Storm Surge - Part 2

Chapter Eight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The man swallowed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Holy shit." Scuzzy whispered.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"If it's true," Charles said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What did that say about the situation?

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You."

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

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

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

"Really?" Kerry frowned.

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

"That doesn't sound good."

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

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

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

"I bet you can."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Never enough.

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

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

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

"Hey boss!" Mark waved her over. "The big Kahuna was checking one more thing, then she said she'd meet us up here."

"Good." Kerry claimed one of the leather chairs in the midst of her techs. "Someone get me a beer, please. The bigger the better."

"Right you are, ma'am." Shaun got up and trotted over to the bar.

"Long ass day, huh?" Mark asked. "Man, I don't envy those phone guys though. I wouldn't want to be creeping around in that subway at night."

"No way." Another of the techs agreed. "They've got balls." He paused, and blushed. "Sorry ma'am."

"No problem." Kerry sighed. "They've sure got more balls than I do, anyway." She glanced at Mark. "So what's Dar doing now? Did you find a route through the basement?"

Mark shook his head. "No such luck," he replied, mournfully. "I can't even get them to tell me where our damn demarc is. They have to call some guy who was on vacation or something to find out. We couldn't find any easy way to get from the building out."

"Ugh." Kerry accepted the large, frosty mug of beer Shaun was handing her. "Thanks. Where's Kannan?"

"In our room," Shaun said. "He's still pretty freaked out. I told him to order some room service and relax."

Kerry took a sip of the cold beer and swallowed it "Good choice." She complimented Shaun. "And good idea to have Kannan just rest tonight I have my admin trying to get him a flight out of here tomorrow to go home. I don't think he's really in danger hereafter all, so many people here in New York are from India it's not really unusual--but I understand how he feels."

"Yeah, I know." Shaun picked up his own glass that seemed to be some kind of highball drink. "He's just freaked out by all of it. Sucks too, because he's our best WAN guy."

It did suck. Kerry sat back in her chair and looked around the bar. Aside from her group, there were several others, clustered around the scattered tables or watching the three television sets mounted on the walls.

Ordinarily, the screens would have sports on them, she figured.Basketball, or football, or whatever ESPN was serving up. Now, all three were tuned to CNN, and those sitting around seemed fixed on the pictures that showed again and again the horrific sights she'd gotten to know up close and personal earlier that day.

Shots of the wreckage. Shots of the Pentagon. Shots of a burned field in Pennsylvania. Talking heads. Shots of the president with his bullhorn standing on a mound of debris. More talking heads. Shots of smoke, of the mayor at a funeral, of the barges removing remains to Fresh Kills landfill along with mounds and mounds and mounds of debris.

Fresh Kills. What a cosmically ironic name. Kerry was truly surprised someone hadn't changed it just to spare everyone the wince. It was Dutch, she'd learned. The old word kille meaning water channel and the place itself was an estuary that drained wetlands into the sea, but in the current context it was ghoulish and she was tired of hearing it.

Certainly, she'd winced. That reminded her of something and she set her beer down, removing her cell phone from her belt and opening it. She looked up a number, pressed the dial, and listened to the ring until it was answered. "Hello, Mother."

"Wh--oh, hello, Kerry," Cynthia Stuart answered. "What a surprise. I hadn't expected to hear from you this evening. Where are you? Still in New York?"

"Yes. Across from our office at Rockefeller Center," Kerry replied."How are things there?"

"Frustrating," her mother answered honestly. "I have to say it's very difficult talking to people who cannot see past someone with perhaps a different religion, or so on, and who must assume everyone who is from somewhere else is suspect."

"I heard about the attacks," Kerry said. "I'm sorry. We encountered that here. One of our techs is from India and he's had a tough time."

"Terrible." Her mother agreed. "I have to say your being there also makes me quite anxious, however, Kerry. Angela is also concerned. "

"Thanks. It's been a rough day. We were down at the disaster site earlier. We just got back uptown a little while ago."

"Oh my." Cynthia gasped a little. "I had no idea! I saw the pictures on television just before--it seems absolutely horrific. Hold on, Angela, I have your sister on the phone. She seems right in the middle of everything again--what--oh, all right. Yes, hold on."

"Ker?" Angie's voice came over the line. "Are you nuts? Get the hell out of there!"

"Hi, Ang." Kerry gave her table mates a wry look, and a shrug."Family," she mouthed. "Get out of here? We're in the lobby bar at our hotel. What's wrong with it?"

"Kerry, cut it out! Why are you guys there?" Angela acted upset. "It was bad enough when you were at the Pentagon, but Jesus!"

