Tropical Convergence (41 page)

Erf. Dar glanced at the still open door. Just then, though, the speakers crackled to life over their heads and a gravelly voice intruded into the train.

There has been a power failure up the line and all the trains are stopped. Do not stand in the doorways. The trains can move at any time. Thank you.

It was like an omen. Dar figured. This was God's way of telling her to get the hell off the damn subway and go take a cab like any other self respecting Floridian would. She started to get up, but as she did, the doors whipped closed, and the train started moving unexpectedly, throwing her back into her seat. "Guess we're leaving now," she commented dryly.

"So." The girl edged nearer. "Where ya from, what's ya name?" She held out a hand. "I'm Scuzzy."

Dar eyed her in alarm. It's a sixty second ride, Dar. Deal with it. "Dar. I'm from Miami."

"Cool!" Scuzzy shook her hand firmly. "That's a cool name, and Miami's a cool place," she said.

"Thanks." Dar smiled briefly.

Abruptly, the train slowed and stopped again. Dar glanced outside, and saw nothing but black tunnel walls. Behind her glasses, she closed her eyes and tried not to think about how many tons of granite buildings were perched over her head, pressing down on tunnels she was sure were far too old, based on the ones she'd seen in the station.

"Yo. You like hockey?"

Dar opened one eye. "What?"

"Me and my buds, we're going down to the ice rink and play killer hockey later on, like tonight. You wanna come play? I can see you do somethin' with all them muscles you got."

Dar swore she heard creaking outside.

Subways, she realized, were looking like a bad, bad mistake.

"FUDGE." KERRY GLOWERED at her PDA. "Fudge, fudge, fudge."

"Something wrong, boss?" Mark whispered.

Kerry rocked back in her chair, shedding some of her fidgets. "Ah...Dar's stuck in New York," she sighed. "Maybe until Friday."

The session so far had been nothing more than a recap of the bid request, and then subsequent presentations by the four companies as to how they intended on fulfilling them.

Quest was there along with three of his attendants and four others he'd introduced from his company that were immediately forgettable and seemed more like movie extras than engaged executives.

Mark scribbled a few things on his pad, making a show of paying attention to Michelle Graver's presentation. "Well, she'da been wasted being here. Hell, you're wasted being here. We coulda sent one of the sales interns to do this crap."

"Mm." Kerry had to agree. "It's all a dog-and-pony show." She checked her watch, wishing her turn was over and they at least had the minor entertainment of lunch to look forward to. "Oh well, it's the start off session. I guess it was to be expected. I'm glad Dar's not here."

Totally not true.

"She'd be wigging," Mark muttered wryly.

Totally true.

Actually, Dar would have already left, finding the presentations pointless and the dialog meaningless. She'd probably have been in the taco shop across the road with instructions to call her when something got mildly interesting.

Kerry leaned on her elbow and pictured her partner's restless attitude without any problem at all. Her PDA chirped and she glanced at it, reading Dar's longer, more coherent message absorbedly. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," she groused under her breath. "You're gonna owe me for this, you little southern fried..."

"Uh... Kerry, did you say something?"

Kerry closed her PDA and dragged her attention back to Michelle. "Nope," she sighed. "Isn't it time for lunch, yet?"

Mark looked at his wrist. "It's only eleven o'clock."

"What's your point?" Green eyes studied him from under half lowered lids. "I missed breakfast," Kerry admitted. "I was in a rush this morning because I overslept."

"Forgot the old alarm, huh?"

Kerry managed a wry grin. "My alarm's in Manhattan." She watched Mark's face color a trifle. "You asked."

"Sure did," he agreed ruefully. "TMI, boss. TMI."

"Mm." Kerry listened to the speech with one ear, hopeful she was detecting a sense of closing in Michelle's voice. "Sorry about that. But it's true. Dar's better than any clock I've ever seen, and it's really hard to hit her snooze button." She rested her head on her fist, her eyes traveling slightly as she saw a newcomer enter, walking quietly over to sit by Shari and lean close to talk to her.

Something familiar about the man made her frown, and she nudged Mark's arm slightly. "Who is that guy?"

