by Melissa Good
She could feel the tension as Dar stood her ground. "Dar, c'mon. These people aren't worth it."
The man pulled up short, since Dar was standing in the middle of the hallway effectively blocking it. "Did you hear me?"
"Listen, sir, we're doing all we can." The man behind him caught up to him and grabbed his arm. "You don't understand what's gone on here. What these people have been through."
"I don't give a shit what these people have been through." The man in the lead turned around, throwing the hand off his arm. "This place has half the liquidity of the planet tied up in it. You fed some bullshit to CNN but if it doesn't open tomorrow morning, everyone's head's gonna roll." He turned back around. "Move out of the way or I'll toss you on your ass, lady."
Dar grinned with absolutely no humor and a good deal of delight.
"Lord." Andrew shoved his way back down the hallway. "Can't leave you for a minute, can I?" He took the man by the shoulders and shoved him past Dar. "G'wan, blowhard. Git your ass out before you done get hurt."
"What? Get your damn hands off me! Police!" The man yelled, thrashing around.
Andrew gave him a final shove then he put himself between the angry figure and Dar's tall form, his bigger body blocking the hallway with even more effectiveness. "Git!"
"Sir!" The other man dashed after him, taking hold of his arm."Whoever you people are you better get lost. Now!" He hurried the man past, before he could recover and say anything at all, and they disappeared around the corner toward the door.
Dar sighed. "There goes my fun for the day." She turned back to the rest of the men, who were standing there gaping. "Who is that?" She indicated the now vanished man.
"Marcus Abercrombie." The young man nearest her answered promptly. "The second richest man in the world. He's just really upset about the market. We just heard they're having problems with the systems."
"We're the ones trying to fix it," Kerry told him "We don't appreciate being yelled at."
"Well, sure. No one does." The young man agreed. "Hi. I'm Barry Marks." He offered Kerry his hand. "I'm the trading floor coordinator." He glanced past her. "Are you the technical people? Our director said they were expecting some people here to look at the computers."
Dar joined Kerry, now that it appeared the excitement was over. "We're working on the problems, yes. I heard the CNN report too--that guy didn't buy it?"
"Nope." Marks shook his head. "He came in the back and started snooping around and figured out that it wasn't working. He said he'd keep it to himself, but I bet we see it on CNN in ten minutes. He's probably telling his chauffeur about it right now."
"Great." A man behind him sighed. "Like we don't have enough problems. I don't want all those damn Federal guys shouting at me again." He looked at Dar. "Can you fix it?"
"Ultimately? Yes," Dar said. "There's nothing in technology enough time and money can't fix."
"By tomorrow morning?" Marks asked.
"That's an open question." Dar pointed down the hallway. "Let's go downstairs, team. We're wasting time."
They filed past the brokers who looked dubiously at them, and shook their heads. "Tomorrow's going to suck," one said.
"No matter what happens." Marks agreed. "Let's go get some coffee. My mouth's dry as a bone from the damn dust."
They headed in the opposite direction. Dar was glad to be rid of them, as they walked down the hall and headed down the steps to the lower level of the building. "Did you call me a can opener?" she asked Kerry.
Kerry chuckled under her breath.
"Manual or electric?"
Chapter Fourteen
ANOTHER DUSTY, CONCRETE room. Another raised floor. Another long stretch of time between humming black racks of equipment that gave off the faint scent of ozone and plastic.
Kerry lifted herself up off the floor, pulling her head out of the space under the floor and resting her weight on her elbows as she waited for the blood rush to fade. "Can't see anything."
Kannan and Shaun were over by the wall against a sheet of plywood that was as age worn as Kerry felt at the moment. They had a black box partially assembled; their heads bent over thin strands and tiny posts, their tools gathered neatly around their feet as they sat there cross-legged.
"They had the end right there." One of the techs from the Exchange was sitting on a desk nearby. He pointed at the hole in the floor. "Then those guys pulled it back, I guess. It disappeared."
Kerry folded her hands, and studied her knuckles. "Didn't occur to anyone to anchor the cable?" She inquired.
