Dar sauntered over, hitched up her skirt, and perched on the edge of Kerry’s desk. “Just proving I can still put out a little code if I have to,” she drawled. “How was your day? I haven’t seen you since nine. I’ve been pretty buried myself.”

Kerry lifted a hand and indicated her full outbox. “I’m about half caught up. I was digging through all the facilities requests today, sorting them, trying to find an equitable way to move people to your new net.

Fielding questions from every single account manager we’ve got practically.” She patted Dar’s nearby knee. “You caused me so much work, Boss.”


Eye of the Storm 449

The outer office door opened and Mayte came in with a steaming cup. “Oh,” she paused, when she saw Dar, “I’m sorry. I can…”

“Nah.” Dar waved her in. “I was just getting a status report.”

The slim girl smiled, then deposited the cup on Kerry’s desk. It was a dark, fragrant brew, and Kerry sniffed it appreciatively before she took a sip. “Oh wow. This is nice. Blackberry?”

“Sí.” Mayte blushed a little. “I saw you liked that.” She lifted her eyes and met Dar’s, then cleared her throat. “I am going to drop off the mail, then go home. Unless you need something else?”

“Nope. Go on.” Kerry leaned back, both hands cradled around the mug. “I’m going to finish up here, then head home myself.” Her assistant left, closing the door softly behind her, and she sighed.

“Tired?” Dar asked.

“A little.” Kerry flexed her arm. “My shoulder’s aching. I don’t want to take those muscle relaxants until I get home though. They put me out like a light.” She studied Dar. “And it’s been a little weird here today. I kinda get a creepy feeling people are avoiding me.”

“I think you’re imagining things.”

“No, I’m not. When I walk through the halls, people used to say hi, make small talk.” Kerry gazed at her desktop. “I don’t know. Maybe they’re wondering what kind of person would do what I did.” Then she shrugged it off. “Anyway…or maybe I’m just overly sensitive.” She glanced up at Dar. “Col’s coming over. I wanted to show her my pictures and the stuff we brought back and give her the present I got her.” Dar nodded. “She and the gang coerced me into going to D and B’s on Wednesday. You up for that?”

Dar straightened her back a little and winced. “Not skeeball, but yeah, that sounds okay.” She cupped both hands around one knee. “I had a visit from Gerry Easton today.”

“Really?”

“Mmm. Yeah. He had a very interesting proposal,” Dar said. “He’s gotten approval to contract us to provide high level consulting services to the Navy.” She shifted. “To review all their processes, systems, and procedures and recommend, procure, and implement technological improve-ments.”

Kerry’s eyes widened. “Wow. That must be huge.”

Dar slowly nodded. “His one condition was,” she chuckled, “I head it up.”

“Big surprise there,” her lover remarked. “Wow. What do you think about that?”

“I think,” Dar got up and walked over to the window, pressed her fingertips against it and looked out, “I think I’m very, very intrigued.”

She turned. “Means I’ll have to travel a bit but most of the analysis can be done from here.” A bright, interested look came into her eyes.

“Do you get to go out to the ships and stuff?” Kerry asked, folding her arms. “Like to the aircraft carriers and those things?”

Dar nodded.


450 Melissa Good

“Ooo, that does sound interesting. Can I help?”

Dar gave another nod. “You bet. I wrote up the prospectus and sent it up to Alastair. He approved it in nothing flat.”

“Wow.” Kerry exhaled. “I’m glad. I know you were looking for another project to do. This sounds right up your alley.” Her speaker buzzed. “Operations, Stuart.”

“Kerry? This is Eleanor,” the Marketing VP announced crisply. “I have a conference call on with all the regional managers regarding the new network and I can’t find Dar. Can you please come down and join us, so I can get a coherent explanation of the new system?”

Kerry rubbed her neck and sighed, giving Dar a plaintive look.

Her boss shrugged and held up both hands. “You’d do it better than I would anyway,” she whispered.

“Yeah, yeah.” She shifted a little. “Okay, Eleanor. I’ll be right there.

Where are you, anyway?”

“The big presentation room. Can you come down now?” The VP

sounded impatient.

The big presentation room? Kerry’s brows knit together. What on earth was the woman doing in that huge place all be herself? “Uh, sure.” She at looked Dar in confusion. “Was the conferencing bridge broken in the executive center?”

