Storm Surge - Part 2

Chapter Six

KERRY SAT QUIETLY in the corner, perched on a wooden table shoved against the wall. They were inside a fairly small room in the back of the New York Stock Exchange, a space filled with pipes and tracks that was both stuffy and dank at the same time.

There was a rough, wooden table in the center of the room and at the moment, Dar and Alastair were seated at it along with some of the guys from Verizon, Sprint, MCI and AT&T all clustered around a set of yellowed blueprints spread on the scarred plank surface.

The rest of them, Kerry, and the techs, and the lineman from Verizon, were back against the walls. Kerry knew she could have squeezed in next to her partner, but she was content to stay where she was and leave the wrangling to someone else.

They had their masks off this far from the destruction, but she could still taste the dust and the smell on the back of her throat and she found she really wanted to be out of here and done with it.

Maybe it was the juxtaposition of the pressure to bring up these banking systems put against the smell of death and the look in the eyes of the firefighters she'd seen. She felt almost ashamed they were putting out as much effort as they were do to what they were doing instead of helping all the people around them who had lost so much.

She hiked one knee up and circled it with her arms, briefly debating if she should ask Dar if she could go back to the bus and get back in touch with the rest of their organization, working to get the rest of the problems and outages sorted out.

As if divining this, Dar turned and looked back at her, one dark brow hiking up.

It felt like her mind was being read. Kerry gave Dar a wry look then glanced at her watch and lifted her own brows in question.

Dar held up her hand then turned back to the discussion at the table.

Kerry settled back against the wall, wishing she'd thought to bring a bottle of water with her. "Going to be a long day," she commented to Mark, who was perched next to her.

"Yeah," Mark agreed. "I'm not really into this."

"Being here?" she asked, lowering her voice.

"This part." Mark indicated the building with a circle of his finger."I was cool with being at the Pentagon. That was cool, helping those guys out. All I'm getting from this place is a 'what can you do for me' vibe."

Kerry glanced past him, where the technicians who supported the building were standing around, arms crossed with dour expressions on their faces. "I think I'd rather be helping the people who can't even get back to their homes here."

"Exactly," Mark agreed. "I mean, don't get me wrong. I know this is important, but like, when you see people scraping up body parts from the street it kind of puts it in perspective."

Kerry grimaced. "On second thought, I'd rather be in here than seeing that."

Mark eyed her. "Sorry about that," he said. "I didn't really see it either. Just heard the guys talking outside."

The room they were in had power. The whole building did, driven by generators that were being fed by a line to a tanker barge tied up off the end of the island. All the other buildings around it were still dark and the apartments that ringed the area likewise, but this place, and one or two others, had lights glowing through the windows still caked completely with dust.

"I'm not even sure how we're going to help with this. All they're doing is arguing who should get the resources we've got first." Kerry shook her head. "If I was Dar, I'd be yelling already."

The door opened and Andrew entered, a backpack on his back. He removed his mask and crossed over to where Kerry was seated, easing the pack off and setting it down on the table. "Lo there."

"Hey, Dad." Kerry was glad to see him. "Where'd you go off to?"

He opened the pack and handed her a bottle of Gatorade. "Back to that bus thing of yours," he said. "Got tired of all the yapping here." He took out a bottle for himself then offered one to Mark. "Got some folks outside doing more yapping, some of them gov'mint types."

"Great." Kerry opened the bottle and gratefully took a sip. "Thanks for the drinks. My throat is coated with that dust."

"Yeap." Andrew leaned against the table. "What's Dardar up to over there?"

Kerry had lost track of the conversation. "Talking to them about resources, I guess," she said. "Everyone thinks they're priority one.Same story as usual."

Andrew crossed his arms and took a sip of his own drink, shaking his head as he listened.

"GENTLEMEN." DAR RESTED her forearms on the table. "We've been around the block with this a dozen times. We need to get moving on it."

Charles lifted his hands and let them fall. "Well, that's mostly because we keep coming back to how in the hell do we start," he said. "I've got a demarc here with a thousand lines that go no where."