Mark swiveled in his seat and looked. "Hey...isn't that the guy from Tech TV? The one who was interviewing you and big D?"

Ah. No wonder he looked familiar. "Uh...huh," Kerry mused. "Now, isn't he cozy with the competition. Wonder what's up with that?" The man seemed very friendly with Shari, and as she watched, he took out a pad and a camera, put the camera on the table, and scribbled some notes on the pad. "Ohh...ho. What do you want to bet he's not asking for advice on some DSL routers?"

"So, in sum," Michelle cleared her throat, "we hope to show the kind of value any company looking to outsource their IT solutions has a right to expect." She rested her hands on the lectern. "We hope to open a new era in providing the types of services to all companies that only the largest, richest companies have been able to afford in the past." Her eyes wandered, apparently randomly, to Kerry's and held there for a moment, then moved on.

Kerry deliberately flipped open the top to her PDA and scribbled a note on it, then tapped send.

"Toward that end, I'm sure you'll be delighted to hear, Mr. Quest, we have invited a member of the distinguished technology press to join our bid team and chronicle our progress, and how this challenge evolves into what I'm sure will be a great success for whoever wins it." Michelle went on, smiling easily and giving Shari a knowing look.

"Hm. Somehow I got the impression that Quest dude didn't want this whole thing publicized," Mark muttered under his breath. "He doesn't look real happy."

Kerry observed the forced smile on Quest's face. "No, he doesn't," she agreed, sending a last note on her PDA before she closed it up.

"Thank you for your patience and attention." Michelle surrendered the lectern at last, taking her notes and retreating around the side of it before she headed back to her seat to a smattering of applause.

"Ah. Yes." Peter Quest scratched his cheek, then stood up. "Ah, thank you, Ms. Graver. Now, ah, before we break for lunch, we have one final presentation." He half turned toward Kerry and raised his brows. "Ms...ah, Stuart?"

Kerry stood up and gently pushed her chair in, then walked around to the lectern and rested her elbows on it, leaning forward and waiting until the room's pre-lunch restlessness stilled and she had their attention.

She somehow doubted the scheduling order had been by chance, in any sense.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen." She allowed a faint, self-deprecating smile to appear on her face, and took the time to make eye contact with those interested enough to be looking at her. "When I was asked to present a basic infrastructure outline here, I wasn't notified of the three ring circus."

A number of faces twitched, not expecting the gentle attack.

"If I had been, I'd have brought my performing SEAL and dancing hamster to liven this all up." Kerry straightened up, to a sudden, surprised round of laughter. "Unfortunately for you all, I only have an IT infrastructure presentation, so I vote to plow through it at record speed so we can all have lunch, how's that?"

Another round of laughter, and some applause. "You buying?" one of her competitors shouted.

"How about I cook?" Kerry shot back, with an engaging grin. "I'm told I make a killer PB and J."

The crowd loosened up and perked up at the same time, exactly the response Kerry was going for. She waited for the laughter to peter out, and sorted her brief notes.

"Oh, sorry." Michelle half stood, a sour sweet expression on her face. "Did you need the projector? I'm afraid we're pretty connected to it."

"Nah." Kerry removed a small remote from her pocket. "What's the point in being the richest kids on the block, if you don't have the neatest toys?" She pressed a button. "We don't need no stinking projector." She waited for the thin laser wand to emerge from the back of her laptop, and raise up, opening the aperture and shooting a thin blue beam just over her shoulder. Kerry glanced back and adjusted the beam slightly, then triggered her presentation to start. "As I was saying..."

Behind her, a neatly drawn and notated network diagram appeared, starting with a core, and spreading out to the edge devices, all neatly encapsulated inside the outline of a ship.

Kerry turned and peered at it, then swiveled back around to the room. "We have a saying in the IT biz," she said. "Parts is parts." With a laser pointer she indicated first the core, then the remote devices. "Like in any network, best case practices dictate we treat this ship's infrastructure like we would any sound network. The biggest differences we see are the need for solid, absolute redundancy and the need to bolt every darn thing to the floor to keep it from pitching overboard."

"And pay a premium for it," Shari remarked.

