Storm Surge

Chapter Fifteen

THE SMALL COCKPIT was getting very crowded. Dar stood just outside the door, her hands braced on the frame as she listened to Alastair arguing somewhat forcefully on the radio.

The steward had edged back out of the way and was busy in the galley, seemingly glad not to be involved in what was going on.

Dar didn't blame him. In front of her, Alastair was perched on a small jump seat behind the seats that the pilots were in, crammed in next to the slim, dark haired navigator.

Everyone was nervous. She could see the pilots all trading off watching their instruments with looking back at Alastair, as the intractable voices on the other end of the radio got angrier and more belligerent.

Not good. "Alastair." Dar leaned forward and put a hand on his shoulder. "Should I try to get Gerry involved?"

Alastair glanced back at her. "Hold that thought." He turned back to the radio. "Lieutenant? Are you there?"

The radio crackled. "Listen mister, I don't know who you think you are but you better just listen to instructions and shut the hell up before I send planes up there to blow you out of the sky."

"Nice," Dar said. "Sad to say, I grew up with jerks like that."

"Son." Alastair kept his voice reasonable and even. "You don't really need to know who I am. If you've got your last paycheck stub, just pull it out and look at the logo in blue on the right hand side on the bottom. That's the company I work for. We're not terrorists," he said. "So stop threatening us."

The radio was silent for a bit. Alastair let the mic rest against his leg, and shook his head. "What a mess," he said. "I appreciate things are in chaos down there, but for Pete's sake we don't even want to land in the damn country."

The pilot nodded. "That's what I tried to explain to him," he said. "He just kept saying security threat, security threat. I couldn't get a word in edgewise." He glanced back at Dar. "Are you in the military, ma'am?"

"No." Dar felt a surprising sense of relief at the admission. "My father was career Navy. I grew up on base."

The radio crackled. A different voice came on though. "This is Commander Wirkins. Is this Mr. McLean?"

"Ah." Alastair picked the mic up. "Maybe we're getting somewhere." He clicked it. "It is," he said. "Go ahead, Commander."

"Mr. McLean, we've established who you are. We understand you are trying to file an amended flight plan," the commander said. "Due to a situation in the area, I have to ask you to please instruct your pilot to land in Nassau. This is not negotiable."

"Something's going on." Dar shook her head. "Damn."

"Commander." Alastair gathered his thoughts. "I appreciate that you have your own issues," he said. "So let me ask you this. If we land in Nassau and your people are satisfied we're not going to hurt anyone, can we get cleared to fly into the States so your pit stop doesn't cause a delay in what we have to do?"

"Mr. McLean, you're not in a position to bargain with us."

Alastair sighed. "All right then, please put your ass in your chair and call the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Get Gerald Easton on the line," he said. "I'm about out of patience with you too. He was going to send a plane for us, damn well shoulda let him."

Silence on the radio.

"If they force us down," Dar said. "Chances are they're not going to let the plane take off again."

The pilot glanced over his shoulder at her. "We'll be out of air time anyway," he said. "No offense folks, but the storm would have been a better option."

"Agreed," Alastair held his hand up. "My fault. Sorry about that."

The radio remained silent.

"It's only about four, five hours from Miami by sea," Dar said. "We can charter a boat to get there."

The co pilot turned and looked at her. "Ma'am, are you crazy? That's not a trivial trip across the Gulfstream."

Dar didn't take offense. "I know," she said. "Been there, done that."

"I've been to the Bahamas. You won't get a captain to take you over like it is now. They're not stupid," the co pilot said. "They don't like risk."

"I'll captain it myself." Dar shrugged. "Pay enough money and they'll rent us a tub."

Both flyers looked at each other, then shook their heads. Alastair merely chuckled wryly.

Finally the radio buzzed. "Mr. McLean, this is Commander Wirkins."

"Go ahead," Alastair said. "At least we've got a plan B," he added, in an aside to Dar. "Though spending four hours bouncing over the Atlantic ain't my idea of fun."

"Mr. McLean, we're in a state of national emergency here and I do not appreciate, and my command does not appreciate you asking for special dispensation."

"Too bad," Alastair said, in a genial tone. "We have a job to do, mister, and you're keeping me from it. You may think it's got nothing to do with you, but if you do about ten minutes research on who we are, you'll catch a clue that's not the case."

The commander cleared his throat into the open mic. "I have done that research, or believe me, buddy there'd be two fighters up there blowing your ass out of the sky right now," he said. "So like I said, I don't appreciate you dropping names, no matter how justified you think you are."

Dar held her hand out. "Gimme."

"C"mon Dar." Alastair bumped her knee with his elbow. "He's about to cave. He's just pissing all over the wall so everyone knows what a big guy he is first." He clicked the mic. "Fish or cut bait, Commander."

