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laughed. “I’m not joking.”
    Stuart got up and started pacing. “Oh, but you are; you just don’t know you are. The source I got this from not only can’t be bought off, I wouldn’t even try it.” He turned and pointed. “What I want to know is, how is it that someone,” he stared pointedly at Bradley, “was so god damned stupid as to put incriminating information in something so accessible? Tell me that, Bradley?”
    “Sir—”
    “Tell me why details about deals neither of us officially knows anything about are sitting in a military database in the sticks!”
    “Sir.” Bradley held up a hand. “Let me get Stevens and Perlamen in here; maybe they can make sense of it.” He went to the door and called out, “Gentlemen, we need you.”
    The two men entered, faced with the angry senator on the other side of the room. “Sir?”
    “They can’t explain it. You can’t explain it.” Roger’s voice rose. “No one can explain it, because I’m surrounded by idiots!
    The irony of it all is that the goddamned bitch who gave me this crap makes you all look like mental midgets .”
    “Sir, take it easy, please,” Bradley begged. “I’m sure there’s an explanation. Someone must have—”
    “Idiots!” Stuart bellowed. “‘It’s a simple deal, Senator.’ Isn’t that what you told me? Just some surplus military garbage being traded, nothing important. You stupid son of a bitch, did you see what’s in that data? Idiot! Idiots! All of you!”
    “Sir!” Perlamen said. “We can incriminate—”
    “We’re all incriminated, you jackass!” Stuart yelled at the top of his lungs. “This is not in the hands of any friends of ours. For God’s sake…For God’s sake…” He clutched his head. “Ah!”
    “Sir?” The men rushed forward. “ Sir !”

Chapter
Three
    “UGH.” KERRY SLID down into the hot tub and cradled her neck on its edge. “Thank God that’s over.”
    Dar had her eyes closed. “Yeah.” She squirmed around, taking advantage of the heavy jets of water. “Thank God it turned out to be a firmware glitch, not a stolen file. Even if it took us most of the night to figure it out.”
    “Mm.” Kerry turned her head, captured her straw, and sucked in a mouthful of peach iced tea. “It’s not quite ten. We’ve stayed later.”
    Dar tangled her legs with Kerry’s and exhaled. “Uh huh. Glad we didn’t have to. I’m tanked.”
    “Fish tanked?” Kerry snickered, splashing her a little.
    “Wench. Get your snorkel ready.” The cordless phone rang, and, after giving it an evil look, Dar picked it up and answered it.
    “Hello?”
    There was silence, then a gasp. “Um…um…can I talk to Kerry?”
    Dar’s brow creased. “Sure.” With widening eyes and a shrug, she handed the phone to Kerry. The voice had sounded very young.
    Kerry took it and put it to her damp ear. “Hello?” Dar sidled over and pressed her head against Kerry’s to listen.
    “Oh, Kerry, hi.” There was a sharp intake of breath. “I’m really sorry to like, bother you this late and all that, but—”
    “Lena?” Kerry’s mental recognition kicked in. “Is that you?”
    There was silence for a breath. “Yeah.”
    “Hey, folks have been looking for you,” Kerry said. “Where are you?”
    Lena hesitated. “Um…not in a good place.”
    Dar nestled closer and listened.
    “What’s ‘not a good place’? Are you in the hospital?”
    “No,” Lena muttered. “I’m in jail.”
    Dar’s eyes widened in surprise. She and Kerry exchanged Thicker Than Water 25
    startled looks.
    “In jail? What are you doing there?” Kerry sputtered. “What did you…?” She half turned and pushed the wet hair out of her eyes. “Are you okay?”
    “Yeah.” Lena sounded tired. “It’s just really stupid, you know? My folks clued into like, me being gay, and they grounded me.”
    “Grounded you?” Kerry’s voice dropped in pitch. “Did they think that would fix it?”
    “Fuck if I know,” Lena replied