"It's not our stuff." The tech shrugged. "No one told us what they were doing."
Kerry silently counted to ten. "Boy, that's a shame." She shifted her flashlight and inched herself forward, extending her head down under the floor again. It smelled dank and musty, and she had to keep convincing herself she didn't smell anything worse than mold.
It was uncomfortable, and it gave her a headache hanging upside down as she was. She pushed that aside and extended her arm down into the space, turning on her flashlight and examining the underside of the floor.
It was full of trays and pipes, the cabling so dense she could barely see past it. She squinted hard, peering past a clump of metal and dust and spotted a stretch of the cabling that was scraped free of the grime. "Ah."
"Found it?" Shaun asked.
"Found where it was." Kerry pulled her head back out and moved down two squares, picking up the aluminum floor pulling and thwacking it down against the surface. She wiggled it then she leaned back, hauling the floor tile up off its frame and sliding it out of the way.
She got down on her belly again and continued her investigation.She could see the scrape marks traveling over the piping and squirmed further into the opening, shining her flashlight under the next section of floor.
Eyeballs reflected the shine. Kerry stifled a yelp and somehow kept herself from scrambling out of the opening by sheer will.
"Something wrong ma'am?" Shaun looked up.
"Um. No." Kerry bravely resumed her search. She looked for the eyes, but there was nothing in that back corner now except some hanging cable.
She was about to move on, when her eyes registered something unusual, and she looked back at the spot, carefully craning her neck to one side and narrowing her eyes. "Oh crap."
"Ma'am?"
Kerry got up and crawled over two more squares to where she'd seen the eyes, and then she slapped the floor puller into place and settled back, both hands on the device. "You might want to get back." She told the tech. "I saw something move under here and it's too small to be one of us."
The tech didn't need to be told twice. He jumped off the desk and went around it, backing away from Kerry. "You're crazy to be opening that up. Could be anything under there. Someone said there were snakes."
Kerry took a deep breath and yanked her shoulders back, pulling the tile up off its seating. She rocked back onto her heels and pulled the tile with her, tensing her thighs a she prepared to have to jump clear just in case.
Nothing stirred. She slid the tile to one side, and shone her light on the cabling underneath. "Look at that."
The tech got up on the desk and peered over it into the space. "Holy crap."
Shaun and Kannan scrambled to their feet and approached, staying cautiously behind Kerry's kneeling form. "Oh wow," Shaun said. "That's all chewed up!"
Exposed now in the light, there was a thick bundle of cabling, a lurid blue color that was marred by a huge clump in the center that was chewed all the way almost to the bottom of the bundle, resulting in tangle of butchered wires. "Sure is." Kerry examined the hairball. "Well,this didn't happen in a week, did it?"
The tech circled the desk and knelt next to her warily, looking at the cables. "That's new." He said. "For sure, because I know where that bundle goes and that stuff was working before all this happened."
"Wow," Shaun said again. "That's a--what a mess."
"For sure," Kannan agreed. "That will take many h
ours to fix."
"Guess you guys better get started then," the tech said. "Cause this stuff will never work if that's not connected."
"Us?" Kerry looked up at him. "This isn't our wiring."
The tech shrugged. "It's not our wiring. We just do server management here. That's all. We don't touch any of the infrastructure stuff."
"Who does?" Kerry asked. "And where are they, by the way? "
The tech shrugged again. "Some company that some big guy here owns a part of. They got a couple of guys and a truck, and they come in when we need new cables run and stuff like that. They monitor everything remotely."
Kerry counted to ten again. Then she counted to twenty. Then she gave it up and started to put the tile to one side, her temper flaring.
A bang issued from the space. It put a cap on her reaction, and made everyone jump. "What the--"
Another bang and she started to get up and away from the hole,which suddenly started to issue flashes of light.
"Oh my god." The tech jumped back, bumping into the desk and falling into it, then bouncing off and lunging back across the open hole,his arms flailing. "Ahh!"
