The supervisors turned and looked. “Holy crap there are.”
Everyone looked up at the board, and fell silent. The only sound in the room was the rattle of computer keyboards. It was odd and discordant, the heavy clicks echoing softly.
“Good old IBM keyboards.” Dar commented, after a long moment. “Noisiest input devices on the planet. I think the sound’s patented.”
Kerry kept watching the board, listening to the noise of the typing and as that slowly started to wind down, and become less a solid continuous sound and more of a more erratic clicking the map started to change. “Ah.”
“What’s going on?” The supervisor leaned towards her. “Is it… oh.”
Reds and yellows were morphing into yellows and greens, and then, as they watched, the yellows faded, and as silence completely fell, and the keyboards went quiet, a flow of blue swept across the big status monitor, and started a gentle pulse.
“Son of a bitch.” The supervisor standing at the desk said, into all that quiet.
The techs all turned around at their desks and looked up first at him, then at Dar, who stood up and put her hands on her hips.
It seemed anticlimactic. All those problems, and all that trouble, and now…. “Nice.” Dar said. “Very nice.”
“And that, people.” Kerry exhaled. “Is why they pay her the big bucks.”
“I haven’t seen the board look like that in weeks.” One of the techs said. “Did we really do that?”
“You did.” Dar said, walking down from the desk and moving in front of the consoles. “And really, what you did was put things back the way they were before they got cocked up.” She rested her hands on the steel edges of the old fashioned workspaces. “Good job, guys. Make sure you save the configs, and put these someplace safe.”
“Ms. Roberts, is it true those guys who made the change deleted everything?” One of the techs asked. “For real?”
“For real.” Dar said. “To be fair to them, because I want to be fair, I do believe they did think the changes would make things.. not necessarily better, but different, and their own.” Dar said. “We architects are arrogant bastards, and we are totally invested in our way of doing things.”
Kerry blew a raspberry at her.
“It’s true.” Dar smiled anyway at the sound. “I completely believe with all my heart that’s it’s my way or the highway. Anyone here think that’s not true?” She looked around at the techs, who smiled back. “Well, so did they.”
“Yes ma’am.” Paul had re-entered. “But you were right, and they weren’t.” He exhaled as he watched the board, and saw the slow relaxation of bodies into chairs around the room. “What was worse though, at least from our side, was that.. “ He paused. “When something would go wrong before, you all over in ops would own it.”
Dar nodded. “Yes.” She said. “I don’t believe in shifting blame, just from a personal standpoint. That is why they paid me, and Kerry, in fact, the big bucks because those bucks stopped at our desks. If something got screwed up, if I rooted through it enough I could get it to come back to some decision I’d made that just hadn’t been right.”
“Even if that actually hadn’t happened. “Kerry interjected dryly. “Dar tends to the chivalric sometimes.”
Dar blushed slightly. “I wouldn’t say that.” She demurred. “But I understood where my responsibility was.” She looked up at Paul. “And that was to take the hit for things that happened in my organization. It’s what management is for.”
Paul shook his head. “It’s what leadership is, ma’am. There’s a difference.”
“Yeah.” One of the techs said. “That’s it.”
They all stood up, a spontaneous reaction that surprised Dar and made her take a step back, her brows lifting a little as they all started applauding. “Ah c’mon.”
“That really was pretty ace.” Steve had been sitting in a corner, and now he approached Dar. “So it should all be working now? Can I call back to the office and tell em?”
“Sure.” Dar smiled, as the techs all surrounded her, offering handshakes and soft congratulations. Some brought up the notes they’d worked off and started asking questions.
Kerry smiled at the reaction, folding her arms across her chest and waiting, as she watched her partner sheepishly accept the accolade. “Might as well enjoy the moment.” She commented to the supervisor standing next to her. “I’m sure CNN’s not going to be clapping.”
“Do you have to talk to them, ma’am?” The supervisor said. “We could sneak you out the back door, couldn’t we? And then pretend we don’t know what they're talking about when they ask us stuff?”
Kerry looked at him. “I've got six people from the government here and their limos parked outside. It’s a little hard to miss.” She said. “But thanks for the offer. I do appreciate it. Steve?” She motioned the man over. “We’ve got a problem outside.”
He reached for the phone and started to dial. “Let me just call back there… what kind of problem?”
“When you’re done there, let’s get Bridges on the line and find out what he wants us to tell the press outside.”
“Oh.” Steve grimaced. “That kind of problem”
“Mmhm.”
**
They were in the small office that once upon a time, Kerry had borrowed in her last visit to the office. Just a desk, and a phone, and a TV mounted on a wall that had never been changed since she’d left.
“Standby please, for Mr. Bridges.” A quiet, female voice emerged from the speaker phone.
“Sure.” Dar was sitting behind the desk, her chin resting on her fists.
Kerry was seated on the surface, a cup of water in her hands. If she stood up and looked out the small window, she knew she would see a parking lot full of television trucks, and the feeling of being under siege was undeniable. “Should I call Richard?”
“Not yet.” Dar said. “Let’s wait to see what he says.”
“Regardless of what he says, Dar, the board’s going to sue us.” Kerry said. “Shit. We’ll be lucky if they don’t end up making us shut the company down.”
“Mmph.” Dar made a low noise in her throat. “Eh. Maybe it won’t be so bad, now that everything’s fixed.”
“Dar.” Kerry heard the exasperation in her voice.
“Yes?” Her partner looked up at her, with more than a hint of annoyance.
“Roberts?” The line opened abruptly. “You there?”
“We’re here.” Dar answered. “In the middle of a shit storm unfortunately.” She focused on the phone instead of the woman at her side.
Briggs grunted. “Just heard from the computer people. They are whoop de doing all over the place here because crap’s working again. So congratudamnlations.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Dar said. “The jacktard former board members of ILS went to the press and blew their story out. So now half the planet’s in the front parking lot wanting the rest of the story.”
“Ah.”
They waited in silence for a bit. “So what would you like us to do, since whatever we say will involve your organization.” Kerry said, after the quiet had gone on too long. “And we are due back there for a demonstration.”
“Hold your shorts, kid.” Brigg growled. “I’m writing a memo. You’ll go with the goons I sent there and don’t say a damn thing. Just ‘no comment’ your asses out the door.”
Dar and Kerry regarded each other somberly. “Just leave?” Dar said.
“What, did I start speaking Russian? Yes.” The presidents advisor said. “Go get the rest of those chimps and head back here. I’m including all of you in a national security memorandum. Move it, people.” He said. “Goodbye!”
The line went dead. Dar leaned back and folded her arms, her face twisting into a disturbed expression. “Well.” She sighed. “I guess that would get us out of this for now.”