by Melissa Good
Dar leaned closer to the doorway. "Can you open the doors?" she asked. "We need to talk to those guys."
"What?" The driver was still yelling out the window. He reached back inside and triggered a switch. "How in the hell did you get in here? They told us this was strickly off limits!"
"We're the phone company, shaddup!" The man on the platform yelled back.
Dar went to the door and stepped carefully over the shoulder width gap onto the platform, turning to hold out a hand to Kerry without really even thinking about it.
Kerry paused in the act of hopping out and eyed her, a faint smile twitching at her lips. She shifted her flashlight to her left hand and reached over to clasp Dar's fingers, squeezing them as she stepped over to the other side and gave her a little bump. "Thank you, sweetie."
Her partner paused, and a tiny wrinkle appeared on the bridge of her nose. "Was I being pretentious?"
"Just charming." Kerry moved past her. "Wow. What is this place?"
Dar glanced around, then headed for the cluster of men around the spool. "Let's see what those bastards are doing here."
Kerry let her go ahead, taking a moment to tip her head back and look around. Scuzzy came up next to her and they both slowed to a halt, and simply stared around them. "Wow."
"No kidding," Scuzzy agreed. "I ain't never seen nothing like this in the subway. That's for sure."
It seemed like it was part of the tunnel itself, which curved around in a big loop, the far end disappearing into the darkness again on the far side of space. But in the center, the ceiling lofted up in a series of gothic arches that culminated in a thin ironwork tracery of windows that allowed the light in from outside to spill across the intricately bricked walls.
It was surprising and beautiful, completely unexpected and Kerry took her camera from her belt pouch and adjusted the flash taking a few pictures of the work. "I guess there were two City Halls." She pointed at a mosaic tile sign on the wall, which held the words. "How weird."
Scuzzy was looking right up at the ceiling. "Whoa," she said. "You know? I think this is like, right outside the freaking entrance to the Hall. I seen those glass things from the top, you know? I asked my brother what they were once and he had like no idea."
"Ker." Dar's voice interrupted their sightseeing.
Kerry put her camera away, turning and heading over to where her partner was standing. "Sorry, what's up?"
"Wrong fucking cable." Dar enunciated the three words in the most clipped tone imaginable.
"Oh Jesus." Kerry pinched the bridge of her nose, as a headache she'd been keeping at bay started up again. "Not what I needed to hear."
"This is what those guys gave us,"the man from Verizon spoke up immediately"This ain't my fault," he immediately added. "This is the stuff those guys from Jersey brought over, right Mike?"
"Right." Another tech agreed immediately. "So that's what I told that guy, you sure it's this code? I had the code. I told him the code, and he said yeah, it was the right code, but I knew it wasn't no right code because I been laying this cable since I was eighteen years old, and I know what code it should be, and it ain't this code."
"Right. So we told those guys somebody needed to come down here and look at this before we went no further, because this is a lot of carp to go through for no reason," the first tech said. "And my guys gave me a lotta crap about it and just said to go on with it, but ain't no way was I gonna have these here guys run this here cable if it's the wrong stuff."
There was a brief silence. Then Dar folded her arms over her chest. "Right choice."
The tech nodded. "You got that right. So they sending someone down to here now? I ain't got all day to be sitting in this tunnel."
"They sent someone," Dar answered, before Kerry's bristling hackles could make her pale hair fluff out like a Chia pet. "I'll look at the cable."
"You?" The man gave Dar a doubtful look.
"Yes."
"Okay." The man motioned the other techs over. "Unreel some of dat, will ya? This here lady wants to see it." He looked back at Dar. "You sure you know what you're looking at?"
"Yes."
"Whatever." The man motioned her forward. "C'mon, c'mon. We ain't got all day."
"Shit." Dar pulled out her flashlight and walked over to the spool where the telco techs were unhitching the end of the cable in the spool and twisting it back for her to inspect. "This was one complication I wasn't expecting."
