Storm Surge

Chapter Seventeen

KERRY FELT A sense of odd déjà vu as she took her bottle of ice tea and settled down in one of the thick leather chairs in the courtesy bus. "Gentlemen, thank you very much for taking time out of your day to talk with me for a minute."

The facilities chief, an older man with a bristly gray buzz cut and a weathered face, dropped into the chair across from her with a tired grunt. "Any excuse to sit down." He glanced up as one of the bus workers approached him and offered a tray. "What's that?"

"Roast beef sandwich, sir," the young woman supplied. "And we have chips and fresh potato salad."

The chief didn't hesitate, reaching over to envelop one of the rolls in a large, callused hand. "Hand them over. First thing I had since dark of the clock this a.m."

Having supplied herself with spicy chicken, Kerry was content to watch as the military men were served, Danny and two of the other techs were already busy at the nearby counter chowing down. She opened her bottle of ice tea and sipped from it, jerking just a bit as her PDA went off. She pulled it out and opened it, unable to repress a smile when she saw the message's sender.

Hey.

We're out of the airport and heading for coffee. Did you know all hell's breaking loose down here? People getting arrested and all that?

Jet lag sucks.

We are going to the office after this. I'm working on your gear. I got two calls from clients up in New York who complained they were down and told them off. I think I scared Alastair. Some guy from the NSA called me, but hung up before he could tell me what he wanted.

Left a message for Gerry. Maybe he can get me up there tonight.

Kerry's eyes widened. "Tonight?"

"Ma'am?" The bus attendant was in front of her. "Would you like a sandwich?"

Tonight? Kerry blinked at the tray, completely distracted. "Uh--no." She held up her tea. "I'm fine thanks. I stopped and had lunch on the way here." She waited for the server to move away, and then looked down again at her PDA.

I need a good night's sleep with you wrapped around me.

"So now, what's this all about?" the chief asked, wiping his lips with a company logo napkin. "You people the computer people?"

Kerry hesitated, then closed the PDA. "Yes, we're the computer people." She fought the urge to go back to Dar's note. "But we work with a lot more than computers. We handle the systems that let you communicate with the rest of the military infrastructure, and run most of the programs that bring in information and send out things like accounting and payroll."

The chief chewed his sandwich, studying her with faded blue eyes. "So what you're saying is you're important."

Kerry shook her head. "No. You're important," she disagreed. "The people here working their tails off to get things back up and going are important. Our mission here is to help you do that."

One gray eyebrow cocked. "Good answer."

The CO, a tall, lanky man with straight, dark hair chuckled softly under his breath. "Ms. Stuart, I've been trying to get hold of your management since yesterday," he said. "You don't need to sweet talk me into pushing to get you what you need."

"Well," Kerry paused, "we had to evacuate our commercial operations center and they took the brunt of that over in Houston. I know they were slammed. I was traveling here yesterday, Dar Roberts, our CIO and our CEO Alastair McLean were in transit back from England."

"Seems like you were putting together a plan to come help us anyway," the CO said. "But then, you people always do. I hate computers," he said. "I wish I could throw the lot of them into the Potomac, but at least you make ours work."

"Most of the time." Kerry accepted the compliment with a smile. "They're machines. They break." She paused a moment. "So what I need-to bring this conversation to a point--is power in our backup core space."

"One that ain't finished yet?" the chief asked.

"Sure," Kerry replied. "We never do things the easy way."

"What's the point of that, Ms. Stuart?" the CO asked.

"Please, call me Kerry," Kerry said. She stood up and went to the side mounted white board and picked up a marker. "Your systems are laid out like this. " She quickly sketched in the five sided building and its rings, putting squares in place rooted out of her memory of Dar's planning sessions. "Each area has a wiring closet, and those closets are connected with a fiber backbone."

She glanced behind her, finding the military men watching her intently. "Eventually, everything has to come back to one place, so we can take it out of the building. In this case, for this facility, we had two central locations for redundancy."

"Ah huh," the chief said. "Remember you all bitching about all that space it took up?" He turned and looked at the CO. "Had to hear that from you for a month."

"You did," the CO agreed. "Thought it was a waste of time until I got told I didn't know my ass from a teakettle and to leave the IT stuff to the IT people."

Kerry eyed him. "Talked to Dar, huh?"

"Certainly has a smart mouth," the CO said. "I was about to kick up when she went off talking for about twenty minutes, and I have to admit to you I did not understand one single word she said. Might as well have been speaking Turkish."

"The mouth goes with the rest of her," Kerry said, in a mild tone. "She's brilliant. Sometimes she goes on for twenty minutes and I don't understand a word."

"Yes, well, I realized that when we went through the plan for the reconstruction of the wing there, and figured out if we hadn't had a spare, we'd have been in a world of hurt trying to work around that. So all's good," the CO said. "But here we are and nothing's working."

"Right." Kerry went back to the diagram. "There is no way we can quickly recover the destroyed room." She looked over at the chief. "I think you probably realize that."

