“Is that … what is that?” Bill asked. “Is that how all the traffic knows how to go?”
“Yes.” Dar indicated the file on her screen. “You see all this? That’s the configuration that used to be in this router that would tell it how to know where to send things, and would flexibly reroute if it saw congestion or an issue.”
“That’s custom scripting.” One of the other operators said, folding his arms.
“Yes.” Dar repeated. “I wrote it.”
“But.. that’s actually calling the firmware.” The man said.
Dar nodded. “We worked in conjunction with the firmware vendor to make it work that way.” She glanced past him. “It’s in the architecture workbook.”
“They took that offline.” Bill said. “Same time as the repository. They said it was for security.”
“So, all we have to do is put that all back in and it’ll start working again?” The first tech said. “It’s just typing? Holy crap Ms. Roberts, we can type. Give each of us one of those and we’ll get this knocked out and we can go get a damn beer with a clean conscience and I’m buying your first one.”
Dar smiled, just a little. “That’s all. I rewrote these last night.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “We tried to give them back to the stupid bastard who did this but they fired him before we could give them over.”
“Holy crap.”
“Holy crap!”
“Someone grab some thumb drives! “ Bill turned around and yelled out. “Hurry!”
**
Kerry had sat at many tables like this one, facing many faces like these and she understood the heavy sense of fear and dismay in the room. “I know it’s crazy.”
“No, well..” Charlese Harrington lifted one hand up. “Look, Kerry, I know you got dragged into this. But it IS crazy. Someone somewhere else make a huge screw up, and we have to pay the price?”
Kerry sighed. “That does happen.” She said. “None of this was anyone here’s fault, but the fact is, it impacted some people who aren’t very forgiving – what was worse, they weren’t being given good information.”
“That’s not our fault.” Paul said. “We weren’t getting ANY information from exec ops. Just bullshit. All they kept doing was either blaming you, or telling us to suck it up.”
“And, like don’t’ even mention Ms. Robert’s name.” Charlese added. “They sent an email out that said they were fixing years of screw-ups and we’d just have to sit tight until they were done. Figure out something to tell the customers.”
“And what’s happening now? I know they let you all in here.” Paul said. “But I know that broke security regs, and we should be getting a call from the PTB any minute screaming.”
“You won’t.” Kerry said. “Jacques is under guard at the white house, and they put Dar’s replacement into a holding cell.”
Silence. “Whhhwhat?” Paul stuttered. “Are you kidding me?”
“I’m telling you they screwed around with the wrong customers.” Kerry said. “The president’s advisor is the one who sent us over here. Dar and I were there demonstrating a new project for them. We didn’t intend on any of this. I just.. “ She glanced around. “They wanted us to take over this contract.”
The reaction surprised her. Everyone sat up and their eyes brightened. “That means we’d work for you?” Paul asked. “Hot damn.”
“Guys.” Kerry sighed. “Thank you, that’s a big compliment, but the company Dar and I started can’t handle this.” She said. “At least, not yet. We’re fifty.. no.. wait. Seventy people in Coconut Grove doing database design.”
“Who are at the White House demonstrating programs for the president.” Charlese eyed her. “I saw that picture of Ms. Roberts and Dubya.”
“But still, we’re small.” Kerry said. “ILS is a quarter of a million people. It’s not our scale for this. So when they started talking like that, like maybe they’d bring in a squad of marines in here, I thought a better route would be to get them to hire you all, and let you keep doing what you do.”
“Weren’t you the one fending them off from us the last time? The government, I mean?” Charlese asked. “I don’t mean to be rude.”
“Situations change.” Kerry said, evenly. “If you’d rather not accept the offer, that’s okay too. My aim was to get a working solution in place for as many people as I could.”
“If Ms. Roberts fixes that stuff, can’t we just go back to being normal?” Paul asked, plaintively. “I mean, it’ll work again and everyone will stop yelling at us.”
“I don’t think they’ll let that happen.” Kerry said, then paused as the receptionist opened the door and stuck her head in. “But hell. You never know. I’ve seen stranger things.”
“Oh, good. Ms. Stuart, there’s a phone call for you. They say it’s urgent.”
Everyone looked at Kerry, who stood up and sighed. “And I’m not supposed to be here, and I don’t work here anymore. What the hell.” She went to the door and followed the woman out, shaking her head as she heard voices raise up in agitation behind her.
**
“Okay go ahead.” Dar folded her arms and watched as the techs got to work, eyes flicking from the notepad files to their consoles as they confidently typed in commands.
It was insane, really. The level of change control they were violating would have dropped internal audit at two paces, and there was no doubt that all the concurrent changes would be skewing already faltering services across the wide network.
Couldn’t be helped. Dar flexed her hands, resisting the urge to take over one of the consoles to make the work go faster. It was right, she acknowledged that the techs be the ones to do this, and not her. She had no business touching a keyboard.
“Wow.” One of the supervisors was watching the big board that showed mostly reds and yellowed flashing luridly overhead. “I don’t think that’s making things better.”
“No, it won’t. Until they’re finished.” Dar agreed. “Classic case of busting eggs to make pancakes.”
“Isn’t that omelets?” The man glanced at her.
“I like pancakes better.”
“Well, I’d call ops but there’s no one there but this one guy that’s just answering the phone and taking messages.” The man said. “I heard they got some temp company to send some people in but that won’t happen until tomorrow I think.”
Dar just folded her arms and leaned against one of the consoles.
“There goes my phone.” The supervisor said, mournfully.
“Want me to answer it?” Dar asked, with a wry smile. “That’ll confuse everyone.” She pushed off from the console and went to the desk, settling behind it and picking up the receiver. “ILS Mid Atlantic ops. How can I help you?”
She listened for a moment. “Yes, matter of fact I do know. There’s a recovery operation going on to try and restore performance to the network. Your service will be down until that’s finished.”
She listened again. “I understand. But when it’s done, you’ll have the same service level as you did several weeks ago before the problem started. “ She glanced up to find everyone not typing watching her in fascination. “About twenty minutes.”
“Can you tell them that?” The supervisor mouthed. “Holy cow they’d fire me for saying that!”
“Who’d fire you?” Dar mouthed back. “Me? No I wouldn’t. There’s no one left to fire you and the government’s going to hire you anyway. Chill out.”
She went back to the phone. “Absolutely I’m sure the service is going to get a lot better. I promise you that.” She paused. “Roberts. First name’s Paladar. Yep, with a P. Thanks. Goodbye.” She put the receiver down, then punched the button and picked it up again. “ILS Mid Atlantic ops, how can I help you?”