Storm Surge - Part 2 (2 page)

Kerry almost laughed, caught between answering a question posed to her on the bridge and processing what was going on around her in that slightly disjointed way she'd had to develop over the past few days.

What was it she'd called it? Acquired Attention Deficit Disorder? "Okay, that's good news guys. Go on into the city, and get down to the office. We'll meet you there, and set up a command center." She released a breath. "Newark Earth, any luck with your power? We could use those trucks in the city."

"Ms. Stuart, this is the New York office again. Mr. McLean would like Ms. Roberts to call him, please."

"Dar, Alastair wants you to call him." Kerry muted her cell. "Okay,New York, message passed. Can you clear some space for us when we get there? Is there a big room we can take over for logistics?"

"Should have brought some of them fellers with us," Andrew commented.

Dar stopped writing and looked at Kerry. "Okay. Give me a second to draw a cell phone." She remarked dryly. "What in the hell does he want that can't wait an hour and forty five minutes?" Dar turned her head toward her father. "Mark will bring the RV with him after they finish up the install at the Pentagon."

"I have no idea, sweetheart. I'm just the messenger," Kerry said. "Borrow Dad's phone."

The attendant came back through. "Sir, can I offer you some breakfast?" She addressed Andrew. "We have cheese omelets, waffles, or cold cereal."

"You all got any hot dogs? Ah already had my egg things at o'dark hundred"

Dar chuckled, and shook her head. "Better have something. We're going to get swept up in a pile of crap as soon as we get there," she warned her companions, giving the server a glance as the now harried woman turned to her. "Omelet for us." She indicated Kerry and herself.

The server moved on, and Andrew handed his cell phone across the aisle to her. Dar took it and flipped it open, frowning a little before she punched in Alastair's number.

"Miami exec, this is Newark Earth." Kerry's ear bud crackled."Good news. We just heard from Con Ed, they're expecting to finish re-tying us in around lunchtime."

"Great." Kerry smiled.

"Course that means we know it's really probably sometime tonight," the Earthstation acknowledged. "But soon as we're back, we'll send the trucks to the office with you."

"Alastair, we're on the way. What the hell more do you want me to do?" Dar was saying. Then she paused. Then her free hand hit the arm of her chair in muted frustration. "Because I don't have a goddamned driver's license! You want them to put me in as cargo? For Christ's sake, Alastair it would have taken us three hours to get on a damn plane this morning anyway!"

"Easy honey." Kerry patted her arm.

Dar abruptly cut the call off and closed the phone, tossing it over to her father. "If he calls me back tell him to kiss my ass."

Andrew caught the phone in one big hand and eyed his daughter dubiously. "What's that feller's problem? Thought you two got on?"

"He's losing his mind." Dar folded her arms over her chest. "I think the pressure there is getting to him. Goddamned politicians." She glanced at Kerry. "No offense to your mother."

"Who tried to hijack me into a senate investigation? No offense taken, sweetie," Kerry responded in a mild tone. "But he is our boss. You sure you should be hanging up on him?"

Dar reclined her chair and put her pen and pad away. "What's he going to do, fire me? He'll be lucky I don't belt him one when I see him."

Kerry patted her arm again, and went back to her conference call. After a moment, she found her hand captured, and her fingers interlaced with Dar's. It was inconvenient for typing, but she made no move to disengage, pecking at the keys with one hand as she studied her screen and faintly shook her head.

Crazy day.

THE THREE OF them stopped short after exiting the train platform, finding themselves in a circular lobby with people moving around the min pretty much all directions.

It was disorienting. The last part of the trip into Manhattan had mostly been underground and so they'd arrived in the station without a real sense of being in New York at all.

"Now where?" Kerry looked around. "I don't think I've ever been in this station. Where are we in relation to the office?" She took in the numbers of National Guard troops with submachine guns cradled in their hands and serious faces. "Wow."

Dar looked around as well, resisting the urge to reach up and cover her ears at the harsh, echoing clatter from the trains, the people, and the announcements bouncing off all the faux marble walls and the hard stone floor. "Loud."