"Well, Mr. McLean, sorry to tell you, but you're not getting to where you want to go today," the commander said, a note of smugness in his voice that made both Dar and Alastair's lips twitch. "You can call me an asshole if you want to, and report me to whoever you want to, but I've got a job to do too, and I'm going to do it."

"Shoulda given me the mic," Dar sighed. "At least we'd have gotten some laughs out of it."

"So my controller is going to instruct your pilot to land that plane at the Opa Locka airport, where we're going to have you met with a security team so that I can get my job done. I don't much care about yours."

"Whooho." Dar laughed. "Score!" She lifted her hand and Alastair smacked it with his own, surprising the crew.

"How you get your affairs in order after that isn't my concern," the commander said. "But it's a nice long drive to Texas. So have a great day."

"Well. How do you like that?" Alastair chuckled. "First time I had someone's sand up their ass work to my favor. "If that's what your decision is, Commander, then we'll have to take it," he said, mildly. "It sure is a long drive from there to Texas."

The radio clicked off with a snitty hiss, and Alastair handed the mic back to the navigator. "Well, gentlemen, after all that crap in a hand basket I think we ended up winning that round."

"You didn't want to go to Texas?" the co pilot half turned. "I don't get it."

"Well," Dar said. "Houston is where our main offices are, and where Alastair here lives," she said. "On the other hand, Miami is where our main operations center is, and where I live, and we both need to end up in Washington and New York so this guy just did us a big favor trying to screw us over."

"Yep." Alastair nodded. "Be sorry not to see the wife and the kids, but this cuts what, two days travel for you?" He nodded. "That cloud sure had a silver lining. Maybe by the time we sort things out we can get a flight up from your friend the General."

"Otherwise I'll go pick up my truck at the airport and we can drive," Dar said. "But that gives us a lot more options. You can even stay in the Miami office and run things if you want, while I head up."

Alastair nodded. "So, sirs, please do what the nice men want and land us in Miami." He chuckled. "Bea's gonna kill me after all the arrangements she had to make."

The pilot nodded in relief. "You got it," he said. "Get us out of the air faster, we don't have to fly around a storm, and if we're all still grounded I get a layover on South Beach. Doesn't get any better than that." He looked at his co pilot. "You up for that Jon?"

The co pilot shook his head and laughed. "I'm up for that," he said. "Man, I thought this was really going to end up like crap." He looked back at Alastair. "You sure have brass ones, sir."

The older man chuckled. "Live as long as I have, you learn to figure out how much you can poke the stick at the bear, if you get my drift. Once that fellah knew who we--" He indicated Dar and himself, "were, I figured he knew better than to be serious about shooting us down."

"I don't know. He sounded pretty aggressive," the co pilot said. "We've heard from other pilots that the attitude is they've got carte blanche to do whatever they want in the name of national security."

"Someone still has to be accountable," Dar said.

"Do they?" the co pilot asked. "I sure hope they do. I've been on the wrong side of an INS officer in a bad mood. Almost cost me a paid flight."

The pilot half turned in his seat and addressed the navigator. "Egar, you okay with us landing there? I forgot to ask you."

The tall, slim man nodded. "I have family in Miami," he said. "I am very happy we're going there. It's good." He smiled. "I achieved my pilot's license at that airport. It's very nice."

Alastair stood up and waited for Dar to clear out of the way so he could exit the cockpit. "What a relief. No offense to your boating skills, Paladar, but I'm no yachtsman." He slapped Dar on the shoulder as they retreated back down the aisle to the passenger compartment. "Besides, fella was probably right. We'd have to end up buying the damn boat and then what? Be tough to explain a motor yacht on our inventory list."

Dar chuckled. "We could have auctioned it off." She was, however relieved. Much as she would have stepped up to sail an unfamiliar craft across what were sometimes very treacherous waters, she was damned glad she wasn't going to have that particular bluff called.

Silver lining. Absolutely. "We lucked out."

"Sure did," her boss agreed. "Well, sometimes we have to, y'know?" he added, as they resumed their seats. "Wish it hadn't gotten so nasty, though. I know the fella has a lot of issues he's contending with but my god."

Dar pushed her seat back. "They teach you to do that," she said. "Be a bastard, I mean. You try to overwhelm whoever your opponent is with loud, aggressive talk to knock them off balance and put them on the defensive."

"They teach you that in the military?" Alastair asked, in a quizzical tone. "I thought you never went through that."

"They teach you that in most of the negotiating and ninja management classes these days," Dar informed him dryly. "But a friend of ours, who's a cop in Miami, says taking the offensive when you're confronting someone is a well used tactic of theirs too."

"You use that, yourself," her boss commented.

