Storm Surge - Part 2 Read online

  "Soon as I get back there." Dar promised. "Hang in there, love."

  Kerry exhaled. "I'll do my best. But do me a favor huh? Kick thier asses and don't hang around to take names. We should get out of here. "

  "Will do," Dar said. "Talk to you shortly."

  She hung up the phone. "Dar says they're not testing anything."She told the techs.

  "So--the news was a lie?" Kannan asked.

  Kerry shrugged a little. "I don't know. I don't really know what that's all about." She indicated the trailer. "Let's go see what else they say about it."

  "Weird," Shaun said. "But hey, we've got Oreos and milk in there--if you don't mind paper cups."

  "Lead on." Kerry found the thought of the familiarity of Oreos appealing. "Let's see what else they're putting out on the news. Maybe aliens have landed. Who knows?"

  Chapter Eight

  "LOOK, WHAT YOU'RE asking is nuts." The stocky man threw his hands up and let them drop. "Lady, even you know it's nuts. Run a cable up to midtown? In the subway? Where the hell you think we're going to get the cable? Macy's?"

  Dar stared him down. "You're a phone company. You don't have cable? What the hell do you use then, tin cans and strings?"

  "Not that much cable!" The man protested. "You know how much that stuff costs?"

  'Well, sir--" One of the other Verizon reps cleared his throat. "We got that cable. In Jersey."

  The man whirled. "Shut the fuck up. Who asked you?"

  "If you have the cable, why shut him up?" A tall man in a rumpled tie and suit spoke up from the back. "Why the stall? This isn't some fucking game, buddy. "

  The man from Verizon turned back to him. "Who the fuck are you?"

  "Aide to the governor," the man said. "Who maybe wants to know why someone's holding up a critical promise of his."

  The man didn't seem fazed. "Yeah? He can kiss my ass. Him and his let's squeeze the union bullshit," he said. "I'm not putting my guys down those holes for you. I don't give a crap what you promised."

  Ah. Dar revised her opinion for the third time in less than five minutes. At first she'd suspected Kerry was right, and the man was looking for a payoff. Then she'd decided he was probably really looking for an excuse not to have to bust his ass.

  Now she figured he might just be an asshole with a grudge. "Listen." She brought the room's attention back to herself by standing up."Let's can the bullshit. What's at stake here is a lot bigger than any of us. No one wants to be on CNN explaining why they deliberately harmed the nation."

  "Aw, c'mon with the crap already." The Verizon man rolled his eyes.

  "She's right," the governor's aide said. "Matter of fact, I'm going to call the cops in and have your ass arrested. Maybe you're in it with the terrorists. Sure sounds like it to me."

  "Would you shut up," the man said. "You ain't calling no one.And you lady, even if we did have that stuff there's no way we could lay it out in time. It ain't possible."

  The governor's aide opened his phone and dialed. "Hello? Yes. Is this Agent Jackson? Yes, this is Michael Corish from the governor's office. Yes, thanks, I am. Listen, it's come to my attention we could have someone here who might be of interest to you. Can you send a few boys over to the Exchange?"

  Everyone looked at each other, then back at the aide.

  "You will? Great. I'll wait here for them. Thanks." He closed the phone and regarded the man from Verizon. "Hope you like body cavity searches."

  The man's jaw dropped a little. "What are you crazy? I'm not a terrorist!"

  "Doesn't matter," the man said. "You're in the way, and I'm going to remove you." He turned to the man who'd spilled the beans about the cable. "Now. You want to help us out here, or go with your friend?"

  The man swallowed.

  "You're bluffing!" The other man exclaimed.

  "No," the aide replied. "I just called yours. Here we have a room full of people who all have one goal, which is what our government wants." He gestured, taking in the other telco men, and Dar and her group. "They're working hard to do what we need, and your stupid pigheadedness is blocking that. You're worthless. We don't need you."

  "Listen! Who do you think ya are, anyway? My uncle--"

  The door opened and a man in dark, paramilitary looking clothing entered"Mr. Corish?"

