Dar looked up from her data and cocked her head. “Is that a warning?” She watched her boss nod. “All right. I’ll keep that in mind.
Now c’mon, let’s get this show on the road.” She concentrated on setting up the networking monitors and ignored Alastair’s walking over to the podium.
“Ladies and gentleman?” The CEO laid his hands confidently on the wood surface. “If you’d like to take your seats, we’ll get started.”
The crowd bustled into place, scrapes and scuffs overwhelming the conversation as people settled into the comfortable chairs. Almost immediately, a young red-haired man stood up and raised his hand.
“Mr. McLean?”
Alastair looked over at him. “Yes? Thomas Bantelberg, isn’t it?”
Red Sky At Morning 15
The man blinked a moment, obviously not expecting the CEO to recognize him. “Yes. Listen, we’re all really interested in the new network. We don’t want to hear a bunch of corporate BS today, if you don’t mind.” Several people laughed, but more nodded and faced forward.
“Well,” Alastair leaned on the podium, “you know, I had a feeling everyone was going to feel like that.” He had their attention, and the room settled down, everyone listening to him intently. “These stockholder meetings are usually pretty dry, huh?” A round of polite laughter. “I know how much the industry has been talking about our new infrastructure, and I thought that it would be a strong topic of conversation at this meeting.” He straightened. “You all have questions like is it what it’s advertised to be, and how are we going to use it, right?”
Nods.
“Well, good.” Alastair rubbed his hands briskly. “Because I can’t tell you any of that.”
Silence.
“So I brought someone here to do the corporate presentation who can.” He glanced over at Dar, who had finished fiddling with her hardware and was quietly waiting. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to present to you our chief information officer and the designer of the new network, Dar Roberts.”
Dar forced her legs into motion and gave her boss a curt nod as he relinquished the podium.
Then she wondered what all the noise was. Startled, her eyes lifted to see the entire crowd standing up, yelling and waving at her. She looked at Alastair in alarm, only to see the CEO hiding a smirk behind one hand. Only then did she realize that what she was facing was a standing ovation.
Jesus. Now what?
Finally, they shut up and she was able to collect herself, waiting for everyone to sit down before she opened her mouth. Then she shut it again, because she had no idea what to say to the huge, faceless mob, whose attention was now focused on her with fierce intentness.
Well, she had to say something before they all fell asleep, didn’t she?
“The agenda requires me to spend some time at this point outlining the basic plan and infrastructure of why we implemented a new network,”
Dar finally said. “But I’d bet you’d rather just see it, right?”
There was a moment’s silence, beating against her face, then a laugh. Ah. That was good. “Right.” Dar clicked on the overhead and behind her, a slim gray screen exploded into life. “This is the deal...”
“OOH, I THOUGHT she was going to choke there.” Kerry had her chin on her fists and her eyes glued to the IDLN broadcast of her lover 16 Melissa Good explaining in terse detail the advantages of their new net.
“Mm...” Duks was sitting on her desk, and Mark was leaning next to her. “Public speaking is not an easy thing for Dar, I do not think.”
“Nice suit,” Mark commented. “Crowd likes her.”
Kerry watched Dar’s body language, which to her seemed almost painfully stiff. After a few minutes, though, her lover relaxed a little.
“That’s better, she’s loosening up some.”
“Yeah,” the MIS chief agreed. “Boy, she looks nervous. Never thought I’d see that.”
“C’mon, honey,” Kerry whispered to the screen, crossing her fingers and willing Dar to calm down. For a brief instant, the blue eyes lifted from the crowd and glanced right at the IDLN transmit camera, and they were eye to eye; then Dar went back to her information, scrolling expertly through a series of benchmarks and displaying a test of the new network’s capabilities. “Atta girl.” She noticed the rose pinned to her boss’s jacket and smiled.
“What’s she doing now...oh.” Mark leaned forward. “Showing off that new hub. Yeah, lookit that.” They watched Dar shift traffic effortlessly from one port to the other, providing seamless fallback for the accounts on that particular system. “Cool.”
Dar finished her displays, then turned and laid her hands on the podium, much more at ease now. “Any questions?” The rich, powerful voice rolled out over the crowd. A moment’s silence, then a forest of hands went up. Dar seemed to find this funny, the corners of her mouth twitching as she leaned on the wooden surface. “All right. You first.”
She pointed, and the questions began.
“She likes that better.” Kerry nodded. “Questions she can deal with. She has to do that every day.” And certainly, her lover was handling them, becoming more confident as Kerry watched, moving out away from the protection of the podium, illustrating her answers with quick, precise motions of her hands. Kerry sighed. “God, she’s gorgeous.” She became aware of an awkward silence and glanced up to see Mark and Duks making strange faces at her. “Sorry, but she is.”
“Yeah, I know, but...” Mark scratched his jaw. “It’s just so weird hearing that...um...”
“From another woman?” Kerry asked wryly.
“Yeah.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Mark shrugged and laughed. “I needed some horizon broadening today.”
They turned back to the screen and watched as Dar took another step forward, her personality visibly emerging as she fielded tough questions, displaying an impressive knowledge of their industry.
“Yeah, you go.” Kerry smiled as the crowd applauded. “Rock ’em.”
Red Sky At Morning 17
“UGH.” DAR FLOPPED down onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, flexing toes newly freed from their leather entrapment. “Well, that wasn’t so bad, I guess.” Her cell phone rang and she lifted it, stretching as she put it to her ear. “Yes?”
“You rock.”
“Oh, I do, do I?” Dar responded with a lazy smile, glad to have the entire affair behind her. “I didn’t sound too much like a walking geek tank?”
“No way,” Kerry laughed. “We all watched it on IDLN. But my God, Dar, your face when they gave you that ovation...I thought you were going to swallow your pager.”
“Erf.” Dar threw an arm over her eyes. “Caught me by surprise; but it ended up pretty good. Those West Indies investors are sharp. They had some good questions.”
“You had some great answers.” Kerry leaned back in her chair and propped a knee up against her desk. “Listen, I did call you to say hi and congratulations and all that...”
“But?” Dar drawled through the phone.
“But,” Kerry agreed, “we’ve got a real problem in Chicago, Dar. I think I’m going to have to go out there.” She heard the sigh. “Tonight.”
Another sigh. “Col said she’d watch Chino, since Mom and Dad are in Bermuda.” They were both silent for a bit. “I don’t think it’ll take long.”
“You promised me turkey,” Dar protested with a hint of a verbal pout. “Tell Chicago to stuff itself.”
Kerry gazed fondly at her speakerphone. “We’ve still got two days before Thanksgiving, Dar. C’mon, I’ll be back tomorrow night at the latest. Besides, you’re the one who said you could deal with Egg McMuffins if you had to,” she reminded her boss.