by Melissa Good
"Them kids are having a time," Andrew said. "Ah don't think Dar's feeling well, and ever'body's chewing a piece of them all over. Makes mah eyeballs itch," he grumbled. "People here are pretty shook up though. Bad stuff."
"I saw on TV," Ceci murmured. "Andy, you stay away from that place, okay? They've still got buildings falling down around everywhere and I don't want you near any of them."
"No problem," Andrew said. "Right now me and th--Dar's boss are on this here train heading for Long Island. Ain't nothing keeling over out there, and Dar's over at that old flattop off the Hudson fussing with them bolts and nuts there."
Ceci chuckled wryly. "No matter what the situation, she ends up with the Navy."
"Eh," her husband smiled briefly. "Got salt water in her even if she didn't end up no swab." There was something of that he was happy with. The sea had been a passion of his since the first time he'd seen it, opening wide in front of him after an eternally long two months in basic training up at Great Lakes.
Huge. Beautiful. Full of deep greens and blues and rich with salt like nothing ever before in his life had been back in Alabama. He'd loved everything about it, even the rough motion in weather, and the agonizingly small amount of space he'd been assigned for someone his size.
Finding his daughter with the same love in her heart had charmed him. Some of the best times when Dar was growing up had centered around the beach, and the sea and the underwater world they all shared.
"She certainly does," Ceci interrupted his musing. "But that's not helping her there now. Anything we can do from here? Can I use my nonexistent family influence and insult someone for her? Browbeat some government official? Offer to paint the president in the nude? Wait. Scratch that one."
Andrew chuckled in reflex. "Y'all do say the damnedest things."
"It's hard being here and just watching," Ceci admitted. "At least you're there on trains getting gizmos. All I can do here is watch CNN and try to imagine what scandal Miami will be involved in next in this whole thing. You know that airport Dar landed in was where all those terrorists trained in."
"Ah heard."
"I feel like they're going to close the border at Orlando."
Andy chuckled again. "You just keep your head down there on Dar's island. We'll fix this joint up best we can and head back soon as we're able," he promised. "Got to go now. Ah think this train's fixing to tunnel again."
"Call me back later, sailor boy."
"Yes' ma'am. G'bye." Andrew shut the phone and leaned back, tapping it against his knee as his brow furrowed into a frown. "Know what?" he addressed Alastair. "This here world surely does suck sometimes."
Alastair looked up from his PDA. "Sure does," he answered after a brief pause. "Wish we could find another one sometimes."
KERRY REMOVED THE contents of the brown paper bag and set them down on the piece of metal wall near where Dar was working. They were up on the second level now, in the space where the cable would have to come up.
There was no opening in the space except the small oval door hatches, and it was close inside, full of the scent of grease and silicon. Against one wall was a large patch cabinet painted with thick coats of paint to match the inside of the ship. The door to it was open exposing a plethora of connections, and there was already a shunt opened in the side to receive the new cable.
Dar was standing near the wall where the pipe emerged, a long piece of thin conduit in her hand and a soldering iron in the other. "Let's see."
Kerry set out the various supplies, glad she'd taken the time to go and get most of the grease off her skin so it wasn't getting all over the place. She could still smell it though, and cast a brief, wistful thought toward a nice long shower with lots of soap to scrub with.
Dar leaned the pipe against the wall and concentrated on the soldering iron, using a tiny screwdriver from the tech's tool kit to unfasten the plastic grip and remove it. She experimentally fit it into the end of the pipe, glancing up as Jason stuck his head in the hatchway. "I think this will work."
Jason eyed her. "Yes ma'am," he responded dubiously, "if you say so. Is there something else we can do in the meantime? Any prep we can do for the fiber guy?"
Dar looked around. "I need some 110 cable in here. Can you rig that while I'm duct taping and twining us into a solution for this pain in the ass problem?"
"Sure." Jason disappeared.
Kerry took the opportunity to sidle closer. "What are you doing with that hon?"
"Trying to resist the urge to bash it against the wall," Dar responded. "It's probably good they're leaving us alone in here. You're the only person I want around me right now."
Responding to the compliment, Kerry pressed her cheek against Dar's shoulder blade, then kissed it.
Dar put the pipe back against the wall and looked at the plug of thesoldering iron holding it up against the opening. It was obviously too big to fit inside. She went over to the makeshift shelf and pawed among the supplies. "I need wire nuts."
"Wire nuts," Kerry repeated. "Is that something I need to send the guys back for?"
"No." Dar removed a pair of cutters from the toolbox. "I'll just tape the damn thing." She cut off the end of the plug, then removed the extension cord from its wrapping and cut off the female end as well.
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 cond
uit 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 o
f 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.