"Just goes to show you how much we need your program." Kerry went on, with a touch of hesitance, "And you."
Dar paused with her hand on the door latch of the ops center, and cocked her head to one side. "You really mean that?"
Kerry looked right back at her. "If you mean personally, I'm going to kick your ass for even asking."
An unexpected smile appeared on Dar's face. "I love it when you talk to me like that." She opened the door and indicated Kerry should precede her, the wide open portal preventing Kerry from framing a suitable answer.
Kerry stuck her tongue out instead, and walked into the room, where the console operator was already standing up to greet them. "Hi, Rosie."
Dar followed her inside, and gave the woman a nod as well. "Got the PC?"
"Right there, ma'am." Rosie pointed toward a worktable on one side of the operations desk. "I went right out and grabbed it after you called me."
Dar walked over to examine their prize. The operator had certainly taken her words literally, and the computer, mouse, keyboard, and assorted cables were neatly wrapped in enough plastic to cover half the room they were presently standing in. Duct tape secured it, and she suspected it would take the sharp end of her Leatherman tool to free the poor captive. "Okay."
"Did you see anyone around there when you were getting it, Rosie?" Kerry asked. "Anyone in the hall or anything like that?"
"No, ma'am." Rosie shook her head. She was twenty-something, a middling height and hair color kind of woman who often reminded Kerry of a cocker spaniel. "There shouldn't be anyone up there this time of night, and it was empty as a graveyard when I was there."
Dar checked her watch, and decided to leave the wrapped PC where it was. She limped over to the big console desk and picked up the phone, dialing Duks' extension. "You there?"
"I am here." Duks answered. "Are you here?"
"Yeah."
"Good. Now that this important piece of business is concluded, would you come to my office?"
"Right." Dar put the phone down. "Ker let me go talk to Louis. I'll be back in a few minutes.?"
Kerry took a breath, then merely folded her arms. "Okay," she agreed. "I'm going to go upstairs and see what I can sniff out."
"Good idea." Dar winked at her, as she made her way to the door and bumped it open with an elbow. She limped out and the door closed behind her, leaving Kerry by herself with the console operator.
"Ms. Stuart?"
"Hmm?" Kerry had wandered over to examine the PC in its wrapping.
"How come Ms. Robert's is limping? Something happen to her?" Rosie asked.
Kerry turned her head to regard the operator, whose round, innocent eyes gazed back at her with a marked lack of guile. "Matter of fact, she got that saving me from a barracuda, Rosie."
If possible, Rosie's eyes became a lot rounder and a lot bigger. "No kidding!?"
"No kidding. "Kerry turned all the way around and faced her. "There we were, in the ocean, right?"
"Right."
Kerry waved her hands, mimicking a swimming motion. "I was swimming with our dog, and we swam under the dock. I felt something brush against me, then all of a sudden Dar jumped in, picked me up out of the way, and kicked a barracuda that was about to bite me right in the mouth!"
"Wow!"
"Yeah, but she got bit for her troubles." Kerry went on blithely, "But it was very brave of her."
"Sure was!" Rosie agreed fervently. "Wow. Were you scared?"
Kerry stuck her hands in her pockets. "Didn't have time to be."
"Wow," Rosie repeated. "That's amazing."
"Dar usually is." Kerry went to the door. "Well, I'm going to go check out our offices. I'll be right back." She left the Ops center and closed the door, pausing outside to grin and grunt contentedly. "If you don't like the rumors about you, my father always said, start some you do like."
She walked down the hall toward the stairwell. "Bet you never thought you'd ever use any of his advice willingly, huh, Ker?" With a slight shake of her head, she pushed the door into the stairwell open and started up the four flights to their offices.
DAR ENTERED DUKS' outer office, crossing the soft carpet and opening the inner door to an office that pretty much mirrored hers. "Evening."
Duks was behind his desk, leaning back with folded arms. He watched Dar as she took a seat opposite him. "How is your fish bite?"
"Eh."
"I see that you are favoring it."
"Hurts like hell," Dar allowed. "I went and got an antibiotic shot, but I've been running around on it all night."
"And I have made it worse." Duks said.
Dar shrugged.
"We have narrowed this down to four possibilities, Dar." Duks dispensed with the chit chat. "Tomorrow, I will call all of them into this office, and we will find out which one it is."
Dar cocked her head to one side. "You mean none of the four were here when it happened?"
"No. The job was set to run at this time," he said. "I am thinking someone imagined no one would be here to see it and remark on it." He laced his big fingers together and studied them. "It is hard to believe from any of these people. They have worked for me for many years."
Dar knew what he meant. You liked to trust the people who worked for you, but she'd found out the hard way over the years that loyalty really didn't generally exist. "That's rough," she said. "You sure it's one of them?"
He shrugged. "They are the only ones who know this login. It is the one we use to enable the reports to select from all four databases."
Hmm. "Logins and passwords can be obtained," Dar reminded him.
"Dar, what can I say to that? Perhaps it was me, then!" He stood up and paced behind his desk. "Is it not bad enough I have to find one of my most trusted staff is possibly a thief?"
"Hey." Dar held up a hand. "I'm just bringing it up, because it's true," she said. "How many times have we been in Mari's office because one person gave someone else their password?"
Duks dropped into his seat with a disgusted sigh. Then he looked at Dar squarely. "And what of you? Have you done so, my friend?"
Dar didn't even hesitate. "Kerry has all my logins, and I have hers," she replied easily. "Take it easy, Louis. Wait until you talk to these guys, and go with your gut."
"Thank you, Dr. Ruth." Duks gave her a droll look. "It's just infuriating."
Yes, it was, Dar silently agreed. "Least we stopped it." She fell back on Kerry's conclusion. "I'm not really--" She stopped, as a far off yell penetrated the walls of the office. "Shit." Dar bolted from her seat and headed for the door at a dead run, no trace of a limp remaining.
Caught in shock for a brief moment, Duks closed his jaw on an exclamation and got up to run after her.
Chapter Thirteen
DAR TORE THROUGH the empty hallways, circling the fourteenth floor around the central elevator stack. She could hear scuffling ahead of her and she sped up, hurtling around the last corner into the corridor that held her office.
Ahead of her, in the semi darkness, she could see two figures wrestling, only one of which was familiar. "Kerry!" She let out a yell.
"Son of a bitch!" Kerry barked back. "Get this piece...ow!"
Dar reached the fight and didn't even slow down. She plowed right into both struggling figures, gently shoving Kerry back out of the way toward one wall as she took the person she was fighting with up against the other one.
"Let go of me!" The stranger yelped. "Hey!"
"Go to hell!" Dar said. "You're lucky I don't open the window and toss your ass out."
"Oh yeah, I'm scared."
The two were evenly matched in size, but Dar pinned Kerry's adversary against the paneling, resisting the urge to shake the woman like a terrier with a rat. "Hold still or I'll break your damn arm." She growled. "Ker, you okay?"