"Hmph."
"We're expecting to start up a support center with at least one hundred people," David spoke up. "And Francois here is handling the logistics and distribution facility near Nantes."
The men looked at Francois, who merely nodded, keeping his fingers pressed against his lip.
"Hah!" Sir Melthon barked again. "What a pack of smart alecks you lot are." He turned to Alastair. "Lunch. Then we'll get down to pen and paper. I've had enough egghead chatter for the morning." He stood up and headed for the door, clearly expecting them to follow.
Dar chuckled and went to her laptop to shut it down. "You know what this business is like sometimes Hans?"
"Pig's tail soup," he answered succinctly. "But he does like you, of that I am sure," he reassured her. "It is mostly an act, yes? That Lord of the British empire loudness."
Dar closed the lid on the machine. "Wait until he sees Alastair's contract terms," she advised him. "That's mostly an act too, that Texas good old boy stuff."
"Ah." Hans got up and joined her as they walked to the door, the last to exit the room. "So it seems with the big shots acting, the truth of the situation then depends on you."
Dar held the door and smiled. "We'll soon find out."
"That we will."
KERRY TOWELED HER hair dry and paused in front of the bathroom mirror, regarding her reflection. She hung the towel around her neck and leaned on the marble countertop, wrestling with that age old question of women everywhere.
What to wear.
Normally, it wasn't much of an issue for her. She had work clothes, and she had casual clothes, and she had scroungy old rags in abundance. Twice as many as Dar, in fact, and she didn't often spend much time deciding which category to put on.
However, Kerry studied the pale, green eyes in the mirror.
"I think I feel like being a grown up tonight," she announced, putting aside the fleeting notion of wearing jeans to her speech. She finished drying herself off and put on her underwear, leaving the bathroom and crossing the carpet to where she'd laid out her choices.
Without hesitation, she lifted up the crisply pressed suit and hooked the hanger on the silent butler, sliding the jacket off and laying it across the seat as she loosened the silk, ice blue shirt and prepared to slip it over her shoulders.
A soft knock at the door made her eye the closed panel with some wariness. "Yes?"
"It's me," Angie's voice answered.
Slipping the shirt on, Kerry started buttoning the sleeves. "C'mon in." She glanced over as her sister entered, shutting the door behind her. "Hey."
"Hey." Angie dropped down onto the bed, leaning on one hand. "That's a nice blouse," she said. "So you're not going to go strapless?"
"No." Kerry smiled, finishing her sleeves and fastening the front closed. "I decided to present my professional side. Aside from not wanting to come off as a jerk, I always feel like I have a responsibility to encourage girls into IT."
"Really?" Angie's brows lifted. "Is it really that much a guy's world?"
Kerry removed her teal skirt from its hanger and stepped into it. "Well--" She tucked her shirt in and buttoned the skirt, then buckled the leather belt. "Yeah, it is," she admitted. "I think Dar is one of the few female CIO's, and our technical group is mostly guys, though we do try to recruit women."
"Try?"
Kerry went to her bag and removed her jewelry case. "Believe it or not, for some reason, women don't seem to gravitate to infrastructure." She took out a pair of favorite earrings and started to put them on. "I've seen great women programmers, project managers, service delivery reps, you name it. But high tech plumbers? Not so common."
Angie got up and came over, peeking at the earrings. "Ker, those are gorgeous," she said. "Can I see the other one?"
Her sister handed it over. She then retrieved her necklace and ring from the dresser and slid them into place. She brushed her hair out, glancing briefly in the mirror as the already drying, shortened strands settled around her face. "Sure is nice not to have to blow dry this stuff all the time."
"You like it short?"
Kerry took back the proffered earring and inserted it. "Yeah." She studied her reflection, and smiled. "I think it looks more sophisticated. Dar likes it. I keep trying to get her to cut her hair short, but she thinks she'll look like a punk."
"Mm." Angie got up and stood next to her. "Her hair's wavy, though. Your hair is straight. It might look weird unless it was really short," she pointed out. "I'm sure she doesn't want to look like a guy."
Kerry's eyebrow arched. She turned and looked at Angie. "Shaved bald she wouldn't look like a guy," she said, bluntly.
Her sister gave her a wry look.
Kerry made a face. "Sorry," she apologized. "I think I'm getting sensitive in my old age." She brushed her hair out again, feeling a little embarrassed. "Smack me."
"No way," Angie said immediately. "Are you kidding? I'm not hitting She-Ra. Not in this lifetime." She bumped Kerry with her shoulder. "Mind if I come along to the dinner? I know I wasn't in that class, but I'd love to hear you speak."
"I don't mind at all." Kerry was relieved. "I'd love the company." She finished her mild primping and reached for the jacket to her suit. "Thanks."
Angie followed her as she pulled the jacket on and tugged the lapels straight with an automatic gesture, reaching back to clear the short hairs in the back of her neck from the collar. "Is Mike meeting us after for dinner?"
"Actually--"
Kerry sensed a plot at hand. "Let me guess. He wants to come too."
"Well--" Her sister lifted both hands, as she watched Kerry slip into her mid heel shoes. "Why not? We know we don't have much time with you, Ker. Besides, if they start giving you a hard time, we'll gang up on them."
Kerry entertained herself with a mental vision of her siblings batting her old classmates around. She grinned. "Yeah sure, why not?" she said. "Let's go and get this over with." She clipped her Palm in its case to her belt and picked up the keys to the pickup. "Wanna drive?"
Angie chuckled, and then cleared her throat as they headed for the stairs. "Maybe."
KERRY FOLDED HER hands over her stomach and watched as the once familiar landscape whipped by, only half listening to her brother's chatter from the jump seat behind her. In her mind, she ran over what she might say at the dinner, reviewing a few different approaches depending on the reception she was given.
It would be the easiest if everything was at face value. She could talk about what was needed to enter the business world, and ramble on about the state of the technical industry for any length of time without any danger of either scandalizing anyone or being completely understood.
She scratched her nose, wrinkling the bridge of it a little as she acknowledged how stuffy and jaded that sounded even in the privacy of her own mind. It was true, though, that the world she worked in was full of over arching concepts and buzzwords that tried to describe in layman's terms what its functions were. Most of the time it ended up sounding like dystopian poetry.
"So Ker." Mike got her attention back. "You think this is a publicity stunt or something?"
On the other hand, Kerry smiled grimly, her brother had probably spoken aloud what her own primary suspicion was, that her school, always in search of funding, had used the opportunity of its class reunion to gain some press in an otherwise slow year.
What was that about any publicity being good publicity?
"Maybe," Kerry said. "I don't see what it really gets them though, except mention in the paper when the paper covers me." She glanced at her sister. "Did you say the paper was going to be there?"
"Of course," Angie said. She slowed, and then turned onto a busier road. "I'm surprised they didn't call the house looking for you, "she added. "A half dozen other people did."