by Melissa Good
"Works for me." Dar squirmed backwards, hauling Kerry with her until they hit the pillows. "Let it wait for tomorrow along with all the other problems." She tugged the covers loose, helped more or less by a silently giggling Kerry, and managed to get them wrapped over without rolling them both out of the bed.
That left only the light, and that was a short matter, well within Dar's long reach. She slapped the button and they were in darkness. The sound proofed windows blocked the noise from the street, and only the soft hum from the air conditioning and two simultaneous sighs were heard.
"That hole in the side of the building is pretty terrible, isn't it?" Kerry asked, softly.
'Yeah," Dar whispered back. "Surreal. Seeing the flag draped there made me tear up."
"Me too. They said it happened so fast no one had a chance to get away." Kerry took a little tighter hold. "Must have been horrible."
"Like in the hospital, for us."
"Yeah." The silence lengthened a bit. "We were really lucky that night,weren't we?"
"Very," Dar replied, in a soft voice. "Very, very lucky."
Kerry thought about that for a long moment. Then she pressed her body against Dar's, lifting herself up a trifle and kissing her with simple passion. She rode the surge of energy and felt Dar respond, their bodies tangling again as the covers became irrelevant.
It was a moment to just live life, without regard to what happened next.
AMAZING WHAT A difference a day made. Kerry whistled under her breath as she settled her headset on her ears, her laptop already alive with information. She was seated in front of the window with a view of a breezy fall day outside.
At her side rested a cup of steaming coffee and a croissant neatly piled with eggs and Swiss cheese. She picked up a slice of strawberry and ate it, her eyes scanning the screen as she tried to assess what the status.
Behind her, Dar's low burr was audible as she talked to Maria, and behind her partner the big television was on showing CNN's screen complete with its new ticker scrawl and live footage behind the announcer.
"Good morning, this is Miami Exec currently in Washington," Kerry announced as the conference line connected. "Hope everyone is doing well."
A brief crackle, then a host of voices responded. "Morning, ma'am." "Morning Kerry." "Hello, Miami--welcome back. " "Glad to hear you on, Exec."
"Morning boss," Mark's voice echoed slightly a little afterward, sounding tired. "Now that you're on I'm gonna go catch a few z's. Is the big kahuna there?"
"She is," Kerry smiled as she said it, glancing up to see Dar framed in the entranceway, leaning back against the stately dining table dressed in just her T-shirt. "You sneaky little bugger. I'll get you for that."
"Hey, she told me not to say anything," Mark protested. "You think I'm dumb enough to not listen?"
Kerry chuckled, a warm, rich sound that echoed a little on the call. "So where are we? Give me a status then go get some rest." She picked up her coffee and took a sip, stretching one leg out and flexing her toes against the thick carpet.
Unlike the previous day when she'd woken up tired and tense, defensive in the presence of her mother. Today she felt a resurgence of her usual optimistic nature and a sense of animal well being.
"Well, we got some good stuff to tell and some bad stuff," Mark said. "The good stuff is Newark's up, and they've stopped beating up on the LA Earthstation."
"Miami ops, that's almost true," a voice interrupted. "We just had a request from the governor here to belay a full 24 channels for the National Guard."
Mark sighed. "Hold up a sec, LA," he said. "Anyway, they got the power up here about two hours ago, and I was able to get a link up to Newark, but holy molasses, boss, it's like shoving an elephant through a punch down. We ain't doing crap for traffic."
"Latency?" Kerry asked.
"Not just that, everyone wants to put up on the wire. I can't get a priority list out of anybody cause they all think they're the most important."
"Not like we never heard that before," Kerry said. "Okay, hang tight and tell Newark to hang tight. I'll be over there to beat back the arm wavers shortly."
"Miami exec, this is Newark," the Earthstation spoke up. "We're fully online now. Please tell those folks at APC we're all going to buy stock in them."
"Me too," Kerry agreed, smiling again. "They really came through for us. So now we have to turn that around and come through for everyone else. Just prioritize best you can until I can sort everyone out."
