Storm Surge - Part 2 (8 page)

Kerry merely stood back and watched, her arms folded across her chest.

With the cutters, Dar clipped the cord in the middle of the two wires, and pulled the ends apart. She then stripped off the ends exposing the copper. She repeated the process on the end of the cable connected to the soldering iron.

Setting the cutters down, she took one of the ends from each cable and twisted it together, taking a piece of the duct tape and wrapping it around the ends. She repeated the act with the other end, then she wrapped all of it together into a neat bundle. "There."

"Okay." Kerry glanced at the pipe. "Did you want to put that through the pipe there before you connected that? Cause the other end won--sorry, sweetheart."

Dar was banging her head gently against the metal wall.

"You did such a pretty job though." Kerry picked up the other end of the extension cord and examined it. "You can do that with this end too if we cut it off, right?"

"I want ice cream," Dar sighed.

"Me too. Should I cut this off though? I got the idea." Kerry picked up the cutters. "You want to put the cable down that pipe, then plug it in, right?"

"Right."

Kerry clipped the plug off and retrieved the pipe, carefully threading the end of the cord through it and pushing it down. She continued until she got to the taped part, which she wiggled in and coaxed onward, glancing at the bottom of the pipe and smiling as she saw the end of the cord emerge. "There."

Dar fit the soldering iron into the end of the pipe and took the tape, strapping the device in as tightly as she could. "Thanks," she eyed Kerry, "my brain is a little off right now."

Kerry walked to the other end of the pipe and drew the cable out. It extended a good foot outside the pipe. She took the cutters neatly cutting the end and pulling it apart as she'd seen Dar do.

Electrical work was definitely not a general part of her skill set. In fact, she hadn't thought it was part of Dar's since her partner had contacted electricians on the few occasions they had issues either at the condo or the cabin.

However, this seemed simple enough. She picked up the plug she'd cut off and split the ends there then looked at it. "Dar, does it matter which one connects to what?"

"One of the cables has a white line," Dar answered. "White to white. Brown to brown."

"Oh." Kerry examined the cable, and proceeded. "Cool."

They worked in silence for a few minutes until Dar had the soldering iron fastened to her satisfaction. Then she set the pipe aside, coming over to Kerry's side to watch her finish taping the ends of the cable."Good job."

"First time I've ever done that," Kerry admitted. "Now what?"

"Now we wait for 110 power." Dar carefully leaned the conduit against the wall. "Then we plug that in, I stick the pole down the pipe and with any luck, I use the soldering iron to melt the cable tie."

Kerry studied the pipe then turned to look at her partner. "Dar,that's really ingenious."

"Thanks." Dar sat down on a metal shelf. "I could have tried to shear through it with a blade, but chances are I'd cut through some of the damn cabling in there and that' s the last thing we need." She exhaled as Kerry came over and put her arms around her neck, cradling the side of her face and kissing her on the cheek. "Mm."

"You're so damn smart," Kerry whispered in her ear. "I wanna be you when I grow up."

Dar let her forehead rest against Kerry's collarbone. "Know what I want?"

"More Advil?"

"That or a gun," Dar sighed. "Cause I don't think this day's ever going to end."

IT WAS COMPLETELY dark by the time their train pulled back into Penn Station halting with a jerk and a screech and the hiss of hydraulic doors preparing to open.

"Well." Alastair stood up and opened the storage bin over the seats. "That wasn't so bad."

"Nope." Andrew also stood, stretching out his long frame before he carefully lifted a box from in front of his feet and cradled it. "Glad that place wasn't but a minute from the train. That feller was looking to close up on us."

"Wasn't very friendly was he," Alastair agreed. He pulled down another big brown sack and followed Andrew as he stepped off the car and back into the lower levels of Penn Station.

"Jackass," Andrew grunted. "Like he was doin' us a favor selling this stuff." He paused to let a woman with a large child stroller move past then continued.

"Then asking twenty questions about what we're going to do with it." Alastair frowned. "What in the hell did he think we were going to do with it? Install fiber optics in our hotel room?"

"Jackass."