The man nodded. "Find all your folks?" he asked, the tone of the conversation suddenly growing quiet, and grim.

"Not all of them," Kerry said. "We're still missing a few."

The chief studied her. "Might have been in there. Your folks were, a lot."

There was an awkward silence. Kerry folded her arms, gripping the marker in her right hand. "That had occurred to me," she said. "But I hope that's not the case. I hope they're just out of touch and we'll hear from them today."

The CO cleared his throat. "So you need power in this new space," he said. "Chief, can we do that?"

The chief chewed his sandwich thoughtfully as they waited in silence for his answer. Kerry went over to the table and got her ice tea, leaning an elbow on the counter as she gave in and opened her PDA again.

I need a good night's sleep with you wrapped around me.

"I need that too," Kerry muttered under her breath. "Maybe I can call Gerry and ask him."

"How much power you need?" the chief spoke up suddenly.

Kerry glanced over at Danny. "Do you have that handy, or do I need to get it from the master document server?"

Danny stopped in mid chew. "Uh--"

"Ah hah." Kerry went over to where her laptop was resting on the counter and unlocked it. She opened a browser and typed in an address, waiting for the page to display over the satellite link before she entered a request. "Hang on."

She glanced back at the PDA on the counter.

We're driving through little Havana now. There are a lot people on the street talking. Want some café con leche? Alastair's trying a croqueta.

"Okay." Kerry reviewed the list on the screen. "Boy, there was a lot of stuff in there." She ran the calculations. "Ten racks at sixty amps per rack." She looked up at the chief. "Six hundred amps, twenty 30 amp lines."

The chief stopped chewing and stared at her. "In that little room?"

Kerry nodded wryly. "We also need AC."

"Son of a bitch!"

"Can we do it, chief?" the CO broke in. "Who the hell cares how much it is? It's not like we have a budget for it. What does it mean a bigger cable? C'mon now, you know what's at stake here. We're blind without that equipment."

"You don't even have equipment for me to plug in there," the chief turned around and said to him. "I know it ain't here because I heard those IT people talking about it."

The CO looked over at Kerry. "What's the story with that?"

Kerry leaned against the counter. "Dar's working on it," she said. "It'll be here. Our racking vendor is already preparing a truck heading here with the framework."

The chief looked around at her. "We can do it," he said, surprisingly. "I'll have power pulled in there by tonight. That do it for you?"

"Thank you." Kerry smiled warmly at him. "Yes, that takes a big weight off my shoulders. I wouldn't want to call in the markers I'm calling in just to get everything here and not be able to use it."

There was a little silence. The military men subsided into pensive thought, and Kerry took a sip of her ice tea. She took a breath, and from one moment to the next, seeing those tired faces, they changed from a problem she had to solve to human beings she just wanted to help.

She'd never felt a kinship to the military. She'd always regarded that world with a wary respect, not understanding it or the people who chose to be a part of it. Getting a closer look had never really been in her plans, right up until her partnership with Dar.

Dar had been her window into that world, however unexpected that had been. She still wasn't sure she understood most of it, but having talked with Ceci, and knowing and loving both her and Andrew, she'd gained, at least, sympathy for those people who chose to serve.

"What else can we do?" Kerry asked, gazing at them. "Can we get something or do something for the people here? Do people need help? Access to their systems for emergencies? We're bringing up an internet hotspot here and if you send your financial people to see me, I can get them into workstations here on the bus, or in our Herndon center."

The chief leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Can you take back yesterday?"

Kerry put her tea down and went over to where he was sitting, taking a seat on the couch next to him. "I wish I could," she said. "I think every single person I know would."

The chief looked at her. "Have you ever wanted to hit someone but you ain't got a target, young lady? I just want to find the people who thought this was a great and noble thing to do and keep hitting them until their guts come out on the floor."

"We all feel that way," the CO put a hand on the chief's shoulder. Billy remained silent, eyes wide, just watching behind them. "We all lost friends. We all have people in the hospital, and families hurting." He looked at Kerry. "But we have a job to do. We have jobs that only we can do, so we can turn this around."

Kerry nodded. "We'll get you back in operation," she stated. "We'll get everything fixed. We have the resources and the will to make it happen."

The bus attendants came back in, with chocolate cupcakes and hot coffee. The scents filled the interior, and the men all looked up, visibly brightening as the women came over.

"I know you're not part of the military," the CO addressed Kerry.

"No, I'm not. But my father in law is retired Navy, and my partner grew up on a Navy base down in south Florida," Kerry replied. "I won't pretend to understand your world, but I dearly love people who are a part of it."

The CO nodded after a pause. "Good enough," he said. "We'll get you what you need, Kerry. You get us what we need."

"Hey, boss?" Mark entered, then stopped, and sniffed. "Ooo--chocolate." He looked hopefully at the trays. "Got extra?"

