Storm Surge - Part 2 (10 page)

The man hesitated.

"And if you all don't believe that, ah'll just let mah little girl here beat the tar out of you and take pitchers," Andrew continued mildly with a straight face.

The guard captain keyed the mic. 'HQ, HQ--this is Hudson Midtown. Over."

"Thought that might do it." Andrew turned his head slightly. "You kids want to get on back in case someone does something jackass here?"

"No," Dar replied.

Kerry shook her head in agreement, half turning as Alastair eased up next to them. "We're all jackasses, right?"

"Without question," Alastair agreed. "I've never been a jackass, in fact. But you know, the Commander is right. Let's get back a little."

Both Kerry and Dar just looked at him.

"No, huh?"

Dar finally relaxed, her shoulders easing and her hands uncurling. "Let's see if we've got everything." She gave in, and stepped back from the half ring of uncertain guardsman, and her father's threatening, brace legged form.

The techs were all crouched near the ground, eyes wide. "Wow,"Shaun muttered, as they joined the three of them. "This is getting crazy."

"Getting?" Kannan looked upset, and tense. "Never have I felt so scared, you know? Intimidated by my own nationality being in question. It is terrible. I feel like I am walking target for people to think badly of."

Kerry felt her heart finally starting to settle back down in her chest. She felt a trembling weakness in her legs and she leaned against Dar for support as much as in comfort. "He didn't even know who you are. He didn't even care," she said. "Jesus."

"Asshole," Dar said, quietly.

"You all right?" Kerry murmured, leaning close to her.

Dar didn't answer for a moment, then she exhaled. "Well," she said, "at least my cramps are gone." She glanced down at Kerry. "I just saw red."

Kerry bumped her shoulder with her head. Then she looked down at the techs. "Kannan, I'm sorry. I know what it's like to be judged on something you don't have control over." She knelt next to him. "Is there something we can do to help with that? We might as well get started, since I think we're stuck here for a little while."

The techs were willing to be distracted. Kannan pulled his bag over and took out a tool kit and set it on the ground, then removed a handful of bits and pieces from the paper bag. "Not too much light here." He looked up at the orange lamps.

"I have a flashlight." Shaun paused removing it from his pack. "Want me to hold it?"

"I will." Dar held her hand out for it. "Let's get done what we can. Then the beer is on me."

The techs smiled timidly at her and started to get to work. Dar turned the light on and focused it on the sidewalk with its odd scattering of technical debris, glad of a chance to stand still, the sense of thrumming anger only slowly fading from her awareness.

Kerry's shoulder was pressed against her knee. Dar slowly turned her head and stared past her father's form, at the soldiers who were staring back at them.

Assholes.

KERRY PUT HER hands on her hips as they listened to the guard commander, casting a glance behind her where the three techs were now seated in a ring of bright white light from the headlamps of four guard vehicles.

"Listen, I know how damned crazy this all is," Dar said. "But you people need to think before you start wailing away on folks you don't even know did anything."

"Ms. Roberts, I understand what you're saying," the guard commander replied. "But to be honest, there's no time to think right now. Just react. I know you know what I mean."

Dar sighed. Andrew sighed. Alastair grunted and shook his head.

"I'm really sorry we--no, I didn't leave notes for Josh there about you people being inside," the commander went on. "I got called out on a bomb threat, and three men were arrested with parts in a backpack, a lot like what your guys there looked like."

They turned to look at the three techs who were working contentedly on the sidewalk. "I mean, what the hell were they supposed to think with all that? What is it? Do we know? We're not mechanics," the guard commander asked, plaintively.

"Commander, we understand," Alastair spoke up. "You're trying to get a job done; we're trying to get a job done. We're on the same side, y'know."

"The guys that did that," the guard commander pointed in the general direction of the disaster site, "lived among us. Tell me how we can trust anyone?" He let his hand drop. "I can't. I know you're all right because the mayor's office said so, but those people come walking up here with backpacks and a wild story, and one of them looking like one of those guys who did that, what can you expect?"

