Hurricane Watch - DK2 Read Free

you? How could I forget?” His expression shifted. “She know you’re gay?”
    Dar merely stared back at him. “Your minute’s up.”
    ”Ah now, Dar.” He stood up, that obnoxious smile sliding onto his face. ”You’ve got everyone here so blinded by that kiss my ass attitude, but I know better.” He pointed a finger at her. ”I know you, and that’s Hurricane Watch
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    how I'm going to beat you.”
    Dar looked at him coolly. ”Steven, I’m not the person you knew back then. Be careful you don’t promise things you can’t deliver.”
    “Aren’t you?” Fabricini asked. “I guess we’ll find out. I know I’m a lot smarter than I was back then,” he said. “Smart enough to know a status quo that needs rupturing when I see it.” He turned and sauntered out, waggling his fingers at her as he left the office. “Do yourself a favor, and just stay out of my way.”
    Dar sighed, and sat down in her chair. “I swear I should go run a taco stand on South Beach.” She propped her head up on her fist.
    “Worst thing I’d have to worry about there is drunken rollerbladers.”
    Her phone buzzed. “Dar?” Maria’s voice echoed softly. “Are you ready for the conference call?”
    “Yeah,” Dar said. “It’ll go through lunch. Mind bringing me back something?” She looked over at the fish, studying their twitching motions. “Too bad they don’t have sushi.”
    “Como?”
    “Never mind. Put ‘em through.”
    THE MEETING ROOM was small, only an oval table, with six chairs around it, and a whiteboard against the beige corded wall covering. Currently four people were seated around the table, three of them staring across the table at the fourth.
    ”I’m sorry. I’m not sure I understand the question,” Kerry stated, turning her pencil in her hands, and peering patiently across the table. José, Eleanor and Steven rounded out the participants, and Kerry had the very uncomfortable sensation of being a rabbit in a cage with three hungry snakes.
    Fortunately, she sighed, rabbits did have claws, and teeth, and could use them when needed. ”What does half a dozen prospective leads that haven’t even gone to bid status have to do with projections from last year?”
    Steven Fabricini had been very obviously miffed that Dar had sent her, Kerry realized, but she also understood why her boss had done so.
    She had the answers to their questions, and it prevented the meeting from appearing to be a forum where Dar would be pushed into the defensive, attacked by the three sales and marketers.
    Now Steven stood, walking to the whiteboard. ”Well, as I see it, if we can show that kind of potential, then facilities has the obligation to add bandwidth so we have the ability to close the deals.” He held his hands out. ”What is there to understand?”
    Kerry cocked her head. ”That’s like saying you’re going to buy six hamburgers at McDonalds because you might be hungry,” she stated.
    ”Upping bandwidth on the network is done via a formula based on your department’s past performance. If you want that changed, you need to 8
    Melissa Good
    close more contracts, because we are not going to acquire hard circuits on the possibility of leads.”
    She consulted the information Dar had printed out for her.
    ”According to the last five years projections, infrastructure is increasing the acquisition of circuits based on a new account rate of ten percent.”
    She looked up. ”Are you saying we’re going to close more new accounts than that?”
    ”We have no idea!” José threw his hands up. ”But we can’t sell the accounts if we don’t have the bandwidth to handle their demands immediately.”
    ”Don’t you see, Kerry?” Eleanor added smoothly, smiling at her.
    ”We have to have a bargaining chip.”
    ”Ah,” Kerry stated, folding her hands over the papers. ”Okay, so what happens if we don’t add that many accounts and we end up with a negative balance we have to compensate for?”
    ”See?