by Melissa Good
"Hang on."
Kerry held the mic with one hand, keeping her other elbow pressed against her side that had started to ache again. "Good catch, Nan." She complimented the woman. "Last thing we needed was to be stuck inhere for a long time."
"Ker? I can hear it." Dar answered back. "Just keep banging. We'll try to find ya. Good job."
"Thank Nan." Kerry backed away from the pipe. "Robert, can you find a brick and spell Nan when she gets tired? I don't think my ribs are going to be up to me whacking something."
"Sure," Robert agreed instantly. "Boy that took a lot less time than I thought it would."
"How are we going to get the cable inside the pipe up here?" Nan asked over the pounding. She whacked the pipe at one-second intervals; making a low, gong like sound that wasn't quite pleasant. "There's no hole in the pipe."
No, of course there wasn't. "Hey Dar?" Kerry keyed the mic. "I'm going to need someone up here with a hacksaw."
"Send them up when they're done here," Dar answered, her breathing sounding a bit strained. "Get back to you in a minute."
Kerry released the mic, trying hard not to turn tail at once and go chasing down the stairs to see what her partner was up to. "Boy, that was a lot shorter than I thought, too," she commented. "We may make this if Dar can find that pipe."
"They're making a big deal out of the Exchange this morning."Robert straightened, with a small section of pipe in his hands. "The vice president's going to be there, and a bunch of other people. I hear they're going to have one of the firemen ring the opening bell."
The underlying hypocrisy made Kerry's eyeballs twitch. She turned and looked around searching out a path for the cable to come up once it came out of the pipe. The floor was crowded with mechanics but she traced out a route with her eyes, taking the cable along the floor and past the dangerously humming electrical panel.
Yes, that would work. She eyed the bend the cable would have to make to get to the router, and while it was steeper than Dar probably would have liked, beggars in this case certainly could not be choosers and they'd just have to try and make it work.
She was just relieved they'd found a solution. She checked her watch. Quarter past eight. They had really an hour to get everything hooked up and tested before the exchange opened at nine thirty. If the modules got here in time, it was do-able.
Just.
"Ker?" Dar's voice crackled through, sounding tired and irritated.
Uh oh. "Here," Kerry answered. "What's up?"
"We can't get at that damn pipe." Dar answered. "It's inside an equipment room behind some locked doors."
"Well--"
"Which Mark already picked. Someone decided to dump a load of unwanted concrete in the closet and it's covering the pipes. They're inside the concrete."
Shit. Kerry clicked the mic, looking over at the others, who were looking back at her in dismay. "All the pipes in that area?" She looked around."They're all on that wall, Dar."
"All of them," Dar confirmed. "Every last goddamned one of them buried inside a pile of rock with construction worker's graffiti marked all over it.
Nan stopped pounding, and let the brick fall to her leg. "So, now what?"
"Good question." Kerry exhaled. Slowly she let her eyes wander over the inside of the room. "Damned good question."
"QUARTER TO NINE." Kerry wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. She was kneeling on the dirty concrete, as Nan squirmed under the consoles looking for something, anything they could use to solve their current problem.
"I don't see anything," Nan said. "Just a lot of dirt."
"Son of a bitch." Kerry exhaled. "This stupid piece of shit room. If I had a stick of dynamite I'd just blow a damn hole in the floor."
Nan eyed her, a trifle nervously.
"Is there anything I can do other than hold this flashlight?" Robert asked. "I feel a little useless standing here letting you ladies do all the dirty work."
Kerry lowered herself carefully down until she was lying flat on her belly on the ground. She slowly moved her flashlight around every inch of the floor, ignoring the throbbing pain in her chest.
"Ker, I think we're about out of time." Dar's voice crackled softly over the radio. "I can't find a damn thing down here."
Kerry cursed under her breath. "Hang on." She keyed the mic. "I'm going to have one last look here."
"Okay." Dar responded. "Good luck. We're not having any."
"Thanks hon." She released the radio and continued her inch-by-inch search, running her flashlight over the back wall past the electrical panel, over the painted over wooden half door, over the brick--
Wait.
