Eye Of The Storm - DK3 (9 page)

He straightened his lapels, then gave her a hateful look. “You’ll hear from me. This isn’t the end of this, you can be sure of that.”

They watched him walk to the door and go through it, brushing by Charlie Efton on the way out. “Good bye, Charlie.”

The thin, bespectacled man stared after him puzzled, then looked inside the office, clearly at sea. “Ah, did I miss something? What’s going on?” His eyes went to Kerry and he was clearly surprised when whom he
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considered a common field tech answered.

“Get your people in the conference room in five minutes,” Dar growled.

Charlie stared at her in bewilderment.

“Please,” Kerry added, folding her arms, “let’s get this over with.”

He walked out shaking his head, closing the door and leaving them alone.

Dar opened the folder and stared at the picture in disgust. “Pig.”

Kerry put out a hand and rubbed her back, feeling the warm tension under her fingers. “I thought it was sort of funny, Dar. I mean it’s so obviously doctored. You think this is how they got those accounts?”

“Pig.” Blue eyes narrowed intently as she studied the photo. “I should have kicked him in the nuts.”

“Um, Dar.” Kerry laughed a bit. “Take it easy, okay? Not that I don’t appreciate the noble protection of my honor, but…” She massaged Dar’s back. “What brought that on? What’d you find?”

Dar sat down on the desk, rubbing her temples and sighing. “Sorry. I um…he just hit me the wrong way, I guess. I was able to get Mark in to their system and he did a complete dump for me, then started parsing records and he found this dumb bastard’s damn online Filofax.”

Kerry’s jaw sagged. “You’re telling me he put illegal stuff he was doing in his computer?”

“No. Worse. He put it up on a network server, with multiple backups.”

“Oh, my god.” Kerry covered her eyes. “That’s worse than the illegal sales to China we found in that export company last month. At least they only kept those records on their Powership PC.”

Dar exhaled, as her body relaxed after its unexpected call to arms.

She’d been finishing up her inspection and the initial stages of conversion in the operations center when she’d gotten a cell phone call from Mark.

That had led to a guarded conference outside the office door, confirming Dar’s vague suspicions and marking the largest target of wrong-doing. She was sure that was what caused the sudden knot to form in her guts and sent her to Sam’s office, knowing she had to get him out of the building before he had a chance to cover any tracks.

That was what had caused it, right? The fact that the son of a bitch had been
in here, threatening Kerry was just a coincidence.

Right?

“You all right?” Kerry’s voice held a note of concern.

Dar looked up, and allowed herself a very brief moment of drowning in those sea green eyes. “Yeah. This is going to be ugly, Ker. I don’t know who knows what right now. I think it would be better to call in a team and lock the management out of here until we get some answers.”

“All right.” Kerry straightened. “That’s what I’ll tell them.”

Dar tilted her dark head. “Why don’t you let me do that?”

“Because this is my job.” Kerry put a fingertip on her bosses well shaped nose. “That’s why. You can come and watch, though.”

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Dar stood. “Let’s get it done, then. You and I have a plane to catch and a place to go to.”

“Yeah. Home.” Kerry allowed a big smile to take over her face. “I can’t wait.”

A hand ruffled her hair affectionately. “Me either. C’mon.”

They left the office and headed down the hall, aware of the tense silence surrounding them.

“THEY JUST FIRED him?” Ann hissed in disbelief. “Charlie, how could that happen? I thought he—”

“I don’t know.” The company president paced up and down nervously. “He just walked out. Told Carol he’d been fired. I have no idea what’s going on.”

“Shit.” Ann played with her pencil. “Maybe that plan of his back-fired. I told him not to mess with that Stuart woman. She’s a lot more than a fluffy blonde cheerleader.”

The short, dark haired assistant comptroller cleared his throat. “Um.

She’s Roger Stuart’s daughter. You knew that, right?”

They all looked at him. “Oh shit.” Charlie covered his eyes. “That stupid bastard Sam. How could he miss something like that?”

“Oh, well, I figured when you saw who was with her—” the man started to answer, but the door opening silenced him.

Kerry strode in and motioned for Dar to take a seat in the back of the room, which her boss did, folding a leg under her and leaning on the arm of the chair.

“Thank you.” Kerry circled the table and went to its head, stood behind the chair, and let her hands rest on it. “This is going to be a very short meeting.”