"Sometimes," Dar admitted. "If someone knows you're going to be an asshole, they usually do what you want, faster. Like our vendors. They know if they don't do what I'm asking, I'll just keep going up their ladder and get louder and louder until they do."

"Like what I just did to that fellah."

Dar nodded. "That's why they like dealing with Kerry better." Her eyes twinkled a little. "She's got the best of both worlds. She gets to be nice, and they like her, and she's got me in her back pocket to threaten them with."

Alastair laughed. "Well, all in all, I guess I can forgive that guy. I know he must be dealing with a thousand different problems. I was just his most annoying one that minute." He folded his hands over his stomach. "He must be laughing his head off thinking about how he showed us though."

Dar suspected he was. Probably cursing about them, and telling everyone around him how he showed these damn jerks who was boss. Dar couldn't really blame him either, since they had asked for special treatment, and had threatened him with going up the chain, and in fact, were the jerky pain in the asses he actually considered them to be.

However, it had gotten them what they wanted, in a rather classic case of the end justifying the means. Dar checked her watch. So they'd end up in a few hours in Miami. Awesome. "I'll send him a note telling him how much he helped us out after this is all over," she said. "My body's so screwed up I can't figure out whether to take you out to breakfast or dinner when we get there though."

"Well, it'll be different than burritos in Mexico City." Alastair put his hands behind his head. "Wasn't looking forward to all that, or the drive to Houston."

Dar smiled at the ceiling, relaxing for the first time since she'd woken up. She was already looking forward to landing, her mind flipping ahead to the messages she'd need to send, and more importantly, how happy she knew Kerry would be to hear from her. "I'll have someone go to MIA and bring my car down." She decided. "Figure it'll take a while for them to get through the paperwork once we land."

"Take me a few minutes to call Bea and get everything squared away anyway," her boss said. "It's going to feel good to be back home."

Dar exhaled. "Sure is," she said. "Sure damn is."

KERRY SETTLED HER ear buds in and peered at her laptop screen. "Okay, Mark, did we get inventory availability from the vendors yet? I know you've got everything we had with you, but from what they're telling me here we lost the whole WAN room."

"They got," Mark said. "But they can't get it to us faster than a truck. The distributor's in California."

Kerry looked down at the pad on the desk. "Well, tell them to start driving," she said. "By my count here, rebuilding that will take most of the inventory on your truck, and we're not even started yet."

"Will do."

"Miami exec, this is the Air Hub."

Kerry blinked. "Go ahead Air Hub."

"We're hearing rumors that they might let some flights up tomorrow, ma'am," the voice answered. "Sorry we can't be more specific. It's pretty quiet here."

"Miami, hello? This is Sherren in New York. We've got good news! Six people just showed up here. I'm logging them in now!"

"That's great, Sherren." Kerry exhaled slowly. "Do they know about any of the others? Have they seen them?"

"No, no they don't," Sherren said. "Everyone got separated, they said. They're all taking showers. They're covered in that white stuff. They said a lot of people went south, too, toward the battery."

Kerry watched the red led's slowly change to green. Too few. "I'm really glad to hear that, Sherren. How are you all doing? Are you all right? Do you need anything?"

Sherren's voice sounded calmer today. "We're doing okay, you know? We needed some clothes so we went out and got some. We got bagels. The dog carts are there. People are out there. You can't stop this city. People are in shock, but we keep going."

Kerry thought about the empty streets she'd traveled through the night before. "You sure do."

"I'm sure the rest of the office will be here any time now," Sherren said, confidently. "We're going to get some coffee on. I wish we could get the phones working," she added. "I know some of our customers need us."

"Miami exec, this is Miami telecom," a new voice broke in. "We're handling the inbound 800 service trunks for New York. We can get messages to the people there, if you can get us a mailing list built."

"Oh, that would be great!" Sherren said. "You can get calls out, if you try hard enough. Or maybe if they have email, we can email them. That works a lot better than the phones."

Kerry nodded. "Good idea." She glanced at the screen. "Miami server ops, are you on?"

"Yes, ma'am," a quiet voice answered. "We're here."

"Build a list based on the reported list onscreen." Kerry said, after a brief pause. "And get that to telecom."

"Will do."

"Miami exec, this is LA Earth station. I have Newark Earth station on landline. They need generators. They've got a seven day estimate on repairs to the power station there. Someone told them it was sabotaged."

"Oh my god," Sherren said.

"Miami exec, this is Miami ops," Mark's voice replied. "That needs industrial. That little trick you and I pulled ain't gonna cut it."

Kerry tapped her pen on the desk. "Shouldn't their facilities operator be handling that?"

"Miami, no one's doing anything there. Everyone's been sent to staging to go into the city." LA Earth station reported. "If we want help, we need to do it ourselves, that's what they were told."

