"Where are you?" Dar dispensed with the niceties.
"Not nearly in as much trouble as you are, apparently." Kerry answered with a wry chuckle. "I'm in the ship's morgue. Did you know they had morgues? As well as a whole lot of other places?"
"Uh..." Dar collected her composure. "Well, I guess I did. I mean, they have to. What else are you gonna do if someone croaks on a cruise? Put 'em in the freezer? That'd be gross."
"Sure would," Kerry said. "Now, tell me about our waterbed?" Her voice took on a slight echo, as though she'd cupped her hand around the phone. "You're not really talking to them about um...you know."
Dar glanced at the techs that were pointedly not looking at her. "About what we do in bed? No." She admitted. "They wanted to do me a favor and I'm giving them a hard time. So, how's it look?"
Kerry sighed. "It's a mess." She replied. "Dar, it's going to be such a pain in my butt getting cabling in here. They're going to have to puncture solid steel firewalls."
"Ig."
"And it all has to be shielded twisted pair."
A sigh. "Yeah, I figured that. It is on the Navy ships," Dar said. "Though I think there's less interference running around a cruise ship than on one of those."
"You'd think." Kerry said. "I'm going to have the tech team come in here and start estimating for cable, but Jesus, Dar, they barely have telephones here! They still use handsets they plug into a live line!"
Dar winced. "It's going to be like cabling Grant's tomb," she said. "Okay, tell the guys to do it right. Find out every place they're gonna need anything, and let's just get out the bad news first."
"Will do." Kerry said. "Hey, Dar?"
"Mm?" Dar shifted, crossing her ankles and gazing up at the bottom of the routers. "Did you know you could see the fiber optic LEDs from underneath these things? They look like Christmas trees."'
Silence. "Uh, sweetheart, why didn't you have the guys run a serial line for you?" Kerry asked. "Instead of you lying under the racks?"
"That'd be too easy." Dar muttered, peeking at the techs. They peeked back at her with nervous little grins. "So, what did you want?"
"Eh?"
"You said, 'hey Dar.'"
"Oh." Kerry pondered a minute. "You distracted me, and I realized I wanted the waterbed with you in it. But that wasn't what I was thinking about. Give me a second here."
Dar watched the LEDs flicker over her head, idly daydreaming about the scent of clean linen while she listened to Kerry's faint breaths on the other end of the line. "Glad I wore jeans today, or this could have been really scandalous."
Kerry muffled a snorted giggle. "You're so bad. Okay, I remember now. I've been hearing music from the Hard Rock every time I go out on deck. You want to have dinner over there when you come out later?"
"Sure." Dar replied, watching her monitor now. "But do you really need me to come out there? Sounds like you've got it all worked out. I could just pick you up." She juggled the phone against her ear and typed a command. "How about it?"
Kerry didn't answer for a bit, and when she did, her voice had changed, a touch of uncertainty entering it. "Yeah, I guess," she said. "But don't you want to see the place for yourself?"
"Not really. I trust you."
"Dar, you said this was really important."
Dar released her laptop and took hold of the phone again. "It is, and you're really good at what you do, and I'm perfectly happy to leave it in your hands. Is there a problem with that?" She queried, unsure of what was going on with her partner. "Ker?"
"No, it's not a problem at all. Thank you for the vote of confidence. I know how critical this is, and I'm glad you trust me to take care of it."
Dar waited. Nothing else was forthcoming. "But?" She prompted.
A sigh.
"But you want me to look at it anyway?"
"You have much more maritime experience than I do." Kerry explained, not bothering to confirm her guess directly. "This is a new world for me, and I want to make absolutely sure I size it right the first time. I would appreciate your insights, yes."
Well, that was true enough Dar admitted to herself. Kerry knew enough about boats to get the Dixie out of dock, but there was no way around the fact that Dar had spent her childhood around big ships, and she just knew a lot more about their peculiarities. "Point made." She gave in gracefully. "Meet you there at six?"
"You're on." Kerry sounded much happier now. "I'll meet you out by the front. Oh." She cleared her throat. "By the way, I'm the Demon of the Dock, I'll have you know."
"You are?"
"I deliberately took all the pairs into the pier to keep everyone else out, and am now making a scandalous profit renting them."
"Bwaahahhahaaha..." Dar started laughing, almost banging her head on the bottom of the rack. "If I stop and get you a pair of devil's horns, will you wear them to dinner?"
"Pffft. Just for that, I'm going to stick you with my pitchfork."
"Just for that, I'm going to grab your--" "Dar, aren't you in the ops center?" Kerry interrupted innocently.
"Ahem."
"See you later. I have to go on the rest of my tour with my new friend Tally." Kerry chuckled. "I get to see the crew mess next. They want to put internet in there."
Dar chuckled as well. "Have fun. See you later." A moment after folding the phone closed, she glanced at the console. Both techs had their faces buried so far into their screens she feared they were absorbing the electromagnetic interference right through their skins.
Ah well. Dar went back to her router. So what were a few more scandalous stories, anyway?
IT WAS TWILIGHT before Dar was walking across the concrete toward the pier building Kerry had specified. The heat had lessened a little, and there was a nice breeze coming in off the water.
Dar sucked in a lungful of it, and paused to look at what she could see of the ship. "Hmm." She rocked on her heels once or twice. "Now ain't that a bucket of coasters being held together by paint chips."
The flag clips on the bare nearby poles clanked in agreement as she continued on across the grass and up onto the building's steps. As she got to the glass doors, one was opened, and a uniformed guard studied her suspiciously.
"Hi." Dar produced her identification dutifully. "Can I come in?"
The man studied her badge, then looked at her carefully before he stepped back and opened the door, allowing her to enter. Dar walked past him into the pier building, her nose wrinkling at the scent of incipient mildew overpowering the air conditioning.
The pier building had seen better days, she decided. The walls were covered in a layer of moderately fresh paint, but it was obvious this layer had been put down over many, many others, and the carpet underfoot did not have the luxury of any padding, the better to resist the persistent moisture.
It had a government feel to it. Dar rubbed her nose, stifling a sneeze. She quickly crossed the back room and stuck her head into the alcove where the office was, noting approvingly the locked door and, even more so, the security guard sitting stolidly outside. "Hi, Don."
The guard looked up from his book, surprised. "Oh. Ms. Roberts." He greeted her with a smile. "I didn't think I'd see anyone else here tonight. They closed up the office about an hour ago."
Dar walked over and inspected the door. "Open it?"
The guard got up quickly and did as she asked, unlocking the door and pushing it open. "There you go."
Dar entered and flipped the lights on with a negligent motion of her hand. She prowled around the small space, examining the newly installed gear, and then gave it her grunt of approval before she backed out and waved a hand at the guard. "Feel sorry for whoever has to work in there."
Don wrinkled his nose. "Smells like three week old bread." He agreed. "You just come here to check that out, ma'am? I could'a just told you over the phone." He lifted his cell.