Red Sky At Morning 71
Both officers stiffened. “You’re not finished?” Albert hazarded.
“No.” Dar met his eyes. “General Easton has forwarded us status and analysis reports on the existing processes you have in place here for training and implementation. He wants them reviewed.”
Kerry thought the two of them were going to implode, right there at the table. She’d never seen someone turn that red that fast, and her eyes widened a little as the veins appeared on the side of the commander’s temples. “It’ll go faster if you just cooperate,” she told them. “He’s not saying you don’t do a good job here, he just wants to see if there’s a way to make things easier and better.” She leaned forward. “Sometimes you need an outside pair of eyes to look at things—you get too close to the situation otherwise. Really.”
“Lieutenant, Ms. Stuart, would you excuse us please.” The commander bit off his words.
Kerry glanced at Dar, who cocked an eyebrow at her, then she stood and pushed her chair in. “I’ll go find some coffee.” She waited for the glowering lieutenant to join her, then walked out of the room, closing the door behind them. “Would you like to tell me where it is, or do I have to go ask the Marines?”
The woman was grimly silent for a beat, then her shoulders perceptibly relaxed and she shook her head. “Follow me.”
As they strolled along the corridor, Kerry took the opportunity to study their erstwhile adversary more closely. They were about the same size, she realized, and more or less the same age. She’d also detected something familiar in the woman’s speech. “Where in the Midwest are you from, Lieutenant?”
Brown eyes flicked to her in wary attention. “Ann Arbor.”
Kerry nodded. “You sounded local. I’m from Saugatuck.” They stopped at a coffee station and busied themselves in silence for a moment as they poured cups. Kerry was aware she was being covertly watched, and it made her ears twitch. “Want to sit down for a minute while they finish yelling at each other?”
Without answering, the other woman led the way to a utilitarian table with two bench seats. She put her coffee down and straddled one, resting her elbows on the table and keeping her gaze firmly fixed on the beaten Formica top.
Kerry took the seat opposite and composed her thoughts briefly.
“We’re not as bad as you think.”
“Do you know how often we have to go through this?” Perkins lifted her head and glared. “Everyone thinks they know how to do our jobs, so they come waltzing in here, change things all around, and two months later we’ve got to go back to doing it the old way because it’s the one that works.”
Kerry’s eyebrows lifted. “They send in consultants every two months?”
“No.” The other woman sighed. “Every goddamned newly made 72 Melissa Good admiral they put in charge of this place.”
“Oh.” Kerry took a sip of the coffee and held back a wince at the pungent strength of it. She was abruptly reminded of Andrew Roberts’s affection for tar sludge, and now knew where he got it. “Well, we’re not admirals.”
“No, you’re even more clueless about what we do,” Perkins snapped.
“That can be a plus,” Kerry answered mildly. “And as far as I’m concerned, yes, you’re right, I’m clueless about the Navy. But I’ve got a good understanding of the government and how it works, because my father’s a senator.”
The lieutenant grunted, tensing muscular forearms as she lifted her cup.
“Dar, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about the government, but she’s got a good understanding of the Navy,” Kerry told her, hiding a smile as the other woman’s head jerked up in surprise. “She was born here, on this base.”
One of Perkin’s eyebrows lifted, very much like Dar’s often did.
“She’s a Navy brat?”
“Yep,” Kerry agreed. “She sure is. Her father just retired, as a matter of fact.” Should have told them that first, her mind analyzed. Might have made the day a lot more pleasant. “So between the two of us, we’re not that clueless.”
“Commander Albert know that?” the lieutenant asked. “About her?”“I don’t think so, no. Not unless Dar mentioned it before, and I don’t think she did,” Kerry replied. “Why?”
For the first time, a smile appeared on the other woman’s face. “Just wondered.”
DAR WENT TO the window and looked out, ignoring the man behind her who was yelling into his telephone. She let her eyes wander over the familiar confines of the inner courtyard, noting the new sheds and walkways that dotted the grassy area. A smile appeared on her face as she eyed a thick hedge, remembering times spent huddled inside the center of it in a tiny space she’d dug out for herself, hidden from adult eyes.How many hours had she spent in there? In the leafy warmth, green filtered sunlight trickling through the leaves and spilling over the ragged pages of whatever book she’d been poring over that week.
Reading had opened the world to her, a love she shared with her father, but a skill only reluctantly displayed to her peers on the base.
There were no points for being a bookworm in her childhood world.
So she’d saved her books for that little private space, absorbing the Red Sky At Morning 73
words greedily, reading years ahead of her age from almost the very start.
The phone slammed down behind her, and she reluctantly left her memories behind and turned, leaning back against the windowsill.
“Done?” Albert looked about as frustrated as anyone Dar had ever seen.
His face was beet red, and there was a small tic jerking the side of his mouth upward in disconcerting rhythm. “Look, Commander—”
“No. You. Look,” he got out from between gritted teeth. “I am not going to have some half-assed civilians coming in here and telling me how to run my operation.” He slapped his desk. “The base commander’s on his way here, and let me tell you, lady, he’s not going to put up with it either.”
Dar exhaled. “Commander, I think you’re overreacting,” she told him.“No, ma’am, I am not,” the naval officer shot back. “To have you come in here and evaluate our computers, well, I don’t like it, but no doubt you know your business.” He pointed at her. “But the Navy’s my business, and madam, I don’t need you telling me how to do it.”
Dar sighed and shook her head. “This is a waste of time.”
“That’s what I’ve said all along,” Albert responded. “That’s what I told the base commander, and he agrees with me.”
They heard heavy footsteps approaching, and then a low gruff voice that seemed more a growl than anything else. “That’s the commander now.” Albert looked relieved. “He’ll get this straightened out.”Dar folded her arms and watched as the door swung open, admitting a very tall, extremely burly man with thick, grizzled silver hair and a full, well-trimmed beard.
“All right,” the newcomer boomed as he closed the door behind him with a solid crack. “Let’s just get this cleared up right— Son of a fucking bitch.” His eyes had fallen on Dar, and he stopped in mid-motion.
Albert glanced between his commander and Dar. “Sir?”
Dar blinked as a surprised smile spread across her face. “Uncle Jeff.”
The man covered the space between them with startling rapidity and engulfed Dar in a pair of very large arms, hugging her and lifting her completely off her feet. “Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch. I can’t believe it.” He gave her a squeeze, then released her and took her by the shoulders, studying her intently. “Tadpole, what the hell are you doing here?” he rumbled, then glanced at the dumbfounded Commander Albert. “Oh, hell...don’t tell me you’re the posse the Pentagon sicced on me?”