by Melissa Good
"All right." Bridges sat back down. "So. What's it going to cost me then? I won't waste my time appealing to your patriotism."
Dar was silent for a long moment again. "You could," she said, looking him right in the eye. "Appeal to my patriotism. What makes you think I don't have any?"
"Just a hunch," Bridges said. "You don't seem the type."
Dar's eyes narrowed a trifle. "Do the country a favor," she said. "Flush your hunches down the toilet if they're all that worthless." She got up. "Unfortunately for everyone, my patriotism doesn't count in this case. There is nothing I can do to fix what's broken. I don't own any of the infrastructure, none of those companies has any reason to do me any favors, and that union tangled century's old mess down at the tip of Manhattan is way beyond my skills to sort out in three days no matter who says yes or no. It can't be done."
Bridges leaned on his knuckles and stared at her. "Can't be done?"
"Can't be done," Dar said. "But for a price, I'll give it my best try."
The advisor sat down.
Kerry felt like she was watching a game of tennis, where the volley was getting faster and faster and the ball was a small thermonuclear device. She had no idea where Dar was going with all this, and it had been a while since she'd seen her partner in this kind of a mood.
It was almost like watching a stranger. Dar was focused, and her eyes were like chips of crystal, with no emotion at all in them.
"What's your price?" Bridges asked, in a sardonic tone. "Maybe I'll try to pay it if you're only going to try and do what I'm asking."
"Get the NSA off my ass," Dar said, ticking one finger off. "Give my people clearance to get into the city." She ticked a second finger off. "Give me some kind of leverage to get through the politics. I'll give it my best shot. You get whatever you get out of it. Maybe it'll work. Maybe it won't."
The advisor rested his forearms on the table again and gazed at her, with a slightly puzzled look. "What's in it for you, then?" he asked. "What do you get out of it?"
Dar managed the faintest of smiles. "Service to my country," she answered, in a quiet tone. "It's the right thing to do, no matter how impossible it is."
"You really don't think it's possible," Bridges mused. "Everyone agrees with that, even the president. He wanted me to find some way to fake it." He looked up to find three sets of eyes staring at him in disbelief, and he shrugged in response. "Ms. Stuart will tell you just how much of the government is smoke and mirrors, I'm sure."
Kerry cleared her throat gently. "That's true," she said. "But we aren't smoke and mirrors. If Dar commits us to this, we'll go at it a hundred percent."
Bridges nodded. "Cheap enough price," he said. "All right, Ms. Roberts, do we have a deal? "
"I guess we do." Dar looked at Hamilton, who burst into laughter.
That seemed to strike Bridges funny too, and he chuckled. "Now I understand what Easton told me." He stood up. "Get out of here, people. I have an unending pile of crap to put on a potter's wheel and make into china."
They were glad enough to escape, slipping out the door and evading the flock of secretaries, emerging into the hallway where the pace hadn't slowed a bit.
Hamilton steered them over to a corner out of the flow and they all took a minute to catch their breaths.
"That," Kerry finally said, "was seriously freaky."
"Got us out of the way of the spooks," Hamilton commented. "And Dar, no jokes here, darling. That was some good shuck and jive in that room. couldn't have negotiated a better deal."
Dar exhaled, and shook her head. "Let's get out of here," she said. "I don't know what the hell I just got us into, but I sure don't want to spend any more time in this place. Let's go somewhere and scratch together a plan."
Kerry spotted Franklin heading down the hall in their direction. She grabbed Dar's arm. "Great idea. C'mon He hadn't had a chance to talk to Bridges yet."
They did, heading around a corner, and down a hall, hoping they ended up somehow at an outside door without getting into any more trouble.
Chapter Twenty-Two
"OKAY." KERRY LED the way through the visitor's entrance to their offices. "Dar, I'm going to have to sign you in." She could feel her partner silently snickering. "Do you know what a pile of paperwork that's going to be?"
"Sorry," Dar said, with not a lot of sincerity. "Hey, if they won't let me in, we can go work out of the nerd bus. Dad's there and I hear the foods pretty good."
