She pulled her cell phone off her waistband and dialed security. "Celeste?" She spoke into the phone. "Call the police."

Argos stopped yelling, realizing she was there. "Okay, so now we get somewhere."

"The police are on the way," Kerry said, briefly. "Since you can't cooperate with my security, I'm sure you'll cooperate with them. I would if I were you. I hear the Dade County Jail isn't for the timid."

"You can't call the police," Argos said. "Come on, Ms. Stuart. Give it up and talk to me."

"I've called the police," Kerry responded. "You're trespassing on private property."

"I'm the mainstream press. You can't treat me like that," he argued. "Do you want to make yourself and this company look worse than it already does?"

"Mr. Argos," Kerry addressed him quietly. "If I showed up in the Atlanta headquarters of CNN, and lied to get in, then stormed your secretary's desk, what would you do?"

He paused, and looked at her warily. "I'm only trying to get a story."

"And I'm only trying to run a company." Kerry glanced past him as Celeste and four other security guards showed up, crowding the antechamber. "Thanks Celeste. I'm going to go back to cleaning up after yesterday."

"Ma'am, we've got this." Celeste glared severely at Argos. "Sir, you are going to come with us downstairs. The police are waiting."

Argos ignored her. "You're really not going to talk to me?" he addressed Kerry. "It's in your interests, you know that."

"I know," Kerry agreed. "But I'm not going to give you what you want since you chose to pursue it the way you did. Blame my upbringing. Celeste, please escort him out."

"Son of a bitch."

"Daughter of a bastard, actually." She turned and went back in her office, closing the door with what she hoped was a sound of finality.

"Sir?" Celeste stepped close. "Please come with us."

Argos stuck his hands in his pockets. "You know, I don't really get my bluff called that often. Are the police really downstairs?"

"Yes."

The reporter nodded. "Okay." He meekly took up a place between Celeste and one of the other officers as they turned and made a crowded way out of Mayte's space heading back toward the elevator. "I don't suppose any of you are interested in talking to the press about what it's like to work here?"

Celeste just looked at him.

"All righty then."

KERRY HAD HER hiking boots propped up on her desk, and a Styrofoam plate of Chinese food in her lap as the first rumble of thunder sounded in the distance. She turned her head and observed the gathering clouds, glad she was inside and cool and relatively comfortable.

With a sigh, she went back to her lunch, deftly picking up a mouthful of the spicy, nutty chicken with her chopsticks and getting it into her mouth without dropping saucy bits of rice over the front of her aqua blue polo shirt.

Casual was casual, but going into a meeting with three other companies and a client with a soy sauce stained shirt wasn't something she really wanted to do, and the only extra shirt she had in the office was one of Dar's.

Conspicuously one of Dar's, in fact, a company polo from some show or other with her name on it.

Hm. Kerry pondered a sloppy bit of water chestnut, then regretfully put it safely between her teeth.

A soft knock came at the door. She considered adopting a less casual posture, then shrugged. "C'mon in."

The door opened and Mayte entered, her slim form also encased in casual denim and cotton. She was carrying a sheaf of papers, and a shy grin crossed her face when she spotted her boss half sprawled over her desk. "Miss Kerry, I have the documents you asked for."

"Bring 'em over." Kerry waved her chopsticks at her. "Did you get lunch?"

"Si." Mayte put the papers down in Kerry's inbox. "I have it outside. That was very nice of the big office to do for us."

"Yeah." Kerry selected a piece of chicken and bit into it. "Is the conference room ready? I told Mark to make sure our visitors get active tagged badges so we don't have to worry about them wandering around pressing their ears to the drywall." She glanced up. "Sit." She indicated the chair in front of her desk.

Mayte sat down, raising one hand to push her long, dark hair back behind her ear. "I think everything is ready, yes," she said. "My mother said some not so nice things about some of the people. Is this a bad thing that is happening here, Ms. Kerry?"

"Could you do me a favor?" Kerry asked.

"Of course," Mayte answered instantly.

"Could you please just call me Kerry?" Her boss requested, giving her a hopeful look. "Otherwise I really feel like I'm trapped inside a bad Southern period movie."

Mayte made a face.

"C'mon, it's not that hard is it?" Kerry coaxed.

Her assistant smiled hesitantly. "No, it is not hard at all. I just feel that it disrespects you if I do that. You are my boss."

'Hm." Her boss tapped her chopsticks together lightly. "Why do I think that particular argument might not really hold much water with me?" She inquired, a grave twinkle in her eyes.

Mayte blushed, a deep coral against her tanned skin, but didn't answer.

Hm. Kerry decided to table the discussion for the moment. "Anyway, back to your original question. These people are part of the cruise ship bid that Dar and I have been working on. The man asking for the bid invited himself here to have the meeting, because we're the only ones who have power, apparently. I don't really mind. In fact, Dar suggested I ask them, but I don't like people simply assuming things."

"Si." Mayte had recovered her composure, and now she nodded firmly.

"And yes, we know two of the people who are bidding against us," Kerry added, a trifle reluctantly. "One of them is a former client. The other..." She exhaled. "Knows Dar from way back."

Mayte blinked at her. "You do not like her,"she hazarded a guess.

Transparent as glass. Kerry sighed inwardly. "No," she admitted. "But anyway, I'm hoping this meeting won't be that long. We all presented a bid overview yesterday before the power outage started. I think he wants to put the cards on the table and ask for formal pricing." She scooped up some rice and a bamboo shoot. "And with any luck, I won't have to sleep on the water again tonight."

