Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series (33 page)

Dar reached out and put a hand on her wrist. "Tell John to reverse his usual route. Have him pull the cable from the jack end. That'll clear the closets, and when he's done there and ready to do the core installs, the other guys'll be out of his way."

Kerry opened her mouth, then shut it again. A rueful grin appeared. "Should we switch projects?" She pondered. "Maybe some fresh eyes do help."

"Maybe." Dar had to agree. "G'wan. Maybe we can alternate. I'm going to go chase down your idea--though why the hell it didn't occur to me before I can't begin to figure out."

"Ditto." Kerry turned to leave. "How's the foot?"

"Hurts." Dar grunted, as she pulled her keyboard back onto her lap. "Maybe I'll go spear fishing later and get that little bastard."

Kerry paused briefly in the doorway to watch her partner, then she ducked through and swung around into her own office where a cup of tea already awaited her. She sat down behind her desk and picked up her cell phone, glancing at her screen as she keyed in John's number.

More mail. She clicked on it as she waited for her contractor to answer, running her eyes over the new arrivals.

"Hello?"

"Hi, John." Kerry scanned a note from the marketing department. "Listen, Dar had a good idea."

"We could use one." The wiring man grunted.

Kerry told him the plan. "Anyway, it can't hurt, and it'll get you out of the middle of that mess for a while. What do you think?" She clicked on her next mail.

Hey Ker --
Listen; remember when all those weird rumors were going
around about you and Dar? I thought it was just randomchatter, but I had a potty encounter today and I'm not sure!

"Yeah, it's worth a try." John said. "All right, I'll pull my guys out. At least they got some new foreman on the loading dock, and I'm finally getting all my stuff. "

"Yeah?" Kerry was completely distracted by Colleen's mail.

"Yeah, here's a coincidence--his name's Roberts, just like Dar's." John chuckled. "Maybe it's in the name. Anyway, I'll give you a call back later."

"Okay."

I was in the necessary doing the necessary when I heardsomeone come in. She did a stall check, but I was I in theend one and she missed me. Then she made a call to someone and I heard her talking about trying to mess the company up!

This girlie said she'd started telling everyone you twohad a big fight this weekend out here, and she was going todo worse! Well, let me tell you I came out of that necessarylike the Queen Mary!

"Oh, my god." Kerry murmured.

She ran out--I tried to follow after her, but I got caughtup at the door by two of those bloody secretaries trying toget out their bra straps while talking about some television program. I didn't recognize her, but it was right outside Marketing.

So--watch your back, my friend! I'll try to find the little bugger again.

C

Kerry forwarded the mail to Dar, then after a moment, hit reply.

Col --

We stayed down here to concentrate on our projects andnot be distracted by jerks! Dar got bit by a fish and neitherof us felt like driving back yesterday. Maybe we'll stay downhere for a week. I got more done already this morning than Idid the last half of last week.

Can you get a description of this person? We had a security breach...

Kerry paused, and backspaced.

We had a problem this weekend and we narrowed it down to Marketing, but they were all in, so we couldn?t pin it down.Maybe it was the same person. Let me know.

K

"Damn it, damn it." Kerry drummed her fingers on the keyboard, then she made a decision and forwarded the message again, this time to Mariana, along with a request to forward the personnel files of anyone who was in the building over the weekend.

It meant a lot of work, and a lot of crosschecking. Kerry took a sip of her tea, the smooth cherry taste of the green tea leaves soothing her. "But I will find you." She promised the tale teller. "I will find you, and baby, I will make sure you regret ever putting one step into that marble lobby."

She took another sip. "That, I promise.

DAR SAT THERE, arms folded, hands tucked under her armpits and stared at the network overview she had up on her screen. The picture showed their entire infrastructure, routers and switches winking a reassuring green at her as she tried to figure out where to look next.

Kerry's remark about a distraction had rung bells with her, but if it was, then what was it distracting her from? Everything else looked normal.

She turned her eyes to a different window, running results from her new program. Every ten seconds, the system reported back to her from each router she had it installed in, a constant running monitor of the traffic it was seeing.

It was rough, and the monitor only a command line, but Dar couldn't help but feel a sting of pride as she watched it go. She knew it had a long way to run before it could be really used in production, but eventually--with a properly written front end and a ton more robustness--this would be a killer app for them to put on the market.

Even now, with just the barest of kernels running, it was bringing back scraps of information from what it was seeing out there that gave Dar insight into what was going on around them.

