”Shh,” Kerry scolded her. ”Or we’ll be at this all day. Let’s get it over with.”

”Um, who wants to start?” Skippy gave Steven a little smile.

With a little shrug he came forward. ”Might as well, can’t be worse than being dumped on my ass in the mud this morning.” He glared at Dar.“I didn’t touch you,” Dar shot right back. “If you can’t watch where you’re running, don’t blame me.”

”You could have warned me!”

Everyone looked at Dar, who shrugged. ”How was I supposed to know that mud was there?” she asked reasonably. ”You decided to run ahead of me. Not my fault you didn’t stop in time,” she said. “My reputation as a psychic is highly overrated.”

“Your reputation is highly overrated, that’s for damn sure,” Steven shot back.

”Oh, will you two shut up?” Eleanor snapped, in a foul mood.

”Let’s get this idiocy over with already.”

Sullen glares all around. Steven turned his back on them and let his Hurricane Watch

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arms hang down straight, his bright blue sweatshirt over a white polo shirt contrasting with his khaki chinos. ”Ready?”

José sidled forward and nudged them all along. ”Come on, come on.” They clustered in a group. ”All right.”

Steven very obviously squared his shoulders, then let himself tip back.A loud explosion behind them sounded. Everyone jumped and whirled, even Skippy, who threw her clipboard up as a defense. ”Oh my!”Steven, forgotten by the distracted group, dropped into the pine needle filled ground with a thump. ”Son of a bitch!” he screamed as his head hit the turf. “You bastards!”

The sound was repeated and they realized it was a backfire from some vehicle. Skippy dashed over to where Steven was lying, rubbing his head, and knelt down. ”Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Are you all right?”

They were all torn between giving him guilty looks and watching the camp entrance, where a low growling sound indicated someone was approaching. ”Listen, sorry about that kid.” José offered him a hand up.

”That noise, you know, it just startled us, sounded like a damn gun.”

The sound got louder, then a flash of sun on metal almost blinded them as a Harley roared in. It slowed a bit as the driver checked out the scene, then thumped across the uneven ground and headed in their direction. It pulled to a stop and the rider pulled his helmet off. ”Hey.”

It took all Dar’s considerable concentration to keep a devilish grin off her face. ”Hey, Mark, didn’t think you’d make it.” She greeted him.

The MIS chief got off his bike and glanced down at his body, which was covered in tiny, blood specked forms. ”Neither did I, goddamned love bugs. The company owes me big time for this one. It’s gonna take me a week to get all their guts off my bike.” He glanced over. ”What’s he doing on the ground?”


Chapter

Seven

“SO MUCH FOR that.” Kerry leaned back against a pine tree, crossing her ankles and folding her arms. She looked past the figures of Skippy and Steven, in earnest conversation nearby. “Okay, so it probably was a bad idea.”

Dar was scuffing the pine needle littered ground with one boot.

“Pure chance,” she shrugged. “Not like I called Mark up and arranged it, or told him to go first.”

“You’ll get blamed anyway,” Duks said. “The man does not like you, my friend.”

”That was a bitch, Dar.” Mark shook his head as he joined them, having changed out of his leather and love bug carcass outfit into something less gruesome. ”I ended up having the Erding office bring the equipment in for them. You’re gonna owe a few folks out there.”

Dar nodded. ”Good going.” She re-tucked her long sleeved, heavy cotton shirt into her jeans. ”Glad you could join us.” She glanced over where Steven, José and Eleanor were now clustering together. “Tilts the scale a little.”

”Yeah, you look like you’re having a great time,” Mark commented dryly. ”This place is a dump.” He glanced over as Skippy returned with a bunch of little sacks slung over her shoulder. ”Uh oh, now what?”

”Okay!” Skippy looked perkily grim. ”Here’s what we’re going to do now. We’ve got a course set up—you can see the entrance to it over there.” She pointed and they all looked over to where a trail was clearly marked. ”It’s a ten mile path, and along the way there are different stations and obstacles you have to get through.” She handed each one of them a bag. ”The object of this is for all of you to get through.” She gave them a look. ”All of you, not just some of you, okay? You all have to get back. All of you. Everyone get my point?”

Kerry muffled a wry chuckle.

“Great,” Mariana sighed, “I can see where this is going.”

Skippy looked at them as though waiting for more commentary, then she shook her head and went back to her program.

