"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, or 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."
"Can we get an electrician to--well, what am I saying? We'd have to contract Methuselah for that electrical panel. Maybe he's free." Kerry started making her way toward the entrance, scribbling herself a note."Worse comes to worse, Dar, we can run a power cable in too. This isn't going to be pretty no matter how we do it."
Mark climbed up into another section ducking under the iron supports as he peered along the underside of a large pipe. "Lemme see if I can find something here. Running cable is gonna suck."
Dar leaned her elbows on Kerry's shoulders and whispered into her ear."How could it possibly be anything but pretty if you do it?"
Aw. Kerry had to smile, despite the surroundings. "Flattery will get you anything you want, you know that?"
Dar chuckled. She felt Kerry's body lean back a little against her, and she savored the moment, nibbling on the edge of her ear . "Did you really think I was flipping you off?"
"No." Kerry tilted her head back and gave Dar a kiss on her jawbone. "I'm just glad I'm here with you and I felt like messing with you a little," she admitted. "This is so insane. What are we doing here?"
"C'mon." Dar bumped her gently. "Let's go see what other bad news awaits us." She put her hands on Kerry's shoulders and steered her toward the door. They had left it open, and the light from outside seemed an odd contrast to the dank, dark, interior of the old closet they were poking around in.
The tangle of pipes and iron bars made their progress slow, but they climbed up the steel steps and onto the platform that held the door just as Mark crawled back out from under an ancient console, his jumpsuit now liberally covered in grunge.
"Anything?" Kerry asked.
"Maybe," Mark said. "But I think the outlet's older than I am. Scary." He dusted himself off as they emerged from the room, blinking a little in the light. The building superintendant was leaning against the opposite wall, and he pushed off to come meet them as Mark pushed the door closed.
"Seen enough?" The man asked.
"We found what we were looking for, yes," Kerry said. "Now we have to find a way to get to it. Do you have a building electrician? We need some work done."
The man stared at her. "Work done? Lady you seen that room? No one does no work in there."
"They put our circuit in there. That's work." Kerry's nape hairs bristled. "Though I'm going to have a word with the management here as to why that happened."
The man held his hands up. "That's not my area," he said. "You want the electrician? I'll call him. He can tell you himself," he said. "You want to wait here? I'll have him come down." He didn't wait for Kerry to nod before he picked up his radio and started speaking into it, turning away from them and lowering his voice. Then with a glance at them, he walked away, heading for a door in the back of the hall.
"I'm going to go grab a router and see what mounting stuff we have," Mark said. "I'll come back here and wait for the electrical guy if you want to go see what's going on."
"Sounds like a plan," Dar said. "Thanks Mark."
"No prob." He trotted off toward the stairs, leaving Dar and Kerry behind.
"You want me to tell Alastair you can talk to the press now?" Kerry asked.
"No," Dar replied placidly. "That's not part of my job. That's part of his job. He's got Hamilton with him, and the entire New York office publicity machine with him, and I've got better things to do."
"All righty," Kerry said. "But honey, even though I love you more than anything on earth, you're going to be the one to tell him that, okay?"
Her partner chuckled wryly.
Dar's phone rang again. Kerry promptly handed it over to her.
Dar took it. "Hello," she answered briefly after glancing at the caller ID. Not him She mouthed at Kerry. "Yes, this is Dar Roberts. Who is this?" She paused, folding her free arm across her body and resting her elbow on her fist. "Okay, bu--oh, all right. Okay." She nodded. "So what's the issue?"