Storm Surge

by Melissa Good

  A click sounded down the line, and she was listening to nothing but a busy tone. Kerry closed the phone and exhaled, letting her head rest against her hand. She was sitting in the hallway, lit by orange fluorescent lights that made her head pound all the harder.

  She checked her watch. Two a.m. "Jesus." She leaned back against the wall, feeling the hard surface cold against her skin. Her skin was covered in dust, and her lack of progress in getting help for Dar and the rest of their crew made her feel covered in dust inside as well.

  She heard a sound, and turned her head to see a tall figure approaching her, a little too tall, and too broad to be Dar, but with the same bouncy stride. "Hey Dad."

  "Hey there kumquat." Andrew came over and slid down the wall to settle next to her. "You don't look so hot."

  "I feel crummy," Kerry agreed. "I can't get anyone to come here and help us. It's so frustrating"

  Andrew absorbed this, drawing his knees up and resting his forearms on them. "Hell of a lot of work," he agreed. "Ah was watching Dar do that for a while, made my eyeballs ache."

  "Me too. She won't let me take over for her," Kerry said. "We've rotated the other techs in at least once. But she won't stop."

  "Stubborn kid," Her father-in-law agreed. "Gets that from me, I do believe."

  Kerry leaned over and rested her head against his shoulder. "Can you go talk her into taking a break?"

  Andrew's brows quirked. "Ah could try," he said. "But she's out stubborned me before now."

  Kerry sighed, and straightened. Then she gathered herself up and climbed to her feet. "C'mon. Let's both try," she said. "Maybe that'll work." She waited for Andrew to stand and then she led the way back to the demarc room, pausing in the doorway to look inside.

  Most of the pockets in the floor were now closed. The majority of the techs were now clustered around the back of the room, where four were stolidly at Dar's side working on the cables, and the rest were doing busy work waiting their turn.

  Everyone looked utterly exhausted. No one was even trying to leave. Kerry felt a tiny prickle of pride, the hint of a lifting of her nape hairs at the understated loyalty of their staff and the stolid, equally understated leadership of her steadily working partner.

  She started across the room, gathering her arguments, steeling herself to maybe even get Dar mad at her, as she straightened her shoulders and sucked in a lungful of air.

  "Oh!" One of the techs yelped, as though he'd been bitten. "Ms. Roberts--Ms Roberts--I think this is one of ours!" The man froze in place, gripping the wires in a deathly tight clutch and not taking his eyes off them. "Holy cow!"

  Dar clipped her kit to the wall and crawled over the pile of cabling to where he was standing, the rest of the techs edging out of her way as fast as they could. She peered over his shoulder at the readout then she clapped him on the shoulder. "It is."

  "Oh holy Christ." Mark came in on the other side. "Dude, you just won the brass ring. That's the fucking backbone management uplink." He looked at Dar. "We can bring up services on this, boss. It's only a T1.5, but it's a hell of a lot better than that portable sat."

  Kerry sidled up in back of Dar and looked over the man's shoulder too, her arm slipping around her partner's waist and giving it a squeeze. "Wow. Nice job, Ken."

  The tech looked around, and smiled at her. "I feel like I won the lottery," he confessed.

  "You did," Dar said. "I promised a 200 percent raise and a month vacation. You got it." She took the cables from him and carefully routed them, winding them through the spools on the top of the punch down and seating them with a double punch of her tool. "Little bastard."

  She removed a pen from her pocket and scribbled a mark on the punch down. "Someone cross connect that over to the temp rack please."

  "Right on that ma'am." A tech was already routing wires from the other side of the room.

  Ken looked around at Kerry. "Is she serious, ma'am?"

  "Absolutely," Kerry answered immediately. "She never promises anything she won't deliver on." She waited for her partner to come back over and bump her lightly, stopping next to her instead of going back to the hairball. "Dar, if we've got basic comms back, I think we should let these folks take a break and get some sleep. "

  "You think so, huh?" Dar rested her elbow on Kerry's shoulder.

  "I do," Kerry said. "I know it's just a drop in the bucket, but you all can't keep this up all night and expect to also keep working again tomorrow. Which we have to do," she reminded her partner.

