Storm Surge - Part 2 (15 page)

"It is important," the Exchange tech spoke up again. "If the market doesn't open, that's a huge amount of money tied up that can't go anywhere."

"Can't they do it by hand?" Dar asked. "Y'know, computers are a lot younger than this building."

"You got to be kidding me," the tech said, in chorus with Charles and the MCI guy.

"Guess not," Kerry murmured. "Dar, there has to be something we can do. Even to bring up basic services. Isn't there?"

Dar removed her arm and put both hands in the pockets of her coveralls, tilting her head to one side as she gave the question its just due. Everyone waited respectfully in silence, until she cleared her throat and shrugged slightly.

"Think of something?" Kerry could tell, by the body language alone, what the answer was.

"Won't fly," Dar demurred. "The only way we could help out is if we get a trunk line from here over to Roosevelt Island. That's our closest node." She went on. "You'd have to do it underground."

"Impossible," the Exchange tech said, immediately. "Especially not without the union guys. I can't even get in a manhole without paying them through the nose."

"We'd never get the clearance," the MCI rep said. "He's right. That's all Verizon right of way and there's no way they'll let us run cable in there. Not taking money out of their pocket. I wouldn't either."He added. "If it was me."

Charles looked thoughtful. "Okay, it's impossible," he said. "But what if we could do it? What would that get us? It gets us to your network. That's private. We all know it."

"You're riding on it right now." Kerry reminded him mildly. "I'm tunneling you between your head end to your office here."

"Sure, but you can't do that for all of us, and all of this," Charles said. Then he paused, when Dar didn't respond. "Can you?"

Dar merely shrugged again. "No point in wondering, since it can't be done," she said. "But theoretically, if we could do it, and get the pipe over to my node, I might be able to do something useful with it."

There was a moment of silence, as the men all stared at Dar, who kept her hands in her pockets, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Are you shitting me?" The MCI rep finally asked.

"No," Dar replied. "Excuse me." She removed her hands from her pockets and patted Kerry on the shoulder. "Be right back," she advised, as she slipped past, and ducked out the door.

The men turned around and looked at Kerry, who folded her arms across her chest. "Don't ask," she said. "But if she says it's possible, you can take that to the damn bank."

"Yeah." Mark spoke up for the first time. "But if we can't get that cable from here to there, it's crap."

"Yeah," the Exchange tech said. "Crap."

Charles sighed. "Well, I can call Verizon. I think someone high enough in my company is probably related to someone high enough in their company."

"Their name Bell?" The MCI rep asked, wryly. "Better start digging. You're gonna need him."

KERRY WAS GLAD enough to drop into a soft, leather chair safe in the confines of the bus and surrounded by her colleagues. "Buh." She let her head drop back. "Glad we're here."

"Glad the wind is blowing off the water." Dar finished stripping out of her jumpsuit, tossing it over the back of the chair opposite Kerry before going to the bar and pouring herself a glass of juice from the waiting carafe.

"You got that right." Mark was toweling his face off. "This is some nasty shit. "

Kerry slung one leg over the arm of the chair and squirmed in the corner, letting her head rest against the soft leather. "You're right. That was nasty."

"It was." Dar sat down in the chair next to her, extending her long legs across the floor of the bus and cradling her juice between her hands. "Glad it's over."

"Is it?" Kerry asked.

"Well, for now," Dar clarified. "Until they come back and talk to us about getting action on that cabling I don't' see a reason for us to go back in there. Do you?"

Kerry shook her head emphatically. "I can live the rest of my life not going back in there given my choice, thanks. I'll be having nightmares about that underground for a month."

Dar reached over and curled her fingers around Kerry's arm, gently rubbing the inside of it with her thumb. "Sorry."

"Not your fault," Kerry muttered. "I could have stayed upstairs."

The door to the bus opened, and Alastair entered, putting his mask down and closing the door behind him. "Son of a bitch."

Dar's eyebrows hiked.

Her boss unzipped his dust covered overalls and removed them, sitting down on the nearby barstool to remove the legs.

"Can I get you something, sir?" The bus attendant zipped over, alertly

"Scotch. Double," Alastair said. "Straight up."

"Yes, sir."

