by Melissa Good
It was. Kerry could see it. She glanced at her watch and knew they had no time for it. Twenty after nine.
A policeman spotted them running, and pointed. Two military men reacted, and started forward. Kerry took it all in a series of vivid impressions. She realized she had no time to make a decision; her forward momentum was taking her toward the main steps as fast as she could run.
Soldiers ran toward them. "You--have a card you can show them Dad?" Kerry felt her breath coming shorter, and the pain made flashes of black and red on the backs of her eyeballs.
"Lord." Andrew didn't sound happy.
Kerry prepared to haul up as they were intercepted, when a motion caught her eye and she looked down the street to the back entrance, spotting a cluster of suited figures shuffling from a set of black cars.
One moment. One view. Instantly, Kerry changed course. "Hold 'em off." She called back as she bolted down the side street.
"Lord." Andrew dug in his pockets for his identification as he came to a halt in front of the military men. "Whoa there, fellas, Hang on."
Kerry kept going. She ducked between two wrecked cars, her boots tossing up puffs of ash dust as she powered along the sidewalk toward the group of people. The guards at the top of the steps spotted her and turned, and the group on the steps turned to see what was going on.
"Watch it! Stop her!" One of guards yelled. A policeman standing nearby lunged at Kerry, but missed her as she ducked past. "Hey! Stop! Stop!"
The guards pulled their guns off their shoulders, one hopping over the railing and falling to the ground with a grunt as he tried to get in between this oncoming threat and the people on the steps. "Stop!"
"Kerrison!" Cynthia Stuart blurted in surprise, as Kerry closed in on them. "What on earth!" She pushed to the front of the crowd. "Wait, stop. That's my daughter!"
The guards hesitated, just long enough for Kerry to slide past them and get to her mother's side. "Wait-- ma'am!"
"Mother." Kerry got hold of Cynthia's arm. "I have to get inside. There's no time to explain." She uttered. "Trust me, please."
Cynthia stared at her for a long heartbeat as their eyes met. Then she blinked. "Well, of course. We must go. Excuse us gentlemen. Sorry for this disturbance. I'm sure Kerrison just didn't want to be late for the opening."
Nine twenty five. Kerry barely held her impatience as they filed in the door among the group of senators, most of them looking at her with varying levels of surprise and distaste.
No time. Kerry broke from them the minute they cleared the inner door, past the guards, past the security in black jackets, past the secret service stationed carefully long the walls. She dodged a set of outstretched hands and went down a hallway, hearing yells behind her.
Ignoring them. Down a set of stairs, around a corner, and she was in the lower level again. Two doors down on the right, and she was throwing her shoulder against the surface as her hands turned the knob, almost falling inside.
Men inside. Startled, they turned, hands outstretched.
Kerry avoided them, her eyes focused on the setup in the corner, the one they'd left there, blinking quietly untouched.
Untouched.
The men were yelling at her, but all she could hear was her heartbeat thundering as she dropped to the floor and slid the last few feet,her hands wrenching at the static wrapping around the module she'd brought.
Footsteps. "Don't touch me!" Kerry yelled in warning, as she felt people closing in and her fingers felt cold steel instead of plastic. She got the optic out and shoved it into place, then grabbed for the patch cable as hands grabbed her.
Digging her boots in she leaned against the yanking, almost blacking out as a jolt of fire went through her chest. "Ahhhh!"
The pull relaxed for an instant, just enough for her to fall forward on to the router and get the end of the cables into place, shoving them home with a set of soft, unremarkable clicks.
So close to her eyes, she couldn't make out the features. For a moment, nothing happened.
"What the hell is that crazy woman doing?'
Then a soft, green light came on. It lit her face up, and as she blinked sweat out of her eyes she swore she could almost taste the green on the back of her tongue.
"Leave her be."Andrew's voice cut in, loud and uncompromising."Let her loose fore I rip your damn arms off and choke you with 'em."
Nine twenty seven.
