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each other.

Kerry felt herself blushing, as Maria gave her a knowing smile.

”Um, I think I’d better go get some work done.” She cleared her throat.

”I’m, going to, uh, get some coffee. You want any?” she asked, rubbing the side of her face and feeling the heat against her fingertips.

Maria walked over, and took her hands. ”Kerrisita.”

Sea green eyes peeked at her uncertainly. ”Yes?”

”You have been such a gift to her,” Maria told her softly. ”God bless you.”

Kerry dropped her eyes and felt her blush intensify, almost making her light headed. She sucked in a few breaths and finally looked back up. ”Thanks,” she whispered. ”I think this feeling is God’s greatest gift to anyone,” she managed to get out. ”I’m glad I was in the right place at the right time.”

”Si.” Maria smiled. ”Go to your office. I am going to the downstairs. I will bring up you some coffee and some of the little pastries.” She released Kerry’s hands and gave her a little push. ”Go. I make faces like this.” She poked her tongue out. ”At all the other secretaritias.”

Kerry laughed. ”Okay.” She surrendered. ”Thank you.” She ducked out into the hallway and started towards her office, only to be stopped by Mark. ”Oh, hey.”

”Hey.” He cuffed her lightly on the arm. ”I hear you kicked ass yesterday. Way to go.” His face was tinged with sunburn, and he bore a faintly smug look. ”I take it the boss is here?”

She exhaled. ”Yep, just got to her office. I’m sure we’ll be a week just straightening out the email bombs.” This sudden, casual recognition of her and Dar’s attachment was, she had to admit, a little unsettling.

But kind of nice, too. It sort of relaxed a tension she’d hardly been aware of. ”Thanks for coming in so fast.”

Mark chuckled. ”Yeah, well, I guess the bike’ll have to wait on the weekend. I’ve got so much crap piled up on my desk, I have to go hire Mel Fisher to find it.” He patted Kerry’s arm again. ”See you later.”

Kerry lifted a hand in goodbye and walked down the hallway, going into her office and dropping into her chair, as she flipped the power switch on her computer and waited for it to boot.

What would Dar do, she wondered. She knew it would end up with Steven Fabricini leaving, but, how?

Hmm. She turned her attention to her email, which had spawned frighteningly overnight. Parent email now had multiple child email, some of which had died and left the original subjects lonely orphans.

”Jesus.” She paged through them. ”I wonder if I could just kill them all?”Her phone buzzed and she hit the answer button. ”Operations, Stuart.”


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A panicked voice answered. ”Oh, great, uh, Ms. Stuart, this is Roger, in Charlotte. Uh, we’ve got a problem.”

”Okay.” Kerry leaned forward, kicking her problem solving brain cells into gear. ”What is it?”

A loud sound of splashing came through the phone. ”Uh, ow!”

Roger yelped. ”Um, the sprinkler system went off over here, and umm.

Yeeoww!” The phone fumbled and clattered, then was picked up.

”Damn chair hit me in the, uh, well, anyway, we’re flooded.”

”Flooded,” Kerry repeated carefully. ”As in underwater?”

”Shit!” he yelped. ”Uh, sorry. Yeah, the control room’s three feet deep, and it’s not getting any— Wow!” A loud popping and snapping was heard. ”Yow, I think that was the main breaker panel going—”

”Roger?” Kerry spoke loudly into the phone.

”Yeah?” he answered. ”Oh, wait I gotta get up onto the desk.”

”Get out of there!” Kerry yelled, then put him on hold and dialed Dar’s extension, waiting for her boss to pick up. ”Help!” she barked into the phone, then switched back to the other line. ”Roger?”

”Uh, I’ve got a problem, Ms. Stuart.” the man answered nervously.

”More than one,” Kerry told him. ”What is it?”

”I can’t swim,” he answered. ”And I think I just saw a 3270 float by.” The phone suddenly disconnected.

”Shit.” Kerry glanced up as she heard running steps, then half stood as her inner door burst open and Dar pounced inside, her pale blue eyes snapping, and every inch of her bristling with unreleased energy.

”What’s wrong?” she snapped.

Kerry drew in a breath. ”God, you look sexy when you do that.”

Dar was obviously knocked off stride. ”Wh...buh...” she exhaled.

”Kerry, you yelled for help, what in the hell’s going on?”

”Oh, right. Charlotte’s been flooded out,” Kerry quickly explained.

