”Really?” Dar crossed her arms. ”You lasted a lot longer than I would have.” She gave Mark a wry look. ”He must have stirred up a pile of crap though, because Mariana just called me and told me they’re calling a meeting of all the upper management staff.” As if on cue, both Kerry’s and Mark’s pagers went off. ”I really don’t have time for this crap today.”

Kerry was listening to the voice page. ”Yep, one o’clock in the big conference room.”

Mark cursed softly. ”I’ve got HP coming in this afternoon about the servers. Damn.” He glanced at Dar. ”What’s it about?”

The executive shrugged. ”Mari didn’t have details. She was waiting on a packet from Houston.” She sighed. ”Alastair endorsed it and it’s from Houston Personnel center, so god only knows what it is, probably another poster campaign.”

Mark snickered. ”I liked the security posters, Dar. I have the one about preventing hackers framed in my bedroom.”

The doors slid open and they walked out, surprised to see Mariana standing in front of Dar’s doorway. ”Uh oh,” the executive murmured.

”That doesn’t look good.” She gave them both a nod. ”See you all shortly.”

”Dar, I need to talk to you,” Mari said as she approached. ”You’re not going to believe what they just dumped on us.”

”Oh, I’ll believe anything...once.” Dar gestured towards the door.

”C'mon.” She led the way into her office. ”Maria, book me for a one p.m. meeting, and cancel the briefing conference call, please.”

”Si.” Her secretary looked up from the phone. ”Dar, your little puppy called.”

”Thanks,” Dar said absently as she went through the door to the inner office, then she stopped short, causing Mariana to crash into her.

”Wait a minute, what?” She turned. ”Sorry. ” She poked her head back Hurricane Watch

31

out. ”Maria, who did you say called?”

The older woman smiled. ”Si, the puppy. I got a call, I picked up, is nothing. I said, ‘hello, hello,’ and then, ‘buenos dias,’ but nothing. I almost hang up, and I hear...” She made little whining noises. ”I check caller ID, is your house.”

Dar blinked, ignoring the muffled laugh from behind her. ”She must have gotten out and knocked the phone off the hook in the living room. Do me a favor, call resident services out there and have them go check, will you?” She shook her head and ducked back in the office.

”Great, with my luck she went and called Singapore while she was at it,” she muttered as she closed the door. ”All right, what’s up?”

Mariana threw a packet on her desk for an answer. ”Before you start screaming, I’ve already been on the phone with Alastair, twice, and he’s not backing down.”

Dar circled her desk and sat down, picking up the packet. Her eyes scanned it, and she looked up. ”You’re joking.”

A shake of Mariana’s head. ”Nope. It’s an executive retreat, with a program specifically for ‘team building’. They have a reservation for twelve of us starting Friday afternoon. They’re sending a bus to pick us up.” She crossed her arms. ”Alastair says they’ve been using a very similar program out in Texas for three months and it’s worked great for them.”

Dar covered her eyes. ”Let me see if I understand this” she muttered. ”He wants to send us all on a bus out into the wilderness, to climb over rocks and trees and live in a cabin, and that’s going to help us get along?”

”That’s essentially it, yes.” Mari nodded. ”For the record, I’ve read up on this stuff. I was trying to find some kind of help here, and it’s got its merits, Dar, but it depends on the participants.”

”In our case, it depends on the participants not killing each other!”

Dar ended up yelling, her voice bouncing off the walls. ”Is he nuts?”

She punched the phone. ”Beatrice, is he there?” Then she drummed her fingers until the line opened.

”Now Dar, before you say anything, let me get my spiel in.”

Alastair’s voice was cheerful, as usual. ”Okay?”

Dar folded her hands on her desk. ”Okay,” she responded in a quiet tone.”I got that email yesterday, and to be honest, it concerned me,” the CEO stated. ”Not because I thought it was true, although you can be a stubborn obstructionist when you need to be, Dar, but it’s always been in our best interests if you know what I mean.”

”Uh huh,” Dar grunted.

”I see it as an overall problem company-wide, and that’s why we’ve been using these seminars. They’re wonderful! You’ll love it. Listen, it’s just a weekend out in the middle of nowhere. No cell phones, no computers and the food’s pretty good. We found the damn things really 32

Melissa Good

do work to get people to know each other better.”

”Uh huh.”

”So, I’m sure if this new guy and you get to know each other, things will smooth out, and besides, the rest of the group needs a little team building. I’ve been getting a bunch of grumpies from that office lately.”

”Alastair?”

”Yes? You can go off on me now, Dar.”

