Eye Of The Storm - DK3 (22 page)

“This position?’ Ankow inquired.

“No.” Kerry slid her card through a second door and opened it for him. “But then, you already know that, Mr. Ankow, since you requested my personnel file.” She smiled and stood back. “This way, please. I was hired as Dar Roberts’ assistant and moved into my current role when she took on the responsibilities of CIO.”

“She is your boss, then.” Ankow stopped and watched her face intently.

“Yes.”

“Just wanted to clarify that.” He smiled and walked on into the brightly light expanse and low key activity of the operations center.

KERRY INDICATED THE door ahead of her, exhaling a little as they approached the cafeteria. It had been hours of pointed questions and the acceptance of her answers with an air of smugness that was frankly, getting on her nerves.

The smell of
arroz con pollo
hit her as the door opened, and she entered the line just behind her guest and debated on whether to stick to her usual chef salad or go for one of her favorites.

“Do they have anything American here?” Ankow asked, giving the dish a distasteful look.

“Well,” Kerry smiled at the attendant, who looked at her expectantly, “I’ll have the chicken, thanks, and some flan and a
café con leche
.”

She turned to Ankow. “They’re Perdue chickens, if that makes you feel better.”

“
Sí
,
señora
.” The lady behind the counter wrinkled her nose at Kerry.

“
¿Señor?
” She turned her attention to Ankow.

“Give me one of those chef salads,” he ordered, “and a bottled water.”

They took their trays and moved to a table near the window. Kerry took a bite of her chicken and glanced around, noting the eyes watching them and glad it wasn’t just her they were watching for a change.

“You were involved in the Allison Consulting fiasco, weren’t you?”

Ankow inquired, after spearing a forkful of lettuce.

“Yes, I was,” Kerry replied. “I did the initial analysis on the data that came from them. It was very disappointing.” She took a sip of her coffee.

“My question is, how did it get as far as it did? How did you allow us to be duped like that?” The acid comment surprised her. “Do you understand how much that cost?”

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Keep cool. He’s an asshole.
Dar’s words echoed gently in her mind. “I beg your pardon?” Kerry inquired. “I’m operations. I think it’s acquisitions you want to discuss that with or maybe Ernst and Young, who did the due diligence they very obviously should have failed.”

“Yes, but how long did it take you to figure that out?”

Kerry chewed thoughtfully. “I was suspicious the first day. I sent the data the second day. Dar came out that Thursday night and by Friday we had them locked up.”

“Ah. So your…boss had to come bail you out, is that it?” Ankow now looked amused. “Well, that’s understandable.” He dismissed the subject and looked around. The buzz of Spanish around them was perceptible, as well as a lower hum of English, and a few tables of Creole. “Interesting place.”

“I think so.” Kerry scooped up the last of her rice and washed it down with some coffee. “I enjoy the different cultures. It’s very different from where I grew up.”

“Michigan, wasn’t it?”

Kerry nodded.

“So. What’s it like having a scandal in the family?”

Kerry put her silverware down and laced her fingers together. “Mr.

Ankow, I’ve had to put up with your being deliberately antagonistic all day.”

“Too bad.”

“I don’t have to put up with personal questions. That’s not part of the job. So in answer to your question, that’s not your concern.” She paused. “Sir.”

“All right, fair enough.” David Ankow sipped his water and regarded her coolly. “I’m not here to make enemies, Ms. Stuart. And despite what everyone seems to think, I’m not here to tear down you, or anyone else.”

Kerry lifted an eyebrow.

“My job.” He paused for emphasis. “My job, Ms. Stuart, is to protect the investment that people…just regular people, like you and me, have made in this company. Some of those people depend on that investment to carry them through lean times. Some of them depend on it when they retire. It’s my responsibility to make sure we don’t betray that trust. You understand me? That means I have to come in and ask hard questions, like why an account that cost us twenty million dollars to acquire had to be scrapped. That’s not your money, Ms. Stuart.”

Kerry had listened to him, waiting patiently. “Part of it is,” she remarked softly. “I’m a stockholder.”

He was silent.

