"Mm." Dar examined the discrete data port. "Internet access*93 but no phones. Incredible."

Kerry went to the locked, distressed leather briefcase Dar had put down on the chair. "I guess we've gotta bite the bullet, huh?"

They'd agreed not to unlock the case, which held their cell phones and pagers, unless a full-blown crisis was at hand.

"Yeap." Dar tossed her the keys to the briefcase. "Probably better off using ours anyway." She watched Kerry unlock the catch and open the case, stick her hand inside, and withdraw one of their two phones. "I know there's phones outside in the lobby, but..."

"Yeah." Kerry tossed the phone to Dar, then she wandered back over to the windows, discovering a patio outside. "Hey." She opened the door and went out onto the stone edifice, alternately splashed with sunlight and the shade from nearby banana trees. It was quiet and peaceful, and the view of the water was quite spectacular. "Breakfast out here tomorrow, I think," Kerry mused, as a breeze off the water puffed her hair back out of her eyes.

With a satisfied grunt, she turned and went back inside their pleasant room, where she found Dar sprawled across the king size canopy bed with the phone to her ear. The sight was so attractive, Kerry decided to join her, and she crawled over to where Dar was lying, flipped over onto her back, and settled there as she watched the fan circle lazily overhead.

"That's right, Mark. Just run it for me." Dar inched her hand over and tugged a bit of Kerry's hair. "I don't have the registration number."

Mark's voice trickled from the cell phone's speaker. "Right, boss. How's the vacation going?"

"Aside from nearly being heaved to by pirates, and Kerry saving a drowning man in a storm, it's been pretty peaceful," Dar replied blandly. "How's it been there?"

A long silence ensued. "Did you actually f.u.c.king say pirates?"

Mark asked. "Holy s.h.i.t, Dar!"

"You didn't really think we could just have an ordinary vacation, did you?" Dar asked with an amused smirk. "You didn't answer my question."

"Huh?" Mark spluttered. "Oh, here? It's been dead," he told her. "Honest."

Dar waited silently. To pa.s.s the time, she blew gently in Kerry's ear and watched her torso shiver as she held back a laugh.

"Well, just the usual s.h.i.t, you know, boss," Mark finally admitted. "Nothin' you guys need to worry about."

Kerry turned her head at that and her green eyes widened.

"Mark?" She raised her voice. "You just made me really nervous."

"Um..."

Dar covered her eyes. "Mark, just spill it," she sighed.

"Honest, guys, just more of the usual," Mark insisted. "We've 94*

got some international lines down, and one of the northwest data centers crashed. I had to overnight them a bunch of stuff."

Kerry eyed her partner. 'Doesn't sound that bad,' she mouthed.

Dar shrugged. "Did the new DC nodes come in?"

"Yep." Mark sounded relieved. "Hey, listen, I'm glad you called for one thing-we got an early drop date for the new back-up IPC."

Kerry pumped her fist in the air. "Whoohoo."

"Incredible," Dar agreed. "I thought we'd be waiting until February."

"Well, boss-nothing came back on those guys," Mark said.

"Not on the first run. You want me to keep going?"

Dar frowned. "Nothing?"

"Nothing on that name, no-or the two other names you gave me," Mark said. "But that's just a DMV and Marine reg. I'll do a deep run on 'em. You want me to give you a call back?"

"Yeah," Dar said. "We're going to..." She paused. "What are we going to do now, Ker?"

Kerry lifted both hands in the air and produced an engaging grin.

"We're gonna do something probably involving water and/or food," Dar said into the phone. "I'll keep the phone on. Let me know if you find anything, okay?"

"Will do, boss," Mark said. "You guys have a great time, huh?

No more freaking pirates!"

"Do our best," Kerry called out. "Thanks, Mark. Tell everyone we said hi."

Dar disconnected the call and set the phone on the covers. Now that she'd set her query in motion, she felt satisfied to let it take whatever time it did, and in the meanwhile concentrate on resuming her vacation. "Want to just hike out and explore the place for a while?" she asked. "We're in the middle of the national park here."

Kerry nodded. "I like that idea," she said. "It's so pretty.