Dar exhaled. "Kannan's from India," she said. "It's not even the same continent. Are you telling me anyone who doesn't look like Kerry here is eligible to get shot now?"

The guard commander lifted his hands and let them fall. "I don't know. You hear the news. People are getting shot and beat up all over because everyone's so angry they want to lash out. Me too. Us too. Maybe I would shoot someone like him if I had a doubt, if I thought maybe something else was going to happen. Yeah," he answered, honestly. "I would."

"Wow," Kerry murmured.

"You asked," the commander said. "But anyway, if you say he's okay and these guys are okay, then I have to go with that because the mayor says you are okay. But you could be lying."

"We're not," Alastair said. "These people are employees of ours. They have government clearances." He shifted his gaze to Dar slightly,and caught the equally slight nod of her head. "We all do. That's how the mayor knows we're all right.

The commander shrugged. "I don't have that information when people are walking toward me. I'm not saying it's right; I'm not saying people aren't going to get hurt in this who are innocent; I'm just telling you what the truth is. We don't know, and we can't afford to risk erring on the side of caution anymore."

They were all briefly silent. "Gotta wonder why the heck we're here trying to help then," Alastair said. "Because these people's lives are worth a hell of a lot more than making sure the mayor has a phone and a connection to the internet."

The guard commander now looked a little embarrassed. "Anyhow. I'm sorry this happened, Mr. McLean. I've talked to Josh, and I made sure everyone in this area knows you people are here. Maybe they can get some badges or something. I don't know. I don't know what the answer is right now."

Shaun had gotten up and now he cautiously approached the group. "Ms. Stuart?"

Kerry turned toward him. "Hey. You guys finished prepping?"

He nodded. "We're done, and we've got the gear packed up."

"Okay." Dar ran her fingers through her hair. "Dad, you want to take Kannan back into the ship where the other guys are waiting and let him get that fiber done, and we'll go up the ramp to prep the office side. That work for everyone?"

"We'll send a couple guys in with you just in case anyone else's gotten in there," the commander said. "No more screw-ups on this end tonight."

They walked back over to where the techs were packing up and getting their bags together. With a faintly anxious look, Kannan followed Andrew toward the gates, as the rest of them trooped on toward the ramp leading up to the new offices.

"He going to be okay, ma'am?" Shaun asked Kerry. "He's kind of freaked out about everything." He shifted his pack on his back. "I would be too, I guess."

"He's in good hands," Kerry told him, feeling a little freaked out herself. "Dar's father is a retired Navy Seal. They're not going to mess with him. Let's get this done and get the heck out of here. It's been way too long a day."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Wonder if they'd deliver pizza to this damn emergency office," Kerry said. "Or I'm going to have to call that damn bus to come down here before I pass out."

"Ma'am?"

A PALE SLICE of moonlight peeked through the clouds, illuminating the peeling iron and concrete of the pier with grudging nobility.

"Can I speak to the governor, please?" Alastair leaned against the railing, his back to the city. "Alastair McLean here, from ILS."

In front of him, the tarmac of the port's driveway stretched out to either side separating him from the front of the pier that was dusty concrete and steel. The glass doors were spidered with cracks and partially plywooded sections.

Behind the doors he could see Dar, her arms crossed over her chest talking to two men in blue coveralls. At a desk just inside the door, Kerry was perched, likewise talking to two men in guard uniform.

It was near midnight. He was exhausted. At the moment he wanted nothing more than to get on a plane to Houston and leave all the messy, uncomfortable, gritty details of it all to Dar, and he was almost too tired to be ashamed of himself for that.

"McLean? That you?"

"It is, Governor," Alastair said. "Just wanted to tell you, we got your emergency office up. My people are making the last connections and bringing up systems now."

"Yeah? About time," the governor said. "You people took long enough."

Alastair exhaled. "Well, you know, sometimes these things take time," he said. "As you may realize, it's not that easy to get things done in the city right now."

"I'm not looking for excuses. Just get it done," the man said. "Now if you don't mind, I have to call the White House. Good night."

Alastair closed his phone and juggled it in one hand. Then he walked across the road and into the terminal, the doors creaking reluctantly open to admit him inside. "How's it going, folks?"

