"Yeah," Kerry said. "But I'll tell you all about it when you get home. Go scoot and find your snitches."

"Okay. Yeah," Dar replied. "Strange timing, I guess. Be home soon." She released the line and shouldered her briefcase, turning off the desk lamp as she headed for the door.

MIDDLE OF THE summer on a Monday made for a very slow night at the bar. Dar gave the greeter at the door a nod as she entered, sweeping her eyes around the sparsely occupied lounge until she spotted her two colleagues near one of the floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows.

Stacy waved at her. Dar headed in that direction, only to be intercepted by a hovering and obviously bored waiter. She stopped as the man looked inquiringly at her.

"Can I get you something, ma'am? We have chocolate martinis on special tonight."

Much as the thought of a chocolate anything was intriguing to her at the moment, Dar shook her head. "Jamaican coffee, please." She indicated the small group of chairs near the window. "I'll be over there."

"Right away, ma'am."

Dar continued on her way and took one of the seats opposite Stacy and Rhonda. They both had glasses in front of them, with enough half eaten fruit matter to indicate their alcoholic content. "All right. So what's up?"

"Gee, Dar...it's great to see you too." Stacy gave her a wry grin. "Been a while."

Dar crossed her arms. "Half hour, didn't you say?" she asked pointedly. "I didn't come here to be social." She accepted the steaming mug the waiter handed her, and took a cautious sip. The coffee was hot, and pungent with a touch of rum and Tia Maria.

"No, you never really were the social butterfly," Stacy acknowledged. "Though we had some pretty good times back in the old days, out on the road."

"Eh." Dar tilted her head slightly. "I still remember you ending up doing the tango with the chef at that Italian place in New Mexico," she admitted. "They ever stop teasing you about it?"

Rhonda snickered.

"No." Stacy laughed. "They haven't. Trust you to remember that one, too. I think that was the first night I ever saw you drink something other than milk," she added. "Though tough as that damn account was, we were all due it. What a hemorrhoid case that was."

Ah, yes. Dar smiled faintly, and nodded. "Yeah, it was," she agreed.

"Dar, is that the first place you banged heads with that Shari woman? I remember her from that account. You fired her there, didn't you?" Rhonda asked. "That's why she was so familiar when she came into that bar. I remember her pitching a fit in the building as security was throwing her out."

"Yeah." Stacy nodded. "I didn't see her when she came in, but Rho did, and then when she and whatserface..."

"Michelle Graver," Dar supplied evenly.

"Yeah, from Vista, wasn't it?"

"Yeah."

Stacy slowly twirled her straw as she sucked on it. "They sat down, and it wasn't a minute until they were yelling at each other, and the first word I recognized was your name."

Dar grunted. "Yeah, well." She shrugged one shoulder. "Shari and I go a long way back," she said. "So it wasn't the first time we'd met. I had a decision to make and it could have gone either way, but she'd taken the piss out of me one time and I gave her the boot."

"I remember." Rhonda signaled the waiter, and indicated their near empty glasses. "Dar? You up for a second?"

Dar glanced at her cup, which was still half full. "I'm fine."

"So, anyway." Stacy retrieved a tortilla chip from the table and loaded it with salsa. "They didn't know us from Adam's housecat, naturally. They sat at the table behind us, and let me tell you, they lit into each other like nothing."

The waiter returned, putting down two fresh fruity looking drinks. "Anything else I can get you ladies? Some hors d'oeuvres, perhaps?" He picked up the basket of tortillas. "I'll get some fresh chips. Would you like to try one of our combo plates?"

"Sure." Rhonda shooed him away. "Thanks."

Dar slowly sipped her coffee, appreciating the slight burn as the alcohol hit her in the belly. For her, that night in New Mexico had been a great one. The sense of personal vindication had nearly made her giddy. She'd more than welcomed the chance to share a night out with her co-workers, though they'd never known just why their sullen, loner regional tech manager suddenly decided to be social.

She'd had fun. Gotten a little drunk, but not nearly as much as they had, and enjoyed the simple pleasure of sitting back and relaxing after a tough day of work. Even going back to her hotel room alone hadn't bothered her. She remembered spending time on the room's balcony looking out over the New Mexico desert, happy for a change.

Ah. Or she'd thought she'd been happy. Dar felt her cheeks move into a silent grin. Now she knew she'd only been satisfied because over the last couple of years she'd had a much closer acquaintance with happy. "So, they were fighting."

"Like weasels," Stacy agreed. "Graver was pissed off because of some plan of hers that'd gotten screwed up, and I swear, I thought she said she'd offered you a job."

"She did," Dar acknowledged. "Her damn company recruited Kerry and I, matter of fact."

Stacy gaped at her. "Really?"

"Had no clue who we were, but yeah," Dar chuckled. "We were in the show room night before it opened getting our gear set and they thought we were staff geeks."

Rhonda started laughing, covering her mouth hastily. "Oh, my god."

"Wasn't funny then, but I'm laughing now," Dar admitted. "And actually, Graver did offer both of us jobs later on, but I think we all knew that was just a piece of BS."

"That's what she said," Rhonda agreed. "Apparently it was all to keep you from getting involved with that cruise ship deal."

Dar's head cocked to one side. "Eh?"

Stacy nodded. "Yeah, exactly. That's what they were fighting about. Apparently the Shari woman screwed that up by telling someone something about Kerry...that she was after your job?"

Kerry wanted her...oh. "Ah." Dar took a sip of her coffee. "Yeah, actually, that did screw them up," she mused, in a surprised tone. "But why wouldn't Michelle want to get into a pissing match with us? Isn't their whole deal proving they can beat us at our own game?"

