It was cool, and overcast, and she was glad she had her suit jacket on. Kerry followed Dar up the path, and to the gate, which was opened readily to admit them. “Good morning.”
“Morning, ladies.” The guard at the gate said. “Can I direct you somewhere?”
“No, we’re okay.” Dar said. “Thanks.”
They entered the building and Dar led the way down the hall to the briefing room she was becoming familiar with. The administrator sitting at the entry desk glanced up, then focused attention on them. “Good morning.”
Dar fished out one of her new cards and handed it over. “I think I’m expected.”
The woman took it and looked at it, then consulted a book on her desk. “Yes, Ms. Roberts, you are.” She said. “You can go on in and set up, Mr. Bridges is in a briefing right now, but he’ll be back down in a minute.”
She glanced past Dar to where Kerry was patiently waiting. “Are you..”
“With her? Yes.” Kerry said, in a deadpan voice. She gave the woman and smile and followed Dar past the desk to the big conference room, which was empty and quiet and full of teak furniture and a big screen.
Dar put her messenger bag down and pulled her laptop out, sitting down near the front of the table and opening the hatch in it where the connections to the overhead projector were.
Kerry took a seat next to her and simply sat waiting, knowing enough about Dar’s prep methods not to bug her with inconsequential talk. She wasn’t fond of public speaking and there was a certain amount of self psyching she had to do in order to do it successfully.
The admin came in and opened up a roll up cabinet in the back, exposing urns of coffee and other liquids. “Please help yourself.” The woman said. “The technical committee is on it’s way down and if I were you, I’d get a cookie first before they get here.” She gave them both a smile and left.
“I don’t think I can get down any more coffee.” Kerry said mournfully. “My kidneys are going to come out my ears.”
“That’s an attractive thought.” Dar murmured, obsessing over her keyboard.
“I love you too, honey.” Kerry got up and went over to the credenza, selecting a glass and a bottle of fizzy water and bringing them back over to set next to Dar’s elbow. Then she resumed her seat and half turned as the door opened and people started to file in.
Mostly men, but two were women. They all had the slight harassed and slightly impatient look of people who had too much to do who were being asked to stop doing what they had to do in order to listen to someone they didn’t know about something they really didn't care about.
Kerry was used to the look, she’d seen it enough times in conference rooms at ILS. She gave them all a brief smile as they settled into chairs, some detouring over to the credenza with low, muttered words to each other.
One of the men had sat down next to her. “You the people doing the new system?” He asked.
“Yes.” Kerry said, extending a hand. “I’m Kerry.”
“Paul.” He took it and gripped firmly. “So is this going to work?”
“It’ll work.”
“Not like everything else lately?” Another man had taken the seat next to him and was leaning against the table. “Our whole reporting database’s been down for three days. Last thing we need is some new complicated thing that craps out.”
Dar looked up from her keyboard and peered at him. “The statistical analysis collator? That’s down?”
“Uh oh.” Kerry muttered under her breath as she swung around to face her partner. “I don’t think we’re supposed to know about that.” She mouthed silently.
Dar lifted both hands in a shrug and put them back down. “Is it?”
“Yeah.. you know something about that?” Paul asked. “I didn’t know you people were involved in that.. hell, I’m surprised they don’t have you in a little padded room upstairs getting your kneecaps whacked.”
Dar sighed. “Actually we’re not involved in it. We just know about it.” She went back to her keyboard. “And that’s all I’m going to say about that or I’ll get MY kneecaps whacked by my partner here.”
Kerry looked mildly abashed. “We used to work for the company who handles that system for you.” She explained to Paul. “So that’s how we know.”
“Oh.” He leaned back in his chair. “So why’d you leave?”
“They pissed us off.” Dar said. “Okay, I’ve got this set now.” She looked up and then stood up, twitching her jacket straight and flexing her hands. “We just waiting for Bridges?”
“He’s getting a briefing on all the outages.” Paul said. “He’s in a really bad mood.”
“Oh boy.” Kerry folded her hands on the table. “Well, hope we can show him something that makes him feel better.”
“Mmm.” Dar made a low noise in her throat. “Is it too late for us to find some coveralls and cross dress? Pretend we’re someone else?”
“You’re the one who said we knew about it.” Kerry sighed.
The door opened and Bridges came in with two aides, and he did, as promised, look like he was in a very bad mood. “Roberts!” He barked, as he came around the table. “What in the hell’s going on?”
Dar put her hands in the pockets of her skirt. “We’re about to do a demonstration for you.” She answered calmly. “Want to sit down so I can start?”
The president’s advisor paused and put his hands on the back of the chair at the head of the table and regarded her.
“It’s not my problem anymore.” Dar said, gently. “I know it’s a complete cock up there, but I don’t’ even have any way of thinking about trying to help.”
“Don’t want you to help. I want you to take it over.” Bridges tossed a folder on the table and slid it over to her. “Now. Sign.”
“We don’t have the infrastructure to do it.” Dar objected, as Kerry pulled the folder over and opened it. “You’d be in the same state until we could spool up. Find someone else – I’ll give you some names.”
The others in the room had been watching them, heads turning back and forth like those at a tennis tournament.
“I don’t want any god damned names.” Bridges said. “I’ve already talked to half a dozen half assed nit brained nerd heads and you know what every single one of them told me?”
“They said they can’t do it.” Kerry spoke up, still leafing through the folder’s contents. “And probably some of them at least told you to call Dar.” She closed the folder and pushed it back across the table. “Unfortunately, we really, honestly, no bullshit, really can’t do it either. You need time and a ton of facility and we don’t have either one.”
Bridges sat down in the big chair and glared at her.
“Really.” Kerry repeated. “I’m not making that up. If I thought we could pull it off, and yank it out of ILS’s hands, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
Dar turned and looked at her, both eyebrows hiking up.
“I would.” Kerry saw the look and suppressed a smile. “They don’t deserve you as a customer. They have been absolute morons over the last month. I would take that contract like this.” She snapped her fingers. “But we really can’t do it.”
He steepled his fingers, tapping the ends of them against his lips. Everyone else in the room was dead silent, very still, just waiting.
Even Dar stayed quiet, her hands still in her pockets, eyes slightly unfocused.
“What do you mean, they were morons?” Bridges finally asked. “They do this on purpose?”
Kerry folded her hands on the table, the light briefly catching her wedding ring and reflecting off it. “A lot of people have asked us that. No, I don’t think they did this on purpose in the sense that, they were trying to sabotage anything.”