Storm Surge - Part 2

by Melissa Good

  The reporters came closer to her while the camera people set up their gear. Alastair loitered in the background perching on a credenza that held a set of glasses and probably hid a large screen television panel.

  "Okay." Avalls was flipping through a notepad. "Sorry, Ms. Roberts. It's been a long couple days for us too. I'm trying to get my questions straight here so I don't waste your time."

  "No problem." Dar watched the cameramen wrangle their gear. "I can imagine that you folks have been going without any sleep just like we have. "

  "Exactly." Sarah nodded. "You almost feel guilty taking a nap, like you're going to miss something if you do." She had a portfolio open, and she took up a position near the short edge of Dar's desk. "For a while there, even going to the restroom felt like that."

  Dar nodded. "Can't be like that forever though."

  "No," Sarah said. "It's funny you say that because I was thinking that this morning before we met Mr. McLean, I had so many other things to do--personal things, laundry, you know, shopping--that I haven't even thought about since Tuesday. "

  "Life's moving on," Alastair suggested. "I know we feel it. Our customers were completely understanding the first few days, but now, their priorities are changing too."

  Avalls looked up from his notes and nodded. "I found myself hoping over coffee this morning they'd find me an assignment somewhere else," he said, honestly. "You can just take so much. I felt like going to cover baseball in Wisconsin."

  Dar nodded slowly. "Wish I was home in Miami, myself, matter of fact. Alastair and I were in London when it happened, and we've been going full out since then."

  "I was at my in-laws in Virginia," Avalls said. "My father in law was having his sixtieth birthday party, and we had the whole family in for a big barbeque." He glanced up from his notepad. "Now he never wants to celebrate his birthday again. "

  They were all silent for a moment. "Tough to know who to be mad at, isn't it?" Alastair came over and settled on the far edge of the deskDar was standing behind. "Anyway, here we are."

  "Here we are," Avalls said. "John, you ready?""

  "Yeah. I think there's enough light in here not to use ours," the cameraman said, peering into his lens at Dar's image. "We're good."

  "This is a high pickup mic," Sarah said, "so we don't need to do the whole stick it in your face thing. It's picking you up fine." She looked at a meter on the device she was wearing over her shoulder. "And it's quiet in here."

  "Great." Dar rocked up and down on her heels. "One warning. I'm tired, and I'm not a talking head," she said. "Don't ask any questions you don't want to hear the answers to."

  Sarah looked up and smiled at her. "We know. Ms. Roberts, I've bee a fan of yours since you did an interview about that ATM breakdown for a colleague of mine. I can't speak for John, but we're not here looking for a headline on the crawler. We just don't understand some things we've seen happening and we'd like to, and we think you have the answers."

  "You speak for me,"Avalls said, mildly. "I am just the talking head."

  Dar relaxed, sensing a weary doggedness in the little crew she understood at a gut level. She was usually wary of the press, given her recent experiences with them sometimes more than wary, but in this time, in this place, she felt like it was going to be okay.

  Alastair, after all, knew her well enough not to put her in front of a couple of antagonistic reporters, didn't he? She glanced over at him, seeing only mild interest on his face. "Nice shirt, Alastair."

  Her boss eyed her. "Laundry's in the hands of the hotel, Paladar. I wasn't banking on spending an extra couple of weeks on the road with you."

  Dar grinned, then she turned back to the reporters. "So, what can I answer for you folks?"

  "Okay."Avalls studied his pad and paper. "Let me put on my weatherman voice and get this started." He cleared his throat. "Ms. Roberts, we all know everyone rushed to New York to help in this time of great tragedy. But what did that mean to you? What are you doing here?"

  "Dar, be good," Alastair got in, just as she was taking a breath to answer. "Remember this will probably be national."

  Dar merely laughed. Then she sighed. "What am I doing here." She mused."Well, for one thing, we didn't rush up here. This was our second stop."

  "Second?"

  The door opened and a familiar blond head poked inside. Dar motioned her partner forward, then returned her hands to her pockets.

  "We went to the Pentagon first, physically, but in reality we were every

  where after it happened."

  "Can you explain that?"Avalls asked.

