The computer booted to a network login, and she entered her ID and password, a little startled when her usual menu didn’t appear, replaced by one with approximately four times as many options. “Uh oh.” She made a face at it.” What is all this stuff?” ILIPC, PLIPC, NCS…it was an alphabet soup of choices along with the more familiar ones which gave her access to the payroll and personnel sections, and the customer database. Experimentally she chose one. “ILIPC, that was what Dar was having problems with. Let’s see what that is.”

It connected and she peered at the results. “Oh, Netview. Okay, I know what this is.” She logged into the IBM mainframe application and tried a display all command. “Uh oh. Good grief, how huge. Wow, that’s really huge.”

The internal network was displayed, with lots of items marked as inactive. “Bet that’s what Dar’s fighting with, huh?” she commented, flicking the screen with a fingertip. “Well, back at home in Michigan, at the university, we used to do an ACT ALL.” She typed it in, then hesitated. “Ah…probably not a good idea. Oh, what the heck, it can’t hurt.” She hit Enter.

“That’ll take forever, so…” She minimized the application and clicked on mail, startled when it opened and she had a mailbox full. “I guess that’ll keep me busy for while. Good grief, what are all these things?” A lot of forwarding from Dar, stuff she was involved in apparently that she wanted Kerry to review. “Okay, let’s see what we’ve got here.” She started reading. “Jesus, designing Olympic racing bicycles and doing financial transfers for the Bank of New Zealand. Do you think this company can get any more diversified?”

There were all kinds of problems. All kinds of operational issues, like which processors could be assigned to which projects, and whose project took 94 Melissa Good precedence. Kerry found herself becoming fascinated by the patchwork of interrelationships; she suspected she certainly wasn’t going to be bored.

She got up and pulled out her few personal items from her briefcase, arranging her desk the way she liked it and prowling around the office to discover all the nooks and crannies. She opened the front door and peeked out, letting a tiny grin edge her lips when she spotted a neat kitchen just down the hall. “I bet there’s coffee there,” she decided, retrieving a cobalt-blue mug from her briefcase and ambling over.

She glanced around the kitchen and bit off a chuckle. “Wow, This is better equipped than the one in my apartment.” There was a refrigerator, of course, with a sign on it. “Don’t leave food for more than a week unlabeled or it will be glorped.” Kerry shook her head. “I’m not gonna ask.” The countertop held not only a regular coffee machine, but an espresso machine as well, and there were containers with various types of milk and cream, and real and fake sugar. As she selected artificial sweetener and poured a cup of coffee, a young girl entered behind her and said a cheerful hello.

“Hi.” Kerry turned and leaned against the counter, stirring her coffee.

The girl removed a small packet from the freezer and popped it in one of the three large, commercial microwaves in the rack near the door. “Breakfast?”

The girl turned and smiled. “Snackies.” She chuckled. “I work for Eduard Castillo. He gets grumpy around this time if I don’t feed him.” She held out a hand. “Mary Evers.”

Kerry took it. “Kerry Stuart.”

The girl’s eyes widened. “Omigosh. You’re Dar Roberts’ new assistant!”

The blonde woman forced a laugh. “Okay, are you going to tell me I’m brave, or stupid?”

A smile snuck onto the girl’s face, and she leaned closer. “I was going to say lucky.” She winked at Kerry, then removed the gently steaming packet from the microwave and set it on a small plate she’d brought with her. “Not everyone thinks Dar’s a bad thing, you know.”

Kerry was pleasantly surprised. “That’s nice to hear, because I happen to like her.” She relaxed into a grin. “And it’s been murder having everyone look at me like I was out of my mind.”

“You do, huh?” Mary bit her lower lip and chuckled softly. “That’s interesting. I thought you came from Associated. They were almost axed, you know.”

Sea green eyes studied her. “Oh yeah, I know,” Kerry replied quietly. “I talked her out of it.”

The woman stopped in mid motion and stared at her. “You did?”

Kerry took a sip of her coffee, which she found to be common, garden-variety office bland. “Well, we debated the issue, and Dar found enough merit in my arguments to find a way around it, let’s put it that way.”

Mary blinked at her several times. “Holy shit,” she blurted.

Kerry shrugged and smiled. “I’m really looking forward to working with her more. It’s been a great experience so far.”

“Uh, yeah. I can see that.” Mary tucked a napkin under the plate hastily and started to back away. “That’s, uh…good to hear. Nice to meet you, Kerry.

I’ve got to get this tamale back to the boss before he breaks all his pencils.”


Tropical Storm 95

Kerry regarded the packet, which was wrapped in what looked like cornhusks. “Nice to meet you too. See you later.” She paused. “Oh, what does your boss do?”

Mary turned as she was leaving. “Marketing for the Caribbean. Be seeing you.”

She disappeared down the hall, and Kerry regarded the wall thoughtfully before she took her coffee back into her office. Her office. She grinned, as she just stood with her back against the wall and looked out the window. “Ah well. Back to work.” She set down her cup and resumed her reading. She was so absorbed in it, she didn’t hear the back door open or someone approach until a hand touched her arm, and she jumped. “Whoa!”

Dar seated herself on the edge of the desk and gazed at her with an enigmatic expression. “Hi.”

“Oh, hi. Sorry, I didn’t hear you coming. I was…” A little flustered, Kerry gestured at the screen. “Trying to catch up on all this stuff you forwarded to me. I kind of sorted them into info and action…” She noticed Dar was smiling at her. “What? That wasn’t the right thing to do?”

“You know, Kerry, they say it’s your first impression that sticks with you in this company.” Dar said. “Mine? Well, I told Alastair McLean he could kiss my ass, and that’s kind of followed me up all these years.”

“Really?” Kerry was intrigued. “Why did you do that?”

