They all looked at her.
”It’ll be fun,” she assured them. ”Really.”
”THIS IS A bad idea.” Dar stood in the back of the circle of people.
Kerry turned and glanced at her. ”It’s okay. We used to do this during practice for gymnastics. It’s just a game, Dar.” She kept herself from giving Dar a comforting pat on the arm, but leaned closer and dropped her voice. “Don't worry, whatever happens, I won’t let you fall.”
70
Melissa Good
Dar gazed at her, a smile playing about the edges of her lips. ”I knew that,” she murmured back. ”I just...” She chewed her lip. ”I don’t like people touching me.”
Kerry rubbed her jaw. ”Well, you could tell everyone not to catch you,” she commented softly. ”But that’s gonna hurt.”
Dar sighed and watched as Skippy joined them with her ever-present clipboard, her hair tucked up under a delightfully pink hat with a prancing, coy pony on it. The executive had an almost irresistible desire to snatch it and bury it deep in the earth.
”Okay. This is how this works,” the guide explained. ”One person stands in the middle, and the rest of you get behind. Then that person just lets themselves fall back, and everyone else catches them. Okay?”
”What if they don’t?” Duks asked, in his deep rumble.
”Excuse me?” Skippy peered at him.
”What if they don’t catch the person?” The Financial VP inquired.
”Oh, well...um... I guess they just...well, they fall, I guess.” The woman’s brow knit. ”I don’t know, really. It’s never happened.”
”That’s very reassuring.” Duks put his hands behind his back and rocked on his heels. He was wearing a pair of cotton painter’s pants and comfortable looking hiking boots, along with a crimson flannel shirt.
Then he turned to Mariana, who was wearing a crisp tan shirt over blue jeans. ”You did bring workman’s comp packets just in case, right?”
Mariana cleared her throat. ”Of course.”
Skippy blinked at her, disconcerted. ”You did? Oh, well, I’m sure you won’t need them,” she hastened to reassure her. ”This is a very safe course. We never have accidents, never.”
”Don’t worry, my dear. The ship is absolutely unsinkable,” Mary Lou muttered, sotto voce, making Dar snicker in reaction.
”Shh,” Kerry scolded her. ”Or we’ll be at this all day. Let’s get it over with.”
”Um, who wants to start?” Skippy gave Steven a little smile.
With a little shrug he came forward. ”Might as well, can’t be worse than being dumped on my ass in the mud this morning.” He glared at Dar.“I didn’t touch you,” Dar shot right back. “If you can’t watch where you’re running, don’t blame me.”
”You could have warned me!”
Everyone looked at Dar, who shrugged. ”How was I supposed to know that mud was there?” she asked reasonably. ”You decided to run ahead of me. Not my fault you didn’t stop in time,” she said. “My reputation as a psychic is highly overrated.”
“Your reputation is highly overrated, that’s for damn sure,” Steven shot back.
”Oh, will you two shut up?” Eleanor snapped, in a foul mood.
”Let’s get this idiocy over with already.”
Sullen glares all around. Steven turned his back on them and let his Hurricane Watch
71
arms hang down straight, his bright blue sweatshirt over a white polo shirt contrasting with his khaki chinos. ”Ready?”
José sidled forward and nudged them all along. ”Come on, come on.” They clustered in a group. ”All right.”
Steven very obviously squared his shoulders, then let himself tip back.A loud explosion behind them sounded. Everyone jumped and whirled, even Skippy, who threw her clipboard up as a defense. ”Oh my!”Steven, forgotten by the distracted group, dropped into the pine needle filled ground with a thump. ”Son of a bitch!” he screamed as his head hit the turf. “You bastards!”
The sound was repeated and they realized it was a backfire from some vehicle. Skippy dashed over to where Steven was lying, rubbing his head, and knelt down. ”Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Are you all right?”
They were all torn between giving him guilty looks and watching the camp entrance, where a low growling sound indicated someone was approaching. ”Listen, sorry about that kid.” José offered him a hand up.
”That noise, you know, it just startled us, sounded like a damn gun.”
The sound got louder, then a flash of sun on metal almost blinded them as a Harley roared in. It slowed a bit as the driver checked out the scene, then thumped across the uneven ground and headed in their direction. It pulled to a stop and the rider pulled his helmet off. ”Hey.”
It took all Dar’s considerable concentration to keep a devilish grin off her face. ”Hey, Mark, didn’t think you’d make it.” She greeted him.
The MIS chief got off his bike and glanced down at his body, which was covered in tiny, blood specked forms. ”Neither did I, goddamned love bugs. The company owes me big time for this one. It’s gonna take me a week to get all their guts off my bike.” He glanced over. ”What’s he doing on the ground?”
Chapter
Seven
“SO MUCH FOR that.” Kerry leaned back against a pine tree, crossing her ankles and folding her arms. She looked past the figures of Skippy and Steven, in earnest conversation nearby. “Okay, so it probably was a bad idea.”
Dar was scuffing the pine needle littered ground with one boot.
“Pure chance,” she shrugged. “Not like I called Mark up and arranged it, or told him to go first.”
“You’ll get blamed anyway,” Duks said. “The man does not like you, my friend.”
”That was a bitch, Dar.” Mark shook his head as he joined them, having changed out of his leather and love bug carcass outfit into something less gruesome. ”I ended up having the Erding office bring the equipment in for them. You’re gonna owe a few folks out there.”
Dar nodded. ”Good going.” She re-tucked her long sleeved, heavy cotton shirt into her jeans. ”Glad you could join us.” She glanced over where Steven, José and Eleanor were now clustering together. “Tilts the scale a little.”
”Yeah, you look like you’re having a great time,” Mark commented dryly. ”This place is a dump.” He glanced over as Skippy returned with a bunch of little sacks slung over her shoulder. ”Uh oh, now what?”
”Okay!” Skippy looked perkily grim. ”Here’s what we’re going to do now. We’ve got a course set up—you can see the entrance to it over there.” She pointed and they all looked over to where a trail was clearly marked. ”It’s a ten mile path, and along the way there are different stations and obstacles you have to get through.” She handed each one of them a bag. ”The object of this is for all of you to get through.” She gave them a look. ”All of you, not just some of you, okay? You all have to get back. All of you. Everyone get my point?”
Kerry muffled a wry chuckle.
“Great,” Mariana sighed, “I can see where this is going.”
Skippy looked at them as though waiting for more commentary, then she shook her head and went back to her program.
”Okay. In this sack is your lunch and a snack.” She held up a sample. ”The directions are on the top.”
Dar laughed on seeing them. ”You guys shop on the Military channel by any chance?”
Hurricane Watch
73
Skippy scowled, in a nice way, at her. ”Anyway, at each station is a check point. You have to get this card stamped at each checkpoint.
About halfway, there’s a cabin with water and juice, and things like that,” she exhaled. ”It’s not a race, okay? The purpose is to make you work together, to get through the obstacles.”