"Governor's office get you again, Alastair?" Dar asked.

"Stupid son of a bitch." Alastair took the glass the bus attendant handed over, and gulped down the contents.

"Wow." Mark edged over to the counter nearby, giving his CEO a look of healthy respect. He opened a glass covered case and removed a sandwich sitting down to take a bite of it. "Want one of these, Mr. M?"

Alastair set his glass down with loud clacking sound. "I gotta tell you, ladies and gentleman. I'm about to pull this company out of here."

He got up and crossed over to where the chairs were, detouring long enough to grab a sandwich before he sat down across from Dar. "Son of a bitch."

Dar gave him a wry look. "Welcome to my world."

"Lady, you can keep it. I should tell that damn governor to take his threats and shove them up his ass."

"Threats?" Kerry frowned. "What on earth does he have to threaten us with? None of these are even our circuits." She got up and went over to the counter, selecting two sandwiches. "Sheesh."

"Hungry, boss?" Mark asked, giving her two fisted selection a quizzical look.

Kerry merely gave him a look as she retreated back to her chair stopping on the way to deliver Dar's sandwich. She sat down again and took a bite from the roll, glad of the tang of the horseradish sauce taking the taint of dust from her mouth.

"Thanks." Dar licked a bit of the sauce off her fingers.

"He said if we didn't come through on this damn Exchange issue, he'd cancel all our state contracts," Alastair said. "Can you believe that?In the middle of all this? I asked him if he didn't have enough problems without us pulling out and taking the rest of his offices down."

"I think he's just panicked." Dar chewed her mouthful of prime rib thoughtfully and swallowed it. "I think the federal government is all over him, and he's punching at whatever is in reach." She took a sip of her juice to wash the sandwich down. "Besides, we committed ourselves to help out here. "

"We did." Alastair agreed mournfully. "Sorry about that."

"I'm not," Dar replied.

Kerry tilted her head to one side and regarded her partner. "Really?" She asked. "You like being here?"

Dar shook her head. "No." She licked another bit of sauce from her thumb. "I hate being here. But if those people get their heads out of their asses, and get that cable run, we can do something to help." She glanced at Alastair. "Did you explain that to him?"

"Do you think they can do it?" Kerry nibbled the edge of her sandwich.

"There's no technical reason they can't," Dar said. "If they have the cable, and they're the damn phone company so they should have the damn cable, and they can find their way into the subway which goes right over onto the island, they can do it."

Alastair extended his legs and crossed his ankles. "Seems like a lot of work for two days. I did mention to the governor we had a dependency on those folks, but he wasn't hearing any of it. Said I should get it done myself."

Dar rolled her eyes.

"Hey, it's your reputation that got us into this." Her boss reminded her."I wasn't the one who called the government and volunteered us."

"Like I did?" Dar shot back. "You're the one who told me to go do it. I could have told Gerry we didn't have a chance at fixing this."

Alastair paused and thought, then shrugged. "Well--you know you're right. I did," he said. "But you never do listen to me, so why did you this time?"

"Children." Kerry cleared her throat. "Can we table the snipe fest? We've already got enough issues here to deal with."

"Doesn't she work for you?" Alastair pointed at Kerry, staring pointedly at Dar. "Insubordination?"

"Don't
I
work for
you
?" Dar grinned suddenly. "What's your point?"

Alastair chuckled wryly after a brief pause. "Damned if I know. Someone get me another scotch." He waved a hand at the bus attendant. "All right. So you're saying if those folks do manage to get some agreement then there's a chance this can happen?"

Dar got up and went to the white board on the far wall of the bus. It was covered in scribbling, and she picked up an eraser and wiped it off."Okay." She grabbed a marker and started drawing. "Let me just sketch this in."

Kerry took the opportunity to finish her sandwich. It was good.Her body was craving protein, and it really hit the spot.

Dar was drawing in a reasonable facsimile of Manhattan with the Hudson and East rivers on either side. Her hand made easy, sure motions and after a moment, she was finished. "We're here." She made a mark near the tip of the island. "Mark, hand me that subway map over there will ya?"

"Sure." Mark hopped off the barstool he had perched on and brought the map over. He handed it to Dar then stepped back out of the way.