“Look,” Charlie interjected. “Would you mind telling us what’s going on? What happened to Sam? What are you people doing?”

Kerry took a breath. Now that it had come down to it and she was looking these people in the eye, she found it hard to say the words. Not that she felt sorry for them. No, she didn’t. They weren’t nice people and she had a feeling the deeper they dug into the company, the worse they’d find. But they were people, and she was a person, and she held their fate in her hands for this one, timeless moment.

It was a very odd feeling and it sort of reminded her, just a little, of how she’d felt when she’d sent the damning information about her father to the press.

Sad. And relieved.

A little scared.

“The review of your systems has turned up a number of extensive irregularities,” Kerry stated quietly. “Our auditing department is reviewing them. Until they complete their review, I’d like all of you to leave the building and go home.”

They stared at her in utter shock.

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“Are you firing us?” Ann blurted.

Kerry had a sudden flashback to a phone call and a sinking feeling.

“I’m asking you to go home and wait until we contact you,” she replied.

“Your pay and benefits will continue until our management makes a final determination.”

“You can’t just—” Charlie objected angrily.

“I can,” Kerry’s inflexibly precise tones corrected him. “Now, please.

Just go home and don’t make this harder than it has to be.” Kerry took a breath. “An operations team will be here Monday morning to take over.”

There was a stunned silence.

“Son of a bitch.” Ann got up and threw her papers down. “I’m calling my lawyer.” She pointed at Kerry. “I don’t know who you people think you are, but you’ve pissed off the wrong person here.”

A soft scraping sound followed her words, then fabric shifting, and soft footsteps as Dar circled the table and came around to Kerry’s side.

“In fact, I don’t think you have the authority to do what you just did.

I want to talk to your boss, right now!” Ann slammed her hand down on the desk.

Kerry tilted her head in faint amusement, then half turned and lifted her eyebrows. “Okay. Dar, she wants to talk to you.”

“Oh really,” the tall executive drawled, turning her eyes on the now silent woman. “I don’t think you have anything more to say.” Dar spoke into deafening silence. “Ladies and gentlemen, you got caught. Now go home and hope all you get is fired.”

“You…are Dar Roberts?” Ann’s voice held a strange hint of amusement.

Dar merely looked at her.

“Interesting.” The woman picked up her folder and walked out.

“Let’s go, boys. I guess we know when we’re beaten.”

Dar and Kerry watched them file out and the door close behind them.

“That was really weird.”

“Gotta agree.” Dar shook her head. “What a mess. I locked their accounts out on their domain controller and forced a reset on everyone else’s passwords.”

“Mmm. You pull everyone except for you out of the domain admin group?”

“Uh huh.”

“That’ll do it then. I guess we’d better get out of here. It’s almost five o’clock anyway, so I think we can just send everyone home and let the ops team take over on Monday.” Kerry sighed. “This feels really strange, Dar. Like there’s something here I’m not seeing.”

“Well, if you’re not seeing it, I’m not either,” the taller woman confessed. “Maybe Mark’ll find something. C’mon. We’ve got a chance to get a snack before we’ve got to get on the plane.”

“Yeah.” Kerry shouldered her briefcase and followed her lover out the door, still thinking.

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Melissa Good
THE SMELL OF pancakes woke her up. Dar lifted an eyelid, and examined the room, it’s cool, blue walls lit with tiny stripes of sunlight from the blinds. She stretched and regarded the ceiling with sleepy contentment, as subtle sounds from the kitchen indicated her missing bedmate’s current location.

Mmm. Kerry’s home.
A smile spread across her face.
I missed her.
Dar yawned and stretched again, then rolled up out of the waterbed and went into the bathroom, threw a little water on her face and brushed her teeth.

“Mmm.” She chewed the toothpaste curiously, having picked Kerry’s up by mistake. “Grape. How did this woman find grape toothpaste?”

“Dar?”

“Hmm?” Dar hastily swallowed and wiped her mouth off, then padded out of the bathroom and found her blonde haired lover leaning in the doorway to the bedroom. “Morning. You’re up early.”

“Not that much.” Kerry tickled her navel with a finger. “Just long enough to get breakfast started. I wanted to make sure you got something other than coffee and Frosted Flakes before you went out to win trophies.”