Kerry moved her flashlight back. She focused on the long sealed half portal, her eyes flicking over it with startling intensity. "Robert?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Get me a sledgehammer. Immediately."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Nan squirmed over to see what she was looking at. "What are you going to do?"
Kerry pointed. "That was a door once. It went somewhere." She rested her flashlight on the ground and her chin on the flashlight, trying not to breathe too deeply. "It's lower than the level of the floor."
"You think it goes somewhere?"
"Haven't a fucking clue." Kerry keyed the mic. "Dar, I found something. Give me two minutes, and then see if you hear me knocking."
"Will do," Dar responded. "Got my damned fingers crossed."
Nan studied Kerry. "You people from Miami curse a lot. No offense. It just sounds weird."
"We have a lot to curse." Kerry edged forward, now regretting that she'd declined the jumpsuit. She could feel the chill of the concrete against her belly as she angled herself under a large metal shelf toward the door. "It's either hot and steamy, or it's a tropical storm, or it's bad drivers, corrupt politicians, and roads under perpetual construction."
"Oh." Nan watched her. "You want me to do that? You must be hurting like crazy crawling around like that."
Kerry turned her head and looked at her. "Can you swing a ten pound sledge hammer underhand?"
Nan blinked. "Um--you know, I never tried, but I'm more into marathons than weightlifting."
"Well." Kerry squirmed a last few inches. "I can, and I'm short enough to get in here." She arrived in front of the door. There was an alteration in the floor there, a pour of concrete that had settled into a depression three feet wide. It made the floor in front of the half door a good twelve inches lower than what she was laying on. She ran her fingers over it. "Stairs?"
"Hard to say." Nan looked up over her shoulder at the door. "Found one?"
"I did." Robert came forward. "The custodian was there. I just paid him twenty bucks and he handed it right over." He edged toward where Kerry was. "You want it there, Ms Stuart?"
"We must be in New York," Nan said, in a wry tone.
"Like Washington doesn't know anything about bribes?" Robert jibed back.
"Can you get the head of it here, next to--yeah." Kerry curled her fingers around the shaft of the sledgehammer and steeled herself, tucking her right arm up against her side to support her ribs. Then she lifted the hammer and smacked the head against the door, making a loud cracking boom.
"Whoa." Nan squirmed back out of the way. "Let me get outta here before splinters start flying."
Kerry smacked the door again, then again, and again. It didn't seem to be moving, but she could see the paint cracking along the sealed edges. "Hope Dar can hear that."
"Ker. " As though in answer, Dar's voice sputtered near her ear. "What the hell are you do--where is that? Mark! Mark! Where in the hell is that coming from?"
Kerry felt a jolt in her side, and she took a quick breath against it. She kept up her attack, feeling some of her rage at the situation coming out as she swung against the door harder and harder. "Stupid." Bang."Piece." Bang. "Of crap." Bang.
"I think the edge is breaking there." Nan had slid over under the back section of piping to get a better look. "Yeah, it is."
"Should be." Kerry grunted, slamming the hammer against the wood as she felt the burn in her triceps. "Glad for all those hours in the gym now."
"You guys actually have time for the gym?"
"We make time for it." Kerry paused and studied her target, and then she selected a different spot and slammed the hammer against the edge of the door near the frame, seeing flecks of brown wood under the black paint.
"Nine o'clock," Robert said. "Ms. Stuart, they're back with that part--upstairs just paged me."
"Go down into the subway and get Kannan and Shaun back up here." Kerry felt her breath coming fast, and her heartbeat hammering against her chest. "Tell them to get ready."
"Yes, ma'am." Robert disappeared again.
"C'mon. C'mon." Kerry closed her eyes and just concentrated on the hammer, blocking out the pain and the burn in her arms. She banged the tool against the wood again, and again, and again, and again.
Faster.
Slam.
Slam.
Slam.
"KERRISON! STOP!"
Kerry almost jumped and smacked her head against the pipes, the voice so loud in her ears it hurt. She dropped the hammer and let out a gasp as the surface she'd been pounding disappeared into a black hole and gust of cold, oil scented air blew hard against her face.
