Eye Of The Storm - DK3 (52 page)

Dar backed up, her eyes widening in alarm. “What the hell is that for?”

“I told you I needed to take blood,” the doctor scolded.

“With a harpoon? What do I look like, a fur seal?”

Andrew snickered. “Y’ere such a big baby.”

“You don’t like them either,” Dar accused, pointing a finger at him.

Then she took in the amused looks and sighed. She backed up and 284
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hoisted herself up onto the exam table with a distinct glower. “Fine.” She presented her forearm and watched nervously as the doctor swabbed her arm with alcohol and iodine. “So. What is it you found?”

“Hang on.” Dr. Steve pulled off the cap of the needle with his teeth and probed her skin, putting pressure on a vein expertly before he very gently inserted the sharp point. “There.” He looked up at Dar. “Not so bad, hmm?”

“Mmm.” Dar peered at her father, who was studiously examining the tongue depressors. Then she looked back up into Dr. Steve’s face, surprised to see a look of gentle compassion there. The doctor removed the needle, having gotten his blood sample, then patted her cheek and put the cap back on.

“Okay, Andy, you can turn around now.” Steve chuckled. “All right.

Let me tell you what the lab said.” He put the needle down, opened a drawer, pulled out a file and opened it. “I can’t say I’ve seen this before, because I haven’t, Dar, but from what they tell me, it’s pretty nasty stuff.”

Andy circled him and peered at the paper.

“I asked the lab if it could have been on something like a chair,” the doctor continued. “They didn’t seem to think so, but they didn’t have any really good ideas on how you came into contact with it.” He paused. “Or where it came from, for that matter.”

“I kin tell you that,” Andrew said softly, but with utter seriousness.

“That there came out of a United States Gov’ment laboratory.”

They stared at him. “What?” Dr. Steve murmured.

Andrew took the file out of his hands, walked to the window, and tilted it to the light and studied it. The sun came in and splashed across his uneven, scarred features which had gone quite still and cold. Dar got up off the table and walked to him, rubbing her arm. “What is it, Dad?”

Andrew cocked his head and regarded her with steady intent.

“Someone,” he said with unusual clarity, “done meant you harm, Paladar.”

She felt a definite chill. “Are you sure? Maybe it was just something I picked up at that alley.”

“Finding this at a bowling alley is about as possible as you sprouting wings and flying to the moon,” her father stated flatly. He handed the folder back to Dr. Steve. “It is kept in a small packet and held on yer fingers with a wax paper.” He held up two fingers. “One hit will make you sick as a dog. Two will do worse.”

Dar felt like she’d been hit with a baseball bat. “C’mon, Dad. That’s too melodramatic. I’m not a character in a supermarket thriller.” She tried to shrug it off. “Can’t I just have had a damn bug? Or food poisoning?

Granted I’m not the most liked person on earth, but I can’t believe someone would try to slap poison on me.”

“Dar,” Dr. Steve put a hand on her shoulder, “this stuff was in you, like it or not. I don’t know how it got there, but the fact is, it made you sick. If you don’t think there’s anything to worry about, that’s great. I’m glad to hear it.” He picked up the needle. “I’ll make sure there’s no scrap
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of it left, though if you’ve been feeling all right, I doubt it.” He paused.

“When we spoke, you said two people had touched you that day.”

“Kerry and my father,” Dar replied. “Except I was wrong. There was one other person.”

“Well,” Steve patted her cheek, “you think about it, okay? Watch yourself.” He eyed Andrew. “And you, my old friend, better not move an inch until I get back here with a camera.” He bustled out, leaving father and daughter alone.

Andrew glowered at her. “That man gonna be where you’re going to?”

Dar hesitated, then grudgingly nodded. “I really don’t think he’d…he’s an asshole, Dad, but…”

“He been in the military?”

Dar gave another grudging nod. “Two hitches as a Ranger.”

“Wall, don’t that just figure.” Andrew made a face. “That’ll settle it.

Ah am gonna go with you.”

“Dad.” Dar snorted. “Now, come on. This is a business trip, not an undercover game.”

“Ah do not like that man and ah am going with you,” her father repeated stolidly.

She put her hands on her hips. “I can take care of myself, you know,”

she objected. “I’ve been doing it for quite a while.”