“Why did you tell me to go to hell?” Dar asked in a wry voice. “I remember enjoying it at the time. But anyway…”

“Sorry. You were saying…first impressions?” Kerry knew she was blushing, and hoped Dar didn’t notice.

“Mmm-hmm. So, do you know what your first impression’s going to be here?” Dar inquired, her blue eyes pinning Kerry down into her seat.

“Uh…no,” Kerry replied nervously. “But you’re going to tell me, right?”

“Oh, yeah. You’re going to be known as the new kid who walked in on her first day, sat down, logged in, and brought an entire crashed network up.”

Kerry froze and stared at her. “Uh…I didn’t do that.”

Dar pursed her lips and nodded soberly. “You are KSTUART01, aren’t you?”

“Um, yes,” she replied hesitantly. “Oh, Christ! That Netview command?

Oh, Dar, don’t tell me no one else thought of that,” Kerry protested. “It’s ridiculous. That’s basic!”

A gentle sparkle entered Dar’s very blue eyes. “Uh huh. Problem with us nerds is, sometimes when things go wrong, we forget to look for the simple things first. We go for the complex, involved crap instead.” She grinned at Kerry. “They did a master load last night, and forgot that puts the system in console mode. It inactivates all the logical units so the new programs can get into place without being used.”

“You’re not a nerd,” Kerry objected, aware that she was really blushing badly now. “Are you?”

“Sure I am, and so are you,” Dar cheerfully informed her. “Good work, Kerry, you single-handedly validated my choice of assistants, started your own little legend in the making, and I didn’t even have to do a thing.”

Kerry basked in the warm approval, soaking it in with a shy pleasure.


96 Melissa Good

“Thanks, but I didn’t mean to.” Her face scrunched up in a wry grin. “What a way to start off, huh?”

Dar rubbed the back of her neck and chuckled. “There are worse ways.

Listen, it’s almost noon. Let’s go down and get some lunch, then I’ll give you the tour.” She peered at Kerry’s cup. “I see you found the kitchen all right.”

Kerry nodded. “Yeah, nice setup. I like the microwaves because I usually bring in little frozen tray things for lunch.”

A dark brow rose. “We have a cafeteria,” Dar remarked dryly. “But if you prefer cardboard food, sure, go right ahead. They do ask that you don’t overcook fish sticks, though, it takes us weeks to get the smell out of here.”

“Do… Is the cafeteria your eating place of choice?” Kerry inquired. “I mean, god, that sounded funny, what I mean is, it is any good? A lot of them aren’t.” She grimaced. “When I think of cafeterias, I think of the one in college.

Ugh.”

“Mine too.” Dar admitted. “I ended up eating mostly ice cream and cheeseburgers for four years.”

Kerry chuckled ruefully as she stood up. “Pizza and sub sandwiches. I still smell textbooks whenever I get delivery pizza.” She followed Dar out of the office and over to the elevator. “Guess that’s different now, huh?” she commented as the doors slid open and they entered, having the elevator to themselves.

“Nope,” Dar confessed a touch sheepishly. “Cheeseburger, fries, and a milkshake is still one of my regular favorites.”

Kerry eyed her trim figure and blinked. “You sure don’t look it. You must work out like crazy.”

Exhaling softly, Dar said, “Takes up a good bit of my spare time, yes. It’s a way to work off the frustration, too.” She waited for the doors to open, stepped through them onto the second floor, then led Kerry to an open set of double doors from which enticing smells emanated.

Dar attracted attention, Kerry noticed immediately. The minute her new boss cleared the door and entered the line, eyes shifted to her and nudges started. Puzzled, she looked at the taller woman, trying to figure out if there was something odd to cause the stir, but aside from Dar having her jacket off and her sleeves still rolled up, exposing tanned arms, she looked… Well, not like everyone else. Kerry picked up a tray and joined the line behind her, setting the puzzle aside for the moment. “Whoa, lot of choices,” she commented in some surprise.

“I don’t put up with mystery meat,” Dar said, reviewing the selection.

“And I pick the café vendor.”

“Ah.” Kerry watched in bemusement as her new boss quietly requested the meatloaf and mashed potatoes, then added a large glass of milk to her tray, along with a piece of cake. She sighed and selected a chef’s salad and a glass of grapefruit juice, and followed Dar over to a corner table. “I feel like everyone’s watching me,” she murmured, as they unwrapped silverware.

“They are,” Dar replied blithely. “You’re the new kid. Something this exciting hasn’t happened here since a Lufthansa 747 flying over dropped a wheel-bay door on top of us and it crashed through the atrium.”

“Tch…Dar!” Kerry protested, as she nibbled a bit of ham. “I’m serious.”


Tropical Storm 97

Blue eyes glanced up at her over a forkful of potatoes. “So am I,” she replied honestly. “I’m high profile, everyone knows who I am, so when I take on an assistant, which has never successfully happened before, it’s big news.”

She looked at her assistant. “I did warn you about that, right?”

Kerry sighed. “Yes, you did.” She glanced around furtively, catching more than one set of eyes watching them. “But this is like having lunch in the San Diego Zoo if you’re the panda.”

Dar chuckled wryly. “Hate to say get used to it, but…” She straightened, deliberately swinging her head around and staring at each table. The attention shifted away and the sound around them rose conspicuously. Satisfied, Dar turned her attention back to her table companion. “So.” She forked a bit of meatloaf. “What’s new in eucalyptus futures?”

Kerry bit her lip to keep from laughing aloud. “Good Lord, you’d think they’d never seen you eat lunch before.”

Dar bit down on her fork, thinking. “Well.” She glanced up at Kerry. “I don’t often. Maria usually brings something up for me.”

“Oh.” Kerry gave Dar an apologetic look. “Sorry, didn’t mean to take your time up.”