Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series (6 page)

"Forethought? No one knew what building we'd be in." Michelle shot back.

"That's right. So I had lines dropped in all of them." Kerry replied. "Now, if you're interested in that rental, we'll talk price. If not, goodbye."

"And help you recoup the cost you'll have to charge the client? Over my dead body." Michelle moved around her and motioned for the cameraman to follow her. "We'll find another way." She brushed by Kerry, coming very close to making physical contact before she got past and headed for the door. The port agent hurried after her, but not without giving Kerry a frazzled look.

"Nice way to start the day." Kerry exhaled, turning back to the office. "Brenda, give the other two piers a call. Offer them use of those lines for a pass through cost, with a two percent administrative charge for our carrying them and paying the bills."

"Yes, ma'am." Brenda went to a phone immediately and dialed after consulting a small directory.

"Smooth, boss." Mark commented. "Slick idea to trip them all up."

Kerry sat down on the edge of one of the folding tables. "Wasn't really the plan. I just needed to be sure we'd have a line on startup. I had no idea they were short on pairs." She admitted wryly. "Ah well. How are we doing here?"

Mark came over and sat next to her. "Pretty good. The line's up to the office, and I just got the router in place. This room is crap for security, though."

Kerry looked around and had to agree. The office had light plasterboard walls and a single door with a simple bolt lock. No alarms, no reinforced panels, nothing. They were putting in six computers and the requisite network gear to support them, and aside from the need to protect corporate data, there was also the question of protecting the hardware itself from being taken. "Can we put a monitoring rig in here?"

"Sure," Mark said. "But when it goes off, it'll take us about twenty minutes to get down here before it all walks off. Not to mention, the line comes in to a public Telco punch down."

Ugh. Worse and worse. "Okay, put a full encryption suite on the data." Kerry sighed. "I'll see what we can work up to put security out here. Otherwise we'll have to make these boxes boot to the network, and keep everything at the office."

Mark nodded. "See what I can do." He got up and went back to work. Kerry remained where she was for a few minutes watching the activity, then she got up and left the office to head over to the ship.

The port agent entered from the front just as she was heading up the escalator. She paused at the top waiting for the woman to catch up with her. "Hi."

"Listen, I'm really sorry about that." Agnes apologized. "I had no idea Ms. Graver was going to do that or that she'd bring those men! What's this all about?" The woman seemed very agitated. "The port didn't bargain for anything like this!"

Where to start? Kerry decided no amount of explanation would really be adequate. "It's business." She explained shortly. "Just try to steer clear of it."

The woman eyed her. "Was she right? Did you do that to stop those people from working?"

Kerry blinked. "That's really none of your business," she replied. "I'm telling you--don't get caught up in this. It's just going to be messy for the port if they try to get involved."

The woman's radio spluttered and she listened intently. A man's voice came through sounding rather desperate, asking for her to come mediate another dispute on the next pier. "That might be easier said than done." She told Kerry. "So far it seems like all you people want to bring here is trouble." She turned and headed down the steps two at a time, talking into her radio.

"Yeesh." With a shake of her head, Kerry went to the outside door and pushed it open, emerging into a blast of shimmering sunlight.

She had plenty of time to look at the ship in the daylight as she walked along the endless outdoor passage that eventually led her to the gangway. The bottom was painted a dark blue and the upper part was once apparently white, but now rust covered a good portion of the exterior and it was more a mottled yellowish gold color.

It looked sad and worn, and she wondered again if all the work obviously needed to make it functional would be worth it. She ran a hand along the railing, the chipped paint spots feeling harsh and almost sharp against her fingers. The port showed its many years resting here on the waterfront. Its concrete was pitted from wind and rain, and the walkway she was on had cracks both near the railing, and more ominously, near the wall.

Kerry eyed a large split as she walked past, and reasoned that if it had held legions of cruise ship passengers en mass, it probably was fit to hold her hundred and thirty five pounds, but she scooted past it anyway just to be sure.

