Chapter

Eighteen

THE ALARM WENT off before dawn, and Kerry reached over quickly to silence it. It stopped its low buzz, and she let her hand drop back down onto the pillow as she glanced over at Dar’s sleeping form.

Her lover didn’t stir, her body relaxed in slumber and her breathing slow and even. Good. Kerry sighed in relief. Obsessively, Dar had worked until after midnight on what data she had in her laptop, only surrendering when Kerry coaxed her off the couch and into the waterbed, where she’d fallen asleep almost in the middle of a protest.

Kerry spent a moment just watching Dar’s profile, outlined by the pale blue night-light in the bathroom. Then she rolled over and eased out of bed on the opposite side, twitching the down comforter back into place. She stifled a yawn with one hand as she made her way into the bathroom and closed the door quietly behind her before she flipped the light on.

“Ugh.” Kerry winced and closed her eyes, waiting for a moment before she reopened them and blinked at her reflection. A very disheveled, grumpy woman looked back at her, and she stuck her tongue out at the image.

She had such a damn busy day planned at work. First, she’d have to coordinate the recovery of whatever Mark had retained in that black box, assuming Dar remembered how to reassemble the puzzle pieces.

Then she’d have to assign a high security team to work with the database, reconstructing it meticulously and recording their steps line by line.

Then, since it was a Monday, she knew there would be at least five or six major disasters for her to handle, along with the usual running operations issues. Thank God, Kerry mused, as she splashed water on her face and lathered up some soap, that Dar’s new network had reduced her crisis calls by eighty percent, its flexibility and reliability making her life much more pleasant.

So she’d get some liquid breakfast, throw on her running gear, do her laps, then shower and head for the office. Kerry dried her face and nodded at her still scruffy, but more alert-looking reflection. “Right?”

She watched her lower lip poke out as though of its own volition.

Her brow creased. “Okay, what’s wrong?” The lip poked out 298 Melissa Good further in a pout. “Kerrison Stuart, you are not going to pout because Dar gets to stay home and you don’t, y’hear me?”

“Growf.” Chino hopped up and put her paws on the sink, peering up at Kerry as if wondering who her mom was talking to.

“Sure, that’s easy for you to say.” Kerry turned and tapped the end of her toothbrush on Chino’s nose. “You get to stay here with her.”

Chino’s tail wagged.

“Yeah, yeah. Rufh min fin,” Kerry spoke through a mouthful of toothpaste.

IT WAS A beautiful morning. Kerry took a deep breath of the cool, salt-tinged air as she walked down the path to the beach, enjoying the lack of humidity that made their running uncomfortable, bordering on brutal during the summer months. When she reached the winding path that led around the island, she paused to stretch out her muscles, as a few seagulls drifted by to watch.

It was quiet at this hour, the soft clanks from the marina and the birds’ curious squawks the only sounds that broke the dawn hush.

Kerry finished her warm-up and started down the path at a slow jog, waiting for her body to wake up and get into sync before she picked her pace up and settled into her run.

She’d finally gotten used to this. Kerry watched a small tug move past the south side of the island as she headed around the marina. In fact, she’d come to look forward to the time she and Dar set aside for their joint morning exercise, because it was a great way to start the day with some peace and quiet.

Okay. Kerry smiled as she rounded the island’s northern side for the first time. And some companionable togetherness. They’d started debating current events the past few weeks, and she found herself missing the company this morning.

How had Dar stood it all those years alone? The thought intruded itself. Then another thought made her almost stop in her tracks. How did you stand it all those years alone, Kerry?

Wow. Kerry tried to remember what her life had been like before she’d met Dar. It had been—well, all right, she guessed. She’d had fun with her friends at work and with Colleen. She hadn’t been lonely, had she?

Second lap already? Kerry sighed and nibbled her lower lip. No, she really hadn’t been lonely. She’d been more like...waiting. That was it.

She nodded to herself. She’d always had the feeling that just around the bend, just around that next corner, she’d find someone special.

Okay, so it wasn’t around a corner, and the person had barged into her office intent on firing her, but she’d found it. Kerry smiled and leaned forward a little, picking up her pace. Faster I go, faster I get back.


Red Sky At Morning 299

DAR KEPT HER eyes closed, aware of the fact that she was alone in bed. This didn’t make her very happy. The waterbed was comfortable, but it was a lot warmer and more comfortable if it was full of a certain blonde woman she knew, who tended to drape nice smelling and cutely shaped parts of herself all over Dar.

On the other hand, Dar reasoned, she could also smell cinnamon and the scent of fresh coffee, which meant she was trading off waking up chilly and grumpy for sticky buns and a cup of Santa’s White Christmas in her big blue mug.

Hmm.

She heard soft clinks from the kitchen, then the light scuff of bare feet against tile heading in her direction. It was strange, but she could actually feel Kerry’s presence as her lover entered the room, bringing the nice smells closer and combining them with apricot skin scrub and the clean cotton T-shirt that covered Kerry’s freshly showered body.

Mm. Dar briefly wondered if she could just suck on Kerry and forgo the sticky bun. She opened one eye. “Morning.”

“Hi there, cute stuff.” Kerry set the small tray down on their bedside table. On it was the anticipated blue mug and a plate with two buns. “How do you feel?”

Dar closed her fingers on the knee conveniently close by and squeezed. “Mm, not bad,” she joked wryly. “Like crap, honestly,” she then admitted. “I feel like I’ll never get rid of this headache, and my arm’s killing me. I think I slept wrong.”

Kerry rattled the small bottle on the tray. “I came prepared.” She removed a small glass from next to the mug. “Here.” She handed Dar some juice and three tablets.