Rhonda and Stacy glanced at each other. "Well, that's what we thought too," Rhonda said. "It was pretty screwy. I sort of got the impression Graver was intimidated."

"As well she should be." Stacy lifted her glass in a toast in Dar's direction.

"Jesus." Stacy shook her head. "So anyway, Dar...to get to the point of why we dragged you out here, and didn't just share a cup of coffee in the lunchroom...the Shari woman said she'd gotten back some information on Kerry, and she told Graver they'd been going at everything the wrong way."

Just hearing Kerry's name from Shari's mouth triggered Dar's baser instincts. The evening stopped being amusing, and she leaned forward slightly, her voice dropping noticeably. "Yeah?"

Stacy paused, studying Dar for a moment. "I just realized I've never met our VP of Operations," she commented incongruously. "But I think I want to."

Dar simply waited, her coffee forgotten.

Rhonda leaned forward. "What Shari said was that she had some dope on Kerry, and she told Graver to leave the whole thing to her. She said if she could get to Kerry, then they didn't have anything to worry about on this ship contract."

"Dar?" Stacy uttered, into the quiet that fell. "Do you realize your eyes are actually really shooting off sparks? You're going to set the carpet on fire. Just take it easy, okay?"

With a great deal of effort, Dar forced herself to ease back into the chair. Her heartbeat was a thunder in her ears, and she could feel twitching in her forearms as though her hands wanted to clench into fists. She took a short breath, and released it. "Bitch," she enunciated precisely.

The waiter arrived with a plate of hot tidbits, which he put down, along with a fresh basket of chips. "Here you go, ladies." He turned to Dar. "Are you finished there, ma'am? Would you like another?"

Dar handed him her coffee cup. "Bring me a tall glass of milk, please."

The waiter blinked. "Milk?"

"Milk," Dar repeated. "Cold milk," she clarified, as he turned to go. After he left again, she turned back and steepled her fingers, peering at Stacy and Rhonda with half closed eyes.

"You're really pissed," Stacy murmured. "Wow. I forgot that temper."

"Family trait," Dar finally answered as her heart started to settle down. "But thanks for telling me. Not that I think they've got anything Kerry wouldn't laugh at, but it's good to know."

Rhonda took a mini-taco, and handed it over to Dar, along with a napkin. "That's why we really didn't want to say this in the office, Dar. It's...that woman's got a grudge against you and it's all personal. Even Graver said so. She said she was obsessed."

Dar mechanically took the taco and examined it, before she took a bite, chewing without tasting it and swallowing it to get it out of her mouth. "Yeah." She took the glass of milk from the attentive waiter and downed a mouthful. "She's something."

"So you think she was BSing?" Stacy asked. "About Kerry?"

Dar waited for her guts to unclench. "Yes," she replied evenly. "Shari always believes she knows the angles on everything. Always has."

"Mm." Rhonda nodded. "Yeah, seemed like it to me. Big mouth, all air."

Stacy took a napkin and a potato puff. "Well, all I can say is I hope we wipe the floor with them. I'm really tired of their sales punks lording it over us every time we meet, telling us all about the latest contract they stole from us." She settled back in her seat. "Especially since they're targeting three of my big ones up for renewal. I'm getting a lot of pressure to cut our costs, Dar."

Dar peered into her milk. "I'm not going to play their game," she said. "I've already said that. No contract gets signed that loses us money. I don't care how many they think they can take."

"We don't have a lot of leverage," Rhonda said, hesitantly. "I mean, I know our service can't be beat, but..."

"But nothing," Dar cut her off quietly. "All it's going to take is one big screw-up they can't cover. So keep your shorts on, and don't panic."

Stacy exhaled. "Well, the trade show helped," she conceded. "I have to admit, Dar, there were six of us in the regional office watching Tech TV, and I hope your ears were burning because we were cheering you on like gangbusters. You go girl."

Dar relaxed a little and leaned back. After the first shock, her mind was now wrapping around and assimilating the information Stacy and Rhonda had given her, and with effort, separating it from the emotional charge.

"Hey, Dar?" Rhonda suddenly leaned forward.

"Yes?" Dar looked up and waited, finishing her milk.

"Sorry if we got you angry."

A half shrug moved the silk over Dar's shoulder. "S'allright."

Stacy swirled her drink in one hand. "You know you totally freaked out most of the sales force when that whole thing with you and Kerry came out. I remember we were at an incentive meeting, and everyone was just stunned."

Dar shrugged again. "Damn slow news day then."

"You have to admit it was a little fantastic," Rhonda offered. "But you know, once everyone got over the shock and worked with her most people were fine with it."

Had it been fantastic? Dar pondered that a moment. Eh. Maybe. "Good thing," she remarked. "Since they didn't really have a choice in the matter."

"What would you have done if Alastair hadn't been cool with it?" Stacy asked curiously.

"Left."

"Just like that?"

Dar snorted. "Yeah. Just like that," she replied. "Now if you ladies don't mind, I'm gonna go home and get out of this monkey suit." She set her glass down and stood up, towering over them in the low lighting. "Thanks for the warning."

"Sure you won't have another, Dar?" Stacy held up her glass. "For old time's sake?"

"No thanks." Dar lifted a hand and waved briefly. "Night."

Stacy watched her disappear, then lifted her glass. "There's a woman who has something she wants to go home to," she chuckled wryly. "Bless her heart."

Rhonda nodded. "Glad we told her," she summed up. "Telegenics won't stand a chance now, the little bastards. She'll take 'em out for sure."

"For sure." Stacy touched her glass to Rhonda's, and they both took a solemn drink. "You think there's anything in that story about Kerry wanting her job?"