“Could be.” Andy said. “Social critters.”
Chino wagged her tail. Then she got up and walked over to where Andy was seated, putting her nose up against Mocha’s nose and giving him a lick. She moved past and went to the edge of the porch, standing up and putting her paws on the rail and peering out over the ocean.
Ceci regarded the animal, watching her upright but folded ears twitch as she sniffed the ocean air. She’d never considered dogs to be interesting, but now, having minded Chino so many times she’d come to the conclusion that there was some kind of intelligence in the beast that surprised her.
When the big dog looked at her, there was definitely something going on behind those soft, brown eyes. Thoughts, though not human kinds of thoughts, but thoughts none the less. “Hey there Chino.” Ceci waved at her.
“Growf!”
“Dar said they had been bringing these two into the office with them.” Ceci remarked. “Must be cozy.”
‘Think it’s good.” Andy said, after a reflective pause. “Dogs love those kids, and no politics about it.” He held his hand out and Mocha put his paw in it, then turned his head and looked at Andy. ‘Crazy things that happen to them, that’s all right.”
“Yeah.” Ceci leaned her arms on the chair and regarded the horizon. “We going to go talk to that guy, Andy?”
Andrew pondered that in silence. “Ah am not sure talking will do much for the situation.”
“Well, you could be right, sailor boy, but I’m not really in the mood to be put in jail tonight, and we promised to watch the dogs until Dar and Kerry get back.” Ceci pointed out. “So maybe we could try talking first, and then, after the kids get back, find other ways.”
“All right.” Her husband agreed. “We can go have us some pizza pie anyhow.”
“We can take these dogs for a walk over there and sit outside.” Ceci warmed to the plan. “We’ll look like a total set of snoots.”
Andrew gave her a very droll look that reminded Ceci strongly of their daughter and she grinned. “Okay well, a pretend pair of snoots.” She got up. “Let me go get the leashes.”
Chino’s ears perked. She went to the sliding door and stood waiting, her tail lashing back and forth.
“That dog understands what I just said.”
“Yeap.”
“Is that normal?”
**
Kerry stood with her hands on Dar’s shoulders, peering over the left one as her partner studied a series of printed pages in front of her. “Is it a mess?”
Dar settled back and folded her arms. “It’s a mess.”
“Ah huh.”
“They all have to be rebuilt.” Dar said. “It’s a lot of work.”
“You don’t want to do it?” Kerry guessed, leaning forward a little and pressing her body against her partner’s. “Well, let me rephrase the question. Of course you don’t want to waste your time fixing someone else's screw up.”
Dar sighed.
“But you don’t want to do it just because you don’t want to do it.” Kerry clarified.
“I don’t.” Dar admitted. “I keep looking at these and knowing what effort was put into designing them and the thought some moron just screwed them up is making me nuts.”
“Well, hon…”
“Yes, I know. I offered. We should make it a rule that you stand next to me when I’m on the phone with a roll of duct tape ready.” Dar pushed the sheets aside and pulled over her laptop. “Let me get started on this.”
Kerry just kept up her massage, reasoning that no words were really appropriate. She glanced over Dar’s shoulder as she started to setup a work session on the large, crisp screen, her body relaxing after a few minutes as she pecked at the keyboard.
Dar was a fast typist. She seemed to not need a connection between her eyeballs and what she was typing and it was a little odd to Kerry to watching those flying fingers and not hear the rattling smack of their older style keyboards. “These laptops are a lot quieter.”
“They sure are. Softer on your fingertips too.” Dar nudged one of the sheets over with her elbow. “I could probably work on this all night and not keep you up.”
“Like I would let you?”
Dar glanced up over her shoulder and smiled, and got a kiss on the top of her head. Then she went back to typing.
“Can I help you with the setup?” Kerry asked after a few minutes of quiet. “I can see what you’re’ doing there, Dar. Send me the rest of those files and I’ll get them ready for you.”
Dar opened up her mail program without even a grunt of protest and Kerry went over to get her own laptop, settling in the round, almost comfortable hotel chair next to the desk and flexing her hands. “Glad we picked a hotel with wifi.”
“Maria put it in our travel profile.” Dar answered absently. “Wifi, room service, and big, fluffy king size beds.”
Kerry looked up over the screen of her laptop, one eyebrow lifting. But it seemed Dar was serious, so she just chuckled and shook her head.
She retrieved the files from her mail, and opened them, placing them onto her desktop while she prepared to work with them.
Plain text files. There was nothing complicated about the configuration in that sense. It was just something edited in a text editor, full of lines of cryptic commands that made the routing system work.
But they were exact and unforgiving. Kerry sighed. “Are you commenting these?”
“No. Fuck them. If they want to know why I do things the way I do them they can read the design archives.” Dar said, in a cranky tone. “Unless they deleted those too.”
“Want some hot tea?’
“Meh.”
“How about some ice cream?” Kerry tapped at her keys. “Or a milkshake?”
“That has possibilities.”
**
Ceci and Andrew were tucked into an outside table at the Italian restaurant on the island, with both dogs sitting patiently nearby. “Do you suppose that fellow is going to come out and meet with us?” Ceci nibbled on a bread stick, looking forward to a vegetable lasagna and some minestrone soup.
Andy shrugged. “Knows what’s good for him he won’t.” He said picking up a frosty mug of root beer and taking a swallow of it. “What the hell’s he going to say about it, Cec? “
“Well, maybe he’ll reconsider how unwise it was for him to threaten the kids.” Ceci reasoned. “I mean, you can say a lot you don’t mean in the heat of the moment.”
Andy was quiet for a moment then he nodded. “True thing.”
“Well if he doesn’t, we can just take a walk around the golf course and enjoy the weather.” Ceci decided as their dinner was delivered. She had taken her first spoon of soup when the door to the restaurant opened and a stickily built man came out and approached them. “Ah.”
“You people want to talk to me?” The man said, stopping at the table. “Jim Beakman.”
“Have a seat.” Ceci indicated one of the empty ones. “Thanks for taking the time to chat. I’m Cecelia Roberts, and this is my husband, Andrew.” She waited for him to warily take a seat. “We’re Dar’s parents.”
Andrew had picked up a piece of his pizza and he was chewing it, content to let Ceci do the talking for the moment. He knew the man vaguely, from seeing him around the island, usually on a gas powered golf cart.
Looked like a construction type of man. He was heavily built, and had dark hair, with hard, intent eyes and big, squarely made hands. Acted like a fellow who’d been in charge of things with no contesting it for a good long time.
Andy had known men like that, long timers, in the service. Fellas who had gotten used to command, and had carved themselves out a patch where their word was law.
He smiled a little. None of them had much liked him, and he didn’t figure this feller was going to end up liking him either.