Red Sky At Morning - DK4 Read Online Free PDF Page A

was a standing ovation.
    Jesus. Now what?
    Finally, they shut up and she was able to collect herself, waiting for everyone to sit down before she opened her mouth. Then she shut it again, because she had no idea what to say to the huge, faceless mob, whose attention was now focused on her with fierce intentness.
    Well, she had to say something before they all fell asleep, didn’t she?
    “The agenda requires me to spend some time at this point outlining the basic plan and infrastructure of why we implemented a new network,”
    Dar finally said. “But I’d bet you’d rather just see it, right?”
    There was a moment’s silence, beating against her face, then a laugh. Ah. That was good. “Right.” Dar clicked on the overhead and behind her, a slim gray screen exploded into life. “This is the deal...”
    “OOH, I THOUGHT she was going to choke there.” Kerry had her chin on her fists and her eyes glued to the IDLN broadcast of her lover 16 Melissa Good explaining in terse detail the advantages of their new net.
    “Mm...” Duks was sitting on her desk, and Mark was leaning next to her. “Public speaking is not an easy thing for Dar, I do not think.”
    “Nice suit,” Mark commented. “Crowd likes her.”
    Kerry watched Dar’s body language, which to her seemed almost painfully stiff. After a few minutes, though, her lover relaxed a little.
    “That’s better, she’s loosening up some.”
    “Yeah,” the MIS chief agreed. “Boy, she looks nervous. Never thought I’d see that.”
    “C’mon, honey,” Kerry whispered to the screen, crossing her fingers and willing Dar to calm down. For a brief instant, the blue eyes lifted from the crowd and glanced right at the IDLN transmit camera, and they were eye to eye; then Dar went back to her information, scrolling expertly through a series of benchmarks and displaying a test of the new network’s capabilities. “Atta girl.” She noticed the rose pinned to her boss’s jacket and smiled.
    “What’s she doing now...oh.” Mark leaned forward. “Showing off that new hub. Yeah, lookit that.” They watched Dar shift traffic effortlessly from one port to the other, providing seamless fallback for the accounts on that particular system. “Cool.”
    Dar finished her displays, then turned and laid her hands on the podium, much more at ease now. “Any questions?” The rich, powerful voice rolled out over the crowd. A moment’s silence, then a forest of hands went up. Dar seemed to find this funny, the corners of her mouth twitching as she leaned on the wooden surface. “All right. You first.”
    She pointed, and the questions began.
    “She likes that better.” Kerry nodded. “Questions she can deal with. She has to do that every day.” And certainly, her lover was handling them, becoming more confident as Kerry watched, moving out away from the protection of the podium, illustrating her answers with quick, precise motions of her hands. Kerry sighed. “God, she’s gorgeous.” She became aware of an awkward silence and glanced up to see Mark and Duks making strange faces at her. “Sorry, but she is.”
    “Yeah, I know, but...” Mark scratched his jaw. “It’s just so weird hearing that...um...”
    “From another woman?” Kerry asked wryly.
    “Yeah.”
    “Sorry.”
    “It’s okay.” Mark shrugged and laughed. “I needed some horizon broadening today.”
    They turned back to the screen and watched as Dar took another step forward, her personality visibly emerging as she fielded tough questions, displaying an impressive knowledge of their industry.
    “Yeah, you go.” Kerry smiled as the crowd applauded. “Rock ’em.”

    Red Sky At Morning 17
    “UGH.” DAR FLOPPED down onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, flexing toes newly freed from their leather entrapment. “Well, that wasn’t so bad, I guess.” Her cell phone rang and she lifted it, stretching as she put it to her ear. “Yes?”
    “You rock.”
    “Oh, I do, do I?” Dar