”Okay. In this sack is your lunch and a snack.” She held up a sample. ”The directions are on the top.”

Dar laughed on seeing them. ”You guys shop on the Military channel by any chance?”


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Skippy scowled, in a nice way, at her. ”Anyway, at each station is a check point. You have to get this card stamped at each checkpoint.

About halfway, there’s a cabin with water and juice, and things like that,” she exhaled. ”It’s not a race, okay? The purpose is to make you work together, to get through the obstacles.”

”We got that point,” Duks informed her. “Yes, we understand we are not to leave any of our colleagues behind.”

”Right...okay...well, go on. We’ll have dinner waiting for you guys when you get back.” Skippy made shooing motions with her hands.

”Wait, you want us to walk for ten miles?” Eleanor objected. ”You must be joking.” She glanced around for support. ”That’s ridiculous.”

”It’s not that bad,” Kerry told her kindly as she moved closer to the Marketing VP. ”Really.”

”Oh no, no, no way.” Eleanor backed away from her. ”I’m sorry.

I’ve had enough.”

”Look.” Skippy clasped her clipboard to her chest. ”This is the important part of the seminar, okay? I have to write a report on your group for your leadership team, and it’s based mostly on this exercise.”

“Yes,” Steven spoke up suddenly. “You don’t want to be the one with the bad marks in that report, do you, Eleanor? We know YOU

don’t want this to be a failure.”

Dar’s eyes narrowed.

Mariana exhaled. ”Come on, Eleanor. God knows I’m not up to walking ten miles, but we’ll get through it.” She glanced over at Dar.

”Let’s get going. The sooner we start, the sooner we finish.” She shouldered her pack. ”We can rest along the way, right?” This she directed at Skippy.

The guide smiled in relief. ”Right. There are benches and things for you to rest on. It’s not an endurance race or anything,” she assured them. ”And there are water fountains.”

The group moved off reluctantly and approached the path, passing the sign and entering a tree lined, fairly well marked lane covered in sand and pine needles.

A grumpy silence held over them and they strung out a little on the path, with José and Steven deciding to set the pace and Dar choosing to bring up the rear. Kerry casually dropped back next to her.

The wind picked up a little and blew the leaves against each other, whistling lightly around them and isolating their conversation.

”Having fun?” Dar inquired.

”Mm, not really, but did it seem to you like Mary Sunshine back there was awfully glad to get rid of us?” Kerry asked, adjusting her canvas pack to settle around her slim waist, instead of over her shoulder. ”Here, let me get yours. It’s easier to carry this way.” She adjusted her companion’s pack, slipping her arms around Dar for the moment needed to fasten the straps.

Well, slightly more than the moment, but not long enough to attract 74

Melissa Good

attention from their grousing coworkers stomping ahead of them.

”Yeah.” Dar glanced around. ”I don’t think we’re going to rate a good report from her. We’ve been sort of uncooperative.” She took a breath of the cool air and felt her temper settle a little. ”This is kind of nice, though.”

”Wait until we get to the obstacles.” Kerry chuckled, rolling her eyes. ”Hey, you know, I had the weirdest dream last night.” She missed the sudden, startled glance in her direction from Dar. ”We were riding a horse and you were wearing armor.”

”What?” Dar started laughing. ”You’re joking.”

”No, no, really.” Kerry chuckled too. ”I know, it was really strange, but it was really vivid, too. I could smell the horse and the leather stuff you were wearing, and the armor was some kind of brass.”

Dar didn’t reply. She went silent for a moment and paced along, thinking. ”Well,” she finally said. ”I guess it was the atmosphere then. I had a pretty strange dream too.” Then she fell silent.

Kerry waited for a long minute. ”What was it about? Was I in it?”

she coaxed, interested.

”Yeah,” Dar responded. ”We were on a hill, someplace I didn’t recognize really, over some river. It was warm out and we were just out there, watching the clouds go by.” She paused. ”You were sleeping. You had your head resting on my leg.” She tapped her thigh.

Kerry waited. ”And that’s strange?” she queried, puzzled. ”I don’t get it.”

”You were pregnant,” Dar said, very softly. ”That was the strange part.” She walked on a few more paces before she realized she was walking alone. With a start, she stopped and looked behind her. Kerry was standing on the path, staring at her. ”Hey, it was just a dream.” But she felt the question in her own voice and knew Kerry had heard it.