Kerry patted the chief's knee and stood. "What's up?"

"ETA six hours for the sat trucks," Mark said, succinctly.

"Six hours? For the trucks that came from Houston?" Kerry asked, in disbelief. "What the hell did they do, put afterburners on the pickup trucks?"

"Didn't ask," Mark said, through a mouthful of cupcake. "Dar taught me sometimes it's better not to ask stuff like that."

The CO's eyes swung from one to the other. "What does that get us?"

Mark licked his fingers. "Couple of long ass cables and it gets your critical systems back online in slow motion," he said. "But it'll work. I've got enough gear in the back of my truck to get rudimentary routing moving as long as we can bring Newark back up."

"In six hours?" The CO's eyes lit up. "You're serious?"

"Sure." Mark nodded. "They said the power generator trucks would be there by then, didn't they?"

"They did," Kerry said. "They sure did."

"Great. We'll start cabling up the gear and running the lines in," Mark said. "I'm gonna need juice though. I can't run those enterprise switches and routers off my truck battery."

The chief stood up and latched on to his arm. "C'mon boy," he said. "I got your power for you. Come with me."

The CO and Billy got up and started after them. "Let's see what we can do to help," the CO said. "Billy round up some of those carts of yours."

"Sure thing." Billy turned and waved at Kerry. "Thanks, ma'am. For everything."

"Bwf--" Mark grabbed another cupcake as he was hauled bodily out of the bus. "Later boss!"

"Later." Kerry went back to the counter and picked up her tea, her eyes flicking to the PDA waiting on the shiny surface. She sat down on the stool nearby and took a cupcake from the tray, unwrapping it as she went back to her message.

She had a lot to do. There were things to arrange, and the conference call to get back to, her mother to call, the government to worry about--but she blocked out a space of time to sit, and have her cupcake, and recover her equilibrium.

Time for a Dar break.

DAR LED THE way toward the front doors to the office, better for a handful of croquettes and a large Styrofoam cup of café con leche inside her. "Know what?" she asked suddenly. "I forgot to tell them you were with me."

Alastair chuckled deep in his throat. "As though the world isn't topsy turvy enough, I show up you mean." He glanced up at the tall building. "Weren't you going to move out of this place?"

"I still might." Dar waved at the guard as the doors slid open, releasing a blast of cold air at them. "Afternoon, gentlemen."

"Ms. Roberts!" The guard nearest the door came around the desk and approached her. "Boy are we glad to see you," he said. "They said you were overseas! We had the building management here five times already today asking for plans, and emergency authorizations."

"I bet." Dar paused and clipped her badge to her T-shirt. "Give me a half hour to get into my office upstairs then send them up to me." She spotted a few familiar faces crossing the floor, and with an effort, wrenched her brain back into place to deal with being back at the office. "C'mon."

"Right behind you." Alastair had regained his cheerful good nature. "You know, that was some damn good coffee, Dar. You were right."

Mariana had just exited the elevator. Dar put two fingers between her teeth and let out a loud whistle, making Mariana stop in her tracks and look quickly around, scanning over them twice before she stopped and stared, then let out a yelp. "AH!"

Heads turned. Dar caught the looks of recognition and then the double takes as Alastair was spotted at her side. She waited for Mariana to reach them, and was surprised almost beyond speech when the woman threw her arms around her and gave her a hug. "Uh."

"Thank god you're safe." Mariana released her. "Alastair, you too," she added hastily. "Great to see you!"

Alastair burst into laughter. "Oh hell." He chuckled. "Nice to see you to, Mari." He patted her on the shoulder. "It ain't home, but it's damn nice to be on home soil again."

"Why didn't you tell me you were back?" Mariana turned on Dar. "Does Kerry know? Of course she knows you're here."

"She knows I'm in Miami, sure," Dar said. "But she didn't know until I landed because we didn't know until we landed. We were supposed to still be in the air heading to Mexico right now." She looked up as a group of people surrounded them. "Hey o..."

Later on, she had time to reflect on the fact that her relationship with Kerry had slowly, but surely, gotten her used to physical contact and how lucky that was for her co workers.

Jose grabbed her arm, and got a hand around her back. "Shit! You're here! Jesus, thank you." He wrung her neck a little then grabbed Alastair's hand. "Boss, good to see you."

Eleanor gave her a quick hug. "No bull, Dar," she said in a quieter tone. "Glad you're safe."

More hands. More voices.

"Jefa!"

Dar turned and found herself enveloped by Maria. This at least she welcomed. "Hey Maria." She returned her admin's hug. "Glad to be back."

Maria released her. "But not for so long, no?" she asked. "I think you will go find Kerrisita and help her. She is doing so much."

"I think you're right." Dar smiled.

"Hey Dar!" Duks elbowed in and got an arm around her shoulders. "Now things are looking up," he announced, giving Alastair a pat on the shoulder. "Sir. Welcome to our banana republic."