”Sorry about that but they’re in big trouble.” She walked over and put an arm around her lover. ”Sorry, Dar. I didn’t mean for you to think that I was, um...” She rooted around for a phrase.

”In mortal danger?” Dar relaxed a little. ”You know I just knocked a Xerox repairman so far back onto his butt they’re probably going to have to remove the toner drum from his throat surgically.” She sighed, and rubbed her face. ”Okay, so we’ve got a potential disaster here.

That’s our routing hub.”

”Mm, the guy from Netops just told me he thought he saw a 3270

terminal floating in the control room,” Kerry advised her.

”Anyone check to see if they’re burning hemp around there again?”

Dar snorted. ”3270’s don’t float.” She exhaled. ”Okay, let me go start working the problem. Try to get them back on the phone, or call the cells,” she muttered as she walked back out, shaking her head.

Kerry smiled a little as she heard the interested, but muted excitement in Dar’s tone. With a soft chuckle, she turned back to her 170

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desk and called up a network schematic, wincing at the flashing red dots that indicated down sections. ”Oh, that bites.” She started dialing emergency numbers.

“LOOK, I DON’T give a damn about what you have to do to release that,” Dar growled into the phone. ”I need your damn president on this phone in five minutes, or the next call is from our legal department.

Your choice.” She glanced up as Maria stuck her head in and waved a small cardboard tray. One hand lifted and waved her forward. ”I’ll hold.”

Maria came over with the pastalitos and offered them to her. ”I have three of those little queso ones,” the secretary whispered. ”I know you like them.”

Dar's eyes twinkled gently as she nodded, and put her hand over the receiver. ”Thanks,” she mouthed as she accepted the pastries and the steaming cup of creamy looking coffee, glancing up and meeting Maria’s eyes.

It was an odd feeling, somewhat naked, somewhat embarrassing, and Dar found herself blushing a little. She was glad her tan hid most of it, but she knew that probably the tips of her ears had turned red by the little chuckle Maria gave before she backed mercifully out of the room.

Not that Maria hadn’t known before, but... Dar sighed and took a bite out of one of the pastries. She was used to keeping her private life private, even her brief interlude with Elana had been under wraps, until that last, very public, scathingly sarcastic encounter.

Maybe that’s why she was feeling a little skittish, hmm? It had taken her a long time to get to the point where she could think about that and not cringe inside, though outwardly she’d shown as much emotion as if Elana had merely been turning over a report.

Stoneface. Duks had told her later that it had pretty well cemented her reputation as the company’s premier iceberg, the way she’d brushed off Elana’s pointed rending with a mere lift of a brow, and a twitch of the lips.

Oh god if they’d only known.

Dar regarded her desktop for a moment in silence, then looked up as a voice came back on the line. ”Well?” She snapped.

”Ms. Roberts, we have a team of people heading out that way. I’m not sure...” the voice hesitated.

”Look,” Dar growled, sending her voice down to its lowest pitch. ”I need to know what chemicals were in that sprinkler mixture and I need to know NOW!” She punched up the volume, feeling the sound reverberate in her chest. ”Or you’re going to take responsibility for the bill when I have to fly a chemical hazard team in there on a goddamned Learjet!” The insurance company was refusing to allow any employees to enter the networking office, until the dangers were evaluated, and Hurricane Watch

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they had fully three quarters of the domestic network down, three hours after the accident had happened.

”Dar. ” Maria poked her head in. ”Mariana on line numero dos,”

she called, in a low voice.

”Not now,” Dar muted her current call. ”I’m in the middle of a disaster.” She watched as Maria disappeared, then she propped her head up on one hand and released the mute button with the other. ”Do I get that, or do I call my legal department? I’m done screwing around with you people.”

Rustling papers and low mutters. ”Where do you need the information sent?” the voice stiffly answered. ”We can pass along our usual information, but you have to understand that the composition will vary depending on local water quality, and the types of pipes, and—”

”Just send it,” Dar interrupted him, and repeated the fax number at their insurance company’s branch office in North Carolina. She looked up as Kerry entered, suppressing a smile. ”And I’d like to know why that system discharged.”

Kerry circled her and picked up a pastry, nibbling it as she perched on the corner of Dar’s desk, listening to the agitated muttering coming from the phone. ”Everyone’s screaming,” she mouthed.

Dar lifted her hands and let them drop. ”Bite me,” she mouthed back. ”I didn’t set off the goddamned sprinklers.”