A window popped up, and she glanced at it. Good morning. You sound more chipper today.
"Duh, Mari." Kerry switched to the window. Yeah and I even got some sleep. Did Alastair get off okay?
Jose and Eleanor took him to the airport and said they'd stay with him until his flight at 8. He said he took Dar's advice last night down on South Beach. Dare I ask?
Kerry glanced at her partner. Hopefully she just gave him the name of a good steakhouse. She typed back. Otherwise I don't wanna know.
"Miami exec, this is Lansing."
"Go ahead, Lansing." Kerry got back to business.
"Ma'am, we had six installs due today, but we have them all on standby. FedEx advised us they don't know yet when they are going to be able to come off ground hold and deliver anything."
Ugh. Kerry picked up her croissant and took a bite as she thought. She chewed and swallowed before she answered. "That's a problem," she acknowledged. "Anyone from Logistics in Miami on?"
"It's Dogbert here, ma'am," a voice answered. "They're telling us the same thing. We were expecting a lot of stuff today."
Dogbert. Kerry repressed a smile. "Can you get me a manifest of what we've got held up in FedEx, UPS and DHL?" she asked. "Logistics in Houston?"
"Here," a gruffer voice answered. "My brother's a director in DHL. He told me they're not even allowed to open the warehouses. They've got soldiers crawling all over them with dogs."
Kerry exhaled. "Okay, everyone out there, whoever's in operations for your respective areas, I need a list of activities in jeopardy due to non delivery, please. Let's get a calendar up and running and on the desktop so we can see the impact."
"Miami Exec, this is Herndon." Another voice. "We got word flights will take off this morning, but passenger only, and there's a lot of activity on the wire."
"Miami, this is Lansing again. The two installs we had gear for, the guys are telling us they're being denied access to proceed."
Dar came over and sat down next to her, resting her chin on one hand. "This is gonna be like a slow motion train wreck," she commented. "Our ops schedule is not designed to just stop for a few days."
Kerry knew that was true. The intricate web work of installers and technicians, product deployments and implementation scheduling was designed to be flexible, but only up to a point. She often had to shift resources around if a facility wasn't ready in time, or if a part was on backorder.
This was a completely different scope of interruption. "Okay, once we get a schedule up I need someone to run a match against the equipment we have tied up in transit against our distributed inventory. We may need to start driving."
"Maria says she's getting a lot of calls from clients," Dar said. "She's been in the office since five thirty. I'm waiting on a callback from Gerry now."
"Clients from New York and around here?" Kerry asked, clicking her mic off. "Sheesh--don't they know what's going on?"
Dar shook her head. "From all over. I'm not really sure why they're calling. Maria said it was almost like they just wanted to know everything was all right."
Kerry's brows knit. "Huh?"
Dar shrugged. "She's pulling my address book off the phone and she'll email it to you for me," she said.
"Can't she just--" Kerry let the thought trail off. "No, I guess she can't just FedEx everything to you. Damn. You don't realize how dependent you are on some things until they don't exist."
"She offered to fly with it," Dar said.
Kerry studied her face. "She h
ates flying."
"I know." Her partner smiled briefly. "I told her I'd wait. You're here. It's not like I'm out wandering the streets sleeping under a bench."
"That's true." Kerry covered Dar's free hand with her own and squeezed her fingers. "I'll definitely take care of you."
"Miami exec, this is Houston logistics," the gruff voice came back. "We just got notified we can't move tapes to storage. Facilities been ordered closed by the Feds."
"Oh god." Kerry covered her eyes. "Thanks, Houston. For how long?"
"No idea."
Dar shook her head. "Everyone's running scared now," she said. "I'll order up some storage containers for them and us. Keep working it." She got up and headed back to the room phone, the early rays of sun splashing over her bare legs.
"Okay, Houston. We got that. We'll see what we can do to help," Kerry said. "Newark, have you had any indication on an ETA for your city power? I have a feeling we're going to need those trucks in Manhattan."
