"Likewise." Dar exhaled. "I'm one of the luckiest people on earth."
"We're both soppy mushballs."
"Guilty."
Finally, Kerry found herself smiling and letting it go, unable to resist the love she could feel wrapped all around her. She closed her eyes and listened to Dar's breathing for a few minutes until the dim shadows faded out and she drifted off to sleep.
Dar stayed awake a few minutes more, enjoying the sensation of Kerry's breath warming her shoulder. They would try and accomplish the task they'd started on, she decided, and then, once that was either finished or failed, they would go home.
They were too close to the center of this. Dar could envision an unraveling ball of requests if they kept going, the pressure to succeed growing greater and greater, as the shadow threat of what might happen if they didn't hung over them.
Too much risk for too little return. Tomorrow she'd corner Alastair, call Maria, make arrangements for them to get transport out and, by the end of the day Monday, she decided, she'd be sitting on her patio playing ball with Chino and listening to Kerry rustling up coffee in the kitchen.
She closed her eyes, and exhaled, nodding her head in confirmation.
Chapter Nine
KERRY BREATHED IN the scent of fresh coffee as she entered the hotel café, pausing in the doorway and lifting a hand to wave hello to Hamilton who was already seated inside.
"Good morning, Ms. Stuart." Hamilton waved back, then waved her over. "Come on over and sit your self down here so I don't have to be talking to the maple syrup will you please?"
Having very little choice, unless she wanted to start the day off profoundly rude, Kerry crossed the parquet floor and joined their corporate lawyer at his table. "Careful what you ask for." She sat down and accepted the menu from young male server as she opened her napkin and put it on her lap at the same time. "Dar's on her way down."
"Honey, even that thought can't stir my grits this morning," Hamilton told her. "You all do know what grits are, right?"
"I know what grits are." Kerry assured him. "I can even cook them."
"Shocked. I'm shocked," Hamilton said. "A Midwesterner cooking grits. What is the world coming to?" He picked up a piece of rye toast and methodically buttered it. "I had the honor of attending a shindig at the governor's place with Al last night."
"He had a party?" Kerry's voice dropped.
"He called it a strategy and planning meeting," Ham told her. "But I will say that was the first planning and strategy meeting I ever have been to that had salmon canapés and whisky highballs." He took a sip of his coffee. "Ah am guessing all those federal people in town needed some catering to."
"Well, we went out ourselves last night." Kerry half shrugged. "I guess salmon and whiskey are about equal to beer and cheesburgers and a good game of darts."
Hamilton looked up at her over cup. "Now doesn't that sound down home."
"Home would have included my motorcycle and my dog." Kerry glanced up as the server reappeared, hovering politely at her elbow. "Can I have two orders of eggs over easy with crisp bacon, white toast,and one side of blueberry pancakes, please?"
The waiter blinked, then he scribbled it down.
"And coffee." Kerry handed him the menu. "My father used to have meetings like those. The only bright part of them for me were the chocolate mousse cups they always left close enough to the door for me to steal."
Hamilton sipped his coffee again. "Somehow I can easily picture that," he remarked dryly. "We apparently got our selves onto the good boy list in all that hullaballo yesterday. Given my preference, I'd have rather stayed bad."
"Did you get an idea last night of what their motives were? What they really want?" Kerry asked. "Some of the things they were saying and doing were really very intimidating."
"What do they want." The lawyer sighed, and leaned back in his chair. "That's a damn fine question. I do think first of all those men are scared half to death."
"I thought they were acting as though they were embarrassed," Kerry responded. "That this happened. That it was allowed to happen."
Hamilton regarded her. "There is that there piece too," he acknowledged. "I heard a lot about getting back to normal, putting on a tough face, that sorta thing, but you know, honey, there ain't no getting back to normal in a thing like this. It changes people."
"It changes everything," Kerry said.
'Yes, it does." Hamilton nodded. "It will change a lot of things for us. No matter what the outcome is in this thing we're doing, people now understand what we do in a very different aspect. That could end up good, and it can end up bad."
Kerry took a swallow of water from the glass in front of her. "You know, my father was very unhappy about our government contracts. He felt we had too much control."
"I do remember that." Hamilton nodded. "No offense to those passed, but your father was a right pain in my ass."
"Mine too," she answered steadily. "But was he right?"
Her table companion thought about that in silence for a few minutes, then shrugged. "I honestly don't know the answer to that question right now. Not through any fault of ours, understand. We did what we do. But you know, I just don't know."
"Hm." Kerry picked up her fork and studied it. "I'm not sure I do either."
"Good morning, Hamilton." Dar appeared from thin air, even making Kerry start a little as she took the chair to her partner's left. "I hear you and Alastair had a good time last night."
"Well, good morning to you too, Maestro. I was just telling your charming colleague here about it. You seem to have won the approval of the powers that be, unlikely as that may seem to all and sundry."
"Peh." Dar fastened her gaze on the waiter, and reeled him over."Coffee, please." She glanced back at Hamilton. "I didn't do a god-damned thing. That bastard threatened his way into a solution."
"Only too true," Hamilton agreed. He paused as the waiter returned, carrying a tray full of plates. "So what did you ladies do last night?" He changed the subject, as the waiter put down his breakfast, then tried to figure out what to do with all of Kerry's.
"I took the team out to dinner." Dar reached over and took one of the plates from the waiter, putting it down in front of her. "That goes there, the other plate put between us. Thanks." She took a gulp of her coffee."Then we found a sports bar that had something other than CNN on and chilled out for a few hours."
"Ah would have traded my salmon canapé for a beer and a pretzel in a heartbeat," Hamilton said.
"Ah, there you all are." Alastair arrived, taking the fourth chair at the table. "Ham, I've already had two calls from the FBI this morning. I don't think I can stall them on the employee lists much further."
"Well, Al, then I'm going to have to file a damn injunction against them in Federal court and that ain't happening till Monday. "
"I don't know--" Alastair shook his head. "This guy is not giving up."
"Tell them we locked the database and no one can get access to it until we've had a chance to file in Federal Court." Dar bit into a strip of bacon.
"Can we do that?"
"Yes." Dar and Kerry answered at the same time.
"And even if we couldn't," Kerry wiped her lips with her napkin, "they have no way of knowing that. It's in a data center in the middle of the Houston campus in a building among hundreds that only four people have access to. What are they doing to do, go room by room tapping on the outside of the servers?"
"Well," Alastair gave her a wry look, "they could arrest me."
"We'll never let them take you alive, Alastair," Dar said.
Alastair sighed. "You all seem to think this is funny."
"I don't think it's funny, I think it's idiotic. What the hell do they want our employment records for?" Dar asked. "Is this all about the damn taps or something again?"