Kerry succumbed to latent heroism and grabbed him, throwing herself into him and taking them both to the other side of the open floor just as a loud sound emerged and the hole erupted with a flurry of brown forms.
"Holy shit!" Shaun let out a yell, jumping backward and grabbin Kannan by the shoulder as rats boiled out of the floor scattering in every direction.
Kerry hit the floor with a painful jolt and rolled clear of the tech unable to place the sounds and hearing the alarm in her people's voices as she smelled a deep, raunchy stench come into the room. She wrenched herself around and got her hands under her, shoving her body away from the floor and nearly pitching herself right back onto it when a rat ran over her hand toward the server cabinets.
She bit her tongue, and got enough command of her body to get her feet under her and stand up, fiercely resisting the urge to jump up onto the desk. "Nice." She croaked. "What the hell brought that on?" She grimaced a little, as her ribs protested her impact with the floor.
The tech jumped onto the desk. "That's it. I'm getting out of here. All that overtime ain't worth it. That's a freak show." He walked to the end of the desk and hopped off, then disappeared out the door without a backward glance.
"Nice." Kerry looked around. The rats had all disappeared. She walked cautiously over to the hole and crouched down at a respectful distance, peering inside. As she watched, the end of the cable she'd been searching for inched into view, with a loud scraping sound and a clinking of the metal ends that protected it. "Ah."
"Hey. It's the cable." Shaun had eased warily up behind her. "Where'd that come from?"
"Someone has found it." Kannan came over and knelt right next to the opening, reaching down without hesitation and taking the end of the cable in one hand. "I am going to pull this now." He called down. "Be relaxed."
He braced one foot and pulled gently on the cable end.
"Don't pull too hard." Shaun advised. "We have to get it back under the floor over to the wall." He came out from behind Kerry and knelt down by his teammate's side.
Kerry eased slowly upright, as a sudden motion caused a jolt of pain. She bit off a curse and stepped back, getting out of the tech's way and moving back over to desk.
"Got it?" A voice echoed softly up to them.
"Got it." Shaun called back. "Was that Mark?"
Kerry perched on the edge of the desk pressing her elbow against her side. "I think it was." She agreed, removing the radio clipped to her shoulder. "Mark, this is Kerry. You there?"
She heard a crackle of noise on the speaker, then Dar answered, her deep tones roughened with the radio's interference, but comforting to Kerry's ears nonetheless.
"We're here," Dar said. "They get the end of that damn cable? We had to push it up back through a bunch of garbage and through a damn access pipe."
"We got it." Kerry acknowledged. "You chased a bunch of rats up here with it."
"What?"
"And, we've got another problem." Kerry went on. "Dar, you better come up here and look at this," she paused, "and I think I--" She stopped, aware of the techs listening. "If you're done there, come on back."
"Be right there." Dar's voice had taken on an edge and Kerry exhaled, as she clipped the radio mic back on her shoulder.
Breathing hurt. She figured that meant nothing good, but she decided to remain where she was, watching the techs work the cable under the floor toward the wall. She saw Kannan examine the end closely and nod, but neither he nor Shaun said anything about it.
Good people.
"That was crazy, huh?" Shaun looked up. "This place really is crazy."
"It is." Kerry agreed. "I don't know what we're going to do with that cable mess in there. We keep having everyone else's problems dropped in our lap."
"That's a mess." Shaun agreed. "That's probably a hundred cables that need to be fixed."
"Not too good at all." Kannan said.
There were footsteps in the hallway, and suddenly the door was filled with Dar's tall form. She stopped in the opening and looked around, focusing on Kerry. "Hey." She crossed the floor to her partner's side, ignoring the open sections, the mass of screwed up cable, and the two techs.
Her jumpsuit was covered in dust and grime and she brushed her hands off as she arrived in front of Kerry. "You okay?"
Kerry managed a brief smile. "What makes you think I'm not?"
Dar moved closer. "You're white as a sheet. What happened?" Her voice dropped, taking on a concerned tone. "Ker?"
