by Melissa Good
"Right." Kerry nodded.
"But them guys, they're coming up here, on the East side line."Scuzzy pointed at a green tracing, that wound its way up the map. "'Cause that's the closest to the Exchange, you know? Maybe they're going down the kiosk there, or something. I don't think there's any opening down below the building or nothing."
Dar looked from one line to the other. "Do they connect here?" She pointed at a blue line north of them.
"Well, that's where they eventually come in," Scuzzy said. "They sorta cross around there, but there's like long corridors and stuff and stairs and escalators--"
"Oh boy." Kerry muttered.
"Okay." Dar held a hand up. "First things first. Let's find a way to get a cable from our offices down into one of these tunnels. Is this one the closest?" She pointed at the orange line.
"Sixth Avenue, sure." Scuzzy nodded. "So we can go to the basement of 30 Rock, and go down into the subway from there, and see what we can find. Okay by you? We can ride down to the 53rd, and see if that crosses over, and then get over to the Lexington from there."
"Right. Let's go." Dar paused and looked around at the busy activity underground. She pictured the buildings above them and started off down the corridor. "Mark, do we have a line we can start running down from our offices?"
"I got some guys up there," Mark said. "Kannan decided to stick it out, now that we're hanging around here so he's up doing some prep. I wouldn't try to bring out a fiber line from our side, boss. Melding those pipettes underground is gonna suck."
"I'm glad he decided it was okay to stay," Kerry said. "He's very nice."
"He's a freaking awesome fiber tech," Mark replied. "So I am too, especially since the next guy I could get up here is in Miami."
They walked along the concourse which now sloped downward a bit and widened, gaining shops on either side. "We're under 30 Rock now." Scuzzy announced confidently. "They got some cool shops here now. Not like it used to be, all the windows empty."
Kerry found it somewhat incongruous. She understood the logic of having things underground when the weather above sucked, and also how they had to use pretty much any square footage they could find in an island as small as Manhattan, but she still found an underground shopping center weird and depressing.
Or maybe she was still in a bad mood. She walked alongside Dar and tried to put that aside as they traveled along a thick wall that looked like it had been veneered over more than once. "So our offices are over this."
Dar stopped near a large set of stairs. She peered up them. "Elevator stacks don't go down this far."
"No." Scuzzy shook her head. "I heard this was going to be the big entrance to the subway from the Rock, only the shops kinda died off so they made it into the skating rink and all that stuff."
Dar folded her arms. "Okay, so let's go up one level first and see where we can bring a line down." She started up the steps with the rest of her little group behind her. They ended up in the main lobby of the building where their office was located.
It was full of people. "Doesn't look like anything's here, Dar," Kerry murmured. "Where's the demarc?"
"Mark--"
"I'm on it." Mark headed off toward an information desk.
"There's the entrance to the subway in that corner." Shaun pointed toward the front of the building. "I can see the sign from here."
"Okay. Let's go back downstairs then." Dar removed the radio from her belt. "Mark, we're going back down to find the subway entrance."
"Gotcha boss." Mark's voice crackled back.
Kerry followed Dar back downstairs, trying to ignore the people who were staring curiously at them. She felt a bit like they were going in circles. "There has to be pipes coming in here, right?"
"Sure," Scuzzy said. "Lots of pipes under here, but not the kind we put our stuff in. Big pipes, water, sewer, steam pipes--"
"Steam pipes?" Shaun asked. "For what?"
"Heat."
"Oh." Kerry scratched the bridge of her nose. "Of course."
They crossed the busy concourse and headed over toward the front corner where people were streaming in and out at a rapid pace. Dar dodged several on comers, then she pulled them all over to one side against the wall.
"Sheesh." Kerry looked back the way they came. "That's going to be tricky to run a cable through."
"When was this built?" Dar asked Scuzzy.
"Thirties, something like that."
Dar's radio crackled.
"Hey Boss?" Mark's voice cackled from the radio. "I found the door to the demarc. You might want to come over here to check it out," he said. "I'm down here behind the stairwell."
"Uh oh." Kerry murmured.