"Look." The Verizon man stood up and put a dirt smudged finger on the blueprint. "Just like I told everyone else around here. This ain't no magic. Just because you people think you got some kind of priority here don't make the truth any different."

"Hey, it's your damn last mile," the MCI representative said. "What are you going to do about it?"

"What do you think?" The Verizon rep shot back. "We lost a whole fucking switching center. You think I got one in my back pocket? Tell your big shot customers they gotta wait, like everyone else. We gotta find a place, we have to pull conduit--shit. It'll be six months to get service back to everyone down here."

He stood up. "I'm outta here. I've got things to do. C'mon boys."

He motioned for his crew to join him. "So long."

"Then we'll bypass you and light the building up ourselves," the MCI rep said.

"Yeah?" The local man snorted. "Don't try it, buddy. We're all union here and any of my people will tell you to go kiss their asses. You people are gonna wait until we're good and ready." He strode out with his men behind him, slamming the door on the way out.

Dar sighed, and rested her chin on her fist. "Just what the situation needed. More assholes."

The door opened again, and one of the other AT&T men came in."Charles, the governor's rep is outside. He wants some answers."

"Maybe he should ask one of the jerks who just left for them." Charles pushed back from the table in disgust. "Jesus." He got up. "I'll be right back. I don't' know what the hell I'm going to tell this guy, but I'll think of something."

He left, and took his assistant with him, leaving the rest of them to sit around the table in pensive silence.

"Okay," the Sprint rep said, after a long pause. "So, what are our options? I've got twenty customers leaving voice mails for me every ten minutes."

"We all do," the MCI rep agreed. "Except you people." He glanced across the table at Alastair and Dar. "Bet you're glad they're not your customers."

"Well now." Alastair settled back in his chair. "You're right. I don't have a dog in this hunt. We'd be happy enough to be one of your customers calling and bugging you, but as it happens the folks in Washington did hear we have some experience in this type of thing and asked us to stop by."

"Really? Chuck didn't say that."

"Not sure he knew," Alastair admitted.

"So." Dar picked up the ball. "Let's discuss what the possibilities are. If there are any."

THEY CLUSTERED INTO the demarc room, only six of them this time as the rest waited outside. Dar was there along with Mark, the reps from the three telcos, and one of the techs who worked in the Exchange

Kerry found a bit of wall to lean against between Alastair and Andrew. "What a mess."

"You could squeeze in there if you wanted to." Alastair pointed at the room. "See what's going on."

"Nah." Kerry shook her head. "This is Dar's ballpark." She paused,the word triggering a memory. "Ballpark. We were supposed to play our first practice game today."

"Eh?"

"We joined a corporate softball league. Today's Saturday right? We were supposed to all meet at the park today and see how bad we all are at playing ball." She let her head rest against the wall. "Sorry I'm not there I'd even enjoy striking out and falling on my ass right now."

Andrew patted her shoulder. "Can't last forever, Kerry. We'll be getting on home soon, for sure."

Kerry rubbed her eyes. "I hope so."

"This really stinks, doesn't it?" Alastair asked. "What in the blazes are we all doing here?"

"S'what I asked Dar," Andrew said. "Leave these here people to fix their own problems. They give me a hive." He added, "don't 'preciate nothing nobody does for them, like it's owed."

Kerry thought about that. "Well," she said, after a moment. "I think maybe they do. I think they expect everyone to go the last mile for the city, because of what happened."

"True enough." Alastair allowed. "But does that mean we throw off all our own responsibilities to take on theirs?"

Andrew and Kerry looked at Alastair. "I think that's your call, isn't it?" Kerry asked. She studied the older man's face, which was tired looking and smudged with dust. "Can we just walk away from this?"

Alastair thought for a moment, his eyes going a little unfocused as he considered the question. "Sure would be nice to go home, huh?"

Kerry flashed back to that underground nightmare, and the strong desire it had spurred in her to turn and run, and keep on running right back to the warm sun and blue skies waiting for her back home.

Home. Miami was home now in a way Michigan had never been. "It would," she replied softly. "It's not that I don't want to help those guys in there. I don't think it will end up being worth anything to us."