”The problem with me and Steven Fabricini is that we do know each other. I got him thrown out of school ten years ago and he’s kept a grudge.” Dar paused. ”You think sending us both out into the woods is a good idea?”

Long pause. ”Ah.” Alastair muttered. ”I see...wish I’d known that.”

“Asking might have been helpful.”

“Arhm...”

”Can we cancel this now?” Dar asked, hopefully.

”Well, see, it’s prepaid, and we’ve already transmitted the payment.” He sighed. ”And if we cancel, we lose all that money...” He paused. ”Let’s do it anyway, Dar. I’m counting on you to set an example and bring everyone back with at least a little more team spirit.”

“You want me to foster team spirit?” Dar’s voice took on a puzzled tone. “Do you actually know who you’re talking to here?”

“Now Dar.”

Dar sighed. ”Alastair, I really don’t have time for this, and you’re tossing my top ops staff out incommunicado. What if something goes wrong over the weekend?” She tossed her last card on the table.

Alastair chuckled. ”Dar, we both know you pick the kind of people who won’t screw you over in a pinch. Your staff can cover things. Go on, have a good time and loosen up a little. I went on one of these things and I had the time of my life. Trust me.” He heard the repeated sigh on the other end. ”You’re mad at me, huh?”

”If I thought this was going to do a damn bit of good, I wouldn’t be,” Dar snapped back. “For Christ’s sake, Alastair!”

”Ah ah, keep an open mind, Dar. You never know what can happen. You all could come back best of friends,” Alastair chuckled.

”And, by the way, I just processed your year-end bonus. I know I forgot to send you a birthday card, but see if that’s an acceptable substitute.”

”Alastair... ”

”Gotta go, the chairman of IBM is here. We’re going to swap lies and exaggerations over rubber chicken,” Alastair told her. ”Just do it, Dar. When you get back, if it was that awful, I’ll make it up to you.”

”How?” Dar inquired sourly.

A slight pause. ”We’ll talk about resolving the issues in a more direct way.”

Dar's dark eyebrows lifted. ”All right,” she agreed quietly.

Alastair chuckled. ”That’s my Dar. Try to have a good time, huh?”

He hung up.


Hurricane Watch

33

Mari shifted in her chair, and shook her head. ”You have such an interesting relationship with him,” she sighed. ”You’re one of the few people I can say for sure he really, really likes.”

”Well, I tried.” Dar gave her a wry look. ”This is going to be a nightmare, Mariana.”

”I know,” the personnel VP agreed. ”You and me, Duks, Kerry, José, Steven, Mark, his second, Eleanor, and El’s assistants, and my assistant Mary Lou.” She paused. ”You know what your biggest problem is going to be, don’t you?”

”Besides not killing Steven?” Dar played with a pencil. ”Yeah. I do.” She glanced up at Mariana. “Not giving him a real hook to hang me with.”

”You two have such a cute little chemistry when you’re around each other,” Mari told her wryly. ”That’s going to be tough to hide out there in the wilderness with nothing to do but talk to each other and roast marshmallows.” She stood up. ”Thanks for trying, my friend. It was a good fight, and you’d have had him if we hadn’t already coughed up the bucks.”

”Yeah.” Dar leaned back, exhaling. ”I should have just offered him my bonus back to cover it,” she told her friend wryly. ”It would be worth the money.”

Mari chuckled as she turned to leave. ”It’s just two days, Dar. We’ll be back in Miami on Sunday afternoon. I’m sure we’ll survive.”

Dar regarded her back as she left, then she threw her pencil down on the desk, leaning forward and studying the packet in consternation.

A light tap on the inside door, however, put a wry smile on her face.

”C’mon in.”

Kerry poked her head in, then entered. ”Hey.”

”Hey.” Dar leaned back in her chair and folded her hands across her stomach.

”Are we in trouble?” Kerry inquired curiously.

”We may be.” Dar pushed the packet over to her. ”Cancel your plans for the weekend.”

“You mean our plans?” Kerry approached the desk. “Did we have any? Other than hanging with Chino?”

“We do now.” Dar steepled her fingers and waited for Kerry to read the bad news.

Kerry took the packet and sat down in one of Dar’s visitor chairs, studying it with interest. ”Oh, I’ve heard of these.” She glanced up with a smile. ”This sounds interesting. It’s upstate from here, isn’t it?”

”Mm hmm,” Dar acknowledged.

A shrug. ”Sounds like it might even be fun, Dar. I mean, there are cabins, it’s not like you’re out foraging for hickory nuts or something.”