A reckless, piratical gleam entered Dar’s blue eyes. It was so easy. Two clicks and an F3 submit key. “Oh look.” Dar did it before she could stop and think better of anything. “I just hired an assistant.” She took a deep breath.

“Isn’t technology wonderful?”

She almost felt lightheaded. Making decisions was second nature to her, but she knew this one was different. Mariana was going to kill her. Company regulations stipulated that she had to interview and evaluate each candidate, and produce written documentation to back up her choice. Hell with it. She clicked over to mail.

Sent by: Dar Roberts

Subject: New Assistant

Mari—

Just hired Kerry Stuart from the Associated

Synergenics account as my assistant. Please process her paperwork. I figured it would be easier on you since she’s technically an outside candidate—you can hire and transition her all at once.

Bring her in as a 10, standard package, the works.

I’ll send her over to fill out forms some time next week.

I know everyone will bitch. Just tell them manager’s discretion, and they can see me personally if they have a problem.

Dar

A loophole. Dar loved loopholes. Bringing in Kerry as an outside posting would circumvent most of the hysteria, and she could just ignore the rest.

Mariana was used to that anyway, manager’s discretion was a watchword in the company. A lot of the rules were left deliberately vague, and you had to take responsibility for what you decided.


Tropical Storm 67

Dar always had. Even when the decisions had turned out wrong, she still refused to hide behind anyone, and took the brunt of the blame on her own shoulders. It was the one thing that kept everyone at bay, even those people who hated her…and there were a lot of those. She’d made a lot of enemies and few friends in her years at the company, but it was the one thing that everyone respected her for. When Dar Roberts made a decision, she stood behind it, one hundred percent.

With a grin, she rubbed her hands together, then took a long drink of her chocolate milk before she started typing.

Sent by: Dar Roberts

Subject: re: Assistant’s Job

Kerry,

Got your note.

Attached to this e-mail you’ll find corporate

policies and procedures, including the dress code. You might want to take a look at that. Jeans are not allowed during normal business hours.

I estimate it should take about a week to get the

paperwork completed, and that will give you a chance to settle your current assignment. Call me if you have any questions.

Dar

With a sense of inevitability, she hit Send. She still had some doubts, still had some questions as to whether she was doing the right thing for Kerry, but it was done. Time would tell if this was a good decision, or one of the ones she lived to regret.

With a sigh, she wriggled into a more comfortable position and allowed her attention to be distracted by Space Ghost strangling something with tentacles on the screen. “I love a good violent cartoon,” she commented to the empty condo.

The words echoed off the walls, and she turned the sound up a little, a faint grin twitching at her lips as her thoughts drifted, the fingers of her right hand flexing slowly against the couch’s soft leather.

“SO, WHAT HAPPENED?” the tall, dark-skinned man asked, his eyes on the broken window.

“Um, a rock,” Kerry muttered. “Must have…fallen off the highway overpass, or something.”

Brown eyes gave her a disbelieving stare. “C’mon, honey, you got to give me something better than that.” Jerry wagged a finger at her. “You have a new boyfriend, maybe? You get in a, how you call, a fight?”

Kerry laughed softly. “Uh, no. No, no new boyfriend. I…” She glanced around. “Jerry, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some guys just decided to take a crack at the car. I got away.” She made a face. “I don’t want to make a big deal about it. I didn’t see them, so…”

“Ah hah.” Jerry waggled his fingers at her. “I got you. No problem.” He 68 Melissa Good studied the car. “Sixty dollars.”

“Great.” Kerry smiled and handed over the keys. “You’re a lifesaver.”

“Cherry, I hope.” The man laughed. “My favorite flavor.” He patted her on the shoulder. “Hey, did you get cut?” He lifted her hand and studied it.

“Looks like you hit something.”

“Um…” Kerry ran her fingers through her hair. “An accident.”

Jerry looked at her, serious now. He tipped her chin up so she had to look him in the eye. “Girlfriend, are you in trouble?”

“No.” She shook her head positively. “I almost was, last night…but someone showed up, and chased the guys off, and I was fine, really. They even gave me a ride back here.”

“Mmm-hmm…was he nice? Was he a gentleman?” Jerry inquired.

Kerry bit off a grin. “He was a she.” Her eyes twinkled a little. “And she…was wonderful.”

“Ahhh…okay.” The mechanic chuckled. “I’ll finish this probably tonight, maybe tomorrow, okay?”

She nodded. “Great.”

Colleen came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, girl.”

Kerry turned and smiled. “Hey, listen, thanks for calling to check on me last night. Sorry I gave you a scare yesterday.” She motioned towards the door to her apartment. “Come on inside, it’s wet out here.”

The redhead followed her, closing the door behind them, and moving quickly across to where Kerry was stacking printouts she no longer needed on her desk. “So, now tell me everything.” Her voice was eager. “I could have killed you last night. Five words and you’re gone.”

Kerry finished her task, then grinned and pulled her friend over to the couch. “Sit, it’s a long story.” She waited for Colleen to sit down, then she tucked her legs up under her and leaned an arm on the back of the couch.

“Well, where do I start?” She told Colleen the whole story, watching Colleen’s jaw drop in amazement.

“Whoa. Whoa, whoa... Hold on just a Jesus, Mary and Joseph minute.”

She held up her hand. “Let me get this tale straight: you found out you all were gonna be fired; so you drove out to the Key; then you run out of gas on the way back; get stuck near the tracks in downtown; get carjacked; then you get rescued, like a full-blown-caped-crusader-flying-to-the-rescue kind of thing, by Dar Roberts. Am I clear on this so far?” Her voice was incredulous.

“The same Dar Roberts that just fired you? That one?”