"Sorry." Kerry waited for the pain to ease. "I did something stupid crazy. When you were pushing the cable back in here a bunch of--I guess those big rats. They came up through the floor." She took a shallow breath. "Anyway, the other guy that was here was falling into the open hole and I grabbed for him and we both landed on the floor."
Dar put a hand on her knee. "And?"
"Caught my ribs on the edge of the tile," Kerry admitted. "Think I cracked something." She saw Dar's reaction start as she was saying it and she reached over to grab her hand. "Not bad, at least I don't think so."
"Cracked anything isn't good." Dar glanced around. "C'mon. I'll take you over to the hospital. They can take some X-rays."
"No, c'mon. I don't think it's that bad." Kerry protested. "I just got the breath knocked out of me." She amended her diagnosis. "Just a bruise. Chill."
Dar's brow arched sharply.
"You would say the same damn thing," accused Kerry.
"So, because I'm an idiot, you have to be an idiot?" Dar asked.
Kerry thought about that. "Yes."
Dar gave her a dour look. "Go back to the bus, and catch your breath," she said. "I don't want you to bruise anything else."
"Dar--"
"That wasn't a request." Dar's voice sharpened unexpectedly.
Kerry tilted back a trifle and studied her companion, seeing the storm in the blue eyes glaring back at her. "Okay," she responded."Boss."
Dar stepped out of the way to let her leave, and she did, swallowing against the lump of unease in her throat. Dar didn't pull rank on her often, and even less so in situations like this that crossed into their personal lives, but it stung every time, and this was no exception.
Even if she knew Dar was right, and she was being stubborn, it didn't help. She kept her elbow near her side as she made her way down the steps; the hallways eerily empty, as were the sidewalks when she emerged.
The bus door opened as she approached though, and she climbed inside to find a quiet oasis waiting for her completely bereft of staff or visitors. As the door closed shut behind her, the air even cleared and she felt her shoulders relax. "Thanks, Alan." She called into the driver's compartment. "Quiet today huh?"
"Yes, ma'am." The driver called back. "I'll just be here reading my paper. Let me know if you need anything."
Kerry removed her mask and tossed it o
n the table wincing as the ache in her side started throbbing uncomfortably. She walked over to the courtesy kitchenette area and opened the small refrigerator. Inside there were milk chugs. She took one out and opened it.
"Ow." The twisting made a jolt of pain go all the way down through her groin. "Stupid idiot." She went to her pack and fumbled out the bottle of Advil, opening it and then tossing down the handful of pills with a swallow of the milk.
It tasted good and soothing against the roughness in her throat. Kerry took the chug with her and carefully sat down in one of the leather chairs, leaning a little on her good side to take the pressure off her ribs.
The pain eased. She exhaled, reaching up to unclip the radio mic and pausing.
Call Dar? Find some excuse to reach out and make that contact? She felt the urge to do that, to smooth over the moment's anger between them before it festered and yet, she didn't want to interrupt Dar in front of the rest of the staff for something silly.
Something she knew Dar knew would have nothing to do with what she was calling for.
"Ugh." Kerry let her hand drop and sipped her milk instead. "Dear God I wish it was tomorrow already." She decided she'd rest here for a few minutes, and then go back to the data center and make her amends in person.
Her side did hurt. A lot. She concentrated on breathing shallowly and put her head down on her arm as she waited for the medication to kick in. "Rats." She muttered. "What in the hell else is going to happen to us here?"
Her radio crackled softly, its speaker right near her ear. Then it clicked off, much as she had only moments before.
Kerry closed her eyes, and managed something almost close to a smile.
DAR KNELT BESIDE the open floor, working hard to focus her mind on the problem in front of her. She stared at the cable mess for a long minute before she glanced over at Mark giving him a half shrug. "Our options are fix it, or tell them to fix it."
Mark nodded. "Shaun said the guy in here said their network people are somebody's cousin."
"Great." Dar rested her elbow on her upraised knee. "All right,"she finally said. "Get a couple of the LAN guys down here with a kit. I'll go find the idiots running this place and see if I can get them to take responsibility for it."
