Dar cleared her throat. "Good job, Kerry," she said, mindful of the global audience. "Everyone please just stay as calm as you can, and follow the plans we've laid out as best you can. This is horrific." She paused and exhaled. "This is unprecedented, and there are a lot people out there, both in the company and our clients that are going to need our help."
"Miami exec, this is Herndon." The voice almost sounded apologetic. "Excuse me, Ms. Roberts, but I have one of the folks at the Pentagon on a land line and he said part of that building just collapsed. They're going to need infrastructure support there."
What next? Dar rubbed her temples.
"Let's get some mobile units assembled," Kerry said. "Lansing, are you on?"
"Lansing here," a voice answered. "We have four vans."
"Lansing, this is Houston ops." The Houston office stepped up. "We have portable satellite units here. Miami exec, can we roll them east?"
"Going to need those in New York too, I'm afraid," Alastair murmured.
"Miami exec? This is Halifax," a crisp male voice broke in. "We have heard all the inbound international flights are going to end up diverting to Canadian airports and they're worried about the phone and data backhaul."
"Houston, go ahead and roll the units toward Virginia right now," Kerry said. "Halifax--Dar, do we have any spare capacity in that area to shift?"
Kerry could, Dar knew, have looked it up in the painfully detailed dynamic utilization chart she designed, but she knew that Kerry knew, she would know off the top of her head and, in fact, she did. "Well, I've got spare capacity right now in the Niagara node. I'm getting pretty much nothing from New York."
A small silence.
"We can land the net traffic. The phone backhaul is going to depend on how much damage the interchanges took." Dar went on. "There's a three carrier interchange that holds most of the big international circuits that sits right under 2 World Trade."
Another silence. Then Mark cleared his throat. "I guess that's why we're seeing red across the board up there."
Alastair clicked his mic on. "Ah, Houston," he said. "Let's get the community support teams rounded up and headed out. Not sure they'll let anyone near Manhattan but we can get to DC." He paused, and then added. "This is Alastair. I realize I'm probably not as instantly recognizable as some other people."
"Houston ops, we copy sir."
A loud crackle and everyone jumped. "Hello? Anyone there?" A breathless voice came through. "Oh hell. This is Danny at the Pentagon. What a mess. We need some help. I just managed to get my cell connected but they took out one whole side of the building and they're evacuating."
"Danny, do they need a trunk for backup?" Kerry asked. "I'm glad you're all right."
"Well," the tech sighed. "I've got a broken arm or something. We got lucky though. The side they plowed into was the side they just finished the renovation on and we were just pulling cable. Not many people were there."
Dar closed her eyes and rubbed the back of her neck, feeling a little relieved.
"But they say there are more planes out there so everyone's scrambling," Danny concluded. "I don't know if they're thinking about backup. I'll find out and let you know."
"Just text us, Danny," Dar broke in. "You'll probably lose cell."
A crackle, and there was no answer.
"Miami, this is New York," a new voice spoke up. "It seems we've moved the office to the Central Park Starbucks, but there are ten of us here now. We can't get cell to pick up, even for SMS. Can we get someone to log us in as okay?"
"New York, this is Miami HR--go head," Mariana answered. "Glad to hear from you."
Alastair clicked off his mic. "What the hell's going to happen next? This is nuts!"
Dar merely nodded, and then shook her head.
KERRY SUCKED SLOWLY at a cup of tea, her throat already a touch sore from talking. There seemed to be a slight lull for the moment, or else everyone was just a little shell-shocked and holding their breaths that nothing else bad happened.
She was resisting the urge to ask Dar to explain something esoteric, like node density, just to hear her voice.
"Ker?"
Kerry looked up over the edge of her laptop screen at her sister. "Hey."
Angie took a seat in one of the leather chairs on the other side of the desk and leaned forward. "What are you doing?"
"My job," Kerry said. "We're on a--I guess you could call it a big conference call, sort of," she explained. "But it's on the computer. We can all talk, and text message each other, and we try to make sure everyone knows what's going on."
Angie got up and came around the desk. "Is it okay for me to watch?" she asked. "I can't look at that television anymore."
"Where's' Mike?" Kerry eased over. "You can watch, sure."
"Getting some food. I think he's getting some for us too." Angie settled down next to her sister and peered at the screen. "Wow. That's a lot of stuff."
"It's what we call our Global Desktop." Kerry found herself glad to be just talking about something that wasn't a catastrophe. "That's a chat room in the back. Those are people all around just talking to each other over the computer."
"Uh huh."
"These folders are all the offices we have, and those dots are the people in them." Kerry indicated the other side of the screen. "These three over here are for our New York and Washington staff, and the people at the Pentagon."
Angie peered at her. "People at the Pentagon?" she asked, in a puzzled tone. "Why do you have people there? Is your company part of the military?"
Kerry heard people starting to talk again on the conference bridge. She keyed the external speakers so Angie could hear also. "The Pentagon is really just a humongous office building," she said. "We do their IT. Just like we do the IT for lots of other companies. We have about two hundred people there."
"Wow."
"Yeah." Kerry rested her head on her hand. "We can only find about half of them."
"Oh."
"Miami exec, Houston ops." A new voice came on. "This is Harold. I'm taking over for this shift."
"Go ahead, Houston. This is Miami exec," Kerry answered. She leaned back and tried to ease the stiffness in her back.
"Ma'am, the satellite trucks are ready to roll," Harold said. "We dug up enough gear for six."
"Good work," Kerry said. "Get them on the road, and please send at least three people in each one so they can spell each other driving and get rest."
"Yes, ma'am," Harold said. "We've got a lot of volunteers. Everyone wants to help."
"Miami exec? This is Danny in Virginia."
"Go on Danny. How's your arm?" Kerry responded.
"Um--it's okay," the tech said. "We just heard here that another plane is heading toward us." He added. "Two of the guys who were off got through all the barricades and we're going to get away from here for a little while. I think I could use a coke."
"This is New York!" Sherren broke in. "We just heard a bomb went off at the White House!"
"Maybe that's where the plane hit!"
Kerry drew in a breath, and then released it. She turned her mic off. "I just had the most unchristian thought of my entire life." Then she clicked the mic back on. "This is Miami exec, let's try to take in what facts we can, and not react to what we're hearing on television or rumors until there's some substantiation, please. "
"Miami ops here," Mark said. "From home," he added hastily. "I'm going to start cataloging the down circuits."
"Miami ops, this is the air hub," an unhappy voice interrupted. "Another plane just went down, but they're not sure where. "
"Pentagon here," Danny said. "At least it wasn't us again."
"New York here. Us either." Sherren sounded profoundly relieved. "I have a great view of the Empire State Building from here and that's where everyone said it was headed."