"You folks stay here." Dar motioned to the rest of them. "Think about how we can run a thick cable--the kind we ran yesterday, Shaun--across that floor if we have to." She bumped Kerry. "C'mon.Let's go see what the bad news is."
Kerry willingly went along with her as they crossed the floor, yet again, back the way they came. "We're starting off kinda slow today huh?"
"Ungh." Dar rolled her eyes. "I swear I feel like packing everyone into that damn bus and driving south." She led Kerry around the stairs,spotting Mark behind them near a thick metal door accompanied by a dour looking man with a ring of keys. "Ah."
Mark indicated the door with his thumb. "In there."
"Least you people got the sense to dress fer this." The man with the keys shook his head and sorted through the ring, finally coming up with one of the keys and trying it in the lock. He turned it three times, and then a loud clank was heard. "That's it." He pulled the key out and turned the door handle, pulling the door open to release a puff of musty, dusty air.
It was dark inside. "Any lights in there?"
The man muttered and felt around inside the door, finally slapping at something which resulted in a weak yellow illumination. Then he backed out and gave them a gruff jerk of his head in the direction of the door. "I ain't going in there."
Dar stepped to the entrance and looked around. "All right, lets--"
"Got bit by a rat in there once." The man wandered off. "I'm getting coffee. You're on your own."
"Thanks." Dar had stopped dead, her eyes flicking down at the ground in search of rodents that might attempt to snack on her toes. "Appreciate the warning." She glanced behind her. "Anyone coming with me?"
Only Kerry stepped forward immediately. "Right here."
After an awkward pause, Mark followed her, fishing his flashlight out of his pocket. "I don't like rats."
"I had mice in college." Kerry edged past her partner and entered the room without hesitation. "As pets." She paused and looked back over her shoulder. "Not for lunch." She flicked her flashlight on and went further into the room that was full to the rafters with dust covered wall boxes and wires hanging down low enough to almost brush her head.
Dar twirled her flashlight in her fingers and followed, a faint grin on her face. "Watch your head."
"Mine's a lot lower than yours is, hon. "
Dar ducked under a loop. "Good point."
"Hope those aren't electrical," Mark muttered, bringing up the rear. "This could get way more exciting than we need it to."
THE ELECTRICAL ROOM was a labyrinth on its own. It had several levels that seemed to have been built in different times and styles and, on top of that, the floor itself wasn't level. "Careful of that damn ladder." Dar warned, as Kerry started to climb down one. It was a cast iron pipe with diamond plate steps, and it shifted creakily as she put her weight on it.
"Yikes." Kerry went down it as fast as she could, arriving on a lower level to be greeted by rustlings and a pair of glowing eyes in the dark that vanished when she shone her flashlight in the corner. "What in the hell--"
A huge pipe ran over her head, its width twice her arm span at least.Its sections were held together by huge, riveted collars and its outer surface was covered with thick, peeling paint. She put her hand on it, surprised when she felt warmth against her skin.
Shaking her head, she ducked under the pipe and went past a huge bin with a closed lid, and three more large pipes running up and down vertically. They all seemed ancient, and were thick and heavy cast iron."What is all this stuff?"
"It's not telecom." Dar was methodically searching the far wall. "I don't care what it is."
"Reminds me of that old cruise ship." Kerry edged through two large black iron posts with rivets in them and ducked under a pipe as she spotted a bit of wood through the gloom. "Is that it back there?"
Dar peered past a large box she was looking in. "Where?" She shone her flashlight into the dark corner. "Mark, over there." She closed the box and ducked under the pipe. "Kerry, you rock."
"Holy shit." Mark crawled out from under a step and got up. "In the back there? Dar, this is nuts! There's power running all over this place. How in the hell does our data not suck here?"
"My engineering can overcome pretty much anything or so everyone keeps telling me." Dar edged in next to where Kerry was standing, and they peered over a big iron pipe to see an old, tattered piece of plywood bolted to the back wall with a familiar set of telephone punch down blocks on it.
They were covered in dirt and dust, so obscured the colors of the wires were completely indistinguishable. Kerry squirmed over close to it and shone her flashlight on a tag, which was completely blank, brown from age, and crumbling at her touch. "Wow."