"Dar." Kerry eyed the receptionist as they approached. "How about we get you a loaner laptop and just push your image down to it? I'm sure we've got one in this place that can handle it."
"Bet they don't."
"Good morning, Ms. Stuart." The receptionist greeted her with a smile. "A lot of people were asking after you inside. I'm sure they'll be glad to see you."
Kerry set her briefcase down and removed her sunglasses. "Yeah, it's been that kind of morning," she agreed. "I need to sign in a corporate employee that doesn't have a badge with them."
The woman glanced past Kerry at the tall, lanky figure behind her. "That's no problem, ma'am, I just need to see some ID and I can process that for you."
"She doesn't have that either," Kerry said. "And we haven't installed integrated biometrics here yet, have we? Everyone needs a card." She took the visitor form that had been held out to her and passed it back. "Fill this out, hon."
Dar took the form with its clipboard and started obediently scribbling. "What's my purpose for visiting? Anarchy and general disruption of the business?"
The receptionist frowned. "If you mean the government handprint thing, no ma'am. But I can't issue a visitor pass without seeing some identification."
"You're just going to have to take my word for who this is," Kerry told her. "I'll authorize it--no wait." She turned and glanced at her partner. "I'm the requester, I can't also authorize. Shoot. I think you have to authorize it since you're my up chain."
Dar chuckled and kept writing.
The receptionist caught the clue. "Oh," she said. "Sorry, Ms. Roberts. We weren't expecting you."
"No one ever is." Dar produced a reasonably sexy grin. "I'm the Spanish Inquisition of ILS." She handed back the clipboard and the pen. "There you go."
The receptionist took it and studied the paper then pulled out a visitor pass and punched in the programming for it. "One of the people from the NSA was here yesterday looking for you, Ms. Stuart, after you left."
"I know. We found them." Kerry said, leaning against the counter as she watched Dar wander around the lobby examining it. "I think we got that all sorted out. Hopefully they won't be bothering us again."
"Okay, here you go ma'am." The receptionist handed over the visitor badge. "Should I let them know you're here?"
"And spoil my fun?" Dar took the badge from her and winked. "Nah."
"Thanks." Kerry smiled at the woman and led her troublemaking spouse toward the inner door. "We can use that office they assigned to me. It's big enough to party in." She scanned the door open and held it as Dar went past her. "So what's the plan?"
"What's the plan? " Dar sighed, as they walked down the hallway side by side. "I wish I knew what the plan was. I need to sit down and think for a few minutes and try to figure out where the hell to start."
She said. "Want to stop in at ops first? You said they were a little rattled at my locking them down."
"Good idea." Kerry led the way to the security door and swiped through it, leading Dar into the inner operations center. Their entry caught the group by surprise, and voices fell off as people's heads turned as they spotted Kerry.
Kerry watched their eyes, as they shifted to her companion and stayed there, putting two and two together a lot faster than the receptionist did. "Good morning folks," she said. "As you can see, I called in the cavalry. Dar and I have just gotten back from the White House, and I think we've gotten a few things worked out that will take some of the stress off you all."
No one said anything for a ver
y long moment. Then the shift supervisor, a different man than the previous day, came over. "Oh, well. Wow. That wasn't expected. Ms. Roberts, it's an honor." He timidly extended a hand, which Dar clasped in a genial manner. "Don Abernathy. We've been on conference calls a few times."
"We have," Dar agreed. "Someone want to vacate a seat so I can check things out in here?"
Kerry took a step back and amused herself in watching the staff as they scrambled around to make space for Dar on both the government and commercial side of the monitors. They had all been extremely respectful to her the previous day, but their attitude toward her partner was one of utter awe, and completely different in scope.
People usually did react to Dar differently. Kerry expected that. But she spent so much time around her at their Miami office that she often forgot how the rest of the company viewed her, since everyone in Miami was pretty much used to having her around.
Dar slid into an emptied chair and rested her long forearms on the console surface, pausing a moment to review the screen before she logged the user out and logged herself in with a patter of rapid keystrokes that sounded ridiculously loud in the suddenly quiet room.
