Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series (2 page)

"Wish we could." Agnes waited for Kerry to leave the closet, and then she closed the door. They walked back toward the main building. "But the port won't, since they've never seen these, and they don't trust the specs we were given. The draft or how deep the hulls are below the waterline is really important because the piers vary."

"Uh huh." Kerry could understand that since she knew what a draft was, and knew there were places in some of the smaller islands she and Dar visited that the Dixieland Yankee had trouble getting into because of the draft. "So that'll be..."

"The day they get here. First one that shows up will be assigned, and so on."

Drat, drat, drat. Kerry sighed as she edged through the nonworking doors and back into the air conditioning. "Okay." She put her hands on her hips and studied the space again. "I can't wait until then to drop circuits."

"Yeah." Agnes seemed sympathetic. "I know, the other people that are doing this thing called, and they said the same thing."

"Really? So what are they going to do?" Kerry asked casually.

"Use cellular. Some kind of new process."

Some kind of untested, barely adequate process. Hmm. "Well, I'd use that for one computer, but not for an office." Kerry decided. "Okay, I know what I need to do. Thanks for meeting me down here, Agnes. It's greatly appreciated."

The woman smiled at her. "Absolutely. No problem. Having four ships in here in the summer is a big windfall for the port. We'd be glad to do anything we can to make it good for you."

"Except pre-assign the piers," Kerry said wryly.

"Well..."

"It's okay." Kerry started for the front doors. "We'll manage it somehow."

She bid Agnes goodbye and crossed behind the Agnes' truck toward the small parking lot in front of the pier. Her Lexus sat there in the heat looking very blue and lonely. She slid behind the wheel with a grimace as the hot leather hit the back of her legs. "Ugh."

She started the engine and got the air going, then leaned back and pulled out her PDA. She opened a new message and tapped out a directive, then paused, tapping the stylus on the edge of the device as she thought about what she was doing.

It wasn't really a risk, per se. It was an expense. The question was, should she incur the expense, and accept the cost in order to ensure she had the environment she needed to do the job? Kerry nibbled her lip, counting the days they had left.

Well, she had leverage with Bellsouth. With a slight nod, she sent the message. She put down the PDA then shifting the car into reverse, backed out and drove carefully out of the parking lot

She checked her watch again, then opened her cell phone and hit the speed dial. "Hey, sweetie."

"Hey." Dar's voice sounded relaxed. "Just got out of my meeting with Mariana."

"Aha. How'd it go?" Kerry asked, making the turn onto Biscayne.

"I don't think Telegenics' lawyer likes me."

Kerry chuckled low in her throat. "There's a shocker. Listen, before you tell me more, I'm heading to the Bread Factory. You want a sandwich?"

"Mm, chicken curry," Dar responded instantly. "And that spicy soup if they've got it."

"Okay. Now, what did the lawyer say?? Kerry navigated carefully through the traffic. ?Are they really serious about pressing charges??

"Not anymore."

"Ah, that's good."

"I basically told them since it was off company property, and off company hours, it wasn't a company problem."

Kerry blinked. "Um..."

"And if they wanted to pursue it on a personal basis, I'd welcome a suit that explained why his clients were trying to entice my partner out to convince her what a scumbag I was."

"Ugh." Kerry winced. "Hon, I don't think that's exactly what they were up to."

"Doesn't matter. It was enough to scare him off. Besides, that was the subject matter that made our battling burritos dump the chili bowl, so..." Dar chuckled a little. "Anyway, one less thing to worry about, but listen..."

Uh oh. "Yeah?"

"Maria just told me that Mayte told her that you got an invitation from Quest to a kick off reception at the port this Saturday."

"Just me?" Kerry pulled into the small strip mall that held one of their favorite sandwich shops.

"You and a guest."

"You and me, then." Kerry sat back. "Okay, so here we go again. Can I hope, maybe, that Telegenics will send someone else to do the bid now that it's on?" She got out of the car and headed for the restaurant. "I've just scoped out the port, Dar. It's going to be a pain in the ass working here."

"Uh huh. I figured."

