Storm Surge - Part 2

Chapter Seven

KERRY RESTED HER chin on her hand as her other hand moved her mouse clicking on another email. "Go ahead, Air Hub. I think it sounds like everyone has everything pretty much together."

"Roger that, Miami exec. Traffic isn't back to normal, but it's steady, and I think we can handle the additional service requests."

"Miami exec, this is Herndon." A female voice broke in. "We're getting calls from sites affected by the Pennsylvania outage. They want a status."

Kerry tapped on the mouse. "Do you have someone on now?"

"Yes, ma'am." Herndon answered. "Docson Pharmaceuticals."

"Put them on."

There was a moment's silence. "Put them on the bridge, ma'am?"

"Yes," Kerry said. "I only have two ears and one set of vocal cords. Put them on."

"Uh--yes ma'am. One second."

Kerry released her mouse and picked up her cup of hot tea, taking a sip of the mint and raspberry flavored beverage as she waited for the customer to come on the line.

She was in the last section in the bus a small, discrete office barely the size of her bathroom in the condo, but furnished in solid teak with the most comfortable leather office chair she'd ever encountered.

Plush and expensive, it was designed to provide a marginal business purpose for the courtesy bus and, in the case of strange and utter emergency, it allowed whoever was using the bus at the time--always senior officers of the company--to perform whatever office it was they held in dignified good taste.

She liked it. It was private. There was a smoked glass wall that separated it from the rest of the bus, and a door she currently had shut. The glass kept it from being too claustrophobic, but the shading kept it from being a fishbowl and it was soundproofed to a moderate degree.

"Standby." Herndon warned her. "Mr. Eccles? You're on the line with Kerry Stuart, our VP of Operations. Go ahead."

The only thing it lacked was enough space for Dar to be in therewith her. "Go ahead, Mr. Eccles. What can I do for you?" Kerry spoke into the mic.

"Ah, okay, yes. Ms--ah, Stuart was it?" A male voice came from the speaker, along with faint static.

"That's right." Kerry saw a popup start to flash, and she clicked on it.

Hey Kerry -- got a minute?

Kerry typed into the box. Go ahead Mari.

"Well, listen. I need to know what's going on here. I've tried to get hold of my account rep, but he's not answering, and the support center said there's no one available down there so--"

Kerry clicked on another box as a text message passed through their internal messaging system rather than to her phone.

Scuzzy knows a guy. She smiled at the words. "Well, Mr. Eccles, I'm very sorry, but you'll have to be a little more specific on the question. There's an awful lot going on right now. I am sure you can appreciate that we have many issues we're working on, including yours."

She waited for the answer while she typed a response. Scuzzy's going to be worth a promotion by the time this is over

She'll end up a regional director. Can't wait for the conference calls with her on them.

Kerry stifled a laugh, appreciating Dar's wry humor. Then Mari's box started flashing with a new incoming message, and she clicked over to it.

Kerry, I've got a request here from the FBI to provide them with all our employment records.

Kerry's head jerked up. "What?"

"Well, I--what?" Eccles answered. "What did you say?"

"Sorry." Kerry typed furiously into the machine. "Go ahead. I have quite a few things working here right now."

"As I was saying, our offices have been down since Tuesday. I'm the first one to understand that there's been terrible things going on, and I assume your people are busy, but my business is at a standstill and I need to know what's being done for us."

What? Dar's response came back.

What should I tell them? Mari asked.

"Hang on a minute, Mr. Eccles. Let me call up the support system and see what I can find out for you." Kerry said, as she typed. Mari, I'm getting Dar on this. She's with Alastair, and I hope also with Hamilton. They really need to handle that request. Who's it coming from?

I'm on the way there. Dar's message somehow sounded as indignant as Kerry knew she was.

Bring Alastair and our lawyer. Kerry advised her. "Okay, Mr. Eccles,what I have here on your outage is that you have three circuits down--"

Her cell phone rang. "Hold on a second, maybe that's news." She put the mic on hold and opened her phone without looking at the caller ID."Kerry Stuart."

Okay, gotcha. Mari typed back. I halfway understand the request, Kerry--it's become very obvious to a lot of people just how involved we are in the government, but I'm concerned.

She's concerned? Kerry took her eyes from the screen briefly as she heard a slight buzz on the phone. "Hello?"

"Ms. Stuart? Hello? This is Danny down at the Pentagon--I'm trying to get hold of Mark. Do you know where he is?"

The door opened and Dar entered the small room, bringing her restless energy with her. "Who's asking?"

"Danny, last time I saw Mark he was inventorying the routers here. Can I get him to call you? I'm on a few things right now." Kerry blocked out the distraction of her partner with difficulty.

