Once past that, she could see a group of men clustered at the corner near a set of stairs going underground. As they approached, the men at the edge of the group turned and shuffled, splitting apart to allow two figures through from the center.
The one in front headed right for Kerry. "Kerry Stuart, you're a welcome sight."
Kerry extended a hand. "Hello, Charles." She could see his red rimmed eyes behind the shield of his mask. "Did you find your brother?"
He hesitated then shook his head. "They're still looking at the hospitals in Jersey. A lot of guys were found over there today," he said. "Glad you could come down here. We were going to see how far we can see underground. Maybe there's clearance enough to get to the line pipes"
"Okay." Kerry half turned. "I brought some help."
Charles nodded briefly. "Any help's welcome." He gave the rest of them a distracted look. "Do you have--oh, yeah, you do have flashlights. Great. We can get going then." He gestured toward the half wrecked staircase downward. "See what we can see."
Another man walked over in a vest with Verizon on it. He had a small breathing mask on his mouth, but no other protection. "You people ready?" he asked. "We got a lot of other things to do, y'know? I got people chewing my ass right and left here."
"Let's go." Charles motioned them all forward. The group by the stairs was a mix of Verizon staff, his own staff, a few people in different color protection suits with Sprint's logo, and one with MCI World Com on the shoulder.
They all looked at the newcomers in question. Charles gestured vaguely at them. "ILS sent a team to see what they could to do help," he said. "I figure the more help the better." They started carefully down the steps that were full of dust and debris, the railings half collapsed."Be careful folks."
"Took them four hours to clear them this good," one of the other men said. "We're crazy to be going down here."
Everyone turned on their flashlights and the space erupted into a dancing, bobbing light show as the beams reflected against all the dust in the air, and what they were walking down into. Kerry felt like she was descending into some cave, and she felt Dar's reassuring hand rest on her shoulder as they picked their way downward.
One of the Sprint techs was right in front of her and he turned as they slowed waiting for the people in front to continue. "Jake Davies." He offered a hand. "Thanks for coming down. We got some cell sites up and running on generator, but it's tough."
"Kerry Stuart." Kerry returned the grip. "We've got some satellite trucks and generator vans with us."
The men closest to her half turned, their ears perking up. "Yeah?" one asked. "We could sure use those."
"Everyone could," Dar answered. "Once we finish seeing what the needs are, then we can talk about who gets what." Her voice indicated
lack of debate on the subject.
The men looked at Kerry then looked up at Dar.
"She's the boss," Kerry remarked. "Want to go on down? I think they're waiting for us."
The men turned and headed down the steps with Kerry and her group behind them. It was very dark, and the ground was very uneven.She reached the bottom of the stairwell with a sense of anxiety as the flashlights danced around the dark interior.
"Holy shit," one of the men said, as they moved a little further inside. His light shone on the walls that had big, gaping cracks in them, tile scattered all over the floor and sliding around with a brittle sound as boots kicked them.
They moved past the turnstiles cautiously. "We sure this ceiling's all right?" one of the men from Sprint asked. "There's a ton of concrete over our heads."
"Look at that!" another man said, shining his flashlight down the second set of stairs. A huge metal column was piercing the ceiling extending down and bisecting the steps halfway down.
"Wow." Charles shook his head. "I don't know about this."
"Aw, c'mon you little girls." The Verizon man headed down the steps.
"Now there's a right jackass." Andrew started to push past Dar and Kerry, only to have his daughter casually block him with one arm. "Scuse me, rugrat."
"Dad. Relax." Dar started down the steps. "If asses need kicking, I'm capable of that."
Kerry was glad of the banter, since the area around her was giving her the severe creeps. Aside from being dark, it stank, and, despite the filters, her eyes were watering from the smell. Her imagination was painting almost anything in the corners, and she was halfway afraid of looking too closely in the glare at what might be there.
She instinctively edged closer to Dar, hooking one finger in her partner's belt as she followed her down the second set of stairs deeper into the earth under the collapsed tower, down to the platform that was the subway.
There she had to halt, as Dar had halted, because everyone else had.
The flashlights couldn't do the scene justice. "Hang on." One of the Verizon men went over to one side and worked a latch on something,accompanied by a long, screeching sound that made everyone jump.
A floodlight flickered on, dim with age. "Shit for batteries," the man muttered. "But it's better than nothing."
The light blared down the tracks showing the destruction. A subway train car was at the end of the platform, its top crushed in, the tunnel ceiling collapsed on top of it.
They were all silent for a moment. "Hope that was empty," Kerry murmured.
On the other side of the tracks, the entire tunnel was collapsed on top of the platform blocking any further travel in that direction. The tunnel leading east, away from the towers, was still intact, but a light shown down it displayed debris covering the tracks as far as the eye could see.
A rain of debris suddenly came down from the ceiling, rattling down on the tracks.
"Shit," the Verizon man said. "This ain't going nowhere. We can't even get to the intake blocks." He ran his flashlight along the back wall. The concrete and steel pylons were cracked and bent and somewhere, a faint hissing noise was going off.
"No," Charles said. "Dead end."
Another silence. "Probably a lot of them," the Verizon man finally muttered."Let's get outta here. Waste of time." He took a step backwards, as another rain of debris came down. "I tolja it would be. We should get back to the damn work site and do something productive."
Rude or not, Kerry was totally in sync with the idea. She kept thinking she heard things moving in the distance, and she could feel her heart racing as the shadows seemed to move closer. She backed up and got on the steps, swallowing hard to keep her stomach down.
The upper level was almost bright by comparison. Hazy sunlight was coming down the steps to the outside world, and Kerry made a beeline for it, relaxing only when she knew her head was out from under the cracked ceiling and she could see sky above her.
"You okay?" Dar asked, climbing up the steps at her back.
"Yeah," Kerry answered after a brief pause. "Just freaked me a little."
Dar patted her back in comfort, as they exited onto the street, faced with the pile of wreckage and the sound of sirens blaring suddenly.
They both jumped. Dar turned in a circle, her eyes scanning the area.
"Shit. Now what?" The Verizon man hauled up out of the stairwell after them, looking quickly both ways. On the next street, a police car growled by, it's lights cutting the dusty air as the officer inside aimed a high beam light on one of the building fronts.
The Verizon man relaxed. "Looter." He guessed. "Bastards." He looked around again. "We should get the hell--"
"Away from here? I agree." Dar turned and counted quickly, making sure all her team had come out from the subway. "Tell you what. We've got a tech office a block or so over. No lights but we can sit and talk about what we can do there."