  Dar slowly looked around the room. Three of the techs were busy running cables and making connections to the thick panel that then ran out of the room and around the corner, ending at the satellite rig Mark had set up.

  The rest were sitting quietly, just watching her and waiting. Everyone would continue working if she said to, and Dar knew that. They were nowhere near in the clear, and stopping now would probably be a mistake, and certainly would lose them time they could not afford.

  However.

  "I think you're right," Dar said, after a pause.

  "Moving the management traffic off the sat will get me enough wiggle room to work with. We can take a break."

  She could see the utter relief on everyone's faces. A glance to her right showed a similar expression on Kerry's face, and the shoulder she was resting her arm on relaxed. "Let's go hijack one of those SUVs." She turned to the rest of the techs. "Take a break, people. Get some rest. You all did great work here tonight, and it'll make tomorrow a lot easier.

  "Back at you boss," Mark said. "I've got two or three guys in reserve, bunking out waiting for the rack truck to get here. Should be any time, so it's a good deal we're gonna take a break to get out of their way."

  Dar nodded. "Let's go." She slipped her arm around Kerry's shoulders and steered her toward the door. "C'mon, Dad. Time to go back to that scandalous hotel of ours."

  Andrew had his hands in his pockets, and was nodding slowly. "Been a damn long day," he agreed, as he joined them in leaving the room. "Ah will be glad to wave bye to this here rock pile for today."

  "Me too," Dar exhaled, as they exited the door and walked outside into the night air. It was much quieter now, though work was going on at the impact site as they passed it, cranes removing debris, and people moving in and out, there was a hush over everything that let them hear the flutter of the big American flag draped over the building with startling clarity.

  A cluster of motion drew their attention, and they turned their heads to watch a group of six people leading dogs fanning out to enter the destroyed area.

  "Are those search dogs?" Kerry asked.

  "Looks like it." Dar stifled a yawn. "Guess it's safe enough for them to go in now," she added. "So no luck with the Telco vendors?"

  "Ugh."

  Dar gave her shoulders a squeeze. "Don't stress over it. They really can't do any more than we're doing, Ker. At least we can prioritize what circuits come up if we're the ones punching them down."

  Andrew grunted, and waggled his head back and forth. "Them people should be helping though," he disagreed. "Not right for you all to be doing their work."

  "Exactly," Kerry said. "I know we can do it. The point is we shouldn't have to. Dar shouldn't have to be standing there for what--eight, ten hours sorting through that mess."

  Dar chuckled. "Eh." She shrugged. "At least it was doing something productive. I'm about out of options relieving all the throttle points until we relieve some of the congestion in Newark. There's just too much routing that way."

  "Ugh," Kerry repeated. "You know, I gave that guy such a hard time too, about sending everyone to New York. But we're going to have to do that too, Dar. I don't know how we're going to do all that work there, and still get stuff here all going."

  They stepped over the dividers into the parking area and headed for the bus. This late, most of the activity had settled down, but still there were techs gathered around the satellite rig, and two unfamiliar ones at the work tables setting up cable rigs. "Good
morning all," Kerry called out, as they arrived.

  The techs at the table looked up, then went still, their eyes widening as they recognized the figures appearing out of the darkness. "Oh, hell. It's the big cheezes!"

  "Big mangos," Dar disagreed, with a wry grin. "You folks getting ready to cut some traffic over? We got one link up in that hell hole in there."

  The techs around the sat hurried over. "That's what we heard," one said. "Mark called us on the radio. A T1 he said? That's going to be a lot better than the rig here. We're so maxed on it we can barely get management traffic through."

  The door to the RV opened, and two more techs climbed out, rubbing their eyes. "Hey, what's the scoop out here?" one asked. "Anything interesting--oh. Hi Ms. Roberts."

  "Ah will go get that car," Andrew decided. "Be right back." He ambled off disappearing between the RV and the bus before they could stop him.

  "Guess he figures we'll never get loose of here given our own devices." Kerry whispered. "Want a cup of coffee?"

  "Nah." Dar waited for the new techs to join them. "Randy, the most interesting thing that happened is that after ten hours of cable wrangling we got one circuit up. They're moving traffic off the sat."