Reminds me a little of that hammock down by Old Cutler we went to that one time." She sat up. "Okay, on with the hiking boots, then." She patted Dar's leg. "Let's go find us some pretty lizards."

LIZARDS, THEY FOUND in plenty, along with other a.s.sorted wildlife. Dar gingerly examined a vivid, bright green snake curled on a branch, taking care to keep her hands far away from it. "Did you see this?" she asked Kerry, who was busy taking a picture of some gorgeous flowers.

"See what?" Kerry trotted over and peered. "Oh!" She quickly brought up her camera and focused. "Hey, aren't you going to grab*95 its tail and tell me what a beauty it is?"

Dar glanced down. "Does wearing khaki shorts and hiking boots require me to channel Steve Irwin?" she asked.

Kerry snickered. "Yes."

"Tell you what tail I'm gonna grab." Dar waited for her to snap the picture, then acted, grabbing onto Kerry's tail and making her hop forward with a startled squawk. "Isn't she a beauty?" Dar mimicked. "Lookit the bottom on that one!"

"Wench." Kerry reached behind her and tickled Dar's ribs, then continued down the path. They were surrounded by lush greenery, and a rich, organic smell filled her lungs as the wind stirred the branches. The jungle around them thinned ahead and revealed a mossy, stone-covered building. "Look, Dar." Kerry motioned toward it. "Is that one of the sugar mills?"

"Must be." Dar led the way toward the structure. It was just a pile of old stone now, a mixture of coral foundation and crudely made brick. They climbed onto it and looked around. Dar imagined she could still smell the tang of raw sugar cane, something she'd last tasted as a young child. "You ever chew sugar cane?" she asked Kerry.

"Me?" Kerry was kneeling next to a piece of machinery long overgrown with ivy. "You're kidding, right?" She looked over her shoulder at Dar. "One, I don't think it grows in Michigan, and two, my mother would have cut the hands off anyone giving it to me."

She paused. "Have you?"

"Sure." Dar grinned. "The best is to get a nice piece, chew it a little, then dunk it in your lemonade."

Kerry's gaze went inward for a moment as she worked out the potential tastes; then she wiggled her eyebrows and licked her lips.

"Mm." She got up and snapped a picture of the bit of machinery.

"That does sound really good."

Dar wandered over to a row of old wooden basins nailed onto the walls with rusted iron spikes. The mill had made sugar for sale, and for the rum and mola.s.ses that had been the impetus for the island's colonization. Slaves had worked there under increasingly brutal conditions until they'd eventually risen up and conquered their masters, driving the plantation owners out and leaving the island to peacefully stagnate until modern times and modern tourism.

"Must have been brutal working here," Dar mused, touching grooves worn in the wooden sinks from countless wrists resting on them as they washed the cane.

"Mm," Kerry agreed, imagining the sweltering summer heat.

"Maybe we should bring the staff over here when they start complaining about the vending machine selection."

Dar chuckled. "Just take lots of pictures," she advised. "Wow, 96*

did you see that?"

Kerry examined the huge wheels curiously. "What is it?"

"Grinding stone," Dar explained. "They put the cane between that and ground it up to get out the sugar syrup."

Kerry leaned over and sniffed the stone. "Just smells like mildew now," she said. "It's hard to believe that a place like this, as full of misery as it must have been, produced something so many people regard as a treat."

"Yeah," Dar agreed. "Speaking of which, want to stop and have our sandwiches?"

After Dar spent a moment making sure they weren't about to sit on any snakes or scorpions, they picked a spot on the edge of the coral foundation. Kerry opened the pack Dar had been carrying and removed a Thermos bottle and two neatly wrapped packages.

She set down the Thermos and unwrapped the sandwiches, crusty French bread wrapped around spicy shrimp salad.

"Wow." Kerry handed Dar hers. "This looks great. All this hiking has made me hungry."

"Mmph." Dar had already taken a bite. She uncapped the Thermos and poured out a capful of its contents, took a sip, and pa.s.sed it over to Kerry. "Coconut and pa.s.sion fruit. Interesting."

Kerry washed down her mouthful and took another. "Very."

