Beyond him they could hear angry voices, and as they cleared the door and could see the interior of the room Kerry heard Dar make a low, grunting noise that she knew meant nothing but trouble.
It wasn’t really a curse, but it might as well have been one.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about but we’ve got our best…. What the hell is she doing here?” A tall, crewcutted man was speaking at high volume.
“She’s here to help us figure this out.” Bridges said. “Now sit your ass down.”
“Help us? She caused this!” The main pointed at Dar.
“Is that..” Kerry muttered.
“Yes.”
“Leeeet me start texting.”
Bridges turned to look at Dar. “You cause this, Roberts?”
“No.” Dar responded in a flatly calm voice. “Moronic male ego caused this. I had nothing to do with it. Assuming what you're talking about is the fact that a company I used to work for maliciously and deliberately disrupted your systems.”
“Now Dar.” Jacques stepped out from behind a block of angry bodies. “That’s not really true..”
“Fuck you, it is.” Dar said. “I told you what to do and you didn’t do it. All of you put pride in front of your customer and from my perspective, that makes you all useless sacks of shit who frankly deserve to be taken into some green painted cell somewhere in the basement of this place and beaten to death.”
Then she stopped talking and sat down, resting her elbows on the big conference table. “Please get this over with. I have a demonstration to do in a half hour.”
There were very few times that Kerry had been prouder of her partner than she was at this moment. She quietly sat down next to Dar and folded her hands on her lap.
“Dar..” Jacques regrouped. “I was just..”
“Shut up. You’re a goat bag. I have no respect for you.” Dar said, in a clipped tone. “I have no respect for any of you, Be men. You fucked up. Own it.”
Bridges sat down with a grunt.
A tall, dark haired man with a green linen suit on put his hands on the back of the chair directly across from where Dar was sitting. “Can I ask who you are?”
“My name is Dar Roberts.” Dar said. “Can I ask who you are?”
The man sat down. “You’re Dar Roberts.” He repeated. “Funny. From what I was hearing I expected you to have a horn and a long red tail.” He said. “I’m Steve Booker.”
“Ah. We’ve spoken.” Kerry spoke up. “He’s the governmental systems technical coordinator, Dar.”
He peered at her. “I know that voice. Kerry Stuart?”
Kerry drew a breath, then just merely nodded.
“You going to sit down?” Bridges stared pointedly at Jacques and the man with the crew cut. “Or do you want me to call the goons to have you dragged down to the not nearly as fictitious little green room downstairs?”
Reluctantly they sat.
“All right.” Bridges leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his stomach. “I do not have time to screw around with you people any more.” He said. “Shut up and do not speak until I tell you to.” He said, as Jacques drew breath.
“What.” Bridges said, looking now at Dar. “Is the actual fucking problem, Roberts, since I know deep in my complete lack of a heart that you know.”
Kerry put her hand on Dar’s arm, applying gentle pressure. Then she cleared her throat. “We don’t know specifically what happened.” She said. “Because only the people who actually did it know what they did.”
Bridges rolled his eyes.
“But what I believe happened is that the people that ILS hired to replace Dar, and I, decided to put their imprint on the systems that were in place there, and made changes to them that caused a pretty serious degradation in performance.”
HIggs took an angry breath. “That’s a..”
“Don’t.” Kerry said, sharply and powerfully. “Stop playing games. This is the government of the United States you are messing up, and the consequences of that are a lot more important than you understand.”
“You are liable for this.” Dar said, in the small silence that followed. “What you did, will take ILS down. You will lose the company.” She was looking directly at Jacques. “And you will deserve to lose it. I am so disgusted by you and what you allowed to happen here I am about to throw up on this table.”
‘Dar..” Jacques’ face twisted into a grimace.
“We risked our lives for this customer.” Dar cut him off, but in a very quiet, gentle voice. “And you allowed this moron to knowingly and deliberately put them in jeopardy.”
“You made that system so impenetrable you caused this!” Higgs stood up. “Don’t blame this on any body but you you fucking immoral piece of shit!”
“So you did make some changes?” Bridges asked, in a mild tone.
“To make things better! Sure!”
Bridges sniffed reflectively. “John, get the MP’s up here.” He said. “I want this guy put in lock up.” He turned to Dar, leaning on his chair arm. “Can you fix this, Roberts?”
“She’s not touching anything!” Higgs said. “I’ve got our lawyer coming over here and he’s going to serve the damn papers we’ve been trying to serve to this bitch for two weeks and then we’ll see who’s going to jail.”
“Brook, sit down.” Jacques said, quietly.
“The hell! I’m not going to sit down, and I’m not going to stand by while my reputation and yours gets tossed in the garbage!” Higgs started around the table towards Dar. “Wait till I get my hands on you..”
The door opened in front of him and he stopped abruptly, taking a step back as a man walked in with rolled up sleeves and a casual pair of slacks on. “What’s all going on in here?” He asked, looking around. “Oh there you are .”
“Hello, Mr. President.” Bridges said. “Just having a meeting.”
“With all that yelling?” Bush seemed surprised. “Hello there, ladies.” He gave Dar and Kerry a smile. “Hey, is this your lady friend?“ he asked Dar.
“It is.” Dar agreed. “My partner, Kerry.”
“Hi there. Call me George. “ The president extended a hand, which Kerry took. “I just heard from someone down the hall that your new thing’s really something.”
“Looking forward to demonstrating it to you shortly.” Dar said. “So far, so good.”
“Well now that’s great.. so what’s all the yelling about?” Bush asked, a touch more sharply. “Something wrong?”
“Just getting some issues ironed out.” Bridges said. “Nothing too tough.”
“Uh huh.” Bush nodded. “Well, you all try not to keep Ms. Roberts too long. We’ve got an appointment “ He eyed them, then slipped out the door and closed it behind him.
Higgs went back to his seat and sat down, looking like he was trying to pass a gallstone. Jacques leaned back and half hid his eyes with one hand.
“Okay now where were we. Roberts? “ Bridges ignored both of them. “Can you fix this thing or not?”
“In point of fact, she’s been trying to.” Kerry said. “Except these bimbos keep firing the people she was trying to help.”
“Pst pst pst” Bridges tapped his lips. “Roberts?”
“I won’t do it to help them.” Dar finally said. “But I will do it for you. Pull their contracts, and after that, you get me access and I’ll fix it.”
“What??????” Higgs yelped.
“Dar, please don’t be so hasty..”
“Done.” Bridges said, with a brief smile. “Steve, call the GAO and make it happen. Cut the new contracts to Robert’s company, and mandate the gizmos and gears and whatnot that makes it all up goes to them too.”