"Ahem."
Cheryl smiled slightly. "Sorry, Kerry." She cleared her throat. "The wiring guys have been killing themselves to get work done. They've turned off most of the AC inside the ship and the other vendors have been giving us a very hard time."
Kerry entered the office and leaned against the wall. "Deliberately?"
"No, I don't think so. It's just very close quarters, and everyone wants to get their part done and get out of there. We're fighting with the electrical and air conditioning people right now."
"Ah."
Dar half listened to the conversation, as she poked around inside the switch they'd installed in the office. The inoffensive green box was mounted in a rack near the back of the room, with a locked door and sides around it. Dar scanned the box's contents, then abandoned the device and switched to their router instead. "I don't know what the hell those guys are talking about. We're not even touching their network."
She checked the router's interfaces just to be sure. The piece of gear had been a spare in their office, and only two of the interfaces were in use, but she investigated the others to make sure they were properly turned off, and that no one had plugged something into them they shouldn't have.
Everything appeared clean. Dar got up and went to the rack, opening its door with the universal key she kept on her ring. She checked the cables on the front then went around to the back and stuck her head inside the cabinet, a warm gust of vented air blowing against her face carrying the distinct scent of electrons.
"Anything?" Kerry peeked in the front and peered between the switch and the router at her, the edges of the gear framing her sea green eyes.
"Nah."
"Should we call the cops, Dar? I don't think those guys are going to take no for an answer again, even from you." Kerry lowered her voice. "I really don't want to be involved in a dockside brawl."
Dar rested her chin on the switch. "We could call my Dad. Then you could just watch a dockside brawl instead of being in one." She removed her head from the cabinet and closed the door, locking it carefully. Walking around to the front, she pulled Kerry from the rack and shut the front panel as well. "Now that I'm sure we're clean, maybe I'll be nice and let them look. But don't count on it."
"Huh." Kerry leaned against the rack. "What would make them think something was coming from here, then?"
Good question. Dar bit the inside of her lip gently. "Did we have the circuit pinned down right into here?"
"Yes." Kerry nodded. "I could have had it into the central telco closet, but I elected to pay the extra bucks and have it drop directly into this room." She pointed to a locked, gray box on the wall. "There."
"Nice." Dar said approvingly.
"Kerry, we did get this today." Cheryl came over and offered Kerry a fax. "It's the pre-order shipping list for the network gear."
Kerry studied the paper. "Good. Do we have a completion yet from the wiring guys?"
"No." Cheryl shook her head. "And my problem is, if this stuff shows up before they're done, we're going to have to find someplace to store it all. I don't think it'll fit in here."
Kerry looked around at the interior of the somewhat dingy office. She'd had a cleaning service come in, but the walls really needed a coat of paint instead of the scrubbing they'd done, and she could still smell the sharp scent of new office carpet underfoot. "We'll need some place to set the gear up before it goes on the ship, too."
"Yes."
That meant she had to rent more space. More expenses to charge against the project, which was already expensive and she was under pressure to deliver a price to Quest that was bare minimum. Kerry sighed. "I'll see what I can do."
Footsteps made them all look up, but it was only John, the wiring contractor, who entered. "Afternoon!" He noticed Dar near the rack and grinned. "Should have put in ten percent just for aggravation. My god, those people are a ratchety bunch."
"The ship people?" Kerry was mildly surprised. "I thought we ironed things out with them?"
"Ah." John went to the small refrigerator in the back of the office and removed a soda, popping it open and taking a swallow. "It's the engine guys. They get their pusses into everything in there--want to know what I'm doing, where I'm doing it, what kind of cable--for the love of god, what part of shielded twisted pair are they not getting? Damn chief engineer made me give him a sample this morning."
Dar and Kerry exchanged looks. "Well, after we arm wrestle the pier people we can go talk to the captain," Kerry said, with a sigh.
"Good idea," Dar agreed. "Ah, here comes the goon squad now." She watched through the open office door as a group of men rounded the corner and headed in their direction. The two men they'd chased out earlier were in the lead, with three other men, big guys in jackets, coming after them.
"What the hell's up with that?" John wondered. "Who are those guys?"
Kerry moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with Dar in front of the network rack. If she stopped to think about it, the entire situation was almost sublime in its ridiculousness. Intelligent human beings did not put their bodies on the line for enterprise switches, no matter how expensive they were.
Dar folded her arms and fixed the men with a cool, blue glare.
On the other hand, Kerry smiled inwardly, smart guys didn't mess with Dar, either. Watching the group approach, she had to acknowledge that she could almost smell the stupidity in the air.
Her nose wrinkled, and she hoped Andrew had gotten her note.
THE SCENT OF acrid, hot oil attracted Andrew's attention as he crossed over the gangway into the ship. He stopped midway and leaned over the rail, peering down at the green water with a frown. The surface appeared clear, but the smell continued, and he stepped back off the gangway to walk along the edge of the pier.
With all the construction going on around, there were chemicals and stinks everywhere. But to someone who had spent as much time as Andrew had on ships, certain smells always meant trouble, and diesel oil was one of them.
He walked along the ship, pausing to look down between the hull and the water, until he was halfway down. Then his eyes caught a multi-color reflection on the surface that caught the sun in a bad way. The smell was much stronger, and as he knelt down and examined the slick, he also heard a faint grinding sound from inside the ship.
"Wall." Andy sat down on the concrete and let his legs dangle over the side. "That does not sound like any good thing."
The surface of the water was shiny with oil, and the slight current was taking the slick forward of the ship heading out the cut and toward the sea. Boats discharging into the ocean weren't a rare thing, but he knew cruise ships were watched closely and fined if they were found doing it.
He kicked his boots against the seawall regarding the slick. If he looked all the way down the channel, he could see the oily reflection extending past the ship he was working on, past the space between the piers, and on toward the ship Dar and Kerry were taking care of.
Andrew's brow creased a little. He pushed himself to his feet and walked toward the other ship. The sun revealed the slick extending to the rear of it, as he'd suspected, but as he closed in on the other vessel, he could see that an oily residue seemed to be seeping from it, as well.
Midway between the ships, Andrew stopped and put his hands on his denim clad hips. Several workmen passing by looked at him, but none spoke. He stood there regarding the water, considering his options. "If I saw this here stuff, sure as hell everyone else did too."
"Hey, Ugly!"