"Hm." Alastair rubbed his nose. "Not sure we should expect any worth out of it. There is something to be said for public service. We don't always get a return on an investment, at least not in the short term. I have a feeling if we turn our backs on these bastards, we'll suffer in the long term." He paused. "Not fair, really."

"Jackasses," Andrew muttered.

"Let me go see what's going on." Kerry pushed away from the wall and headed over to the doorway, more to give Alastair room to think than because she thought she would be of any help inside. She eased into the space, spotting Dar's tall form to one side as her partner pointed out something.

She could sense the tension in the room. With a gentle "excuse me", she edged behind the Sprint rep and came up behind Dar, finding a spot between her and the wall that was just about the right size for her to fit into.

With a gentle clearing of her throat, she fit into it.

Dar sensed her, stepping back and draping an arm over her shoulders with a complete lack of self consciousness. "Hey Ker."

"Hey." Kerry hoped the layer of dust on her skin masked the mild blush. "How's it going?" She studied the demarc, rows and rows of telecom cards in shallow racks festooned with tags in a rainbow of different colors.

Dar shook her head. "Hard to say where to even start," she admitted. "It's not just communications with the rest of the exchanges. Data comes in here from all over the world."

"Yeah," the tech from the Exchange said. "That's what I was trying to explain to those other guys." He walked over to the wall. "This stuff's just here in the financial district. It's all local point to point." He indicated one rack. "This goes to the banking system. This goes to the major

trading houses in, like, forty cities."

He slapped the wall. "None of it's working."

The MCI rep put his hands on his hips. "I don't think we can do this. Even if we bring in a full sat setup, there's not enough transponder space up above to handle the traffic."

"They'd never let you anyway," the Exchange tech said. "The trading houses, and the other exchanges...the foreign ones, they've got security on this stuff big time."

Charles exhaled. "That's true. Most of those tie lines are ours. I've already had a call from London and Hong Kong."

"We had enough trouble getting space on the sat to relay our mobile cell units down here," the Sprint rep said. "They're jammed."

"They are." Kerry spoke up. "We've got a majority of the transponder space up there and we're using it for our customers."

The men turned and looked at her, then looked back at the maze of wires. "So what the hell are we doing here?" Charles asked. "Let's tell them we can't do it. What can they do? I'm already toast and I don't have an ass left--begging your pardon..." He glanced at Kerry. "For them to chew anymore."

Kerry looked at all the tags, then she glanced up at Dar. "What are our options, boss?"

Dar regarded the mass of wires. "Our options? Our options are which direction we're going to drive the bus out of here on our way out of town, unfortunately. We can't fix this."

The rest of the men nodded in simultaneous agreement.

"No way?" Kerry nudged. "Nothing at all we can do? I sure got the impression from the White House that this was really important. "

"It is important," the Exchange tech spoke up again. "If the market doesn't open, that's a huge amount of money tied up that can't go anywhere."

"Can't they do it by hand?" Dar asked. "Y'know, computers are a lot younger than this building."

"You got to be kidding me," the tech said, in chorus with Charles and the MCI guy.

"Guess not," Kerry murmured. "Dar, there has to be something we can do. Even to bring up basic services. Isn't there?"

Dar removed her arm and put both hands in the pockets of her coveralls, tilting her head to one side as she gave the question its just due. Everyone waited respectfully in silence, until she cleared her throat and shrugged slightly.

"Think of something?" Kerry could tell, by the body language alone, what the answer was.

"Won't fly," Dar demurred. "The only way we could help out is if we get a trunk line from here over to Roosevelt Island. That's our closest node." She went on. "You'd have to do it underground."

"Impossible," the Exchange tech said, immediately. "Especially not without the union guys. I can't even get in a manhole without paying them through the nose."

"We'd never get the clearance," the MCI rep said. "He's right. That's all Verizon right of way and there's no way they'll let us run cable in there. Not taking money out of their pocket. I wouldn't either."He added. "If it was me."

Charles looked thoughtful. "Okay, it's impossible," he said. "But what if we could do it? What would that get us? It gets us to your network. That's private. We all know it."

