Chino decided Dar's ear would be tasty, and she licked it, making her owner emit a muffled chuckle.
Her mail chimed, and Dar spared an eye for it, clicking over to her inbox and reviewing the newly arrived message. It was from Mariana, and she opened it curiously.
Dar -- Heard you were playing hooky today. What's up? Mari.
Well, now wasn't that refreshingly straightforward. Dar hit reply and typed a response.
Why? Everyone freaking out? If you want to know thetruth, I got bitten by a barracuda last night and didn't feellike lying about it all day long to everyone who saw me.
D
"What do you think, Chino? Everyone freaking?" Dar gave the dog a kiss on the top of her head.
"Freaking about what?" Kerry responded, entering Dar's office and putting a cup of gently steaming, milky tea down on the desk. She had a pair of shorts and a sports bra on, along with a mostly relaxed expression.
"The budgets? I told you that you scared them all last week." "Nah, us." Dar picked up the cup and sipped it. "Thanks. How's the ship coming?" Kerry perched on the edge of Dar's custom built, cherry wood desk
-- twin to the one in her own office next door. "Not good." She admitted. "I just talked to John, and he's having a very tough time, Dar. He's only about half done."
Dar grimaced.
Kerry hesitated. "Any suggestions?" She asked. "I've spoken to the people on the ship, and there's not much they can do, they tell me. Everyone's fighting for space and time there. We're all under the gun." She played with one of Chino's silky ears. "Apparently all the ships are. Someone lit a fire under them on Friday, and the schedules have all been pushed up."
"Yeah?" Dar frowned. "You know, we didn't hear from Dad last night. I wonder if he saw any of that."
"I wonder what happened with him that the reporter knew about him." Kerry added, both eyebrows hiking up. "I wonder why he didn't call."
Dar reached over and picked up the cabin phone, hitting one of the speed dial buttons. It rang several times, but there was no answer and it switched over to voice mail. "Huh." She waited for the beep. "Hi Dad. Gimme a call when you get a chance. Thanks."
"Try mom?"
"Ehm." Dar dialed another number, the slip phone at her parent's boat. It rang several times too, and again, went to a polite, mechanical voice mail. "What the heck's going on up there?" She frowned, waiting again. "Hey mom, it's Dar." She paused. "Boy that was redundant. Anyway, give us a call when you get back. Thanks."
She put the phone back down and looked at Chino, who had decided her half standing, half lolling position on Dar's shoulder was the pinnacle of comfort. "Anyway, so they're behind? Can he put more guys on the job?"
"Honestly, Dar, I don't think it'd help." Kerry said. "It's space they don't have. He's trying to put our cabling in the same place the electricians are running new wiring, and the air conditioning people are putting in new ducting."
"Huh. Yeah. I remember doing a favor for one of my dad's skippers." Dar said. "Wanted cable run from the bridge to his cabin so he could monitor everything from there. Damn guy had me doing it the same time they were replacing the comms. What a mess."
Kerry repressed a smile. "My little cable monkey." She glanced at Dar's screen. "What's all that about?"
"Ah." Dar put her keyboard down and shifted, lifting one leg off the desk and sliding it around Kerry to trap her. "Some jackass hacker not worth five cents." She scoffed. "Idiot's just beating his head against our outer firewall."
Kerry looked at the monitor window. "Why?"
"No clue." Dar laced her fingers behind her head and leaned back. "Just to annoy me, probably."
"Or distract you." Kerry murmured. "It's almost like whatever that is, is just trying to draw attention to itself."
Dar sat up and looked at the screen, and then she looked at Kerry. "A diversion?"
"Do I need to get out of your way?" Kerry hazarded. "But yeah, it seems like that to me. Someone hammering on the front door screaming obscenities at you."
Shit. Dar's mind raced. She's right.
Kerry gently slipped from between Dar's long legs, and removed Chino from her perch. "Well, let me..."
Dar reached out and put a hand on her wrist. "Tell John to reverse his usual route. Have him pull the cable from the jack end. That'll clear the closets, and when he's done there and ready to do the core installs, the other guys'll be out of his way."
Kerry opened her mouth, then shut it again. A rueful grin appeared. "Should we switch projects?" She pondered. "Maybe some fresh eyes do help."
"Maybe." Dar had to agree. "G'wan. Maybe we can alternate. I'm going to go chase down your idea--though why the hell it didn't occur to me before I can't begin to figure out."
"Ditto." Kerry turned to leave. "How's the foot?"
"Hurts." Dar grunted, as she pulled her keyboard back onto her lap. "Maybe I'll go spear fishing later and get that little bastard."
Kerry paused briefly in the doorway to watch her partner, then she ducked through and swung around into her own office where a cup of tea already awaited her. She sat down behind her desk and picked up her cell phone, glancing at her screen as she keyed in John's number.
More mail. She clicked on it as she waited for her contractor to answer, running her eyes over the new arrivals.
"Hello?"
"Hi, John." Kerry scanned a note from the marketing department. "Listen, Dar had a good idea."
"We could use one." The wiring man grunted.
Kerry told him the plan. "Anyway, it can't hurt, and it'll get you out of the middle of that mess for a while. What do you think?" She clicked on her next mail.
Hey Ker -- Listen; remember when all those weird rumors were going around about you and Dar? I thought it was just randomchatter, but I had a potty encounter today and I'm not sure!
"Yeah, it's worth a try." John said. "All right, I'll pull my guys out. At least they got some new foreman on the loading dock, and I'm finally getting all my stuff. "
"Yeah?" Kerry was completely distracted by Colleen's mail.
"Yeah, here's a coincidence--his name's Roberts, just like Dar's." John chuckled. "Maybe it's in the name. Anyway, I'll give you a call back later."
"Okay."
I was in the necessary doing the necessary when I heardsomeone come in. She did a stall check, but I was I in theend one and she missed me. Then she made a call to someone and I heard her talking about trying to mess the company up!
This girlie said she'd started telling everyone you twohad a big fight this weekend out here, and she was going todo worse! Well, let me tell you I came out of that necessarylike the Queen Mary!
"Oh, my god." Kerry murmured.
She ran out--I tried to follow after her, but I got caughtup at the door by two of those bloody secretaries trying toget out their bra straps while talking about some television program. I didn't recognize her, but it was right outside Marketing.
So--watch your back, my friend! I'll try to find the little bugger again.
C
Kerry forwarded the mail to Dar, then after a moment, hit reply.
Col --
We stayed down here to concentrate on our projects andnot be distracted by jerks! Dar got bit by a fish and neitherof us felt like driving back yesterday. Maybe we'll stay downhere for a week. I got more done already this morning than Idid the last half of last week.
Can you get a description of this person? We had a security breach...
Kerry paused, and backspaced.
We had a problem this weekend and we narrowed it down to Marketing, but they were all in, so we couldn?t pin it down.Maybe it was the same person. Let me know.