“It was booked.” Eleanor drummed her fingers impatiently. “Anything else?”

“No. I’ll be right down.” Kerry released the call. “I can just picture it.

That cavernous room. She probably just likes to hear her voice in there.”

“Probably,” Dar agreed amiably. “Well, I better let you go. I’m going to finish up some stuff in my office. Catch you when you’re done?” She patted Kerry’s arm.

“Sure.” Kerry stood and shrugged into her jacket, lifting the collar of her silk shirt above the lapel. “This shouldn’t take long. ‘More pipes, bigger pipes, faster service, better network,’ right?”

“Right,” Dar agreed, clapping her on the back. “Go get ’em, tiger.”

Kerry gave her a bemused look, then turned and went to the door, opened it, and slipped out into a quiet hallway.

KERRY LEANED AGAINST the back wall of the elevator, watching the floors change slowly. That new project of Dar’s really sounds neat, her mind mused. I’m glad. A smile crept over her face, as she realized just how glad she was that something had come along to keep her boss’ interest, since she really had no desire to see Dar leave the company any time soon.

Part of that was very selfish, she acknowledged. She liked having the security of Dar’s presence down the hall and the benefit of her experience and knowledge. Not that Dar would refuse to answer her questions even if she weren’t part of the company, but still.

Yeah. She was glad.


Eye of the Storm 451

The doors opened on the tenth floor, and she walked out, turned right, and went down the long hallway. “Boy, it’s quiet,” she commented, hearing the faintest of echoes. The late afternoon sunlight painted the occasional stripe from the offices she passed, but only a muted buzz of the phone system broke the silence as she continued through the marketing area towards the big presentation room.

She was pretty sure the company’d be glad Dar was sticking around too. After what she’d achieved so far this year, the moaning and whining had subsided to less than nothing, and even José and Eleanor seemed a lot happier. Sales were up, the new network was the talk of the industry.

Heck, they should throw Dar a freaking party.

Kerry paused before the conference room door and straightened her jacket, then ran her fingers through her hair. Eleanor tended to have teleconferencing running, and who the hell knew who she had on the big screen? She put her hand on the door latch and pushed down, then pulled the door open and walked inside.

“SURPRISE!” A roar greeted her.

Kerry stopped dead in her tracks, shocked beyond speech. The entire of the huge room was filled with colorful banners, balloons, confetti, and lots, and lots of people.

Hundreds of them, it seemed.

Cheering and coming towards her, with flashbulbs going off and laughter. To one side, a huge table was set up, with a cake, and bowls of chips, on the other side were chafing dishes of something hot or other.

Kerry managed to get her jaw closed and she blinked, as Maríana reached her and patted her arm. “Oh my god.”

“You all right?” The Personnel VP laughed. “Happy birthday!”

On cue, everyone started singing with the usual success that a group of unrelated non-singers had.

At least it gave her a minute to start breathing again, Kerry realized, as a belated flush darkened her skin and her mind finally acknowledged exactly what had happened.

They’d given her a surprise party.

Wow. Kerry sucked in air, and looked around in amazement, finally finding a pair of twinkling blue eyes near the back of the room, just watching her. “Wow,” she managed to say. “I’m…uh…”

“Freaked,” Mark supplied helpfully. “Man, what a facial expression.” He held up his digital camera. “Happy birthday, Kerry.”

Kerry rubbed her face. “Oh my god.” She laughed helplessly, as they closed in on her, and hands touched her arm and patted her back. “Wow.

I have no idea what to say here.” Laughter. “I’ve never had a surprise party before. Thank you, guys. This is amazing.” A smile spread across her face. “Totally amazing.”

Then she spotted Colleen lurking in the back and she put her hands on her hips. “Hey. Waitaminute.” She pointed at her friend. “Didn’t I just talk to you?”

Colleen held up her cell phone and grinned, then pointed. “I brought 452 Melissa Good the Corona.” She came over. “Sorry, Ker. I know you wanted to be low key but…”

“Well,” Kerry looked around and laughed helplessly, “so much for that. At least I didn’t have to plan it all.”

“Nope,” Colleen agreed, clapping her on the shoulder. “Vacation did you good, Ker. You look great. Look at that tan, wouldja?”

Kerry ran her fingers through her hair a touch self-consciously.

“Yeah. I scared myself in the mirror this morning.” She joked. “It was great though. We had a fantastic week.”