"Standby." Herndon warned her. "Mr. Eccles? You're on the line with Kerry Stuart, our VP of Operations. Go ahead."
The only thing it lacked was enough space for Dar to be in therewith her. "Go ahead, Mr. Eccles. What can I do for you?" Kerry spoke into the mic.
"Ah, okay, yes. Ms--ah, Stuart was it?" A male voice came from the speaker, along with faint static.
"That's right." Kerry saw a popup start to flash, and she clicked on it.
Hey Kerry -- got a minute?
Kerry typed into the box. Go ahead Mari.
"Well, listen. I need to know what's going on here. I've tried to get hold of my account rep, but he's not answering, and the support center said there's no one available down there so--"
Kerry clicked on another box as a text message passed through their internal messaging system rather than to her phone.
Scuzzy knows a guy. She smiled at the words. "Well, Mr. Eccles, I'm very sorry, but you'll have to be a little more specific on the question. There's an awful lot going on right now. I am sure you can appreciate that we have many issues we're working on, including yours."
She waited for the answer while she typed a response. Scuzzy's going to be worth a promotion by the time this is over
She'll end up a regional director. Can't wait for the conference calls with her on them.
Kerry stifled a laugh, appreciating Dar's wry humor. Then Mari's box started flashing with a new incoming message, and she clicked over to it.
Kerry, I've got a request here from the FBI to provide them with all our employment records.
Kerry's head jerked up. "What?"
"Well, I--what?" Eccles answered. "What did you say?"
"Sorry." Kerry typed furiously into the machine. "Go ahead. I have quite a few things working here right now."
"As I was saying, our offices have been down since Tuesday. I'm the first one to understand that there's been terrible things going on, and I assume your people are busy, but my business is at a standstill and I need to know what's being done for us."
What? Dar's response came back.
What should I tell them? Mari asked.
"Hang on a minute, Mr. Eccles. Let me call up the support system and see what I can find out for you." Kerry said, as she typed. Mari, I'm getting Dar on this. She's with Alastair, and I hope also with Hamilton. They really need to handle that request. Who's it coming from?
I'm on the way there. Dar's message somehow sounded as indignant as Kerry knew she was.
Bring Alastair and our lawyer. Kerry advised her. "Okay, Mr. Eccles,what I have here on your outage is that you have three circuits down--"
Her cell phone rang. "Hold on a second, maybe that's news." She put the mic on hold and opened her phone without looking at the caller ID."Kerry Stuart."
Okay, gotcha. Mari typed back. I halfway understand the request, Kerry--it's become very obvious to a lot of people just how involved we are in the government, but I'm concerned.
She's concerned? Kerry took her eyes from the screen briefly as she heard a slight buzz on the phone. "Hello?"
"Ms. Stuart? Hello? This is Danny down at the Pentagon--I'm trying to get hold of Mark. Do you know where he is?"
The door opened and Dar entered the small room, bringing her restless energy with her. "Who's asking?"
"Danny, last time I saw Mark he was inventorying the routers here. Can I get him to call you? I'm on a few things right now." Kerry blocked out the distraction of her partner with difficulty.
"Oh, sure. Sorry about that," Danny said. "They're all of a sudden chewing me to move some of our rigs and I don't want to disconnect anything"
"Let me see that." Dar circled the desk and squeezed behind it with her, leaning over to peer at Kerry's screen. She clicked on Mari's box and typed into it.
"Okay, yeah, I'll have Mark call you." Kerry promised. "Bye." She hung up the phone and picked up the mic. "I'm on the bridge, hon.Don't start yelling."
"Idiots." Dar growled while reading the screen.
"Okay, sorry about that." Kerry keyed the mic. "Mr. Eccles, according to our system--" She paused, as Dar's typing removed the view from her screen. "Sorry, hold on one more minute." She clicked the mic off. "Sweetheart, I need to see my stuff. I'm in the middle of something here."
"I know--I know--just one second," Dar muttered. "Freaking idiots. I'm having her give them Hamilton's number. He's earning his salary today, that's for sure."
Kerry took the opportunity to take a sip of tea. Despite Dar's interruption in her flurry of communication, she didn't mind having her partner hanging over her. It gave her a chance to rearrange her thoughts, and the warmth of Dar's breasts pressing against the back of her head didn't hurt either.
"There. Sorry. Want me to pass that message to Mark?" Dar kissed the top of her head. "Since I messed up your flow here?"
"That would be awesome." Kerry took possession of her laptop."Now let me go and give some BS story to this guy about his circuits. Do you think they'll look at the Philly ones any time soon?"
"All the techs are here," Dar said. "Want me to send him a sat truck? Is he big enough? "
Kerry called up the account and studied it. Then she sighed. "Honestly, no," she said. "Let me see what I can do to placate him."
"Okay." Dar gave her shoulders a squeeze, then edged out from behind the desk and got the door open. "Let me know if you need anything else, okay?"
"Absolutely." Kerry resisted the urge to come up with something else on the spot. "Thanks babe." She waited for Dar to close the door then she went back to her mic. "Okay. Where the hell was I?"
DAR SHUT THE door to the bus and emerged into the area defined by the bus, the sat trucks and equipment vans that had accompanied it. In the middle of the open space, they'd set up a rough wooden worktable, and on it was spread the underground map with a handful of techs and Scuzzy all looking at it.
She rejoined them and the techs cleared a space for her. She was about to delve back into the underground puzzle when her conscience poked her. "Where's Mark?"
"He was just here," Shaun said. "Just a second ago."
"Mark!"
"Whoa, whoa--right here, Big D." Mark appeared from around the back of the bus. "I got that stuff you wanted me to look for--what's up?"
"Pentagon was calling for you. Something about moving a rig." Dar replied briefly. "Call them. Tell them not to bug Kerry if they want you.
She's not your sitter."
"Okay boss, you got it." Mark reversed course and headed for the bus. "My cell's gone wonky. It keeps losing sig. I'll tell them to text me on the PDA."
Dar returned her attention to the map, satisfied she'd taken one annoyance off her partner's plate. "Okay." She pulled out another schematic of the office building where their office was located. "Let's say, by some miracle of political voodoo they do manage to get a wire in this direction."
"Y'know, they could," Scuzzy said. She leaned on the table with both hands, appearing pleased to be involved. "Those union guys, they ain't that bad, you know? They want their stuff the way they want their stuff, if you know what I mean."
Dar nodded. "Matter of fact, I do know what you mean. But I don't lay bets on people I don't know. So all we can do is have a few plans in our back pocket." She tapped the blueprint. "As I was saying if they do manage to get up here, then what? How do we get the signal upstairs? Riser?"