"You're riding on it right now." Kerry reminded him mildly. "I'm tunneling you between your head end to your office here."

"Sure, but you can't do that for all of us, and all of this," Charles said. Then he paused, when Dar didn't respond. "Can you?"

Dar merely shrugged again. "No point in wondering, since it can't be done," she said. "But theoretically, if we could do it, and get the pipe over to my node, I might be able to do something useful with it."

There was a moment of silence, as the men all stared at Dar, who kept her hands in her pockets, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Are you shitting me?" The MCI rep finally asked.

"No," Dar replied. "Excuse me." She removed her hands from her pockets and patted Kerry on the shoulder. "Be right back," she advised, as she slipped past, and ducked out the door.

The men turned around and looked at Kerry, who folded her arms across her chest. "Don't ask," she said. "But if she says it's possible, you can take that to the damn bank."

"Yeah." Mark spoke up for the first time. "But if we can't get that cable from here to there, it's crap."

"Yeah," the Exchange tech said. "Crap."

Charles sighed. "Well, I can call Verizon. I think someone high enough in my company is probably related to someone high enough in their company."

"Their name Bell?" The MCI rep asked, wryly. "Better start digging. You're gonna need him."

KERRY WAS GLAD enough to drop into a soft, leather chair safe in the confines of the bus and surrounded by her colleagues. "Buh." She let her head drop back. "Glad we're here."

"Glad the wind is blowing off the water." Dar finished stripping out of her jumpsuit, tossing it over the back of the chair opposite Kerry before going to the bar and pouring herself a glass of juice from the waiting carafe.

"You got that right." Mark was toweling his face off. "This is some nasty shit. "

Kerry slung one leg over the arm of the chair and squirmed in the corner, letting her head rest against the soft leather. "You're right. That was nasty."

"It was." Dar sat down in the chair next to her, extending her long legs across the floor of the bus and cradling her juice between her hands. "Glad it's over."

"Is it?" Kerry asked.

"Well, for now," Dar clarified. "Until they come back and talk to us about getting action on that cabling I don't' see a reason for us to go back in there. Do you?"

Kerry shook her head emphatically. "I can live the rest of my life not going back in there given my choice, thanks. I'll be having nightmares about that underground for a month."

Dar reached over and curled her fingers around Kerry's arm, gently rubbing the inside of it with her thumb. "Sorry."

"Not your fault," Kerry muttered. "I could have stayed upstairs."

The door to the bus opened, and Alastair entered, putting his mask down and closing the door behind him. "Son of a bitch."

Dar's eyebrows hiked.

Her boss unzipped his dust covered overalls and removed them, sitting down on the nearby barstool to remove the legs.

"Can I get you something, sir?" The bus attendant zipped over, alertly

"Scotch. Double," Alastair said. "Straight up."

"Yes, sir."

"Governor's office get you again, Alastair?" Dar asked.

"Stupid son of a bitch." Alastair took the glass the bus attendant handed over, and gulped down the contents.

"Wow." Mark edged over to the counter nearby, giving his CEO a look of healthy respect. He opened a glass covered case and removed a sandwich sitting down to take a bite of it. "Want one of these, Mr. M?"

Alastair set his glass down with loud clacking sound. "I gotta tell you, ladies and gentleman. I'm about to pull this company out of here."

He got up and crossed over to where the chairs were, detouring long enough to grab a sandwich before he sat down across from Dar. "Son of a bitch."

Dar gave him a wry look. "Welcome to my world."

"Lady, you can keep it. I should tell that damn governor to take his threats and shove them up his ass."

"Threats?" Kerry frowned. "What on earth does he have to threaten us with? None of these are even our circuits." She got up and went over to the counter, selecting two sandwiches. "Sheesh."

"Hungry, boss?" Mark asked, giving her two fisted selection a quizzical look.

Kerry merely gave him a look as she retreated back to her chair stopping on the way to deliver Dar's sandwich. She sat down again and took a bite from the roll, glad of the tang of the horseradish sauce taking the taint of dust from her mouth.

"Thanks." Dar licked a bit of the sauce off her fingers.