"Wish I could say yes, Miami exec." The Earthstation sounded apologetic. "My boss called this morning, and ConEd had a message on saying to try calling in a couple days."
"Nice." Kerry took another bite of her croissant. "Well, I'm sure they've got a ton of other issues. Doesn't help us much though."
"Miami exec, this is the Air Hub," a woman's voice broke in. "Air traffic control is back online." Her voice held a note of excitement. "We just got a request to host a big share for them for repositioning."
"Go ahead," Kerry said. "Houston ops watch the links and make sure they get space."
"On it," a male voice answered. "We are running a little hot across the board."
Kerry glanced over at Dar, who was on the phone, cupping one hand over her free ear. "I'll get the pipe meister to look at it in a minute. She's on another call."
Kerry?
Kerry looked at the popup then clicked on it. Go
ahead Mar.
I heard from our office in Springfield. They had a big riot up there last night, apparently people protesting against people from the Middle East.
Oh great. Kerry remembered what her mother had said, and exhaled. Knee jerk.
Agreed. Should I send an alert out though? People don't stop to think sometimes.
"Hey Dar?" Kerry turned her head as she heard her partner hang up. "Mari said they had some anti-Arab ugliness in Illinois last night. She's asking if she should send out a bulletin."
Dar came over and sat back down, taking a sip of Kerry's coffee. "To do what? Tell our employees who happen to be Middle Eastern they should hide in the office?" she asked, practically. "I'm sure CNN is covering it, and I'm sure they're watching CNN. "
Kerry studied her face. "What pissed you off?"
Dar put the cup down. "Did I say I was pissed off?" she asked, arching her brow as Kerry continued to look at her. Her lips twitched. "I just got yelled at by Gerry for ten minutes for being the forgetful nitwit I know I was yesterday."
"Well, sweetie--"
"I know." Dar set the cup down. "Yes, she should send out a note. I think people are just starting to be stupid and I don't know where it's going to end."
Kerry turned back to her keyboard. Dar says yes. Everyone should be very aware of what is going on around them.
"We have to go to the White House."
Kerry stopped typing in mid word, going very still, before she turned her head and looked at her partner. "Excuse me?"
"Hope you brought your rainbow nerd T-shirt." Dar got up. "I'm going to take a shower. Let's hope they don't want to see my driver's license before they let us in."
Kerry stared at the retreating figure in somewhat stunned silence for a long moment before she wrenched her attention back to the laptop. "Ah--I'm going to have to go offline for a few minutes," she managed to get out. "Everyone just hang tight."
"Will do." "Sure." "No problem Miami exec."
Kerry got up and headed for the bathroom, hoping Dar hadn't really said what she thought she'd heard her say. She ducked inside the door, already hearing the water running, to find Dar in the middle of taking her shirt off. "The White House?"
"They're sending a car." Dar tossed her shirt on the counter. "C'mon. We don't have a lot of time. Apparently we've pissed a lot of people off and we've got a lot of explaining to do." She opened the shower door, allowing a healthy blast of steam to enter the room. "Dad's already down at the Pentagon helping."
"Helping to do what?" Kerry hurriedly got out of her shirt and joined her partner in the shower. "Dar, what the hell--the White House? What did we do? Who did we piss off?"
"Wish I knew." Dar squirted gel on a scrubby and started indiscriminately washing both herself and Kerry. "But I'm guessing we'll soon find out."
"Ugh."
Chapter Twenty-One
DAR FOLDED HER arms and glanced out the tinted window as the car sped through the streets. Kerry was sitting next to her, ear buds planted firmly in her ears as she directed the conference call in muted tones.
"Dar?" Kerry looked up. "Hamilton Baird just dropped into the call, said he'd meet us."
Dar nodded. "Good," she said. "Never thought I'd be glad to see his puss, but annoying as he is he's a first rate lawyer."
"Your father is listening from the RV," Kerry said. "What's a coon ass?"
Dar snorted in laughter, covering her mouth and then her eyes with one hand. "He didn't say that on the call, did he?"
