"Uh oh. That doesn't sound good," Kerry muttered.
Quest came over, leaving the house phone on the wall he'd been talking on. "Well, it appears it's not the hotel's fault," he announced. "Apparently the power is out all over the city." His eyes fell on Kerry. "Some screw up or other."
"Okay," Mark said. "I'll tell her." He shut the phone and clipped it to his belt. "Boss?"
Kerry felt the buzzing against her palm as alerts came one after another. She kept her expression mildly interested though. "So, does that mean your meetings for this afternoon are postponed?" she asked. "We'd like to beat traffic back to our offices if that's the case."
"Well." Quest looked briefly nonplussed. "There's nothing we can do right now. I have a presentation I was going to show, but it will need to be rescheduled. I expect you all to remain available for that." He motioned to his staff and started down the stairs toward the hotel front desk.
"What are we supposed to do?" Shari asked. "Just hang around here in the dark?"
Kerry bit her tongue on the obvious response. "If the AC's off in here, I'd actually go outside if I were you," she offered. "It gets very hot, very fast. Mark, let's head back to our offices. I'm sure we can get some work done in the meantime."
"Gee, thanks Kerry," Ross exhaled. "I was supposed to fly back to Oregon tonight." He started down the stairs. "Damn it."
"See you all later." Kerry motioned for Mark to follow her and they trotted down the steps, getting some distance away from the rest of the crowd before speaking. "Are we in trouble?" she asked.
"Big time screwed," Mark confirmed. "We lost all our links."
"What?" Kerry stopped in mid step, and stared at him.
"Think you better book, poquito boss. They can't even call into or out of the office. Lucky we got our cells."
"Jesus." Kerry fought to keep herself from breaking into a run. "What in the hell happened to the redundant systems?"
"No one can get through to the Telco to find out."
"God damn it."
THERE WAS JUST enough breeze for Dar to be able to sit in comfort, allowing the late afternoon sun to drench her with its oddly pallid light. She had a delightfully intricate tour behind her, two bags of rampantly tourist-flavored purchases next to her, and a bellyful of cherry vanilla ice cream.
Life was good.
The museum had charmed her and she was fairly sure her knickknack acquisitions were going to charm her family.
Her family. Dar had to stop and take a breath, releasing it slowly as she thought about how full of family her life was now. She'd gotten a sub model and a sweatshirt for her dad, and a space shuttle plus a T-shirt that said 'my husband is in the navy, and all I got was this T-shirt and a pail of seaweed' for her mom, and a bagful of god only knew what for Kerry. Even Chino had gotten a toy.
It was a radical change for her, having so many people to get things for. Dar removed the stuffed squeaky Apollo capsule she was sure Chino would tear apart in no time and examined it, squeezing it gently with her fingers and listening to the wheezy bright sound.
It certainly made shopping a lot more fun though. Dar grinned. She'd gotten herself a few things, but she'd extracted far more enjoyment in picking stuff out for everyone else, especially the bagful of items for her partner.
Silly things. But Dar was certain Kerry would love them, and that a good number of them would find their way into the office to perch in, hopefully, inconspicuous spots near her desk. The hours of exploration had restored her good humor, as had the moments of indulgence in old memories that the smell of brass and diesel had called up to her.
In fact, Dar pulled out her conspicuously silent PDA and opened it, scribbling a little note and sending it on its way. She waited for a short while, but didn't get an answer, and figured Kerry was probably either busy with the meeting, or had fallen asleep at the meeting, but probably was doing just fine.
Dar decided she'd had a long enough rest, and after flexing her calves a few times, she stood up and arranged her shopping bags, then started back down toward the city and away from the docks. Now toward evening, the foot traffic was starting to pick up, and the harried looks of the people on the street were relaxing as the workday was ending.
Well, if she was stuck in New York, at least she'd had the afternoon off. Dar strolled down the sidewalk, pausing as a small bar caught her attention. After a moment's hesitation, she shrugged one shoulder and entered, finding a spot in a quiet area off to one side.
She eased onto one of the high stools and set her bags down by her feet, resting her forearms on the round wooden table as one of the waitresses scooted over to her. "Hi."
"What can I getcha?" the girl asked, putting down a small, square napkin next to Dar's elbow.
Milk? Dar glanced around the place, which oozed a tavern atmosphere she could almost feel coating her skin. Hm. Her eyes fell on the beer tap, and spotted a name she knew Kerry liked. "Ah, I'll take a Killian," she decided. "And a plate of wings."
"No problem." The girl looked approvingly at her. "C'm right up." She headed back toward the bar, leaving Dar to appreciate her surroundings more fully.
Bars generally weren't places she tended to hang out in, at least not by herself. Deferring to Kerry's fondness for good brew, she accompanied her partner into pubs and enjoyed them, but more for the company than for the alcohol.
She didn't mind beer. As long as it was served very cold and didn't have too strong a taste it satisfied her and she'd found it a reasonable thing to drink when she was with others due to its relatively small alcohol content. She'd seen enough people drunk off their asses to know she had no personal desire to emulate them.
Kerry was a cute drunk. She got silly, and publicly snuggly, the sweeter side of her personality coming out. Dar, on the other hand, knew herself to be a surly drunk the few times she'd gone down that road and reasoned she was better off stopping before things got ugly.
She sure didn't want Kerry to have to deal with that. Dar let her chin rest on her fist and sighed.
A television was on above the bar, and she amused herself by watching the basketball game in progress, mildly surprised to find the players female. A news banner ran chattily under the picture, but she steadfastly ignored it until a familiar word caught her attention.
Miami.
Dar leaned forward and focused on the headline, gritting her teeth and squinting slightly to keep the words in focus.
It didn't take long. "Son of a bitch," she uttered with feeling. "Why the hell didn't she call me?" Dar removed her cell phone from its clip on her belt and hit a speed button, waiting for it to connect and then holding it to her ear.
It rang eight times before it was answered, and then the first sound that came down the line was a rattling noise and a seriously Midwestern sounding curse.
"God bless the milkman...yes, hello?" Kerry growled into the phone. By her tone she obviously was at the end of the chain tied to the ribbon tied to the end of her rope.
Dar waited a moment, then exhaled. "I love you."
There was a few heartbeats of silence, then a soft grunt came down the line, and a sound Dar recognized as a body landing in the leather chair in her office.
"Jesus," Kerry exhaled.
"No, just me," Dar responded. "I just saw the headlines on the television. How's it going there?"
"Well," Kerry said. "Entire city has no power."
"Son of a bitch."
"Yeah," her partner exhaled. "On the other hand, every single employee in this building is lighting candles of prayer to your image for having a diesel generator big enough to run the air plants."
"I'm a native. I know better."
Kerry faintly chuckled, then sighed. "Now for the really bad news. I have a headache the size of the Orange Bowl, and Bellsouth blew their backup power to one central office and a spike blew their OC on the other. We have no telecom or data services into the building."