"Good morning." Kerry closed her mic.
"Which one of you is Paladar Roberts?" the guard asked.
"That'd be me." Dar glanced up, but kept typing. "I'm the jerk who showed up with no ID," she added. "And I am sorry about that."
The guard nodded. "That's posing a big problem for us." He watched Dar nod back. "But the people inside said to let you in with an escort, so I'm going to let you in, with an escort." He patted the window on the driver's side door. "Go on, Jack. We'll send two guys with you, and two guys will meet you at the stairs."
Kerry regarded him with a touch of concern. "Are we that dangerous looking?" she asked.
The guard just shook his head and waved, and the window closed as the driver put the car in gear and edged his way between two other vehicles toward the gates.
"Houston's right." Dar was clicking away. "They're eating up the wires. I'm going to throw some reserve at them."
"Without finding out why?" Kerry questioned.
"Wouldn't even know where to start asking," her partner admitted. "I'm sure it's all TCP/IP encapsulated frantic arm waving and ass covering mixed with legitimate intelligence movement, but there's really no way for me to step in and question it."
Kerry nodded, and went back to the call. "Folks, I'm going to have to drop offline in a few minutes here. If anything comes up, just call my cell and get me back on."
"There." Dar finished her configuration changes, saving them and cutting and pasting a large swath of tiny text into an email message. "I'll tell Houston I did that, but they need to keep it under their hat. I don't want anyone getting the idea we have inexhaustible bandwidth."
"Okay, I'm out," Kerry said, then she closed the phone, peering out of the window. They were pulling past a line of trees, liberally guarded by machine gun toting soldiers. Ahead there was a small parking area, in front of a huge, almost gothic looking building she only vaguely remembered. "Ah. The old executive."
Dar glanced up from her keyboard and looked out the window, peering at the large structure. Then she shook her head and went back to her keyboard. "Almost done."
Kerry ran her fingers through her hair. "There's Hamilton." She indicated the tall, urban figure leaning on the gate in a posture of bored waiting. "I have to admit, I'm pretty glad to see him given where we are."
Dar shut the laptop and leaned over to slide it into Kerry's briefcase. "Me too," she admitted briefly. "But don't let him know that."
The car pulled to a halt, and two soldiers approached immediately, signaling the vehicle following them. "Please wait and don't open the doors," the driver warned. "Let the soldiers do it."
"Sure." Dar leaned back and twiddled her fingers, as she watched the soldiers approach cautiously as though she was some sort of hyper technical land shark. It kept her mind off what waited for them though, and she only smiled at the man who opened the door, staying still until he realized she was pretty much harmless.
"Thank you ma'am, you can get out," the soldier said, courteously. "Sorry about that, we're a little tense here today."
"I completely understand." Dar swung her legs out and got up, surprising the soldier when she straightened to her full height that topped his by a few inches. She closed the door and paused, as Kerry made her way around behind the car to join her, then they started off toward the gates and their waiting corporate lawyer.
The two soldiers walked along side them. Both were young, but not too young, and they both had five o'clock shadows that probably had started sometime the previous afternoon. They looked tired. Dar suddenly felt empathy for them that she hadn't expected. "Hang in there guys." She told the one to her right. "I know it's been rough."
The soldier looked at her, his shoulders shifting into a more relaxed posture. "Thanks, ma'am."
They crossed the street and Hamilton pushed off his post and came to meet them. "Well, hello there ladies."
"Good morning, Mr. Baird," Kerry greeted him politely.
"Hamilton. Good to see you," Dar chimed in.
"Thanks for coming down."
The lawyer seemed to be more subdued than usual. "Good to see you both," he said. "Let's go see what this hoohah is all about."
They started up the steps. "Sorry about my father," Dar commented. "I'm not sure he realized how big his audience was."
Hamilton chuckled. "Darlin', he's your father. Of course he realized. But he's a gorgeous old salt so it didn't bother me a bit." He glanced to either side at their silent escort. "Ain't enough like him and any how my mama raised me to be proud of being a coon ass."
"I don't think he meant it as an insult," Dar smiled. "Not from where we came from."
The lawyer laughed. "Lord I hope they don't regret asking us into this place." He waited for Dar and Kerry to enter the big doorway then followed before the soldiers could. "Sorry boys, beauty and treachery before virtue. "
The soldiers bumped into the frame in their haste to follow. "Sir! Ma'am! Wait!"
Kerry shifted the strap on her briefcase and shook her head, resisting the urge to move faster just to get to the end of the waiting. "Going to be one of those mornings."
DAR HAD HER hands stuck in her pockets, her head tipped back a little as she studied the shelves full of books in the room they'd been shuffled off to.
Kerry was sitting at a mahogany table behind her, working on her laptop as Hamilton spoke softly into his cell phone on the other side of the room.
Hurry up and wait, was that the tactic? Dar rocked up and down on her heels. In the distance, she could hear the muffled sounds of activity, the halls they'd been walked through to this waiting room had been full of men and women rapidly moving from one place to another, all with grim, intent faces.
Hamilton joined her at the shelves. "Al just buzzed me. He's still hanging around in that lovely airport of yours," he informed her. "But he does think he's going to get to sit on an airplane in the next twenty minutes."
Dar glanced at him. "Given how screwed up everything is, can't really expect flights to be taking off on schedule. He's probably going to get on something that's supposed to be in New York."
The corporate lawyer nodded. "It's a fine mess," he agreed. "But listen, thanks by the by for taking care of old Al through all this. He said you were just a peach."
Dar's brow lifted sharply.
"In an Al sort of way," Hamilton conceded, with a smile. "And speaking of, shall we play this as a bad cop with a worse cop routine? Neither you, nor I, are going to be mistaken for a good cop any time soon."
Dar pointed over her own shoulder with her thumb. "Brought the good cop," she explained succinctly. "Though the way she was telling off some senior senator last night I'm not sure they want to piss her off."
"With any luck they'll all realize they've got a lunch date and leave us alone," Hamilton said. "I do think what I am hearing about them being all up in their shorts at us is making me itch in places men should not."
Dar folded her arms. "I gotta agree with that. I don't know what the hell they think they're mad at. I've had a thousand people working round the clock for two days busting their asses to keep everyone's pie plates spinning. What damn more do they want?"
They both turned as the door opened, and a lot of footsteps echoed into the room just ahead of a crowd of men. "I do believe we're going to find out," Hamilton said. "C'mon, Igor. Let's go be bad."
Dar was already heading toward the table where Kerry was seated, since the group of men who had entered the room were also headed in that direction. She got in front of them before they reached her partner, bringing them up short as she simply stepped into the way and blocked it. "Gentlemen."
She missed the sweetly amused expression on Kerry's face as she looked up and observed this bit of unconscious chivalry, and it only lasted a moment before Kerry removed her ear buds and stood up as Hamilton joined her.