Perversely, after being horrified the whole day, now Kerry felt the need to downplay the whole thing. "C'mon, Ang. There's a whole city full of people here. Chill. We had to come here. There's a lot of stuff that needed taking care of. "

"How long are you staying there?" Angie asked. "Have you heard what's going on here?"

"I heard. People are going a little crazy, I think," Kerry said. "We have a lot of customers down here, and there are some things we're doing for the government. It's not just me and Dar, either. Our CEO is here and a bunch of our corporate people. "

"So you and Dar aren't running the planet as usual?"

Kerry spotted her beloved partner entering the hotel, surrounded by men, all of whom were glued on whatever it was she was telling them."Who us? Nah, we're just little fish here." She watched Dar, hands moving in a decisive motion, dismiss her accolytes who scattered in all directions. "We're just a couple of nerds to these guys."

"Uh huh," Angie said. "Sis, be careful, please? It's easy to get hurt in all the stuff going on.

"I will."

Dar stopped at the front desk and leaned over the top of it talking to the short, well dressed woman behind it.

"Ker?"

"Huh?" Kerry wrested her attention back to her phone. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I said, here's Mom back. Be careful!"

"Here comes Big D." Mark spoke up. "Looks like she could use a beer too, Shaun."

"Hey, you'd think my family were Irish bartenders or something--oh wait. They are." Shaun good naturedly got up and headed back to the bar.

"Kerry?"

"Yes, I'm here." Kerry could see the irritation in her partner's body language, but she smiled anyway, as the stormy blue eyes lifted and found hers. "Listen, I hope everything settles down and people start to think again. I know this has to be a knee jerk reaction."

"I certainly hope so. Will you be there long? "

Kerry considered the question as Dar arrived and took a seat on the arm of her chair. "I think we'll know more on Monday, to be honest. I'll let you know," she said. "I'm sure Dar will want to get out of here as soon as we can."

"Bet your ass." Dar commented.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Cynthia asked. "Was that Dar? I thought I heard her voice."

"It was," Kerry said. "She was just agreeing with me."

Shaun came back over and offered Dar a glass. "They told me to get this."

Dar eyed him. "They did, did they?" She let her eyes narrow. "Now why would they say something like that?"

"Um." Shaun took a half step back.

"C'mon boss." Mark called over. "Be nice."

A grudging smile appeared on Dar's face and she extended one hand to take the glass. "Thank you, Shaun." She lifted the glass and glanced around the table. "Let's hope this is one day in a million."

"Hear hear." Kerry lifted her own glass. "Mother, we're going to rustle up dinner now, so let me let you go. I'm glad the family's safe there, and I hope things cool down." She listened, then closed the phone and put it down on her knee. "People, you all did an amazing job today."

"Ma'am, we just hung out and watched," Shaun said.

"That's okay, I did too." Kerry bumped Dar's leg with her shoulder. "Dar did the heavy lifting. But everyone hung in there, and now at least we have a plan, and we're moving forward." She glanced up. "Right?"

Dar waggled her free hand and took a sip of her beer.

"Uh oh." Kerry retreated to her own mug.

"We have some challenges," Dar said, after a pause, waiting for everyone to lean forward to listen. "I found out we need to go and take a closer look at the subway tunnels coming under the office tomorrow.Apparently there's more than one set."

"Oh sure," Scuzzy spoke up. "You ain't gonna believe how many tunnels are under this city here. I think there's like ten that come into Grand Central--you remember Grand Central? That's where we met up that time."

"I remember." Dar nodded. "Looked like a maze made by whacked moles fighting blind badgers," she said. "So tomorrow we need to try and scope a path for them to take that cable up into the building so we can cross-connect it to our gear."

"We can't use the copper riser," Mark said. "I didn't find any ground level demarc."

"I'll go with ya tomorrow," Scuzzy said, confidently. "My old man worked here. I used to sleep in some of them little rooms, me and the rats and the bums."

Kerry felt the air in the bar hit the outsides of her eyeballs as they widened.

"Y'know, you never know. They might have coal bins and who knows what down there. We'll find something. But I thought you were telling them to take it out to Roosevelt?" Scuzzy went on. "What's up with that?"

"Kerry reminded me it'd be a lot closer to bring it here," Dar said."We've got enough pipe here to take at least part of the traffic."

"That sure helps," Scuzzy said, sucking on the straw poked in her colorful fruity drink. "Cause you don't want to be in those tunnels under the East River, you know?"

"I know." Dar agreed solemnly. "Me either."

"Specially since the Roosevelt is like, halfway to China." Scuzzy continued, "It's like, ten, maybe fifteen stories underground, and I got my ears all screwy going up and down from there."

Dar regarded her for a moment, then she looked down at Kerry."This project lucked out having you in it. I sure as hell am not going ten stories underground to fish fiber cable up."