“Um…essentially, yes.” Kerry grinned. “Only she made like it was nothing—like she just sort of happened by, and the guys ran off or something.

But I know she had to have done something to them, because her hands were all banged up, and I heard at least one of the guys scream.”

“Wow.” Colleen squealed. “Is she, like, into karate or something?”

“Mmm.” Kerry thought about that. “I don’t know, but I think she’s into something. She’s got all these muscles all up and down her arms…like here.”

She patted her shoulders. “And when she walks, she kinda…well, you can tell she doesn’t just sit around her office all day.”

“Ooo…” Colleen giggled. “So, what was she doing, wandering the streets looking for damsels in distress to save?”


Tropical Storm 69

“Tch.” Kerry slapped her leg. “No, actually. I, um…I called her. No, don’t look at me like that, okay? I had this number she told me to use if I had any problems with her goon squad. I figured it was some flunky of hers, so I called it. I thought I could get him to call Triple A for me or something.”

“But it wasn’t, huh?” Colleen looked fascinated. “This is more and more intriguing.”

“No. No, it was her,” Kerry admitted. “So I hung up, but she called back.

And she asked me where I was. I felt like such an idiot telling her I ran out of gas, but…” She sighed. “Anyway, these guys came at me, and I told her to call the police. Then they hit the car, and it got really scary. Then the next thing I knew, they were gone, and she was there.” The blonde woman chuckled a little. “Boy, for someone I was hating a half hour before, I sure was glad to see her.”“So…you’re fired, though?” Colleen said, concerned. “What are you going to do?”

“Well, I’m not, actually. See, we went back to her office after the whole thing, and she went over the numbers again, and she finally had a brainstorm or something…and she worked it out so we were okay.” Kerry took a breath.

“It was pretty amazing. She told some big boss of hers she’d been working on whatever this thing was for forty-eight hours without sleep.”

“Jesus!” The redhead snorted. “So, you’re not fired.”

“No,” her friend agreed.

“And your guys are okay?”

Kerry lifted a hand and let it drop to her knee. “As okay as I could work out,” she admitted. “Some of them are going to be let go.”

“Figures.” Colleen now looked skeptical. “That leopard isn’t changing its spots any time soon, I think.”

“No. No, it’s…” Kerry shook her head. “She made it okay, Col. She’s letting me give them six months’ severance.”

The redhead’s jaw dropped wide open, and she goggled at Kerry. “Six?”

“And six months’ benefits,” Kerry concluded. “I couldn’t believe it.

That’s the part that was so hard, Col. I knew even if I worked it out, I’d still have to face those people.”

“Six?” Colleen repeated, seemingly in a daze. “Kerry, nobody does that.”

“She did.” The blonde woman leaned back. “What a weight off my shoulders. I could have ki…” She fell silent. “Anyway, it’ll be a little tough, but we’re in.”

“Unbelievable,” her friend said. “But can you trust her? You sound like you’re thinking she’s not so bad after all.”

“No.” Kerry shook her head and smiled. “She’s really not. I mean, she’s all business, right? And I think she’d fire someone like most other people would just blow their nose or whatever. But towards the end of the night, she was kind of just okay. And, I got the feeling we could actually…sort of get along, if we really wanted to.”

Colleen whistled. “My boss wouldn’t believe it. You should hear how he talks about her. You’d think she was the daughter of the devil himself.”

Kerry looked up as her PC chimed. “Whoops.” She got up and checked the screen. “Mail, on Saturday?” But a thrill of anticipation ran up her back as 70 Melissa Good she opened the program, scanning the inbox and letting out a soft breath as she saw the first name on the list. “Well, speaking of Dar Roberts.” She clicked on the message, and read it, then read it again. “What in…”

Colleen had stepped up behind her, and peered over her shoulder. “What does that mean?” She puzzled at it. “Why do you need to worry about their dress code? You don’t work in that building.”

“Uh.” Kerry closed the message, then opened a terminal session and thumbed through her notes as she requested a logon to the mainframe. “Okay, I press this, then go here…login, password… Oh, hell! Okay, try it again. Ah.”

She accessed her own employee files, then stared at the main screen in disbelief. “Oh…sugarbaker.”

“What?” Colleen peered at the screen. “What’s an ORGID?” she asked. “It sounds disgusting.”

“She did it.” Kerry breathed, her fingertip tracing the change in her department, location, and her supervisor.

Roberts, D

“She did what?” The redhead poked her. “C’mon, Ker, spill it. What’s going on here?”

“She hired me,” Kerry mumbled.

“I thought you were already hired?” came the puzzled response. “Did I miss something here?”

“Well, yeah, but she had this…I mean, she hired me to work for her,”

Kerry responded, dazed. “She was looking for an assistant.”

“Jesus Mary mother of God.” Colleen squeaked. “You are going to be Dar Roberts’ assistant?” She pounded on Kerry’s back. “You? Oh my god!”

“Ow!” Kerry ducked out of the way. “Cut that out! I’ve got scratches from that stupid glass.” But she felt exhilarated. “And…yeah. I guess I’m going to work for her. I didn’t expect her to make a decision so fast, but now that I think about it, it doesn’t surprise me. I don’t think she likes to dawdle around stuff.” Whoo-ooo! Inside, she was jumping up and down. “Wow.”

“Okay, girl, tonight we party,” Colleen decided. “You need to go out and celebrate. Because let me tell you, from what I hear? You won’t get a chance to breathe once you start working for her.” She tugged Kerry’s sleeve. “Let’s do Cocowalk, and hit the Improv, then have a late dinner at Monte’s. I’ll get Pete and Reggie, and a few other people around here, okay?”