The waitress arrived and put a cold mug down in front of Hamilton. “You folks like anything else?” She asked. “We’ve got a bar snack platter special tonight.”
“Sure.” Kerry responded. “Bring enough for everyone.”
The waitress smiled at her, and vanished.
“Hamilton, I want no part of it.” Dar said. “Not that I don’t sympathize with the investors. I do.”
“Hear me out, Maestro.” He leaned back and took a sip of his beer. “These are the smart people who tossed money at ILS, not the dumb people. I would not be bothering my coon ass self with the dumb people. I had enough to do with them when I was still drawing a paycheck.”
Andrew chuckled under his breath.
“Why do I get the feeling there isn’t enough liquor in that bar to cover this.” Ceci said.
Dar sighed again. “Let’s wait for Mark to get here.” She decided. “It’ll hold another ten minutes.” She caught the waitress’s alert eye and pointed at her mug, now empty. “If I have enough of these I can use it as an excuse not to put my hands on a keyboard.”
“Darlin, even drunk off your ass you have to be more competent than those idiots in there right now.” Hamilton drawled. “Jacques just got off the phone with me on the way here, and he’s ready to do whatever.”
“Whatever?” Kerry eyed him.
“Whatever. As in, whatever it takes to get the wolves eye teeth out of his buttocks.” Hamilton clarified. “Where they are verily implanted.”
“I don’t get it.” Ceci said, after a moment. “They’re the ones who decided they wanted to get rid of these kids here. So why now is everyone losing their minds and wanting action? They did it.”
“Yes, they did. And they were told what fools they were.” Hamilton agreed. “But that, for some reason does not spur in them a desire to get down on their knees and apologize to the world and God for it.”
Dar pondered that in silence for a moment. “Doesn’t spur in me a desire to help them regardless of the scheme you’re going to pitch me.”
“Now Dar…”
“I’m not kidding, Hamilton.” Dar cut him off. “My first advice would be – put everything back the way it was before you broke it. There were safeguards in place that stored copies of everything so that could be done. This person, this moron they hired, deliberately circumvented and deleted them. They should be arresting him.”
Ceci was nodding. “What she said.”
Hamilton steepled his long fingers together and tapped his lips with the tips of them. “You sure about that, maestro?”
“Am I sure? I’m sure when I left there was a configuration repository that was configured to save a devices configuration every time a change was made, yes.” Dar responded. “And I’m sure that the operations directives for infrastructure had that requirement in writing.”
“It did.” Kerry confirmed.
“So if that fella said there wasn’t no record of how things were set up before he got there, he’s not telling the truth?”
“No.” Dar and Kerry answered at the same time. “He’s lying.” Kerry added.
Baird made a little face. “I don’t suppose you kept a copy of that stuff somewhere?”
Dar took a breath to respond.
“Like your head?” Hamilton gently interrupted her.
Dar exhaled. “The only old copy of configs I had I already turned over to one of the guys who was trying to help, but they never let him use it. They fired him.”
“Moron upon moron upon idiot.” Hamilton sighed. “Okay, cut to the chase, Dar. If you had to, could you go in there and go into those things and make them right?”
They paused, as the waitress returned with a big, round platter full of exceptionally unhealthy things. She put it down in the middle of the table and handed around long handled forks and napkins. “Go for it, folks.”
“Thanks.” Andrew said. “Get me another of these?” He held up his mug, and the waitress scooted off.
Then all eyes went back to Dar.
After a moment she shrugged. “Sure.” She said. “I designed it. It would take me a while to undo whatever it is they did, but I could.”
“What’s your price?”
Dar shook her head. “Hamilton, I won’t do it. Not can’t, won’t.”
“Why not?” He asked. “Dar, these men are literally willing to give you whatever in the world you want to save their shorts. How many times do you get that kind of opportunity?”
“What I seen, ever other month.” Andrew said. “They done got her saving some damn thing or other thing cause some dumbass made some bad choice.”
“Hamilton, I appreciate that.” Dar said. “There’s just nothing I want that they could give me.” She glanced briefly at Kerry. “I’ve got everything I need pretty much right here at this table.”
Her parents smiled. Kerry smiled. Hamilton looked wryly exasperated.
“There’s nothing and no one left there for me to even feel like I would want to do it to make their lives better.” Dar concluded. “Even Jacques, whom I like and respect, was ready to throw me down the river a few times. Hell.” She half shrugged. “Even you and Alastair were. I had no friends there.”
Hamilton’s face shifted into a quiet, serious expression. “That’s not one hundred percent true, Dar.” He said. “But I get it.”
“Ah remember being in that big old place.” Andrew spoke up. “Listening to them fellas want to fire her that last time. She’s right. Ain't no one was on her side in that place.”
“I remember when I started working there.” Kerry chimed in. “How many times people there tried to throw Dar under the bus. I remember hearing what they said. I remember seeing what they did. ILS didn’t deserve her.”
Dar looked from one to the other. “Sometimes I was driving the bus.” She suggested.
“No, Dar, that’s not true. Every time you made a decision, no matter who got hurt or in the way, it was the right decision for the company. For all of us.” Kerry stated firmly. “You don’t owe anyone there, especially the stockholders, a god damned thing.”
The sound of a motorbike ended conversation briefly as Mark arrived, parking his bike in the front of the café and stashing his helmet before joining them. “Hey.” He sat down next to Kerry, who handed him a fork, and a napkin. “Um.. thanks.”
“No, darlin, you don’t owe them anything.” Hamilton said. “You produced value for the company for a good long time. That’s not the issue here. No one’s saying you should do this, no one’s saying you have an obligation.”
“Well.” Mark had retrieved a mozzarella stick. “That guy says he’s going to tell everyone you broke in and sabotaged the company unless you make things work.” He chewed thoughtfully, watching Dar’s face. “I told him to fuck off on your behalf.”
Hamilton sighed, and covered his eyes.
“So. That’s why I’m not going to do anything.” Dar concluded. “Because if I do, no matter what anyone says, or does, or infers, everyone on the planet will believe I screwed it up.”
“Glad I sent that note to Richard.” Kerry muttered. “If that asshole ever comes near us he better hope I’m not driving Dar’s truck because I will so help me god run him over with it.”
“I told Jacques he needed to fire those guys.” Dar said.
“They have contracts.” Hamilton responded. “Very expensive ones to buy out, and it will be, as you don’t need me to tell you, a publicity nightmare.”
Dar lifted her hands up. “What are you having now? CNN took off to go cover the Interbank outage. I’m surprised they haven’t called me back for commentary on it.”
Her cell phone rang, and she glanced at it, then held it up before holding it to her ear. “Hello, Dar Roberts.”