Kerry frowned.
Angie cleared her throat. “If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly happened?”
Dar and Kerry exchanged glances. “It’s complicated,” Kerry finally replied, as the tension that had gripped her slowly ebbed.
She pulled her laptop back onto her lap and stared at it. “What was I doing?”
“Finding alernative routes for the western and southern datastreams,” Dar replied. “Try Atlanta and Kansas City. They should be able to handle the additional traffic. I think I put in big enough pipes there.”
“Yeah,” Kerry murmured, taking a deep breath and releasing it.
“Er…I meant to Dar’s arm,” Angie said delicately. “Not that what you’re doing isn’t interesting, but I’m seriously clueless when it comes to computers.”
Dar watched Kerry work for a moment. “I…um…” Explaining the entire Naval base issue was just too much for her at the moment. “I got hit in the shoulder with a baseball bat.”
“Oh,” Angie murmured. “Wow, that must have hurt.”
“Yeah, it did.”
“And then she made it worse by picking me up the other night,” Kerry muttered, her eyes focused on her laptop screen. “So there’s a certain amount of personal guilt going on here.” She smacked a few more keys. “God damn it.”
Angie exchanged glances with Dar. “Know what I think?”
“What?” Kerry asked testily.
“I think you need a nap.” Angie got up and tossed a pillow at her sister. “And you need to chill out.” She left the room and closed the green hued door behind her.
124 Melissa Good DAR’S EYES CLOSED as she lay quietly waiting for a call back on her cell phone. It was dim and silent in the room, the snow was still falling outside, and Kerry was curled up on her side with her head pillowed on Dar’s stomach, fast asleep.
Dar curled her fingers around a lock of Kerry’s hair, and wondered if Kerry was half as worried about her as she was about Kerry. She could almost sense the fractures in Kerry’s usually sturdy psyche and she only hoped the growing and renewed warmth with her nuclear family helped to heal them. Or else she’d take Kerry home and surround her with as much love and support as it took to do the job.
They’d gotten some of the problem resolved, as much as they could without fixing the broken equipment, and Dar had finally coaxed Kerry into taking one of the pills she carried around for stress headaches. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the dos-age that merely relaxed Dar had knocked her shorter, lighter partner out like a light.
Dar’s cell vibrated softly, and she lifted it up. “Yeah? “ she murmured into the receiver.
“Dar, it’s Mark.” The MIS manager sounded upset. “Listen, we’ve got a real problem.”
One of Dar’s eyebrows lifted wryly. “Another one?”
“Some guy from the government’s here. He’s got a court order or something that says I have to give him the core dump you took from the Navy base.”
Dar’s other eyebrow lifted. “Really? Let me talk to him.”
She could almost see the smug look on the man’s face, and the carefully not smug look on Mark’s when he handed the phone over. “Who is this?” she drawled softly.
"My name is John Bradley,” a voice answered. “I represent the Military Appropriations Committee, Ms. Roberts. I assure you, this is all in order. Please have your staff here give me the information I require.”
“They don’t have it,” Dar told him, enjoying the moment of stunned silence.
“Ms. Roberts, this is not a joke. I have a court order.”
“It’s not even remotely funny. But the fact is, it’s not there, Mr. Bradley,” Dar replied. “Mind telling me who you work for?”
There was a brief silence before he blustered, “We can search.”
“Go ahead.” Dar laughed softly. “But be ready for the law-suit. You can drop a copy of that court order off at our legal department while you’re at it.”
“This request comes from some very important people, Ms.
Roberts,” Bradley warned. “You don’t really want it getting out Thicker Than Water 125
that this information is floating around out there, now do you? If you force me to take this public, I will.”
Ouch. “You’re barking up the wrong tree,” Dar said.
“Am I? We’ll see.” There was a click.
Dar sighed. “This so sucks,” she murmured in the direction of the canopy. For a few minutes, she just lay there, listening to Kerry’s slow, even breathing, then she picked up her phone and scrolled through her address book, selected a number, and pressed it.
The phone rang three times before it was picked up. “Joint Chiefs,” the young, female voice answered.
“I need to speak with General Easton, please,” Dar said very quietly. “This is Dar Roberts.”
She waited patiently, one hand tangling itself in Kerry’s hair while canned Christmas music played in her ear. Finally, after a few minutes, the line clicked and she heard the faint sound of someone clearing their throat before speaking. “Gerry?”
The voice stilled, and she could hear the exhale. “Well, hello there, Dar.” Easton’s tone sounded wary, but also slightly surprised and hopeful.
Dar had used his first name for a reason. “Alastair told me we had a deal.”
Easton cleared his throat again. “Why, yes, we do… Listen, Dar,” he sighed, “I know what a bloody bastard this is, and I know it put your shorts in square knots.”
A faint smile crossed Dar’s face. “And I know how you feel about the service.”
Another sigh was audible. “It’s so damn hard, Dar. You know how fond I am of you.”
“We’ve known each other a long time,” Dar said. “I didn’t want to find what I did.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Easton said. “Damn it all, Dar.”
Dar was silent for a moment. “If we have a deal, then why did I get a visit from the goon squad today? I didn’t think you mis-trusted me that badly.”
For a long instant, there was dead silence on the other end of the line. “What?” Easton finally spluttered. “Visit from who?”
“Some guy named Bradley from the Military Appropriations Committee was in my office with a court order, getting that data dump you asked them to retrieve,” Dar replied calmly. “Why, Gerry?”
“Errr…” Easton almost sneezed. “I didn’t send a damn blessed soul anywhere near Miami today!” A chair scraped against wood. “What the devil are you talking about?”
126 Melissa Good Dar stared blankly at the phone, a dozen thoughts running through her head. “You didn’t?”
“Certainly not,” Easton replied.
“I talked to him myself,” Dar murmured. “He said he had a court order.” Her mind flicked over the conversation. “He wanted the core…Wait a minute. How in the hell did he know I had that?”
Easton paused. “Gave it to him, did you?”
“No,” Dar replied. “It’s not there. Gerry, are you sure you didn’t ask them to do this? Don’t…” Dar felt her heart rate pick up. “Forget the company; I need to know.”
“Paladar, I swear to you I didn’t,” Easton said seriously. “No point to it, you see? Not with that bargain you drove. Sticky thing that was to push through, I will say.”
“Then where did he…” Dar paused. “Huh.” Could someone have found what her father had hidden? Anything was possible, though she knew her father well enough to know how careful he was. Oh well. A simple phone call could verify that.
“I say, Dar...do you mean to say someone knows about this whole thing outside us?” Easton suddenly asked, sharply. “John Bradley, was it?”