"Thanks." Alastair patted him on the side. "Good to see you Louis." He glanced at the crowd. "I think we should move this upstairs, folks. We're blocking the lobby."

"Hey, Ms. Roberts. Welcome home." One of the ops techs timidly clasped her hand. "Boy, we're glad you're here."

Dar felt a little overwhelmed.

"All right everyone, to what our friends in England call the lifts." Alastair took charge. He handed off his bag to a willing Jose. "Someone want to get Dar's roller here? Let's go, march people. We've got work to do." He put his hand on Dar's elbow and started herding people simply by the act of moving and presenting them with the choice of moving with him or being bowled over.

Mariana fell in next to Dar. "Did you get any rest at all since yesterday? Doesn't look like it."

"Not a lot." Dar collected herself. "Cat naps. I was covering for Kerry while she was traveling."

"We know." Mari gave her a sympathetic look. "And Mark was covering for you both while he was traveling. You know, we recorded the entire global meeting place, Dar. One day, a long time from now you should sit down and listen to it."

"That was something, wasn't it?" Alastair had been listening with one ear, apparently, carrying on two other conversations with the other.

"I think it was the finest moment this company ever had," Mari said, simply.

"Well." Dar reached the elevator and got in, going to the back corner and turning to face those following her in. "Maybe we can look at it sometime. Right now, it's a drop in the bucket." She clasped her briefcase in both hands as the elevator filled, and they started up.

"Alastair, I'll have an office set up for you," Mari said. "Just give me a few minutes when we get upstairs."

"Oh please," Alastair said. "What in blazes do you think I'm going to do here? Just give me a damn phone and a chair so I can let people bitch at me." He glanced sideways at Dar. "Keep them off the back of the people who do the real stuff."

"Well..."

"Shut up, Alastair. You do plenty," Dar said, in a loud enough voice to cut through the chatter in the elevator. "Cut the BS."

Her boss looked over at her, both gray eyebrows hiking.

Dar mirrored his expression right back at him.

The doors slid open, and everyone escaped out of the car into the hallway, pouring into the gray and maroon space as they cleared the way for Dar and Alastair to exit. Dar turned and headed toward her office, and after a second, her boss followed her.

Maria also followed her. "Jefa, do you want something from the café?"

"More coffee," Dar said, "and some of the cheese pastalitos. They make them better here than at Versailles." She glanced back at Alastair. "Want coffee?"

"Sure," Alastair agreed. "I'm just going to borrow your outside office to make a call until they finish setting up whatever poobah area they've come up with for me."

Dar snorted. "You can go work in Kerry's office if you want. She's got a boxing dummy in there if you get bored." She led the way into her office, pushing the door open and feeling a sense of relief as her eyes took in the familiar surroundings.

It was all a little too much, coming back like this. It had been too long a day, too long a flight, too many strange happenings to end with this clamor of familiarity rubbing her nerves so raw.

She opened the door to her inner office and went through, slowing down a little as she took in the plate glass walls, and the view of the ocean. Her desk was clean, as always, only the fighting fish and her monitor disturbing the sleek wooden surface.

"Well, you do have a couch in here. What do ya know." Alastair poked his head in.

"Yes, I do." Dar put her briefcase down and settled into her comfortable leather chair, its cool surface chilling her back a little through her thin T-shirt. She reached under her desk to boot her computer, giving the trackball a spin as it started up. "Okay."

"Okay." Alastair came inside. "I'll take you up on that office offer. Just tell me where it is and I'll get out of your hair.'

Dar gave him a wry look, and pointed at the back door. "Go down that hall, door at the other end is Ker's."

Alastair looked at the door, then at her. "You've got to be kidding me."

Dar lifted both hands up in sheepish acknowledgement. "You can go out in the hall, turn left, find the kitchen, and go in the front way if you want to. Don't scare her admin though."

"The two of you, I swear." Alastair chuckled, making his way to the door and passing through it.

At last it was quiet. Dar sat back then turned her chair around to face the water. The surface was ruffled with white waves, a cavalcade of boats heading up into the bay and reminding her of yet another potential issue. "First things first."

She turned back around and tapped her speaker phone, dialing Gerry's phone number. Her desktop came up, and she typed her password in, watching as her backdrop came up, along with the global meeting place login box. She logged in, and changed her status.

Login: Roberts, Dar

Location: Miami Operations Center

Role: Miami operations executive.

Status: Missing my wife.

She backspaced over the last, and typed in good instead, and sent the box on its way.

The phone range twice, then was answered. "General Easton's office. Can I help you?" a woman's voice answered, sounding harried and a touch out of breath.

"I'd like to speak to the General please," Dar said. "It's Dar Roberts. He's expecting my call."

"One moment."

Dar scanned the screen as the status boards popped up, and there was a soft crackle that warned her the conference bridge was starting. She lowered the volume, as the phone came off hold.

"Hello, Ms. Roberts?" The woman's voice came back. "Hold on a moment, the General is getting to his desk."