It was a bit quieter now, the rush hour just getting passed, and when they climbed up the brass lined stairs to the concourse there seemed to be more National Guard in the area than passengers. A number of the guards with large dogs on leashes were nearby.

Everyone walking by looked a little nervous. But the dogs merely sat there, tongues lolling, waiting to be called into whatever action they were apparently trained for.

At least it was less chaos. Alastair tucked the bag of gewgaws under his arm and was glad of the noise reduction. He gave the guardsmen a pleasant smile as they crossed the open concourse and headed for the hallway that would eventually take them to the escalator and outside.

"Long day," he commented. They entered the main part of the station, a large, high ceilinged space with several branch corridors and plenty of signage pointing to trains and subways in three different directions.

"Got that right," Andrew agreed as they headed up another hall. He glanced to one side and then paused. "Goin' to get me a hot dog. You want one?" He indicated a shop to one side.

Alastair looked past him to a cluttered gathering of fast food marquees, all crammed into one low ceilinged space. "Why, sure," he said. "Been a long time since lunch."

Andrew went inside and set his box down on a table near the hot dog counter. He removed his wallet from his back pocket and advanced on the woman behind the counter, turning his head as he stopped. "You want one with all them things on it?"

Alastair set his bag down on the box and pondered the menu. "Chili dog," he said. "Might as well hold up my end of the Texas stereotype."

"Gimme two of them there things, and some taters, and a couple of cokes," Andrew addressed the woman.

The woman studied him. "You want two chili dogs, French fries,and two sodas?" She hazarded a guess.

"Yeap."

"No problem." The woman turned to take care of the order, leaving Andrew to loiter in front of the desk. Near the back a man was starting to clean up, putting chairs up on tables to sweep under them, carefully avoiding the two tables of guardsmen finishing up their dinner.

Andrew briefly pondered bringing some dogs back for Dar and Kerry, but figured they'd be stone cold before they got out there, and a mess to boot. He turned and leaned against the counter, folding his arms over his chest.

Alastair took a seat and rested his elbows on his knees. Having a chili dog in a train station didn't even seem odd after the last few days. He could barely even remember how the morning had started and he found he was mostly looking forward to some kind of success before the night ended.

He suspected there would be one. Dar generally created success, which was one of the reasons he trusted her the way he did. He also suspected she was probably waiting on their return, but he figured a five minute stop for hot dogs probably wouldn't skew the pitch one way or the other.

His cell phone was off. He intended it to remain that way until they were back at the port, when there was some chance he could actually report on whatever status whatever politician on the other end was asking for.

Right now, tired as he was, he gained a glimmer of understanding of the undisguised sigh of exasperation that Dar sometimes uttered when she was being hounded for something. Sometimes, you could do what you could do, when you could do it.

"Here." Andrew handed him a cardboard box, which had a hot dog and a paper dish of fries in it with a little plastic pseudo fork poked in them."Figure that is good as any till we finish up." He took a seat at the table and bit into his dog.

Alastair followed suit tilting his head a bit as he realized the guardsmen were watching them. He wondered if they looked particularly suspicious or something. He glanced at both himself and Andrew, then at their burdens, which he'd shifted carefully to the floor so they could eat on the table.

Hm. Two guys, in a train station, with a brown box and a brown bag full of electrical parts, and one of the guys was wearing combat boots and a face full of scars. He watched the guardsmen in his peripheral vision as they all started looking their way and whispering.

Andrew shifted a little, so that he was facing Alastair and could see over his shoulder. His eyebrows hiked up a little.

Alastair took another bite of his hot dog"Not bad," he commented, wiping his lips on a napkin and hoping the guard would find some other thing to interest them.

"S'allright," Andrew agreed. "Two things I always did like t'eat round here is hot dogs and pizza pie. Had liberty here once and mah whole SEAL team went and got us ten of them big pies and we nearly got ourselves sick to death with it. Still like it though."

Alastair chuckled. "Have to say when I was in the Army, the most interesting place we ended up having liberty in was Fargo, North Dakota. Those people know how to party, I'll say that." He thought the conversation had died down over at the other table, but didn't want to be obvious and look.