Kerry felt the grip come off her, and she rolled over to sit on the floor, legs splayed, breathing hard, and flashes of red in her vision timed with her heartbeat. There were three men in the room aside from Andrew, and they were in logo shirts and pressed chinos.
"It's that crazy lady," the tech who'd been in the room when she'd gotten hurt blurted. "What in the hell are you doing?"
Kerry licked her lips. "Finishing what we started." She got to her knees and then had to stop.
Andrew came over and held his hands out. "Here." He took her hands and lifted her up. "You done now? This thing working?"
Kerry turned to look at the router that was now flashing with a lot of activity lights on the front. "Something's going through. Whether it works or not is in Dar's hands now."
"Wait--are you saying you're fixing this thing after all?" One of the other men stepped up. "They told us you weren't. Some guy came in here and said--there was an FBI agent here asking questions, said they were--that you--"
The tech was looking at something on his screen. "Well, something's happening because all of a sudden this stuff's trying to work,"he said. "So if those guys are going to arrest these people they probably should wait a few minutes."
"I should call them--" The man hesitated. "But if you're fixing it--"
Kerry held her hand up. "Spare me the details," she said, exhausted. "We're doing what we can." She turned to Andrew. "Let's go find my mother again. She's going to kill me for using her like I just did."
"Wait, you can't leave." The supervisor started to block the door,then found himself against the wall, pushed there by Andrew's big fist. "Okay. Maybe you can."
"Smart feller." Andrew opened the door and guided Kerry out.
"LINK!" SHAUN BAWLED, shocking everyone in the silence that had fallen as the minutes ticked away to nothing. "LINK! We got a link!"
Dar felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on her head.She took a steadying breath and then dove into the console session, seeing the port come active and quickly surge with a stream of traffic.
Many streams of traffic. Dar threw a flow filter in place to sort it,searching for the largest ones first. She clipped and pasted into a note-pad file as she found them, her mind registering the networks involved. She dialed her cell phone and put it into speaker mode. "Mark, you there?"
"Here boss." Mark answered. "We got data?"
"We got." Dar rattled the keys. "Get ready for a set of IP's, see if we've got gateways. I'm setting up the interfaces."
"Dar, we've only got like two minutes."
"You're wasting them." Dar concentrated fully on the screen, blocking out the distractions of the room, and the men watching, the heat, and the pressing of the ticking clock against her shoulder blades. "Okay ready," Mark answered in a chastened tone."That's going to be interfaces zero one, zero two and zero three." "Got it. They're starting the speech up there," Mark answered. "Got gateways."
"Clear the ACL's for it."
"Done."
"Bringing the interfaces up." Dar muttered. "Ready for the next set?"
"Ready."
THE BUZZ OF voices was almost overwhelming. Kerry came in to the gallery pausing in the entrance and looking around to see if she could spot her mother.
On the floor below, the kiosks and stands were filled with traders, the atmosphere frenetic and with an air of almost desperation. She spotted her mother on the far side of the gallery. On the other side, she saw a group of men clustered tightly within the confines of heavy security.
Alastair was there. Outwardly as calm and composed as eve
r,seeming to ignore the presence of the security agents spaced around where he was standing.
"Kerr--y."
Kerry turned to find her mother approaching. She walked forward to meet her, Andrew right at her heels. "Sorry, Mother," she said, as they met. "I had to get something done."
"Good grief!" Cynthia whispered. "What on earth are you involved in? Someone just told me the FBI has your company under investigation? What's going on?"
Kerry held a hand up. "Give it five minutes, Mom. Then I'll explain everything."
Cynthia looked at her, and then glanced at Andrew. "Oh. Hello,Commander."
"Lo," Andrew responded.
"Well." She turned back to Kerry. "I'm sure there must be an explanation. This is all so--" She fell silent as the speaker went to the gavel across from them, and rapped for attention. "But I agree. Let's see this through, then we can discuss it."
They moved to the rail to listen. Kerry rested her hands on it, so tired it was hard to concentrate on what was going on.
