“The Frame cloud? In the Tier 1?”

“Yes.”

“They were breached.”

Dar’s fingers hesitated over the keys. “I’m going to cut it off.”

The phone rang and Kerry picked it up. “Operations, Stuart.”

“Kerry? This is Charles Ettig. Listen, I just talked to my people and they say there’s nothing going on.”

Dar’s hands were a blur.


22 Melissa Good

“Okay, Charles,” Kerry replied. “Tell you what. We’re going to drop the traffic, and we’ll analyze it—see if we can figure out what it was and let you know. How’s that?”

“Sounds just great, Kerry. Thanks again for taking such good care of us, okay?” His tone was grateful. “I know we can trust you guys.”

“Thanks, Charles. Call you back.” Kerry hung up and exhaled. “Dar, if there was a breach, is it our fault?”

“Depends where it is. Let’s trace it, then we can figure out what the hell we’re going to do. Damn. The last thing we need is a security crack right now.” Dar stared at the screen. “Even if it’s the Tier 1’s breach, it’s still our managed circuit. Damn it, damn it, damn it.” She thumped a fist against her forehead.

Kerry put her hands back on Dar’s shoulders and gave them a squeeze. The tension was evident, and without really thinking, she gently massaged the muscles. “Let’s find out what the deal is, first. At the very least, Dar, we saw it happening.” She turned and looked at the console operator, who was studiously looking elsewhere. “Ramon, you did a great job finding this.”

He glanced furtively at them. “Thanks, ma’am.”

Kerry’s brow knit, then she realized he was uncomfortable with her interaction with Dar. For a second, she almost stopped and backed off. Then Dar’s skin shifted under her touch, and she stepped closer instead, adding her body’s warmth to the massage and thinking, To hell with it.

To hell with it. This woman in front of her was what mattered, not a bug eyed nerdy boy standing by watching. “Dar?”

Dar leaned back until she rested her head against Kerry’s stomach. “Yes?” She tipped her eyes up and looked at Kerry.

“This could be a ranking fubar, Ker.”

Kerry managed a smile. “You’ll handle it. We’ll figure it all out. Mark’s provisioning process is a solid one. I’m sure we can find an angle.”

Dar’s shoulders relaxed, and she nodded. “I’m sure we can.”

She typed a note into the console. “I’ll have him put that data dump somewhere so I can check it out tomorrow. Maybe I’ll get some clues from that.”

Despite their stated optimism, Kerry knew they were both crossing everything they could.

HANDS CLASPED BEHIND his back, the tall, dark haired man paced back and forth across Senator Stuart’s home office.

“Roger, I appreciate what you’re saying, but how can you be sure it’s real data? You said someone just gave it to you? I don’t under-Thicker Than Water 23

stand.”

“You don’t have to understand.” Roger glared dourly at him.

“Just look at it. Look at the names and the numbers, and you tell me, Bradley, you tell me if it’s real or not.” He threw a stack of papers on the desk towards Bradley.

Bradley picked them up and studied them, impatiently at first, then slowly turning the pages. He paused, then sat down in a chair across from Stuart and stared at the writing. “Dear God.”

Roger leaned back in his chair. “So you tell me, Bradley,” he repeated with deep sarcasm, “do we have a problem?”

Bradley looked up. “We have a problem. Roger, we need to pay off whoever got this to you and fast.” To his surprise, Roger laughed. “I’m not joking.”

Stuart got up and started pacing. “Oh, but you are; you just don’t know you are. The source I got this from not only can’t be bought off, I wouldn’t even try it.” He turned and pointed. “What I want to know is, how is it that someone,” he stared pointedly at Bradley, “was so god damned stupid as to put incriminating information in something so accessible? Tell me that, Bradley?”

“Sir—”

“Tell me why details about deals neither of us officially knows anything about are sitting in a military database in the sticks!”

“Sir.” Bradley held up a hand. “Let me get Stevens and Perlamen in here; maybe they can make sense of it.” He went to the door and called out, “Gentlemen, we need you.”

The two men entered, faced with the angry senator on the other side of the room. “Sir?”

“They can’t explain it. You can’t explain it.” Roger’s voice rose. “No one can explain it, because I’m surrounded by idiots!

The irony of it all is that the goddamned bitch who gave me this crap makes you all look like mental midgets.”

“Sir, take it easy, please,” Bradley begged. “I’m sure there’s an explanation. Someone must have—”

“Idiots!” Stuart bellowed. “‘It’s a simple deal, Senator.’ Isn’t that what you told me? Just some surplus military garbage being traded, nothing important. You stupid son of a bitch, did you see what’s in that data? Idiot! Idiots! All of you!”