“Speaks the woman who uses grape toothpaste,” Dar responded dryly, as Kerry blushed and laughed. “Gotcha.”

“Weeell. It was all they had in the airport, Dar. It was that, or that baking powder stuff, and you know I hate how gritty that is.” Kerry pulled Dar’s baseball shirt off the back of the loveseat and handed it to her. “It’s a gorgeous day out.”

“Oh yeah?” Dar slipped the garment on then curled her arms around the smaller woman, pulling her into a hug. “It’s pretty nice in here, too.”

She released Kerry and followed her into the kitchen, where Chino was patiently waiting. “Oh, I get it. There must be food somewhere.”

“Gruff.”

“Mmm. Certainly was spotless in here.” Kerry poked her friend with the end of her spatula. “Did you even make coffee while I was gone?”

Dar looked suitably penitent. “Um…I was out late most nights at the gym,” she offered. “Just picked up something on the way home.”

Kerry eyed her. “Chicken wings?”

Dar gave a faint hint of a grin. “Among other things.”

“Dar.” Kerry turned back to her pancakes and flipped one expertly.

“I was worried about you. Though that’s kind of silly, I guess. You’re a grown person, who can certainly take care of herself.”

Dar slid her arms around her and rested her cheek against Kerry’s hair. “Yes, I can do that,” she murmured. “But I’m glad I don’t have to.”

She nipped an ear. “I’m glad you’re back.”

“Mmm.” Kerry smiled. “Even though I make you eat vegetables?”

She felt Dar’s head nod against hers and she leaned back. “So what do I do for two weeks? I pig out on tacos and shrimp toasts.”

Dar chuckled. “Hotel food is kinda limited.”

“Don’t make excuses for me. The limited menus included salads,”

Kerry retorted, flipping another pancake and then turning the bacon in
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the next pan. “You’ve corrupted me, Dardar.”

The chuckle turned into a full laugh, rumbling down Dar’s chest and making a pleasant vibration against Kerry’s back.

The phone rang, and Dar released her, then wandered over to the portable phone and lifted it up. “Hello?”

Kerry almost felt the change, and she turned her head to see a dark, still expression on her lover’s face. She quickly shifted the pans off the stove, walked over, and put a hand on Dar’s belly. “Hey?” she mouthed.

Dar tucked a hand behind Kerry’s neck and pulled her close. “All right.” She spoke quietly into the phone. “Next Friday. I’ll be there.” A pause. “Goodbye.” She set the phone down with deliberate precision and exhaled.

“Who on earth was that?” Kerry whispered. “From your face, I thought it was my father.”

“Worse,” Dar answered, with a sigh. “It was my mother.”

Kerry looked up at her. “Whoa. That was unexpected.”

“Yeah.” The blue eyes focused on something Kerry wasn’t sure she wanted to be able to see.

KERRY FINISHED PACKING a small towel in the gym bag Dar habitually carried, then zipped the bag closed and walked to the double doors, regarding the tall, silent figure leaning against the railing.

Dar was upset and shocked. Kerry could tell. Hearing from her mother was difficult, but finding out it was due to the passing of her grandmother was even worse. After not hearing from that side of her family for such a long time, getting news like that was tough and knowing she’d have to go and face being with those people next week was eating at her.

Kerry pushed the door open and walked outside into the warm sea breeze. “You ready, champ?”

Dar turned her head and adjusted her sunglasses, pulling them down a little to regard Kerry’s face. “I think my focus is off,” she told her regretfully. “I wasn’t expecting that. Even though I haven’t seen Gran in…” Dar thought a moment. “Damn. Has it been ten years?” She exhaled. “She was a…a very tough woman.”

“Mmm.” Kerry put an arm around her. “I’m sorry, Dar. I don’t remember my grandparents. They died when I was very young.” She considered that. “I wish I had. My uncles tell some really great stories about them.”

Dar leaned against her. “I never knew my father’s parents. When he and my mother got married, they disowned him, sort of. The only one who spoke to him at all was Aunt May.” She exhaled. “Then there was Gran and Grandpa. He and my father argued all the time, but I think they liked each other. He died in a car accident, and Gran wasn’t the same after that.”

Kerry pursed her lips, then forged on. “Dar. You know, um, maybe your mother…maybe she’s using this as a sort of excuse to get back in touch with you.”