Exposed now in the light, there was a thick bundle of cabling, a lurid blue color that was marred by a huge clump in the center that was chewed all the way almost to the bottom of the bundle, resulting in tangle of butchered wires. "Sure is." Kerry examined the hairball. "Well,this didn't happen in a week, did it?"
The tech circled the desk and knelt next to her warily, looking at the cables. "That's new." He said. "For sure, because I know where that bundle goes and that stuff was working before all this happened."
"Wow," Shaun said again. "That's a--what a mess."
"For sure," Kannan agreed. "That will take many hours to fix."
"Guess you guys better get started then," the tech said. "Cause this stuff will never work if that's not connected."
"Us?" Kerry looked up at him. "This isn't our wiring."
The tech shrugged. "It's not our wiring. We just do server management here. That's all. We don't touch any of the infrastructure stuff."
"Who does?" Kerry asked. "And where are they, by the way? "
The tech shrugged again. "Some company that some big guy here owns a part of. They got a couple of guys and a truck, and they come in when we need new cables run and stuff like that. They monitor everything remotely."
Kerry counted to ten again. Then she counted to twenty. Then she gave it up and started to put the tile to one side, her temper flaring.
A bang issued from the space. It put a cap on her reaction, and made everyone jump. "What the--"
Another bang and she started to get up and away from the hole,which suddenly started to issue flashes of light.
"Oh my god." The tech jumped back, bumping into the desk and falling into it, then bouncing off and lunging back across the open hole,his arms flailing. "Ahh!"
Kerry succumbed to latent heroism and grabbed him, throwing herself into him and taking them both to the other side of the open floor just as a loud sound emerged and the hole erupted with a flurry of brown forms.
"Holy shit!" Shaun let out a yell, jumping backward and grabbin Kannan by the shoulder as rats boiled out of the floor scattering in every direction.
Kerry hit the floor with a painful jolt and rolled clear of the tech unable to place the sounds and hearing the alarm in her people's voices as she smelled a deep, raunchy stench come into the room. She wrenched herself around and got her hands under her, shoving her body away from the floor and nearly pitching herself right back onto it when a rat ran over her hand toward the server cabinets.
She bit her tongue, and got enough command of her body to get her feet under her and stand up, fiercely resisting the urge to jump up onto the desk. "Nice." She croaked. "What the hell brought that on?" She grimaced a little, as her ribs protested her impact with the floor.
The tech jumped onto the desk. "That's it. I'm getting out of here. All that overtime ain't worth it. That's a freak show." He walked to the end of the desk and hopped off, then disappeared out the door without a backward glance.
"Nice." Kerry looked around. The rats had all disappeared. She walked cautiously over to the hole and crouched down at a respectful distance, peering inside. As she watched, the end of the cable she'd been searching for inched into view, with a loud scraping sound and a clinking of the metal ends that protected it. "Ah."
"Hey. It's the cable." Shaun had eased warily up behind her. "Where'd that come from?"
"Someone has found it." Kannan came over and knelt right next to the opening, reaching down without hesitation and taking the end of the cable in one hand. "I am going to pull this now." He called down. "Be relaxed."
He braced one foot and pulled gently on the cable end.
"Don't pull too hard." Shaun advised. "We have to get it back under the floor over to the wall." He came out from behind Kerry and knelt down by his teammate's side.
Kerry eased slowly upright, as a sudden motion caused a jolt of pain. She bit off a curse and stepped back, getting out of the tech's way and moving back over to desk.
"Got it?" A voice echoed softly up to them.
"Got it." Shaun called back. "Was that Mark?"
Kerry perched on the edge of the desk pressing her elbow against her side. "I think it was." She agreed, removing the radio clipped to her shoulder. "Mark, this is Kerry. You there?"
She heard a crackle of noise on the speaker, then Dar answered, her deep tones roughened with the radio's interference, but comforting to Kerry's ears nonetheless.
"We're here," Dar said. "They get the end of that damn cable? We had to push it up back through a bunch of garbage and through a damn access pipe."
"We got it." Kerry acknowledged. "You chased a bunch of rats up here with it."
"What?"
"And, we've got another problem." Kerry went on. "Dar, you better come up here and look at this," she paused, "and I think I--" She stopped, aware of the techs listening. "If you're done there, come on back."
"Be right there." Dar's voice had taken on an edge and Kerry exhaled, as she clipped the radio mic back on her shoulder.
Breathing hurt. She figured that meant nothing good, but she decided to remain where she was, watching the techs work the cable under the floor toward the wall. She saw Kannan examine the end closely and nod, but neither he nor Shaun said anything about it.
Good people.
"That was crazy, huh?" Shaun looked up. "This place really is crazy."
"It is." Kerry agreed. "I don't know what we're going to do with that cable mess in there. We keep having everyone else's problems dropped in our lap."
"That's a mess." Shaun agreed. "That's probably a hundred cables that need to be fixed."
"Not too good at all." Kannan said.
There were footsteps in the hallway, and suddenly the door was filled with Dar's tall form. She stopped in the opening and looked around, focusing on Kerry. "Hey." She crossed the floor to her partner's side, ignoring the open sections, the mass of screwed up cable, and the two techs.
Her jumpsuit was covered in dust and grime and she brushed her hands off as she arrived in front of Kerry. "You okay?"
Kerry managed a brief smile. "What makes you think I'm not?"
Dar moved closer. "You're white as a sheet. What happened?" Her voice dropped, taking on a concerned tone. "Ker?"
"Sorry." Kerry waited for the pain to ease. "I did something stupid crazy. When you were pushing the cable back in here a bunch of--I guess those big rats. They came up through the floor." She took a shallow breath. "Anyway, the other guy that was here was falling into the open hole and I grabbed for him and we both landed on the floor."
Dar put a hand on her knee. "And?"
"Caught my ribs on the edge of the tile," Kerry admitted. "Think I cracked something." She saw Dar's reaction start as she was saying it and she reached over to grab her hand. "Not bad, at least I don't think so."
"Cracked anything isn't good." Dar glanced around. "C'mon. I'll take you over to the hospital. They can take some X-rays."
"No, c'mon. I don't think it's that bad." Kerry protested. "I just got the breath knocked out of me." She amended her diagnosis. "Just a bruise. Chill."
Dar's brow arched sharply.
"You would say the same damn thing," accused Kerry.
"So, because I'm an idiot, you have to be an idiot?" Dar asked.
Kerry thought about that. "Yes."
Dar gave her a dour look. "Go back to the bus, and catch your breath," she said. "I don't want you to bruise anything else."
"Dar--"
"That wasn't a request." Dar's voice sharpened unexpectedly.
Kerry tilted back a trifle and studied her companion, seeing the storm in the blue eyes glaring back at her. "Okay," she responded."Boss."
Dar stepped out of the way to let her leave, and she did, swallowing against the lump of unease in her throat. Dar didn't pull rank on her often, and even less so in situations like this that crossed into their personal lives, but it stung every time, and this was no exception.