"Yeah." Kerry raked her hair off her forehead. "Okay, so--"

"South." Andrew had been studying the walls. "We can take that little train up there. C'mon." He shouldered his overnight bag and headed off down one corridor. "Ain't no point going outside just yet."

Hesitating a moment, Dar and Kerry followed him. They made their way down a side corridor until they reached an area with ticket dispensing machines and turnstiles. "I remember this," Dar said. "Hope my experience this time isn't as much of a pain in the ass."

"Mm. Subways." Kerry fished some folded bills from her pocket and studied the machine. "Let's get a pass. Who knows how long we'll be here?" She inserted the bills and punched in her order, rewarded with a square of cardboard dropping into the dispenser.

She removed it, then rejoined Dar and Andrew who had already gotten theirs. "Not really conducive to luggage, huh?" She regarded the turnstiles.

Andrew took her bag and threw it up on one shoulder. "City folks livin' like water rats down here. Ah swear."

Dar did the same with her bag and they made their way through the turnstiles and into the subway station track area. "Uptown, I guess." She indicated a passage and they walked down a set of steps to a lower level with tracks on each side, and a somber group of fellow travelers waiting for the train.

Dar set her bag down and looked around. No one was talking much and there was a feeling of oppression she didn't remember from her last visit.

Andrew had put down the bags he was carrying and was standing with his hands in his pockets his pale blue eyes regarding the crowd.

The loudspeaker crackled suddenly, and everyone around them jumped a little. Kerry tried to picture where she was in the city and realized she was under Madison Square Garden. "Wow," she murmured. "Guess people are a little shell shocked."

"What's that, kumquat?" Andrew asked.

"Just thinking." Kerry felt a gust of wind hit her in the face. It smelled of dust, iron, oil, and a sense of time that made her aware of the age and the history of the walls around her.

Different than Miami. Different than Michigan.

New York was one of those few cities in the United States whose bones showed. That raw skeleton born in the turn of the last century's industrial revolution that had laid a foundation buried in the stone Manhattan was built on that was often covered over, but never replaced.

How many of those bones were exposed now on the southern tip of the island?

But there was no real time to think about it because in a moment, the train was there poking its nose out of the tunnel and screeching to a halt in front of the platform in a rush of humming silver. Kerry grabbed her bag and waited for the door to open, glancing aside at Dar as she did. "You okay?"

Dar had her bag held in both hands in front of her, and she turned her head and peered down at the questioner. "I'll live," she said. "It's not a long trip. Only a couple of stops."

They entered the train along with the rest of the waiting people. At midmorning it wasn't that full. Everyone got a seat, waiting in silence until the door alarm sounded, and the door slid shut. They lurched into motion, but not before a national guard soldier entered the car from the door between them, and took a seat at the front facing them.

His face had a smear of gray dust across his cheeks, his uniform was half covered in it, and his eyes were bloodshot. He exchanged nods with Andrew though, and then leaned back with his hands resting on his rifle as the car rumbled through a station.

"You going to call Alastair?" Kerry asked. "Let him know we're here?"

"Nope." Dar stolidly watched the walls flash by in the shadows."I'm going to walk up behind him and smack him in the back of the head when we get there."

"Ah."

"Then we'll get to work."

"Mmph. Alrighty then."

THEY EXITED THE subway right under the building where their offices were located. "What time is it?" Dar asked, as she studied the selections of street exits the station offered.

"Eleven." Kerry edged closer to her partner, as the crowd flowed around them. "Are those the stairs there?" She pointed.

"Good as any." Dar started toward it. They crossed the hallway and started up the steps, emerging from underground into an overcast sky and a surprisingly uncrowded street. "There." Dar pointed at the entrance to the tall, distinctive building nearby. There were several men standing outside, and after a cursory glance, they moved aside to allow them to enter.

Dar ignored them. She entered the revolving glass doors into the lobby and headed immediately for the elevator stacks with Kerry and Andrew following close behind her.