"Right." Kerry scribbled a note on her pad. "Let me get in touch with APC. Everyone's going to be hitting the usual providers let's try the high tech ones."

"Ms. Stuart?" Nan stuck her head in the door. "I have some president or other of AT&T on the line for you."

"Tell them hang on a minute." Kerry finished writing.

"Miami exec, this is Danny. The bus is here." Danny sounded relieved. "Man, are we glad to see that," he added. "We're waiting for clearance to start going in there, but we're going to need some help."

"Danny, we're almost there," Mark said. "Hang in there, buddy. I got ten people with me."

Ten? Kerry glanced at the screen, then back at her paper. "Hope that's a big RV," she muttered under her breath. She looked up. "Okay, you can transfer whoever it is from AT&T here." She pointed at the phone. "Thanks."

Nan disappeared.

"Mark, we're looking for you man," Danny answered. "Did you say you have a truck? We haven't been able to shake loose and get that plywood yet."

"No prob," Mark said. "Miami exec, any word on when we can get into lower NY?"

Kerry keyed her mic. "Let's concentrate on DC for now since we have access to the facility. With all the damage in Manhattan it could be a while."

"Miami exec, this is Lansing," the Michigan center broke in.

"Hold on, Lansing. I have to take a call." Kerry put her mic on mute and hit the speaker phone. "Kerry Stuart."

"Ms. Stuart?" a man's voice answered. "This is Charles Gant from AT&T. I think we met at that technical conference in Orlando a few months back."

"We did." Kerry nodded. "What can I do for you? I assume this is something critical."

Gant sighed. "Much as I'd rather be asking you to meet me for coffee and chat about high end routers, it is a critical issue. I just want to bounce a question off you, since I know of all the private providers you guys are the biggest."

"Okay." Kerry picked up her bottle of water and took a sip. "I'm listening."

"We lost everything in lower Manhattan," he said. "I think you probably know that, since we had a lot of tie-ins to you."

"We know," Kerry said. "We have almost nothing at all coming in to our three nodes in the region. A lot of customers are affected."

"Well, let me give you the laundry list," Gant said. "We lost the triple pop. Verizon said nothing's recoverable. They also lost their West office. Power's out for the area, including all the cell towers and the ones that do have power either don't have backhaul or are overloaded."

"Wow," Kerry murmured.

"I got my counterpart at Sprint on the other line. Between us, we lost everything overseas, and so did MCI."

"We realized that," Kerry said. "We had to backhaul a lot of overseas financial via our southern circuits."

There was momentary silence. "So how badly are you affected?"

Kerry took another sip of water. "We obviously can't service the local accounts in lower Manhattan, and we lost our major switching office in the Pentagon." Then she stopped speaking.

There was another moment of silence. "So you have service otherwise? Transatlantic?"

"We have data service, yes," Kerry confirmed. "We rely on your interchanges, and the other Telco's for phone service, naturally, so that's down, but we're backhauling everything else across our redundant links, or sending it up to the birds."

"Interested in renting some bandwidth?" Gant asked, in a wry tone. "We've got nothing between New York and our main service centers. I can't even guess what's down because our systems can't connect." He cleared his throat. "I figured I'd ask you before everyone else does."

Kerry thought about all the times she'd had to browbeat the Telco vendors for everything from bad circuits to late ones. "How much do you need?" she asked. "And what would it take for you to get a tie into our Roosevelt Island node?"

"I'll take ten meg if you have it." His voice sounded utterly relived. "I think our substation on the island can carry the traffic over. I can check but my notes here show we're in the same building."

Mentally, Kerry did a quick calculation. Dar had provisioned a larger than normal spare of bandwidth in the area, thankfully, but she knew there'd be more requests to come. This was just the first. "We can do that," she said. "Get me your LOA and I'll send it to my internal provisioning group."

"God bless you." Gant sighed. "Sorry if I sound overwhelmed, but damn it, I am," he said. "My brother is missing in that mess and I can't think straight."

"Charles, I'm glad we can help," Kerry said gently. "We have some people missing ourselves. Most of our office in Manhattan was in the Towers for business meetings yesterday morning."

"My god."

"So we're sweating right along with you," Kerry said. "And speaking of that, could you possibly do me a favor?"

"If I can, for sure," Charles said.

"My Rockefeller Center office is down hard," Kerry said. "Any chance of getting one of our lines up?"

"Give me the circuit ID," he answered instantly. "We've got service near the Rock. You probably are just terminated closer to the triple--to where the triple was."

Kerry typed a question into her search applet, and was rewarded with a number. "Here it is." She gave it to him. "It would help the people left there. Most of them lived down in the affected area and can't go home."

"You got it, Kerry," Charles said. "Expect that LOA in the next five minutes."