  "Here," the aide said. "It's that fellow over there. You might want to question him on his background."

  The agent nodded, and unclipped the strap on his sidearm. "Let's go buddy. Don't make any trouble for me." He advanced around the table, the rest of the crowd parting before him as the man from Verizon backed up against the wall.

  "Hey! Wait--I d--didn't do nothing!"

  The agent grabbed his arm and swung him around, slamming him against the wall as he pulled a set of handcuffs from a case in the small of his back. "Then you've got nothing to worry about, right?" He snapped the cuffs on and got him in a solid grip around one bicep."Thanks, sir. We'll take it from here."

  "Thanks for coming so soon, officer. I, and of course the governor, really appreciate it," Corish said. "Let me get the door for you." He smiled as the man was dragged out, then he slammed the door and looked around at the room. "Where were we?"

  "I'll help," the other Verizon man said quickly. "I know where we've got that cable. But I'll need someone to pull some strings for us to get it on a barge over here."

  "I think I can help you with that," Corish said. "Let's go outside and make a few calls." He glanced around. "The rest of you better be ready to move once we get this accomplished. I don't want any more excuses."

  He left, taking the chastened Verizon man with him, closing the door behind them both.

  "Holy shit." Scuzzy whispered.

  Hamilton crossed his arms, looking as non plussed as Dar had ever seen him. He turned and looked at her and they both simultaneously shook their heads. "Well," Ham said. "Not to put too fine a point on it,but now ah do understand in full that old Southern saying that goes something like--ah do declare!"

  Andrew had been sitting quietly in the corner, and now he snoted audibly"Mah neck of them Southern woods they said "Somebitch!"

  "I can't believe that just happened." Charles pushed his chair back from the table.

  Dar stood up. "Well, it did." She veered toward the practical. "So that means you all need to get your line folks in here and get ready to hook up to one end of that damn cable. We'll go prepare the other end. "

  Charles nodded slowly. "I'll get my guys in here. Roger, do you have a big router we can all use? I don't see much point in running separate links on this end if Dar's just going to combine them on hers."

  The MCI rep opened his cell phone. "Let me see what they got on the truck. I think we do," he said. "Sam, I've got a service trunk going up to the roof, you want to tie your cell temps in there?"

  The Sprint rep nodded. "We can do that. Yeah," he said. "Tell you the truth, folks, I don't much know what's going on with the FBI and all that, but I'm glad we're moving forward with this. Sitting still and listening to people pissing on each other is not my idea of a good time."

  "Mine either." Dar agreed. "Let me go pack up my crowd and get back up to midtown. I've got three sat trucks, anyone need them? I'm reserving a fourth one for our technical office. I need to get them online for some critical back haul."

  "I'll take one," Sam said. "I can use the back channel for the cell sites. I hear they're going to start letting people back down here, at least on the east side, tomorrow or maybe Monday."

  "I'll grab one for our business office," Roger said. "Thanks Dar.Any little bit helps."

  "Then we'll take the third one off your hands," Charles said. "Even though we've got our tie lines up thanks to your generosity, we'd like to bring up a communications center we can work out of down here."

  "Great." Dar said. "Now you can all do me a favor and get your operations groups to take the lid off completing new orders in the rest of the damn country. You're not going to need all those techs here."

&nbs
p; "We can," Charles said. "But it's not so much us, Dar. I talked to my ops VP before when you asked, and it's the local exchange. They won't drop the last mile. I've got a call into my counterpart at Qwest and Bellsouth, trying to see what's going on. "

  "I heard they'll start releasing that on Monday," Roger spoke up."Everyone outside the Verizon area, anyway." So at least that's probably good news."

  "If it's true," Charles said.

  "Come on then." Dar gestured to the door. "Bring whoever you need to take them over. I'd rather get moving before they come with some other request we have to find a way to support." She waited for the men to walk ahead, then joined Alastair and her father as they followed behind.

  "Glad we're going to end up getting somewhere from this,"Alastair said. "But I can't say I'm enjoying the ride."

