“Night.” Dar responded.
“Night, Scott.” Kerry echoed.
They watched him roll past, and turn up the small path that went between the buildings, then Andrew folded his arms across his chest and regarded the two of them. “Y’all gonna show me this new place?” His eyes twinkled. “S’got my name all over it?”
Dar grinned back at him. “Sure. Glad you caught us before we left.” She started to lead the way towards the door. “We stayed late because.. well, it’s a long story.”
“Figure it can wait for your mom.”
“Yeah, it can. I’d hate to have to go through it twice.” Kerry agreed. “I’m so glad to see you. I wasn’t looking forward to how that was looking at ending either.” She put her hand on Dar’s back. “Not that I had any doubt in what the result was going to be, still.”
“Jerks.” Dar muttered.
“What’s up with them boys?” Andrew asked as they came around the corner and they paused, looking at the sign and the small front porch.
“They’re a bunch of veterans who are out of work and something homeless.” Dar said, as she put her hands on her hips. “Like the sign?”
“Ah surely do.” Her father said, with some immense satisfaction. “Looks better than it did in them pitchers.” He glanced at Dar. “So you done hired one of them fellers?”
“Part of the long story. Let’s go inside and sit down.” Dar led the way to the door and opened it, then ducked inside quickly to silence the alarm. “C’mon in.” She said, as she flipped on the recently doused lights.
Kerry was the last in, and then she turned as she heard light footsteps behind her. “Hey!” She waved at Ceci, who had stopped to admire the sign in her own turn.
“Well, hello yourself.” The short, pale haired woman waved back. “What a trip across the gulf stream.” She caught up to Kerry and scooted inside the door. “How are you?”
“Where do I start?” Kerry gave her a quick hug.
“Uh oh.”
“So many things have happened since the last time we saw you… holy cow.” Kerry said, as they followed Dar and Andrew inside, her partner giving a running commentary of their space. “We were late here tonight because we were pretty sure Dar was going to get a call from the people running ILS now.”
“Oh?” Ceci seemed surprised. “Are they different people from the ones that were doing that before we left?”
“Oh yeah. Most of the company, at least our part of it, quit.” Kerry said. “Anyway, they did something to screw things up there and we started hearing about it in public earlier on.”
“Really.”
“Yes, the CNN crew that was here had to go run and find out about it.” Kerry cleared her throat. “Where was I?”
“CNN?”
“They were interviewing Dar.” Kerry pinched the bridge of her nose. “And we knew things were going south because Gerry Easton called from the Pentagon, saying they were having problems. So we figured they’d finally cave in and call Dar but they didn’t.”
Ceci started to whistle softly under her breath.
“So I guess maybe they sorted things out.” Kerry concluded. “I’m glad if they did, because I don’t want to have to deal with that when we go to Washington tomorrow.”
“Washington?”
“Dar has to go explain advanced heuristics to Congress.”
Ceci stopped and burst into slightly hysterical laughter, falling back against the wall and holding her stomach.
“Yeah, I know.” Kerry smiled, and waited. “I’m going to bring a camcorder.” She said. “So with that we don’t want the government all of a sudden to stop in the middle of it and ask us to fix what is now, not our problem.”
Ceci let her laughter peter off. “You’re probably screwed, in that case.”
Kerry sighed.
“There isn’t a problem on the planet that doesn’t end up on your platter, kid.” Ceci patted her arm. “C’mon. Let’s go finish the tour, and find a beer.”
“Erf.”
**
They ended up at a café a short walk down the road, seated outside as Kerry ran through the whole catalog of recent events.
Dar contented herself with her spiked coffee, listening to her partner and watching the expressions on her parents faces react.
“They did what?” Ceci leaned forward. “You mean this guy deliberately screwed everything up?”
“Well.” Kerry lifted her hand off the table and turned it palm up, then put it back down. “Depends what you consider deliberate. Like Dar said to someone, the fact that they did something was deliberate but she doesn’t think the intent was to screw everything up.”
“Had me some Navy jobs like that.” Andrew commented.
“Unintended consequences.” Ceci said. “Frankly. I think you two should go hike the Himalayas for a couple months and stay as far away from this thing as you can.”
“Yeap.” Andrew nodded.
“We think so too.” Kerry said. “That’s what we’ve been trying to do but because we’ve got customers in common, and not just the guys down the street kind of customers, it’s tough.”
“Gov’mint.”
Dar gave her father a wry grin, at the dour comment. “Maybe we should start our vacation early.” She suggested. “I don’t reall…” She paused, as her cell phone range. With a sigh, she fished it out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID. “Mark.”
“This could be good, or bad.” Kerry said, as she watched her partner answer the phone. “Hopefully, it’s good.”
Dar sat listening, her elbow propped against the table, brows twitching a little.
The other three fell silent, watching her and waiting.
“Okay, so, that guy called you?” Dar said, after a long while. “What does he want you to do?” She paused again. “Oh. He wanted you to call me . What a little smarmy chickenshit.”
Kerry sighed.
“That doesn’t sound promising.” Ceci said.
“He said what?” Dar’s voice rose.
“Uh oh.” Kerry pulled out her Handspring “Let me get a note off to our lawyer.”
“Rich Edgerton?” Ceci asked.
Kerry nodded.
“He must be having the time of his life. He once said going into investment management was almost as boring as being a library card sorter.”
“Well, well, what do we have here.” A new voice interrupted them. “I do believe I know you people.”
Kerry looked up in surprise. “Hi, Hamilton.” She indicated a seat. “Join us. I’m sure you want front row center at this circus.”
Dar had also looked up and smiled. “Never guess who just showed up here.” She said into the phone. “Hamilton Baird.”
ILS’s ex legal council took the chair, raising his finger at the waitress who was watching him like a hawk, and pointing to the beer mug in front of Kerry. “I just dropped by your new place and was told I might find you here by a man in a wheelchair on your front porch. Never is boring around you ladies I will say that.”
“They collect personalities.” Ceci remarked, in a dry tone.
“Mark, we’re at the café down the road from the office. C’mon over.” Dar said. “Bye.” She disconnected the call. “Smarmy little jacktard said he ‘found’ Mark’s number on a sticky note.” She took a sip of her Irish coffee. “Said he was willing to pay him to contact me and get some technical information. “
“Million dollars a word, maestro.” Hamilton smiled. “Want me to negotiate that for you?”
Dar sat back and hiked one knee up. “Hello, Hamilton.” She said. “What brings you to Miami?”
“You.” Baird responded promptly. “Ah am now representing a consortium of ILS investors who want to stage an unfriendly takeover since they have seen their shares plummet in the last month.”