"Um. Well, actually--"
"It's slang for someone from Cajun Louisiana. It's not really a compliment." Dar peered through her fingers. "Sort of like being called a hillbilly. Only worse."
"He laughed."
"My father?"
"Hamilton," Kerry said. "Then he called your Dad a redneck. I think the entire company's stunned to complete silence."
"Mari must be on the floor behind her desk out cold," Dar sighed. "Round out the electroshock therapy by calling Dad and telling them to behave."
"Whatever you say, boss." Kerry went back to her headset with a grin on her face.
Dar returned her gaze to the streets of Washington, working to ignore the twisting in her guts and faintly envying Kerry the distraction of her current task. She'd been in many high profile situations for the company and certainly she had a lot of confidence both in herself and her organization, but being called to the carpet at the White House was both a new and very nerve wracking experience for her.
She didn't like politics. Based on her previous experience, she didn't much like politicians. Dar felt that in order to be elected by a majority, politicians had to become the lowest common denominator and promise everything to everyone, delivering not much to anyone in the end.
Except in South Florida, to their relatives. Dar unfolded her arms and let her hands rest on her denim covered knees. Corruption wasn't viewed so much as a scandal in Miami but, as a bit of entertainment for the residents to discuss over café along with the latest news of Castro, the traffic, and whether or not hurricanes would be heavy or light this season.
Expected. Politicians were wheelers and dealers where she lived, and while it did earn Miami the banana republic reputation it had, Dar also found the up front acknowledgement quite a bit more refreshing. Straightforward, and local. The county and city leaders didn't much give a rat's ass about the rest of the state, or in fact, the rest of the country. Their focus was on drawing people and businesses in, pushing development to its limits, scooping in as much in taxes as they could, and spending money on whoever's pet project they got the most kickbacks for.
No euphemisms about bettering humanity. No long harangues about family values. Very commercial, very crass, very ethnic. Dar liked that. She remembered hearing one local politico talking to some moral values types at a fundraiser she'd been roped into attending, and they'd asked him about the dangers of a gay neighborhood springing up in a certain area.
"Let them come," the politico had said. "They improve any area they live in. Property value goes up, taxes go up. Show me t
hat around a soup kitchen."
Blunt. Shocking. Very Miami. Dar remembered after Hurricane Andrew, when there had been hundreds of thousands of tons of debris to get rid of, and the state and federal government citing pollution regulations, had forbid burning to get rid of it.
They'd burned it anyway. The county manager had told the regulators to come arrest him if they didn't like it.
Dar felt a certain sympathy with the attitude.
The car turned into a long driveway, and pulled to a halt at a large iron guarded gate. "Ma'am, I'll need to show them your identification." Their driver half turned to look at her. "Can you pass it up please?"
"No." Dar laced her fingers. "Actually, I can give you Kerry's. Not mine."
The driver looked at her.
"I'm not deliberately being an asshole." Dar correctly interpreted his expression. "I just don't have it. My wallet and ID is back in Miami."
The driver continued to stare at her. "Ma'am, they won't let you in there without ID."
"Well," his passenger cleared her throat. "That could be true. But the government paid a lot of money to bring me up here from Florida on a military airplane and then send you to fetch me to the White House. Chances are someone in there knows who I am or at least will trust that I am who they think I am."
The driver shrugged, and turned back around. "See what they say." He drove the car forward a space, waiting for the rest of the line to clear the gate. Dar took the opportunity to fish inside Kerry's briefcase, bringing out her ID and holding it in one hand.
Kerry glanced up at her in question, one hand still cupped over her ear. Dar held up her passport folio, and she nodded, then went back to her conversation, reaching out with her other hand to pat Dar's knee.
The car pulled forward, and the driver opened the door, putting one leg out and standing up to talk to the guard rather than opening the window. Dar didn't much envy him, since she figured he was probably telling this armed, anxious, hyper alert man that he had some chick in the car who wanted in to the White House without even a driver's license.
"Dar, Houston's saying they're running really high on usage across the net," Kerry said. "You probably need to check it out."
