It felt amazing to know she could just change, despite the relatively early hour, and then go sit quietly for as long as she wanted. "Thank you." Kerry unbuttoned her shirt and let Dar strip it off her. She stood as Dar got her into her sleep garb with careful, gentle hands. "You make me almost forget how much of an idiot I feel like getting hurt the way Idid."
"I popped my knee falling in a sinkhole, got smacked with a baseball bat, and got bitten by a fish. You want to have a dumbass injury competition with me?" Dar inquired. "Go sit on the bed, Kerrison."
"Yes, ma'am." Kerry went over and sat down on the soft surface, carefully squirming into the nest of pillows until she was leaning against the ones in the back with her elbows tucked into the ones down the middle. "Ah."
"Comfortable?" Dar was busy at the tray.
"Yeah. Matter of fact." Kerry crossed her ankles. "I am." The support took the pressure off her ribs, and the pain eased. She leaned back and relaxed, letting out a long sigh of relief. "So no calls?"
"No." Dar brought a tray over. "I have our phones forwarded."
"Oh. I see."Kerry tilted her head so she could see what was in her immediate future in terms of edible items. "Wow. What is that--"
"This is lobster." Dar regarded the tray. "Cut up in nice bite size chunks with appropriate things to dunk them in."
"Mm."
"These are corn fritters." Dar went on. "These are green beans because I knew you'd yell at me otherwise, and this is a chocolate fondue."
"Wow."
"With cheesecake to dip in it along with strawberries."
Kerry had been pretty sure she'd entered the hotel room convinced she wasn't hungry, but at the moment, her body wasn't buying that. "This is for both of us right?"
"Yes. Hang on. Let me get the bubbly."
Kerry folded her hands over her stomach as Dar got up to retrieve a bottle and two glasses. Despite the long day, and her aches and pains, the solicitous attention could only make her smile and she did, tilting her head a little again to take a sip from the glass her partner offered.
A little sweet, a little fizzy, a little spicy. The champagne tickled her tongue and she settled back to enjoy as Dar squiggled herself into a comfortable position on the bed and commenced delivering lobster to her.
Perfectly cooked, chilled just right. Kerry licked her lips. "I think I know why emperors had servants now." She accepted another bite of lobster, neatly dipped in butter sauce and a touch of lemon. "This is lovely."
Dar chuckled softly, taking a piece for herself before she offered Kerry a bite of corn fritter. "I just wanted something simple I could handle with my fingers. I'm too tired to mess with silverware. Ready for you pills?"
"Just my luck." Kerry sighed happily. "You know what?"
"What?" Dar delivered a sip of champagne to her.
"Save the pills for tomorrow when we fly." Kerry leaned on her pillows and accepted a mouthful of lobster. "Right now, I feel great." She gazed lovingly at the angular face next to her. "Thanks."
Dar kissed her. "Anytime."
Kerry took another sip of bubbly to clear her mouth. "Dar, how do you really feel about us walking out like that? Do you regret it?"
Dar sipped her champagne, set the glass down, then picked up a piece of corn fritter and bit into it. She chewed slowly, thinking about the question. Then she handed over the other half of her fritter to Kerry's waiting lips. "Yes."
Kerry chewed, and swallowed. "Yes, you regret us backing out?"
Dar nodded. "I hate quitting. You know that. I don't blame Alastair for a minute for what he did, but yeah. I do regret it, a little. But on the other hand--" She offered Kerry more lobster. "Now if it doesn't work we don't have to stand there looking like jackasses either."
"You think that's why he did it?"
"Maybe. I might have. He knew what the deal was. Might have been a calculated decision. This is going to cause a huge wave, but from that standpoint, better than public failure."
"Hm." Kerry cautiously reached for her glass of champagne and took a sip. "That actually makes sense. You really don't think we'd have been able to do it?"
"No. Ultimately we'd have gotten everything in place, but there's no way they could have worked the optics. We'd have been standing here when that bell rang with a lot of egg on our faces. That's why I didn't say anything to Alastair when he told me. He's right."
"That really sucks though." Kerry selected a green bean and ate it."It sucks that they put us in that position." She paused. "Or did we put ourselves in it?"
Dar extended her legs along the bed and stretched out on her side.She lifted her glass in Kerry's direction in a wry toast.
"Mm." Kerry took a sip of her champagne and set the glass back down. "Can you reach me a bit?"
"Sure." Dar produced a chunk of lobster. "So tomorrow, let's work on wrapping up things here, and get a task list we can throw at ops in Miami. See what we can do for our customers aside from letting them camp at our doorstep."
"Sounds good." Kerry chewed and swallowed. "I can start looking at the capacity we have here. We can find out what we need to do if we need to start mounting SAT rigs on people's roofs."
"With solar panels." Dar suggested. "Maybe we can have the gang down at integration start putting together mobile kits."
Kerry settled back and licked her lips. The pain in her side had subsided to a mild throbbing, and she was perfectly content to lay here nestled in her pillows, enjoying the chance to just sit and talk to her partner.
She hoped the rest of the team was having as quiet an evening as she was.
ALASTAIR SAT DOWN in a leather chair in the empty flour lounge, glad the rest of the team was off resting--he hoped--or enjoying some time off. He glanced over at the door where a secret service agent was standing, his attention fixed on the hallway rather than inside the room.
He thought, perhaps, he should be more nervous than he was, having been called out of his room for this meeting on just a few minutes notice. But he'd discovered he was just too tired, and too over it to be anything more than mildly thirsty.
Fortunately, the lounge was equipped for that. He got up and went to the sidebar holding a self-service beverage station, selecting a tea bag and setting it into a china cup. He poured water over it and let it steep, even when noise behind him indicated he was no longer alone in the lounge
"Hello, Alastair,"a voice sounded behind him.
"Hello, Dick." He added a touch of cream and a cube of sugar,stirred, then took the cup and returned to his seat. "If you're here to yell or threaten me, give it up." He sat down, and regarded the man standing across from him. "I'm not in the mood."
The vice president took his hands from his pockets and sat down. "Won't waste my breath" he responded. "We've known each other too long. When you tell someone to fuck off, it's usually for a reason."
Alastair took a sip of his tea. "So what are you here for then?"
"I want to understand. What the fuck you think you're doing, putting everything you worked half your life for at risk here. This is big,Alastair. There's no going back from this. Either you're with us, or you're not, and those that are not, might as well move to Japan."
Alastair regarded him benignly. "Y'know, funny thing. Tried sushi for the first time just the other day, matter of fact, I liked it. Why don't you tell me something? Why are you letting all these jackasses scrambling around like idiots treat people like me like a hired hand? I've spent the last week being smacked around by your lackeys and threatened with everything from jail time to being taken into a back room somewhere all because we're here doing you a fucking favor."