Not anymore.”
The blonde woman chuckled wryly. “Yeah, me too.” She leaned against the machine. “I hope this is worth it, or it’s going to be one very long day tomorrow.”
He nodded. “Yeah, but you know we won’t really know for a few hours, right? The first run will just tell us if Dar managed to pull something out of that mess intact. It’ll take the program about five, six hours to parse through everything and spit out a report.”
Kerry stared at the screen. “What do you think?”
Mark fiddled with his pen, then shrugged. “Hard to say. If anyone could, it’d be Dar, but I think she was fighting this one.” He glanced at Kerry. “That knock on the head still bugging her?”
“A little,” Kerry admitted. “I think it’s a little of everything. She’s stuck between everything hurting and not wanting to take the pills for it because they knock her out,” she said. “Just being in pain exhausts you.”
“Well, the first stage’ll just take a little while,” Mark said. “Ten minutes, maybe.”
“Ah.” Kerry hadn’t known that. “Good,” she nodded. “Then we can all go home after we start the run, right?” Nap or no nap, Dar needed to go home and rest. Hell, Kerry rubbed the back of her neck, I need to go home and rest. I’m bushed.
Mark sat down on the desk. “Well, theoretically, yeah,” he agreed.
“But I dunno, Ker. This whole project’s got my heebie-jeebie meter spiking to max. I don’t want to leave this thing running by itself. I’ll stay here and watch it.” He glanced around. “I keep expecting some dude dressed in black camo to come out of the walls and zap me.”
The darkened building was a little spooky, Kerry had to agree.
What if the people whom they suspected figured out they might have Red Sky At Morning 329
kept some information? Would they try to get at them? All sorts of wild scenarios started to play out in Kerry’s mind. What if they really were smugglers? What if they were connected with someone really bad, like the Colombians?
“Kerry?” Mark leaned forward and waved his hand in front of her eyes. “Yoo-hoo.”
“Huh?” She blinked. “No, I was just thinking. What if you’re right?
What if these people do try something? It’s not like we’re set up for airtight security around here.”
“You think they will?” Mark asked nervously. “For real?”
“They were shooting for real back there,” Kerry stated. “I don’t know.” They stared at each other uneasily.
The floor creaked outside, making them both jump. “Shit,” Mark squeaked. “Shut the door!”
Kerry felt her heart rate double and she turned, realizing that the door opened outward and she’d have to go out into the corridor to pull it shut. “I think we’re letting our imaginations get out of hand,” she stated, “but maybe that’s not a bad idea.” She edged toward the door, peering out into the darkened area beyond. “No one could get in the com center, right?”
“Uh...” Mark’s nostrils flared. “Not like your average Joe Delivery Boy, no, but I’m sure the military has all kinds of crap to get around our security.”
Kerry paused in the doorway, looking out. It was silent, desks and chairs crouching dumbly in the gloom. Nothing moved. Kerry suddenly became aware of a dark, looming object near the ops center door she didn’t remember being there earlier. She stared at it.
Was that breathing she heard, or was it just the AC? She took a step out, and her eyes seemed to detect a motion from the still object.
“Mark,” Kerry tried hard to keep her voice steady, “come here.” She reached for the doorknob and heard a creak. A hand touched her back and she yelped, then scrambled for the door.
Suddenly, the entire ops center came alive in a shocking blast of fluorescent light. Kerry slammed herself backward, knocking Mark flat on his ass behind her, and swung the door shut with startling violence.
She threw the deadbolt on the door and got back away from it, not trusting even the reinforced steel. “Shit.”
Mark had crawled out of her way and ducked behind the desk.
“You know, they never mentioned this in MIS 101,” he muttered. “Let’s call the cops.”
“Good idea.” Kerry joined him behind the desk and pulled out her cell phone.
They heard a sound on the other side of the door and froze, staring in horror at the lock.
It started to turn, a low rasping sound that ended in a distinct, harsh click as the bolt retracted.
330 Melissa Good The door opened. They ducked behind the desk. A voice split the silence.
“What in the hell are you two doing?”
Kerry lifted her head and peeked over the desk, her body almost dissolving in relief as she recognized the powerful tones. “Oh.” She managed a wan smile at her lover. “Hi, Dar.”
Mark started laughing in nervous relief. “Shit.”
Dar entered the room and pushed the door open, crossing over to them and taking a seat on the desk. “Do I want to know what just happened?”
Kerry got up and dusted herself off. “Overactive imaginations,” she admitted with a sheepish grin. “We started wondering if...well, anyway, there was a noise outside, and I looked, and I saw something I didn’t recognize...” She walked to the doorway and peeked out cautiously.
“Ah.” Her eyes found her threatening intruder, now masquerading as an innocent, if covered overhead projector nestled in the corner. “Sorry.
I was about to come wake you up.”
“Mm.” Dar was amused. She watched Mark stand up and brush himself off. “If we’re done playing Miami Vice, can we run the test now?” She’d woken a short time earlier and had spent a few moments splashing water on her face in the bathroom, resulting in a state of reasonable alertness.
Mark blushed, then started up the interface. “All yours, boss.” He rubbed his butt cautiously. “Damn, you’ve got a hearty forward block on you there, Kerry. Ever think of trying rugby?”
Kerry just laughed. “Sorry. I just wanted to get the door closed.”
Dar stepped around the desk and sat down, flexing her hands a little before she accessed the program files and started the analysis running. She reviewed her command line, then hit enter and folded her hands together calmly, watching the screen.
Not much was going on. A little asterisk in the corner spun. Lights on the black box indicated it was being accessed by the mainframe.
“How long should this take?” Kerry asked quietly.
“Depends,” Dar said. “It’s a fairly complicated structure.” She watched the screen tensely. “A lot of things could have gone wrong.
One glitch in the line during transfer and the entire matrix can get thrown off. Without every key in place, the whole thing—” Dar stopped and stared at the console, which was now blinking a result at her.
“Damn.”
Structure Valid.
Mark let out a whoop. “Hot damn is right.” He slapped the desk, making both of them jump a little. “Boss, you rock!”
Dar was frankly very surprised. She cocked her head at the screen as though not quite believing what it said. Given the complexity and her own state of scattered concentration, she’d had her doubts as to whether she’d gotten all the sequencing right. It had seemed more and more Red Sky At Morning 331
likely, as the night wore on and she’d had to redo her actions more frequently, that she’d made a mistake and would have to start all over again. In fact, she’d been pretty damn sure of it.
Well, apparently she wasn’t as decrepit as she’d imagined. “That’s good news,” she remarked calmly. “Now the hard part starts.” She rapped her head with her knuckles, then assembled what she wanted to do and typed in a second command to her system. “Go.”