She stared at the opening until Dar's upper body appeared, her arms resting on the depressed floor. "H--hi."
"Sorry I yelled," Dar said. "But one more smack and you'd have gone through the damn door and knocked me off this stack of crates and old railroad ties I'm standing on." She disappeared. "Hang on."
Kerry was very glad to stay completely still, blowing her hair out of her eyes with a puff of relieved breath.
"Wow," Nan said. "Just, wow."
"Here." Dar reappeared with something in her hand. "Feed this in." She got a good look at Kerry's face, and then shifted her focus."Nan, grab this please. Pull it forward to the rack." She had a cable end in her hand and now she fed it through under the rusted iron pipe work.
"Got it." Nan took hold of the cable and squirmed backwards. "Got it, got it--whoa!"
"Hey!" Shaun skidded to a halt, breathing hard. "There's the cable!Kanny! Move it, buddy!!"
The cable slithered forward as Dar fed it up, past Kerry's shoulder. "That's enough," Dar called back. "Tie it off for strain relief, Mark."
"Doin' it!" Mark called back. "Dar, for Christ's sake don't fall, okay? I don't think I can catch you and we're both gonna end up across those freaking tracks!"'
"I'm all right." Dar leaned on the sill again. "You okay?" She focused on Kerry.
"Absolutely not." Kerry reached over and extended her hand which Dar clasped. "We're not done. The part's here, Dar. We've got to get it down to the exchange."
"I know," Dar said. "And I've got to be here to configure this end of it when the traffic starts coming down. I told the router on that end to send me everything. I'm going to split it up here."
"We're insane." Kerry rested her head against her arm. "I'll get the part and go to the Exchange. If they won't let me in, at this point, I'm going to start biting and kicking people so get the bail money out."
"Ker, we can send someone else," Dar said. "I'll send Mark."
"Who do you think has the best chance of getting in there?" Kerry kept her eyes closed. "Honestly."
Dar sighed.
"You're taking me to dinner at Joe's Stone Crab tonight, Paladar."
Dar pulled her hand closer and kissed her knuckles. "Ker, I'll buy Joe's Stone Crab for you if you want, but--ah--can you move back out of the way?"
"Huh?"
"Gotta jump up here." Dar looked behind her.
"Boss! Watch it!" Mark yelled suddenly. "Watch it!"
Kerry's eyes popped open. "Honey you're not fitting through here. Dar, wait--no wai--Dar!"
With a sudden surge, Dar hauled herself through the opening. "Mark! Move!"
"Outta here boss!"
There was thundering huge crash behind her, and far off, the sound of alarms going off. "I think we just blocked the tracks." Dar reviewed her options in the tiny, cramped space. "I think I'm gonna end the day pissing a lot of people off."
Kerry was wriggling backwards as fast as she could, trying not to kick Shaun and Kannan who had descended over the cable and were working furiously.
"Guys?" Dar said. "Stop."
Shaun looked up. "Ma'am?"
"Pull Kerry out of there." Dar pointed. "Just grab her legs and pull gently before she passes out." She looked up, then jumped and grabbed a pipe, pulling her body up and over the top of it. "C'mon people, we're out of time."
Chapter Seventeen
KERRY BOARDED THE subway train with Andrew right behind her, her hands pushed into the front pocket of her hastily donned hoodie. One hand clutched the optic device as she was shepherded to a seat by her tall companion.
"This is a crazy thing." Andrew sat down next to her in the half full train.
"It is." Kerry was aware of every minute ticking by. "But Scuzzy said it would be faster to do this, than try to drive down there with everything going on. I trust her to know New York."
"Some right." Andrew acknowledged. "Lots of traffic now up there."
"Lots." Kerry sat back, feeling utterly exhausted. Part of that was the drug she was taking for her ribs she knew, but there was a bone deep tired along with it she hadn't felt for a long time. "You know, I said to Dar I was glad we were doing this."
"Not so glad now?" Andrew asked, watching her from the corner or his eye. "You don't look so hot."