"Anytime, honey." Kerry leaned her head against Dar's hip."Though I have to admit I'm not crazy about going ten stories underground right now either."

"That was rough, today," Scuzzy commented. "I thought I seen some bad stuff before but that was bad. Real bad."

"I've asked our real estate branch to find a different location for the technical office there." Dar said, after a brief silence, "I don't know how long it's going to take them to get things going again."

"I feel bad for all the people who live down there," Shaun said. "Like the office folks. They can't go home. That must be terrible on top of everything else."

"Living down there right now would be a lot worse," Scuzzy said. "They're better off staying uptown. I got a cousin who's right on the edge of where they don't let you go no more, and she's thinking of staying with my uncle in Jersey for a while."

"I'm sure most of the people here would rather go somewhere else for a while," Nan said, in a quiet voice. "I know I would. It was horrible in DC, but nothing like this."

Kerry listened to the voices around her, and found a kinship in the mental exhaustion she heard in them. She felt Dar's fingers close on her shoulder and figured they needed a change of scene. "How about we all go find some dinner now. You guys up for that?"

"Hell yes." Mark put his glass down hastily. "I'm starving."

"That sounds damn good to me too." Andrew had been sprawled in a nearby chair. Now he straightened up and studied his neatly laced military boots. "Find us some place we can get some steak and taters."

"Let's go." Dar slipped off the chair arm and offered Kerry a hand up. "Alastair and Hamilton are meeting with some board members, so they'll just have to miss out." She waited for the group to rise and start to file out the door. "With any luck, wherever we find will have ice cream sundaes."

"There's a Ben and Jerry's around the corner," Kerry answered instantly. "Caught my eye on the way in."

Dar chuckled.

"Hey, gotta find the essentials."

"WE'RE GOING TO regret staying out this late." Kerry trailed after Dar down the hallway to their hotel room. "Tomorrow is going to really suck."

"It is," Dar agreed, keying the door open and shoving it inward. "But I don't care. I needed a mindless night out." She trudged inside passing the bathroom and moving further into the space. "We'll survive. Mark has two cases of Bawls in the truck."

"Good point." Kerry closed the door behind them, sat down in the nearest chair and unlaced her boots. "A lot of people were out tonight. I was sort of surprised."

"Hysterical relief." Dar dropped down onto the bed and laid down flat on her back. "Felt a little desperate."

Kerry finished with her other boot, then got up and went over to the bed, sitting down and picking up one of Dar's legs to get at her laces. "I feel a little desperate," she said. "Christ, I want to go home."She pulled a lace loose.

Dar rolled her head to one side and gazed at her. "We will soon."

"Not soon enough," Kerry replied. "I feel so damned overwhelmed here, Dar. I'm not sure why." She pulled off one shoe, then the sock beneath it, pausing to tweak her partner's toe before she got up and went around to the other side of the long legs, and sat down to pick up the other foot.

Dar's eyes followed her. "You don't know why you feel overwhelmed? Ker, you're in the middle of a disaster zone in an unprecedented act of terrorism against our country. How are you supposed to not feel overwhelmed? I was watching those guys out there today. They're just digging, digging, and they had no real idea of what they were digging for. You don't think they're overwhelmed?"

Kerry removed Dar's other boot, and then set her foot down, leaning back along her side on the bed. "I know they are. That's what makes me feel so crazy. I should be able to do my job here because I wasn't a part of all that, but it's just making my brain go in circles." She propped her head up on one hand. "Why can't I be more like you?"

"A single minded idiot?"

Kerry smiled wryly. "Focused," she corrected her partner, "with an infinite capacity for innovation."

Dar turned on her side so they were facing each other. She lifted a hand and stroked Kerry's face with the backs of her knuckles. "You can only focus so long," she said. "That's why I stopped looking for holes in the wall today and took tonight off. Yes, I'll pay for it tomorrow, but I've finally learned the value of chilling out."

"You didn't chill with those darts." Kerry enjoyed the touch, savoring the look of gentle affection gazing back at her. "I can't believe you beat your Dad."

Dar grinned "Neither could he." She gently traced one of Kerry's pale eyebrows. "You weren't so bad yourself."

"It was fun," Kerry admitted, "but I'm glad we skipped the karaoke bar." She clasped Dar's hand with her own, and studied her face, half hidden in the shadows of the dimly lit room. There was a furrow over her brow and she looked tired.

"Hehe, me too," Dar said. "I guess we should get undressed and get some sleep, huh?"

"We should." Kerry agreed. "Especially if we're going to spend tomorrow digging around in office basements." She levered herself up and stood, unbuckling her belt and getting out of her cargo pants, hopping over to one side as Dar did the same.