"Sure. Tell him to take his time. I bet he's as tired as I am," Dar remarked.

"You know it," the woman said, her tone warming. "Hang on, I'm transferring."

A click, and then Gerry's voice boomed over the line. "Dar? That you?"

"It's me," Dar acknowledged. "How's it going there, Gerry? I'm in Miami."

"Miami! What the hell? I thought you were heading for Houston!"

"Me too. Long story."

There was a rustling noise and the sound of a door closing, then Gerry cleared his throat. "Well, I'm damn glad to hear you're back and on the ground safe," he said. "Things are a little better today. Had everyone on my backside this morning until I got a call from the fellas trying to make sense out of this place and found out your people are already moving on everything. Wonderful!"

Dar smiled. "I sent the best I have there, Gerry," she said. "Mark Polenti, my chief tech head, and Kerry's there, too."

"Y'know, that's what my fella said," Easton agreed. "Said your people are the best. Bringing in cupcakes and fixing everything. I really appreciate that, Dar."

"Anytime," Dar said. "So does that mean you don't need my ass up there? I'm sure Ker's got it under control."

"Ah," Gerry sighed. "Well, no."

Dar knew a moment of perfectly balanced conflict, as her desire to be where Kerry was battled against her knowledge that whatever Gerry was going to ask of her was, by definition, worse than what she was dealing with there already. "What's up?"

"You someplace quiet?"

"I'm in my office," Dar said. "The only thing listening is my fish."

"Right," Gerry said. "Listen, Dar I don't usually get involved in the civilian side of things, I've got more than enough on my plate right now, you see?"

"Sure."

"Just had the head of the White House financial office in here kicking me in the kiester," Gerry said. "Thing is, they lost a lot of facility there in New York."

"I know," Dar said. "We have a lot of customers down."

"Well, you'd know more about that than I would.

Anyway, you know they shut down the Stock exchanges, right?" Gerry asked. "All the financial stuff down in the south tip of Manhattan?" He paused. "You knew about that right?"

"I didn't--well, I probably heard that in all the clamor yesterday but didn't pay that much attention," Dar admitted. "There was so much going on."

"Well, don't you know? Here too," Gerry said. "Feller from the White House seemed to say I'd been derelict in my duty because I didn't know a bull from a bear." He sighed aggrievedly. "So this guy comes over here and tells me it's a national emergency about those stock houses. Have to get them back working. Government is counting on it. World stability is at stake."

Dar's brows contracted. "Granted," she said. "Having the markets down sucks but didn't they say yesterday they shut them down on purpose to stop a run on them? I thought I heard that in a sound bite."

"Pish tosh," Easton said. "I got an earful about keeping consumer confidence up and all that, but the fact is all the blinking things and doodads in there can't work because of all the damage. They don't want to admit it, trying to make everything seem like it wasn't that much. You see?"

"Ah," Dar murmured. "I see." She paused. "Why the hell are they after you for that, Gerry? Since when is the Joint Chiefs in charge of telecommunications repair?"

"We aren't," Gerry stated, with a snort. "Which is what I told this feller, and he told me he didn't want to hear my problems. He wanted me to get his solved." The general cleared is throat. "Apparently because I," he said, "know you."

"Me?"

"You," Easton confirmed. "Someone told this guy that you'd be able to fix this thing."

"Me?" Dar repeated. "Gerry, they're not customers of ours. We have nothing to do with the Exchanges. That's all private line work," she protested. "I don't even know anyone down there."

"Well, Dar, I don't know what to tell you, but this guy said I should get hold of you and make you fix this problem for the White House," Gerry said. "Now, he said I wasn't suppose to tell you it was for the White House, but I told him if he wanted me to ask you to do something you had to know why or you'd tell them to--ah--"

"Kiss my ass?" Dar exhaled. "To be honest, Gerry, I really wouldn't tell the White House that, even though I think the current occupant has the mental capacity of a woodchuck, and the personality of what it excretes."

General Easton cleared his throat.

"I just don't know what we can do about it," she went on. "Honestly. None of that is ours, and they lost so much infras--"

She paused, thinking hard.

"Dar?"

"Yeah, sorry," Dar said. "I was just considering something. So what do they want me to do, Gerry?"

A soft buzzing sound came through the phone. "Damn thing," Gerry sighed. "Dar, honest, I don't know because all that whoohah you do is just so much mumbo jumbo to me. I think you need to come up to talk to this guy. Tell him the straight facts. If you can't do it, you can't."

"Okay," Dar agreed. "Can you get me a lift? I'll do him one better, I'll bring my boss with me so we can dispense with the 'let me talk to your boss' routine right off."

"Sure can." Easton sounded pleased. "Let me get my girl on it, and she'll call you with the scoop," he said. "Listen, Dar--" He hesitated. "If you can do anything for this guy, you might want to think about it. He's big. He can cause you a lot of trouble, if you catch my drift."

