Dar looked up again, studying the car. "We weren't on that side of the building," she said. "Car looks a little familiar though, but it's a common rental type. Dime a dozen, Ker."

"Yeah." Something was niggling at Kerry's memory, and she rested her chin on her fist as the news went on to another story. After a few minutes of trying to root it out, however, she gave up and tuned back in to the reporter. "Ah...gonna have rain tomorrow," she chortled softly. "Sure you don't want to spend the day inside with me watching it?"

"Mm." Dar gave her a narrow-eyed look. "Temptress."

Kerry gave her best impression of sultriness, aware that her Pooh T-shirt was probably skewing the impact just a trifle. "Actually, I've got a ton of stuff to do tomorrow. I want to get a hair-cut for starters, and my car's due for service."

"Thought you were going to relax?" Dar reminded her.

"I will," Kerry said. "But I want to get something accomplished too, so I don't feel so guilty thinking of you slaving away in the office stuck in your monkey suit."

"Ahh, and I have to meet with all the international sales directors. They're in tomorrow." Dar reminded her. "So you can really pity me. Maria has a four hour block scheduled in the afternoon."

"Ew."

"Uh huh."

Kerry rolled over on to her back and watched Dar's profile as she worked on her machine. "I could pass on having a day off," she suggested. "You want some backup?"

"Nah." Dar glanced up at her, and grinned. "But thanks for the offer."

"Okay." Kerry wiggled her feet under the cotton covering. "But I'll make sure you've got something great to come home to."

The blue eyes twinkled. "Something other than you? What else do you think I need?"

Kerry sighed happily.

"Besides, you're going to have to run the ball game with Quest," Dar continued dryly. "Don't thank me yet." She went back to her typing, listening to the soft chuckle as Kerry rolled back onto her side and the news switched over to sports.

"Okay." She reviewed her work for the last time, studying the presentation she'd put together for the meeting. "I think that'll work." She set the laptop down on the coffee table and stretched, reaching out to scratch Chino's head.

It was a completely ordinary Sunday night at home. They usually watched whatever was on either the Learning Channel or Discovery, or a movie, then the news before getting together whatever they needed for work the next week and going to bed.

Comfortingly predictable. Dar regarded the shots of football players practicing in the hot sun with a touch of bemusement. "Y'know, they took us to see those guys do that once."

"That?" Kerry pointed. "You mean, summer practice?"

"Yeah," Dar said. "They used to take school kids on different field trips. See the zoo, that sort of thing." A rakish grin appeared. "Summer day, ninety degrees, no water anywhere. We all ran off and raided a McArthur Dairy milk truck that'd stopped to make a delivery. Nearly got tossed in jail."

Kerry started laughing.

"Haven't liked watching those guys play since."



Chapter Nine



DAR DROPPED HER leather portfolio on her desk before she circled it and sat down, giving her trackball a spin as she settled into her leather chair.

Her mail came up, the screen dark with new messages. She clicked on one, and reviewed it, then sighed and shook her head. "Boy, am I ever an idiot."

After a moment, she hit one of her speed dial buttons and waited for an answer. "Mark?"

"Hey boss." Mark sounded a touch harried.

"You going to kill me?" Dar eyed the phone. "I got the security report."

"Well," Mark sighed. "Our front end web routers are getting pounded. I may have to throw a reserve circuit at it. Freaking hackers."

Dar flipped over to the monitoring screen and reviewed it. She could see the entry points, and the flickers of orange and yellow in their normally green and blue world. "Brute force?"

"Yeah. Pretty lame," Mark said. "Just a lot of volume."

Dar studied the traffic. "Are they trying to hack the site or just DDOS it?" she asked. "We have a sniffer on that outside port?"

Mark rattled a bunch of keys. "Haven't scoped it yet," he admitted. "Gimme a sec."

The attack didn't really affect her internal network. Dar frowned as she studied the stats. They had recorded a rising number of probes at her external interfaces, but those were subtler, and almost hesitant. This seemed like something else.

"They take us offline that's gonna suck, Boss," Mark commented.

Exactly. "I think that's probably what they're trying to do," Dar said. "Bastards." She leaned on her elbows, peering at the screen. "Let's get a scope on it, see if there's a common source or if it's a botnet."

"Will do."

"Call me back." Dar released the phone and sighed. She glanced back at her mail and clicked a second one with a red exclamation point. "Eleanor. Now what?"

She scanned the mail, and then dialed the phone again. Two rings later, Eleanor answered. "What the hell is this mail?" Dar asked. "Who wants to talk to me?"

The Marketing VP sighed. "Apparently CNN's tech reporter picked up the AP feed on the convention. He got wind of this competition between Telegenics and us and wants a story out of it. He's already talked to the Tech TV people that were there."

"Great." Dar leaned back in her chair. "What's his angle?"

"That we're being pushed over by some startup with guts and innovation."

"Nice," Dar grunted.

"He thinks he's got a good yarn, what can I tell you, Dar?" Eleanor said. "Want me to push him over to Kerry? We'd probably get milder sound bites that way."

Dar sighed. "No, I'm not asking Kerry to clean up my mess. Give him my contact info. I'll talk to him." She rubbed her temples.

"Okay," Eleanor said. "Do me a favor though, huh? Try not to get us into more trouble?"

"No promises," Dar answered briefly. "Later." She cut off the phone, and then hit the button again when it buzzed a second later. "Yeah?"

"Okay, got the sniffer on." Mark said. "I'm gonna output to your share okay? I've got a couple of hot potatoes on right now."