"Oh, sure. Sorry about that," Danny said. "They're all of a sudden chewing me to move some of our rigs and I don't want to disconnect anything"

"Let me see that." Dar circled the desk and squeezed behind it with her, leaning over to peer at Kerry's screen. She clicked on Mari's box and typed into it.

"Okay, yeah, I'll have Mark call you." Kerry promised. "Bye." She hung up the phone and picked up the mic. "I'm on the bridge, hon.Don't start yelling."

"Idiots." Dar growled while reading the screen.

"Okay, sorry about that." Kerry keyed the mic. "Mr. Eccles, according to our system--" She paused, as Dar's typing removed the view from her screen. "Sorry, hold on one more minute." She clicked the mic off. "Sweetheart, I need to see my stuff. I'm in the middle of something here."

"I know--I know--just one second," Dar muttered. "Freaking idiots. I'm having her give them Hamilton's number. He's earning his salary today, that's for sure."

Kerry took the opportunity to take a sip of tea. Despite Dar's interruption in her flurry of communication, she didn't mind having her partner hanging over her. It gave her a chance to rearrange her thoughts, and the warmth of Dar's breasts pressing against the back of her head didn't hurt either.

"There. Sorry. Want me to pass that message to Mark?" Dar kissed the top of her head. "Since I messed up your flow here?"

"That would be awesome." Kerry took possession of her laptop."Now let me go and give some BS story to this guy about his circuits. Do you think they'll look at the Philly ones any time soon?"

"All the techs are here," Dar said. "Want me to send him a sat truck? Is he big enough? "

Kerry called up the account and studied it. Then she sighed. "Honestly, no," she said. "Let me see what I can do to placate him."

"Okay." Dar gave her shoulders a squeeze, then edged out from behind the desk and got the door open. "Let me know if you need anything else, okay?"

"Absolutely." Kerry resisted the urge to come up with something else on the spot. "Thanks babe." She waited for Dar to close the door then she went back to her mic. "Okay. Where the hell was I?"

DAR SHUT THE door to the bus and emerged into the area defined by the bus, the sat trucks and equipment vans that had accompanied it. In the middle of the open space, they'd set up a rough wooden worktable, and on it was spread the underground map with a handful of techs and Scuzzy all looking at it.

She rejoined them and the techs cleared a space for her. She was about to delve back into the underground puzzle when her conscience poked her. "Where's Mark?"

"He was just here," Shaun said. "Just a second ago."

"Mark!"

"Whoa, whoa--right here, Big D." Mark appeared from around the back of the bus. "I got that stuff you wanted me to look for--what's up?"

"Pentagon was calling for you. Something about moving a rig." Dar replied briefly. "Call them. Tell them not to bug Kerry if they want you.

She's not your sitter."

"Okay boss, you got it." Mark reversed course and headed for the bus. "My cell's gone wonky. It keeps losing sig. I'll tell them to text me on the PDA."

Dar returned her attention to the map, satisfied she'd taken one annoyance off her partner's plate. "Okay." She pulled out another schematic of the office building where their office was located. "Let's say, by some miracle of political voodoo they do manage to get a wire in this direction."

"Y'know, they could," Scuzzy said. She leaned on the table with both hands, appearing pleased to be involved. "Those union guys, they ain't that bad, you know? They want their stuff the way they want their stuff, if you know what I mean."

Dar nodded. "Matter of fact, I do know what you mean. But I don't lay bets on people I don't know. So all we can do is have a few plans in our back pocket." She tapped the blueprint. "As I was saying if they do manage to get up here, then what? How do we get the signal upstairs? Riser?"

Shaun hunkered down over the plan, leaning on his elbows."Here's something labeled electrical room. I think."

"But are there any openings between the room and the lower basement?" Kannan added, folding his long, slim arms over his chest. "I am thinking that will be the largest of the problems. I do not think they will let us put a hole through the wall."

Dar drummed her pencil against the plans. "I think we should relocate back to the office--at least half of us anyway. We can start figuring out what to do about the connection while some people stay here and work on this end."

"You really think these guys are going to do this?" Shaun asked. "I was talking to one of those Verizon techs. He didn't sound too enthusiastic."

"I don't know," Dar answered honestly. "But I do know if they do decide to come through, and we're not ready for it, we'll look like a bunch of jackasses. That's not on my agenda for today."

"Ah. Yeah." Shaun blushed a little. "Sorry."

"Lo there Dardar." Andrew had slipped between the bus and the sat truck and came up next to her. "What's the problem with them fellers? All these people round here looking to help, and all they're doing is pushing back."