"Can I punch him while you're figuring out what to do?"Kerry asked from between gritted teeth. "Stupid piece of ignorant pork rind."
"Easy slugger."
DAR LEANED AGAINST the intricately bricked wall, her arms crossed over her chest, her mind racing. In front of her the track was now clear as the train had moved along into its appointed time slot. She had been left to ponder the cable, the techs, and the pit she'd dug herself into.
Shit. She felt like kicking herself. After all the bullshit she'd been spilling about everyone else's lame ass actions she had to face the fact she had screwed up to an intolerable degree by not simply checking what type of cable this half ass vendor was giving them.
Inexcusable.
Kerry came over and leaned against the wall next to her, their shoulders brushing. "Hey." She braced one booted foot against the brick."Thanks for the advice on the Lansing issue. It worked."
Dar looked sideways at her.
Kerry peered mildly back.
"You're welcome," Dar finally said. "You trying to make me stop kicking myself?"
"Well," her partner plucked at the knee of her pants, "actually I was trying to find something to say to you that wouldn't make you blow up at me."
"At you?"
"You know what I mean. Hon, I know you're freaking out. I don't want to make it worse for either of us."
Dar sighed.
Kerry felt the gentle pressure as Dar leaned against her, a non verbal acknowledgment and surrender she felt a great deal of sympathy for. There really wasn't much she could say, to be honest. Dar was right. She should have checked.
Of course, she could try to take responsibility for that on herself, but if she tried, she knew Dar would go ballistic and, frankly, she wasn't looking for any kind of tension between them since the situation was already more than wretched enough.
Honesty seemed the better route. With Dar it always was, even if her own inclination was to try and make excuses or find some way to entice her lover into feeling better about whatever it was she was kicking herself over. "So it's the wrong kind of fiber."
"Wrong kind of fiber," Dar agreed. "Multimode. The long distance optics are single mode."
"No options?"
"Longest reach multimode will do is 550 meters." Dar let her head rest on the wall. "Eighteen hundred feet."
Kerry did the math, and sighed. "Do they have any other spools?"
"Sure. All the wrong kind," Dar supplied. "Know what that bastard said? Oops."
"Oops." Kerry mouthed the word. "Nice."
"Yeah." Dar acknowledged. "Mongolian clusterfuck, courtesy of yours truly." She gazed up at the skylights, then pushed off from the wall. "Well, screw it." She started back toward the techs, who had been taking a break leaning against the cable spool. "No point in standing around."
Kerry gathered herself up and followed, catching up as Dar neared the work crew. "Hon--"
Dar held a hand up. "Okay, go ahead and keep rolling it out. We'll deal with it on our end." She said, in a brisk tone as she came up next to where the men were lounging. "We're running out of time."
The crew leader turned in surprise. "Yeah? This is the wrong stuff though," he pointed out. "You said so."
"Not a problem," Dar replied steadily. "I'll handle it. Just get the cable rolled out. We've got a solution."
The man studied her. "Awright." He shrugged. "Overtime for us,and not doin what those guys down town from here are doin. Sounds good to me. Okay boys?"
The techs dusted their gloved hands off, most of them noddin
g."Better than digging out pipes," one agreed. "At least it's quiet down here, and no dust."
The men got to work, standing up and taking hold of the spool."Down the line here." The crew leader motioned Dar and Kerry out of the way. "Scuse me, ladies. We got work to do."
"Sorry, we definitely don't want to hold you up." Kerry gave him a smile."We'll be waiting for you on the other end. Thanks for taking the time to let us know about this, by the way. At least it gives us time to get a solution in place before you get up there."
The man nodded briefly at her. "You the people with the bus?"
Kerry nodded back. "We'll send some snacks down the line to you when we get back. We really appreciate you guys coming through for us with this."
The men reacted to Kerry's charm and sincere tone. They gave her brief smiles, and one of them touched the rim of his hard hat as they rolled the spool by. "See you down at the Rock, pretty lady," he said, giving Kerry a wink.