"Call me if you need anything else," Kerry said. "Talk to you later." She hung the phone up, and went back to her screen. She clicked her mic on. "Miami exec to New York, you still on Sherren?"

"I'm here," Sherren responded promptly. "Two more people just showed up! We're all like kids here, screaming."

Kerry smiled. "I'm very glad. We're working on getting you some phones there, too."

"Oh, that's great!" Sherren said.

"Ma'am?" Nan poked her head back in. "Do you want a CNN feed in here?" She indicated a dark panel on the wall. "We've got one running in ops."

"Sure," Kerry said. "Any sign of more government visitors?"

"None yet." Nan shook her dark head. "When did you want to leave for the Pentagon?"

Kerry checked her watch. "I think I need to spend a little more time here, maybe an hour. Let's say eleven? Mark's almost at the Pentagon and he's going to be tied up for a while when he gets there."

"Okay, I'll be around," Nan said. "We'll push the feed in here." She ducked out and closed the door behind her.

Kerry scribbled a few more notes, listening with one ear bud in to the conversation going on in the background. A flash of motion caught her eye, and she looked up at the screen just in time to see a shot of the inside of the Capitol, where the hall was full of men and women all milling around.

Her mother was there, she realized. She spotted her immediately off to one side of the chamber, with two other senators who were vaguely familiar to her. "Hi Mom." She briefly waved at the screen, remembering the odd occasion when she'd flip past CSPAN2 and find her father talking.

She always stopped and listened.

"Miami exec, this is Miami HR."

"Go ahead." Kerry keyed her mic. "Good morning, Mari."

"Good morning," Mariana replied. "Not sure if you caught the news, but it's all over the local here that they've issued search warrants for a bunch of locations in Miami."

Kerry's head jerked up and she stared at the screen. "What?"

"No one's really sure what's going on. Duks says one of his people had a police raid in their apartment complex around four a.m.," Mari said. "We heard something about some of the hijackers coming from here."

"From Miami?" Kerry found this hard to believe.

"That's what they're saying."

Holy crap. Kerry stared in bewilderment at the television, reading the crawl on the bottom that repeated what Mari had just said. Hijackers from Miami? "But didn't they say yesterday this was something from the Middle East?"

"I don't know," Mari said. "Just wanted to give you the heads up since believe me, there's a lot of crazy, nervous people down here at the moment. We have about half the office in. A lot of people stayed home."

"Wow," Kerry said. "Okay, thanks for the warning." She scanned the lists again then sighed. "I'm going on hold for a minute, to call APC."

"Good luck, Miami exec," the LA Earth station chimed in. "Those guys sound pretty tapped."

"Mari, can you find out how close our community support teams are to Newark?" Kerry asked, as she searched her address applet for the phone number of their racking vendor. "Make sure they stop for a cold keg of beer."

Silence. "I don't think that's spec, Kerry," Mari said.

"Don't give damn. They've been there all night," Kerry said. "It's as muggy there as it is here. Have them bring fans and make sure they've got six volt to 110 converter lines so they can run them."

"Okay, will do," Mari said. "You're the boss."

"Until 3:30 p.m. I sure am." Kerry sighed. "Someone turn the planet faster please."

KERRY CHECKED THE time, then put her pen down on her pad. "Okay folks," she said. "I have to head out of here. Mark, I'll see you in about thirty."

"Gotcha, boss," Mark replied. "We're waiting for clearance to pull this rig in. "

"Mark, this is Danny," Danny said. "We'll come over there and talk to them. Give me five."

"Will do. Kerry, I've got it."

"All right. Miami exec off. " Kerry pulled out her ear buds and stood up, walking around in a circle to shake the cramps out of her body from the tension of dealing with issue after issue for a solid hour. She had a headache from it, and even two cups of tea hadn't prevented her throat from gaining a painful rasp.

The door cracked open, and Nan stuck her head in. "Ready to go? Sally at the front said no one else showed up for you."

"Well, good." Kerry flexed her hands and walked back over to the desk, picking up her jacket and slipping it on. "Maybe they changed their mind, or figured out something else to do, or talked to the Secret Service. Either way, I'm outta here."

She shut down her laptop. "Is there a Wendy's between here and the Pentagon?" she asked. "Love my hotel, but they have seriously deficient continental breakfasts."

Nan smiled. "Yeah, there is. You sure you don't want to stop somewhere else? There's some great restaurants around there."

"Nah." Kerry buckled her briefcase and slid the strap over her shoulder. "So little time, so many fubars." She followed Nan out the door and down the hallway. "I've got my fingers crossed hoping I get a call back from APC. They have a manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania."

"APC--the rack people?" Nan asked. "Do they need that many new ones for the Pentagon?"