There was a guard hanging around the end of the gangway, but he just nodded as Kerry showed him her corporate badge and went on gazing listlessly down the pier, watching men with forklifts move boxes around.

Kerry walked up the gangway and across the metal bridge leading onto the ship. The railing had been folded back, and she found herself on the outside deck about mid way up the vessel.

She looked down and found worn, salt scoured teak that in some places was so discolored it was almost impossible to see a grain. But it was teak nonetheless. She recognized it from her experience with the Dixie, and as she walked toward the inside doors, it oddly comforted her.

Inside the doors her first impression was one of overwhelming mildew. She stopped short and stifled a sneeze, staring around her in disbelief. The interior of the ship was, to put it mildly, a wreck. She was standing in what was apparently the main reception area, and all she could see was broken, dusty furniture, a ceiling in pieces, some of it hanging down almost to the ground, and dozens of rotting wooden boxes.

The stench was disgusting. It got inside her throat and she could taste it on the back of her tongue, leaving a tinge of bad sewage lingering on its edges. "Ugh." Kerry swallowed hard, glad she hadn't stopped for lunch before coming over. After a moment, she got control of her stomach, and proceeded on picking her way carefully through the debris. The interior of the ship seemed to be a total disaster, and it appeared to her that everything would have to be rebuilt to be usable.

This would work for her purposes since she'd have to put cabling in ceilings and walls and that was always easier when they were being constructed. But she had to wonder, yet again, at Quest's purpose in refitting these old vessels. Surely it would take more money than the darn things were capable of recouping.

A man appeared dressed in white overalls. He spotted Kerry and stopped, looking her up and down with frank appraisal. "You want something?" he asked, in an odd accent not quite German.

"IT contractor." Kerry responded briefly, holding up her identification.

The man grunted and turned his back on her, continuing on his way without a further word.

Kerry edged down a partially blocked hallway and almost collided with another white jump-suited body. "Oh, sorry. Hi there. Can I help you?" A slim, good looking man with curly blond hair turned around. "Are you looking for something??"

Kerry stepped back a little. "Not really," she said. "I'm from the IT contracting company. Just looking around to see what we're going to have to do."

The man scratched his nose. "Oh, okay," he said. "It really looks worse than it is." He turned and peered back the way she had come. "The old girl's really got solid bones. It's all cosmetic stuff out there."

Kerry recalled the holes in the hull she'd seen, and reserved judgment. "Are you part of the ship's staff?" She asked politely.

"I am. I'm Tally Johnson, and I'm the captain's personal assistant. And you are...?"

"Kerry Stuart. From ILS. Do you have a few minutes to show me those bones you mentioned?"

The man positively beamed. "I sure do. You're the computer people, right? We heard we were going to get computers." He started leading Kerry further inside the ship. "The captain's not so sure about that, but I heard we're even going to be able to get email. Is that true?"

Well, having a few friends in middling places was a good thing. Kerry decided she liked perky Mr. Johnson. "That's a very good possibility, yes. We're planning on a satellite, and a new charging system, maybe even VOIP telephones."

Tally laughed. "Okay, you just went past me, Ms. Stuart."

"Kerry, please." Kerry gave him a charming smile. "Nah, it's not that bad, just phones that run over the computer network. You don't have anything like that now, right?"

"No way. We've got manual cash registers, and one old PC the purser used to use to make up the pax folios."

Kerry chuckled. "Now you just went past me," she said. "What's a purser, and what's a pax?"

Tally led her into another, smaller hallway with stairs going up and down. The destruction did seem to be less. Tally headed for the stairs holding his hand out to her. "The purser is the fellow who handles all the money, and the pax are the passengers. C'mon, let me show you the old lady from the bottom up."

Kerry followed him, avoiding the railing and its thick coating of dust, and glad of her jeans and sturdy boots in negotiating the torn up carpet and broken steps. As they went down, the sounds of work, hammering, and banging increased and she had the sudden sensation of descending abruptly into another world.

THE FOREMAN CHECKED off names at the gangway, glancing briefly at each worker as they came up to his desk. He eyed the next to last of them, a big guy wearing a sleeveless sweatshirt and very worn jeans. "Next?"

