"But?"

Dar looked mildly embarrassed. "She'll go wherever I go."

"Loyal kinda gal." Alastair commented, with a smile. "But then, you're two of a kind in that regard so I'm guessing the company's in for a world of hurt some day."

"Mmph."

The door to the front of the plane opened, and a tall, lanky, young man entered. He was dressed in a pair of pressed black slacks and a ribbed black pullover, with striped epaulets on his shoulders. "Ma'am, sir," the man said. "We've run into a weather issue and wanted to advise you on it. A tropical depression has formed in the Gulf, and the outflow is going to extrude into our course and make it a very rough ride."

"Can we go around it?" Alastair asked. "My kidneys are not in the mood to be rattled tonight."

"I can certainly ask, sir," the man replied. "It might make us need to change our flight plan though," he said. "We're taking a very long route over the Southern Caribbean to avoid US airspace and this would mean a shift nearer to the coast of South America."

Dar and Alastair exchanged looks. "Depression look like it's going get worse?" Dar asked. "Strengthen?"

The man nodded. "They expect it to become Tropical storm Gabrielle tomorrow."

"Let's avoid it if we can," Dar said. "Nothing against your pilot's skills but I'm not in the mood for a swim off Tortola today."

"I'm not up for a swim off Tortola any day," Alastair chimed in. "Even though I do float like a cork."

The man nodded, and disappeared again.

Alastair grunted. "Figures."

Dar leaned back against the wall again. "That time of year," she said. "Wish I'd taken Gerry up on his offer now," she admitted. "He sounded like he had a thousand irons in the fire though."

Alastair regarded her. "Lady, if you think these old bones wanted to spend eight hours crossing the pond in an Airborne jumpseat you're nutty as a fruitcake without any rum in it."

Dar chuckled, and started to roam again, walking to the front of the cabin past the service bulkhead she'd been leaning against, then turning and moving along the rows of chairs to the back where a small suite of bathrooms were tucked. "I'm pretty sure he meant a civilian transport, Alastair. I'm sure they had other people that needed a ride home, diplomats and whatever."

"Let them ride in a steel bucket seat," Alastair said. "Damn politicians spend most of their time busting my chops anyway."

Dar went over to where their carry on baggage was stowed and dug in hers, removing her bathroom kit and retreating with it into the typically small airplane facility.

For shorter people, it was bearable. For Dar, the experience usually left her with a crick in her neck and so she brushed her teeth and splashed some water on her face as quickly as she could. The nap had definitely cleared her head, but now that she was awake, the uncertainty of what was going on below was starting to gnaw at her again.

She checked her watch. Kerry was up and working by now, she was sure. It was maddening to know her partner was in the middle of who knows what and not be able to help. Not that she thought Kerry needed her in order to do her job--her performance the day before amply demonstrated that--but they were in uncharted territory right now and she had the greater experience.

Dar gazed at her reflection in the mirror, seeing the somber furrow in her brow. "She's going to be fine," she told herself. "She's just going to Herndon, and she knows how to deflect someone if she has to."

Kerry did. She could politely, charmingly, and warmly tell the most demanding, insistent customer they weren't going to get what they wanted and leave them unable to voice a complaint about it. Dar had seen her do it on more than one occasion, and she had no doubt she could handle whatever request awaited her there.

She studied the blue eyes reflected in the glass surface. "So why are you chewing nails?"

Was she afraid Kerry would do so well, she'd show how much she didn't need the support? Dar's nose wrinkled. "Yeesh I hope not." She really didn't think so, though. It was actually a pleasure to be able to count on someone and not have to worry about babysitting them at work.

Was she worried her prolonged contact with her family would change the way she felt about anything? About anyone? Dar watched her own eyebrow lift, and her lips curve into a smile. No. She was not worried about that.

She was, she reasoned, worried about the person she loved most in the world simply because that's what people in love did. They worried.

She packed up her kit and bumped the door open, emerging into the main cabin of the plane and restoring her sundries to her bag. Alastair had turned his reading light off, and was standing near the front of the plane, peering out the window in the boarding door. "See any good birds?"