  "Not without a white board and at least ten colored markers," Dar replied. "In brief, we reached out and connected all of our corporate resources so we could understand what was happening and mitigate the effects when we could, and where we could."

  Kerry came over and took a seat out of camera range in one of the comfortable leather chairs to one side of the desk.

  "Then, after we got a team on the ground at the Pentagon and resolved their immediate infrastructure problems, we came here." Dar concluded, "and since we've been here, we have been using the resources we have to try and help the city knit itself back together. "

  "The city asked you to come?" Avalls asked.

  "We came for our people here,"Alastair answered. "City didn't have much to do with it."

  "But once we were here, and they knew we were, they gave us a priority list and we did what we could with it," Dar added.

  "Yet you brought your infamous bus with you."Avalls consulted his pad. "This bus, which I've heard about from roughly everyone including all our production people, has been seen all over the city passing out drinks and cookies." He glanced up. "Was that calculated?Good corporate PR?"

  "I'm sure it is good corporate PR. The name of the company is plastered over the outside of the damn things," Dar replied. "But in fact, no.We sent the buses because we knew we had people here who needed help. Not people in general, our people here in the city."

  "I'm sure a cynic would doubt that," Avalls said, but he smiled.

  "I'm sure they would,"Dar agreed. "And in the end, it really doesn't matter because the buses did what we wanted them to do and more. No matter what anyone considered the motive to be, we know better."

  "So what now? What are you doing now, and what do you intend to do in the future here?" Avalls asked, after a brief pause. "How long do you focus on New York?"

  Dar remained silent for a moment, pondering what to answer to that. "We focus on all our customers," she said finally. "So in that sense,we'll be busy here for a while. We have a lot of facility down that we need to take care of."

  "That's not exactly what I meant,"Avalls said. "I understand, of course, you take care of business. What I meant was, how long will you be acting in this--well, let's call it philanthropic mode? I'm sure you're not billing Manhattan for the cupcakes."

  Dar turned her head and looked at Alastair, her brows lifting.

  The camera swung over and focused on the CEO. He had his arms folded over his chest, and a thoughtful expression on his face. "Well now." He mused. "I don't think we ever even thought about it that way. I recall being on our conference bridge and, naturally when I heard about the problems our people were having here, of course we sent our service personnel. It's part of who we are as a company, you know? It's the people."

  "The people?"

  "The people." Alastair indicated the general surroundings, and then specifically Dar and Kerry. "Our company is our people. It's not the technology and the gew-gaws and wiring. Of course we focus on taking care of the most precious resource we have, and the buses will stick around until we no longer need them. If the city benefits by that, great. I'm fine with funding as many damn cupcakes and cups of lemonade that we can pass out."

  "Now," Dar cleared her throat, "will that bring us good PR? Sure. Will people remember the logo on the bus? Sure." She shrugged. "But we'd do it anyway. Our people are as glad to see those buses as anyone else is."<
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  "Okay, cut it, John,"Avalls said. "So now let me ask you--shouldn't the city, or the government be out there doing the same thing?"

  Dar sat down behind the desk. "Not my area."

  Kerry chuckled.

  "Not being provocative?" Sarah chuckled also. "The Red Cross is out there. There's nothing in the government really that provides that type of service. That isn't their area either."

  "That's true," Kerry responded. "We have to have that facility because, like Alastair said, our people are our most important resource. We have to provide for them so they can do the jobs we need done in situations like this. It's tough to be away from your family and thrown into a relatively dangerous situation."

  "Well, we could say the city workers and the military have the same issue,"Avalls commented.

  "Yes, but they get paid to do public service," Kerry said. "Our people get paid to be nerds. That doesn't usually mean you put your life on the line for your job."

  "And yet, here you are," Sarah said. "And from what Mr. McLean said, you were down in the disaster area in the wreckage yesterday where you could easily have been hurt, true?"

  "True," Kerry agreed.

  "Do they pay you for that, Ms. Stuart?" Avalls asked, folding his hands over his pad.

  "No." Kerry shook her head.

  "So then why go? I'm not asking to be contrary. I'm curious."