"Well, they need some, but I called them for a couple of UPSs." Kerry shouldered the staff door open and held it as Nan went through. "For the Earthstation."

"Ah, yeah. Right." Nan pulled her keys from her jacket pocket. "Those poor guys. They were being pounded yesterday. I think they were almost glad they lost power because everyone stopped bugging them for space."

Kerry slid into the passenger side seat. "Right now, I need to get the pressure off the station on the other coast, so hopefully we can get them some power and get them running again."

Nan started the SUV and pulled out of the parking lot, pausing at the gate as the security guards waved and the big iron portal slowly slid aside to let them out. The big doors were set into well made concrete and stone walls that stretched around the facility to an impressive height and came complete with a set of serious looking security guards whose bulk and stance were staunchly professional.

Kerry liked the guards in Miami, but most of them were what Dar called domesticated tabbies, nice men and women, and very competent, but they focused on watching the building and checking for fire alarms, helping the staff out when they locked their keys in their car, and manning the badge issuing equipment.

They weren't the ILS police. Most of them were far less intimidating than some of the marketing reps were with their big white teeth and aggressive tactics.

These guys here, on the other hand, looked like they were ready to turn back a platoon of Marines.

Kerry was pretty sure she didn't want to swap them for her uniformed friends down south, but it was nice to have them here, especially given the shifting uncertainties of the situation they were in. "Nice guys?" she asked, as they waved on the way out.

"Oh, absolutely," Nan said. "In a no neck, space ranger kind of way." She pulled out of the entry road and onto the main street. "They really take themselves very seriously, if you know what I mean. Most of them are ex military."

"Mm." Kerry remembered her time at the Navy base with Dar. "Are they reserve?" she asked. "I have a feeling this situation is going to end up with us fighting someplace again."

"Well, I don't know that much about them," Nan said." But I thought I heard someone saying that they had to be completely retired, not in the reserves to be hired. Someone was complaining that it wasn't fair, because being a reservist or National Guard is supposed to be a good thing."

Kerry considered that. She rested her elbow on the armrest and leaned back, watching the buildings flash by. "Boy, I can see both parts of that," she admitted. "I do think serving your country is an admirable thing, and shouldn't be a reason to block someone from employment."

"That's what that person was saying," Nan said.

"On the other hand, if my whole security department was reserve and guard, and they all got called up, I'd be a pickle," Kerry said. "It's a really tough question, especially these days. Used to be if you were guard, the worst thing you'd have to deal with is helping with a flood, or being asked to patrol streets during a riot."

"Well, yeah."

"Now, it's not like that," Kerry said. "Before, employers didn't really worry about hiring someone who had that commitment, because it wasn't likely to impact them more than that one weekend a month or whatever. Nowadays, you've got a reasonable chance of being sent overseas for six months, a year, who knows?"

"We shouldn't stop people who want to do it though," Nan said, with a frown. "That seems selfish, I guess."

"Business very often is," Kerry agreed. "It's all what's in the company's best interest." She had to smile wryly at this. "Sometimes. But actually I agree, you shouldn't stop people from serving and it shouldn't be a bar to employment, so I am going to find out from Mariana why that's so for this group since it doesn't apply to anyone else that I know of. "

Nan nodded. "That's cool," she said. "My brother's in the guard. He didn't have to go the last time, but his boss pretty much told him he'd never promote him to anything really critical because he just couldn't afford to have to replace him on short notice, and it was too much of a hassle."

Well. Kerry felt very ambivalent. She thought about how she'd feel if someone, say, Mark, had decided to join the Guard and what that would mean for them if he had to leave and go overseas. "Well, you know, you have to deal with that all the time in business. I mean, people get sick or they quit and find other jobs," she commented. "I'm not sure that's fair of his boss, though. I have to admit I do see the man's point."

"That's what my brother said, pretty much," Nan sighed. "He understands, but it still sucks. He really likes being in the Guard, and he has a lot of friends there. But he's also got a kid on the way, and he also needs to make more money."

Kerry folded her arms. "What does he do?" She gazed out the window, watching trees flash by that had the first tinges of leaves losing their green color.

"Java developer," Nan said, succinctly. "There's the Wendy's. Sure you want that?"

"Yep." Kerry could already taste the spicy chicken. "Tell your brother to send me his resume," she added. "Mariana was saying last week she was desperately looking for more developers for two or three new projects we're doing."

Nan slowed, and pulled into the driveway of the fast food restaurant. "Are you serious?"

"Sure." Kerry reached down and removed her wallet from her briefcase. "Dar once hired an out of work police receptionist with a nose ring off the streets in New York who now runs the data entry department at our largest payment processor in Queens," she said, straightening up. "What?"

Nan was looking at her as though she'd grown a horn. "Really?"

