Dar dropped into the seat at the head of the table, content to let Kerry handle the meeting.
“Rough.” Paul sighed. “Yeah.” He rested his hands on the table. “So what’s going to happen now? We all getting fired?” He looked at her. “Are you guys back with us or what?”
“No.” Kerry said. “Here’s the deal. We know something got horribly screwed up. That affected a lot of customers.”
Paul nodded. “All of them have been chewing my ass for days.” He said. “I ran out of things to say to them and when I called exec ops, all they told me was to shut up.”
Dar made a low, grunting sound.
Paul glanced her way. “They told me it was my job to handle the customers.” He said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Kerry exhaled. “Well, one of the customers was the government as you well know.” She said. “To make a long story short and get this on the table, the government ordered the general accounting office, which these gentlemen represent.. “She indicated Steve and the others. “To terminate the contracts and take control of the systems.”
Paul thought about that for a minute. “I guess I can’t blame them for that reaction.” He said, glumly. “They bringing in a team? I’m too tired to even feel bad about it. I guess I’ll get my deferred vacation now anyway.”
Kerry rested her head on her hand. “I’ve got some bad news, and some good news. Which do you want first?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “They have no team to take over, Paul. What they do here is very specialized, and it would take months to replace the people.”
He eyed her warily, but remained silent.
“So what I told the government was, they should just hire all of you, and let you keep doing what you’re doing.”
“But what we’re doing isn’t the screwed up part!” Paul burst out. “Ms. Stuart, it doesn’t mean anything who ‘s in here, it’s the whole system!”
Kerry was nodded. “We know. That’s why Dar’s here.”
Paul swung around to face the figure at the head of the table. “They’re going to let you make this right?” He asked. “Because we were told under no circumstances to even talk to you.”
“ They have no choice.” Kerry said. “The government stepped in. They asked us to help get this straightened out.”
Dar cleared her throat. “It’s not a matter of them letting me do anything, it’s a matter of you letting me. “
“Pohsh.” Paul made a spluttering noise and stood up. “Let’s go.” He said. “We can talk about becoming civil servants later. If you can make this right we’re wasting time here.”
He headed for the door as Dar stood up and followed him, and a moment later the rest of them did as well. They crossed the lobby and Paul slid his badge into the reader, hauling the door open as it clicked and standing back. “After you, ma’am’s.”
“Paul..” The receptionist had stood up. “Don’t they need to sign in?”
“No.” Paul waited and followed the last of the marshals. “Fuck it. There are no rules today.”
**
It was strange and somewhat uncomfortable to enter the ops room, where tired frustrated people were clustered around one of the consoles, arguing.
“Just do it, Bill! What the hell are they going to do, fire you?” Someone was urging the man at the keyboard, only belatedly looking up as the door opened then closed. “Oh shit..”
Everyone swung around to see what he was looking at and then everything went still and quiet for a long minute.
“Hi.” Kerry broke the silence, with wry irony. “Everyone want to sit down and chill out for a minute?”
Slowly, the group dispersed and went back to their stations. “Someone clear space on the government side please.” Paul said. “Our clients took matters into their own hands it seems and sent some help.”
Bill stood up and stepped back “My station here’s on net.” He said. “Boy they sure knew who to call, huh?”
Dar walked around the marshals and went to the console, setting her bag down and regarding both the console and it’s operator. ‘Hi Bill.”
“Hello, ma’am.” He answered quietly. “I’m really sorry about everything.”
“Me too.” Dar responded. “So here’s the thing. You have two choices. If you’re a level 15 and above, you can create me a login to make some changes, or I can use yours. Pick.”
Bill smiled briefly. “You can use mine, ma’am. No problem.” He hesitated. “Is it okay if I watch you?”
Dar sat down. “Sure. Pull a chair over.” She regarded the green and black screen. “What were you about to do that they were yelling about?”
He cleared his throat nervously and pulled another chair over. “Well…”
Kerry went over to the supervisor’s desk and motioned Paul over. “Steve, why not have your folks sit down. This will probably take a while.”
The two marshals found convenient corners to stand in, and the rest of them sat down at the round conference table in one corner. Kerry waited for them to get settled then she turned back to Paul. “So.”
He had sat down behind the desk and let his elbows rest on his knees. “How did this happen?” He asked softly. “How did it get so bad so fast?”
Kerry leaned against the desk, her back to the room, and her arms folded over her chest. “Good question. I hope you know this wasn’t anything Dar and I wanted.”
He shook his head. “They told us she did something.” He glanced up at the console, where Dar and Bill had their heads together in low conversation. “We didn’t believe it. No one here did, anyhow and then we heard about all those people leaving… it was like 9/11 all over again but this time we failed.”
“Yeah, I know.” Kerry said. “It was hard for us to believe, with everything going on. But I think maybe things will turn around now. I hope so. We want to move on.”
“I guess we all will end up doing that too.” Paul said, after a pause. “I thought I was going to retire with them. You know?”
Kerry sighed. “I think Dar did too, at one point.” She glanced around. “Any chance of some coffee? I’d like a chance to go over the options with you without an audience.”
Paul managed a smile. “Sure.” He pushed himself to his feet with an obvious effort. “Let me get our ops team in there too. Might as well save your voice and not say it more than once.” He motioned her to follow and went to an inside door she remembered leading to the ops center break room.
Might as well get it over with.
**
“Okay.” Dar studied the screen. “That wouldn’t have done anything but it wouldn’t have hurt anything either. “ She opened up her laptop and waited for the screen to come on, then clicked on the folder she’d put the files she’d worked on in. “So let me show you what they did.”
Instantly, she felt motion at her back and she glanced around to find most of the operators out of their chairs and leaning over their workspaces to watch. “C’mon over here. Maybe if I let you all in on what happened it won’t happen again.”
Thus invited the entire team came trotting over, making a solid circle at her back. “We knew they did something.” One of them said. “They said it was you, Ms. Roberts, but I’ve been working here for ten years and I know what your stuff looks like.” He was shaking his head. “Your changes are scary sometimes but they work.”
Dar suppressed a smile. “Thanks.” She said. “I think.”
“So what did they do?” Bill asked. “We were going along like normal that one day then all of a sudden it all just gummed up.”
Dar brought up the configuration of their local router, and the file on the screen that mirrored it. “This.” She touched one line with her index finger and drew it down the screen. “The idiot who did this didn’t have any understanding of situational routing.”