  Kerry glanced past him. "Because Dar went," she answered honestly. "And I go where she goes, no matter how crazy it is."

  That shut them up. They glanced between Kerry and Dar, as the cameraman fiddled with putting his gear away. "All right then," Avalls finally said. "Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. I really appreciate it."

  "Anytime."Dar leaned back in her chair, as Alastair got up from the desk.

  "I'll walk you folks out,"Alastair said. "Dar, the board's asked for a short recap call, can we squeeze that in next?"

  "Sure," Dar agreed.

  They left, closing the door and leaving Dar and Kerry alone in the office. Dar turned in her chair and regarded her partner, a wry smile on her face.

  "Was that too goofy?" Kerry asked.

  "Nah. Wish they'd gotten it on camera," Dar replied. "We might as well get all the good press we can now because you know we're going to get thrown under those damn buses when nothing works on Monday."

  Kerry sighed. "So you haven't come up with a brilliant plan to fix the problem yet?"

  Dar snorted. "Ker, thanks for the vote of confidence, but even I can't change the laws of physics." She went back to her PDA. "Hang out. You can hear the guffaws of laughter when I ask the guys over in the optics division of our network vendor if they can."

  "Yerg."

  "Mm."

  Chapter Eleven

  "HOW'S IT GOING, Mark?" Dar released the radio button and waited. She leaned back against the wall behind the desk where Kerry was seated studiously pecking at her keyboard, the tip of her tongue sticking out as she concentrated.

  Dar found the expression adorable and, despite her current aggravation, it made her smile.

  "Good news," Kerry said after a moment. "They got all the circuits back up at the Pentagon, Dar. That room is fully operational now." She glanced up at her companion. "What's so funny?"

  Nothing." Dar cleared her throat. "That is good news. That should give you some slack on the bandwidth in that area," she added. "I know that was stressing the back haul carrying most of that on the sat."

  "It does," Kerry agreed. "I'm glad, because I told some of the customers we have riding on the sat as primary we'd maybe see some improvement after the weekend." She went back to her keyboard. "Not that it kept them from bitching at me."

  "Hey boss, Mark here." Dar's radio crackled."I got the router mounted down here. Had to pay to get some guy to give me power though. They freaked out when I wanted to run a cord over the ground."

  "Expense it. Whatever it was," Dar responded.

  "He--uh, didn't exactly give me a receipt," Mark admitted, "and I kinda had to pay in cash, if you get my drift."

  Kerry turned and peered over her shoulder again. "We're not going to pass the ethics certification this year, are we?"

  Dar gave her a wry look. "Expense it anyway, Mark. We'll approve it. We need to get a pull cord run down to the tunnels. Any progress on finding a path?"

  There were a few clicks on the speaker before Mark answered. "They're working on it, boss. Kannan and Shaun are down there looking for a way up. Nothing yet."

  Damn. Dar tapped the mic against her chin. "Okay. Keep me in the loop."

  She clipped the mic and sighed. "I feel like a complete shit head making them go through this knowing it's for nothing," she said. "Just for that, I'm going to pay them all bonuses when we get back."

  "Are you going to tell them?" Kerry leaned on the chair arm and studied her partner. "I guess what I mean is, what are you going to tell them once the cable gets here? Mark's going to know when he sees it,certainly Kannan will."

  Dar slid down the wall to sit on the floor, extending her legs out. "I know. I don't know what I'll tell them. I'm not going to tell anyone now.Let the damn cable get here, and then--I don't know." She scratched her ear. "I'll be honest I guess. Tell them we were working on a way around it, but it didn't work out."

  Kerry got up and walked over, sitting down next to Dar and stretching her legs out alongside her partner's. "This sucks, sweetie."

  "It sucks." Dar's cell phone rang. She pulled it out and answered, "Dar Roberts." She listened. "Oh, hey, Chuck. Hang on." She keyed the phone's speaker. "Go ahead, Kerry's here too."

  "Hey yeah, hi, Kerry." Chuck's voice echoed. "Listen, they briefed me on what you asked, Dar. I've checked with a few people. That spec won't carry the distance. It can't."

