Was it? Kerry pondered. "Or are we just getting paranoid?"
Dar studied the far wall briefly, then chuckled. "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get us." She pushed herself upright and laid an arm over Kerry's shoulders. "C'mon. Let's go sit down and figure out where we go from here now that we lost an entire day from our schedule."
Kerry circled Dar's waist with her arm as they walked, both of them slowing as they spotted their erstwhile friend reporter Cruicshank near the door, complete with a few of her camera people. "Oh, poot."
The reporter came forward. "Hello, ladies," she greeted them. "Now that the stakes have risen again, care to share a few words with me?"
Aware of the camera's red light turning on and focusing on them, Dar didn't so much as twitch, or remove her arm from Kerry's shoulders. "Sure," she replied amiably. "We've got plenty of time right now."
The television light turned on, framing them in silver. In the shadows beyond them, the techs paused, gathering to watch curiously as the reporter closed in, and opened her note pad. "Great. Tom, give me about sixty seconds, and then roll, all right?"
"Right."
Dar noticed the Herald reporter arriving too, taking a seat on one of the folding tables back out of the way and just watching.
One dark eyebrow curved up, and Dar's brow puckered in thought.
"All right, Ms. Roberts." Cruicshank began. "Now we have a situation where all of a sudden, you're the underdogs. How does that make you feel?"
Dar exchanged looks with Kerry. Then she looked back at the camera. "I'm not sure we haven't always been the underdog in this," she commented with an easy smile. "Are you?"
Cruicshank looked up from her pad, pausing for a reflective moment. "Interesting question."
"Isn't it?" Kerry murmured.
"OKAY, SO NOW WHAT?" Kerry sat on a desk, swinging her feet a little. It was late afternoon, and the chaos had finally settled down. Cruicshank had left, the reporter had left, and she and Dar were alone in the small office.
Dar was lying on her back on the spare desk against the wall. "Let's take everyone out to dinner," she replied, her eyes closed. "Do some team building for the hell it's going to be from tomorrow on."
Kerry studied her denim covered knees. "Okay," she said." Someplace around here? Hard Rock, maybe? Or Bubba Gumps?"
"Hooters."
"Dar."
A blue eye opened. "Too politically incorrect, huh?"
"It's one thing for us to go to lunch there," Kerry said. "But taking the staff? Hon, there's two or three women in the team out there. How comfortable would that be for them?"
"Mmph." Dar grunted. "Yeah, I get you. Call Hard Rock. See if they have that side room available. What do we have, thirty?" Privately she doubted anyone on their staff would really mind, or kick up a fuss, but you never knew with people.
It didn't pay to take a chance, and she was a little abashed that Kerry had found it necessary to remind her of that. "Sorry. I was just in the mood for chicken wings," she added sheepishly.
"And a nice cold draft beer, yeah. But I'm sure we can get that somewhere else." Kerry got up and sat down in the desk chair instead, calling up a browser. She typed the restaurant's site in and got back a list of addresses, from which she selected the Bayside one.
Pulling out her cell phone, she dialed the number. "Did you say thirty?" She paused and held her hand over the mic. "With us?"
"Yeah." Dar nodded. "Twenty nine, something like that. Just say thirty."
"Gotcha." Kerry cleared her throat gently. "Hello, I'd like to speak to someone who can help me with a group reservation." She listened. "For thirty people." Listened again. "That's what I thought. I'll hold. Thanks."
Outside, their team was still getting gear ready for installation, soft clanks and thunks audible along with a low buzz of casual chatter.
Despite the problems with the ship, the atmosphere was one of efficient industry, and walking through the crowd Dar hadn't heard any griping at all.
Nice. Dar waited to hear Kerry say the words "You do? Okay. I'd like to reserve it." Sticking her head out, Dar observed the activity, then she sauntered out into the center of the large room and stood there, putting her hands on her hips.
She didn't need to say anything. One by one, the techs all stopped what they were doing and focused on her, the chatter in the room subsiding to nothing in about thirty seconds. Dar waited a few seconds more, then cleared her throat. "All right folks. You know what the story is. We're dead in the water until tomorrow, and then we're way behind the eight ball."
Thirty sets of eyes were pinned on her. "Better we bust our ass tomorrow than have to hang out in there today," Mark commented. "Man that stunk."
The two techs who'd been with Kerry nodded their heads vigorously. "Yeah, and working in the dark, that sucked too!"
Dar waited until silence fell again, then she resumed speaking. "It's going to be a tough couple of days. There'll be company support there while we're doing it, but before we start, I'd like you all to come over to the Hard Rock and be our guest for dinner tonight."
She could feel the shock in the room, as she flicked her eyes over the faces and caught the reactions. Surprise, certainly, and then muted delight. Dar smiled at them. "So get this stuff locked down, and we'll head on over. Okay?"
"Yes ma'am," Mark responded quickly. "You don't need to ask us twice...right guys?"
"Yeah."
"Heck yeah."
"For sure!"
Satisfied, Dar lifted her hand in acknowledgement and then walked back toward the office. She discovered Kerry inside, sprawled in the desk chair, spinning it idly. "We all set?"
"Uh huh." Kerry agreed. "We got the back room, and they're throwing in dessert free as long as everyone orders an entrée."
"No problem." Dar caught the back of the chair and stopped her partner's revolutions. "Not with this bunch. They're not the ice tea and carrot appetizer crowd."
Kerry gazed up at her with a wry expression. "Dar, I used to be one of the ice tea and carrot appetizer crowd."
"Nah." Dar looked fondly down at her. "You were a poser."
"A poser?"
"A poser." Dar leaned on the chair back. "I knew that the first time we had dinner together."
Kerry's face crinkled up into a grin. "Rats. Outed by a slab of cheesecake and a chicken wing."
Dar gently scratched the top of Kerry's head with her fingertips. "Did you check with the office? Everything calm there?"
Kerry gave the trackball on the desk a roll, exposing her email inbox when the screen saver cleared. "Couple of things. Three of those leads we got out of your hacker challenge turned into requests for pricing." She pointed. "Not really huge accounts but look...this one's in an area we haven't been involved in yet."
"Hmm." Dar studied the screen.
"I'm assigning someone to put together a design," Kerry said. "And I got a note from our friends in New York..." She clicked over. "They're opening another office in Hong Kong. They want pricing for infrastructure."
"Yeah?" Dar sounded quite surprised. "You got a note from Meyer?"
Kerry cocked her head. "Um...no, matter of fact. Hang on. "She rolled back a page. "Here...new name. Ellen Durst. Maybe he got an assistant?" She scrolled through the message until she reached the signature line. "Oh. No, I guess she's the VP now."
"Huh." Dar sniffed. "Hope Stewart didn't get booted. We're in deep kimchee if he did."
"Would she be asking us for pricing if Meyer took his place?"
Dar perched on the desk, getting her weight off her injured foot. "We're their current vendor." She mused. "So stands to reason... I don't know, let's find out." She pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number. "Hi. Stewart Godson, please."