"Careful." Dar reached over to steady her, as she draped her pants over her suitcase and stripped off her shirt one handed over her head. "Last thing you need is rug burns."

"Thanks, sweetie," Kerry said. "I know I can always depend on you to keep me from falling on my butt."

Dar chuckled, then she moved over a few steps to put her shirt away.

Kerry folded up her clothing and put it to one side of her suitcase, rummaging inside it to remove her sleep shirt. She had it in one fist, when a long arm snaked around her and removed it from her grasp."Hey."

"Hey." Dar dropped the shirt back on the bag and took her hand instead, drawing her toward the bed. "C'mon. There are plenty of sheets on the bed. You won't be cold."

Kerry felt the faint thrill of unexpected raciness. "I'm not cold already."

Dar glanced over her bare shoulder at her, a faint grin twitching at her lips, as she waggled an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"Really." Kerry planted a kiss between Dar's shoulder blades, then bumped her gently forward. "Lead on, hot stuff."

"Remind me of that again tomorrow after we're both conscious again," Dar responded, in a wry tone. She continued moving forward,towing Kerry along behind her.

Kerry smiled and followed willingly. "Bet your booty I will." In a moment the room was in darkness and she was under a set of cool sheets rapidly warming her and Dar's bare bodies. And the comfort of the skin on skin touch pushed the day's anxieties aside.

Animal comfort. She wrapped her arm around Dar's waist and felt her exhale. "Dar?"

"Yes?"

"Why do you really think they made that announcement today?About the systems working? Do you think they were playing with us?"

"No." Dar said, after a pause, "I'm not sure why they did it." She added, "maybe so people--so investors wouldn't panic."

"Hm." Kerry nibbled a bit of the skin on Dar's shoulder. "I think they're going to anyway. I bet when that market does open it drops like a rock."

"Nah." Dar shook her head. "People had time to stop and think. Having it closed wasn't a bad idea regardless of what the technical situation was. No knee jerking if you've had almost a week to react."

"But what if we can't actually bring everything back up by Monday? Won't that--" Kerry paused. "Maybe that's why they made that announcement. To put pressure on us."

Dar snorted softly.

"It bothers me. I don't like people playing games when we're going crazy trying to get things done here." Kerry grumbled.

"Yeah, I know." Dar rubbed Kerry's back with her fingertips.

"Sorry I'm whining."

"You're allowed." Dar looked up at the dimly seen ceiling. "Seems like this has been going on forever, huh? It's hard to remember I was in London a few days ago," she said. "Working with those guys--I feel like it's been a year since then."

"I was giving a speech just a few days ago," Kerry replied. "You know, I can't even remember what the hell I said," she admitted. "But I wish that reunion was the worst of my worries right now."

"Yeah." Dar let her eyes drift shut, glad of the thick glass windows that blocked most of the city noise. "I wish the worst thing I had to worry about was playing in that damned softball league and hitting myself in the head."

"Y'know though," Kerry mused, "before this all happened, that visit was turning out better than I expected. I think my mother caught a clue."

Dar gave her a squeeze. "I think your mother values family," she said, "and she wants you to be a part of that." She kissed Kerry on the top of her head. "I don't blame her a bit."

Kerry smiled. "I love you."

Dar's eyes opened again. "Back atcha, but what brought that on?"

Kerry snuggled a little closer. "Because I'm sitting here at three in the morning bitching and you're not telling me to shut up and go to sleep." She could feel Dar's body shudder with silent laughter. "You're so sweet to me."

Dar hugged her a little tighter, still chuckling.

"When we were down at the park today, I was looking out the front window at all those rescue workers sitting there, and it kind of brought home to me just how many blessings I have in my life." Kerry said, after a pause, "the primary one being you, of course."

"Likewise." Dar exhaled. "I'm one of the luckiest people on earth."

"We're both soppy mushballs."

"Guilty."

Finally, Kerry found herself smiling and letting it go, unable to resist the love she could feel wrapped all around her. She closed her eyes and listened to Dar's breathing for a few minutes until the dim shadows faded out and she drifted off to sleep.

Dar stayed awake a few minutes more, enjoying the sensation of Kerry's breath warming her shoulder. They would try and accomplish the task they'd started on, she decided, and then, once that was either finished or failed, they would go home.

They were too close to the center of this. Dar could envision an unraveling ball of requests if they kept going, the pressure to succeed growing greater and greater, as the shadow threat of what might happen if they didn't hung over them.

Too much risk for too little return. Tomorrow she'd corner Alastair, call Maria, make arrangements for them to get transport out and, by the end of the day Monday, she decided, she'd be sitting on her patio playing ball with Chino and listening to Kerry rustling up coffee in the kitchen.

She closed her eyes, and exhaled, nodding her head in confirmation.