"Sucky." Mark grunted. "My eyeballs are coming out of my head keeping track of these damn cables."
Dar studied him for a minute, and then she slid over across the floor. "Got a spare set of crimpers? Let me in there."
Mark handed over a tool without comment, and Shaun squirmed out of the way as Dar joined them at the hairball, pulling her legs up and crossing them underneath her as she settled down. "You just putting--oh, okay. I see."
"Terminating them male and putting couplers in," Mark said. "Easier than me trying to put a splice rack in there, no space."
"Good thing they didn't chew them completely apart." Dar muttered, as she sorted out one set of mangled wire, and clipped out the chewed parts. She tightened a zip tie against one end of the cut wire, and started working on the other. "What a pain in the ass."
"Ms. Roberts?" Shaun cleared his throat somewhat timidly. "Can I ask you something?"
"We're sitting on the floor over a hole that could throw rats at us at any minute. You can call me Dar." Dar didn't look up form her task, as she pulled the insulation off the wire end and separated the pairs, sorting them with expert fingers.
Mark muffled a smile. "You still remember how to do this?" he asked his boss.
"Do you still remember how to do this?" Dar countered, clipping the wires off and inserting them to a clear, plastic end. "How in the hell can anyone forget?" She examined the work critically, then clipped the end into a coupler and went on to the other part of the cable.
"Okay. Uh. Dar," Shaun said. "Is this really going to work?"
They could hear voices in the corridor outside, but so far no one had come inside the room. Now, two, loud, angry male voices erupted just outside, the words so stumblingly fast they could hardly make them out.
"Damned if I know," Dar said, after a moment's listening. "But I think we better get hustling."
Mark checked his watch. "Kannan, if you're done there, wanna give us a hand?"
"Surely." The fiber tech was packing up his gear. "I would be most glad to."
"I find it very hard to believe," Dar stripped the end of the cable,"that this all happened between Tuesday and Friday."
"I don't know--I heard those rats can chew through a car tire in a day," Mark replied. "I saw them down in there Dar. They're big as your dog."
"Mm."
Just then the door opened, and Kerry's poked her head in. "Hey,"she said, looking a bit harried. "Dar, you need to hurry up. They're evacuating this lower level because they're bringing some big shots in."
"Give me a break." Dar was clipping the other wire. "We have authorization to be here."
"No, we don't," Kerry said. "They specifically told them no one, especially our company, was allowed in here. They're coming back in ten minutes and they said if we're not out, they're arresting us and taking us to the federal prison."
"That again?" Dar rolled her eyes. "C'mon."
"This time it's no BS, Dar," Kerry stated flatly. "This isn't those bozos we were dealing with before. They scared the hell out of me."
Dar looked up, and saw in the set of Kerry's jaw, and the tension in her posture how serious the situation really was. "Okay. Everyone just do as much as you can in nine minutes and then we're out of here." She looked up. "Can you stall them if they're early?"
"Do my best." Kerry promised. "We got that ten minutes because of Dad." She ducked back outside the door.
"Great." Dar sped up her motions, as Kannan slid into place next to them, already reaching for cables with his slim fingers.
"Wonder what that's all about." Mark snapped a cable into place and reached for another one. "Shit I wish these people would make up thier damn minds."
"You must realize," Kannan spoke up, after a moment's quiet. "We must come to this place, once again, when the technical people we are expecting arrive. We must install the optic unit."
"Worry about that when it happens." Dar reached for another coupler. "Let's just get this done. Or as much of it as we can. If some things don't come up, well, they'll just have to deal with it." She snapped the coupler in place and selected her next target.
Focusing intently, her eyes fastened on the cables, her hands making the motions of stripping, and sorting, and ordering automatically. Kerry's warning still ringing in her ears, she crimped the ends on, then coupled them and reached for the next set.
"Jesus, boss." Mark eyed her with respect. "You really didn't forget how to do this did you?"
"Shut up and cable."
KERRY EASED HER hands carefully into her pockets as she emerged into the pearly gray of an early dawn. She looked quickly in both directions, relieved not to see the black SUV's pulled up onto the sidewalk anymore.
Her nerves were wracked. More because she'd seen Andrew's nerves wracked by the agents than by what they'd said to her. Dar's father was one of the most unflappable, bravest people she knew, and to see him shook up by mere humans scared the poo out of her.
"They coming?" Andrew dropped out of the bus, seeing her.
"Nine minutes." Kerry checked her watch. "Seven now."
"The hell." The ex seal exhaled. "Ah do not want any of us to be here when them fellers come back, Kerry."
"I know, Dad." Kerry bumped him very gently with her shoulder."Dar knows. She'll get back here."
There were already some people on the sidewalk. Not many, several policemen in their distinctive black uniforms, and cars were beginning to park along the street, shadowy figures busy behind the wheels.
They were running out of time. Kerry felt a prickle go down her back. Not only because of the government agents. "C'mon Dar."
"Them people are trouble," Andrew said, unexpectedly. "Them are the kind of people who don't have to account to no one for nothing, you understand me, Kerry?"
Kerry studied his face. "You mean they're above the law?"
"Yeap."
"My father thought he was too." Kerry spotted motion in the distance. "Uh oh."
Andrew turned and saw the trucks coming back. "Shit." He looked up at the entrance. "Let me go get them people."
"Dad." Kerry caught his arm. "Get the bus started. I'll stall these guys if they get here." She nudged him toward the bus. "Dar said she'd be here. Two more minutes."
"Kerry, you do not understand." Andrew protested.
"I do," she insisted gently. "It's okay. They're part of the government, Dad. I've lived with part of the government most of my life. I know where their buttons are. Please. Just leave it to me, and let's get ready to go."
Andrew studied her for a brief moment, and then he nodded and disappeared back up the steps to the bus, leaving Kerry standing alone on the sidewalk.
Kerry took a careful breath and released it, hoping she hadn't pissed her father in law off too much. She then turned and watched the approach of the black SUV's that appeared to be heading directly for them.
She checked her watch and leaned against the bus, feeling the rumble as its engine started up and nearly scared the wits out of her as the air brakes hissed suddenly.
The lead SUV pulled into the next block, and the one behind it continued on toward her. She could see the man behind the wheel, and the one in the passenger seat, both in black jackets, neither of whom were smiling.
The passenger pointed at her, and looked at something.
Oh boy. Her heart started to race. She kept her calm posture through, her ear cocked for the sound of her partner and their team approaching. "Maybe I should call my mother sooner rather that later."
A weak card and she knew it. "You may think you're outside the law, but I bet your boss really hates to be embarrassed."
The SUV pulled into the curb just behind the bus, and the men prepared to get out. One was talking rapidly into a radio, glancing at her all the while.