  "That was pretty scary," Dar admitted. "I'm not sure what the rules are anymore."

  "I ain't sure there are any," Hamilton said. "Listen, Maestro, no one loves your ass kicking attitude any more than little old me, but I'm not sure even this Louisiana lawyer could dig you out of the spook's palace so do me a little old favor and keep a sock in it, will ya please?"

  Dar was silent for a moment, then shook her head. "I'll do my best." She finally muttered. "But this is getting down a dark road I'm not sure we want to be on."

  They emerged into the dust filled, overcast street, and pulled their masks on. "I'm not sure we've got any choice left," Alastair said. "I thought we might get some good press out of it, but after what you told me about them giving that story about the systems being fine, I'm not so sure."

  They walked down the street, passing firemen and other search workers trudging back in the opposite direction. They got only cursory glances, as the exhausted men went back toward the disaster site, some holding small brown bags in their hands.

  One looked up at Dar as he went past, his eyes briefly focusing on the logo patch on her jumpsuit. He lifted the small bag and nodded at her. "Thanks."

  Dar had no idea what he was talking about. She lifted a hand and gave him a wave. "Anytime."

  They moved on. "Alastair, I'd be happy if we get out of this here thing with our skins intact at this point," Hamilton remarked in a serious tone. "We can write it all off as service rendered. The press may not know what we did, but they're going to have to write one mean non-disclosure if it's going to keep us from telling the stockholders."

  "Well, that's true. We do have to book the expense." Alastair said. "Anyway, I'm glad we're moving back up to the office. We can start a triage center for our accounts there. See what we can do for them while your team is getting the rest of this ready, Dar."

  Dar was merely looking forward to a shower and a cold drink, at this point. "Sure." She walked on, clearing her throat a little.

  The streets around them were covered in dust, as were the buildings, and the cars alongside either curb. But there were a few now that weren't so covered, and in two places it looked like emergency service organizations were setting up shop.

  The strangeness was wearing off, she realized. She was getting used to seeing this destruction, just like she was almost used to the rough cotton constriction of her jumpsuit, and the claustrophobic enclosure of the mask she was wearing.

  The late afternoon sun could barely penetrate the cloud of smoked and dust, and as she walked, she had a sense they were moving through some strange otherworldly dreamscape, kicking up puffs of dust as they went along in quiet procession.

  They had won the day. They were getting what they wanted. Despite all that, Dar felt a sense of unease at how the achievement had been made. Was the Verizon crew leader really in trouble? Or would the city keep him out of the way long enough for them to get what they wanted?

  He'd been removed so easily. Dar exhaled, acknowledging that Hamilton's advice had probably been very sound. She had no desire to be in that guy's shoes, despite the fact she felt he was just speaking his mind and heart regardless of what his real motives were.

  What did that say about the situation?

  "Ah. I think someone's looking for you, Dar." Alastair poked her.

  Dar started out of her inner musings and looked up, to find a somewhat short, jump suited figure moving toward them out of the gloom. Even in the coverall and mask, Kerry was immediately recognizable. "I think you're right."

  Dar sped up her steps and eased between the others watching Kerry's path alter as she was, in turn, spotted. She wondered if her partner had some new problem or whether she just--

  Dar was betting on the just. "Hey." She greeted her as they neared. She could see the pale green eyes watching her through the mask, and even through the two layers of plastic, she could also see the smile in them.

  "Hey." Kerry responded. "There you are."

  "Looking for something?" Dar's brows lifted.

  "You."

  "Ah." Dar smiled and gave her a quick hug. "C'mon. We're heading back to the bus." She indicated the crowd around them. "We're leaving the sat rigs. We're going to park one near our tech office, and give one to each of our friends here. Then the bus, and us, are heading back to the office."

  "Did we make any progress?" Kerry willingly turned and kept up with her.

  "Yes. But not the way I'd like to have," Dar admitted. "I almost wish I'd taken your advice and got out the checkbook."

  "Really?" Kerry frowned.