Dar seemed to realize it. She stopped, and looked slowly around, first one way then the other. "People, sit the hell down. They don't pay me to teach typing."
Kerry chuckled under her breath, as the staff sidled back to their seats, save Don, who had an excuse to remain standing near the front of the console. "Dar, be nice." She chastised her. She walked over and put her hands on her partner's shoulders. "I'm going to go get some work done. Come get me when you're done showing off."
Dar leaned back, her head thumping gently against Kerry's chest. "Get me that laptop if you can. We're also going to need a video conference with Hamilton and his friends about what contacts we have in New York."
"Okay." Kerry just barely resisted the urge to give her a kiss on the top of her head. "I'll get that set up and let you know when it's ready."
Dar winked at her.
Kerry squeezed her boss's shoulders and then she stepped back and headed for the door, leaving a lot of bemused faces behind her.
She was used to that too. She made her way through the hall to the office she'd been issued and shouldered her way into it, crossing the carpet and putting her briefcase down on the desk. Before she opened it though, she went over and used the hot water dispenser tucked in one corner, getting a cup and a teabag sorted and steeping in short order.
A soft knock came at the door. "C'mon in." Kerry looked over her shoulder as the door opened, and Nan's dark head poked itself in. "Good morning, Nan," she greeted the woman. "How are you doing today?"
"Oh, hi. You are here. I'm doing okay, thanks." Nan slipped in. "Everyone's looking for you, though." She told Kerry. "In a bad way."
"Not the NSA again?" Kerry slipped her laptop out and opened it.
"No. Everyone but them," Nan said, frankly. "We're getting pounded for resources from all sides. I've been here since six and the phone hasn't stopped ringing off the hook."
That sounded a little strange. While the center did house a lot of systems, both government and civil, Kerry didn't really understand why the overall need would have surged now. "Okay," she said. "Let me get booted up, and I'll get on the bridge. You can also have them transfer any real trouble to the phone here." She circled the desk and slid into the chair. "And if it gets too scary, we'll throw Dar at them."
Nan cocked her head. "Literally?"
Kerry glanced up and grinned over the top of her screen. "She's in the ops center. If they all know what's good for them, they'll just be understanding and reasonable."
"Wow. I didn't realize she was here," Nan said. "I don't think anyone did--er, does." She put her hands in her pockets. "I'm sure I'd have heard if they did."
"We just got here." Kerry logged in as her laptop finished booting. She reached for her ear buds as she waited for the desktop to launch and key in the conference bridge. "We had a meeting we had to go to earlier."
"Okay, well, I'll let everyone know you're here then," Nan said. "I know they'll be glad to hear it. Anything else you need?"
Kerry paused before hitting the mic. "Matter of fact there is," she said. "I need to get my hands on the highest end laptop you've got here," she said. "Biggest hard drive, biggest chunk of RAM, highest screen resolution."
Intrigued, Nan removed her hands from her pockets and crossed the office, taking a seat in the visitor chair across from Kerry. "Okay," she said. "Most of the staff uses the standard type."
"I figured." Kerry started scanning the screen. "But that won't do, unfortunately. What else do we have here?" She read down the list of requests posted on the desktop, grimacing a little at the blinking red lines that had moved from requests to demands.
"Well." Nan frowned. "You want something like what you're using? I think we have one or two of that model around, maybe in the test center. I'd have to check on the RAM though. Mine's last year's model and it's got a gig."
Kerry glanced at the opposite wall briefly. "No. Has to be more horsepower than this one," she said.
"Would a server work?" Nan suggested. "I'm pretty sure we don't have anything even close to that in a laptop."
Kerry imagined her partner tucking one of the big suitcase size items under her arm to walk out with. "Ah--no--hang on," She clicked the mic on. "Miami ops, this is Miami exec. You on?"
"Go ahead boss," Mark answered. "You still with the goons?"
"In Herndon," Kerry answered. "You have any laptops with you?"
"Sure."
"Big enough to take the Godzilla image?"
"Miami exec, this is Newark Earthstation," a voice broke in. "We're maxed here, and I have the city of New York on the line demanding we give them priority on the birds."
