Duks chewed on his pencil. ”Budgets are already figured for the quarter, Dar,” he commented quietly.

”Rework them,” she answered back, inflexibly. ”Or, sell your damn desk chairs, I don’t care, but I'm going to go ahead with the facilities regardless.”

José was still standing. He put his hands on his hips. ”I think we should consider the options, here Dar, and I—”

She pointed at him. ”This...is...not...a...committee anymore.” Each word was spoken sharply, with fierce enunciation. ”There are no options.”

Silence. Dar watched them. ”All right, we’re going to go around the table, you bring up what you think you need to, but be quick about it.

I’ve got a ton of things to do.” She finally sat down, and took a sip of water from the glass in front of her, then leaned back and gazed at Duks, who was closest to her. A brow lifted at him.

Impudently, he poked the very tip of his tongue out, where only she could see it. ”Congratulations, my friend.”

Her eyes twinkled soberly at him, the faintest hint of a grin pulling at the corners of her mouth. ”Thank you.”

”I have some good news,” Duks went on. ”The retirement fund had an investment in a group of technicals, and we made a killing last week.

We’re thirty percent over expectations in the fund.”

Murmurs went around the room.

”Nice,” Dar commented. ”Who picked those?”

Duks named one of his assistants. ”Damn good job of analyzing,”

he added. ”I put a commendation in his file.”


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”Put a little commendation in his paycheck,” Dar suggested wryly.

”Before Merrill Lynch steals him.”

A faint, nervous chuckle skittled across the table. ”That it for you?”

Dar inquired.

Duks nodded, then turned, to where Mariana was seated next to him. ”Next?”

They went around the room, receiving clipped replies from José and nothing from Eleanor, and everyone left when she closed the meeting, save Duks and Mari. Dar waited for the door to close, then glanced at them. ”So.”

Duks leaned on his elbows. ”That was different,” he commented.

”Giving notice that your reign is not going to be business as usual, my friend?”

”Give me a break,” Dar snorted, leaning back and allowing herself to relax from the almost painful tension of the meeting. Her entire body ached from it, and she exhaled in relief. ”You know it won’t last. Next week they’ll all be in here bitching again.”

Mariana laughed softly. ”I don’t know about that, Dar. You made quite an impression. You have a very powerful presence, you know.”

Dar gave her a wry grimace. ”Well, I don’t hold out a lot of hope, but at least we didn’t spend five hours going over crap we’ve been through for the last two years.” She sighed, and studied her pen, which she turned over and over in her fingers. ”I’m going to need to pull a project team on that new facility.”

Mariana nodded. ”I gathered. You want to put in a new orgid for you? We can slot them in there, and charge them off against the operating budget.”

”Sounds good,” Dar agreed mildly. ”Well, I’ve got two phone conferences, four client briefings, and a major proposal to review, so...

You two going to be around later? Maybe we can all have dinner or something.”

Duks and Mari exchanged looks. ”I hear you know a good Thai restaurant down on Biscayne. Sound good?” Mari asked. ”We can save all our chitchat for there. Will you be able to unbury Kerry from her desk by then?”

Dar chuckled. ”Yeah, I think so.” She caught their eyes and realized where they were looking. Just barely keeping herself from sticking her hands in her pockets, she merely flexed her fingers instead. ”I’m not going to fill my position right away.”

Silence, as they digested that. ”Good idea,” Mariana nodded approvingly. ”You slowly going to shift responsibilities to Kerry?”

”Yes.”

”Smart.” Duks nodded also. ”Give everyone a chance to see what she can do.”

Silence again. Mariana cleared her throat gently. ”Are you going to um...” she considered, fishing for a way to ask delicately. ”Change your Hurricane Watch

291

beneficiary information in CAS?”

Dar almost laughed, as she kept her eyes on her pen. ”Yeeahh...it looks like it,” she admitted, glancing up to see a twinkle in Mari’s eyes.

”Talk about an obscure way of asking.”

Duks chuckled. ”C’mon, Mari, we’ve got things to do, and so does the grand poobah, here. Let’s be getting a move on.” He stood, then leaned over and clapped Dar on the shoulder. ”Good job, Dar.”

”Likewise,” Mari added, as they pushed their chairs into place. ”I think it’s going to turn out for the best for everyone.”

Dar felt her pager go off as she watched them leave, then she sighed, looking around the empty conference room. ”I sure hope so.”