"He said if we didn't come through on this damn Exchange issue, he'd cancel all our state contracts," Alastair said. "Can you believe that?In the middle of all this? I asked him if he didn't have enough problems without us pulling out and taking the rest of his offices down."

"I think he's just panicked." Dar chewed her mouthful of prime rib thoughtfully and swallowed it. "I think the federal government is all over him, and he's punching at whatever is in reach." She took a sip of her juice to wash the sandwich down. "Besides, we committed ourselves to help out here. "

"We did." Alastair agreed mournfully. "Sorry about that."

"I'm not," Dar replied.

Kerry tilted her head to one side and regarded her partner. "Really?" She asked. "You like being here?"

Dar shook her head. "No." She licked another bit of sauce from her thumb. "I hate being here. But if those people get their heads out of their asses, and get that cable run, we can do something to help." She glanced at Alastair. "Did you explain that to him?"

"Do you think they can do it?" Kerry nibbled the edge of her sandwich.

"There's no technical reason they can't," Dar said. "If they have the cable, and they're the damn phone company so they should have the damn cable, and they can find their way into the subway which goes right over onto the island, they can do it."

Alastair extended his legs and crossed his ankles. "Seems like a lot of work for two days. I did mention to the governor we had a dependency on those folks, but he wasn't hearing any of it. Said I should get it done myself."

Dar rolled her eyes.

"Hey, it's your reputation that got us into this." Her boss reminded her."I wasn't the one who called the government and volunteered us."

"Like I did?" Dar shot back. "You're the one who told me to go do it. I could have told Gerry we didn't have a chance at fixing this."

Alastair paused and thought, then shrugged. "Well--you know you're right. I did," he said. "But you never do listen to me, so why did you this time?"

"Children." Kerry cleared her throat. "Can we table the snipe fest? We've already got enough issues here to deal with."

"Doesn't she work for you?" Alastair pointed at Kerry, staring pointedly at Dar. "Insubordination?"

"Don't I work for you?" Dar grinned suddenly. "What's your point?"

Alastair chuckled wryly after a brief pause. "Damned if I know. Someone get me another scotch." He waved a hand at the bus attendant. "All right. So you're saying if those folks do manage to get some agreement then there's a chance this can happen?"

Dar got up and went to the white board on the far wall of the bus. It was covered in scribbling, and she picked up an eraser and wiped it off."Okay." She grabbed a marker and started drawing. "Let me just sketch this in."

Kerry took the opportunity to finish her sandwich. It was good.Her body was craving protein, and it really hit the spot.

Dar was drawing in a reasonable facsimile of Manhattan with the Hudson and East rivers on either side. Her hand made easy, sure motions and after a moment, she was finished. "We're here." She made a mark near the tip of the island. "Mark, hand me that subway map over there will ya?"

"Sure." Mark hopped off the barstool he had perched on and brought the map over. He handed it to Dar then stepped back out of the way.

"Thanks." Dar opened the map and spread it on the bar, studying it for a moment. "Okay." She turned to the white board again. "Here's where we were today." She marked a spot on the map. "That's Cortland Street. Here's the disaster site." She marked a large square. "Here's where the triple pop was, and Verizon's Central Office."

Kerry watched in fascination while sipping her drink. Dar's sense of space had always intrigued her. She'd seen her partner draw underwater diagrams with a three dimensional precision that was amazing. Now, she laid out the diagram with absolute sureness.

"Now." Dar moved on to the east side of the island. "Here's Roosevelt Island. The subway comes in here and then the line that goes through there comes back around this side down to here." She tapped her marker on the map. "If they bring it up Lexington Avenue, to Central Park, they can come down the tunnel here, and they'll end up not that far from our node."

"That's a hell of a long way." Alastair protested. "Not that it looks that far on that board, but Dar, I've been on that side of the city. You're not talking about a trivial effort here."

"I know." Dar juggled the marker in her hand, flipping it end from end."You didn't ask me if it was reasonable or likely--just if it was possible."

Kerry was about to voice her doubts about the possibility of it happening at all when her mind flashed back to a rainy night in the Carolinas and her jaws clicked shut.