It was exciting, in a visceral way to her. But she was also frustrated right now because there was a piece missing here, and she couldn't find it. The hacker was still hammering at the front gates, but Dar had scanned each of the border routers, and she could find no other stealthy attempts anywhere on the outside of the network.

Was it just coincidence then? Kerry's suggestion had made bedrock sense when she'd heard it, but... Dar unfolded one arm and gave her trackball a spin, her brows knit together. She rocked forward and braced her elbow on the desk, leaning her head against it as she got closer to the screen.

A message box appeared, nearly startling her half to death. She glanced to one side, then straightened and pulled the keyboard back over to answer Mariana's hail.

Hey
.

Mari answered quickly.

You got bitten by a BARRACUDA?

Dar's somewhat ghoulish humor surfaced.

Family reunion. What can I tell you?

She could almost hear the laughter on the other end of the connection, and had to smile herself.

You got kicked out of the barracuda family when you married Kerry, my friend, and you know it!

Eh, that was the truth. Yeah, well, I was chasing a Frisbee at the time. At least I didn't get nipped by a goldfish for it. Her eyes flicked to the monitor, taking in a few minutes of reports and not seeing anything remarkable.

Damn it. She turned her attention back to the instant message box.
So is everyone freaking out?

There was a hesitation before Mari answered.
Just a little surprise at our level, but I heard talk going around, so Ithought I'd better ask. Now that Kerry's sent me the scoop,and the possible culprit, I'll get on it and see what I canfind out.

Huh? Dar felt suddenly lost. "Hey, Ker?" She called out. "C'mere."

"Hang on." Her partner replied from the next room. "I'm reconciling a purchase order."

Dar reread the message, then just shrugged.
Okay. Have fun.
She ventured, figuring it was a safe answer and that she could get clarification from Kerry later.
We may be down here for a few days.I'm getting more done without people barging in my officeevery five minutes.

Mari's response surprised her a little.
Dar, take whatever time you need, okay? Let me handle the crap in the office.

"What's up, sweetie." Kerry ambled in and put her arms around Dar, giving her a quick hug. "More problems?"

Dar scrolled back up in her message box and pointed. "What is she talking about?" She asked, just as the screen underneath, her monitor, began to spit out lines in black on white letters, instead of white on black. "Whoops...hold it."

Kerry slid in behind Dar and watched over her shoulder as she typed rapidly. She could see where Dar was going in the system, but she was hitting keys so fast Kerry couldn't read quickly enough to get a sense of what she was doing once she got there.

And then, just as quickly as she'd started, she stopped, fingertips resting lightly on the keys. The monitor appeared normal again. "What was that?" Kerry asked.

"Good question." Dar murmured. "For a minute, it looked like something..." Her brow creased and she leaned forward a little. "Maybe the damn program just stumbled. God knows, there's a lot of rough code in there."

Kerry put her hands on Dar?s shoulders. She could felt he tension beneath her fingers, and out of habit she started a gentle massage.

"What did it seem to be reporting?" She asked. "Was it an attack, or--"

Dar propped her head up on one hand and used the other to scroll the mouse. "No, not...well, it looks like it thought its libraries were being accessed. But that's just a dud error. There's nothing touching them."

"Mm." Kerry knocked a little of the rust off her own programming memories. "Sort of like...someone was also using them? Or...something opened the files?"

"Yeah." Dar agreed readily. "But nothing's accessing them. Nothing we have even knows the program's there."

"Hmm." Kerry kept up her massage. "False reading?"

"Must be."

They both studied the screen in silence for a few minutes. Then Kerry cleared her throat. "Colleen overheard some slimy nitball in the bathroom talking to someone on a cell about screwing us over."

Dar straightened and turned her head to look up at Kerry. "What?"

"Mm." Kerry nodded. "Spreading rumors. So I have Mari sending me all the personnel files of the scumbags in marketing."

One of Dar's eyebrows quirked. "Why not just get the one who did it?"

"Colleen didn't recognize her, and she lost her outside in the hallway." Kerry informed her regretfully. "Anyway...so that's what's going on. Can I go finish my paperwork now?"

Dar tilted her head and kissed the back of Kerry's hand, still resting on her shoulder. "Sure," she said. "Sorry I dragged you over here."

Kerry returned the kiss and planted one on the top of Dar's head. "No problem." She gave Dar a last hug, then turned and made her way out of the office, leaving behind a faint scent of apricot.

Dar sighed and refocused her attention on the screen. The alert was now well and over and no trace was left of the disturbance that had sent her monitor off the scale. She was satisfied with the possibility that it had been a false alarm, but something niggled at the back of her mind anyway.