He stuck his hands in his pockets, and cocked his head. "Don't make no sense."

"It doesn't really." Kannan agreed. "I don't understand it myself."

"You guys don't understand, yeah, that's right." Scuzzy spoke up."These guys--like the tunnels, and the buildings and everything-- they've been these guys like, home plate, you know? Like, my cousin, he's a guy who works in the tunnels. His pop, he was a sandhog. You know what that was?"

"Fellers work underground." Andrew supplied.

"Yeah, but here, that's like, something special." Scuzzy told them."This whole place, this whole city? It's built on what's underground. So they take it real personal about all them spaces. "

Dar now folded her arms. "You know something? I get it.""Yeah?"

"Yeah." Dar said. "I get it, because our entire company is built on a foundation I laid. I take that really personal also. But right now, they need to either get their heads out of their asses and be part of the solution, or be the ones who are going to answer to the damn politicians when their banks won't open on Monday. I'm not covering for them."

Scuzzy nodded. "That's pretty much what I told my cousin to tell those guys. 'Cause you know what? They ain't into seeing their pictures in the Times, you know?"

"Let's hope so." Dar pulled a pad over and started to scribble on it. "So. Let's see."

"Ms. Roberts?" A strange voice broke in.

Dar looked up, to find Charles somewhat timidly sticking his head around the corner of the bus. "Yes?"

He took that as permission to approach. "Listen, we're having a meeting with the city and union folks--would you mind stepping in and giving your view on the situation?" He asked. "There's some skepticism as to what our goals are."

Dar's brows lifted slightly.

"Okay, they all think we're nuts," Charles amended hastily. "I'm not having much luck convincing them otherwise. I thought maybe you'd have a better chance at it." He looked hopefully at Dar. "Please?"

Dar let him wait for minute, then shrugged and dropped her pencil. "Have it your way," she said. "The rest of you folks--let's get packed up to move back uptown. I don't care which lot of you stay here to work on the Exchange, sort it out among yourselves and be ready to head out when I get back."

"Yes, ma'am," Shaun said. "Will do."

"Let's go." Dar gestured for Charles to precede her. "I don't know if I can talk any sense into them, but I guarantee they won't have any question about what our goals are when I'm done." She glanced behind her as she felt a presence, not really surprised to find her father strolling along at her heels.

"Well, we're sure not getting any help from the politicians on this one." Charles shook his head as he walked quickly ahead of her. "They want us to fix the problem, but they don't want to help us do it."

"Now." Andrew mused. "Why is that, ah do wonder?"

"Maybe we can ask them that when I'm done with the rest of those guys," Dar said. "Should be an interesting answer."

"Should be."

KERRY WASHED DOWN a handful of Advil with a swig of water, then set the bottle down and shaded her eyes, listening to the chatter on the bridge without looking at her screen. Her cramps had returned with a vengeance. She was glad all she had to do was keep her ear glued to the activity and not do something more strenuous like move equipment around at the moment.

She knew there was a lot of activity going on around the bus. She could hear thumps and bangs, and voices through the thin aluminum walls. There was a flurry of coming and going through the bus's three doors, and the rumble of the truck engines of their little caravan was rattling the window near her shoulder.

"Miami exec, this is Vancouver hub."

"Go on." Kerry kept her eyes closed.

"Okay, we're finally back to normal traffic patterns. We released the last bandwidth advance for the airport." The Canadian hub reported."Everyone's rather chilling out we think."

"Good to hear," Kerry murmured.

"Miami, this is Houston ops."

"Go ahead."

"Miami, we're running into some pretty big issues with new contracts that were due to start this week and early next." A male voice answered."We've been told pretty much not to expect any circuit acceptance or demarc changes in the foreseeable future."

"In Houston?" Kerry's brows knit.

"Anywhere," the man answered. "We were told all the line techs-- for telco and power too--are being sent to New York to help out there, and anyway, some are going regardless because of all the work available."

"We had the same issue in Washington believe it or not," Kerry replied. "What is up with that? How many techs do they think they're going to need here? It's not that big an island. I realize there was a lot of damage done but there are only so many guys that can fit in a manhole."

There was a bit of silence when she finished.

"Well, okay, but what are we supposed to tell all these clients?" The voice from Houston asked finally. "I'm running out of excuses."

Kerry drummed the fingers of her free hand on the table. "Yeah. That's a good question. Rather than answer every one of our hundreds of thousands of customers, I think we should probably put out a note to everyone."

"Miami exec, are they really serious, that no one is going to get connected until whenever?" Another voice asked.

