So they had to deal with her in casual clothes. Kerry spared a moment to wonder if it would put her at a serious disadvantage, then she shrugged and decided if it did, there were plenty of stores in the capital where she could remedy the situation.
No time to worry about it now at any rate. She pocketed her room key and shouldered her bag, heading for the door to the room. The conference call would wait until she was in the car, and the few moments silence as she rode the elevator gave her a space of time to think about what Dar was up to.
Besides 35,000 feet, that is. Kerry's eyes flicked around the inside of the elevator, noting the advertisements for the hotel's spa and making a mental note to investigate it after what she was sure would be a long, painful day.
She hoped Dar was getting some rest on her trip across the Atlantic. At least the private flight would be quiet, and she was sure her partner would be well taken care of by the professional crew. Maybe she'd have picked up some new magazines to read on the way.
Her PDA beeped and she jumped, grabbing at it and wondering if her clever partner had found some way to send messages from the sky. Opening it, she was profoundly disappointed to find that was not the case, and in fact, the message was doubly unwelcome since it bore the address of the National Hurricane Center on it. "Oh please."
000
WTNT44 KNHC 131458
TCDAT8
TROPICAL DEPRESSION EIGHT DISCUSSION NUMBER 4
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL042001
0900 AM EDT MON SEP 12 2001
"Just what we need." Kerry read the rest of the advisory as she exited the elevator and crossed the lobby, keeping an eye on the path with her peripheral vision in an odd, disjointed sort of way common to nerds who had to learn to communicate and walk at the same time.
She studied the coordinates, giving the doorman who opened the door for her an absent greeting as she came into the hotel's front entranceway, her brows creasing as she pictured where the storm was forming. "Shit."
"Madame?" The doorman looked at her, his head cocked to one side.
"Sorry." Kerry tucked her PDA away and glanced around, seeing no obviously waiting cars. "Just got some bad news."
The man nodded and stepped away.
Kerry rummaged in her briefcase and pulled out her cellphone earbuds. She set the case down and untangled them, trying not to be impatient as the slim cables knotted stubbornly. It required a more intense concentration than she'd anticipated, and so she was surprised when someone cleared their throat unexpectedly close to her.
"Excuse me, Ms. Stuart?"
Kerry looked up, to find a young, slim, dark haired woman standing at the curb. "Hello." She glanced at the ID clipped to the woman's crisply pressed shirt. "Nan? I don't think we've ever met."
"No, we haven't," the woman replied with a smile. "I thought I recognized you but wasn't sure."
"Well, you guessed right." Kerry held a hand out. "You my ride?"
"Yes, ma'am." The woman smiled, and returned her grip. "Sorry if I startled you. They made me park the car down the slope."
Kerry got her buds sorted out and shouldered her briefcase. "Lead on." She followed the woman down toward where the standard issue company SUV was parked. Nan was a technical supervisor at the Herndon center and Kerry had both spoken to and emailed her on countless occasions.
Laid back and competent. Kerry had formed a favorable opinion of her from their previous interaction and nothing so far had contradicted that. She had a fine boned face and a well shaped profile and a slender build that matched her relatively short stature.
"It's been frantic crazy," Nan said, after a brief silence. "I know the powers that be are really glad you're here though. We're running out of excuses and coffee for the government guys."
"I bet," Kerry said. "Their boss is meeting me out at the office. I'm sure we'll get it straightened out." She opened the passenger side door of the SUV and settled into the seat, putting her case down between her boots.
Leather boots, jeans, leather jacket. There was nothing western about any of them, but Kerry had to smile privately at just how much her taste in clothing had changed, and the look of dubious surprise on her mother's face.
She didn't look bad in it. One glance in a mirror attested to that. Dar had told her in fact that she actually looked really sexy in the clothes and Kerry was fully willing to bow to her opinion in the matter.
It was, however, probably not what her colleagues here expected.
Nan got in the driver's seat and started up the SUV. "Seat goes back if you need," she said. "I adjusted it before I left but you're taller than I expected you to be."
Huh? Kerry stopped in mid motion and turned her head, both eyebrows shooting up. "Well, that's the first time I ever heard THAT comment before," she blurted. "Excuse me?"
Nan chuckled wanly. "Beg your pardon," she said. "I know we've emailed a lot but the only pictures I've seen of you are on the intranet."
"Ahh." Kerry started chuckling. "Where I'm always standing next to Dar. Yeah. I'm surprised most people don't think I'm a circus midget." She extended her denim covered legs and crossed her ankles. "Let me get back on the conference call. Sounds like things are going to hell this morning."
She pulled her earbuds from her pocket and put one in her right ear, then dialed the conference line. "How long have the NSA people been there today?'
Nan glanced quickly at her, then back at the road. "Is that who they are?" she asked. "Wow. They wouldn't tell us. They were there when the admins opened the guest center at seven."
"Nice." Kerry exhaled, shaking her head as she typed in the conference code. "Do you know what it is they're asking for, or are they still being vague?" She heard the call connect, but she left her mic on mute for the time being, electing to listen to Nan instead.
Nan paused at a light, and waited for it to turn. "They were pretty obscure. They have some big black box with them," she said. "And they told us they wanted to put it in the center, and have our core switch hooked up to it."
Kerry eyed her. "You have got to be kidding me," she said. "Do they realize what goes through that center? What do they think they're looking for? Those are internal government systems."
"We told them that," Nan agreed. "They think they can see traffic coming in from the outside to them. They say they're looking for terrorist hackers," she continued. "They seem to be convinced that the whole attack thing isn't over and they'll be making an attempt at our systems next."
Kerry folded her arms over her chest, her brows contracting. "What in the hell do they think connecting something to our core switch is going to do to stop that?" she asked, in a puzzled tone.
Nan shrugged. "It's the government. You know how they are. Someone tells them to do something and whether or not it makes sense goes out the window. I talked to their lead tech guy," she confided. "He told me we have to do it, or else we'll get in really big trouble."
Hm. Kerry pulled out her PDA and glanced at the next to last message, one from Dar.
Sweetheart.
I'm about to get on this damn plane. I talked to Gerry, and something's up but not something he wants to talk about over the phone, and not to anyone but me. Sounds screwy. He doesn't know anything about what's going on where you are, but says not to automatically say no to anything because everyone's flying blind and there's a lot of knee jerking going on.
Nothing goes in our facility. Feel comfortable about saying that to them, because hon, it's locked under my login and though you know it, you've got a perfectly good reason not to. Let them wait for me and Alastair. We're legally responsible for the contracts anyway.