"Pardon?"

"I slept on the boat," Kerry clarified, taking a sip of her herbal tea. "After I found a way to get out there...I got lucky and Dar's folks found me over on South Pointe." She eyed Mayte. "How did you manage last night?"

"It was very hot," Mayte confessed. "We went outside to the porch, we have screening there, and papa made us hamburgers on the hibachi," she said. "We used candles and we slept outside. It was too hot inside."

Jesus, you're a lucky son of a biscuit, Kerrison. You have no idea. "Wow." Kerry set her lunch down. "Yeah, I remember how hot it gets. Dar and I spent the night in the condo once without power."

Hot and edgy, with the storm raging outside and an even bigger one brewing inside them both. "What a night that was."

"Papa went and got a generator very early today, when I told him what you did for the customers yesterday. He thinks you are very smart," Mayte said. "It is much better for Mama, too. She did not feel well at all."

Kerry's ears pricked up until she swore she felt the hair over them fluffing. "From the heat?" she asked casually.

"I think so," Mayte replied. "She could not wait to come to work today." A shy grin reappeared. "Me, either."

"Well." Kerry put her plate down and pulled her keyboard over. "If those losers don't have the power back on by tonight, I'm authorizing all of you to stay here in the building overnight. I don't want anyone getting sick, especially..." She gave Mayte a direct look. "Your mother."

It took only a moment to type out the message. Kerry reread it a few times, anticipating the problems and objections to it, and then she sent it, remembering to copy Dar visibly. "I know we don't have cots or anything, but we do have showers downstairs," she said. "And you and your mother can take over our offices." She indicated Dar's photo, sitting on the corner of her desk, and then indicated her own chest.

Mayte's eyes widened. "Oh, no, we can find other places..."

"Ah ah ah!" Kerry mock scowled at her until she subsided in meek silence. "It's what Dar would want." She continued in a softer voice. "Your mother means a lot to her, and I know she really appreciates all the support your mom's given her over the years."

"Si, I know..." Mayte admitted. "I remember when Mama came home one time when there was no air conditioning here."

"Ick."

"Si. But she was so upset, because la jefa had stayed here all night, working so hard to get it all fixed, and the next day she heard so many horrible things about her, it made her very angry," Mayte said. "She said it was so unfair."

Kerry shifted her position, crossing her boots and watching her screen fill with answers to her email, some marked with a red exclamation point. "Yeah," she murmured. "But you know what, Mayte? That was the day Dar and I met."

"Oh! I did not know that!"

A faint smile appeared on Kerry's face. "I don't think she remembers the air conditioning any more than I remember her intending to fire me." She sighed and removed her feet from the desk, sitting up and draining her tea cup. A glance at her watch told her she was running low on time, but she paused to glance at her mail.

Protests. She'd expected that. People objecting to her opening up the offices, thinking more of propriety than of the simple but basic comforts the building could provide.

Then-- "Ah." Kerry clicked on one mail at the very end of the list and opened it.

From: Roberts, D.

To: Miami Users All

Cc: Stuart, K.

Damn good idea, Kerry.

D.

Past that mail, the objections petered out, replaced with acknowledgements, brief and conspicuously without exclamation marks. Kerry clicked on the reply button and typed a brief, three word, eight-letter response and sent it back to Dar alone, then got to her feet. "Okay. I'm going to that darn meeting. If anything blows up here, message me."

"I will." Mayte got up as well, and walked with her to the door. "M..." She paused, wrinkling her nose as Kerry cleared her throat. "Kerry, may I ask you something?"

"Sure." Kerry put her hand on the door handle and leaned on it.

"This person who is coming here, who my mother does not like and you do not like...she did something bad to la jefa, is that not so?"

Kerry nodded briefly.

"Mama heard this woman talks bad about Dar, is that true too?" Mayte asked.

Green eyes took on a hint of steel. "Yes."

Mayte nodded solemnly. "La jefa means much to my mother as well. She told me this time, if she hears people saying unkind things about her, she will go get the janitor's broom, and make them fly with it."

Kerry spared a moment to imagine her lover's short, feisty administrative assistant chasing Shari down the hallway with a broom and unexpectedly burst out laughing. She leaned against the door and held her stomach, trying hard to catch her breath as the image played itself out over and over again in her mind.

Mayte blinked at her in alarm. "My Mama is serious!"

"Oh, I know." Kerry slid down the wall and just kept laughing. "But now I gotta figure out how to bug the conference room so she can hear it all and crank the broom up!"

"But..." Mayte sounded very puzzled. "You want her to do this?"

Kerry finally let the laughter run down, and just sat there, one knee raised with her arm resting on it and looked up at her assistant. "Don't worry about it, Mayte." She finally exhaled. "Your mama won't have to do a damn thing."

"No?"

"No." Kerry's voice was quiet and serious now. "Because I'll do it first." She got to her feet and dusted herself off. "Wish me luck." A breath later, she opened the door and went through it, heading for the conference center with a grimly determined air.

THEY HAD TAKEN over the entire conference table by now. Hans had printouts spread out over half of it, and Dar had router and switch dumps littering the other half as she focused on the screen of her laptop. She was leaning on the table and had both legs wrapped around the legs of the chair she was sitting in, rocking back and forth a little as she tapped her mouse pad impatiently. "You're still sending too much data over, Hans."