"Yeah," Dar murmured. "I catch your drift."

"Good. See you tonight then," Easton said. "Later, Dar."

"Later." Dar hung up the phone, leaning back in her chair with her hands laced behind her head. "Well, shit."

The door opened, and Maria poked her head in. "Ready for café, jefa?"

Dar looked at her. "Oh yeah," she said. "I sure am." She waited for Maria to enter. "Looks like I'll be flying out to DC tonight, Maria. Any chance of getting someone to run by my place and grab another overnight bag?"

"Of course," Maria said. "Mayte has already mentioned she would be glad to do that if you needed her to, and also to bring anything Kerrisita might need. We want to do our part as well."

Dar smiled at her. "This is a hell of a time, isn't it, Maria?"

Her admin set her coffee and pastries down and came around to the back side of the desk, leaning against the edge of it as she studied Dar. "I was crying so much, all day," Maria said. "I was so scared, for everything."

"Me too," Dar replied.

"Listening to Kerrisita, she sounded so upset also," Maria said. "But you know when you came on to the big conference, and what Kerrista said? We all said the same thing, all of us. Everyone."

Dar cocked her head in puzzlement. "Oh, you mean about being glad to hear my voice."

"Si." Maria nodded.

Dar exhaled. "Now that yesterday is over though, it's hard to know where we go from here," she said. "It all just makes so little sense."

"My Tomas says the same," Maria said. "Let me leave you to get your things done. I will send Mayte over to your house right away."

"I'll call my folks and have them get a bag ready," Dar said, leaning forward and reaching for the phone. "And I guess I better warn Alastair."

"Como?"

"I think I got us into a hell of a situation."

KERRY LEANED ON the steering wheel, waiting for the lights to change so she could continue her slow progress toward the Capital. She glanced at her watch, then pulled through the intersection and continued along her way.

She checked her watch. Thirty minutes until the time she'd told her mother she'd be there, and she figured she would even have time to find her way without having to run through the hallowed halls.

"Talk to Congress." She drummed her fingers on her steering wheel. "How completely freaky that I'm considering taking a break from what I was doing all day."

She picked up a bottle of juice from the cup holder and unscrewed the top, tossing a few tablets into her mouth and washing them down as she found the cross street she was looking for and turned down it. On one side was a stately office complex, its limestone front the same sedate cream she remembered.

The first time she visited the Russell building to see her father in his offices there, she'd been about eight. Kerry remembered, dimly, the feeling of wonder as she walked at her mother's side between the trees and up into the solemnly colonnaded rotunda.

Now she took a moment as she got out of the SUV to collect herself, and tug her jacket sleeves straight before she shouldered her brief case and closed the door. The cool air puffed against her hair as she crossed the road and walked down the sidewalk, giving the armed soldiers there a brief smile.

They glanced at her, but none of them made a motion to stop her. Apparently blond haired, Midwestern looking chicks weren't on the watch list. Kerry reached the visitors entrance and went inside, not surprised to see more armed soldiers there.

She approached the visitor's desk and stood quietly, waiting her turn as two men ahead of her spoke to the receptionist. The room was quiet, several people sitting in chairs on one side, one or two people working at tables, and the soldiers looking shockingly out of place in their field uniforms with guns slung over their shoulders.

What exactly, she wondered, were the soldiers supposed to do in case someone wanted to blow themselves up in the room? Jump on them? Surely not. Shoot them? Would that stop whoever it was from pressing a button?

Technology moved faster than people. Kerry knew that better than most. If someone in the room had explosives strapped to their chests and pressed a button, there was nothing on earth that could stop that signal from reaching its target.

Security, men with guns, presupposed the threat they were guarding against could be reasoned with or intimidated. If your aim was killing yourself and everyone around you, like those pilots, how secure could you really make anything outside? Require people to go around naked and putting them through plastic explosive detectors every six feet?

Bad. Kerry exhaled. Violence never really was the answer, was it? At best, it was a temporary roll of duct tape in a series of escalating contests of humanities drive to claw its way to the top of whatever anthill they occupied. "As a species, we sure suck sometimes."

"Ma'am?" The woman behind the desk was looking at her, one eyebrow lifted.

The men had left, and Kerry apologetically stepped forward to the edge of the table. "Sorry," she murmured. "I have an appointment with Senator Stuart."

The woman studied the book in front of her. "Your name, please?"

"Kerrison Stuart."

The receptionist glanced up and studied her face for a moment. "Yes, she's expecting you," she said, after a pause. "Sergeant, can you please escort this lady to suite 356?"

The nearest soldier came over, and gave Kerry the once over, then nodded. "Yes, ma'am," he said. "Come with me please."

Kerry obediently circled the table and followed the soldier through the back door and into the building. The hallways too, were quiet. She could hear the far off sound of typing, something that had become an alien sound in the office buildings she now frequented.

It smelled of stone, and polish, and old wood. The buildings were from the early 1900's, and you could sense the history in the place as they walked along the wide corridor.