She went over the log in the router that had triggered the alarm. No attacks had been detected from the outside, and she confirmed again that no unusual traffic had been seen. The only thing in the logs themselves was a--

Huh. Dar cocked her head. TFTP requests weren't uncommon. They had servers that routinely copied the configurations and logs of the devices for safekeeping, but Dar knew something about that which made this one log entry catch her eye.

She checked her watch. It was seventeen minutes past eleven. She'd written that little collection program way back in the days when she'd supervised the ops center. One of her own peculiarities, generated by her years growing up on a military base, dictated that her timed requests always went off on even fractions of the hour.

Eleven, eleven ten, twenty, thirty, but this request was seventeen minutes after the hour.

So Dar examined the entry, and found it coming from one of the administrative servers. Cracking her knuckles, she called up a terminal program and accessed the server, her eyes narrowing slightly as she started her hunt.

ANDY WALKED ACROSS the pier and up the gangway into his new ship. This one was just as threadbare and full of rusty bolts as the other one, but he felt much more affectionate toward it in any case, and gave the side a pat as he walked inside.

The hold was full of boxes, as the last one had been. He noticed one difference, however. On one side of the storage area several pallets were set, neatly laden with boxes of assorted sizes, shrink wrapped, and tagged with invoices. They seemed to be behind a bunch of boxes, though, almost half hidden.

The orderliness of the stack appealed to him. Andrew walked over and scanned the shipping invoices with a knowledgeable eye, catching sight of a familiar company name on the top. "Huh." He studied the paper, noting the 'K. Stuart' referenced on one side. "I do believe I know that little kumquat."

Unlike the deliveries for the women on the other boat, this here pile had an order to it that had Andrew nodding as he reviewed the list of contents. "Ah do not know which of this here is a leg bone, and which is a foot bone, but I figure this here stack probably makes a whole skeleton and don't that make sense?"

"Hey, you there."

Andrew turned to find a scruffy, sweat-shirted man headed his way with a clipboard. He waited for the man to arrive, surprised when the clipboard was held out to him. "What's this here for?'

"You're Roberts, right?" The man asked.

Andrew allowed that he was.

"Great. The man said you'd be in here to take over for that joker. Here's the lading list, and this is the stuff we're expecting in today. Just get it unpacked and moved wherever you can find a place for it, okay?"

Andrew looked down at the clipboard. "Y'all want me to take charge of this here job?"

"Sure, right. Didn't he tell you?" The man seemed impatient. "C'mon, we're behind a day already, and everyone's screaming at me." He pointed to the stacks of boxes in front of Kerry's pallets. "Start with this bunch first and get it out of the way. Guys are in the break room, just go grab 'em when you're ready, which is like now, right?"

"Right."

"Great. Bye."

The man left at an almost run. Andrew regarded his back a moment, then shook his head. "Hell of a crazy damn place this is." He turned and went to the center of the hold, turning in a slow circle, and looking for a suitable place to start.

"Bloody hell."

Andrew turned, but the comment wasn't directed apparently at him. Two men in coveralls were walking from a just opened hatch toward a stairwell. They didn't look happy.

"Now we've got to get that leak fixed, damn." One said. "I thought they'd gotten that covered."

The other shrugged. "Didn't give 'em enough, probably. Always the same. Well, they can say what they want, that hole isn't getting plugged any time soon, not by me."

The two men disappeared into the stairwell, closing the door behind them. Andrew filed the information away for later study, and headed for the break room to find some bodies to shift them boxes like the feller asked.

But of course he'd start with Kerry's first.

"COULDN'T FIND ANYTHING, hmm?" Kerry asked.

"Program put out the TFTP request out of sequence." Dar folded her hands over her stomach. She was lying flat on her back on the padded bench outside on their porch with her head cradled comfortably in Kerry's lap. "Can't find any reason why," she added, "and it's driving me insane."

"Uh huh." Kerry leaned back, one hand idly riffling through Dar's hair. "Could it just be a fluke?"

Dar wiggled her injured foot, which she was putting in the sun for some mysterious and possibly imaginary medical benefit. "I'd rather not think so."

Kerry eyed her, a tiny, knowing grin on her face. "Because it's your program?"

One blue orb appeared, sparkling in the sunlight, and its brow hiked up. "What are you saying? That I'm a snob when it comes to my own work?"

"Mm." Kerry traced the eyebrow with her fingertip, admiring its fine arch. "You're a perfectionist," she remarked, smoothing the thin hairs down lovingly.