"Sure," Dar agreed. "Thanks. I got it." She hung up again, and then glanced up as her intercom buzzed. "Now what?"

"Jefa, I have a customer, Mr. Godson on linea uno. He says he must speak with you urgently."

Godson. Godson...oh. "Okay, put him through," Dar said. "I'll talk to him."

"Si, I will do so." Maria's voice clicked off, then her internal line buzzed.

Dar picked it up. "Hello Stewart."

"Dar, that you? Oh, of course it is," a man's voice answered. "Glad I caught you in. Listen, I've got a big problem I need some help with."

Of course he did. Customers rarely called Dar just to pass the time of day, or compliment her on their service metrics. Godson was the CIO of Betadyne, a very high-powered sales and marketing group that provided fulfillment and call center services for a host of clients.

A big, and influential account. Ergo, why Dar was speaking to him without hesitation. "Sure, Stewart. What can we do for you?"

She spun her trackball again, and studied her mail screen as he started talking, stifling a yawn and wishing the day was moving faster.

"Well, see, Dar, we recently moved to this new application of ours, a real corker," Godson said. "It's fabulous. We love it. It does a hell of a lot more for us than the last thing we were using did, and we can see it's going to really move us ahead in business."

Dar glanced at the phone. "Glad to hear that, Stewart," she remarked. "I didn't know you were moving platforms."

Godson cleared his throat. "Wasn't going to, you know? Change isn't the best route sometimes, but we got a good deal from this company, and our new VP Ops here brought the deal home, said it would revolutionize us."

Uh huh. "Okay, so...what's the problem? Sounds like you're happy with it." Dar leaned her elbow on her desk and rested her head on her hand.

"Well, it's not performing," Godson said. "It's slow as hell, and Meyer, that's my VP, thinks it's the network causing the problem."

Dar turned her head and looked at the phone. "I see."

"Says he's got some people he can bring in to fix everything." Godson sounded a trifle abashed. "You know, consultants or what not. Friends of his, I guess."

"Uh huh."

"But I told him, before we go spending money on that, let's see what you can find out about it." The man cleared his throat. "After all, we've been doing business for a long time, right?"

"We have." Dar now turned her full attention to the phone, turning in her seat and leaning on her elbows, ignoring the screen. "I'm sorry you didn't come to me sooner, Stewart. I didn't know you were having an issue, much less that you considered it to be our fault."

"Now, Dar," Stewart said. "Let's not talk about fault huh? Maybe it's something simple, if you can look at it and see what it is?"

"Absolutely." Dar folded her hands. "I'll look at it right away and let you know."

"Great." Godson sounded relieved. "Looking forward to hearing from you, Dar. Thanks!"

He hung up and left Dar pondering her phone with a dour expression. Then she turned and minimized her mail, calling up her network monitoring program with a shake of her head.

A soft beep made her look up again to see Mark's file transfer completed, the box flashing for her attention.

"Yeah yeah." She shifted in her seat and resisted the urge to open her analyzer program, focusing on Godson's issue instead. "This better the hell not be a capacity problem I missed." Her hand flicked the mouse pointer impatiently. "If it is I'm gonna fire my ass."

KERRY WHISTLED UNDER her breath as she removed a last load of laundry from the washer and tossed it into the dryer. She set the machine and started it running, then took her basketful of already dried clothes and ambled back through the kitchen toward Dar's bedroom, closely followed by an attentive Chino.

She put the basket down on the edge of the waterbed and started sorting its contents out. "You know what, Chino?" she addressed their pet. "Don't tell anyone, but sometimes I actually like doing this stuff."

"Gruff?"

Kerry opened Dar's underwear drawer and began to store neatly folded pairs of underwear inside it. She'd gotten two of them inside when the phone rang, and she reached across the dresser to pick up the portable resting there. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Ms. Stuart?" a man's voice asked. "This is Bob, from South Beach Lexus."

"Yup, it's me," Kerry agreed. "The buggy ready?"

"Not quite yet, ma'am, we really want to replace the brake pads. You've been kinda tough on 'em."

Kerry frowned at the phone. "I have?"

"Well, they're showing a lot of wear. We can let them go for a while but..."

"No, go ahead, by all means replace them," Kerry interrupted him. "I just didn't think I jammed them that much. Guess I'll have to pay more attention to how I'm driving, huh?"

The man cleared his throat. "Yeah, well, you know, a lot of people have the same problem...must be the traffic down here. Anyway, we'll get them changed, and my guy's gonna deliver the car to you round dinnertime, if that's okay."

"Great," Kerry answered readily. "Sounds perfect. Thanks!" She put the phone down and went back to her folding, inspecting each item for possible holes before she tucked it away. Most of Dar's briefs were plain, and somewhat ordinary, but she did have a selection of whimsical ones, most of which Kerry had purchased for her.

And of course, the red silk ones. Kerry smiled as she put those in the drawer, glancing at herself in the mirror as she finished. A hand lifted and riffled through her newly cut hair, and she gave the results an approving nod, pleased with her day so far.

The phone rang again, and she gave it a look of mild exasperation before she picked up the receiver and answered it. "Hello?"

"Hi," Dar's voice responded. "You're not answering your cell phone."

Kerry sucked in breath. "Oops...sorry. It's upstairs charging," she said. "And I'm downstairs playing with your undies. What's up?"

"Ahh...glad I finally learned my lesson and don't keep you on speaker," Dar chuckled. "Listen, I had to put the afternoon session on delay. Stewart Godson up in New York called, with a brand new project they just threw together. It's maxing their bandwidth out and I have to take a look at it."