"Thanks." Dar opened the map and spread it on the bar, studying it for a moment. "Okay." She turned to the white board again. "Here's where we were today." She marked a spot on the map. "That's Cortland Street. Here's the disaster site." She marked a large square. "Here's where the triple pop was, and Verizon's Central Office."

Kerry watched in fascination while sipping her drink. Dar's sense of space had always intrigued her. She'd seen her partner draw underwater diagrams with a three dimensional precision that was amazing. Now, she laid out the diagram with absolute sureness.

"Now." Dar moved on to the east side of the island. "Here's Roosevelt Island. The subway comes in here and then the line that goes through there comes back around this side down to here." She tapped her marker on the map. "If they bring it up Lexington Avenue, to Central Park, they can come down the tunnel here, and they'll end up not that far from our node."

"That's a hell of a long way." Alastair protested. "Not that it looks that far on that board, but Dar, I've been on that side of the city. You're not talking about a trivial effort here."

"I know." Dar juggled the marker in her hand, flipping it end from end."You didn't ask me if it was reasonable or likely--just if it was possible."

Kerry was about to voice her doubts about the possibility of it happening at all when her mind flashed back to a rainy night in the Carolinas and her jaws clicked shut.

It was possible. Dar wouldn't have bothered discussing it if she thought it wasn't. Whether or not those other guys could achieve it was another question, but it was a question Kerry wasn't sure she should be asking.

It wasn't their problem.

"That's a crazy amount of work." Mark spoke up. "If those guys have the reels, then maybe, but I don't think they can get through all that red tape, Dar. I heard those guys from the phone company talking and they're not into it at all."

"Well." Dar went to the bar and sat down on a stool. "Governor or no governor, I'm not going down there and do it for them," she said, quietly. "This is their city. It's their customers. I'm not crawling around in a tube kicking rats out of the way on their behalf."

Kerry nodded in relief. "Dar, I'll go wherever you go, but I don't want to do that either. Being under there today freaked me out."

"Right there with you," Mark said.

Alastair sipped his scotch. "I can work with that." He decided. "Let me get hold of Ham and we'll go see that damn jackass again."

"Somebody call me?" Hamilton Baird entered the back of the bus,wiping his hands off on his handkerchief. "Why, hello there you all. Gentlemen. Ladies." He glanced at Dar. "Maestro."

"Just talking about you Ham," Alastair said. "Dar's got a plan.We've got to go sell it."

"Now that's different," Ham drawled. "Ah got to tell you, Dar, I heard from those people down at Crisis on the Bay, or whatever they're calling that junk shop on the Hudson, and they do think you're just the cat's meow."

"Thanks," Dar said.

"Did you really do something with a welder?"

"Soldering iron." Kerry supplied. "It really was pretty spectacular and brilliant, but that's pretty typical of Dar."

Dar looked at her, eyes widening a little.

"Do tell?" Hamilton half turned toward her, a humorous tone in his voice.

"When we're done with the chit chat, we've got a jackass to go see," Alastair said.

Hamilton paused at the sandwich tray. "Do I have a New York minute to swallow this like a civilized man or should I have this lovely young lady put it in a blender and make it a smoothie for me?

"Eat." Alastair waved a hand at him.

Hamilton picked up his sandwich and his drink and wandered to the front of the bus where a television was playing. After a moment, Alastair got up and followed him.

Mark dusted off his hands. "I'm gonna go see what routers I've got to mess with left back there." He unlatched the back door and disappeared, leaving Dar and Kerry alone in the small seating section.

They were both quiet for a moment, just looking at each other. Then Kerry got up and moved over to Dar's chair, taking a seat on the arm and leaning along the back.

"Children?" Dar rested her head against Kerry's shoulder. "You crack me up."

"Sorry." Kerry ran the fingers of her free hand through Dar's hair."My brain is running in circles. Can they really do this, Dar?"

"Probably not," she conceded. "It would be like us running a cable from the office in Miami to our house. Possible, but pretty damn unlikely"

"Can they get it to our office at the Rock? We could take some of the traffic there, and not go all the way across to Roosevelt." Kerry suggested. "It's a little closer."