"I'm dropping lines into all four possible spots we could be. I'll just cancel the ones we don't need," Kerry said, holding her breath a little as she waited for her boss's reaction. Dar hated wasting provisioning and she knew it.

"Hmm."

"Two chicken curry on croissants, provolone, nothing else, two spicy soups, one coffee." Kerry told the attendant, still listening to the pensive silence on the other end of the cell. "Hon, I had to. I couldn't risk not having it, and they won't tell us where they're putting the damn things until the last minute."

Dar sighed into the phone. "Yeah. I know. I just--"

"Hate wasting the money." Kerry handed over some cash. "I know."

Dar clucked her tongue a few times. "But you know what? This is your project," she finally said. "So go for it. I've got hacker bees flying around my head like gnats, so that's what I'm going to concentrate on."

Kerry felt uncertain all of a sudden. "Okay," she said slowly. "Are you sure you don't want to..."

"I'm sure." Dar sounded confident. "Kerry, my being involved is only going to make it tough on you, we both know it. In fact, why not take Mark to the reception?"

"Mark?"

"I'm the problem," Dar said.

Kerry frowned. "Can we talk about this later? I need to think about it."

A bit of silence. "Okay," Dar said. "Sure."

"It's not that I don't think you're right..." Kerry said in a rush. "I just...I want to talk to you about it."

"You don't want to take Mark?" Dar hazarded a guess. "If you want, I'll go with you, Ker. I was just trying to make things a little smoother."

"I know." Kerry relaxed a little. "It surprised me, that's all."

"Okay. See you in a bit?"

"Be right there," Kerry nodded, "just getting the sandwiches. See you in a few minutes." She folded the phone and tucked it into her belt, and tried to reassemble her thoughts while waiting for her order.

Dar was right. She knew that. The core of their problem with Telegenics was the personal issue Shari had with Dar. But now, it might even be more than that given what had happened last week. Would Dar's stepping out really solve anything? Or just make it worse? Kerry gazed off into the distance, facing her own insecurity with a grimace. The truth was she didn?t want to face Shari and Michelle alone, and the reasons had nothing to do with business. She wanted Dar there, antagonist or not. Despite her big ideas before she?d gone to New York about how she was protecting Dar from having to be involved, despite her confidence.

Damn.

"Here's your order, ma'am." The boy behind the counter handed her the bag courteously. "Have a nice day."

"Thanks." Kerry took the bag and headed out the door. "For the thought, anyway."

Damn, damn damn.

DAR EDGED PAST the rows of switches, ignoring the apprehensive looks of the on duty techs in the Ops center. She dropped into a seat in the back row at the master console that wasn't generally manned and keyed up some views. She wrapped her hands together and rested her chin against them as she studied the results.

"Ma'am?" One of the techs got up and faced her. "Can we do something for you?"

"No." Dar gave him a baleful look. "Just siddown and leave me alone."

He did so quickly, burying his nose in the console without a backward glance.

As though she could feel Kerry's wry look on her, Dar sighed. "Listen up, all of you."

Four heads turned timidly toward her.

"I'm not trying to be rude, okay? I'm just working on something, and I know this place better than any of you. So don't worry about it."

The techs relaxed. "Yes, ma'am," the one who'd approached her said. "We know that...we just wanted to help you if we could."

"Thanks. Now siddown, and leave me alone."

This time the man grinned a little. "Yes ma'am." He went back to his reports, and the rest of the techs did as well, but the atmosphere was definitely a little lighter.

Dar shook her head and went back to her own display. She called up the network topology, and studied it intently. The main part of the attack had hit them in specific places. Not their external websites, those were bypassed entirely. This had hit them in their tier one interfaces, where the big circuits connected them both to the Internet and their global network.

That meant, Dar reasoned, someone had some pretty solid information on their infrastructure. She didn't like the idea, but knew it was almost impossible to prevent some information from leaking out. After all, the Telcos were big companies with lots of people making generic wages who could be paid to punch up their provider account and read off circuits and patch points.

So...

