks aren’t up for transactions by 9:00 AM, the shit is going to hit the fan in so many directions you won’t know where to duck.”

  “Okay! Okay!”

  Dar pulled up a Netview screen and displayed the down sites. She repeated the command, then again, nervously refreshing the screen.

  “I was going to suggest I get you some coffee,” Kerry murmured, “but maybe not.”

  The dark head turned, and blue eyes regarded her as Dar’s lips twitchingly held back a grin. Then she turned her attention back to the screen.

  “Three minutes left. Where are my circuits!”

  “Hang on, hang on. Switch that. No. No!”

  “Two minutes!” Dar yelled. “I need that circuit!”

  “Okay, we need the secondary tables loaded in that backbone. Serial 1…

  Okay, okay. Try it now!”

  Dar refreshed the screen and smiled. “Thank you,” she purred. “Nice doing business with you guys.” She hit the release button. “Not!” She barked at the phone, then punched a button and shook her head.

  “Elaine Aberman, Service recovery,” a nervous, anxious voice answered.

  “Good morning, Elaine,” Dar said, soothingly.

  “No! It’s not
!” the woman wailed. “It’s horrible! It’s tragic! We’re dying!”

  “You’re up,” the executive stated calmly.

  “You can’t believe what kind of a mess it is in here. We’ve got service reps on standby ready to get up to New York, and… Excuse me?”

  “You’re up. We rerouted traffic a bit. Might be a touch slow, but it’s all there,” Dar informed her.

  150 Melissa Good

  “Oh!” The woman squealed. “Guys, guys, we’re up! We’re up! Glory be to god, we’re up!”

  Kerry put her hand over her mouth and choked back a laugh.

  “G’bye, Elaine.” Dar hung up and let herself relax back into her chair with a sigh. “Nice way to start a Monday.” She rolled her head and looked up at the still-snickering blonde. “Sewer backup, huh?”

  Kerry let a hand drop to Dar’s shoulder and squeezed it. “Oh my god, yes. It was awful. I finally just had to leave, take a ride down to the little park near my place and wait for them to finish pumping the sewers out.”

  “Mmm. Sounds great.” Dar pushed herself to her feet. “I’m supposed to be at an exec meeting. Keep an eye on this for me, will you? Call my cell if it gets ugly again.” She patted Kerry on the back as she pushed her chair in. “See you later.”

  Kerry watched her leave, then she collected her papers and made her way back to her own office.

  DAR COULD HEAR the loud arguments before she even pushed open the door, and she quite deliberately let it slam behind her as she moved across to the large executive conference table. Everyone jumped, then turned and started yelling at her. She blocked out the sound, pulling her chair forward and seating herself in it, then meticulously arranging her papers in front of her and folding long hands together across them. The din continued, and she swept the room, pinning each yelling manager with her pale blue eyes until he or she shut up, then moving on to the next one. Finally, only José Montarosa was left, the head of Sales, whose face was beet red, veins sticking out on a neck a size too big for his white long-sleeved shirt.

  “Goddamn it, Dar, I have three contracts in jeopardy in New Jersey.