* * *
Dave splashed cold water over his face. How long had he been huddled in the stall? His eyes were bleary and he looked awful, haggard. He needed a shave. Maybe Jen would be ready to leave. No one had woken him with any news. He hoped she had a more restful night than he. He wiped his face dry and headed to the nurses’ station.
“I’m sorry,” a nurse answered. “She checked out.”
“Who did she leave with?”
“Her mother, I think. A redheaded woman.”
Dave clenched his fists. Greta had outfoxed him. He dialed Jen’s cell.
Lisa answered. “Oh, Dave. I haven’t had a chance to give her the phone yet.”
“Are you at the office?”
“Yes, I’m setting up for the Thanksgiving party. They’ve cleaned up the parking lot already. There’s a charred crater where the rental had been.”
Dave slapped his pocket. “I don’t have a car!”
“Where are you? I’ll come get you.”
He gave her the directions to the hospital. “Lisa, you’re a lifesaver.”
“I know.” She hung up.
Dave had no choice but to dial Greta’s cell.
“Hello, cowboy,” she answered. “Looks like you were outgunned at the OK Corral, as you Americans would say.”
“May I speak to Jen?” he asked. “Is she okay?”
“No need to be protective. We’re at the Walkers for Thanksgiving.”
Dave balled his fist in his pocket. “That’s nice, but I’d still like to speak with her.”
“She’s bonding with her younger sister, the one she hardly gets to see because of her busy work schedule.”
“Greta, remind me again why I fired you? Put her on the line.”
The phone must have been passed.
“Hello, Dave.” Jen sounded tired and distant.
“Hey, how are you feeling?”
“Okay.”
He fiddled with a pen. “Think you can come by after you finish dinner over there? I’m planning a celebration at midnight when the code goes live. Lester checked the build this morning, and all the scripts are ready to go.”
Silence.
“Jen, are you still there?”
“I gotta go. Thanks for checking on me.” The call ended.
Dave blinked at the phone. What had he done wrong now?
While waiting for Lisa, Dave brought up Patty’s Facebook page. There was no picture of Patty, just the blank head and shoulder avatar. Strange how he’d been taking Alex out for a year and never met her. What kind of mother didn’t care to meet the man who mentored her son? There were no pictures with any adults, only the little girl and a few with Alex. He stared at their features. The girl’s skin was darker than Alex’s. Could she be part Filipino? Maybe Alex could tell him something about his sister.
He called Patty Brown and got her voicemail. “Hey, this is Dave. I was wondering if I could take Alex to the Oakland Zoo this weekend.”
* * *
Jen handed the phone to Greta and hobbled with one crutch to the backyard to escape the hustle and noise of the large Walker family. If another person approached her with billowing arms crooning, ‘you poor thing,’ Jen would not be held responsible for the business end of her crutch. She didn’t need a mirror to know she looked like the creature from the Black Lagoon. Who knew pain could be experienced in so many ways? Like cooking spices from subtle to nagging, ebbing to persistent. But the worst was knowing Dave could never care for her the way she loved him. She’d be lucky if he didn’t hate her outright once he knew the entire story.
The sliding screen slapped. Christy walked over with her fists in the pockets of her “Occupy Me” hoodie. “Hey, they’re getting ready to eat.”
“You go ahead. I’m not hungry.”
Christy put her arms around Jen’s waist and held onto her from behind like she used to when tagging along. “You want to hear a secret?”
“Sure.” Jen patted her sister’s forearm.
“Sammy asked me to marry him. Look.” She pointed to her ring finger. “It’s not a real engagement ring.”
Jen’s heart jittered. The ring. A blue sapphire set in silver. It looked like the ring Rodrigo gave her and took back when it didn’t fit her fat finger. She cleared her throat. “It’s very pretty.”
Christy twisted the ring off her finger, holding it up. “It’s an antique. But I love it.”
“Wait, wait, this is too fast. Aren’t you too young?”
Christy slipped the ring onto her finger. “What’s wrong with you? Can’t you be happy for me instead of lecturing? Mrs. Walker didn’t think it’s a bad thing.”
Jen’s throat pinched. “That’s because Mrs. Walker’s not your family. I thought you wanted to go to college.”