If she was going to design a global threat solution, where would she put it? At the network core? Dar's finger traced a few lines. No, because if the threat got that far, she was screwed. Her fingertip stopped over the exterior access ports. No, it would have to go between their infrastructure, and the outside circuits, and that meant a secure appliance.

However, she couldn't put a bottleneck in the network. That would negate all the hard work she'd done over the last few years to remove the damn things. That meant that anything she put in place had to be able to analyze all the data traffic, and yet, not impede its performance.

It was a huge puzzle. Dar gave the diagram a fond grin. She loved puzzles. If she could solve this one, not only would she be in a position to solidify their network offering, she'd also be off the hook for being the idiot who'd made them a target the size of Antarctica.

She pulled out her PDA and tapped a new message addressing it to their hardware provider. She scribbled a note and sent it off, her mind running over the possible approaches she could take on the thing's programming.

It was exciting thinking about something brand new. Designing the network had been fun too, but she really hadn't created anything that hadn't already been there. She just designed the best possible one she could. This was something quite different.

"Ms. Roberts?"

The voice brought her out of her musing with a start. "Yes?" She glanced up sharply at the console tech.

"Sorry ma'am." The man gave her an apologetic grin. "But you're being looked for." He pointed at the door.

Dar looked up to find Kerry in the doorway, holding a bag and grinning impishly. With a slightly sheepish look, she got up and circled the consoles heading for her partner. "Ah...thanks." She joined Kerry at the door. "I'll be back."

As she left, she sent one last look back at the master console grinned and let the door close.

Yeah. She'd be back.

KERRY PEERED AT her reflection in the mirror as she inserted a jade earring in one ear. The color not only matched her eyes it complimented the sea green dress she was wearing. She stepped back to assess the combination with a satisfied grunt.

"Something wrong?" Dar appeared at her shoulder, glancing curiously at her.

"No...except that this is the second time this week we had to get gussied up, and it's not nearly as much fun as the first time."

"Eh." Dar shrugged one shoulder. "The way I figure it, we'll go for a little while, and then bow out. Nothing says we have to spend all night there."

Kerry inserted her other earring nodding a little in agreement. Her stomach had a few butterflies anyway, since it was going to be the first time she'd seen Michelle and Shari since she'd...well, since she'd blown them off.

No other way to say it, really.

Blown them off and triggered a food attack on them by her staff. Kerry almost chuckled. "Okay. Then we can come back here. How about a swim in the pool when we get back? I bet we'll be all sweaty just from the drive up and back."

"Good for me." Dar finished putting her necklace on. "Do I need to bring my boxing gloves? Or you think they'll be civilized?"

Kerry indulged herself in a moment's fantasy of Dar in her black silk sheath, clobbering their Telegenics competitors with the cute red boxing gloves she used for class. "Heh."

"Was that yes, or no?"

"That was me wishing they'd be uncivilized," Kerry admitted. "Ah well. Let's get going. Want me to drive?"

"Sure."

Kerry walked into the living room, shadowboxing as she walked. "Boom...boom...boom..." She paused as they reached the front door and cocked her head to one side. "Wouldn't it be cool if we had the motorcycle up here? I'd love to pull up on that."

Dar stopped. She leaned on the door and looked Kerry up and down. "Hon, think about that a minute and how you have to ride a bike," she said. "If you think I'm giving all of downtown Miami a view like that, you're nuts."

Kerry looked puzzled, then glanced down at herself. A snort emerged. "Oh," she muttered. "Yeah. I see your point."

Dar opened the door and gestured toward the outside. "Exhibitionists first."

"Nyahh."

PIER 12 APPEARED somberly festive as they walked up the flight of stairs into the port facility. Dar handed the white gloved receptionist their invitations and waited to be checked off whatever list the woman had, then gave her a brief nod as they were allowed past.

A glance at the banners told her that Quest wasn't quite the expansive host he'd presented himself to be. It was clear that the cost of the party was being borne by the Port which tied in with what Kerry had told her about them being glad of the business in an off time.

They rode the escalator up to the second level where there were tables filled with various edible items. A bar anchored each end of the room and both were busy with well-dressed schmoozers taking advantage of the free alcohol.