Dar glared right back at him.
"You..." He started.
"Am in charge here." Dar completed the sentence.
"Paladar Katherine Roberts, you better not be out there in that damned sewage with your foot!" Kerry yelled at the top of her voice, nearly making the door metal rattle.
The techs all looked at Dar as a momentary silence fell.
Dar cleared her throat. "Do it," she instructed the techs. "Before I get my ass in real trouble."
The techs charged the door without any further hesitation slamming into the panel and crashing it inward. They stumbled inside as it opened easier than they expected, and there was a jumble of moving bodies in two flashlight streams.
A low rumble started up to their right, as the techs stumbled out of the closet and into the hallway, Kerry squished among them.
"You must get out of here. Now." The officer's voice was now more urgent than angry. "Please!"
Dar grabbed hold of Kerry's arm, and she ducked from behind a tall, sweating body. "Hey." She checked her over as best she could in the very dim light. "You alright?"
"Hey. Dar, are you crazy!" Kerry started tugging at her. "You gotta get out of here before you get sick!"
"Let's all get out of here." Dar pointed down the hall. "C'mon!"
The rumble grew abruptly into a roar, and out of pure instinct Dar grabbed Kerry and slammed her against the wall just as a blast of hot, fetid air and worse came down the passage, splatting full into the staff captain and knocking him back against the far bulkhead.
Then the hiss disappeared and silence descended.
"Oh, Jesu." One of the techs nearly threw up.
"Oh. Gross." Kerry muttered. "This is about the most disgusting..."
"Yeah." Dar inched toward the light, staying as far away from the sodden staff captain as she could. "It sure is."
"Ug, ug, ug." Kerry stifled a gag. "Dar, I'm gonna lose it."
Jaws clamped shut, Dar merely nodded, and nudged her faster. "Walk." She got out from between clenched teeth. Ahead of them, the hallway was blocked by a lot of bodies, men in jumpsuits yelling in a Nordic language.
A bell started to ring. The crowd of jump suited men shoved past them, ignoring everything in their haste to get down the corridor, carrying tool boxes and thick hoses.
"What happened to you?" One asked the staff captain. "Ah, you got shot, eh? Should be used to it."
"Oooohh," Kerry uttered under her breath. "Get me outta here." She squeezed past the men and got to the stairs, where the air was no cleaner. "Dar, I'm losing it."
"Hang on..." Dar got an arm around her, ignoring her own rebelling stomach. "Over here." She moved to the far end of the stairs, bypassing the men running up past them, all in ship jumpsuits.
"How's your foot? Did you get it in that...um..."
"I have no idea." Dar steered her down another flight of steps. "Let's wait till we get outside...hey." The sharp scent of blood reached her nose. "Did you get hurt?"
Kerry held up a clenched fist. "Cut. Nothing major."
They reached the main deck landing and headed for the doors, getting outside just as all the power inside was cut, and the ship was plunged into darkness behind them.
"Ugh." Kerry went right to the railing and hung over it, willing a breeze to come up from the southwest and not from behind her. Her stomach was twisting in knots, the smell from inside the ship still in her lungs, and clinging to her clothing.
She closed her eyes.
"Let me see." Dar took her hand and gently opened it, studying the slice on her palm. "Ouch."
It wasn't working. "Dar," Kerry whispered. "I'm going to throw up."
"Aim down." Dar circled her wrist with gentle fingers and pressed against the inside of it.
Kerry opened one eye, to see the waters of Government Cut far below her. "Down?"
"Down."
Kerry watched the wavelets ripple past the ship, bumping into the hull. A bird flew lazily past, and then unexpectedly, plunged into the water after a fish.
She took a breath, then a second, filled with clean salty air, and felt the nausea subside. She released a breath, and looked over at Dar. "I think I'm okay." She took another few lungfuls of air, then glanced down at the deck, to study her partner's exposed feet.
The sandals were covered, almost up to the edge of the bottom, with an oily brown guck, but Dar's tanned skin was unmarked. Kerry's shoulders relaxed a little. "You escaped the crap monster."
Dar looked down. "Oh. Yeah," she murmured. "So I did." She turned Kerry around and examined her carefully. "So did you." She noted. "Except...er..." She glanced at a long, dark stain down the side of one leg.
"New rack crud." Kerry sighed. "I had to climb out of it."
Dar frowned.
"In the dark, in a room with roaches flying all around, and poop flowing on the floor. Dar that was not covered in my infrastructure classes." Kerry leaned against the railing, exhausted. "But at least we got the damn thing in."
Dar turned and leaned as well, looking back at the ship. Contractors were pouring out of it and heading for the upper gangway shaking their heads, while inside, bells were still ringing and alarms going off. "One down," she agreed with a sigh. "Seven to go."
It wasn't a very auspicious start.
KERRY LEFT HER boots outside the terminal, and in fact, crossed through it and out the front door heading for the Lexus. She remembered they had spare clothing in the back, and she fully intended on changing into it to get rid of the sewer scent she was convinced still clung to her shirt.
As she crossed to the parking lot, a small pickup swerved toward her and pulled up alongside. "Hi." Ceci waved, tipping her sunglasses down. "How's it going?"
Kerry walked over and leaned against the doorjamb. "You really want to know?"
Her mother in law grimaced. "Andy called me. Said they got thrown out of the boat while some repairs were on. I brought him some lunch," she said. "Tough day?"
"Ugh. Yes." Kerry agreed. "We're so behind schedule now, and we don't know when they're going to let us back on the ship."
Ceci leaned on the seat back. "Kerry, can I ask you a question?"
Hmm. "Sure."
"You and Dar, you're corporate officers."
"Yes." Kerry nodded.
"Maybe it's different here in Miami, but where I come from corporate officers don't do what you're doing." Ceci said bluntly. "They manage."
"I know."
"So?"
Kerry let her hands rest on the window frame, feeling the heat of the metal sting her cut hand. "Usually we do manage," she admitted. "Usually, someone else does this, but this job--Alastair asked Dar to handle it personally."
"Ah."
"There's a lot behind it," Kerry explained. "So here we are."
"We."
Kerry smiled.
Ceci reached over and patted her hand. "Good luck," she said. "How's Dar doing?"
How was Dar doing? Kerry thought back to the last sight she'd had of her partner, pacing back and forth in the terminal unable to do anything constructive. "She's a little freaked out because of the wait."
Ceci chuckled. "That's nothing new." She advised Kerry. "She absolutely positively hates waiting for anything."
Hmm. True and that reminded Kerry. "I know, in fact, maybe lunch is a good idea. I'll get her out of here for an hour or so until they reopen the ship." She tapped the window. "Thanks for the idea!"
Ceci pushed her sunglasses down and waved waiting for Kerry to step back before she continued driving out of the parking lot.
Lunch. Kerry continued over to the Lexus and keyed the lock open. She pulled the back door latch and peered inside, snagging her gym bag and tugging it over. "Let's see what we've got here." She unzipped it and rummaged through its contents.
"Okay, good." A pair of jeans landed on the seat, shortly followed by a shirt. She tended to keep changes of clothing for after work, as did Dar, since neither really wanted to get back into business clothing after working out.