It was possible. Dar wouldn't have bothered discussing it if she thought it wasn't. Whether or not those other guys could achieve it was another question, but it was a question Kerry wasn't sure she should be asking.

It wasn't their problem.

"That's a crazy amount of work." Mark spoke up. "If those guys have the reels, then maybe, but I don't think they can get through all that red tape, Dar. I heard those guys from the phone company talking and they're not into it at all."

"Well." Dar went to the bar and sat down on a stool. "Governor or no governor, I'm not going down there and do it for them," she said, quietly. "This is their city. It's their customers. I'm not crawling around in a tube kicking rats out of the way on their behalf."

Kerry nodded in relief. "Dar, I'll go wherever you go, but I don't want to do that either. Being under there today freaked me out."

"Right there with you," Mark said.

Alastair sipped his scotch. "I can work with that." He decided. "Let me get hold of Ham and we'll go see that damn jackass again."

"Somebody call me?" Hamilton Baird entered the back of the bus,wiping his hands off on his handkerchief. "Why, hello there you all. Gentlemen. Ladies." He glanced at Dar. "Maestro."

"Just talking about you Ham," Alastair said. "Dar's got a plan.We've got to go sell it."

"Now that's different," Ham drawled. "Ah got to tell you, Dar, I heard from those people down at Crisis on the Bay, or whatever they're calling that junk shop on the Hudson, and they do think you're just the cat's meow."

"Thanks," Dar said.

"Did you really do something with a welder?"

"Soldering iron." Kerry supplied. "It really was pretty spectacular and brilliant, but that's pretty typical of Dar."

Dar looked at her, eyes widening a little.

"Do tell?" Hamilton half turned toward her, a humorous tone in his voice.

"When we're done with the chit chat, we've got a jackass to go see," Alastair said.

Hamilton paused at the sandwich tray. "Do I have a New York minute to swallow this like a civilized man or should I have this lovely young lady put it in a blender and make it a smoothie for me?

"Eat." Alastair waved a hand at him.

Hamilton picked up his sandwich and his drink and wandered to the front of the bus where a television was playing. After a moment, Alastair got up and followed him.

Mark dusted off his hands. "I'm gonna go see what routers I've got to mess with left back there." He unlatched the back door and disappeared, leaving Dar and Kerry alone in the small seating section.

They were both quiet for a moment, just looking at each other. Then Kerry got up and moved over to Dar's chair, taking a seat on the arm and leaning along the back.

"Children?" Dar rested her head against Kerry's shoulder. "You crack me up."

"Sorry." Kerry ran the fingers of her free hand through Dar's hair."My brain is running in circles. Can they really do this, Dar?"

"Probably not," she conceded. "It would be like us running a cable from the office in Miami to our house. Possible, but pretty damn unlikely"

"Can they get it to our office at the Rock? We could take some of the traffic there, and not go all the way across to Roosevelt." Kerry suggested. "It's a little closer."

Dar considered that. "Which one of us is spectacular and brilliant?" she asked. "I forgot all about that. I have extra capacity at the office. We might be able to take part of the traffic there." She closed her eyes. "But I was serious, Ker. They have to step up, just like we had to step up yesterday and get the job done."

Kerry kissed the top of her head. "I love you," she replied, simply.

Dar smiled.

"Anything we can do to help though?"

"I knew you were going to ask that." Dar remarked. "Let's get Scuzzy up here and see if she knows someone we can talk to. I met her on a subway. Maybe it's a sign." She reached over and put her hand on Kerry's leg. "Want to hear my ulterior motive?"

"That if they run the cable up to our uplink, we can piggy back our customers down here on it? Starting with our tech office?"

Dar chuckled under her breath, a soft, light sound that echoed inside the bus. "Busted!"

Kerry started laughing too, her body finally giving up its tension as her headache faded and her blood sugar stabilized. The sense of horror from the disaster site moved to the back of her mind and the optimism that was more natural for her returned.

Dar turned her head and brushed Kerry's lips with her own, ignoring the rest of the folks on the bus that were within earshot.

Shocking. Kerry returned the kiss, caressing Dar's face with gentle fingers. But who cared?

The whole world was different now.