"Well, that's true," Kerry agreed cheerfully. "We don't generally give our clients blue light specials." She smiled at Shari. "But I can see the incentive for that for companies with fewer resources than ours and clients who either don't know or don't care about business continuity."

Her finger clicked on the button, and she waited for the screen to paint with Dar's next drawing, an intricate schematic of the primary pieces of equipment she intended to use for the bid. "The design allows for all the functionality Mr. Quest specified. Our complete schematics will be put into his hands for review, and frankly, that's really all I have to say regarding our intentions."

She clicked through two more screens showing some general dimensions of the equipment Dar had chosen, then stopped on the last one, which showed a pretty graphic in several colors that illustrated the interconnected types of communication, which would flow through the system.

"The bottom line, ladies and gentlemen." Kerry made eye contact again, pinning Quest last of all. "Is not who can do this the cheapest and easiest. Anyone can do that."

Shari snorted.

"Economy is a strong motive, Ms. Stuart," Quest reminded her.

Kerry lightly shrugged both shoulders at him. "In the end, Mr. Quest, you're the one who has to stand behind whatever decision you make," she said. "So you have to decide how much you're willing to risk in terms of reliability and protection. Because that's what this is going to come down to."

"B..."

"Parts is parts," Kerry reminded him. "We all use the same equipment. This isn't rocket science. No one's doing anything revolutionary."

"Speak for yourself," Shari spoke up.

"Hey," one of Quest's men stood up and faced her. "You people were allowed to say your piece without getting interrupted. So please be quiet and give others the same courtesy."

Michelle didn't even so much as look at her partner. Shari appeared to consider responding, then she settled for a rare bit of good sense and merely nodded.

Kerry waited, a mildly amused look on her face. "We all know how to do this. Just because it's on a ship doesn't change anything." She looked at Quest. "But you're the one who has to face the rest of your company and your customers if what you buy doesn't hold up. I'll tell you right now, neither I, nor our network architect shops at Wal-Mart."

Quest fiddled with his pencil, clearly uncomfortable. "Yes, well, that's all fine. Are you done?"

Kerry clicked off her projector, and watched it fold neatly back against the spine of her laptop. "Yep, I sure am." She tucked the remote in her pocket and took her notes, which basically consisted of the words 'kiss my ass.' "Let's take a break, shall we?"

Everyone stirred, and started to rise. Kerry circled back around to her seat and pulled her laptop case up onto the chair, opening the top so she could slip her machine inside it's padded bay. The speech had been a trifle more aggressive than she'd planned, but after Michelle's pandering, she knew she had to make a mark and distinguish their plan as something different.

So she had. Kerry was very aware of the eyes on her as she put her gear up, and she carefully and deliberately slid the leather strap into its buckle and fastened it before she looked up. "Okay." She half turned to face Mark. "Ready?"

"Whatever you say, boss," Mark responded, already shouldering his own briefcase. His face showed that he was out of his depth and he knew it. "Lead on."

Kerry only wished she could lead them both right on out of the hotel and down the street to a little sandwich shop Dar favored with little ambiance and great food. Instead, she knew they'd have to suffer through lunch at the hotel, which would likely be robust with carefully shaped lettuce leaves and relatively tasteless.

Ah well.

They all filed out, and she and Mark politely waited as several of the other bidders hurried to follow Michelle and Shari and their reporter guest. After the last had gone on, she fell in step at the end, giving Quest a half nod as he picked up his notepad and prepared to join them.

"You know, Ms. Stuart." Quest kept his voice down as they left the room. "I didn't really appreciate your attitude up there."

Kerry hooked her thumb through her laptop case strap. "Well, you know, Mr. Quest, you asked for competitive bids. I think you got what you asked for." She regarded him briefly. "I'm not here to blow smoke up your tail. I think you know that."

He didn't answer for a few steps as they watched the other bidders cluster around the reporter. "Where's Ms. Roberts?" he asked. "I thought for sure she'd be here for this. She has some very significant competitors here."

Kerry resisted the urge to pull out her PDA. "Dar? She's working with a client of ours who has a major application issue they came to her to solve," she replied. "A strategic partner of ours."

"So that's more important than signing new business?"