  "Really. Let's get to the bus, and I'll tell you all about it." Dar glanced casually around. "I think it threw all of us for a loop."

  "That doesn't sound good."

  "I'm not sure it is." Dar put her arm around Kerry's shoulders. "In fact, I'm pretty sure it isn't. There's a lot more going on under the hood here than we know."

  "Ugh." Kerry grunted. "Right now all I want under my hood is a cold beer and a shower."

  "I can make that happen." Dar assured her.

  "I bet you can."

  KERRY LEANED BOTH hands against the tile wall and let the shower beat down over her shoulders. The water felt so wonderful she was contemplating falling asleep where she was, but after a minute, she straightened up and reached for the scrubbie sitting in the stainless steel basket.

  She squeezed a blob of apricot scrub on it, and started soaping herself. It felt good to feel the clean tingle, although she'd worn her jumpsuit she'd felt like the dust had formed a film on her skin and she was literally itching to get it off.

  It was good to be back at the office away from all the destruction.Kerry rinsed herself off, then applied a good handful of shampoo to her hair and scrubbed her scalp. Up by the hotel, there were people and cars, and a lot of activity, a far cry from the ghostly wasteland they'd so recently left.

  With the last of the soap circling down the drain, she shut the shower off and stepped out, wrapping herself in the thick towel that was hanging nearby. Even that felt good and she dried herself off, glancing briefly in the half fogged mirror at her reflection.

  Grim. She stuck her tongue out at the disheveled image. Then she got her underwear on and ran a brush through her hair, before she wrapped the towel around her neck and emerged from the bathroom.

  It was quiet. The windows were surprisingly sound proofed, and the room itself had a thick carpet, and a comfortable king size bed--not a specially grand space, but right now it seemed like heaven to Kerry's tired eyes.

  She pulled on a pair of carpenter pants and a polo, but left her feet bare as she went over to the desk and sat down next to it, picking up her water bottle and taking a swig.

  Laying down was an option, but she knew if she did, she'd fall asleep and she wasn't sure she wanted to do that. Dar was down in the basement of their office looking for pipes, and she wanted to wait for her to come back up to the room to see what she'd found down there.

  The team--she'd started to think of all of them as one big team-- would probably want to gather for dinner. She'd heard them talking on the ride back up from Battery Park, and there was something of a group mind going on that she could appreciat
e in the situation.

  She did appreciate it. However, on a personal level, she would have rather spent the time alone with Dar simply decompressing. Her body wasn't that tired, but her mind was, having spent hours and hours chasing problems around in circles.

  "I don't think I'm up to a communicative evening." Kerry remarked to the empty room. "But let's see what happens." She glanced at her laptop, then she extended her legs and crossed them at the ankles, leaving the machine sitting closed on the desktop.

  Her cell phone and PDA rested next to it, both blessedly quiet for the moment.

  That was good. She was tired of telling people what to do, and getting mostly bad news from all quarters. She wanted to be able to chill out, and not feel guilty that she was letting issues lie without her attention.

  There was a point, she had discovered, when you lost the ability to quantify everything you had to do when there was just too much of it.It was like trying to dig a hole in the sand by the ocean--fast as you kept digging, it kept filling.

  She'd found that point today, right before she'd shut her laptop and turned off her mic. No matter how many customers she'd talked to, there were more waiting. No matter how many times she explained the situation, there were people that begged the exception and, to their credit, most of them were not frivolous requests.

  Never enough.

  Kerry took a swallow of her water, then decided she really wanted something stronger. She got up and put the cap on the bottle, then started looking around for some shoes, figuring even a seat in the corner of the bar would probably keep her from falling asleep until Dar finished fiddling.

  Maybe they'd even have some decent jalapeno poppers or something. Kerry found her boots and put them on, then tucked her room key into one of her side pockets and slipped out the door and into the hallway.

  It, too, was quiet. She passed one other person on the way to the elevator, and rode all the way down in solitary splendor to the floor which housed the bar. This area was more crowded, and she spotted a few familiar faces as she made her way into the dark, wood-lined space."Hey guys."