Not that Dar really objected to long screaming arguments, but the longer the process took, the longer she had to stay here and put up with this noisy, crowded city that conspicuously lacked certain essentials, such as her partner.

And she had decided this morning while peeling her banana, that particular essential was something she intended to regain as soon as humanly possible. That meant she would have to take a different tack with the programmer and gain his cooperation, if she could.

At least she would try. There was always hours of screaming to fall back on. Dar's nose twitched as she caught the scent of strong coffee, and she decided to duck into a nearby shop to take advantage of it, escaping minutes later with a jolt of claustrophobia along with her steaming cup.

Twenty minutes later, she was outside the office building. She entered the revolving door, a flickering grin crossing her face as she caught the expressions of the flannel clad and sweating woman she shared the door pocket with. "Morning."

The woman merely nodded, and continued on her way once they cleared the entrance. Dar adjusted the strap on her briefcase and followed her toward the elevators, which already had a cluster of waiting bodies in front of them despite the relatively early hour.

The thought of getting into one of those elevators surrounded by all of them made Dar's guts churn unexpectedly. With a grimace, she looked around for an alternative path, spotting an out of the way door marked 'Exit' to the left of the elevators.

Dar checked her watch, and found she still had twenty minutes before her eight o'clock appointment. Accordingly, she bypassed the crowd and pushed open the door to the stairwell instead. A flight of concrete steps confronted her, along with a nose-tickling musty scent, but she started up anyway, trotting lightly on the treads to an internal rhythm.

Fifteen stories later, she emerged into a typically painted hallway and made her way between rows of weave cubicles into the conference room she'd commandeered the previous day. It was, as of yet, still empty. She set her briefcase down on the table as she leaned her arms against the wood surface, stretching her back muscles and flexing her legs.

Lousy scenery, she decided, but a nice workout, and no crowds. As she sat down, the outer door opened and Jason Meyer entered, the VP Ops presenting a slightly harried appearance as he spotted her across the room.

"Oh. Good morning, Dar."

"Hi," Dar responded. "Where's our programmer?"

"On his way from the airport," Meyer assured her. "My assistant picked him up." He walked over, fussing with the pen in his hands nervously. "Listen, I'm glad I got a chance to talk to you before he gets here. There's something you better know first."

Dar sighed, and propped her chin up on her fist. "You know something?" she said. "If I had a buck for every time someone said that to me, I'd have retired years ago."

Meyer sat down across from her. "This really isn't funny."

Dar gazed at him dourly. "I have to take my amusement where I find it. What's the problem?"

"I don't think this guy's really going to be able to help you," the man told her. He had sandy hair and now he scrubbed his hand through it, disordering the strands. "I talked to them when we first started up the servers...they know what the problem is. It would just take too much to fix it."

"Too much what?"

"Time. Money," Meyer admitted. "It means they have to rewrite their entire model."

Dar studied his face. The man must have been in his mid-forties. "Then why did you deploy it?" she asked. "If you knew this going in?"

His eyes narrowed slightly. "We're in a very competitive business, Ms. Roberts. This software gives us the edge."

Mild, blue orbs looked back at him. "Not if it doesn't run," she answered. "Know what I think? I think you didn't give a rat's ass about the effect on your infrastructure, because you figured your boss would just ask me to take care of it for you."

Now his look was watchful. "Well, you've got quite a reputation." He deferred the question. "Let's hope you can live up to it. Otherwise, I know a couple of companies who'd love to take your place here."

Ah. Knives were out. Dar allowed a sexy grin to cross her face. "For a fee to you, I'm sure."

"I don't appreciate the inference."

"I don't appreciate the threat," Dar responded. Her ears picked up approaching footsteps. "You made one bad choice already...want to risk a second?"

Meyer got up. "I'm not the one risking anything. You better be careful you don't get in over your head." He turned and walked out, using the back door to the conference room that lead down a short hallway to the executive offices. The door slammed shut behind him, leaving Dar in a momentary peace.

"Well, well." Dar leaned back, letting the fingers of her right hand drum on the table. "Nice to have that out in the open."

Her PDA bleeped. Dar opened it and tapped the waiting message, hoping she still had a few seconds before she was interrupted again.

#%$%$%#$$!!!!!!!!!

Dar' s eyebrows lifted. Cautiously, she tapped reply. Anything I can do, Ker?

(sigh) No. I'm okay. I just kicked my desk.

Why? Finally got over the color? Have it painted, babe. Dar joked, though she was a little concerned over the note. Kerry didn't usually assault her furniture without good reason.

I love the color. I just hate Peter Quest. He invited himself and that whole freaking circus here to our office, Dar! He didn't even wait to ask!

Dar frowned. Jackass.

Boy, you can say that again. I almost told him to get lost!

Which might have been what he'd been looking for. To see how far he could push them. Did you make him wait?

The sense of smoldering frustration was almost tangible in Kerry's answer. Yeah. I told them they had to wait until after we had our corporate lunch delivered from Houston.

Dar's eyebrows shot up. Lunch? Alastair?

Yeah. Thanks for letting me vent. He called me this morning to say thanks.

No problem. Dar scribbled back, glancing up as she heard the door latch start to work. Gotta go. Wish me luck.

Luck? Kerry's answer flashed back. Honey, you're way too good to need luck. Give them heck for me, okay?

