It seemed like it was part of the tunnel itself, which curved around in a big loop, the far end disappearing into the darkness again on the far side of space. But in the center, the ceiling lofted up in a series of gothic arches that culminated in a thin ironwork tracery of windows that allowed the light in from outside to spill across the intricately bricked walls.
It was surprising and beautiful, completely unexpected and Kerry took her camera from her belt pouch and adjusted the flash taking a few pictures of the work. "I guess there were two City Halls." She pointed at a mosaic tile sign on the wall, which held the words. "How weird."
Scuzzy was looking right up at the ceiling. "Whoa," she said. "You know? I think this is like, right outside the freaking entrance to the Hall. I seen those glass things from the top, you know? I asked my brother what they were once and he had like no idea."
"Ker." Dar's voice interrupted their sightseeing.
Kerry put her camera away, turning and heading over to where her partner was standing. "Sorry, what's up?"
"Wrong fucking cable." Dar enunciated the three words in the most clipped tone imaginable.
"Oh Jesus." Kerry pinched the bridge of her nose, as a headache she'd been keeping at bay started up again. "Not what I needed to hear."
"This is what those guys gave us,"the man from Verizon spoke up immediately"This ain't my fault," he immediately added. "This is the stuff those guys from Jersey brought over, right Mike?"
"Right." Another tech agreed immediately. "So that's what I told that guy, you sure it's this code? I had the code. I told him the code, and he said yeah, it was the right code, but I knew it wasn't no right code because I been laying this cable since I was eighteen years old, and I know what code it should be, and it ain't this code."
"Right. So we told those guys somebody needed to come down here and look at this before we went no further, because this is a lot of carp to go through for no reason," the first tech said. "And my guys gave me a lotta crap about it and just said to go on with it, but ain't no way was I gonna have these here guys run this here cable if it's the wrong stuff."
There was a brief silence. Then Dar folded her arms over her chest. "Right choice."
The tech nodded. "You got that right. So they sending someone down to here now? I ain't got all day to be sitting in this tunnel."
"They sent someone," Dar answered, before Kerry's bristling hackles could make her pale hair fluff out like a Chia pet. "I'll look at the cable."
"You?" The man gave Dar a doubtful look.
"Yes."
"Okay." The man motioned the other techs over. "Unreel some of dat, will ya? This here lady wants to see it." He looked back at Dar. "You sure you know what you're looking at?"
"Yes."
"Whatever." The man motioned her forward. "C'mon, c'mon. We ain't got all day."
"Shit." Dar pulled out her flashlight and walked over to the spool where the telco techs were unhitching the end of the cable in the spool and twisting it back for her to inspect. "This was one complication I wasn't expecting."
"Can I punch him while you're figuring out what to do?"Kerry asked from between gritted teeth. "Stupid piece of ignorant pork rind."
"Easy slugger."
DAR LEANED AGAINST the intricately bricked wall, her arms crossed over her chest, her mind racing. In front of her the track was now clear as the train had moved along into its appointed time slot. She had been left to ponder the cable, the techs, and the pit she'd dug herself into.
Shit. She felt like kicking herself. After all the bullshit she'd been spilling about everyone else's lame ass actions she had to face the fact she had screwed up to an intolerable degree by not simply checking what type of cable this half ass vendor was giving them.
Inexcusable.
Kerry came over and leaned against the wall next to her, their shoulders brushing. "Hey." She braced one booted foot against the brick."Thanks for the advice on the Lansing issue. It worked."
Dar looked sideways at her.
Kerry peered mildly back.
"You're welcome," Dar finally said. "You trying to make me stop kicking myself?"
"Well," her partner plucked at the knee of her pants, "actually I was trying to find something to say to you that wouldn't make you blow up at me."
"At you?"
"You know what I mean. Hon, I know you're freaking out. I don't want to make it worse for either of us."
Dar sighed.
Kerry felt the gentle pressure as Dar leaned against her, a non verbal acknowledgment and surrender she felt a great deal of sympathy for. There really wasn't much she could say, to be honest. Dar was right. She should have checked.
Of course, she could try to take responsibility for that on herself, but if she tried, she knew Dar would go ballistic and, frankly, she wasn't looking for any kind of tension between them since the situation was already more than wretched enough.
Honesty seemed the better route. With Dar it always was, even if her own inclination was to try and make excuses or find some way to entice her lover into feeling better about whatever it was she was kicking herself over. "So it's the wrong kind of fiber."
"Wrong kind of fiber," Dar agreed. "Multimode. The long distance optics are single mode."
"No options?"
"Longest reach multimode will do is 550 meters." Dar let her head rest on the wall. "Eighteen hundred feet."
Kerry did the math, and sighed. "Do they have any other spools?"
"Sure. All the wrong kind," Dar supplied. "Know what that bastard said? Oops."
"Oops." Kerry mouthed the word. "Nice."
"Yeah." Dar acknowledged. "Mongolian clusterfuck, courtesy of yours truly." She gazed up at the skylights, then pushed off from the wall. "Well, screw it." She started back toward the techs, who had been taking a break leaning against the cable spool. "No point in standing around."
Kerry gathered herself up and followed, catching up as Dar neared the work crew. "Hon--"
Dar held a hand up. "Okay, go ahead and keep rolling it out. We'll deal with it on our end." She said, in a brisk tone as she came up next to where the men were lounging. "We're running out of time."
The crew leader turned in surprise. "Yeah? This is the wrong stuff though," he pointed out. "You said so."
"Not a problem," Dar replied steadily. "I'll handle it. Just get the cable rolled out. We've got a solution."
The man studied her. "Awright." He shrugged. "Overtime for us,and not doin what those guys down town from here are doin. Sounds good to me. Okay boys?"
The techs dusted their gloved hands off, most of them nodding."Better than digging out pipes," one agreed. "At least it's quiet down here, and no dust."
The men got to work, standing up and taking hold of the spool."Down the line here." The crew leader motioned Dar and Kerry out of the way. "Scuse me, ladies. We got work to do."
"Sorry, we definitely don't want to hold you up." Kerry gave him a smile."We'll be waiting for you on the other end. Thanks for taking the time to let us know about this, by the way. At least it gives us time to get a solution in place before you get up there."
The man nodded briefly at her. "You the people with the bus?"
Kerry nodded back. "We'll send some snacks down the line to you when we get back. We really appreciate you guys coming through for us with this."
The men reacted to Kerry's charm and sincere tone. They gave her brief smiles, and one of them touched the rim of his hard hat as they rolled the spool by. "See you down at the Rock, pretty lady," he said, giving Kerry a wink.
Kerry gave them all a genial wave. She waited for them to moved down the curve of the track before she turned and looked at her partner. "Come up with a plan?"
"Nope." Dar had her hands in her pockets. "I haven't a damn clue what I'm going to do."