"Ma'am?" The soldier glanced sideways at her.

"Yes?"

"Do you know where you're going?"

Kerry repressed a smile. "Yes, I do," she said.

"That's a good thing. We just got here this morning, and I don't know even where the bathroom is. The soldier confessed. "There are a lot of little rooms around here."

"There are," Kerry agreed. "It used to hold around ninety different senator's offices, but now it's only about thirty of them, since everyone needs more people, more computers, more conference tables--it's a warren with all the interconnections now."

"Yeah," the soldier said. "You know the senator? I met her this morning. Seems like a nice lady."

"She's my mother,," Kerry replied.

"Oh, wow. That's cool." The man seemed to relax a little. "My mother would come in this place and want to right off paint it some other color. Put some plants around, you know?"

Kerry chuckled. "I know," she said. "This is more or less the same color as the walls in the house I grew up in, unfortunately. I'd go for a nice teal myself."

She led the way to the doors to her mother's offices. "Well, here we are."

"Okay. Thanks for showing me," the soldier said. "You have a good day now, okay ma'am?"

"Thanks." Kerry pushed the door open, giving the man a smile. "By the way, the bathrooms are down the next corridor, on the left." She winked at him, and ducked inside the office, closing the door behind her.

The soldier digested that information, and nodded. "That was a nice woman. Wish we had more people around like that."

He turned and started back toward the reception area, whistling softly under his breath.

Kerry was spared the need to interrupt the harried looking staff when her mother came out of one of the side doors, and spotted her.

"Ah, Kerry." Cynthia Stuart looked relieved. "I'm glad you could make it over here. Please, come inside and tell me how it is over at the Pentagon."

Kerry followed her back into what she remembered had been her father's office and knew a very strange moment of skewed déjà vu as she crossed to a chair across from the desk and set her briefcase down. "How are things going here today?"

Cynthia seated herself behind the desk. "Troubling," she said. "I hardly know where to start in addressing all of these issues. I just am quite glad my home area was not one of the ones affected."

Kerry sat down. "I'm sure you heard Florida was."

Her mother blinked a little. "I had heard. Yes. That's so very strange," she said. "I remember your father saying so many times how he felt uneasy about Miami, and now to hear all this makes me wonder if he didn't somehow know more than he realized."

"I don't think that's what he had in mind," Kerry said, after a brief pause. "I always got the sense he didn't trust Miami because of all the immigrants there. Hispanics are a majority. But I never got the idea that they were part of anything dangerous to the country."

"Perhaps," her mother said. "We will have to see what it is they found there. Maybe those men felt they could blend in more there than in other places."

Kerry half shrugged. "Like any other major city," she said. "We're working with the people at the Pentagon to get their systems back up. We should have some basic connectivity back in a few hours."

"I see." Her mother folded her hands. "Or, well, let me not lie about it. I assume that means something positive since I don't really understand what it is you mean."

Kerry relaxed a trifle in her seat. "It is." She paused. "They depend on computers to exchange information with everyone and everything. Right now, they have some dialup ability with a few servers, but it's very limited. What we'll do tonight is get their main computers to talk to the rest of the world using a portable satellite truck while my team is rebuilding the pieces that were destroyed in the attack."

"I see," Cynthia said, again. "Has Dar returned? I know you were concerned about her."

Kerry's face broke into a grin. "Believe it or not, she's home in Miami," she said. "I heard from her around one thirty or so. She may be heading up here tonight. It's a big load off my shoulders, that's for sure."

"How lovely," Cynthia said, with sincere warmth. "I'm so glad she's back safely. It's impossible to believe how dangerous simple travel now is. I was talking to one of my colleagues today about it, and he's terribly worried about tourism, and how that will affect the economy."

Kerry blinked. "Because people will be afraid to fly?"

"Yes," her mother nodded. "You may not realize it, but many of our airlines are on the borderline in terms of being profitable. This sort of thing devastates them. It's a domino also, as so many state economies depend on tourism, you know."

"Like Florida's." Kerry nodded. "Maybe people will just start staying closer to home. Travel in a car." Her brows twitched. "I always wondered what that was like. The longest car trip I've made is from Miami to Orlando."

Her mother looked thoughtful. "We never did have time for that as a family," she allowed. "I think I would have enjoyed driving through the Grand Canyon area. It's so beautiful."

"It's on our list too."

"Well, at any rate," Cynthia sighed. "Several of the intelligence committee would like to meet up with us in the caucus room at four. Does that suit you?" She watched Kerry's face carefully. "It shouldn't take more than perhaps an hour, and then I thought we could have some dinner."

"Sure," Kerry agreed readily. "That's fine by me. I was actually grateful for a reason to get out from under my staff at the Pentagon and let them do their jobs. When I'm around they tend to hover." She smiled briefly. "And really, there wasn't much for me to do there once I got the facilities straightened out and arranged for power and air conditioning."