For a half second, Dar almost looked like she was going to be insulted, then her face relaxed into a grin. "Well, I picked you, so I guess I am."

A charmed smile appeared on Kerry's face. "I love you too, honey, but I'm not anywhere near perfect." She trailed her fingers over Dar's lips chuckling a little as they were caught and nibbled.

"To me you are." Dar answered simply. "So get over it."

Get over it. Kerry marveled again at just how fortunate she was in life. No matter what troubles they were facing at work, what they had together was, in a word, priceless and she knew it. She'd seen enough of the world to know that the synergy she and Dar shared wasn't common and needed to be cherished, protected, and nurtured.

They needed these moments. Certainly, Kerry savored them, her ego enjoying the gentle burnishing from Dar's regard. "Well, takes one to know one." She sorted Dar's bangs, running her fingers through them and moving them out of her eyes. "Can I interest you in a shrimp salad sub for lunch? I have a conference call scheduled for an hour from now."

"Mm." Dar licked her lips. "It's your shrimp salad, right? Not that mealy mess the store sells?"

"Mine." Kerry smiled. "With real, identifiable shrimp in it, not mushy shrimplets. That all right?"

Dar nodded, closing her eyes and exhaling in contentment.

It only lasted an instant, before her cell phone rang. Dar scrunched her face up in annoyance, but unclipped the phone from her pocket and opened it. "Yes?"

"Roberts, is that you?" Peter Quest sounded harried and upset.

Dar debated on denying it, then sighed. "Yes."

"All right, that's everyone." Quest said, a little more briskly. "I've got you all on the phone, so I only have to say this once."

Dar held the phone so Kerry could hear it, half lifting one hand as Kerry looked at her in question. "All right."

There were soft murmurs in the background, and Dar thought she recognized Michelle's voice in there somewhere.

"Here's the situation." Quest said. "Some asshole called the EPA, who came down and inspected the waterfront. We haven't done anything wrong, but the bleeding heart fish lovers think they see gas leaking, so they're forcing the port's hand."

"Think?" Kerry mouthed. "They've been leaking since they got here."

Dar put a finger over her lips.

"We've got until Friday. The ships have to be finished then."

Kerry's eyes popped wide open and so did Dar's. "No way!" Kerry whispered. "Dar, that's impossible!"

Dar nodded. "Quest, that's insanity."

Two male voices grunted agreement, then Michelle spoke. "It's a lot more possible for those of us who are actually here, thanks."

Kerry grimaced and made a rude gesture at the phone.

"I don't care." Quest dismissed them all. "That's the bottom line. Finish by Friday, and turn in your bids. If you can't do it, fine, but you leave everything in place on board the ships and just walk out."

"Wait a minute!" Mike Eldridge protested. "You can't just ask us to leave all that equipment if we're not going to bid. That's..."

"Then shut up and finish, because that's my deal." Quest cut him off. "And I'll have my security people enforce it. Now, I have to get off this phone and go deal with some whining liberal, so you've got four and a half days. I suggest you get moving, or get leaving. Good bye."

Dar stared at the now dead cell phone for a long moment. "Son of a bitch."

"Shit." Kerry's eyes flicked to the horizon, going unfocused as she thought about the suddenly mountainous obstacles before them. "Dar, there's no way."

"Did the infrastructure come in yet?"

"It was due yesterday, but--" Kerry hesitated. "No, wait...I had a note this morning from the shipping company that it was coming in this afternoon."

Dar had her eyes closed again. "Okay." She paused. "Call John. Tell him to bring in however many guys he can get hold of."

"You can't be serious...there's no way to..."

"Kerrison." Dar looked at her.

"Dar, c'mon now..."

"Hey." Dar reached up and cupped the side of Kerry's face, drawing her chin down a touch so their eyes were forced to meet.

"Darrrr..." A thousand arguments died before the look in those blue eyes.

"Kerrison Stuart."

A sudden flash of a cold rainy night in North Carolina formed in Kerry's mind, and she heard Dar's voice all over again in a cool, angry bark when she'd protested the impossible. This time there was no anger, just a gentle firmness just as effective in its own way. "Sorry." She leaned against Dar's hand a little. "Go on."

Dar understood the doubt she saw. "We don't know we can't do it, because we haven't tried yet." Dar stated. "So I vote we try, and if we fail, we do, but it won't be because we quit."

Kerry also knew the tasks ahead of them, and she knew no matter how much Dar willed it otherwise, they did not have the time to do what Quest was asking.