“I still am.” Christy pouted. “Just be happy for me. He could have died for me.”
Jen grabbed her sister’s arm. “That’s not a reason to marry him. How long have you known him?”
“Well, if you’d been around instead of always working, you’d know. And if you’d let me drive, I wouldn’t have been stuck getting rides from him all the time.”
“Sorry. I can’t seem to do anything right.” Jen hobbled toward the screen door. Maybe Greta had already finished eating and could take her home. How did Sammy get the ring? Could Rodrigo have left it with Rey?
She stopped and whipped around, almost tripping Christy with her crutch. “Who were the guys at the shop who said they had the phone code?”
“Sammy’s brother. But don’t worry, they couldn’t get it to work.”
A surge of adrenaline slammed her palpitating heart. “Does he have a snakehead tattoo on his left arm?”
“Yes, why?”
Jen pinched Christy’s arm. “You can’t marry him. His brother kidnapped me and tried to rape me.”
Christy elbowed her. “It’s not his fault his brother’s a crook.”
Mrs. Walker opened the screen door. “Christy, some friends of yours are at the front door.”
Jen lunged at Christy, but she shrugged her off. “You can’t tell me what to do when you’re in trouble yourself.”
Chapter 24
By the time Dave arrived at Shopahol with Lisa, the engineers were lined up around the buffet table. He congratulated them and thanked them for all their hard work. Satish and Eddie pulled out their smart phones and chattered about the shopping flocks they joined in preparation for the Black Friday blowout of deals. Dave gave thanks and carved the turkey while Lisa cut the pumpkin pie.
Everyone was in good cheer, and many workers brought their families. Children ran around chasing balloons, their faces smeared with whipped cream. A lump rose in Dave’s throat. He could have had Abby here with them.
And Jen. Was she enjoying her turkey dinner? A jittery pang encircled his chest, and he pictured Jen in the kitchen tasting the gravy while he put his arms around her pregnant belly.
Dave shook of the unrealistic fantasy and helped himself to turkey and pie. He sat with Lisa and Bob at the conference table. Bob bragged about the scalability of his testbeds and how the build had passed the rigorous overnight testing.
Their voices glazed over him, and the pie tasted like baby food. Phil was right. His enemies were yanking his chain, determined to ruin his company’s chance for success. What he couldn’t figure out was how Jen played into all of this. She seemed sincere enough, yet he couldn’t help feeling that she was hiding something.
A high pitched whistle pierced his ears. The scent of smoke was followed by a crackling sound that rumbled through the floor. He bolted to his feet. “Everyone, out now!”
Bruce burst into the conference room, huffing and flapping like a stampeding bull elephant. “The data center’s on fire.”
Shrill alarms screamed at S.O.S. intervals. Waves of panic crested over Dave’s shoulders. What else could go wrong? People shouted and rushed for the exits. Dave picked up two children from a mother of four and helped them out the emergency exit into the parking lot.
The fire burst the windows of the cubicles closest to the back entrance, and plumes of smoke ascended into the crisp November sky. All around him, his employees and their families knelt on the ground and cried, or huddled and prayed in each other’s arms. Dave dialed 9-1-1. Hot tears bathed his face. His dream had blown up. His knees gave way, and he collapsed to the soggy leaf-strewn asphalt.
Sirens blared and fire trucks showed up a few minutes later. Dave clutched Lisa while they watched the firemen put out the fire. His heart crushed into itself. All the code, network devices and storage units had gone up in trails of black smoke. Thankfully everyone had evacuated. But his lifework was gone, and with it, the chance to raise funds to retrieve Abby.
Lester ran circles around Dave. “Jen had a backup. She had one. I know she did. She and Greta set up something.”
Dave fumbled with his cell and called Greta. She picked up on the third ring.
“There’s been a fire.” His voice barely croaked from his dry mouth.
“Fire? What are you talking about?” Greta sounded like her mouth was full.
“Put Jen on. The data center burned down, and I need her to tell me about the backup.”
“Oh… We set a trial months ago, but we didn’t pay Lystra to host it.”
“How come you didn’t let me know?” Dave’s voice rose.
Silence and fumbling sounds followed. The phone must have been passed.
