“You think that's what this is?”
“I have no idea, hon.” Dar selected another burger. “I don't know if there is anything for it to be, but if it'll make you feel better to talk to someone, hell, do it.”
Kerry chewed thoughtfully for a few minutes. She watched Dar's body language, the relaxed and easy motion matching the casual speech. Things usually didn't chew at Dar, she knew. Her partner tended to dismiss things that were in the past, the one exception to that had been her relationships but even now that seemed to have faded, and left her living pretty much in the moment most of the time.
There was value in that. Kerry wished her mind worked the same way. “Meh. I'll talk to him next week.” She concluded. “So – this government offer.”
“Mm?”
“Why you?” Kerry asked. “I mean, don't get me wrong, sweetheart, you know I think you're the greatest gift to IT the world has ever seen.”
Dar started laughing.
“But why would this guy want you to come work for him? I love you, but you'd be a political nightmare and we both know that.” Kerry wiped her lips. “I don't really get it.”
Dar sat back and took a sip of her coffee, clearing her throat a little. “Those are pretty good.” She indicated the plate. “I think this guy is someone who mostly cares about results. I'm sure he knows my background and my rep, and he's made the decision that he's willing to deal with that to get what he wants.”
“Hm.”
“Victim of my own success.” Dar reiterated her earlier statement. “He asked for the impossible, and I made it possible. I can see why he wants someone like me to make this impossible dream of his reality.”
“Is it impossible?”
Dar motioned the waitress over. “It's impossible for me.” She handed the woman her credit card. “It's not right. I won't do it. I'm sure they'll find someone who will.”
Kerry rested her hands on the table. “Dar?”
“Mm?”
“I actually suggested that to them.”
“What?” Dar's head cocked slightly. “That they find someone else?”
“That they go to the Tier 1 providers and put their sniffer in there to find bad guys.” Kerry answered, quietly. “I didn't even think about it from a personal angle. I just wanted them out of our datacenter.”
Dar blinked a few times, much as she had in the White House office. “That when they wanted in to Herndon?” She asked. “When I locked everything down?”
Kerry nodded.
The waitress came back and handed the check to Dar, with a pen and a slip. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” Dar signed it and took back her card. She folded the receipt up and stuck it in her pocket, then leaned her elbows on the table. “Given where we were right then, you told them the right thing.” She said. “It's the same thing we told the yahoos in that guy's office the last time. Follow the money.” She held up her card, then put it back in her wallet. “Besides I'm sure that idea occurred to more than one person.”
“True.” Kerry slid out of the booth and followed her towards the door. “But Dar, that's what we told them to do, wasn't it? To find those people, they would have to do that.”
Dar exhaled. “Mm.” She opened the door back out into the cold windy weather. “In an abstract sense yeah.” She admitted. “So I guess I'm sounding pretty hypocritical, but all the same, I'm not doing it.” She insisted. “Besides, by the time you designed a metric and parser, the real bad guys would find out how to hide from it, and it ends up becoming a way to embarrass political rivals.”
Kerry sighed. “That's probably very true.”
“Probably?” Dar opened her door for her, and watched her slide inside. “Think your father would have used it to get dirt on people?”
“Huh.”
Dar closed the door and walked around to the driver's side, pausing to glance around the parking lot before she opened the door and got in. Just a scattering of cars were around them, but one had a guy behind the wheel, reading a newspaper and she spent a moment indulging in a moment of spy fantasy.
Then she shut the door and started the car, wanting nothing more than to get past the Pentagon and go home. “Today is kinda sucking.”
Kerry reached across the center console and put her hand on Dar's thigh, rubbing gently with her thumb against the cotton fabric covering it. “Yeah.” She agreed. “Let's hope it turns around.”
Dar paused as they reached the exit, and waited for traffic to slow before she pulled out. She glanced in her rear view mirror out of long habit, and felt a faint shock as she saw the guy with the paper behind her, waiting to turn as well.
Coincidence? “Yeah, let's hope so.” She replied, turning right out of the lot and proceeding along the street, keeping an eye on her mirror until she saw the guy pull out also, but to the left, heading away from them. She exhaled “Let's hope so.”
Gerald Easton's office was quiet, and there were comfortable leather chairs to sit in near an open space off to one side of his desk. Kerry took a seat as the general arranged for some coffee, leaning back and crossing her legs at the ankles. Off in the distance she could hear the sounds of construction, or more to the point, reconstruction as the area damaged by the attack was rebuilt.
“Now then, Dar.” Easton crossed over to them and took a seat. “What's this all about you leaving?”
Dar cleared her throat gently. “We're resigning.” She said. “Kerry and I. We gave ILS six months notice.” She exchanged looks with her partner. “We're going to form our own company.”
“Hm.” The general looked thoughtful. “Well now, that's a bit of good news.”
About to continue speaking, Dar halted, and looked at him in mild puzzlement.
“It is?” Kerry asked, equally surprised.
The generals admin came in with a tray, bringing it over and putting it down. She poured out cups for them and handed them over, then smiled, and withdrew.
Easton took a sip of his and wriggled his nose a little. “Sounds funny, a bit.” He admitted. “Fact is, there's been a bother about your whole lot there, being in so many areas, y'know?”
“No, I don't know.” Dar said.
“You mean, because we're international?” Kerry interpreted. “Is that it?”
Easton nodded. “Too big an exposure, people say.” He said. “Some of the spooks were talking to us about it the other day. Said it was dangerous, having all those technical things in the hands of people who talked to so many non Americans.”
Dar reached up and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “You're kidding me, right? Most of the Fortune 500 are international.”
“Sure.” Easton agreed. “But they don't handle all our private stuff, don'tcha know?” He reached over and patted her knee. “That's what I wanted to talk to you about, in person. We want to do that project, but I'm getting a lot of push back on using all those fellers of yours who aren't from around here.”
“Wow.” Kerry remarked. “General, most of the staff that handle our government accounts are from the US. Only a few of the follow the sun monitoring services aren't, so we can give 24 hour support.”
Easton shrugged. “Got those spook fellers who think differently. Told the President we should change it. So here you are, and I'm thinking I'm going to have bad news for you, and then you tell me this. Wonderful. So we'll just hire you to do it. Problem solved.” He looked extremely pleased. “Nicely done!”
Dar set her coffee down. “Gerry, we can't do that.” She said. “I'll be under a non compete clause, and it'll take us at least a year to get our company set up and going to where we'll be able to take on something as major as this is.” She said. “Especially since we'll in effect be taking this business away from ILS.”