Kerry nodded. "I think our nearest ones are in Boston and Albany."
"Senator." One of Cynthia's aides poked his head in the door. "I think they are ready to start the conference call again, apparently the lines are working better now."
Cynthia regarded him. "Albert," she said. "I need you to find something out for me, urgently."
The aide blinked in surprise and entered all the way in the room, glancing at Kerry and her brother and sister briefly. "Yes, ma'am? Do you want to discuss it in your office?"
"No," Cynthia said. "Please find out at once when the roads into Manhattan will be reopened to allow assistance into the city."
"Senator?"
"Was I not clear?" Senator Stuart asked. "I realize there is much confusion in this situation, but there are resources ready and willing to help some of those poor people and we must assist. So please go at once."
"Ah, sure," the aide said. "We have resources?"
"Yes," the senator confirmed.
"Okay." The aide turned and headed for the door. "I'll start working on that right away. Do you want to come to your office for the conference call?"
Cynthia sniffed. "Based on the last one, I think my time is more valuably spent sitting here. I certainly have learned far more."
The aide looked puzzled. He merely nodded and left.
There was a brief, awkward silence. "Hey Ker." Angie got up. "Want some ice tea? My throat's dry listening to you yak this whole time."
"Sure," Kerry said.
"I'll help." Mike followed his sister out the door, leaving Cynthia and Kerry alone in the room.
Kerry made a mental note to properly thank her siblings at a later time. She sat down and rested her elbows on the desk, half hoping for an interruption from the conference line. "Thanks," she said belatedly. "I know there's a lot going on but we want to help where we can."
Her mother folded her hands together. "I had no idea how involved you were with this sort of thing," she said. "Your company seems quite organized."
"We try to be," Kerry said. "I don't think you can ever prepare for something like what we're living through today, but we do have plans for different types of problems."
Her mother digested this. "You seem very competent." She looked up to see Kerry's expression. "I'm sorry. That must sound very patronizing," Cynthia said. "But to be truthful, I really had no idea until today what it is you actually did, Kerrison."
Kerry grunted.
"And, actually, I still don't really grasp what it is you were discussing on that machine." Her mother went on. "Except that it seems to be very involved with different parts of the government, which surprises me."
"It shouldn't," Kerry said. "Don't you remember father saying he wanted our company out of all the government contracts we hold?"
Cynthia studied her. "Extraordinary," she murmured. "I do remember him saying that. I just had no understanding of what he meant until now."
It almost made Kerry smile. But not quite. "Don't worry," she said. "You're in good hands." She turned hers over and exposed the palms of them. "We know what we're doing."
"It certainly sounds like you do," her mother said.
"Does that surprise you?" Kerry asked.
Her mother frowned. "Of course not," she said. "You've always been quite clever, Kerrison."
"Senator? The call's starting." Another one of the aides popped his head in. "They think they've gotten hold of someone at the Pentagon to give an update, and they're asking for all of Congress to go to Washington to be in session tomorrow."
Cynthia Stuart glanced at him. "Please put the call in here, to this phone." She indicated the console phone on the desk where Kerry was sitting. "I'll take it here."
"Ma'am?" the aide looked pointedly at Kerry. "It's a secure line."
"Yes, thank you for clarifying that for me," the senator said. "Now please just do as I asked, and while you are at it, tell the staff to bring coffee service in as well," she added. "I will need to evaluate if I can leave my family here before travel is arranged to Washington."
"All right, Senator. If you say so." The man still looked dubious, but he nodded and escaped out the door, shaking his head a little.
Cynthia waited a moment, and then she turned to Kerry. "I would rather we have all of the information in one place. I trust you understand how confidential it is."
"It's okay." Kerry rested her chin on her hand. "I've got a top secret clearance."
Her mother paused in mid breath, tilting her head to one side as she regarded her daughter. "You do?"
Kerry nodded.
"Miami exec? This is the Air Hub."
Kerry turned to her screen. "Go ahead, Air Hub, this is Miami exec."
"We've been alerted to possible power disruptions." The Air Hub tech sounded exhausted. "We've only got a four hour generator at the moment since the big one is on service."
"I'll take this one," Dar's voice broke in. "I'm just in the mood to scream at someone."
Now, Kerry couldn't help but smile. "Thanks boss." She keyed her mic. "My throat's giving out."
"Miami exec, this is LA Earth station. Any word on Newark Earth station? We're running out of transponder space here."
Kerry checked her text messages. "Miami ops, anything from Newark?"
"Nada," Mark answered. "I'll text them. See what I can find out. They probably lost the backhaul. It went through the 140 West station into the Niagara 3 hub."
"Everything's down on that hub," Dar said. "We lost a ton of facility."
"Miami, this is Sherren in New York. We're all back in the office at Rockefeller." She paused. "No one else has showed up from the Tower yet."
"Okay, thanks Sherren," Kerry said. "Are you sure you all don't want to leave and go home?"
"No." The woman sounded tired, but definite. "We want to stay together here and wait for the others. Anne's making some soup for us in the kitchen."
The aide returned, and went to the phone, picking up the receiver and punching some buttons on it. "They're a little late Senator."
"Mm," Cynthia said. "More than you possibly know."
"Ma'am?"
"ALL RIGHT, THANKS Bea." Alastair closed his PDA, and sighed. "Well, damn it all. Bea said it's hard to even get the travel agents to talk to anyone. Everyone's packed to the gills busy with people stuck all over the place trying to get from point A to B."
"Mm?" Dar was chewing on a rib.
"Right now, there are zero planes flying," her boss said. "So everyone's trying to get around that, and Canada's not letting anything take off so a lot of people are looking to Mexico." He rubbed the back of his neck, looking more than a little stressed. "Mexico City and Guadalajara are booked solid. Cabo's open, but that's a hell of a trip."
Dar put her rib bone down and selected another from the plate in front of her. "Fly us into Cancun and I'll have my parents pick us up in the boat," she suggested. "They can drop you at Galveston and take me home."
Alastair pursed his lips. "Are you serious?" he asked. "That's an awful lot of trouble to go to."
Dar shrugged. "It'll take days, but it's going to take days to get home anyway," she said. "Dad's boat will go thirty five knots and he's got a small satellite onboard," she said. "Worth a try, anyway."
Her boss pondered a moment. "Well, let me let Bea look at that possibility." He opened his PDA gain, half turning away as he typed. "Beats driving up from Cabo I guess."
The idea was on the crazy side. Dar had one ear cocked in the direction of the laptop, and she was listening to the stream of chatter from the conference bridge while she worked her way through some unbelievably excellent barbeque. Everything today had been on the crazy side though, and she saw little advantage in not thinking as outside the box as she could.
The pictures on the large screen flat panel television were bleak. She'd watched the crashing of the planes and the falling of the buildings dozens and dozens of times and she found she was starting to get a little shell shocked from it.