Kerry gave them all a genial wave. She waited for them to moved down the curve of the track before she turned and looked at her partner. "Come up with a plan?"
"Nope." Dar had her hands in her pockets. "I haven't a damn clue what I'm going to do."
Kerry turned her head and looked at the men, then swiveled back to face Dar. Her brows lifted. "Is this something maybe you can come up with a fix for?"
"Probably not."
"Hon? Is there a reason you want these guys to work all night doing this then?" Kerry asked, gently. "I know you hate to give up, so do I , but there's a lot of work they could be doing too, huh?" She laid a hand on her partner's arm to ease any sting from the words.
Dar merely lifted her shoulders in a mild shrug, though. "I can't just tell them to stop," she said. "Even if I know it's probably going to be a waste of time."
"Probably?"
"Well--" Dar removed one hand from her pocket and raked her hair back from her eyes. "I know the physics of it, Ker. But let's go back to the Rock, and I'll get on the phone with some of the eggheads I know up at our network vendor and see what they say."
Kerry studied her face cast in the shadows from the skylight's grill.Even she could see the doubt in her partner's eyes, and from her own knowledge of the technology she faced, the understanding that this time Dar really was just tossing crap in the air.
Sobering.
"Okay." Kerry said, after they were both silent for a minute. "We really don't have much choice, do we?"
"No."
"Then let's boogie." Kerry turned around. "Scuzzy? You around here? We've got to get going."
Scuzzy trotted down a set of steps in the center of the curve. "Man, this is amazing," she said. "I ain't never seen nothing like this place. You know what this is?" She came over, full of enthusiasm and oblivious to the nerdish gloom around her colleagues. "This is like the very first station in the subway."
"Is it?" Kerry looked around again. "It's really interesting."
"Yeah. I found a plaque over there." Scuzzy pointed. "This is where it started, you know? The first station where all the trains left from back in like in 1904. " She looked up. "Man, they used to make things cool, huh?"
"Why don't they use it anymore?" Dar spoke up. "Seems like a waste to leave it here."
"Oh." Scuzzy pulled out her phone. "Hang on a minute, that driver told me to like call him when we needed to get out of here. Walking down the track is not cool." She dialed a number, turning her head to one side and covering her ear as she waited for it be answered.
Her decision made, Dar turned her attention to her surroundings. She walked over to the plaque and studied it, tipping her head back to look at the mosaic sign above. There was an elegance and an architectural beauty to it that surprised her, and she allowed herself to be distracted by the artistry in the tiles and the arches.
She felt a moment out of time, hearing the echo of a different era as Kerry walked quietly up behind her coming to stand at her side, sliding the fingers of one hand into Dar's front pocket.
The silent support in the motion both charmed her, and made her feel more than a little guilty. She glanced to the side, catching Kerry's profile in the dim light from the work lamps.
After a moment, Kerry sensed it and turned her face a little their eyes meeting. "Know what I think?"
"Bet I'm about to," Dar wryly answered.
"I think Heaven is really going to be a plane seat heading home."Kerry tugged her a little. "C'mon, boss. Let's get out of here. I think I hear our chariot approaching."
"Here we go." Scuzzy confirmed it, pointing down the track. "Man,I wish I'd took pictures down here. This was freaking amazing."
"I have some. I'll share." Kerry clasped Dar's hand with her own and started toward the edge of the platform. Ahead of them, on the far side where the track seemed unused, the men were already working their way along, flashlights casting odd bursts of light against the soot darkened walls.
"That's cool." Scuzzy joined them at the edge of the concrete. "I mean, I know this is real serious and all that stuff, but I think New York is the coolest city, and I love seeing stuff like this. Like, you been over Brooklyn Bridge?"
"I have," Kerry responded, since her silent partner wasn't looking likely to. "It's an amazing construction," she added. "I know the head of the office here--who died in the attack--was also a big fan of the city wasn't he Dar?"