  "Hot damn," Randy stretched. "We're waiting for the rack truck. Mark said it should be here any time. We'll get them in and constructed and the power distribution units in and, hopefully, tomorrow morning the gear will get here."

  Dar checked her watch. "Sounds right," she said. "Should be about twelve, fourteen hours from there to here. So we're right on track." She turned to Kerry. "Remind me to talk to Mariana about bonus packages for everyone here, will you?"

  "Sure will." Kerry didn't miss the veritable forest of pricked ears suddenly around her. "Even though I know everyone's pitching in because that's the kind of people we have, we need to reward the really spectacular performance we've seen the last few days."

  "Yup." Dar looked around, nodding in satisfaction. "We're on the right track here for sure. I think we can schedule ourselves to move on to New York tomorrow. I hope we're as lucky there in terms of staffing."

  The moonlight shone down on a small group of smiling faces, as the techs enjoyed the praise. "You know," Randy said, "we don't usually get a chance to really make a difference like this. It's kind of cool."

  The techs nodded. "Yeah," another one said. "It sucks big time that this happened, but coming here, and doing this stuff--it makes me feel good. My parents are all excited back home that I'm here, helping the country out."

  "Better than being stuck in the configuration room in Miami?" Kerry smiled warmly at them.

  "Heck yeah. Plus the bus is here," Randy said, with a rakish grin. "We don't get brownies made for us back home."

  Everyone laughed, and both Dar and Kerry joined in. "We'll have to look at that when we get back." Kerry mused. "And those fresh cookies were pretty good too."

  "Fresh cookies," Randy said. "Where? In the bus? Man, let's go get some and some coffee before that truck shows up and we've got to hump all that tonnage inside." He trotted toward the bus with his partner chasing after him. "Thanks Ms. Stuart!"

  "Anytime," Kerry called after him.

  A low rumble caught their attention, and they turned to see one of the company SUVs trundling its way toward them. "Our chariot," Dar said, with a sigh. "Damn, I'm so tired I actually don't mind my father driving it."

  A cheer went up from the sat rig. "Circuit's up! Yeah! I'm seeing frames from our net!" One of the techs almost yodeled his excitement. "Boy is it great to see that router again!!"

  Dar unwound her arm from Kerry's shoulder and walked over to them, peering over their shoulders at the laptop propped up on one end of the sat rig. "That's ours, all right," she commented. "Good."

  "We did it." The tech shook his head a little. "On tin cans and strings and a lot of duct tape, but man, we did it."

  Standing there, in the fluorescent lit glare, in the shadows of so much destruction, Kerry knew a moment of relieved triumph. They had done it. No one would ever probably know they'd done anything, no one would probably care, save those few people who had worked with them, but here in the chill of an early morning she knew they'd surmounted a lot of odds in a single facet of the total disaster.

  One small step. One small achievement, but in all the chaos and all the grief surrounding them it felt good.

  "Hey, Ms. Stuart!"

  Kerry turned, to see Billy approaching. "Well, hello there," she greeted the captain.

  "My guys told me something just happened," Billy said. "All of a sudden, our stuff's moving."

  Kerry indicated the sat rig. "We got one of our circuits up," she said. "Only one, but it's a start." She smiled as the techs all started cheering, and doing a little nerd dance around the rig. "I think they're as excited as your guys are."

  The captain had been talking into a mouthpiece, a cable trailing down from his ear to a radio rig clipped to his shoulder. "That is one fantastic piece of news." He put his hands on his hips and exhaled. "We've been feeling a little like second class citizens around here. Everyone's focused on New York."

  Kerry nodded in understanding. "I got that sense also. But you know Dar and her father are personal friends of Gerald Easton's. They understand how important it is to get you up and running again even if other people don't."

  "That's what I heard," Billy said. "You're good people, Ms. Stuart. Thank you."

  Kerry felt tears sting her eyes. "You're good people here too, Billy. Thanks for putting it on the line for us."

  He blinked, and Kerry saw his jaw muscles clench.

  "Ready to go, Ker?" Dar came up next to her. "Hello there. Guess you heard the good news."

