"Well," Bruce sidled over to her, "we got here a couple hours ago, and the guy in charge told us if we wanted anything else put up, we'd have to do it," he said, with a tiny shrug. "Everyone here was bitching for sure, but what could we do?"
"Call?" Kerry eyed him, spreading her hands out in question. "It's not like my cell phone number's a secret."
The blond tech next to him winced. "We didn't want you to think we were whiners. It's not that much to do. Get those pipes up so we can start cabling. Not like the other guys, they're trying to get that wood together without hardly any tools."
"Mm." Kerry shook her head. "The guys in charge, they still here?"
"No way." Bruce snorted. "They took off and left the guards out front. Bunch of...um..." He remembered whom he was talking to and his voice trailed off.
"We met them," his boss muttered. "They didn't make a very good impression on us. Hey, Dar?"
Her partner had wandered over to the next booth, and was talking to its occupants. She held a hand up to acknowledge Kerry's call, but continued her conversation. "Well, anyway, we can help you get set up," Kerry told the techs. "What's up next, those poles over there?" She pointed.
Dar returned before they could get started, and she didn't look happy. "The Lucent guys say they heard the center didn't pay their setup crew for the last convention or something, so they walked," she reported. "They're pretty torked. According to their lead tech, the center basically told them they could wait until tomorrow, when maybe they'd have some workers, or do it themselves and shut up."
"Nice," Kerry muttered, "very professional."
Bruce nodded. "That's what they told us too," he agreed. "So we talked about it, and decided to see what we could do. We didn't want you guys to get here and not have stuff ready."
Dar sighed. "So instead, you get to have us show up and help you haul cable. It'll make a good story back at the office. Let's go. Faster we do it, faster we get out of here."
Kerry walked over and claimed a spool of cable and a wrench. "Are those the switches over there?" She pointed at a stack of brown cardboard boxes with a familiar label on them. "Cody, why don't you start unpacking them."
"Speaking of..." Dar turned, and then tipped her head back. "Let me guess. They didn't pull any Telco drops, did they?"
"Nope," Bruce said. "That was going to be a real problem," he admitted. "Mark didn't send any WAN guys up here."
"Not a problem anymore." Kerry tossed Dar a punch down kit, which her partner fielded with consummate grace. "I think the jack boxes are over on that pole, Dar." She nudged Bruce toward the remaining not-yet-hung structure. "Let's go guys--move those ladders over."
Dar removed a pen from her pocket and scribbled down the jack numbers on the pole Kerry had spotted. She paused when she saw several people standing near the back entrance watching them.
None were familiar, but if she squinted, she could make out the logo on the nearest one's shirt. "Ahh," Dar murmured, "our low-balling adversaries." The faintest twinkle appeared in her eyes, as she stuffed the bit of paper she'd written on in her back pocket, and headed for the Telco room, which they'd passed on their way in.
Two of the newcomers walked on past her into the room, sparing her only cursory glances. The other three remained at the entrance, talking amongst themselves with sour looks on their faces. They absently returned Dar's nod of greeting, then dismissed her as she walked by and continued talking to each other.
"I'd love to take off, but I want to wait till ILS gets their system set up, and then see what we can find out about it. Those guys look like they'll talk our ears off." The one nearest the booth--a well-built man with thick, black hair who had the air of a manager--pointed toward the ILS area. "Maybe we can recruit some of 'em...I heard they're looking at layoffs."
The other man laughed. "Typical. Cut the people who do the real work and protect the do-nothing executives."
He probably would have stopped, if he'd bothered to turn around and see the ice blue eyes drilling unseen holes in the back of his head, but his attention was focused on the booth and so he missed the rude gesture as well.
"You go for the guys. I'll take that babe with the cables." The shorter man also laughed. "I'll give 'em one thing, they hire for looks. She's hot."
Dar glanced at the kit in her hands, and opened it, selecting a pair of needle nose pliers and studying them, wondering how much jail time she'd incur if she pulled the bastard's gonads out with the tool. Then she sighed, and put it back, turning and continuing on her way with commendable restraint.
Work before pleasure. Their time would come soon enough.
"HERE YOU GO, guys." Kerry eased back into their booth, cradling a half dozen cans of soda in a pouch made from the long tail of her T-shirt. The techs gathered around her shyly selecting their choices as Kerry stood in their midst. "C'mon, they're cold."
"Thanks, ma'am." Bruce sat down on a switch, wiping his brow.
Two hours had gone by, and they'd finished the structure of the booth only to realize the center had turned off its air conditioning.
It had rapidly gone from relatively comfortable to stuffy to stifling before Dar had hoisted her pirate's pennant and found the A/C control room. She got busy picking the lock and flipping switches inside until the units turned themselves back on.
Now the air was sluggishly circulating again, and Dar had gone back to methodically hacking her way through the unlabeled circuits in search of the one they'd ordered.
"Okay." Kerry sat down with her own soda and opened it, taking a long swallow before she continued. She was sweaty and covered in dust, and her knee ached where she'd banged it on the corner of a switch, but as she looked around at their progress, she was satisfied. "Once we get the line up, we're pretty much done until the servers get here tomorrow."
The techs looked tired, but relieved. "Think the circuit'll be up tonight?" Bruce asked.
"Oh, I'm sure it will." Kerry leaned back and extended her legs, crossing them at the ankles and regarding their bare length studiously. "Even if Dar has to run a fiber cable all the way to Miami, it'll be up." She looked up at her troops, with a grin. "I have faith."
The four techs grinned back.
"Thanks for stopping by and giving us a hand, ma'am. That was really cool," Cody said.
"No problem." Kerry glanced to one side as a motion caught her attention, and stopped speaking when she spotted a pod of their competitors approaching. She watched them as they came over, observing the booth with intent eyes. "Hi."
"Hi," the man in front greeted her with a friendly grin. "You guys sure have been busy."
"Hasn't everyone?" Kerry replied. "What a mess, huh?"
"Yeah," the man agreed. "We're going to wait for some help tomorrow to put things up, but I guess you folks decided to do it yourself, huh?"
Kerry glanced around at their booth. "Looks like it," she agreed. "We can take off and go to sleep in peace now."
The man stuck his hands in his pockets and chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sure you guys have to be careful about that. I hear things are up in the air for you. You don't want to take any chances, huh?"
The techs all looked at Kerry, who looked at the man with gently inquisitive green eyes. "Pardon me?" she asked.
"Ah, c'mon, we've heard about your problems...hell, we caused some of 'em!" The man laughed. "No hard feelings. In fact, you guys look pretty bright. Interested in coming over to the other side?"
Kerry's eyebrows lifted. The rest of her troops remained prudently quiet, apparently quite satisfied to let her do the talking. "I have no beef with who pays me," she said. "What about you folks?" Her eyes shifted to her techs.
"We're fine," Bruce replied. "No gripes here,"he added, as the rest of the techs shook their heads.