"He was," Dar said. "I'm sure he would have loved to have seen this place."
The train pulled slowly into the station, its bright number six prominent in the gloom. Scuzzy tilted her head back and looked up at the skylight."Like that stuff. Today, we put these lights everywhere. Back then, they were smart. They used what they had, you know? Got all kinds of light in here from that."
"Using prisms." Kerry waited for the door to open, then she hopped inside.
"Prisms," Dar repeated, as she joined her.
"You people done with all this now?" The driver poked his head out. "My boss said I can't do this no more. They got real pissed at me."
"We're done," Kerry said. "Thank you very much for picking us up."
"Yeah, that was really cool." Scuzzy went over to him. "This place is great."
The driver shrugged. "It's just a tunnel." He went back in his cubicle and closed the door, then closed the outside doors and put the train in motion. They sat down as they left the old, unused station and pulled around, shuttling through only a short period of darkness before they were pulling into Brooklyn Bridge.
Dar settled back in her seat to wait out the ride, folding her arms over her chest as she half closed her eyes and thought about light.
And prisms.
Kerry felt her phone buzz, but she left it on her belt content to merely sit and share Dar's space as she let her mind go blank. There would be time when she got back to the office to continue her never ending problem solving.
Right now she could use the tunnels as an excuse to rest her head against Dar's shoulder and think about something trivial, like the pretty mosaics on the wall back there, and how warm her partner's skin was.
There was no real point in wondering what they were going to do about the problem of the cable. If Dar didn't know what to say about it, no one did.
She really had no idea what they were going to do.
DAR RESTED HER forearms on the mahogany wood surface appreciating the sound proofed walls and the stillness of the office.
On the desk was a phone and her laptop which was closed. The rest of the office was fairly sterile and empty, a spare the staff had rapidly found for her when she and Kerry returned from the subway, moving from an active part of the work back to something a bit more administrative.
For once, Dar was glad. She didn't really want to be around the fiber guys and Mark, who were setting up the gear needed to make the connection she knew wasn't going to happen when it was all said and done.
She didn't want to say anything to them, but she was finding it hard. It was an odd mix of embarrassment, anger, and frustration at
the situation and self disgust at her part in it.
Ugh.
She looked at the phone, then removed her PDA and opened it, flicking through the address book as she searched for a specific entry. After she found it she exhaled, studying the phone pad for a long time before she made a move toward it.
A knock at the door stilled her hand in the act of dialing. She released the line and put her hands back on the desk. "C'mon in."
Alastair poked his head in at the invitation. "Hello, there."
"Hey." Dar waved him forward, guiltily glad of the interruption. "How was the interview?"
Her boss smiled briefly. "Well, that went just fine. But you know they followed me back here. Really want to talk to you."
Dar made a face. "Alastair, I'm busy."
"I know," Alastair said. "But they're right in back of me, lady. Don't make me turn around and boot them. They're not bad folks. Just want a few minutes of your time."
Silver linings. Dar sighed. "Okay, sure. Might as well get it over with before I get on a conference call." She shifted and rested her chin on her fist. "Bring them in."
Alastair smiled again, this time far more warmly. "Thanks." He drew back for a moment, then opened the door and entered, holding it open for the rest to follow. "C'mon in, folks. Dar's got only a minute, so please keep it brief."
A group of four people entered, two men dressed in khakis carrying cameras with pockets full of technical items, a tall man in a turtleneck and a jacket, and a medium height woman in a leather coat and boots.
"Hi." Dar briefly wished Kerry was in the room. "What can I do for you folks?"
The tall man approached the desk. "John Avalls." He held a hand out. "Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Ms. Roberts. We won't be too long."
Dar stood and took his hand. "I'd appreciate that. We're in the middle of a lot of activity here."
"This is my colleague, Sarah Sohn." The man indicated his female companion. "And our cameramen John and Barry."
Dar gave them all a brief nod. Then she stuck her hands in her pockets and waited.