"I see a lot of ocean," Alastair responded. "Imagine what it was like for the first fellas who crossed that thing in a boat. That took a lot of guts."

"It's a big ocean," Dar agreed, coming over to stand by him. "I've only sailed part of it, and those long stretches of only water really hit you sometimes," she said. "And I've been caught in storms that made me wonder how sun and star navigators ever made it across."

"Ah yes. Captain Roberts, isn't it?" Alastair glanced at her, with a grin.

She smiled back. "Yes, it is"

The door behind them opened and the steward came back in. "Oh." He turned, evidently surprised not to see them sitting in their seats. "The captain says he's filing an amendment to our flight plan, that'll bring us just north of the Grenadines, and along the south coast of Cuba and then across to Mexico. It means adding an hour to the flight, but it will end up being a lot smoother. We were intending on slipping between Cuba and Florida before.

An hour. Dar sighed inwardly. "Damn I wish we could just land in Miami."

The steward looked sympathetic. "Us too," he agreed. "We'll try to make it as comfortable as possible." He gave them a brief smile. "We're about ready to serve, if you want to freshen up." He slipped out again, closing the door behind him.

"Well," Alastair said. "That's a damn shame." He eased past Dar and went back to his seat. "But I think it's better than flying through a storm."

Dar gazed out the small window, feeling more than a little trapped. She hoped things were going well for Kerry, and that the company plan was proceeding.

She hoped there were no more attacks.

"Dar?"

"Hm?" Dar turned and pushed off from the window, walking back down the aisle and stopping by her seat. She sat down on the arm of it, and rested her elbows on her knees. "Guess all we can do is put up with it."

"It'll be fine," he reassured her. "We've got good people running the show, don't we?"

Dar nodded.

"Want a drink?"

Dar slid backwards into her chair, leaving one leg slung over the arm of it. "Not yet."

"How about a tranquilizer? Got a bottle of em."

Dar turned her head and looked at him, her eyebrows lifting.

"If you don't take one, I'm gonna have to," Alastair informed her. "If you're going to pace like a cat for the rest of the flight."

Dar chuckled wryly. "Let me see if they have chocolate milk first." She sighed. "That'll probably be less destructive for both of us."


Chapter Fourteen

"OKAY." KERRY HAD her headset on. She checked her watch as she glanced over the screen of her laptop to see her mother come out from her room. "So what's the status there before we go any further."

Senator Stuart paused as she fastened her earring. She was dressed in a well fitted business suit, and an aide was standing quietly by holding her briefcase. "Are you sure we can't offer you a ride?"

Kerry covered the mic with her hand. "I'm fine. Our office is sending a someone to pick me up,"she said. "I'll rent a car out there." She paused. "But thanks."

Her mother hesitated, then nodded. "Well, take care in that case. Things are very unsettled," she warned her daughter. "Please let my staff know if there is anything you need."

"Hold on." Kerry hit her mute button. "Thanks. I think we have it covered. Take care yourself." She watched her mother follow the aide out, feeling a sense of relief as the door closed behind them. "Okay." She went back to the line. "Listen, I've got about ten minutes before I go mobile. So give it to me fast."

"Boy," the male voice answered her. "That's going to be tough, Ms. Stuart because it's more like, what isn't going on? We've got a ton of stuff hitting now because of deliverables that were missed yesterday."

As she'd expected, the world that had stopped turning the day before had now started up again. "Okay," Kerry said. "Well, obviously we need to put out the message that we're in a holding pattern ourselves for a lot of things."

She sat down and picked up her third cup of coffee, sipping it as she reviewed the laptop screen. On her status map large chunks of the Northeast were blinking red, and to one side, she now had a list of accounts with stoplights by them most of them also red, though with a few yellows sprinkled in here and there.

"Miami exec, this is Houston ops."

Kerry checked her watch again. "Go ahead, Houston."

"Miami, we've got a list of demands from the government groups here," the voice answered. "More circuits, more bandwidth, some extra processors--and they want it all right now."

"Miami exec, this is LA Earthstation," a very tired voice broke in. "We're getting the same kinds of requests too. I've explained transponder space about three hundred times already and it's only 6:00 a.m. here."