“We're not setup for that.”
“Well then, put on your big girl panties and get a move on getting set up.” He said. “Because this is serious stuff, Roberts. We don't have the time or people to be running around doing things the hard way because their crap isn't working. Got me?”
“Yeah, I get it. But I hope they can straighten themselves out without my interference.” Dar said. “I don't really want to get back into that arena.”
Bridges grunted. “My gal will set up a time next week for your cat and donkey show. Stay by the phone. Answer it if it rings. Later.”
Dar released the line and exhaled. “Well, shit.” She half turned and looked out the window, where the sunset was splashing a deep gold light along the window. “This is going to be a huge pain in the ass.”
“What's that, hon?” Kerry came in with Mocha in her arms. “You ready to go home?”
Dar told her the latest.
“Ew.”
“Yeah.” Dar got up and put her laptop into her backpack. “I'm going to concentrate on doing the mock up. ILS is going to have to let their chips fall as they may.”
“You think Bridges will actually force them to call you?” Kerry already had her messenger bag over one shoulder. “Holy crap, you think they'd make them give us those contracts? Dar we can't handle that.”
“I know.” Dar slung the pack onto her back. “I'm sure they won't end up doing that. It's far too intrusive, and probably illegal.” She shut her desk lamp off, and bumped Kerry towards the door. “C'mon. I need to chill out. Mark said there's no sign of his buddy posting.”
They walked down the stairs, waving at the people still left working. Mark was standing in the lower hall, his helmet in his hand and he waited for them to reach the bottom.
“Hey.” Kerry shifted Mocha to her other arm. “How's our new guy doing?” She asked, as they headed out the front door. “I think I got the HR people to stop freaking out about him.”
“Not bad.” Mark said. “He's still back there, reading manuals.” He looked and sounded surprised. “Left field pick, boss. How'd you see any cells under all the grunge?”
“Just a hunch.” Dar said. “His fast pass come through all right? Since we left him in that room?”
“Oh, yeah sure.” Mark said. “Just waiting for his military records to come back, but his civilian stuffs okay, what there is of it. He went into the Army at like 18.” He tossed his helmet up and caught it. “Know what he told me? Said he was digging in that garbage container for manuals and crap, thought we would toss them with the boxes.”
“You think that's true?” Kerry asked.
Mark shrugged. “He's in there reading manuals.” He said. “He said he knew we were a tech company, when he saw the deliveries.”
“Well, that could be true enough.” Kerry admitted. “But I told Carlos to just keep an eye on things, because I don't want him bothering people.”
“Yeah, he said.” Mark agreed. “My other guys are going in and talking to him too. I told them to give him some room, but make sure he knew the rules.”
Mark's cycle was parked next to Dar's truck, and Kerry's SUV was right behind that. So they paused and stood a moment, watching the sun go down as the cool breeze rustled the leaves over their head. “Pretty night.” Mark commented.
Kerry got Mocha into her SUV and tossed her messenger bag in after him. “It is.” She said, turning around and leaning on the car door. “Mark, the problems at our old place are starting to affect customers we have in common.”
Mark paused, taking a seat on his bike sideways and regarding her. “Yeah?”
Dar opened her truck door and hopped up onto the seat. “Yeah. Apparently the Pentagon isn't happy with whatever's going on.”
“Wow.” Mark put his helmet on his lap and rested his arms on it. “I tried to call Pete twice, but he's not answering his personal cell. Maybe because its me. Didn't want to get in any deeper.”
Dar sighed. “Wonder if I should call Alastair.” She mused.
“I”m really kind of surprised he hasn't called you.” Kerry said. “Unless, like we suspect, he wants to keep you as far out of it as he can.”
“Damn it, I don't want to get in the middle of this.” Dar exhaled. “At first it was just dumbass on their part. Now it's getting serious.”
“Crazy they haven't gotten it fixed yet.” Mark said. “I just can't figure out what the hell they did, you know? I mean, even if the repository's tanked, we had hard copy of the configs in the files. Even if they restored a 30 day out copy, it would bring everything back. “
“Unless he's determined to make it work his way.” Kerry said. “The new guy, I mean.”
They all stood there, thoughtfully, for a minute or two. Then Dar cleared her throat. “It won't work any other way.” She said. “The metrics.. they're all balanced based on the mesh of those routing protocols.”
Mark and Kerry stared at her.
“Convergence, hop count – it's all predicated on using the protocol metrics I designed.” The dark haired woman added, folding her arms. “It's in the architectural diagrams and overview.”
“And that thing you put in.” Kerry spoke up at last. “When we were getting hacked.”
Dar nodded. “It's a crude kind of artificial intelligence. Something like what I'm going to use for Bridges.”
“Shit. I should tell Pete that.” Mark said. “They probably have no clue what all that is. Hell, I had no real clue of what all that was.”
“I documented it.” Dar protested.
“Sure, big D, you put all the words in there but how many people could understand them if they read them?” Mark asked, seriously. “You're like a little rocket scientist y'know?”
“Ooh boy.” Kerry exhaled. “That's all proprietary and you probably are the only one who can fix it, aren't you?”
Dar spread her hands out. “They're ILS's patents!” She said. “They have all the paperwork on it.”
“Yes, hon, but it's your name on those patents. I saw them.” Kerry said. “Actually, I kept a copy of them so you could look back at them sometime and chuckle.”
“I'm not chuckling now.” Dar responded dourly.
“No me either.” Kerry sighed. “You know, that's probably what happened. That jackass decided he wanted to put his stamp on the system and wanted your stuff taken out.” She gave Mark a shrewd look. “You think?”
Mark scrunched his face up. “Crap.”
Dar exhaled. “We're not going to solve it here in the parking lot.” She said. “Let's go home, Ker. Maybe I'll get a brainwave on the ferry.” She slid around in the seat and closed the door. “Maybe I will give Alastair a call. I'm really surprised he hasn't given me one. Maybe he walked out and doesn't know what's going on.”
“Ugh.” Kerry got in her SUV with Mocha, who was scrambling all over putting tongue prints on everything.
“Is it okay for me to tell Pete about that custom stuff?” Mark asked, as he straddled his bike. “I'll text him.”
“Sure.” Dar started up the engine. “But if they really did take all that out, it probably won't help.”
“Ugh.” Kerry put the SUV in reverse and started backing out of her spot. She caught motion in the corner of her eye and turned her head, to see a group of figures standing in the twilight on the road watching them. “Double ugh.” She glanced forward at Dar's pickup, seeing by the angle of her partner's head that she saw them too.
“Yap.” Mocha sat down on the passenger seat.
“Yap.” Kerry repeated, shaking her head. “Not going to be a good night, Mocha. I can just feel it.”
**
Dar exhaled, watching the screen refresh on her computer as she pondered again what to do. There'd been no answer on Alastair's cell, and her message hadn't been returned yet. Mark said, he hadn't gotten a response from his buddy, so she was left to drum her fingers on the desk, and listen to Kerry's stir frying from the kitchen nearby.