The man ambled up and presented a set of papers.

The foreman scanned them. "General work." He read. "You got a seaman's card?" He looked at the one presented and nodded. "Service?"

"Navy."

"What'd you do?"

"Little a' every damn thing."

The foreman looked closely at the putative worker noting the scars and the air of definitive but understated competence. "All right, Roberts. Just give this to the guy at the ramp, and have at it. Contract's as long as the tubs are here. Understand?"

"Yeap."

The foreman scribbled a note on a card and handed it over. "Here." He fiddled with his pencil as the newcomer walked away and turned to the man sitting next to him. "Can't believe some of the guys they're passing through the security check, can you?"

The other man shook his head. "Want me to double check that one? I can have Alberto rerun him."

"Nah." The foreman made a rude hand gesture. "As long as he works, I don't give a crap. We've had worse on the docks, and at least this guy showers."

"And speaks English." The second man pointed out.

The foreman snorted as he waved forward the last applicant. "Yeah. Probably make him a supervisor just for that."

DAR PROPPED HER laptop up a little more comfortably against her knee, and typed in another command. She was flat on her back underneath one of the racks, a pale blue cable extending from the jungle of equipment to the back of her machine.

The floor was cold against her skin, but she'd found a relatively all right piece of metal to rest her head against and at least for now, the odd position wasn't interfering with her ability to concentrate.

"Ms. Roberts?"

The techs, on the other hand... "Yeees?" Dar rumbled.

"Um, can I run a cable out here for you? That looks really awkward."

Dar wiggled one foot. "What does, my typing style?"

"Well, the floor, ma'am. Can't really be comfortable, huh?"

Dar typed in another command and reviewed its effect. She scowled and reversed it, tapping the enter key with unnecessary force. "Have you ever tried it?" She glanced quickly at him, before returning her attention to her task. "Lying on the floor?"

There was a moment's silence then a squeak as the tech moved in his leather chair. "Uh...well, sure...we have to do that all the time under there. That's why I said we'd...um..." He cleared his throat. "Ma'am, it's uncomfortable."

"Well, I like it." Dar informed him. "It's good for your back."

"It is?"

"Sure." Dar tried to ignore the annoying object between her shoulder blades that she suspected was a screw removed from the rack and never replaced--a pet peeve of hers. "Better than my waterbed as a matter of fact."

The two techs moved around causing more squeaks. The younger of the two, blond crew cut Dave, leaned his elbows on his knees and gazed over at Dar. "You like waterbeds? I tried one once, but it moved too much for me. I got sick."

"I have a semi-waveless." Dar answered, distracted as a readout gave her an answer she hadn?t expected. She switched to another screen and checked a monitor she had running, then frowned again and tried something else. "Damn it."

"Is that one that don't move, ma'am?" Dave said. "At all?"

"Not really." Dar muttered, biting off a grimace as she mistyped a command and had to redo it. "Depends on what you're doing in it."

It took a few seconds for the utter silence to penetrate her concentration. Then Dar turned her head to see two shocked faces looking back at her, jaws hanging. She took a moment to review her words, grinned. "Too much information, huh?"

Both techs nodded. "No offense, Ms. Roberts." Dave managed to get out.

"None taken." Dar replied graciously. "Didn't mean to freak you out."

They left her in peace for a while, shuffling and squeaking just out of her vision behind the racks, and she took advantage of it to continue the slow process she'd started two hours prior.

She set the monitor running again and tried a new command setting a complicated algorithm on one of their outside interfaces. The device accepted it, and then began processing traffic with the instruction, causing her other screen to start spiking wildly. "Hmm."

"Ma'am?"

"Not you." Dar typed a note to herself on yet another screen she had open, and then she went back to the device and removed the command. "Just something I'm doing."

"Uh. It's not like you freaked us out or anything."

Dar stopped typing in mid motion, and turned her head again. "No?"

Dave had scooted his chair over a little toward her. "No, I mean-- you're really cool and all. We figured that out the last week or so."