  Kerry closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

  "I'm aware of that, Chuck," Dar said. "Problem is, that's all they got here. You know what's riding on it," she added. "I've been through the specifications with a fine tooth comb and I know it says it's impossible. I want to know what is possible, and whether all it's going to take is a lot of money, which I'm willing to cough up."

  "Well, I know, Dar," Chuck answered. "I got fifteen senior engineers here in the white board room looking at this from every angle, but you know it is what it is. At most, they can tweak the modules to go a thousand, maybe twelve hundred meters. That's it."

  Dar sighed. "Damn." She exhaled. "You were our best shot, Chuck.You've developed the latest set of optics everyone uses."

  "I know,"Chuck agreed. "Not to toot our horn, but if we can't do this, nobody commercial can. We're the big dogs."

  "That doesn't really--"

  Chuck uncharacteristically cut her off. "So, what I decided to do was call in some friends of mine who work over at NASA. My brother is an engineer over at Lockheed Martin, and he's got some contacts on the team who did the Hubble. "

  Kerry peered at the phone with renewed interest. "Never thought of that," she murmured. "When in doubt call a rocket scientist."

  "All right," Dar answered. "Do you think they'll help?"

  "I don't know," Chuck answered honestly. "It beats sitting in this room watching everyone scratch their heads and shrug their shoulders. We can't do beans with this Dar. Maybe they got some bright ideas. It's optics. If anyone can come up with some hair brained idea to make duct tape and mirrors work, it'll be those guys."

  "I appreciate it, Chuck," Dar said. "We're at our wit's end here too. The nearest spool of the right stuff is 2,000 miles away and I can't get it there before Tuesday."

  '"Ouch," he responded "Well, I have no idea if anything will come of it, but I didn't want to just drop it," Chuck said. "I'll let you know if we find out anything, okay?"

  "Thanks," Dar responded. "Later, Chuck." She closed the phone and studied it. "That's not going to happen. We don't have the time."

  "You having that cable sent?" Kerry asked.

  "Yeah."

  "I'm glad he took the in
itiative without you having to ask." She reached over and patted Dar's leg. "Come with me to get some lunch? It's getting pretty late and we got up pretty early."

  Dar sighed.

  "Hon, you're doing the best you can," Kerry said, gently. "You engaged the right people, they brought in the right people, and if this doesn't happen, it won't be because we didn't try." She leaned close and captured Dar's eyes. "We can only do what we can do."

  "Yeah, I know." Dar picked up Kerry's hand and brought it to her lips, kissing the knuckles. Then she turned it palm up and kissed that."We have to keep going and see where it takes us." She got up and hauled Kerry up with her pausing to kiss her palm again as they stood.

  "Keep doing that and I'll tell you where it's going to take us. Right back to our hotel room, that's where." She slapped her partner on the butt and nudged her toward the door. "Scoot."

  Instead of scooting, Dar turned and let Kerry's forward momentum bring them together. She wrapped both arms around her and tilted her head, kissing her on the lips.

  Far from protesting, Kerry returned the hug and kiss with enthusiasm. They parted a little after a minute, and she looked up into Dar's eyes, enjoying the frank passion she saw there. "What were we about to do?"

  "Go back to the hotel," Dar promptly supplied. "You mentioned something about lunch."

  "Hm."

  "They have room service."

  "Heck with that." Kerry smiled. "We can stop for a hot dog on the way back." She stretched up and stole another kiss, then she firmly took Dar's hands and started leading her toward the door. "C'mon. I need a break. Chances are we're going to end up in some dusty wiring room tonight."

  "Hm." Dar sighed regretfully. "Unfortunately I think Alastair scheduled a board conference call. We may only have time to get that hot dog."

  "Grr." Kerry thumped her head against Dar's shoulder. "Why can't the board watch CNN?"

  "Easy, hon." Dar scrubbed the back of her neck and gave her a hug."We'll take a break after that. Let's skip the group dinner tonight and chill, okay?"

  Kerry kept her head resting against her partner. "I've wanted to do that for days," she admitted. "I know it's anti--social, but my nerves are getting rubbed raw in all this."