Hard to stand there, and not know what was going on at the other end of the cable. No way was she going to call Dar, and break her concentration, or cause any seconds more delay in what had become the worst of her worst nightmare of a circumstance.
She could feel Andrew behind her, and her mother came to stand at her side, the other senators and dignitaries clustering around them.
"May I now have two minutes of silence," the speaker said and bowed his head.
It went absolutely silent. The only sound was the air conditioning and the soft squeak of a chair moving somewhere in the distance.
An American flag fluttered lightly in the fan breeze, rustling against the stone wall.
Kerry kept her head up and she let her eyes slowly scan the crowd,watching the traders below, heads dutifully bowed, but anxiety for the trade showing in the shifting of shoulders and clenching of fists.
On her level, the dignitaries all were standing in solemn silence, the men with hands clasped before them, and heads bent, the women mostly clasping their hands just over their hearts, some with lips moving in silent prayer.
Behind the pedestal, a group of firemen in their turnout coats waited, too tired to pray.
Kerry turned her head a little and found her gaze caught by a pair of gray ones in the cluster of business suits to one side of the podium. Alastair cocked his head just slightly in question, and she managed a tired grin in response.
What was he thinking?
One more minute. Kerry looked down at her hands, rubbing her thumb across a scrape that stung as she touched it.
One more minute.
"SIXTY SECONDS, BOSS. " Dar barely heard him. She focused completely on the screen, instinct driving her typing more than conscious thought. Flows and errors flashed in front of her, and she forgot where she was, and who was watching.
Focus.
She typed, and exported, and filtered and watched results as she fought to make the data streaming into her monitor go where she wanted it to go, alerts and warnings flashing by so fast they hardly registered.
"Forty seconds."
Routing. Rerouting. Redistributing directions from the machine under her hands to the big routers sitting quietly in the first floor of the Miami office that Dar would have teleported to if she could have.
Protocols stuttered and skewed, probably affecting traffic across the breadth of their network. Dar didn't have time to worry about it.
"Thirty seconds."
Too much data, trying to get to too many places, all of it critical.Dar muttered under her breath as she recycled the router for the nth time, and waited for it to boot. "Cross your fingers."
"Got everything including my eyebrows crossed," Mark said, nervously. "Twenty seconds."
They waited. Dar gazed at the blinking cursor as the boot screen scrolled across her laptop, checking ROMS and ASICS in a process thatseemed glacially slow.
"Ten seconds."
Router prompt. Dar rattled in a command, reviewed the results.
"Five seconds."
Another command and a refresh. Then five keystrokes and a slamming of her enter key so loud it startled everyone watching.
DING, DING, DING. The fireman released the striker, and let his hand fall, as a burst of noise suddenly exploded through the tall space.
Chattering. People's voices. Traders. The rattle of printers.
An LED sign burst into action, spewing out ticker symbols.
Everyone clapped.
Kerry felt her hands start to shake on the ledge, feeling light-headed. Anxiously, she searched the crowd, but the traders had gone to work and blocked out their watchers, busy at kiosks, busy in clusters, busy at terminals, busy at the business of making money.
Completely anticlimactic. Like nothing was wrong at all.
"All right now, Kerry." Her mother turned to her. "What is all this about?"
"Excuse me." Alastair's voice intruded.
Kerry turned and faced him. "Hi." She started to take a breath, then paused as she was enfolded in a heartfelt hug by her ultimate boss. She could feel the catch in his breathing, and felt the sting of tears in her own eyes, and it was all just so crazy and stupid.
She blinked a little."We couldn't let it go," she whispered. "We just couldn't."
"Meant a lot more than you think it did," Alastair uttered back. "Tell you all later."
"McLean?"
Alastair released her, and they turned to find the vice president there, with several of his entourage. "Well, hello, Dick." Alastair's voice was calm, but its usual amiable tone held a distinct edge. "Nice moment there, with the fireman."
"Beautiful, "the politician responded, aware of all the watching and listening ears. "Real testament to the resiliency of the American spirit.Can't keep us down."