But...hey. Dar was right, they had to try. Neither of them were quitters. "Okay, boss." Kerry smiled again. "Guess we better get moving, huh?"

"After lunch." Dar said. "I'll call Mark and have him send everyone we have over there. We'll overrun the damn boat with nerds, and maybe everyone in our way will just run screaming."

Kerry cocked her head to one side. "You don't want to leave right now?"

"No."

"Um. Okay."

Dar resettled her hands over her stomach. "Ker?"

"Mm?"

"Trust me."

Kerry covered Dar's hands with one of her own. "Trust you? I trust you with my life, my soul, and everything that I am, Dar. It's not a matter of trusting you; I just want to know what you're up to."

A blue eye appeared again. "When I figure that out, you will."

"Oh."

"Mm."

"HEY THERE OLD MAN."

Andrew looked up from his bottle of pop to find the cowboy trucker heading his way. "Wall. howdy there, young feller." He drawled, exchanging an amused look with the man. In truth, they were probably pretty close in age, and the trucker chuckled as he extended a hand.

"Wanted to come over and say hello after the other day. I was halfway outta the state, when a company rig broke down and they turned me back. More stuff for this place."

Andrew looked around the dock, where there were trucks and men unloading everywhere. The pace on the pier had picked up incredibly, and he could almost sense panic from the workers around him. "Wonder what got 'em all in a hustle?"

The trucker looked surprised. "Did'ncha hear? Gov'mint tossing them outta here end of the week."

"Yeah?" Andy said. "Heard something like that, but I didn't figure they'd really do it."

"Well, if they ain't, no one's told my boss. We got ten more trucks headed this way right now." The man said. "Hope you all got room for it."

Ten trucks worth? Two for each ship more than likely. Andrew shook his head. The below decks area of the ship was a mess for sure, and just trying to keep it all straight had taken most of his day so far. "What you got now?" He asked. "Stuff for this one?" He pointed at the ship.

Obligingly, the trucker handed over his manifest. "You get nailed for messing with that little sissy boy the other day?"

"Naw." Andrew studied the papers, noting again Kerry's name on one side. "Got me moved over to this here tub." He indicated the ship with a motion of his head. "This here all for us?" He asked, flipping through to the last few pages and catching sight of something else. A tiny grin appeared on his face.

The trucker took back the manifest and examined it. "Far as I can tell, yeah." He agreed. "Where do you want it?"

"Right over there." Andy indicated a spot on the dock. "I'll have them boys move it all inside after."

"You got it." The trucker agreed. "Man, they got those people all riled up. What a mess." He watched as a group of ship personnel gathered near the stern of the vessel, along with a couple of suits all pointing and looking at the water behind the ship. "Well, let me get going. Be right back."

"Yeap." Andrew finished up his pop and stood there in the shade, considering what to do next. A motion caught his eye and he half turned, surprised to see Ceci pulling up to the curb in the truck. He tossed the pop bottle in the trash and jogged over, leaning down to rest his elbows on the window sill and peer inside. "Hey there."

"Hi." Ceci reached and handed him something. "You forgot this, and our child has been trying to get hold of us."

"Aw, hell." Andrew took the phone. "You call her?"

"No." Ceci glanced past him at the chaos on the dock. "I'd have to admit to causing this if I did."

"Cec..."

"Yes, I know. Our relationship is quantum leaps past what it was, Andy, but I'd still rather you did it." The slim, fair haired woman said. "Uh oh...I better go. That guy knows me." She set a pair of wraparound sunglasses on her nose, and ducked behind Andrew's bulk.

"Lord." Andy started dialing.

"You knew you married a leftist radical."

"Yeap, I surely did."

"Well, it could have been worse, Andy."

"Yeap. Dar coulda joined the Army."

"Pffft!"

KERRY LEANED BACK in the driver's seat of the Lexus, watching the somewhat boring bushes pass by as they headed north. Next to her in the passenger seat, Dar was rattling away on her keyboard, pausing impatiently as she waited for her keystrokes to catch up with her over the cellular modem link. "What on earth did we do before cell modems?"

"Got lots of speeding tickets." Dar answered absently.

"Did you?" Kerry adjusted the sun visor to block out the blast of golden light from the west.

"Uh huh. For a while I almost gave up living in my place and thought about bunking at the office. There was space under my desk."

"Hmm. Is that why you have a couch in your office now?"

Dar chuckled. "Yes, but not if you ask the majority of the small minded." She eased her leg straight, wincing a little as she banged her foot against the center console. "The sordid events everyone was convinced took place on that couch were legendary."