She kicked her heels against the foundation and looked around, enjoying the food, the view, and the utter freedom of being in an unknown place with the person she loved best in the world.

"They've got horseback trails," Dar commented hopefully.

"Interested?"

Kerry glanced at her knowingly. "Make a deal with you," she bargained adroitly. "Horseback riding one day, windsailing the next?" She didn't quite have the enthusiasm for horses that Dar did, but then Dar didn't quite share her love of wild water sports.

However, compromise was good. It was a learning process, like everything else, and slowly they'd worked out a way to balance their differences. Mostly, Kerry acknowledged wryly. There were still some things they were working on. "Deal?"

"Okay." Dar wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. She leaned back against the ruined wall and relaxed while Kerry finished up her lunch, the blonde woman resting an elbow on Dar's knee. "A lot of people come out here and camp in the park."

Kerry watched an ant the size of a Jeep walk by. "Good for them," she said. "I admire their courage and fort.i.tude."

Dar watched the ant, almost jumping when the tiny animal was suddenly attacked by an almost invisible lizard, whose tongue whipped out and tethered the ant before the insect could even twitch an antenna. The lizard sucked the ant in and casually chewed it, rotating an eye to peer up at Dar with benign disinterest.*97 "Ah." Kerry blinked. "Mother Nature in all her gory glory."

She held a hand out toward the lizard, and it reciprocated by opening its jaws wide, displaying bits of dismembered ant as well as a double ridge of tiny razor teeth. "Yikes," she exclaimed.

"Makes you feel really insignificant, doesn't it?"

Dar reached over lazily and, with a quick motion, captured the lizard. It struggled wildly as she brought it back over to her face.

"Listen, buddy," she growled at it, "don't threaten my girl or I'll make lizard burgers out of you, got me?"

Kerry had to laugh at the bug-eyed look on the lizard's face.

"I don't care how many rhino-sized ants you suck up, you don't scare me," Dar warned, as the lizard stuck its tongue out at her. "So, beat it." She opened her hand and released the animal. It leaped off her hand and onto her shirt, then scampered up over her shoulder and onto the nearest bit of wall.

Kerry leaned against Dar's knee and gazed adoringly at her.

Dar smirked and managed a self-deprecating chuckle.

"Hey, Dar?"

"Yeah?" Dar let her head rest against the wall.

"Anyone ever tell you you're a lot of fun?"

Dar considered. "No, no one's ever said that," she replied matter-of-factly. "I have been told I'm like being in a phone booth with a dozen porcupines in heat, though."

Kerry kissed Dar's knee, then laid her cheek against it. "My question to whoever said that would be, of course, 'how do you know?'"

"It was Eleanor."

"Ah. That explains a lot." Kerry grinned and gave Dar's leg a squeeze. "Well, you are a lot of fun, and I'm so totally enjoying this vacation."

Dar grinned back at her wholeheartedly. "Me, too," she agreed.

"Even with the pirates." She leaned over and kissed Kerry gently.

"I'm glad you're having as much fun as I am."

They rested a few minutes longer in the old cane mill, then resumed their hike. Dar shouldered the pack and cinched down the straps, and they started off up a path that was now getting noticeably steeper. "Hey," Dar observed, "it's a hill."

"Sure you can handle it, Dixiecup?" Kerry teased.

"Wanna find out?" Dar grinned. "Let's race." She broke into a jog.

"Pooters." Kerry sighed. "Someday I'll learn." She shook her head and chased after Dar, hoping it wouldn't be a really, really big hill.

98*

"URGH." KERRY STEPPED under the pounding shower and scrubbed her body with a piece of natural sponge. She'd finished up their hike sweaty, covered in dirt, and with leaves stuffed down her shirt, courtesy of her lover, and the water felt heavenly as it washed away the grime. Kerry washed a smear of green off her shoulder and thought of how it had gotten there. They'd had so much fun.

After she'd chased Dar up the hill, they'd rolled down the other side, across a short swath of rich green undergrowth, and into a muddy embankment over a small creek. With a thumbful of mud, she'd painted tiger stripes across Dar's cheekbones, and they'd ended up going headfirst into the creek as they wrestled playfully.