"Hang on Newark. Mark, do you or not?" Kerry repeated.
"Yowp hang on one sec, Boss, we're checking the back tank," Mark called out, his voice obviously away from the mic. "Big Kahuna's box take a dive?"
"It's in Miami."
"Crap."
"Newark, this is Miami exec," Kerry said. "What traffic are they asking priority for?"
"Boss, we don't have anything close," Mark said. "Not that'll take the image for that beast without rolling over and crying, even mine."
"Miami exec, this is Newark. Some kind of telecommunications relay. City business they said." the Earthstation informed her. "They're getting pretty pushy, even for New Yorkers."
Kerry tapped on the desk. "They're under a lot of stress, guys. Cut them a little slack." She glanced at Nan and cut the mic off. "Where's the nearest hard core gaming shop?"
Nan blinked. "What?"
"Miami exec, we are, we are," Newark answered. "I told them we could only give them maybe 256, and they went off on me."
"Yeah?" Kerry asked. "Okay, well get them on the line, and I'll conference." She put the mic on hold again. "A gamer shop. You know, PC games. First person shooters? 3D gaming world sims?"
Nan stared at her. "You mean, like video games?" she queried. "Sonic the Hedgehog? That stuff?"
"Okay, Miami exec, hold on a few." Newark clicked off.
"Miami exec, this is Miami ops," Mark broke in. "Nego on anything we can give big D outside maybe my setup server. They got anything there?"
"They don't Mark. Can you find me a gamer hack shop around here?" Kerry asked. "I'll send someone to get whatever their top of the line is."
"Sweet. Hang on."
Kerry picked up her tea and sipped it, taking advantage of the moment's lull. "Okay, while that's going on, Lansing, how's it looking there today?"
"Miami, we have a lot of cellular backhaul hitting us today," her hometown local office said. "Also, it looks like VOIPs getting hit pretty hard in the Northeast. I'm running hot across the board."
"Confirm that, Miami, this is Herndon ops," another voice added. "We've seen building traffic since about seven and--eh? Oh, ah yes. Ah, someone's looking at it."
Kerry muffled a grin, knowing full well who that someone was. "Thanks, Herndon. Lansing, keep the shaping in. We don't know what we're going to be called on to move today with all that's going on.'
"Yes, ma'am."
"Miami, this is LA Earthstation."
Kerry checked her watch. "Good morning, LA."
"Ma'am, we've got Intelsat on the line. They've got a software issue on one of their control systems and they want to know if we've got anybody there that can look at it. They're tapped for resources."
"Okay poquito boss, I got a place for ya." Mark came back on. "Got a pencil?"
Nan quickly grabbed a pad and a pen. "How do you keep up with all this?"
"Acquired attention deficit disorder. Comes with the job." Kerry was scribbling something herself. "Hang on LA. Miami applications support, you on?"
"We're here," a male voice answered. "I think we're the only ones not that busy today, Ms. Stuart. Would you like us to call Intelsat and engage them?"
"I would. Go ahead Mark. We've got a pen waiting," Kerry said. "Apps, see what you can do to back up ops there too, I know folks must be pretty tired in the center."
"Will do."
Mark's voice rapidly recited an address that Nan just as rapidly copied down. She finished and looked at it. "You want me to go get the biggest thing they got, right?" she asked. "Max RAM, max storage, max pixel."
"You got it," Kerry said, busy making notes. "Shoot, we've got some stuff hitting the fan here--damn it, I can't get deliveries in freaking Iowa. How in the hell are we supposed to go fix New York?"
"Any particular color?"
Kerry looked up and over her laptop screen for a long moment of silence. Then her eyes twinkled a little. "Not. Pink," she enunciated very carefully.
"You got it." Nan got up and headed for the door. "Be back in a flash." Behind her, a burst of chatter erupted, as issues suddenly scaled over each other, and the tempo rose.
"Miami exec, this is Lansing, we just got an alert from Citibank they're spooling backups from Buffalo," Lansing broke in. "They're pushing the shaping profile."
"Miami, exec this is Newark, I have the Governor of New York on the line for you."