"Really," Kerry assured her. "We look for talent everywhere. It's a bitch trying to keep up with the turnover on a quarter of a million people, you know? So if he's interested, have him email me his resume. Most of the developers are flexible work space, so they can work from home, or here, or go to one of the local centers."

Nan studied her for a brief moment, then she smiled. "Um-- you want to get this to go or eat in?" she asked, after a second. "And thanks. That wasn't my motive in mentioning it, but I'll tell him. He's always asking me to get him into ILS, but I never felt comfortable recommending my own family."

"Drive through is fine," Kerry said, opening the wallet and flipping past her driver's license to her corporate credit cards. She selected one and waited, as Nan pulled the car up to the ordering kiosk. "Spicy chicken sandwich with cheese, sour cream and chive baked potato, and a medium Frosty. Get whatever you want, lunch is on me."

Nan took the card she held out, then she rolled down the window to place their order.

Kerry had a moment's peace, then her cell phone rang. She put her earphones back in and answered it. "Kerry Stuart."

"Kerry? This is Michael from APC, we spoke earlier?"

Never had she been so glad to hear from a salesman. "Hi, Michael, you got good news for me?"

"Well, I think I do," Michael said. "We've got two big units, the EPS model, that we'd just finished fitting out for a road show, you know? To show the capabilities? Anyway, they're truck mounted, with a diesel generator and we can have them over to your Newark location by tonight."

Kerry did a little nerd dance in her seat. "Michael, that's awesome. Doesn't even matter how much it is, just send me the bill."

"Do you one better," Michael said, sounding pleased. "We'll do it for the promotion, since the names all over the truck, but in return give me a shot at providing the racking and power for everything you rebuild."

"You got it," Kerry answered instantly. "I'll tell Mark to start sending you a list of what we'll need."

"Great. I'll get the guys rolling," Michael said. "I'll let you go. I know you must be swamped. Call me if you need anything else, okay?"

"Will do. Talk to you later, Michael and thanks again." Kerry hung up, chortling softly under her breath. "One down, a hundred to go." She finished dialing in and waited, as the phone connected to the global conferencing system.

They pulled forward to the delivery window. "Guess that was good news?" Nan handed Kerry's card over to the cashier. "Thanks for lunch, by the way. It beats heating up pizza in the data center."

Kerry held up her hand. "Miami ops? This is Miami exec," she said. "Someone please get Newark on the landline or text, tell them we'll have power generators there around dinnertime." She listened to the ragged cheers. "Okay, I'm off again. Mark, see you in a few. You inside yet?"

"Just let us in, boss. We're driving over to the far side," Mark said. "I can see part of it. Holy crap."

Kerry considered. "Thanks Mark. Be there shortly." She closed her phone and turned in her seat. "You know what, we'd better pull over here and munch before we get there."

Nan nodded, as she handed over Kerry's bag. "Yeah, it's probably going to be pretty busy. That's a good idea."

"Right." Kerry waited until Nan pulled the big SUV into a nearby spot, and parked it. She then opened her bag and removed her sandwich, settling her frosty in the cup holder and unwrapping her chicken. "Actually," she said. "I've been around a collapsed building. It's not some place you want to have a picnic near."

Nan took a sip of her drink, setting her taco salad down on her lap. "Was that the hospital thing from last year?"

Kerry nodded. She took a bite of her sandwich, enjoying the spicy taste.

"That was scary as hell. I was at project management training in New Mexico that week, but I saw it on the television, and the papers were full of stories about it for days after I got back." Nan speared her salad with a fork. "You must have been scared in there."

Kerry chewed thoughtfully, and then swallowed. She wiped her lips with a lurid yellow napkin and reached for her frosty. "I sure should have been," she said. "But I was too freaked out to be scared. I know that sounds bizarre, but I just wasn't. I was pissed off and wanted out of there that was for sure."

"Did you get hurt?"

Kerry nodded. "Dislocated my shoulder." She swallowed a spoonful of her frosty and went back to her sandwich.

"Ow."

Kerry nodded again, but remained silent as she chewed.

"How in the heck did you climb out that window with a dislocated shoulder?" Nan asked, suddenly, after they'd eaten quietly for a minute.

"Dar put it back in place after it happened," Kerry explained.

"Good thing she knew how," Nan spluttered. "That's no joke! I've seen someone dislocate a shoulder on the football field and they were screaming!"

Kerry chuckled softly. "Her list of talents never ends." She finished up her sandwich and folded the foil wrapper, putting it neatly inside her bag before she removed the container with her baked potato. She'd gotten the top off, and the sour cream applied when her phone rang again.

"Niblets." Kerry got the mic clipped into place and answered it. "Kerry Stuart."