“Dave? What happened?” Jen’s clear voice startled him.
“The data center burned down. I heard you had a backup system.”
“It was a trial I participated in when Lystra was gathering feedback and offering free image backups.”
“Tell me it’s good. Please.” He hugged his knees and put his head down.
“I synced everything last night and didn’t get an error message.”
Workers huddled around to listen in.
“Please let it be good,” Dave pleaded. “How do we recover? We have no servers, no network connectivity. Even if you saved it, we have no equipment to work on.”
“Dave? It’ll be okay.” Her voice was reassuring. “Call Claire Tyler. She set up the trial. Maybe she can let us use her data center.”
Dave dragged his fingers through his hair and gave it a painful yank. “What good is a bunch of servers we have to provision and set up? There’s no time.”
“Dave,” Jen said in a firm voice, “don’t worry. Lystra’s blade servers will boot any image I saved on their storage arrays. It doesn’t matter what operating system; they have drivers for all the common ones. I uploaded the last good build before the bomb attack, and I’ve been backing up images of the build server and testbeds for months. I just hadn’t gotten around to making them live.”
Dave’s knees weakened, and he passed a hand over his sweaty face, light-headed. “You’re an angel. What do we do now?”
“Call Mrs. Tyler and come pick me up at the Walkers.” She paused and her voice softened. “Dave, we’ll be okay.”
“Thank God. Jen, I don’t know how to repay you.” He wanted to reach through the phone and shake her and hug her and kiss her all at the same time. Of course, Claire would help. He could count on it.
“Everything’s under control,” she said. “See you in a bit?”
“Yes, I’ll be right over.” He let out a deep breath and hung up.
The remaining workers gathered around and hugged each other. Dave rubbed his smoke-singed eyes and told everyone they could go home. He directed the fire marshals to Lisa who reported that everyone was accounted for.
He called Claire. She picked him up and drove to the Walkers. Greta insisted on going with Jen, so he shut his mouth and helped them both into the back seat. It was clear Greta wasn’t going to let him ride in the back with Jen. Claire made a phone call, and twenty minutes later, they entered Lystra’s cloud computing lab.
* * *
Jen reclaimed the known good build she had labeled the day before. She staged forty virtual servers in a half an hour and configured the load balancers to initiate parallel transfers to Mississippi’s agreed upon drop sites for the Shopahol Black Friday launch.
The last step was to enter the password to the vault and digitally sign the package. Jen’s mind wavered and she slapped her head. “I forgot the password I typed in yesterday.”
“What?” Dave threaded his fingers through his hair. “Was it a complicated password?”
“No, but it was something based on a Bible verse, only I forgot the verse number.” She took his hand and detangled it from his hair. If he pulled any harder, he’d have a bald spot.
“Tell me what the verse said.” He fiddled with a pen over a scratch pad.
“I don’t remember. Something in John.”
“Three sixteen?”
“No… tried it already.”
“Five twenty-four?”
“Maybe, what does it say?”
Greta and Claire opened their laptops and searched the internet. Claire read, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
“No, not that one. It was about coming to Jesus, and he’d never throw you out.”
Greta looked at the clock. “It takes four hours to transfer the initial application to all the Mississippi affiliates and tributaries. Once we have auto-update in place it would only take an hour.”
“How could I be so stupid?” Jen said. “We’re running out of time.”
Dave rubbed Jen’s hand. “It’s okay. Even if we don’t make the stroke of midnight. We’ll start reading the book of John and find it. Hopefully it’s not at the end.”
They clicked and searched and flipped pages.
“Are you sure it says ‘throw out’? This phrase doesn’t appear in the King James Bible,” Claire said.
“Toss out?”
“Forsake?”
“Turn away?”
More clicking without any results.
“Cast away?”
“It’s no use,” Jen moaned. “All our work for nothing.”
“Cast out?” Claire suggested.
“Got it.” Dave leaped onto his feet. “John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
“That’s it.” Jen typed in “John6:37” and the password was accepted. Eight minutes had passed; they still had time. She invoked the script to start the upload. Progress meters on the network management console zipped up and down.
Greta made a strange sound as if a fish bone were caught in her throat. She bent double and clutched her stomach. Then she wobbled to the end of the row.