Dar glanced at him. "Just waiting for Mark to call me back and confirm the routing integration," she informed him. "But we've got a good signal. We just need to push their routes."

Her boss nodded sagely, as though he understood what she assaying."Well, wish I could say it was much appreciated by the governor, but I just got yelled at for taking too long. Hell with him," he said. "Let's gather our folks up and get out of here, if we're done."

One of the coverall suited men put his hands on his hips. "If it's any consolation to you, we're grateful as hell to you people for coming in here and getting us going," he said. "All we've been getting from the politicos today is pointless jaw flapping." He looked cross. "All of them in here wanting this, wanting that, but when its time to throw a little influence around, forget about it."

Alastair smiled at him. "Thanks," he said. "But we're used to being abused, aren't we Dar?"

Dar rolled her head around and looked at him, one eyebrow hiking up. "I've had enough abuse for one day," she announced. "The governor can kiss my ass." She looked up as Kerry's cell phone rang and waited while her partner answered it. "Hope that's Mark."

Kerry gave her a thumbs up.

Dar exhaled, just as the two men at the desk started clapping and cheering. "Woo effing hoo," she said. "It's done."

Alastair studied the two men who were high fiving each other. The activity in the room which had been subdued now perked up, and a flow of workers poured from the break room behind a broken wooden door and approached the endless rows of banquet tables set up for use.

It was done. Now that he stood there and looked at the room, with its peeling steel columns and dirty walls, it seemed anticlimactic considering the effort and the struggle that they'd gone through.

Crazy. After hearing what Dar had done, with a soldering iron, and watching the young technicians sweat over the tiny glass strands of the fiber in a process so alchemic, he almost felt like he'd been watching some magic rite.

The techs emerged from the break room, and headed toward them. They were smiling, as they pulled their packs up onto their back and headed for the small group near the door.

"Ready to go back to the hotel?" Kerry folded her phone and clipped it to her belt. "I think we're finished here." She tucked her hand around Dar's elbow. "I need a drink. Finally."

"Let's go," Dar replied quietly. "I'm about done in myself. Alastair?"

Her boss snorted tiredly. "Lady, you got to be kidding me. I was done before sundown." He indicated the door. "I see Papa Roberts out there, so let's get ourselves someplace more comfortable." He glanced at the techs. Fellas, did they make arrangements for you?"

The techs exchanged glances. "I don't think so," Shaun admitted."They weren't really specific about what we were supposed to do when we finished. I think they expected us to be here all night so maybe it wasn't a concern." He looked shyly at Dar. "We thought we'd have to run the big cable too."

Dar managed a return smile. "Glad you didn't have to."

"Well, c'mon with us then, and we'll get you sorted out." Alastair decided"You fellas did a great job tonight, and you, at least, deserve a nice bed and a shower." He turned and regarded the door. "Now. As to finding a taxi."

"No probl'm." Andrew had entered, and was loitering near the door. "Them fellers down the ramp said they'd take us in their truck. Ah think they're just trying to poligize."

"I'll take it." Alastair shooed them toward the door. "Let's go troops. Shops closed for the night." He gave the men inside a wave, then followed the group out the door. They turned and started down the ramp, in the cool dampness of a fall night that despite the late hour, wasn't really all that quiet.

Emergency sirens still sounded. They could hear trucks on the lower level pulling up and the clank of forklifts unloading.

Dar let the sounds move past her. She was almost at a point where she was so tired she wasn't really cognizant of where she was, and the ability to care about what was going on was fading fast. She felt Kerry's hand clasp hers, and focused on the comfort of the contact willing the ride to the hotel to be over and the long day to end at last.

She was glad, in a distant way, that they'd brought the office up. Knowing the bigger task that faced them though put this in meager perspective. She wondered, briefly, if the governor was expecting them to go right from this to reviewing downtown without a break.

Probably he was. Probably he could put his head between his legs and kiss his own ass, too. Dar bumped Kerry lightly with her shoulder,smiling tiredly as she was bumped equally gently back.