Dar shrugged. “Did the new DC nodes come in?”
“Yep.” Mark sounded relieved. “Hey, listen, I’m glad you called for one thing—we got an early drop date for the new back-up IPC.”
Kerry pumped her fist in the air. “Whoohoo.”
“Incredible,” Dar agreed. “I thought we’d be waiting until February.”
“Well, boss—nothing came back on those guys,” Mark said.
“Not on the first run. You want me to keep going?”
Dar frowned. “Nothing?”
“Nothing on that name, no—or the two other names you gave me,” Mark said. “But that’s just a DMV and Marine reg. I’ll do a deep run on ’em. You want me to give you a call back?”
“Yeah,” Dar said. “We’re going to…” She paused. “What are we going to do now, Ker?”
Kerry lifted both hands in the air and produced an engaging grin.
“We’re gonna do something probably involving water and/or food,” Dar said into the phone. “I’ll keep the phone on. Let me know if you find anything, okay?”
“Will do, boss,” Mark said. “You guys have a great time, huh?
No more freaking pirates!”
“Do our best,” Kerry called out. “Thanks, Mark. Tell everyone we said hi.”
Dar disconnected the call and set the phone on the covers. Now that she’d set her query in motion, she felt satisfied to let it take whatever time it did, and in the meanwhile concentrate on resuming her vacation. “Want to just hike out and explore the place for a while?” she asked. “We’re in the middle of the national park here.”
Kerry nodded. “I like that idea,” she said. “It’s so pretty.
Reminds me a little of that hammock down by Old Cutler we went to that one time.” She sat up. “Okay, on with the hiking boots, then.” She patted Dar’s leg. “Let’s go find us some pretty lizards.”
LIZARDS, THEY FOUND in plenty, along with other assorted wildlife. Dar gingerly examined a vivid, bright green snake curled on a branch, taking care to keep her hands far away from it. “Did you see this?” she asked Kerry, who was busy taking a picture of some gorgeous flowers.
“See what?” Kerry trotted over and peered. “Oh!” She quickly brought up her camera and focused. “Hey, aren’t you going to grab Terrors of the High Seas 95
its tail and tell me what a beauty it is?”
Dar glanced down. “Does wearing khaki shorts and hiking boots require me to channel Steve Irwin?” she asked.
Kerry snickered. “Yes.”
“Tell you what tail I’m gonna grab.” Dar waited for her to snap the picture, then acted, grabbing onto Kerry’s tail and making her hop forward with a startled squawk. “Isn’t she a beauty?” Dar mimicked. “Lookit the bottom on that one!”
“Wench.” Kerry reached behind her and tickled Dar’s ribs, then continued down the path. They were surrounded by lush greenery, and a rich, organic smell filled her lungs as the wind stirred the branches. The jungle around them thinned ahead and revealed a mossy, stone-covered building. “Look, Dar.” Kerry motioned toward it. “Is that one of the sugar mills?”
“Must be.” Dar led the way toward the structure. It was just a pile of old stone now, a mixture of coral foundation and crudely made brick. They climbed onto it and looked around. Dar imagined she could still smell the tang of raw sugar cane, something she’d last tasted as a young child. “You ever chew sugar cane?” she asked Kerry.
“Me?” Kerry was kneeling next to a piece of machinery long overgrown with ivy. “You’re kidding, right?” She looked over her shoulder at Dar. “One, I don’t think it grows in Michigan, and two, my mother would have cut the hands off anyone giving it to me.”
She paused. “Have you?”
“Sure.” Dar grinned. “The best is to get a nice piece, chew it a little, then dunk it in your lemonade.”
Kerry’s gaze went inward for a moment as she worked out the potential tastes; then she wiggled her eyebrows and licked her lips.
“Mm.” She got up and snapped a picture of the bit of machinery.
“That does sound really good.”
Dar wandered over to a row of old wooden basins nailed onto the walls with rusted iron spikes. The mill had made sugar for sale, and for the rum and molasses that had been the impetus for the island’s colonization. Slaves had worked there under increasingly brutal conditions until they’d eventually risen up and conquered their masters, driving the plantation owners out and leaving the island to peacefully stagnate until modern times and modern tourism.
“Must have been brutal working here,” Dar mused, touching grooves worn in the wooden sinks from countless wrists resting on them as they washed the cane.
“Mm,” Kerry agreed, imagining the sweltering summer heat.
“Maybe we should bring the staff over here when they start complaining about the vending machine selection.”
Dar chuckled. “Just take lots of pictures,” she advised. “Wow, 96 Melissa Good did you see that?”
Kerry examined the huge wheels curiously. “What is it?”
“Grinding stone,” Dar explained. “They put the cane between that and ground it up to get out the sugar syrup.”
Kerry leaned over and sniffed the stone. “Just smells like mildew now,” she said. “It’s hard to believe that a place like this, as full of misery as it must have been, produced something so many people regard as a treat.”
“Yeah,” Dar agreed. “Speaking of which, want to stop and have our sandwiches?”
After Dar spent a moment making sure they weren’t about to sit on any snakes or scorpions, they picked a spot on the edge of the coral foundation. Kerry opened the pack Dar had been carrying and removed a Thermos bottle and two neatly wrapped packages.
She set down the Thermos and unwrapped the sandwiches, crusty French bread wrapped around spicy shrimp salad.
“Wow.” Kerry handed Dar hers. “This looks great. All this hiking has made me hungry.”
“Mmph.” Dar had already taken a bite. She uncapped the Thermos and poured out a capful of its contents, took a sip, and passed it over to Kerry. “Coconut and passion fruit. Interesting.”
Kerry washed down her mouthful and took another. “Very.”
She kicked her heels against the foundation and looked around, enjoying the food, the view, and the utter freedom of being in an unknown place with the person she loved best in the world.
“They’ve got horseback trails,” Dar commented hopefully.
“Interested?”
Kerry glanced at her knowingly. “Make a deal with you,” she bargained adroitly. “Horseback riding one day, windsailing the next?” She didn’t quite have the enthusiasm for horses that Dar did, but then Dar didn’t quite share her love of wild water sports.
However, compromise was good. It was a learning process, like everything else, and slowly they’d worked out a way to balance their differences. Mostly, Kerry acknowledged wryly. There were still some things they were working on. “Deal?”
“Okay.” Dar wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. She leaned back against the ruined wall and relaxed while Kerry finished up her lunch, the blonde woman resting an elbow on Dar’s knee. “A lot of people come out here and camp in the park.”
Kerry watched an ant the size of a Jeep walk by. “Good for them,” she said. “I admire their courage and fortitude.”
Dar watched the ant, almost jumping when the tiny animal was suddenly attacked by an almost invisible lizard, whose tongue whipped out and tethered the ant before the insect could even twitch an antenna. The lizard sucked the ant in and casually chewed it, rotating an eye to peer up at Dar with benign disinterest.
Terrors of the High Seas 97