Who would have thought of using a soldering iron? She was pretty sure she wouldn't have. Kerry pondered a moment as to what she would have done, given the limited options. Used a knife on a stick?
Not try getting it through?
Would she have gotten someone, a construction worker, to come in and cut through the pipe so she could access it?
"Watch out," Dar warned. "I'm about to start melting things."
Kerry gazed up at her overprotective spouse. "Okay, I'm clear."
She edged her head out of the way, cocking her ears as she heard Dar curse again. She felt sorry for the two techs, trapped in the small space with her irritated partner. "Easy honey. We're almost done."
She could smell burning plastic. "I think you got it, Dar. I can smell it."
"Maybe that's my brain cells frying," Dar responded, her voice echoing softly.
Grumpy grumpy. Kerry licked her lips, and peeked up the pipe again, seeing a wisp of smoke showing in the light. A moment later, the tip of the soldering iron jerked to one side, and a piece of curled, blackened white plastic plummeted down and smacked her flashlight before she jerked her hand out of the way and it landed on the ground. "Hey! It's out!"
"Wooeffing hoo," Dar grunted, soft clanking noises and dust bunnies issuing down the pipe as she removed her makeshift tool. "I'm going to send the pull cable down."
Kerry removed the flashlight and shut it off, laying there quietly and enjoying the cool breeze from the opening, resisting the urge to close her eyes. She could hear the cable snaking its way down the conduit, and a moment later, the RJ45 end covered in tape plonked its way onto the metal deck near her head. "Yay!"
She got up and took hold of the cable, pulling it gently until about two feet of it was outside the conduit. Then she turned and took hold of the cable Dar had pulled in through the hatch, carefully tying the end of the fiber to the Ethernet cable and pulling it taut. "Dar?"
"Yes?"
Kerry jumped, as the voice sounded right behind her head. "Yow!" She reeled backwards off her crouch, waving her arms until Dar grabbed hold of her and let her regain her balance. "For Pete's sake!"
Dar chuckled tiredly. "Left the guys up there to haul this thing up. I vote we go and get something hot to eat, and a beer."
Kerry stopped moving and slumped back against her. "Ugh. I love you."
"Likewise." Dar hugged her, then let her go. "Feed the wire up there, and let's haul. Maybe by the time we get back, our fiber man'll be here, and we'll be in the home stretch."
Kerry eased the end of the fiber into the pipe, and Dar knocked against it. After a moment, it started to move, snaking it's way slowly up from its pile of coils on the floor up through the pipe to the second level.
Dar watched it, and dusted her hands off. "Things are looking up," she said. "We might get outta here tonight."
"Piece of cake now," Kerry agreed. "All we need is some ends." She jumped a trifle as her end was smacked, and scooted for the door. "It should go smoothly now, right?"
"Right."
Chapter Four
DAR WAS GLAD enough to feel the springiness of the gangway under her feet as she preceded Kerry toward the pier. Around her, the city seemed muted, sounds of sirens audible and the soft roar of traffic only barely.
She could smell the pungent scent of the water, but above that, on the wind now blowing from the sea, she could smell the burning, acrid scent of destruction, and the taint left a strange taste on the back of her tongue.
The darkness hid the billow of smoke still emerging from the Trade Center site, but if she looked up, and off to the horizon, she could see the stars being obscured by it.
"So where do we go from here?" Kerry asked, her hands tucked inside the pockets of her jacket. "All we need is the terminations, right?" She caught up to Dar and walked alongside her, their steps sounding an odd echo as they moved off the gangway and onto the concrete pier.
"Right," Dar said, "and to integrate the data stream, but that's trivial compared to everything else on the physical layer."
Kerry removed one hand from her pocket and tucked it through Dar's elbow. "You sound so sexy when you talk like that."
"Ker-ry." Dar gave her a sideways look.
"C'mon hon. I have to take my fun where I can find it tonight," Kerry responded wryly. "Let's walk down to that bar you mentioned, and see if we can get some nasty bar food or a pizza and a beer. Hell, I'd even take a hot dog right now."
"Me too." Dar exhaled, feeling some of the tension in her unwind. The last big hurdle was done, and she was actually looking forward to finishing out this particular task and getting on with the much larger one ahead.
They walked along the pier toward the gates, which now had some lurid, orange lights outlining the guard vehicles blocking the way. As they got closer to the gates, the sounds of arguing voices were heard and they stepped up the pace by silent accord.
"Hope that's not Dad out there," Kerry muttered. "I thought those guys were okay with us."
"If it was Dad, they wouldn't be yelling," Dar responded. "Let's see what's going on."
They got to the gates, and ducked through the opening to find a half circle of armed guardsmen facing off against three young men in jeans and windbreakers. All were carrying backpacks. Two of them were tow-headed and fair skinned, the third was dark skinned, and had black, straight hair.
The guardsman in charge, a different man than when they'd entered, was on a radio, giving the trio dark looks as he talked into it. "Not sure what to do with these guys, sir," he said, just audible to them.
"They've got all kinds of tools and some crazy story."
"Uh oh." Kerry slowed. "Maybe we should stay back."
Dar hesitated, taking in the angry stances and the weapons and almost decided Kerry was right, until their forward motion took them into the floodlights and the young men spotted them.
They weren't familiar to her, but apparently she was familiar to them, because the look of relief on all three faces was almost comical.
The closest one called out, "Ms. Roberts! Tell these guys not to shoot us!"
"Then again, maybe not." Kerry released Dar's arm and followed her into the light. "Looks like they're ours. Mark's guys, probably."
"Probably." Dar sighed, continuing past the trucks toward the crowd. "Don't shoot, gentlemen."
The guard in charge turned, startled to find them behind him. "Holy shit hang on--I've got some people inside here." He pulled the radio from his mouth. "Who are you people? What are you doing inside that gate?"
"Someone didn't leave hand over notes." Kerry sighed. "Jesus."
"Now I wish it was my father out here." Dar grimaced. "Okay, hold it everyone. Let's discuss this before people start getting hurt," she said. "Let me start from the beginning."
"Let me start from the beginning," the guard captain said. "Let's see some identification from you people."
Uh oh. Kerry removed her identification case from her pocket and stepped forward, holding the leather case out to the man. "Okay, here's mine. We've been in here since this afternoon, one of your colleagues allowed us in after he checked us out with the mayor's office."
"What?" The man grabbed her folio and glanced at it. "No one said anything about people being inside there. Who are you people?"
"I'm sorry if they didn't leave you word," Kerry said, in a calm voice. "But we came in here around three o'clock. We've been working inside the ship this whole time." She took a step closer to him, aware of Dar's alert presence at her back. "We don't want to cause you trouble. These people here are employees of ours."
"Boy, we're glad to see you, Ms. Stuart," the tech said. "They sent us from Washington. They said you needed us."