"Another good question. We have some of the head guys of the different companies around here, let me go round them up and see if I can find out. It could be that a lot of the local companies are putting everything on hold because they're not sure what's going to happen."

"That would be great, Miami exec," Houston said. "We sure could use the help, or at least, something we can tell all these people. We were supposed to bring thirty two branch offices of the local credit union here online, and the guy in charge there's my wife's brother-in-law. He's calling me every five minutes."

"Gotcha." Kerry reluctantly got to her feet. "Okay, folks, I'm going off-line for a few. I'll try to get us some answers."

"Hey Kerry?" Mariana broke in. "Where are you guys?"

Kerry paused. "Battery Park," she answered, finally.

'How is it down there?" Mari asked. "I know we saw on the television, but--"

How was it? Kerry let the silence lengthen as she tried to come up with an answer. "It's like a nightmare. The wreckage up close--it's overwhelming. The dust is overwhelming. The smell is horrific. "

"Wow." The man from Houston murmured.

"We went underground to see if we could spot any of the cables and I could swear I heard all those souls screaming."

Now there was dead silence on the bridge. Kerry took the moment to breathe, swallowing the lump that had come up in her throat. "So anyway," she continued, after the tightness relaxed, "Let me go see what I can find out from those telco guys. I'll be back in shortly."

She disconnected the mic and let it drop on her laptop taking a moment to lock the screen before she eased wearily out from behind the desk and went to the panel door. She opened it and went through, glad the interior of the bus was now quiet.

The floor of the bus shifted slightly, she paused and then continue on toward the outer door hoping the motion was just some last loading and unloading, and not anything more ominous.

The haze in the air seemed to have gotten thicker. Kerry wondered if it had, or if it was just her impression. Most of the sun was blocked out, and as she watched, a layer of dust was settling on the table Dar had set up in the center of their technical encampment.

She felt the breeze blow into her face, and realized the wind had changed, and that accounted for the thicker air, and heavier dust. "Crap." She turned and went back into the bus, picking up the mask she'd left near the bar and adjusting it over her head.

It felt gritty, and uncomfortable. However, she tightened the straps and returned to the outdoors, turning her head to look around for the others she expected to find somewhere outside.

It was too quiet, though. Kerry walked around the bus, then around the satellite trucks sitting silently aligned with it. She opened the backdoor to trailer Mark had hauled, but it, too, was empty. "Where in the hell is everyone?"

Past the truck she could see clusters of workers seated in the park with their backs to the wind as they huddled over paper wrapped sandwiches. Nearby on a table she spotted three of the company coolers, and cups that were clutched in many hands, and then, at last, she could sauna of the bus attendants heading back toward her. "Hey, Sharon!"

The attendant skewed her route and ended up next to Kerry. "Oh, hi, ma'am. Did you need something? I was giving those guys some of four sandwiches. They really don't have a lot of supplies down here yet."

"Do you know where everyone else is?" Kerry asked. "And absolutely, give those guys whatever we've got. They look exhausted."

"Well, you know I was wondering that myself," Sharon said. "I was inside cleaning up and then I came out here and everyone was gone.Maybe they went back to the site?" She glanced over her shoulder then sneezed.

"You should have a mask on," Kerry told her. "This air's thick with who knows what."

"I know," Sharon said. "I'm going inside to get one now. It just started to get bad again. I got sidetracked listening to those men talk about that place. My God, Ms. Stuart, they were here when it happened. One of those firemen said bodies were dropping out of the sky all over the place."

Kerry grimaced. "Yeah." She pulled out her PDA and opened it. "Well, let me find out where the gang is. I thought we were trying to get out of here." She typed a quick message to Dar and sent it. "Ah, here are some of the guys now."

Shaun and Kannan were headed toward her, masks firmly settled on their heads and collars turned up on their jumpsuits. Kerry waited for them to come over, then motioned them over to the bus and pointed on the other side of it. "Let's get out of the wind."

"Great idea," Shaun said.

They followed her to the far side of the vehicle and pulled their masks off. "Ms. Stuart, I am very apprehensive here," Kannan said. "My brother has just called me, and has said there are many instances of people from my country being hurt here."

"Here?" Kerry looked around. "What's going on?"

"Everywhere," Shaun said. "Jerks in pickups with guns shotting out convenience stores and some guy got gunned down on the street because he had a turban on. I heard it on the news."

"What?"

"It's true," Kannan said. "My family is very upset. They do not wish me to stay here."

Kerry nodded. "Absolutely," she said. "Where is your family? We'll get you there." She felt her PDA buzz and opened it. "Hang on."

Hey Ker.

I'm in a meeting with the telecom people. Wasting my time mostly. What's up?