“Sir!” Perlamen said. “We can incriminate—”

“We’re all incriminated, you jackass!” Stuart yelled at the top of his lungs. “This is not in the hands of any friends of ours. For God’s sake…For God’s sake…” He clutched his head. “Ah!”

“Sir?” The men rushed forward. “Sir!”


Chapter

Three

“UGH.” KERRY SLID down into the hot tub and cradled her neck on its edge. “Thank God that’s over.”

Dar had her eyes closed. “Yeah.” She squirmed around, taking advantage of the heavy jets of water. “Thank God it turned out to be a firmware glitch, not a stolen file. Even if it took us most of the night to figure it out.”

“Mm.” Kerry turned her head, captured her straw, and sucked in a mouthful of peach iced tea. “It’s not quite ten. We’ve stayed later.”

Dar tangled her legs with Kerry’s and exhaled. “Uh huh. Glad we didn’t have to. I’m tanked.”

“Fish tanked?” Kerry snickered, splashing her a little.

“Wench. Get your snorkel ready.” The cordless phone rang, and, after giving it an evil look, Dar picked it up and answered it.

“Hello?”

There was silence, then a gasp. “Um…um…can I talk to Kerry?”

Dar’s brow creased. “Sure.” With widening eyes and a shrug, she handed the phone to Kerry. The voice had sounded very young.

Kerry took it and put it to her damp ear. “Hello?” Dar sidled over and pressed her head against Kerry’s to listen.

“Oh, Kerry, hi.” There was a sharp intake of breath. “I’m really sorry to like, bother you this late and all that, but—”

“Lena?” Kerry’s mental recognition kicked in. “Is that you?”

There was silence for a breath. “Yeah.”

“Hey, folks have been looking for you,” Kerry said. “Where are you?”

Lena hesitated. “Um…not in a good place.”

Dar nestled closer and listened.

“What’s ‘not a good place’? Are you in the hospital?”

“No,” Lena muttered. “I’m in jail.”

Dar’s eyes widened in surprise. She and Kerry exchanged Thicker Than Water 25

startled looks.

“In jail? What are you doing there?” Kerry sputtered. “What did you…?” She half turned and pushed the wet hair out of her eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Lena sounded tired. “It’s just really stupid, you know? My folks clued into like, me being gay, and they grounded me.”

“Grounded you?” Kerry’s voice dropped in pitch. “Did they think that would fix it?”

“Fuck if I know,” Lena replied glumly. “A window got busted in my old man’s car, and they called the cops on me.”

“Ah.” Kerry’s eyes narrowed slightly. “You need help getting out?”

Lena was very quiet for a few seconds. “You’re the only person I know that doesn’t make minimum wage. My folks told me to rot in here.”

Blue and green eyes met. “We’ll be right down there. You at the main jail? The one off Flagler?”

“Yeah,” Lena whispered. “Thanks, Kerry.”

“No problem. Take it easy until we get there.” Kerry hung up and put the phone down. “Stupid son of a b—” She was stopped with a kiss. “Damn it, Dar. What the hell is wrong with people?”

“I don’t know.” Dar wiped a bit of water off Kerry’s cheek.

“But we’d better get dressed and go bail your little buddy out.

Then we can worry about her dimwitted genetic contributors.”

“Pah.” Kerry sloshed out of the tub, grabbed a towel, and handed Dar hers. “Poor kid. How could they let her be taken down there? She’s probably scared half to death.”

“She the one with the tattoos?” Dar asked.

“Yeah.”

“Mm. And the nose ring?”

“Yeah.”

“She’ll be fine.”

They walked into the condo and were halfway across the living room before Kerry stopped and turned with her hands on her hips. “Do you know this from personal experience?”

Dar rubbed her face and just kept walking, a faint chuckle escaping her.

“Oh, I can’t wait to hear this story.” Kerry followed, with a chuckle of her own.

THE DADE COUNTY primary jail was, as most jails are, a supremely depressing place. The walls were institutional beige, and the floors were repeatedly shined heavy tile. Kerry was 26 Melissa Good sharply aware of the glances thrown her way as she entered and was glad of Dar’s light touch on her back as they walked across the starkly lit lobby to the processing desk.

Thick, bulletproof glass protected the woman seated behind it and it took a moment before she realized someone was there and looked up. “Yes?”

Ew. Kerry exhaled. “A friend of ours is in here. I’d like to see about getting her out.”