"Absolutely."Alastair agreed. "I couldn't agree more."
The vice president turned and put his hands on the ledge. "Everything's in good working order I see." He studied the busy floor. "As it should be."
"Why yes, it appears that it is," Alastair said. "As you say, you just can't keep us down."
The politician turned back to him, eyeing him sharply. He straightened up and fixed his tie, notching it a bit closer to his neck. "Glad to see everyone pulled together to make it happen." He dismissed them. "Excuse me." He moved past them and joined some of the senators standing nearby trying to catch his attention.
Alastair and Kerry both exhaled at the same time. Then Kerry leaned back against the wall, as her knees started to shake. "Wow," she said, and then fell silent.
Cynthia cleared her throat. "Is--everything all right? I'm sorry, is it--" She peered at Alastair. "Mr. McLean? I believe I have seen you on the business news."
"Ah. Yes." Alastair nodded. "You must be Kerry's mother." He held hand out. "It's good to meet you."
Kerry let it all go past her. "I need to go make a phone call," she finally said. "Excuse me."
Alastair took her arm gently. "I think we all have to make that same phone call," he said. "Senator Stuart, would you care to come with us?I'm sure you have some questions about all this."
"Absolutely." Cynthia looked around to where her colleagues were clustering around the vice president, and the press. "I'd be glad to.Let's go, this way. It's shorter, and I believe, with less people."
"Damn good idea." Andrew finally spoke up. "Bet you got one of them limo cars outside there too."
"Well, yes, actually--it's shared but--"
"S'allright, we'll just borrow it," Andrew said, firmly. "Excuse us."
Kerry let herself be guided to the stairs, completely spent and wanting nothing more than a chair, her partner, and a drink; too tired to even feel triumph or satisfaction at a job well done.
DAR SLOWLY STRETCHED her cramped fingers, listening to the sounds of raucous yelling coming from the speakerphone. She turned her head slowly and looked at Chuck after a moment, letting out a long exhale. "Congratulations," she said. "You made that happen."
Chuck chuckled wryly. "Dar, these guys made that happen." He pointed at the optic unit attached to the router. "And by the way, fellers, what you just saw was the IT equivalent of this woman flapping her arms and flying to the moon."
The two visitors had settled cross-legged on the floor. "I've been in enough bullpen situations to know that was one of those two seconds to blastoff kind of things," one said, pushing his glasses up on his nose."Pretty neat."
Dar closed her laptop. "Let's go upstairs," she said. "I need a drink."
"Boy that sounds good." Chuck got up, and they all left the little closet and emerged into the shopping level.
Outside, the world coursed past them completely oblivious to the drama in their midst, only giving a passing glance to the engineers and the scruffy looking woman in a tank top and coveralls trudging past them.
"Long day, huh Dar?"Chuck asked.
"Long week." Dar admitted, as they headed for the elevators. She could feel her shoulders slumping, and she mostly watched the floor as they boarded the car, pausing only to punch the button for their level. "But you folks really did the job. That's an amazing feat of engineering."
"Well, thanks," one of the engineers said. "My name's Orin Wellings, by the way." He offered a hand, which Dar took. "We were glad to help. We found out some things that might help us in some other research, so it's all good." He added. "This is my colleague Doddy Ramirez."
Dar extended her hand. "Thanks."
"My pleasure." The man shook her hand. "Talk about down to the wire."
"Mm." The doors opened and Dar led them out, past the receptionist's desk. She pushed the glass doors open and headed down the hall to their client presentation center, marked by a set of teak doors and frosted glass windows. "C'mon."
They followed her inside. "Coffee and soft drinks over there." Dar pointed without looking. She headed for the couch on the far side, dropping into it just as her cell phone rang. "Help yourself to whatever you like." She didn't even check the caller ID. "Yeah."
"Hey." Kerry's voice sounded every bit as drained as Dar felt. "We're on our way back there. Me and Dad, and Alastair and my mother."