“So is Dar. So are most of the people around you.” She leaned forward. “I understand about being responsible to people, Mr. Ankow.
My
job is to try and make everything run, so the company can do what it’s paid to do and provide value to those very same stockholders.” She studied his face. “You represent me, just as much as you do those faceless
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117

people out there who invest without being personally involved in the company.”

A smile quirked the very corners of his lips. “You are Roger Stuart’s kid, aren’t you?” There was a touch of wry admiration in his tone. “I interned in his office for a year. I remember seeing a picture of you in his office.”

It hit her so hard, Kerry almost lost her lunch on the spot, and it took everything she had to keep a politely interested look on her face.

“Hi.” The interruption was doubly welcome and the voice put a covering of calm over her very jangled nerves. “Mind if I join you?”

Dar hadn’t eaten lunch with her in the cafeteria for at least three months, but Kerry had never been so glad to see anyone in her life.

“Sure.”

The tall executive dropped down next to her and put a tray down with a meal the duplicate of Kerry’s on it. “How’s the tour?” she asked Ankow, drawing his attention to her. “Find any roaches?”

“Very educational.” Ankow went back to sipping his water. “I owe you an apology, Roberts. My compliments on your selection of a babysit-ter for me.” He tipped his water bottle in Kerry’s direction. “I’ve learned a lot.”

“Good to hear.” Dar speared a bit of chicken and chewed it. “Considering your being here is putting a huge kink in operations with Kerry playing tour guide. How much more time are you going to need?”

“Hard to say.” He leaned back. “I’ll have to let you know.” He took another sip. “I’d like to speak to Lou Draefus. I want reports pulled on all the account consolidations this year, so I can review them.”

Dar shrugged, unconcerned. “Suit yourself. But you’ll do that without Kerry.” She took a swallow of coffee. “We’ve got an Operations staff meeting this afternoon.”

“It can wait then. I’d love to sit in on your meeting.” He changed his mind smoothly. “I’ve heard so much about your managerial style.” He smiled. “I’m looking forward to seeing it in action.”

Dar chuckled humorlessly. “Try coming to the board meetings sometime.” She finished her coffee and picked her tray up. “See you upstairs in a few minutes.” She met Kerry’s eyes.

“Will do,” Kerry answered briskly. “Can you have María print the minutes? I haven’t had a chance to get back to my desk.”

Dar nodded, then threaded her way through the crowd with a powerful stride that cleared a path before her like magic.

Kerry let her breath out slowly, grateful beyond measure for the few minutes Dar had allowed her to collect herself and regain her composure.

Cookies for that, honey, or maybe an ice cream cone, hmm?
She put her silverware on her tray. “Are you done?”

“Just starting.” He smiled at her, with a slight twinkle in his eyes.

IT HAD BEEN months,
Kerry reflected,
since they’d seen a full fledged,
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Melissa Good
all out temper tantrum from Dar.
The tall executive had been businesslike, but fairly mellow for her. Accepting reports at their weekly meetings and doling out assignments without her usual bouts of calling people on the carpet, or picking apart a particular operational issue until whoever it was felt like curling up under the conference room table.

Today, however.
Kerry sighed and kept an eye on her boss, who was seated in her usual chair, leaning forward and fiddling with a long stick pen she’d just been using to doodle. Ankow was in the seat next to her, questioning a reallocation of server resources that had taken down a fairly important client for an hour, to maintain the integrity of the network.

It had been a chancy decision, Kerry knew, since she was the one who had made it. But her options hadn’t been extensive and it was that, or lose two critical financial applications for the balance of the day.

“Without having a backup routing center, there wasn’t much else we could do.” She spoke quietly, catching his attention and drawing it from her visibly edgy lover. “It was my decision.”

“Did anyone call Interspatial and tell them?” he asked her.

“I did, personally,” Kerry replied. “They weren’t happy.”

“No, they certainly weren’t,” Ankow agreed. “And what’s to say it won’t happen again, if you don’t have any backups?”

Kerry propped her chin up on one fist. “That’s exactly why Dar’s spending all her time designing our new network. So it won’t happen again.” She shifted her gaze. “Right, Boss?”

A very wry blue twinkle. “That’s the theory, yes.”

Ankow sat back and lifted a hand.