"Army, huh?" Andrew gave him a wry grin.

"I'm from Texas. It's a family tradition," Alastair admitted."Granddaddy was in, Daddy was in, I did the ROTC rounds in college--I kept it to one hitch, though. After that I decided I liked climbing the corporate ladder better than the one in the obstacle course." He finished off the last bite of his hot dog and poked among the wedge cut fries, selecting one with the little fork let and tasting it. "What made you pick the Navy?"

"Didn't like hiking around with them big old packs," Andrew said. "And ah figured at the least I'd learn me to swim in the Navy. Don't do that much in Alabama." He paused, studying a fry. "Wanted to see something but dirt roads and candy assed rednecks."

Alastair glanced casually over at the guardsmen, who were now studiously looking in another direction. "I got to see a little bit of Korea," he mused. "Then I got posted in Italy and Belgium. That wasn't so bad. "

Andrew stood and took his cardboard tray over to the trash and disposed of it. He glanced at the guardsmen as he finished. "Lo there, you all."

"Hello." The one nearest him nodded respectfully. "Something you need from us?"

"Nope." Andrew shook his head. "Hope you all have a good night now." He returned to the table and picked the box up while Alastair disposed of his tray and came back to join him. They exited the food stop and headed across the concourse toward the exit.

"You know, I don't think I ever heard you mention what you did in the Navy before," Alastair commented, giving his taller companion a sideways look.

Andrew chuckled a bit. "Didn't want them fellers asking me what all was in these here boxes cause I don't have not one jack clue what it is," he admitted. "Figgured if I started flapping my jaw about what I done they'd mind themselves."

"And they did." Alastair clapped him on the back. "Good decision. Because frankly, though I paid for them, and I can pronounce the names, damned if I know what this stuff is either." They got to the escalator and rode it up, passing from the claustrophobic concourse into the street that was quieter than they expected, in a city that now seemed exhausted in a strange kind of way.

"Taxi!" Alastair waved one down. "Let's see what your kids have gotten us into." He handed his bag to the driver, who set it in the trunk along with Andrew's box. "And if we're very lucky, it's beer time."

"Won't be luck."

"Not with your kid, no. You're right. It sure won't"

"OKAY, HANG ON." Kerry wriggled under the pipe again and got her eyeball to where she could see up it, poking her slim flashlight into the space and turning it on. "See that?"

"Got it." Dar's voice came down tinnily. "Get your face out of the way in case something comes shooting out of this damn pipe."

"Yes, Grandma." Kerry edged over so she could keep the light in place, but removed most of her head from the danger zone.

She could hear Dar maneuvering the pipe into place overhead, and just as she reached up to scratch her nose, a big clump of pipe crud came tumbling down landing near her ear. She could hear a soft curse, and in the tone, she sensed her partner's frustration both with the tedious project and the cramps she was still suffering from.

Dar wasn't usually that unlucky. Kerry suspected it was the stress of the situation that was tying her up in knots and making her monthly cycle worse than usual, and she herself had the same thing to look forward to any minute now.

"Okay, I'm heating up the iron," Dar called down.

"Go for it, babe." Kerry tapped lightly on the pipe with her flashlight. She was tired, and hungry, and the worst part of it was knowing that even when they finished this crazy jury rig, all they could do was pull the cable into place.

They still had to wait for the fiber terminator to come in, and finish the connection so they could get it working.

Kerry's nose twitched, as she smelled the odd scent of heating metal. She peeked up the pipe and saw a hint of motion in her flashlight's glare, now outlining the blockage that was preventing the cable from passing.

Sure enough, the light reflected off dusty white plastic, a zip tie wrapped around the cables already in the pipe, its end extending across and bending against the far pipe wall. Kerry could just see the tip of the soldering iron approaching the tie and she had to smile again at the ingenuity of her partner.

Who would have thought of using a soldering iron? She was pretty sure she wouldn't have. Kerry pondered a moment as to what she would have done, given the limited options. Used a knife on a stick?