Dar peered at the electrical board perilously close to Kerry's shoulder. "Ker, don't move back. I think that's a live block."
Kerry froze, then carefully looked over her shoulder shining the flashlight on the cast iron works. "New York Edison Company," she read, "nineteen hundred and one."
"Didn't Scuzzy say this building was built in the thirties?"
"Maybe they reused the hardware." Mark managed to squeeze in closer. "Shit most of this room is older than I am. Hey, there's a door down there--for midgets."
Kerry gave him a sideways look, then she turned carefully and pointed her light at the back wall under the block. Sure enough, there was a door there. "Wow. Midgets for real."
The door was about as high as her knees with a knob near the bottom of it as though a regular height door had been cut in half. "Wonder where it goes? Looks like it's been painted over a few times."
"Probably doesn't go anywhere. They just didn't feel like removing it." Dar dismissed the painted over panel and started exploring the punch down. "I can't believe this is the demarc."
"For the whole building?" Kerry's voice rose in utter disbelief. "No way. No way in hell, Dar. There are hundreds and hundreds of tenants here. This block is barely big enough for a dozen of them."
"Well, the way the guy said it, the big boys have a nice room up one level in back of the elevator stack," Mark said. "We're private line, so--"
"Are you kidding me?" Kerry asked. "Do you mean to tell me they wouldn't let us drop a line into their room, and I'm carrying one of those bastard's entire backbone on my network?"
"Um." Mark's eyes widened.
"Grr." Kerry fumed. "Let me call the office and have those bastards cut off." She started to fish for her phone only to find her arms gently held."Dar!"
"You're going to electrocute your ass. Hold still." Dar tugged her away from the electrical panel. "Cutting them off doesn't really get us anything, Ker. Money probably crossed hands to get them a new facility. We had nothing to do with it."
"But that's not fair!" Kerry protested. "We pay as much as any off them do for this damned access!"
Mark kept his mouth shut, peering at the blocks instead and trying to read some of them.
"Shh." Dar managed to maneuver her pissed off partner into a clearer space, then she wrapped her arms around her. "Leave it, Ker. Not worth the headache."
Kerry drew in a breath to continue arguing, then paused and exhaled, unable to keep the anger roiling inside the warmth of Dar's embrace. "It's not fair," she repeated. "Look at this place, Dar. They're probably laughing their asses off at us over this."
"Probably. But we're a level under them, and that means we're closer to our goal. Leave it."
"Grr." Kerry sighed, giving in. "And I'm damned well going to get this changed, but yeah, it'll wait until this is over."
Dar gave her a squeeze. "Now let me in there to see what the hell's going on with that demarc." She slipped past Kerry and carefully eased her way between the electrical panel and the iron pylon to get closer to the age scarred wood.
"You tricked me." Kerry issued a half hearted protest before she inched in after her, raising her hand to stifle a sneeze as they stirred the dust around them. "I'm safer in there, Dar. I'm smaller than you are."
"Nah, I'm fine." Dar disagreed, poking her head around a pipe.
"Okay." Mark finally spoke up. "I think there's only six or eight active on here, so we should be able to find ours pretty easy." He peered into the far corner. "Hey, Dar, is that a smart jack? There in the back? That has to be ours."
Dar directed her flashlight in that direction and leaned closer to look, inadvertently brushing her elbow against the electrical panel. She yelped and jumped back, nearly knocking Kerry on her butt. "Son of a bitch!" She grabbed her elbow, which was numb and tingling.
"Live, huh?" Mark asked, weakly.
"What kind of idiocy is this!" It was Dar's turn to be outraged, as she examined the panel. It was floor to ceiling copper strips with clams at various levels. "You could get killed in here!"
"Easy honey." Kerry patted her hip. "How about we find our circuit and get out of here before we both end up in the hospital?"
Dar muttered under her breath, then cautiously eased back over to the back wall and peered at the box. It was the same dingy gray as the rest of the room, but there were somewhat newer looking cables coming out of the bottom, and a tag that was more white than brown hanging from the front.