“This ain’t your kind of fight, Paladar,” he shot right back. “And besides, I have t’go.” He straightened and put his hands on his hips, mimicking her stance. “I made me a promise.”

“A promise? To who?” Dar asked in exasperation. “Dad, I can handle myself on a business trip for crying out loud. This is my job and my life, damn it.”

A finger tapped her chest as he leaned closer and went eye to eye with her. “And you are mah only kid, and the apple of that green eyed gal’s eye, and I swore to her I’d make sure you stayed outta trouble.”

Dar glared at him.

Andy tweaked her nose. “C’mon, Dardar. I always wanted to get me one of them cowboy hats.”

“Dad.”

“Maybe I’ll take you on one of them pony rides.”

“I’m big enough to carry the pony.” Dar gave up. “All right, fine.

Waste your time and ride over there with me, if you have to. What are you going to tell Mom?”

“Um.” Andrew scratched his ear. “We kinda talked about all ready.”

Dar sighed.

“’Sides, she’s got her own little covert mission.” Andrew patted her on the shoulder. “C’mon. That there plane’s waiting.”

“Ah ah.” Dr. Steve came back in with a digital camera. “You just hold on one minute, Andrew B. Roberts.” He pointed. “I want a shot of the both of you.” He waved them closer. “G’wan.”

Dar shook her head, but turned and slid an arm around her father’s 286
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waist, as he circled her shoulders. A pose that brought a wholly unconscious smile to her face.

Steve snapped the picture, then another for good measure. He lowered the camera. “Two of a kind.”

They eyed each other, then Dar finally laughed. “Yeah.” She shook her head. “He still out stubborns me, though.”

“Damn straight,” Andrew agreed instantly. “Had me lots more practice.”

Impulsively, Dar leaned over and kissed him on the head, making him snort.

“You have been hanging around that green eyed gal some, tell you that.”

Dr. Steve was busy snapping away, chortling with glee. “Want to come back and have dinner with us, Andy?”

“Can’t,” the ex-SEAL stated shortly. “Got me a plane to catch too.

Rain check?”

Steve nodded.

“I know Ceci’d love t’see you.”

Dr. Steve blinked. “She here?”

“Yeap.”

The doctor shook his head. “Unbelievable.” He sighed. “All right.

Give me a call when you get back. It’s a great excuse for a party.” He watched them leave together and then walked out to find his daughter sitting on the counter. “How’d you like that?”

“Wow,” Aliene replied. “That was like, way too cool.”

“Mmhm,” her father agreed.

“WHEW.” KERRY GLANCED appreciatively around at the airport.

“Boy, it’s nice to go out of here instead of Miami.” Her flight had been scheduled to leave from the much smaller Fort Lauderdale International Airport, some twenty minutes north of its larger, more hectic cousin.

“Thank you very much, by the way, for dropping me off.”

“Mmm.” Cecilia held back a smile. “Actually, I was dropping us both off.”

Puzzled green eyes focused on her. “Excuse me?”

“Well, the Woman’s Art Museum asked me to sign off on that collection, so I can have it shipped to the South Beach place we found,” Dar’s mother explained.

“Oh.” Kerry was surprised, but not unhappy. “Wow, that’s great.

Are we on the same flight?”

“Mmhmm.” The silver blonde head nodded. “Hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.” Kerry gave her a warm smile. “I’d love the company. It’s not exactly a fun trip for me.” Kerry noted the bag slung casually over Cecilia’s shoulder. “Is that all you’re taking?”

“Yes, it is.” Ceci nodded. “I see a coffee shop over there. We’ve got time before boarding, care to stop?”

Kerry felt a sense of relief that she’d have someone to talk to for at least the trip. “Lead on.” She followed the older woman across the concourse towards the small shop, spotting cinnamon rolls also being sold.

“Mmm. Cinnabons.”

“My daughter’s rubbing off on you, I see.” Ceci smiled to remove any sting from the comment.

But Kerry laughed. “Oh, no. I didn’t need any help there.” She set her bag down, went up to the counter, and ordered two cups of coffee.

“Want one?” She pointed at the rolls.

“Sure.” Ceci took a seat and watched Kerry collect their snack and return.
What a nice kid.
She couldn’t help but smile at the warm, open face.