"Excellent," her mother said.

"Senator?" One of the aides stuck their head in the door, and paused as they spotted Kerry. "Oh, hello there."

"Hi." Kerry smiled at the aide, the older man who'd been with them the night before. "How are you doing?"

"Much better for not having slept in the car, thanks." The aide briefly smiled. "Senator, they've confirmed it. It was the White House and Air Force One that was targeted. No doubt at all."

"Goodness." The senator frowned. "Then that last plane in Pennsylvania, it was headed there?"

"They think so, yes." The aide nodded. "I'm not sure how they were going to target Air Force One, but it was flying all over the place yesterday so--" He shrugged, and ducked back out.

"Thank goodness that came to nothing," Cynthia said. "What a horrible thing this is. So many people hurt. So many people killed." She looked up as her phone rang then glanced at Kerry. "Excuse me, Kerry. I have to take this." She picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Sure." Kerry checked her PDA, gratified to find a note from Dar waiting for her like the fudge at the bottom of a sundae. She leaned on one arm of the chair and opened the note, half listening to her mother's end of the conversation.

Hey babe.

Kerry smiled, hearing Dar's voice saying the salutation. That was a recent development too.

I'm sitting here at my desk trying to get over being hugged by Eleanor.

Kerry stopped reading, her eyes going wide. She leaned closer to the PDA and reread the line, not quite able to believe what she was seeing. "Huh?"

"I'm sorry. Did you say something, Kerry?" her mother asked, putting her hand over the receiver.

"Uh?" Kerry looked up. "No, sorry. I was just reading something here." She indicated the PDA. "Status report from Dar."

"Ah, good." Cynthia went back to the phone. "Edgar, I'm sure you're concerned, and I know we have a somewhat large community of--well, yes, I agree it's possible. People are very upset."

Kerry wrenched her eyes back to the PDA.

I definitely have to head up there. I talked to Gerry, and I need to fill you in, but I'd rather do it in person.

Me too, Kerry agreed readily. I don't frankly care why he wants you up here, matter of fact. They could want us to light the White House with double redundant tin cans and strings and I wouldn't care.

So I'm waiting to hear from Gerry's secretary about flights. I'll drop you a note or call you when I find out anything. Alastair's got everyone in a twitter--he's working out of your office.

Kerry stopped again. My office? She ran quickly over what she'd left on her desk, relaxing when she remembered cleaning it off before she'd traveled. "They couldn't find him an office in that mausoleum?" she muttered. "Sheesh."

Mari wanted to get him space, but I told him he could work out of there and punch your dummy if he got frustrated.

Oh. Kerry scratched her nose. "Hope he likes having you looking back at him, sweetie. That's a big picture of you on my desk."

Anyway. I hope things are settling out there for you. I'd rather not spend the night configuring routers again.

Nope. Kerry could think of much better things to spend the night doing.

I'm going to go grab a sandwich. My body's all screwed up from the damn time change.

Later DD.

"Well, thanks for keeping me informed, Edgar," Cynthia sighed. "Please tell the chief to keep his eyes out for anything. I understand how people feel, but we have to uphold the law." She listened and put the phone back in its cradle. "Well. That's worrying."

"What's up?" Kerry gazed across the desk.

"You know, there are quite some numbers of Muslims that live in Michigan," her mother said. "Edgar Braces, one of the commissioners in Dearborn, is afraid there might be some repercussions against them."

"Ah," Kerry grunted. "I hope people don't react like that."

"I hope so too," Cynthia said. "But you know anger makes people so unreasonable sometimes."

How true that was. Kerry felt a sting of possibly unintended reproach in the words. She decided the retort that was in the back of her throat wasn't appropriate and her mother didn't deserve to hear it. She was being as gracious as Kerry had ever seen her, and she, herself had the inner grace to feel a little abashed for her previous behavior. "It kind of proves the theory though, that violence usually breeds nothing but more violence, doesn't it?"

Cynthia nodded. "We learn from our Lord Jesus that we must turn the other cheek, and love our neighbor, but sometimes I think that lesson stops when our neighbor does not share our values, or our faith, or our history." She studied her hands. "At times, it doesn't even extend to our families."

"Sometimes it doesn't." Kerry gazed back at her evenly. "It doesn't even take much of a difference."

Her mother's face wrinkled a little then she nodded. "Very true." She looked at her watch. "It's time to go down to the caucus room. Are you ready?"

"As I will ever be." Kerry closed her PDA and tucked it into her briefcase. "Let's go." She stood up and locked the tab on the case. "Okay to leave this here?"

Cynthia paused in the act of standing up. "Of course," she said. "We won't be long." She gestured toward the door, and followed Kerry. "Did you have something in mind that you would like for dinner?"

"How do you feel about sushi?"

"Sushi," Cynthia murmured. "I suppose I could try that. It certainly can't be any worse than the Samoan cultural dinner I attended last month."