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Dar had wolfed down several bites and she now set her plate aside and wiped her lips with the napkin Kerry handed her.   “Ready.” She said. “You’ve got fifteen minutes.  Start talking.”

“Start rolling.” The CNN reporter said. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

“All right.  Dan Gartersberg here at the ILS facility in Herndon, Virginia. “ The man said, facing the camera.   “Earlier today, ousted board members of ILS issued a press release accusing former employees of engineering a malicious attack on their systems, causing widespread outages across the US, and internationally, even affecting our armed services.”

Dar waited for the camera to turn to her, folding her hands on the desk and taking a deep breath.

“We were tipped off that those ex employees were, in fact, here in this facility and we’ve come here to ask them what their response is to these allegations, and an explanation of what, actually, is going on. “ The reporter turned smoothly and stepped back, and the camera focused on Dar.   “This is Dar Roberts, one of the accused.  Ms. Roberts, what do you have to say about these allegations?”

Dar smiled at the camera. “A lot.” She said. “But we don’t have all day, so I’ll just say they’re untrue, and we can move on to your next question.”

The reporter nodded. “Very well then. Tell us about this supposed attack then.” He looked around, and the camera panned with him. “Here at this headquarters, it seems very quiet.”

The camera swung back.  “Sure.” Dar said. “Let me lay out the data points for you.  I’ll start with who I am, then move into why ILS got itself into this situation, who was responsible for it, and why I stepped in here today to make things right.”

The reporter smiled, off camera, and gave Dar a thumbs up.   The print reporters were scribbling furiously, one whispering into a voice recorder.

“So lets get started.”

**

The ride back to the White House was very quiet.   The two marshals were playing cards in the back section, and Steve was riding with them in the front, the two accountants busy studying papers spread out on their laps.

Both Kerry and Dar were sitting next to each other, lost in their own thoughts.  The interview had lasted a half hour, and at the end of it they’d found it hard to tell if the reporters bought the story or not. 

They’d ruined the story, Kerry realized, by having fixed it before the press arrived. It would have been so much more satisfying to them to have found things in chaos.   Sweating men and red alerts going off were much better television than calm monitors and relaxed techs munching pizza.

Oh well.

They both had their phones turned off.  Kerry had quickly sent a message to Richard Edgerton though, and one to Maria.  Now she wondered if they would even be let inside the Executive building, much less get to demonstrate anything.  “Hey Dar?”

“Hm?”

“Anything you want to see here? As in tourist stuff?”

Dar pondered that as they pulled into the White House parking lot.  “The Air and Space Museum?” 

Kerry smiled.  “Just won ten bucks off myself.”

They got out of the car and filed through the gate,  the guards giving them respectful nods as they went past, and into the building.   Steve led them to the presentation room, then ducked out and left them without further word.

Kerry put her hands on the back of a chair.   “Should I turn my phone back on?” She asked. “I’m pretty sure that low thrumming sound you hear is shit hitting the fan.”

“Sure.”  Dar pulled her own out and switched it on.  It had just synced up when the door slammed open and Bridges stormed in.  “That didn’t take long.”

“You stupid son of a bitch.” Bridges said. “What in the hell did you think you were doing? I told you to come straight back here!  Do you have any idea what kind of chaos you caused by opening your yap to the press?  When I told you not to!”

‘I decided otherwise.” Dar responded, flatly.

“Oh you did, did you? Well take your decisions and get the hell out of here. Contract’s scratched.” Bridges said, visibly fuming. “Forget it. With that publicity there’s no way you’re going to do anything at all for this government.”

“Okay.” Dar picked up her bag. “C'mon, Ker.  Glad we could fix everything and then get fucked up the ass as usual from some two bit moron with no sense.” She indicated the door. “Let’s go have dinner and go home.”

He was between her and the door and she walked right at him, expecting him to move to one side. When he didn’t she stopped, looking him right in the eye, her head level with his.  “You said to get out. Mind moving your ass so I can?”

One of his gray eyebrows cocked upward. “Did you really just call me a two bit moron, Roberts?”

“Yes. Move.” Dar said.  “I’ve got things to do.”

Kerry had come around the other side of the table, and now she stood watching them. “Yeah, no win scenario.” She said. “We weren’t going to walk out of there and not defend our reputations.”

Bridges swung around on her. “Reputations?”  He looked from her to Dar. “You two are idiots. You have no idea what business you’re into.”

“No, we do.” Dar said. “I completely understand why you wanted us to just come back here. I’m just telling you I wasn’t going to let that go unchallenged.  That’s my ego. My problem.  Now get out of my way so I can get started on hiring lawyers for the crap that got shot my way for solving YOUR problem.”

“So you decided your reputation was more important than a bunch of major contracts your new business is based on?”

Dar looked him right in the eye. “Yes.”

“You’re an idiot.” Bridges stepped aside. “Get the hell out.”

Dar brushed past him and reached for the door, hauling up short as it swung inward, and revealed the highly inconvenient and slightly rumpled form of the president.  “Ah.” She took a step back. “Hi there.”

“Well, hello there, ladies.”  The president came inside and shut the door. “Second time today I heard yelling coming from this room. What’s the scoop?” He looked at Bridges. “Thought we were supposed to see that new computer thing today.”

“Not today, sir.” Bridges said. “I’ve decided to change companies.  Didn’t like what I saw from these here people.”

“Yes, excuse us.” Dar went to step around the president, stopping when he held a hand up.

“Now hold on.” Bush said. “All I’ve been hearing this morning is how nifty this new thing is.  Sounds like it was a success to me. So why make a change?  What’s the deal here?”

“Sir, we can discuss it later.” Bridges said.

“Or we can discuss it now.” The president countered.

Bridges looked frustrated and annoyed.   Kerry got the sense he was used to getting his own way, and was also used to having his suggestions accepted without question.  She felt her Handspring buzz in her pocket, but she left it where it was, waiting for Bridges to answer.

She didn’t really feel apprehensive either way, which was a little strange. 

“Ladies, why don’t you sit down here, and let’s just hear this out.”  Bush said. “Mike?  I’m sure we’ve just got some kind of misunderstanding. Right?”

He pulled out a chair and waved Dar into it, then repeated the process for Kerry, seating himself between them as Bridges very grumpily took a seat across from them.  “Now.” He put his folded hands on the table. “What’s the scoop?”

Bridges just stared moodily at him.

“You want the short version or the long one?” Dar finally said. “The short version is we were instructed to do something and we chose to do otherwise and Mr. Bridges did not appreciate that.”