The inside of the building was stunning. Kerry glanced around as they stopped in front of the elevators. It was in an art deco style, and every inch of it spoke of class and money. The people inside though, weren't bustling around much. They were standing in small groups, talking or watching the televisions mounted on the far walls.

Kerry caught a glimpse of one. "Ah." She followed Dar into the elevator car. "The president is here today."

Dar punched the floor button. "Good. Maybe they'll all go mess with him and leave us alone." She waited for the doors to close then leaned against the back wall.

They were alone in the elevator and as it ground gamely upward, a pensive silence fell.

"Know what I was thinking?" Kerry asked, after about twenty seconds of silence. "I was thinking that given what happened here earlier this week, I'm pretty sure I don't like being in a building as famous as 30 Rock and sharing it with NBC."

Dar gave her a wry look, then patted her shoulder as the doors opened and they were on their floor. Obviously their floor, as the elevators opened out into a lobby with a curved wall of glass with their logo chiseled into it in all its staid and definitely boring corporate detail.

A big reception desk guarded the opening curved in the same shape and made of polished teak. Behind it a young woman was standing, a headset on her ears, her head bent and cocked to one side and her hand on the buttons of a big console phone. "Sir--sir--please, hold on a minute--sir--I'm sure I don't know if--sir, please stop yelling at me. I'm trying to--"

Dar went over and tapped her on the shoulder, making the girl jump almost into the glass wall. "Gimme." She held out her hand for the headset, glaring at her until the receptionist surrendered it in bewilderment, staring around and spotting Kerry and Andrew standing there.

Her mouth dropped open.

Dar put one ear muff to her ear and got the mic in position. "Who is this?" she asked sharply. "Mister Dobson? What do you want?" She paused. "Let me give you some advice. Turn on a goddamned television set. Half the city is down."

The receptionist's eyes almost came out of her head. Kerry stepped forward and put her briefcase down, giving the girl a smile.

"I don't give a damn. Tell your boss if you don't stop calling and harassing my people I'm going to put him last on the list of things to worry about behind the pushcart vendor outside and some taxi driver going by. Understand me?"

"Ma'am--" The receptionist bravely held her hands out in a placating gesture. "He's a big customer."

"I don't care," Dar mouthed back at her. "Roberts," she said into the phone. "Dar Roberts. I'm the only person in the damn company who can help him, so stop pissing me off and get off the phone." Her voice rose into a yell. After a pause, she nodded. "Thanks. Goodbye." She released the line and handed the girl back her headset. "Here."

The receptionist took them as though they were going to explode. "Uh--"

"Hi." Kerry distracted her. "We're from Miami. They're probably expecting us inside." She held her hand out. "Kerry Stuart."

"Uh." The girl merely pointed at the entrance.

"Thanks." Dar picked up her bag and motioned them inside. "Let's go."

Andrew picked up Kerry's luggage and followed her, giving the receptionist a polite nod of his head. "Lo." He ducked inside and waited for Kerry to catch up, then they both hurried to catch up with the visibly annoyed, stalking CIO ahead of them. "Tells folks off real nice, don't she," he conversationally said to Kerry.

"Best in the world," Kerry acknowledged, with a wry smile. "Nobody does that better than Dar."

Dar turned and walked backwards, giving them a dire look. "You better be talking about my phone skills and not anything more intimate." She turned back around and kept going, turning left down a corridor and whisking past various, mostly empty, offices.

Kerry felt herself get lightheaded as a deep blush colored her face, not helped in the least by Andrew's deep chuckle. "Someday I'll learn not to do that," she muttered. "She gets me every time."

She could hear the sound of raised voices and she quickened her steps, catching up to Dar just as her partner stiff-armed a large, heavy mahogany door open. The sounds got a lot louder as they entered a big conference room full of people.

Four men were faced off opposite Alastair, all talking at once. Three more were surrounding Hamilton, who had both hands up and was arguing forcefully. Two or three more men were standing around, aides apparently, and they were the only ones who looked up as they entered.

Then they went back to watching the disagreement, dismissing the new arrivals.

"You made a commitment to the mayor," one man said. "This ain't no joke anymore. I need an answer on when that office is going to be up."