Okay. Dar hit send as the door opened. She set the PDA down and took a deep breath, resting her elbows on the conference table and settling her posture as a young woman entered, followed by a tall, handsome man in pressed khakis carrying a briefcase not unlike hers.

The woman met Dar's eyes, and smiled briefly. "Okay, well, here we are. Hans, this is Dar Roberts from ILS. Ms. Roberts, this is Hans Erhard, and he's the chief programmer for Etecknics." With that, she stepped back. "Let us know if you need anything," she added, before she turned and left, closing the door behind her with a sharp snick of the latch.

Dar and the newcomer looked each other over in silence. Finally, Dar indicated the seat next to her, and lifted one eyebrow in invitation. The man agreeably walked over, putting his briefcase down and taking the chair, leaning on his elbows almost mimicking her position. "Hallo."

"Hi," Dar responded. "How was your flight?"

He gazed at her in complete incomprehension, just a polite smile on his face.

"Hallo, wie war Ihr Flug?" She amiably repeated the question in German, a little surprised to see the man's eyes light up. She'd been sure after her conversation with Meyer that he'd filled their guest in on their plans. But the reaction so far from Hans was one of a pretty blank slate.

Unexpected. Pleasant, but unexpected.

"It was very good," he answered in German. "Only too long. I am surprised to hear you speak my language, I thought no one on this side of the Atlantic spoke anything but English." One hand extended over the table toward Dar. "And I am especially glad because I have heard so much about you, though I think we will not agree on very much regarding this problem."

Dar took his hand and shook it, pleasantly surprised again by his forthrightness. "Well, you never know," she said. "Why don't we start at the beginning, and see what we can make out of this mess."

Hans inclined his head in agreement. "Yes, yes. But I think we should start with some coffee, since it is almost beer time for me right now. Is there somewhere here we can go?"

Well, this was starting out much better than she'd anticipated. Given the hostility she'd had from Meyer, the pleasant courtesy from Hans was duly appreciated, and she figured taking him out of the office to get some breakfast probably wasn't a bad idea. If she could get his active cooperation, then maybe getting this resolved wouldn't be as much of an uphill battle as she'd been afraid it would be. "Sure." She stood up. "There's a shop across the street. Let's go over there, and you can start by telling me all about this little program of yours."

"With my greatest pleasure." Hans indicated that she precede him. "It is a project that I am very proud of, and never tire talking about, especially talking about it to a very respected colleague who has much to be proud of as well."

Isn't he charming. Dar noted wryly. This might turn out all right. "Ah." She reached the outer door and opened it, stepping back to let him through. "Let's hope we can get both of these perfect products to work together."

Hans chuckled as they walked to the elevator. "I did not claim my software was perfect, however."

"Well, my network is." Dar issued a faintly teasing challenge. "But I'm sure we'll work something out." She watched his profile intently, but he only smiled easily and laughed. Yeah. This might turn out all right after all.

They entered the elevator and waited for the door to shut. Dar managed to catch a glimpse of Meyer as he walked by, his eyes flicking over them, and his face twisting into a scowl as he passed.

"So." She eyed Hans. "How long have you known they've had a problem?"

Hans checked his watch. "They have contacted me, yes, twenty-four hours ago."

"Interesting."

"HOW'S THE TRUCK going?" Kerry paused in the act of making herself some tea, as Mark entered the break room. "Everything seems to be holding for now."

"So far so good," Mark agreed, going over to the soda machine and popping some coins in. "Did you end up getting home last night?"

"I did." Kerry leaned back and sipped her tea. "Pretty late, but Dar's folks gave me a ride over and back again this morning. I spent the night in our boat."

Mark stopped in the middle of opening his coke bottle. "Huh?"

"Air conditioning," Kerry clarified. "It's got batteries, and the tanks were full of diesel to keep them charged."

"Oh, right." Mark nodded. "We had the windows open, but man it sucked. I was glad as hell to get to work this morning and cool off." He perched on the edge of one of the tables. "Did we get any fallout over all that stuff from last night? I didn't see anything on the news."

"Tell you in a few minutes. I have that guy from Tech TV showing up here." Kerry lifted her mug in Mark's direction and headed toward the door. "And a message on my voice mail from CNN."

"Ugh." Mark shook his head as she exited. "You couldn't pay me to do that job."

Kerry got into her seat just as the intercom buzzed. "Yes, Mayte?"

"Miss Kerry, I have Mr. Argos here? He said you were expecting him?"

Kerry's eyes narrowed. She paused a moment and took a breath, then pressed the intercom button. "I wasn't expecting him, Mayte. Please ask security to remove him from the building."

"Si." Mayte bravely stepped up to the plate, and clicked off.

Kerry dialed security, just in case. She waited until someone answered, then cleared her throat. "This is Kerry Stuart. There's an intruder here on the fourteenth floor in my outer office."

"Ma'am, this is Celeste, we just sent two officers up there. Do you want us to call the police?"

It was tempting. Kerry rested her weight on her elbows and bit the inside of her lip, thinking hard. "If he causes a problem, then yes. If he just goes quietly, then no," she decided.

"All right ma'am. We'll take care of it."

Kerry could hear male voices outside, strong and insistent. She got up and circled her desk, heading for the door and reaching it as the sound hit its crescendo. She opened the door, to find two of their security guards braced in front of her, facing off against Argos, while Mayte watched with wide eyes.