Nan glanced at her, eyebrows hiking briefly, then she put the cover on her now empty container and put it away in its bag. "I'll get us moving again," she said, starting the car and releasing the brake.

"Hello, Kerrison?"

Kerry sighed. "Hello Mother, how are the meetings going? I saw you on TV this morning." She mixed her potato up and ingested a forkful as they pulled out of the parking lot and back out onto the main street.

"Did you? Ah, well, things are about as expected," Cynthia Stuart responded. "Everyone is terribly upset, of course. But my committee would really like to speak with you if it can be arranged."

"Which committee is it?" Kerry asked.

"The intelligence committee," her mother replied.

"They were very interested in how much more information was available to you yesterday, and I know you were upset when I mentioned it, but really, I cannot take that back now."

No, she couldn't. Kerry had to admit.

"I did tell them I would ask you if you could arrange a little time to speak with them, but could not promise anything."

Fair enough. "Okay," Kerry decided. "I'm on my way to the Pentagon now. I have to do a situational analysis there, and see what needs to be done to get everyone back up and running. Once that's done, I'll give you a call and we can arrange something."

"Excellent." Her mother sounded profoundly relieved. "Are things going well for you today?"

Kerry peered through the windscreen as she spotted the unmistakable bulk of the Pentagon looming in front of them. "So far, yes," she said. "We found some of our people in New York, and my staff made it up here from Miami safely."

There was heavy traffic around the entrance to the crash site, backing up onto the roadway. Nan slowed to a stop and they both looked through the trees at the building. "Holy Moses." Nan breathed. "That looks totally different than it did on CNN."

"I'm glad to hear that," Cynthia said. "Perhaps we can have dinner together tonight?"

Kerry's eyes were fixed on the huge black hole, smoke still drifting from it. "Sure," she answered absently, her mind trying to sort out the horror. "I'll call you later. Okay?"

"Excellent. Until later then." The phone clicked off and Kerry merely closed it and put it on her lap, still peering out the window. "My God." She closed up the remnants of her lunch and put it into its bag, rolling up the opening and putting it down between her boots.

It was shocking. She had a clear, though somewhat dim memory of the building in all its imposing, concrete glory and somehow seeing it squatting there in the grass, a black gouge taken out of it seemed completely unreal. "It's like a bad movie."

They inched up, toward the police guarding the entrance until they were even with them, tired, harried looking men trying to move cars past with impatient gestures. Nan rolled the window down and visibly braced herself for the argument she was sure was coming.

"Please move along, ladies," the man said. "C'mon, we have to get emergency people in here."

Nan took a breath, but Kerry put a hand on her arm, and leaned over. "Hello, officer," she said, already holding out her badge in her hand. "I'll make this quick because I know the last thing you need is a stopped car out here."

The police officer leaned on the door and peered in at her. "Yes?"

"My company handles the IT for the building," Kerry said, nodding toward the Pentagon. "We want to get things rolling again."

The officer looked at her ID, glancing over it to look at Kerry. "One of your guys just went in there."

"Our equipment van." Kerry nodded. "With generators."

The officer nodded. "You people don't waste time. Go on in, Ms. Stuart. They told us you'd be here." He stepped back and motioned to the next officer, who dragged aside a barrier blocking the entrance to the big inside parking lot.

"Thanks," Kerry said, taking back her badge. "Tell your guys to come by our truck later. We've got food and coffee there. I bet you could use some."

The policeman managed a smile. "Thanks," he said.

Nan rolled the window up and maneuvered the SUV through the opening in the barriers, the wheels bumping up over debris as she edged into the parking area.

"Over there." Kerry spotted Mark's truck, with the RV behind it, not far from the company courtesy bus. "That's our area." Already there were techs surrounding the spot, in jeans and company polos. They were in the back part of the lot. The front was filled with emergency vehicles and military ones, with a huge cluster of press tents behind the lot and separated by a fence.

Nan parked and they got out. Kerry stepped away from the SUV and faced the building, her eyes taking in the smoking, gaping hole in disbelief.

She could smell the smoke. Mixed with that was the tinge of fractured concrete, the smell of burning electrical and shot through, with every other breath, a darker hint of decay and ruin. She took a few more steps toward the building, and stood, arms crossed as her eyes slowly scanned the area, seeing wreckage, and people, and exhausted faces.

Anger. Grief. Sadness.

To one side, a huge American flag was draped, as though in defiance. Kerry felt tears sting her eyes as she saw it and knew a moment of solemn kinship with everyone around her.

"Sucks." Mark came to stand shoulder to shoulder with her.

"Yeah." Kerry drew in a long breath. "Fifty states, right and left, Yankee and redneck, two billion opinions and twice as many assholes but right now we're all Americans." She turned and gave him a brief hug. "Let's get to work."