"I don't feel so hot," Kerry admitted. "I think besides my ribs I'm coming down with something. I've got that ache all over feeling." She exhaled carefully. "Just my luck."
Andrew patted her shoulder. "Hang in there, kumquat. This here thing's about done ah think."
"I'll be glad to get on that darn airplane, that's for sure," Kerry agreed. "Bet you will too."
Andrew let his big hands rest on his knees. "That is a true thing. Place here's got some of the same things I saw some places I been." He continued in a reflective tone, "a lot of fussing with folks haids. Mad. Crazy. Sad. Hating."
"You mean places you've been deployed?" Kerry asked, after a pause.
"Yeap."
The train rattled through the tunnel, and pulled into a station. A few people got off, a lot of people got on. Most were quiet, as they settled in seats, or took hold of the bars. Andrew scanned them, and then he remained seated, pulling his boots in a little to keep them from tripping anyone.
Kerry checked her watch, and then shook her head.
"WELL, DAR, WE knew it would be down to the wire but--"
"Sh." Dar staked out a spot on the floor behind where Kannan and Shaun were feverishly working. "Don't get me wrong," She paused and looked over her shoulder, "I am deeply grateful to all of you for doing this, but if we don't get finished, it's not gonna mean much."
"Sure." Chuck found a spot near the wall. "Mind if we watch?" He indicated his companions; two men in khakis with tucked in short sleeve shirts and actual, real pocket protectors. They had glasses, and that intense look that rocket scientists have.
"No." Dar plugged her laptop into the router and started it up. "Sit down, it'll be a while." It was already stuffy inside the room without the extra people in it, and she felt the sweat gather under her jumpsuit adding to an already significant discomfort. "Hell."
"Dar?" Mark's voice erupted near her ear. "I've got good uplinks--you want me to--what do you want me to do up here?"
"Hang on." Dar unzipped her jumpsuit and pulled it off her arms and shoulders, exposing her tank top covered upper body to the sluggish air. She tied the sleeves off around her waist and retrieved the mic. "All right, listen. We're taking the whole stream from down there so when it starts up I'm going to have to parse it by IP and set up sub interfaces to route it."
There was a long moment's silence. "You're going to do that on the fly, boss?"
"Do you
have another suggestion? Cough it up."
"Um."
"Aside from not trying this at all?" Dar exhaled. "I just hope we've got existing gateways to where this stuff's going." She scrubbed the hair out of her eyes with one hand.
"Wow." Mark said, after another long pause. "You want me to--"
"Capture everything so we can put it all back if this tanks? Sure." Dar logged into her laptop. "Wish me luck? Sure."
"Okay, will do." Mark responded. "I feel kinda lame up here. "
"Just hang tight," Dar said. "It's all in Kerry's pocket right now anyway." She set up her monitoring tools, opening a console to the router in one window and several sessions with the routing systems in the Miami office in others.
"Think we can get a case study out of this when we're all done,Dar?" Chuck asked, as he clasped his hands around his knees.
Dar gave him a sideways look.
"How about you keynote our next tech convention?"
"ONE MORE STOP." Kerry stood up as the train lurched into motion."Ready, Dad?"
"Right with you, Kerry." Andrew stood behind her, one hand resting lightly on her shoulder. They waited for the train to stop, then were the first ones out of the door dodging the rest of the travelers as they reached the steps and headed up them two at a time.
It was loud and bustling under the ground and Kerry got through the exit turnstiles yearning for a sight of the open sky again. She evaded crashing into two men rushing for the entrance and got to the steps outside, running up them and emerging into the open air.
It was gritty and dusty, but there was no time to worry about a mask as Kerry broke into a run toward the exchange. The jolting of her own footsteps sent shocks up and down her side, but she ignored them and focused on the gothic front of the now familiar building a short distance away.
There were people clustered in front of the main entrance. She saw police there, and the military. The streets were blocked off.
Men were yelling. There were two people being held by their arms.
"Kerry that does not look good." Andrew was keeping pace with her."Gonna be a fight."