  Billy nodded. He held his hand out to them. "Thanks." He gripped Dar's and then Kerry's. "Get some rest, you all. That's what I'm going to do now." He walked off, pausing to rub his face on his sleeve before he disappeared between two trucks and into the shadows.

  Kerry looked very thoughtful as they walked toward the waiting SUV. "You really giving Ken a 200 percent raise?"

  "Yep."

  "You realize he'll make more than most of our VP's."

  "Don't give a damn. It's my budget, I'll be glad to be on the line for it." Dar rocked her head from side to side, exhaling. "It's worth it. I'm so tired I can't see straight. He probably saved me from cross-connecting an electrical lead into my damn navel."

  Kerry put an arm around her waist. "Me personally, I'd be more excited about the month vacation."

  "We get that too. Everyone involved in this gets that."

  "After we fix New York."

  "Yeah." Dar opened the door and climbed in, surprised when Kerry climbed right after her, and settled squished in the seat half sprawled over her lap. Then she laughed faintly and shut the door, burying her face in Kerry's shirt and letting the tension roll out of her. "Let's go."

  "You got that right, rugrat." Andrew started the SUV forward. "This here be the end of this day."

  CRAWLING INTO BED was an exquisite relief.

  Kerry felt sore and exhausted, her legs aching from the constant activity they'd been experiencing since early the previous morning. She lay there limp in the middle of the bed, dressed in just a T-shirt.

  It felt amazing to be laying still. But in the back of her mind, the press of all the things that she knew still needed doing, needed checking up on, needed arranging for was making her head hurt and her stomach queasy. "Hey, Dar?"

  "Uh huh?" Dar entered the bedroom, rubbing her eyes. She dropped onto the bed with atypical gracelessness and exhaled audibly stretching her long body out before she rolled over and pulled Kerry into an embrace. "I think I want to stop time for a few hours."

  "Only a few?" Kerry silently savored the heat of the contact. "I just want to go home."

  "Do you?" Dar reached over and turned the bedside light off, leaving them in darkness. She settled her arms back around Kerry and lightly rubbed her back. "We're caught in a pretty tough situation here."


  Kerry draped her arm across Dar's waist and sighed. "I feel so crappy."

  "Tired? Me too." Dar nestled closer and nibbled her ear.

  "Frustrated," Kerry admitted. "Besides being tired. I feel like we're just starting to climb a really tall mountain full of angry people and bad situations.'

  "Yeah, we are," Dar agreed. "But y'know, Ker, I decided tonight when I felt like taking a weed whacker to that panel that we just have to look at the whole damn thing as one big challenge. We can't freak out, and we can't just chuck it."

  "Even if we're being asked to do the impossible?" Kerry felt her body relaxing, Dar's light touch on her back easing away the aggravation of the day.

  "Sure. What fun would it be if it was easy?"

  Kerry looked up at Dar, her eyes adjusting and seeing the angular profile tilted toward her. "You amaze me sometimes."

  "Do I?" Dar smiled.

  "Yes, you do." Kerry kissed her on the shoulder, pulling the fabric of her shirt down a little so she hit skin instead of cotton. "I think you did a fantastic job of leadership tonight. I was so proud of you, and the rest of our guys."

  "I was just glad that line tech found that damn circuit," Dar admitted. "I don't know how much more of that I was going to be able to take. Talk about timing." She nibbled Kerry's ear again. "The only worse thing I could think of happening was starting my period."

  Kerry blinked, feeling her lashes brush against Dar's skin as she silently called up a mental picture of their joint calendar. After a moment she thumped her forehead against Dar's shoulder. "Oh mushrooms. We're both due." She exhaled in aggravation. "Did you even bring--"

  "I'm sure this swanky hotel has a concierge who'd love to go shopping for supplies for the owner of the penthouse mansion in the morning," Dar reassured her. "I was just glad to get out of there before anything started. My bleeding on those cables woulda thrown every damn thing into a royal spin."

  "Yikes," Kerry said, after a moment's reflection. "I don't think I'd want that to end up in the departmental newsletter."

  "Me either," her partner stated firmly.