“Thanks.” She found herself looking forward to spending a little time with this person who had chosen to live with her daughter, whose personality was so different from Dar’s and so much like the child she’d 288
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always wished for.

Smart, social, friendly. A poet brought up in the same general class as she
had been.

And her parents had spurned her.

Life just didn’t make sense sometimes.

“What got you interested in computers, Kerry?” she asked lightly, sipping her coffee.

Kerry thought about that for a bit, then propped her chin up on a fist.

“I think…I think mostly it was because they represented something I could totally control.”

A very unexpected answer. “Really?”

The younger woman nodded. “Yeah. They’re like that. Garbage in, garbage out, you know how it is. They’ll do whatever you tell them to do.

I think because my family was always so strict, and so confining, it maybe gave me an opportunity to have this one area of my life that I was totally in charge of.” She paused. “And it was something so different. My major was in English and I took all kinds of general stuff in college, but I was fascinated by the technology, and realized in my sophomore year that all my elective courses were turning out to be programming and electronics.”

Definitely unexpected.
“What were you going to do with an English degree?” Ceci asked.

“Teach,” Kerry replied succinctly.

“Is that what you wanted to do?”

“No.” She shook her head. “It’s what my father wanted me to do.

Looks good for a politician, you know? One kid a lawyer, one kid a housewife, one kid a teacher. Very all American.”

Cecilia blinked at her. “Well.” She sipped her coffee and reflected.

“My family had expectations, yes, but at least they let us pick our own poison.” She sighed. “I wondered, for a while, what I’d have done in college.”

“You didn’t go, then?” Kerry asked surprised.

“No,” Ceci replied. “We moved around a lot and I had a little girl to take care of.” She was surprised at the lack of bitterness. “I just read everything I could get my hands on and besides, I’m not sure exactly how much good college does for artists.”

“Maybe if you had gone, you wouldn’t have gone into the art thing,”

Kerry suggested quietly. “What would you have picked if you had?”

What indeed?
“Oh, I don’t know. Anthropology, probably.”

“Really?” Kerry smiled in surprise. “I took a few classes in that as part of my social sciences requirement. I had a great professor, who was a practicing anthropologist in the summers. He’d come back in the fall with all kinds of stories and pictures.” She paused. “Hey. If you have a few extra minutes, maybe we could go to the Museum of Natural History in DC.”

“Sounds like an idea.” Ceci smiled and leaned back. She wondered if Kerry’s parents had ever even bothered to talk to her about what she
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found interesting—this intelligent young woman who still somehow had a core of wonder inside her that Ceci could fully appreciate.

What a pair of total idiots.

She was looking forward to meeting them.

IT TURNED OUT better than she expected. Dar adjusted the seat of the rental car she’d wrestled from the terminal and glanced at the tall figure peering alertly out the passenger window. Flying with her father had shortened the trip considerably, and she’d actually had a pretty good time playing a favorite word game with him that brought back memories of a far more innocent period in her life. “Pretty dusty, hmm?”

“Huh.” Andrew relaxed, folding his arms over his chest. “So what do you have to do at this meeting?”

Hmm. Good question.
“I don’t know.” Dar put the car into gear. “It depends on what they hit me with.” She gave him a quick glance. “That’s a figure of speech.”

“Who’s gonna be there?”

“The whole board, I guess—except the international members.

They’ll teleconference in, probably.” Dar ran the list through her mind.

“The only one I really count on as a friend is Alastair. The rest are pretty recent acquaintances.” She turned onto the freeway. “Won’t be much sympathy there.”

“What the hell they got against you?”

Dar drove in silence for a few minutes, evaluating the last fifteen years. “I’m not the nicest person to deal with,” she admitted. “I tend to ram issues I think are important through, without much regard for anyone’s feelings or opinions.”

Andrew watched her with quiet interest. “That what the job calls for?”

“Sometimes.”

“Well then?”

“It’s all right when you’re on top, Dad. But if you slip, it’s a hard fall with no allies to cushion it.” Dar sighed. “I worked very hard to always be right, because I knew if I wasn’t, there were a lot of teeth snapping at my heels.” She watched the signs and turned off at the next exit. “What bothers me is the fact that I,” she hesitated, “that they got me on something I…”

“They caught you with yer britches down.”