“Mark. What about those server farms, did we get them online?” Dar asked, making a tick mark on her agenda.
Was a time,
she reflected,
when I
wouldn’t have had to ask.
She’d have known.

“Bank A came online Tuesday, Bank B on Thursday,” Mark answered, batting a small, red rubber ball between two pens on the table.

“They’re running pretty good, but A’s taking three percent more utilization than they projected. I’m gonna have to monitor that.” He glanced at Dar. “They’ve got some weird traffic going across.”

“Don’t we know what they’re running over our network?” Ankow asked immediately.

“Not always,” Dar interjected quietly.

“Why not?”

“Depends on the contract.” Dar was drawing a pig. “Sometimes we’re just the carrier.”

“I disagree with that.” David Ankow shook his head. “We should know what we’re putting down those pipes. It’s our responsibility.”

“Talk to the people who sign the contracts,” Dar shot back. “I don’t make the deals.”

“But you approve them.”

“I approve the technology.” Blue eyes took on a dangerous glint. “I make sure we can deliver what we promise. I don’t judge the content.”

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119

Ankow met her eyes and returned her intent glare.

Kerry cleared her throat gently, distracting them. “Actually, we generally do know what kind of data’s being carried. Just not the specifics of the packet structure, unless we’re asked to analyze that to improve network performance or if there’s a problem.”

“Generally?” Ankow turned to her.

“Sure. Banks send banking data. Graphics companies send graphics files.” Kerry smiled at him. “We don’t need to know more than that. In fact, in some cases, intercepting that data is strictly against the contract, like with the airlines.”

“Really.”

“Of course.” Mark picked up the thread. “We transmit ninety percent of the air traffic control and communications data. We could, technically, intercept an in-air mayday or a vital directional instruction if we dipped into the data stream at the wrong time.”

“Yeah,” Mark’s assistant agreed. “We just make sure the right packets are going to the right people.”

Ankow sat back and regarded them in silence.

Dar made another tick point and wished she were home. “That’s it for open issues. Anything out there you want me to know about?”

“Shouldn’t they be asking you that?” Ankow got a last snipe in.

Dar didn’t dignify that with an answer. Normally this was where her team told her about all the goofs and mistakes they’d made, which she’d be likely to catch wind of, or have to explain. They’d tried to keep something like that from her once and she’d given them the “if it’s going to come out of Alastair’s mouth, I want to know about it” speech.

Today, however, everyone kept prudently quiet.

“Nothing?” Dar prodded. “Don’t tell me we had a mistake free week?”

They all looked at each other, then at her.

“Ops, nothing?” She looked at Kerry, who gravely shook her head.

“Facilities?” Now she glanced at tall, bookish Bill Bowers, who blinked and shook his head.

“Not this week, Boss.”

“MIS?”

Mark cracked his knuckles. “Nope.”

“Security?”

Mark grinned. “Sixteen attempted accesses, sixteen repulsions, resulting in four IP traces, and two hits, which I turned over to the goon squad.”

Dar nodded. “All right. That’s it. See you next week.” She stood and gathered her papers. “I believe you had an appointment in Accounting?”

Ankow also stood. “Actually, I wanted a word with you first.”

Dar sighed inwardly. “C’mon.”

Mark edged around the table and ended up next to Kerry, as they watched the two leave. “Is she gonna hurt him or what?” He shook his head. “What a rhino sized butthead.”

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“Ugh. You don’t know the worst.” Kerry drank down her glass of water and exhaled. “I’m going to run down to the cafeteria and grab some coffee. Then I’ve got an inbox the size of Manhattan to work out.”

“I’ll walk you down,” Mark offered. “I could use a soda myself.” He followed Kerry out the door. “Besides, you’ll need an extra hand to help carry her milkshake back up here.”

Kerry gave him a look. “Am I that predictable?” She hit the elevator door button.

Mark grinned and rocked up and down on his heels. “No. But she is.”

“ALL RIGHT.” DAR dropped her notes on her desk and sat down.

She gave her trackball a spin to bring her monitor to life. Another page of messages appeared, this one with a scattering of exclamation points.

“What do you want?”

David Ankow crossed behind her and gazed out the window, admiring the view. “Nice.”