The woman looked around the room. "This is..."
"The government systems are handled through our Houston office," Kerry told her quietly. "The Miami Ops center handles commercial accounts. Surely you knew that, right?"
Dar folded her arms as she watched their unwelcome intruder. The woman half turned and dialed a number, keeping her face averted and covering the mouthpiece of her phone with one hand. It was still a bad situation, she knew. There had been a breech, and there was no real way for her to whitewash it, save by the few details she'd already thrown forth.
Well, that, and the fact that the woman had not been successful in obtaining anything while she, Dar, had been watching. No telling how long she'd been at it and no telling what she'd sucked down when Dar hadn't been looking, since she wasn't apt to spend her evenings browsing the network.
Kerry sidled over to her side of the desk and eyed her, her back turned to the room and her expression open and very emotive.
Dar scrunched up her own face into a wry half grin in response, and both her shoulders moved slightly upward.
"We are so screwed." Kerry mouthed silently.
Dar nodded, keeping the same expression.
Surprisingly, Kerry now shrugged in return. "Oh well." She mimed.
Equally surprisingly, Dar understood the sentiment, and agreed with it. In the corner of her mind, a tiny bit of her ego was soothed by the knowledge that the breech, when it had come, hadn't come through her network. It had come, as security cracks often did, through the human end of the equation.
"Check the logs," she uttered softly. "Find out who logged into that workstation today."
Kerry nodded and slipped off the desk, crouching behind it and pulling Dar's keyboard over to her. After a moment, she knelt instead and rattled the keys, focusing her attention on the screen instead of the rest of the room.
The woman turned around and approached Dar, pausing when the security guards intercepted her with quiet, yet distinct intent. She held the cell phone out. "My boss wants to speak to you."
Dar let her wait while she considered the request. Then she got up and came around the desk, taking the phone and perching on the corner of the wooden surface to talk into it. "Yes, Captain?'
Kerry looked up from the monitor. "Dar?" she interrupted gently. "Marketing admin, four p.m., logoff twenty one hundred plus."
Dar's nostrils flared.
"That is an odd location for that resource." Duks commented. "Perhaps I should call Eleanor."
Dar blocked them out for a moment to listen to the phone. "What was that?"
"I said, Ms. Roberts, my intention was not to blow you out of the water," Captain Mousser stated.
"Not what your puppy dog said," Dar replied. "Get your story straight."
The man sighed audibly into the phone. "She's just a kid, and she doesn't understand complex politics. It was easier to just tell her that, anyway listen..."
"I'm not going to listen, Captain," Dar said. You decided to send some half assed kid in here to do god knows what, and she got caught. My bad for not running my own building services crew. Your bad for not doing your homework. So now we'll just let the press decide which one of us is the bigger asshole."
"Roberts, will you chill out?" the Captain hissed. "You're making this into a big deal, and it doesn't have to be!"
"You don't think trying to steal proprietary code is a big deal? I do!" Dar snapped back. "I don't give a rat's ass what your intent was, Captain! Figure out how you're going to defend that!"
There was a moment's silence. "Hey, that was just opportunistic," the Captain finally said. "She had a chance to go grab it so...you can't blame me! We've been trying to find a back door into that place for a week, and..."
"Mister, you are so screwed." Dar was merciless, though inwardly relieved she'd solved at least one mystery. "I'd get my ass down to Dade County jail if I were you, and bring cash. They don't take credit cards or government PO's." She got up and limped back around the desk, pausing to look out the windows at the moonlit sea.
Pressing a hand against the glass, she suddenly wished more than anything she was out there. A sigh fogged the window, and she looked up to catch the reflection of Kerry's sea green eyes gazing out at as well. Their glances met, and held.
"Roberts! Roberts! Jesus! You want this on page one? Really?" The Captain's voice rose. "C'mon! Get real!"
Dar turned and sat down. "I'd rather that, than have you holding some bullshit piece of nothing over my head. Get it out in the open, and we'll deal with it." Her mind was already busy with figuring out how to explain the whole damn thing.
To the press. To Alastair. God. To the board.
What a mess. She closed her eyes and welcomed the casual touch of Kerry's hand on her shoulder. Kerry didn't say a word, but the silent support was obvious. "So if you're done wasting my time, I've got a press release to arrange."
"Roberts." Mousser sighed. "Look, you have something to offer. Your skills are something I really, really want to add to the team I have supporting the country. Don't you care about your country? Don't you want to help it out?"
"I do my part providing civilian jobs, thanks," Dar said. "Are we done?"
"C'mon, Roberts, you're not a communist," he coaxed. "Uncle Sam's Army wants you."
"I'm gay," Dar stated the obvious.
"We can work around that."
Kerry's eyes nearly came out of her head as she listened.
Dar glared at the phone. "I'm a Navy brat." She added, "And my dad's a retired SEAL."
Silence. "Okay, that's a problem," he admitted. "But listen; can we chalk this one up to patriotism? Let my girl out of there, and we keep this between us."
Dar's phone rang. Kerry answered it. "Okay, thanks." She looked at Dar. "Police are downstairs."
Dar hesitated, considering their options. Duks chose that moment to come around the desk and lean close to her. He put a hand over the cell and caught her eye.
"This is not the explanation for our other problem, my friend. If you can avoid the publicity, do so." He murmured under his breath. "We have much bigger issues to deal with right now."
Dar hated swallowing her pride, but she hated making stupid mistakes even more. She gave Duks a brief nod, then lifted the phone back up. "All right," She snarled. "But you're gonna have to come up with some damn good assurances that your light bulb here isn't going to open her mouth to half the earth, since she's so proud of what she did."
The Captain chuckled. "Leave that to me." He sounded much surer of himself now. "Now...can we talk about that little program of yours?"
Dar looked up at the ceiling. "No," she said. "Right now, I have to get the cops out of my lobby."
"Then give my soldier her phone back. I'll be in touch with you tomorrow," the captain answered smugly. "Don't worry, Roberts. This is going to end up being good for both of us."
Dar shook her head and threw the phone back to its owner. Now she had the police to deal with. What the hell was she going to tell them?
"Let me go downstairs." Kerry patted her on the back. "I'll handle the cops, Dar. Don't worry about it." She circled the desk and headed for the door before Dar could stop her, not that she had any intention of trying.
"Okay." Dar turned to the two security guards. "Escort this person out of the building. Take her picture before you do, and I want to know how and where she got the cleaning department identification card."
"Ma'am." The nearer guard took hold of the intruder's arm. "Should we file an internal report on this?"
"Bet your ass you should," Dar replied instantly. "Get her out of here."
The lieutenant's smirk had returned, but it wasn't as brazen as it had been to begin with. She had closed her phone and put it away, and wasn't resisting the grip of the guard. She gave Dar a look of triumph as she was led off, but remained silent.