Dar finished the juice and handed the glass back. “Thanks,” she said. “You better get dressed.”

“Oh.” Kerry plucked at her shirt, which had an almost life-size Dilbert sprawled across its surface. “You mean I can’t go to work like this? C’mon, Dar.”

Dar cocked her head slightly. “Well, okay, hon, but don’t stand with your back to the light, okay? It’s a little translucent.”

Kerry looked down. “It is?” she asked in surprise. “Where?”

A finger reached out and tickled a very sensitive spot.

“Yeak!” A snorting laugh escaped Kerry. “Okay, okay. I see your point.” She gazed fondly at Dar. “Let me go get into my monkey suit.”

Dar tangled her fingers in the soft cotton and tugged. “Thanks for breakfast,” she said. “And you can go to work dressed casual today if you want. It won’t kill anyone.”

Kerry considered that, then nodded. “Okay, I will,” she decided.

“I’m in the mood for jeans.” She turned and made her way into the living room, then took the stairs two at a time.


300 Melissa Good

“WHEN’RE WE GONNA see what we got?” Brent asked, sticking his hands in his pockets and regarding the locked steel box in the corner of Mark’s office.

Mark didn’t look up from the folder he was writing on. “When Dar says we do. Go do something, willya, Brent? It’s not going to levitate out of that box.”

Brent stayed put. “We risked our necks to get that thing.”

Now Mark looked up. “You volunteered.”

“So?” The tech squared a pugnacious jaw. “We still did.”

“And your point is what?” the MIS chief asked. “Look, you wouldn’t know what the hell was in there even if I did open and link it.

It’s not readable.”

Brent’s brow creased. “Huh? Then what’d we do it for? You mean we can’t use it?”

“I didn’t say that.” Mark took an impatient breath. “I said you can’t read it. I can’t read it. Yoda the Jedi Master can’t read it.” He pointed at the box. “But Dar can. She knows what formula she used to structure the sector copy. She’s the one who has to reconstruct it, okay?”

Brent looked interested. “Oh.”

Mark leaned back. “Hey. Why the fuck did you go with us?” he asked bluntly. “You spent the last two weeks blowing shit all over this office about how you felt about the boss.”

Brent studied him sullenly. “It’s not right.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You, my aunt Matilda, and Dr. Laura with your homophobic bullshit,” Mark snapped. “All of you can kiss my ass. So why offer to help out someone you hate so much?”

Brent shrugged. “The Navy sucks,” he commented, then turned and walked out, leaving a bewildered Mark to stare after him.

“What the hell was that?” Mark asked the empty air. “Why the fuck do I get all the warped SIMMS in Miami working for me?” He shook his head and glanced at his screen. “Ah.” An alert showed him that Kerry had logged into the office systems. He checked a second alarm, scowling a little on seeing it remain dark. “Shit. C’mon, Dar. I want to know if we got those bastards, too.”

THE BOAT ROCKED up and down in the very light chop as Ceci walked along the edge of the deck. Good thing, she mused thoughtfully, that I’m not prone to seasickness. That would have been a hell of a thing to find out after I talked Andy into this thing, wouldn’t it?

She spotted her husband seated on the very front of the bow, resting his arms on the railing as he watched the sun rise over the sea.

He was dressed in his shortie wet suit, which glistened with the seawater that also dampened his grizzled hair and scattered sparkles over his tanned skin.

“Hey, sailor boy.” Ceci took a seat next to him.


Red Sky At Morning 301

“Y’know, Cec,” Andrew turned his head and looked thoughtfully at her, “I do believe I do not consider that a compliment anymore.”

Ceci looked at him. “Andy,” she put a hand on his leg, “don’t say that. A bunch of jackasses shouldn’t take a lifetime of pride away from you. C’mon now.” She found herself in the weird position of defending a service she’d never really liked or understood. “You know the vast majority aren’t like that. They’re like you.” She gazed into the pale blue eyes. “Well, not just like you.”

Andrew sighed. “Ah remember doing bartering myself back on that there base.”

“Everyone did,” Ceci laughed. “C’mon, Andy. That’s how we managed to trade enough for that Christmas party that one year, remember? When you won that stuffed tiger from Brad at the carnival, and gave it to Dar?”

Andrew brooded. “How was that different than what this was? Jeff said he done it for his family. Well, I done that for my family.”

“Hon,” Ceci managed not to smile, “I don’t think even the attorney general, bless her good, cracker heart, would see tins of peanut butter and a case of beer in the same light as selling black-market M16s and cocaine.”

“Mph.”

“Besides, how could we possibly deny Dar her peanut butter?” Ceci asked. “She ate so much of that, I’m surprised she doesn’t carry a cane and wear a top hat and spats.”

Andrew laughed wryly in pure reflex. “She surely did like that stuff,” he agreed, then sighed. “Maybe that’s how it starts, though. Folks think that’s all right, then it just goes a little further, and further—”

“No.” Ceci shook her head. “There’s a line there, Andy. You and I both know that. Someone made the decision to cross that line.” She put a hand on his arm “It just so happens that person was a friend of ours.”

Andrew scowled. “Jackass.”

“Mm.”

“Hope Dar nails his ass t’the ground with a sharpened flagpole.”

Now it was Ceci’s turn to laugh.

DAR LAY QUIETLY in bed, soft New Age music providing a background as she drowsed, allowing the painkillers to ebb some of the throbbing from her arm and head. There were a dozen things she could be doing, she admitted, but it was much easier to do what she’d promised she’d do, which was rest and allow her body to heal.