She extended her arm carefully and got a fingertip on the top of the box, almost jumping out of her skin when her cell phone rang. "Brpht!"
"I got it." Kerry fished in her partner's pocket and retrieved the instrument. "Hello?"
"Glad you were here." Dar went back to prying the box open.
"Me too." Mark chimed in. "No offense, Big D, I'da let it ring."
Dar paused and looked over at him, then chuckled briefly.
"Hell--ah, is this Kerry?" Alastair's voice trickled hesitantly through the speaker. "I'm sorry, I thought I--"
"You did. Hang on." Kerry tapped Dar on the arm with her phone."It's Alastair."
"Take a message." Dar was struggling with the box top. "If I overbalance I'm going to be a French fry."
Kerry pulled her arm back and took a step sideways out of the way, and away from the electrical panel. "Sorry about that. Dar's occupied right at the moment. Anything I can do to help?"
"Got it." Dar pulled the top of the box off with a rusty sounding screech of metal on metal. She set the top aside and shone her light on the inside, which had a modern piece of equipment clamped in it, full of blinking LED's and reassuringly clean plastic. "Ah hah."
"That it?" Mark stood on his tiptoes to look over the iron grillwork separating him from the section Dar was inside of. "Damn, look at that thing. That box looks like it should be coal fired."
"Well, it's a smartjack," Dar muttered. "I think that box used to be something else though."
Kerry was torn between listening to the phone and listening to the discussion. "Sorry, what was that again? No, that wasn't a smart ass--no, no we've--we're looking for our circuit in the office--oh,okay." Kerry put her hand over the mic. "Paladar?"
Dar stopped in mid motion and carefully turned fully around, giving Kerry her full attention. "Yes?"
"ABC News is outside. They want to talk to you."
Dar looked at her, then looked to either side at the inside of the grubby, dingy workspace. Then she held up one finger and turned back
around, careful to edge away from the copper panel.
"That meant for me, o
r them?" Kerry asked.
Dar turned back around, one eyebrow hiked all the way up.
"Just checking." Kerry smiled.
"Tell them to kiss my ass." Dar went back to her task.
Kerry gave her a fond look. "Alastair, she's trying to read a circuit tag in a dark room that looks like a medieval torture chamber, and not be electrocuted at the same time. Can they wait a few minutes?"
She half turned and spoke into the phone. "I don't want to rush her.She'd look really strange with curly hair." She waited. "Okay, that's what I figured. I'll call you when we're out of here. Bye."
She closed the phone. "Well."
"23T234X6RZ45R," Dar replied.
Mark scribbled on the back of his hand. "I'm pretty sure that's ours, Dar. It's the right sequence."
"Me too," Dar agreed, pulling her hand back from the box and letting the top close over it. "Glad we found it, but I have no clue in the world how we're going to get the damn cable into this room. I don't think we can cross the shopping center with it."
She backed slowly out of the gap between the iron works and the live electrical panel and joined Kerry near the sloping back of the room.Now that her eyes had grown used to the gloom, Dar looked around at the space and studied the structure.
There was an old iron chute that cut off at the edge of a newer looking wall, and she walked over to peer at it, rubbing her thumb along a set of hammered letters. "Castle Coal," she said. "I don't get it. What's a coal thing doing in the middle of a modern building?"
Mark turned around. "These are steam pipes." He pointed. "We don't really have steam upstairs, do we?"
They all looked at each other, then both Mark and Dar looked at Kerry.
"Don't ask me." Kerry held her hand up. "I assumed we had central air and heat in the building. We never used coal in Michigan. You signed the lease, Dar. Did it mention steam? Scuzzy said there were steam pipes, but sheesh."
"Hell if I remember." Dar shrugged. "Doesn't really matter I guess.Now that we found it, let's go back to the rest of the group and see about a path. We probably need the building management involved."
"Should I get them to bring a router and a fiber hub here?" Mark asked."We're gonna need to split the signal but--" He looked around. "Wonder if they've even got an outlet for power." He flashed his light around the walls and looked under a few of the boxes. "Crap."