She stood and went to the phone nearby and rang the office. ”Maria, what’s up?”

”Ah... Dar. I was not going to bother you, but it has been some time now, and I...that Michelle Graver person is here.”

”Oh.” Dar winced. ”Great, is she down there waiting? I’ll come down. We’re done here.”

”Aie. No, no, Dar. She came a half an hour ago. She was upset at something, but Kerry took her away to fix things.”

Kerry? Oh. Great. Dar tried to remember if she had a first aid kit in her office. ”Um...did she say where they were going?”

”No, but I think they were in her office.” Maria supplied helpfully.

”Is good I called you? I don’t like that woman, Dar. She is very sneaky looking.”

Yeah. ”Okay, yeah, that was good, Maria. I’ll take care of it.” Dar sighed. ”Talk to you later.” She hung up, then grabbed her portfolio and headed purposefully out the door.

KERRY NIBBLED HER lip in thought, then added a couple of lines to her email, clicking on the send once she’d reread it for the fifth or sixth time. She checked her watch, and paused, wondering how Dar’s meeting was going, before she punched a few numbers on the speakerphone. ”Hi, Maria?”

”Si...si...uno momento, senora.” The secretary sounded harried, and Kerry could hear an angry voice in the background.

A vaguely familiar voice. ”Maria, what’s going on?”

”Ah…we have a Ms. Graver here, she is looking to be speaking with Dar, but I am telling her she is in a meeting.” Maria answered. ”Is problems, I think.”

Kerry drummed her fingers on her desk. Michelle Graver, huh? A grim smile crossed Kerry’s face. ”Let me see if I can help her, Maria.

Bring her down here,” she suggested. ”Who knows how long Dar’s going to be.”

Maria sounded very grateful. ”Gracias, Kerrisita. We’ll be right down.” She hung up, leaving Kerry to run a quick eye over her desk, 292

Melissa Good

and straighten the stack of papers in her outbox with a push. Then she turned her monitor slightly and checked her reflection, trying on one of Dar’s arched eye browed looks for size.

”Uck. I can’t do that.” She chuckled a little. ”I look too weird.” A gentle tug on her sleeves got her shirt straight, then she took a breath and settled herself, as a soft knock came on the door. ”C’mon in.”

Maria opened the door and entered, holding it for Michelle Graver to enter behind her. The short Disney executive brushed past her, and stalked across the carpet, tossing a folder down on Kerry’s desk. ”I doubt you can help.”

Kerry held her eyes for a moment, then she pulled the folder towards her and flipped it open. ”Please, have a seat,” she murmured, as she studied the contents. ”Maria, here are the reports so far, and the project Dar was working on.” She reached out and lifted the stack of papers and offered them. ”I think she wanted these requisitions cleared before lunchtime.”

”Si.” Maria took the stack. ”We are making special order today for lunch, the Chinese food, you want?”

Kerry paused. ”Sure. Yeah, that would be great.” She pulled a paper out, and keyed up one of her sessions. ”Hang on a minute. I need to request these real-time.” She rattled her keys, then turned. ”Um...I’ll take a beef with snow peas, and you can order Dar a Szechwan shrimp.”

She took a guilty bit of satisfaction in saying that while Michelle was sitting there, and she didn’t miss the narrowing of those little beady eyes.”Is good.” Maria scribbled a note, then left, abandoning a tense silence behind her.

Kerry returned her attention to the screen. ”This utilization report shows you’re losing packets.”

Michelle clapped her hands twice. ”Very good,” she remarked sarcastically. ”I’m impressed. Did she train you on all the little blinking lights, or just the most important ones?”

Kerry felt an insidious urge to make an inappropriate gesture, and stifled it. ”No, actually, I learned that in college,” she answered the question at face value. ”Have you made any changes to your internal network?” she asked, politely.

”No,” Michelle answered. ”It’s not on our end, and my people have been complaining about it for two weeks, and nothing’s been done. I want it cleared up, or you can tell your...boss...the next contact will be from our legal department to terminate the contract.”

Briefly, Kerry wondered why Michelle had found it necessary to fly all the way from Orlando to tell her that, then figured it was probably just an excuse. ”Hold on.” She started a routine running, watching the results and ignoring the impatient woman across the desk.

Well, Kerry, if you’re going to even think about doing Dar’s job, better start here. She watched a gauge, then dialed a number. ”Mark?”