"Here we go." Kerry prepared herself for the confrontation, deciding a gentle approach to start would be a good idea. "I don't understand officers. What's going on?" She muttered under her breath. "We're just here taking care of a problem, I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding."
The men got out and headed her way. One took a baton out and was holding it.
"On the other hand, screw you asshole works too." Kerry readied a retreat route, and pushed away from the bus, getting her center of balance over her boots. "And so does calling for help."
Loud voices suddenly erupted. Kerry half turned and then turned all the way around as the door burst open and Dar rapidly took the stairs two at a time, the techs right behind her with their eyes wide.
"Get in." Dar ordered Kerry. "Dad, get ready to move."
Kerry didn't waste any time. She climbed onboard just a whisker ahead of Dar's rapidly moving form and moved inside to make room for the rest of them. Just as she got to the far wall, the bus surged into motion, the air breaks releasing and the door hissing shut almost in the agent's face.
Dar grabbed hold of her as they lurched to one side, cradling Kerry against her as they swung around a corner and lots of things went flying, including the techs and a fair assortment of hand tools. Dar had a good grip on the doorway into the back office and didn't get thrown.
"They are laughing at us." Kannan was looking out the back window. "Those men."
"Nice." Kerry had no intention of protesting the hold. Her chest hurt, and the thought of holding herself in place made her grimace."Did you guys finish?"
"Not quite." Dar braced herself against the door frame as the bus swerved again. "The building infrastructure people finally showed up."
"Oh, that somebody's uncle company?"
"I think it's Uncle Guido's company," Dar said. "They jumped all over us. They were pissed we were touching their stuff, not that we were in the building though. I wasn't going to stick around to argue about it."
"Yeah." Mark had gotten himself and his gear into one of the armchairs. "Lucky for us big D was there to kick their asses."
Kerry glanced up at her partner. "Did you?" She muttered under her breath, watching Dar's face take on an almost adolescent expression that held its own answer. "Oh boy."
"Yeah, especially since we're going go need to get back in there when the module shows up." Dar said. "Or else this is just a pointless waste of a morning."
"I've never seen anyone kick someone like that." Shaun looked up from gathering his scattered supplies on the bus floor. "That was pretty cool."
Kerry looked back up at Dar, her eyebrows lifting in question.
"They were blocking the door and not letting us out," Dar explained."Not sure that was intentional, but you said ten minutes and I didn't have time to explain to the stupid bastard-- Whoa!"
The bus was turning completely around now, leaning over to a scarry degree as the horn blared. Both Dar and Kerry were thrown against the door sill, and Kannan kept his feet only by the slimmest margin.
"Holy crap!" Mark yelped.
"Hang on back there." Andrew yelled. "Got to get this thing heading back straight."
"Jesus." Kerry tucked her elbow against her sore ribs and tucked her other hand around Dar's waist. "Maybe we should go sit down."
Then the bus straightened up and started going forward, settling down into a more regular movement. "We back on the main road,Dad?" Dar called out.
"Yeap."
"Okay." Dar cautiously released Kerry. "Everyone get your gear together. We've got a lot of work to do when we get to the office. Kerry, can you arrange for Skuzzy to pick our guys up at the airport?"
"Already did." Kerry stayed where she was, tucked along Dar's side"I sent her and Nan the flight details. She's tracking them too, she'll let us know if they're late."
They rolled along in silence for a moment. Then Dar sighed. "Theism insanity."
Mark looked up from zipping his tool bag. "Yeah, but in a good way, right?"
Dar leaned back and put her arms around Kerry again, as the sun started to rise and flash through the curtained windows of the bus, splashing them all intermittently. "We'll find out soon enough, I guess."
"WHERE DID THEY leave it?" Dar had her hands on her hips.
"It's below in the tunnels," the building manager said. "The guy with it said it wouldn't reach any further."
"Oh crap." Mark echoed the words sounding in Dar's skull. "You gotta be kidding me."
The building manager shrugged. "I wish I was. He left the message with me, said he didn't have time to wait for you guys to wake up."
Dar snorted. "Yeah. Thanks." She let her hands drop. "Okay, let's go see where they left it. Maybe they were lying." She motioned Mark and the others to follow her, unclipping her radio from her shoulder as she walked. "Ker?"
The radio hissed, and then crackled. "Right here, go ahead. Scuzzy reports the flights on time, Dar."
"Everything else isn't," Dar said." Cable's still down in the subway."
"Jesus."
"And they think it's too short."
"Oh, man." Kerry's voice reflected the frustration she was feeling. "Dar, I don't--" She stopped. "What's your plan?"
"I don't think we're going to make it either." Dar turned and headed down the steps. "Just-- could you grab someone, maybe two people, and see if you can find a pipe, something, anything, in that damn hole our dmarc's in that I can shove a cable through?"
"You got it. On the way." Kerry clicked off.
"This is gonna suck." Mark tugged at the collar of his jumpsuit. "I knew we shouldn't trust those guys. They gave off bad juju."
Dar rolled up the sleeves on her own jumpsuit as she trotted down the steps. She dodged past the hurrying figures of people coming up out of the subway, and paused only when she got to the ticket turnstile. "Damn it."
"Machines over here." Mark had started toward it. "What do we need, four? I'll get em."
"Thanks." Dar put her hands on the bar and peered through them. "Kerry has my wallet." She ignored the stream of people coming out of the turnstiles, studying the wall and stairwells on the other side of the gates until Mark came over with four squares of cardboard.
She took hers and they passed through, walking past the fare booth and going down the steps to the level where the trains were. There was a train on one side of the platform, so Dar went to the other side, and looked up and down it. "Which one would it be in?"
"Um." Mark went to the map in the center of the platform and studied it. "They'd have to be in the tunnel from--here?" He traced a line with his finger uncertainly. "Man, where's that native woman?"
"Fetching our world savers." Dar went over to the map and looked at it. "Yeah, this is the cross over from that other line so it has to be this way." She pointed up the tunnel the train was in. "Let's wait for this thing to leave and go look."
Mark eyed her. "Go into the tunnel? Boss, that's sorta dangerous. We touch that live rail and we're all toast."
"They had to be in there." Dar reminded him. "There's a ledge along the wall here. We can walk on that."
"Oh, my goodness," Kannan murmured.
"Dar?" Kerry's voice crackled faintly on the radio. "You there"
"Yeah." Dar keyed the mic. "What's up?"
"The secret service was just here." Kerry's voice sounded tense."They asked Alastair to go with them down to the Exchange."
Dar glanced around. "Just giving him a ride?"
"Well." Kerry exhaled audibly. "They made it sound like a polite request"
"That sounds kinda crappy." Mark muttered softly.
"Yeah." Dar clicked the radio a few times. "All right, Ker. Thanks for telling me. See what you can do to find me that pipe."
"Will do." Kerry clicked off.
The train hooted, and the doors shut, then it pulled out of the station, disappearing down the tunnel with a whoosh of dank air behind it.