DD

"Well, isn't that handy," Kerry muttered. "Hold on a second guys, I need to ask Dar something."

"No problem, Ms. Stuart," Kannan said. "I am glad to be back here, with our vehicles. I am going to go inside our camper there, and perhaps do some wiring while we wait." He headed off toward the camper Mark had brought, but not without glancing around carefully before he crossed between the bus and it.

"That totally sucks," Shaun said.

"It does." Kerry agreed. "Where's his family? In Virginia?"

"Arizona, I think. That's why they're so freaked. One of the killings happened there." Shaun informed her. "So maybe his family should take off and go somewhere else, huh?"

"Could be." Kerry tapped into the PDA. Good timing. I was just on the wire with Houston, and we're getting complaints from all around that we can't get circuits completed. Can you find out if that's a knee jerk one day thing, or if we're in real trouble? Where are you? It's getting creepy here. We should get out of this damn dust cloud.

She hit enter. "Where were you guys? With Dar?"

"No." Shaun shook his head. "We were with some of the Verizon guys, trying to make friends with them. We were in one of the manholes a little bit away from here, just helping them out and stuff."

"Did they say anything?"

Shaun shrugged. "They're just linemen. They're--I don't know, it's hard to figure them out. I think they're pissed because of all the destruction and all that, but they also were almost sort of jazzed because of all the OT they'd be making."

"Welcome to humanity," Kerry remarked dryly. "The one truly consistent trait of the species is self interest. But if that's the case, why are they pushing back so hard in helping us? If they want OT, we're sure offering a lot of it."

"They aren't." Shaun shook his head. "They don't give a squat about it, in fact, they thought the idea was sort of slick, to run a cable up the subway. It's their bosses who are being such a--a PITA."

"Uh huh." Kerry mused. "I wonder why."

"Maybe they want a payoff." Shaun suggested. "I heard it was like that here."

Kerry's PDA buzzed. "Hang on." She tapped the new message.

Charles is calling his head office. He'll let me know. These Verizon bastards won't budge.

Kerry tapped her stylus on the edge of the PDA, then tapped a response. Offer them a payoff. I was talking to Shaun, and he said he talked to the linemen. They're fine with running the cable.

The message came right back. You're kidding me right?

No. Kerry typed back. It's New York, Dar.

We're a public company and I'm an officer of it, Ker. Dar responded. I could get thrown in jail for that.

Kerry somehow doubted it. Then tell Alastair to do it. He's there, right? Dar, I love you but please don't tell me ILS has never paid a bribe to get something pushed through.

ILS has. I haven't.

Despite it all, it made Kerry smile. Ruthless, smart, quick thinking, driven--and yet, there was a line that Dar wouldn't cross. It was a beautiful thing, really. Okay. Just a thought. I can't really think of what else is holding their management layer back, if the line boys don't care. I thought it would be them, the union guys who would be balking.

Good point. Dar responded.

"Hey, guys?" Kannan came running back out. "Did we fix it? Did Ms. Roberts do this already? I am amazed!"

"Huh?" Kerry's head jerked up. "We haven't done anything. Why?"

Kannan skidded to a halt, his thin face crumpling in confusion. "I have just heard, on CNN, that they have tested the systems successfully, for this Exchange? Is that not what we were supposed to be helping with?"

Kerry and Shaun exchanged deeply puzzled looks.

Kerry opened her cell phone and dialed it. "Are you sure?"

Kannan spread his arms out and lifted his hands slightly. "That is what the news said. I am sure of that."

The phone crackled, ringing once and then crackling again as it was answered. "Dar?"

"Yeah." Dar's voice sounded slightly muffled. "Hang on, I'm going outside." She paused a moment. "Go ahead. What's up?"

"Kannan just heard on CNN that they successfully tested the Exchange computers to work on Monday. Are we doing this for nothing?" Kerry asked.

"Huh?" Dar said. "Ker, I'm in the Exchange. We're in the technical center. Trust me. Nothing's being tested here. They just lost power to the data center and there's no AC. Nothing's even turned on. And listen, I do appreciate the suggestion before; it's just not my style."

"I know hon," Kerry said. "So if nothing's working, what did they test?"

"The public trust?" Dar asked. "I haven't a clue. Hang on, Alastair?Kerry just said they announced on the news that they tested the Exchange systems and they were all good to go for Monday. You know what's up? What? No? Okay." Her voice got louder. "Ker, we don't know squat here. I'll try to find out."

"Okay sweetie." Kerry sighed. "I'll do the same. Maybe I'll call my mother. Maybe she knows something. It's getting really cruddy here.We moving out anytime soon?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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