Kerry folded her arms across her chest. "Okay." She was in a mood to be mildly benign. "What can I do for you, then?"
"First off, I'm Ben." He stuck his hand out. "And yeah, I know I'm working on that whole ship story and Telegenics being the underdog up and comer. Okay? Okay."
"Okay."
"But you know what?" Ben said. "The real story in that room today, and here tonight is you."
"Me?" Kerry sounded skeptical.
"Yeah," Ben said. "Yesterday, in that meeting, what I got from you was that it was a waste of your time. That's a strange kind of attitude for someone trying to get some new business."
Kerry considered the question. "I did consider it a waste of time. Not necessarily just of mine, but everyone else's also." She paused. "What was the purpose of having us all there? We were just responding to a fairly standard RFP."
The reporter shifted a little. "Well, maybe that's just how the customer likes to do it," he said. "Who knows?"
"Maybe." Kerry watched his face. "But you know, the last time I saw something like that Michelle Graver was involved too. I wonder if she didn't give Quest the idea."
His face twitched, too fast for him to hide it. "I have no idea," he said, after an awkward pause. "But anyway, now here you are, hacking your way into the phone system. What's the story? I heard the local news people say you got this pushed through when there's two hospitals who can't get phones and emergency service is down."
"There is no story," Kerry countered. "I'm just doing my job. Taking care of my customers. You should be asking the county why they aren't doing what I did."
"Maybe you're just smarter than all of them." Ben smiled.
Kerry hiked an eyebrow at him.
Ben studied her, then grinned a little. "Flattery doesn't do you, huh?"
"Buddy...the pond I come from, you wouldn't even register as a goldfish," Kerry told him. "So, if you don't mind--I'm going to close up shop here and go find myself a nice hot shower, and someplace relatively cool to sleep."
Ben laughed. "Oo...now, Ms. Stuart, is that a way to treat the press?"
"No." Kerry's eyes twinkled slyly. "But I don't have anywhere to hide the body here, and it's too hot anyway. So you lucked out."
The reporter laughed. "Okay, I get the message."
"Good. My can of spray paint's in the back of my partner's car. Hate to have to go get one just for you."
Ben laughed harder. "Ms. Stuart, please. When this crazy nuthouse city gets back to normal..."
"You mean it's not?"
"When the power comes on," Ben clarified. "Could you please sit down and let me interview you? I've gotten a really one-sided perspective of the...well, the competition. I'm seeing a different story here than I was led to believe originally."
Hm. "Okay," Kerry agreed. "Sure. If the power's not on tomorrow, the meeting Quest called will be canceled anyway unless he wants to have it in our offices. So...why not?"
It would be a good opportunity to maybe put a screw in Michelle's plan, and turn the tables a little. "Here's my card." She handed over one from her wallet. "Give me a call."
Ben eagerly squirreled away the card. "Boy, that was easier than I thought it would be."
Kerry gave him a wry look. "Good night." She circled around him and went over to the truck, resting one hand on the edge of the deck. "How's it looking, guys?"
"Lot better than it did when we started." The younger of the techs noted. "Ma'am, you rock."
Mark chuckled.
Kerry just grinned. "Well for the record, you all rock too, and not only I think that. Dar wanted me to tell everyone how much she appreciates the effort that was put in here tonight. She's about to go into a board meeting, and you just made her evening a lot more pleasant.
"Wheew." Mark whistled. "Hey, you should get the credit, Kerry. We just did the grunt work."
"It's all a team." Kerry shook her head. "Mark, can you get some people to take turns watching this, and keeping the generators going all night?"
"Already done." Mark rocked up and down on his heels. "I got twelve guys lined up, three guys every four hours. First bunch's due here in like, ten minutes then these guys can beat ass home."
"Good." Kerry looked around into the dark areas surrounding them. "Do we need security?" She lowered her voice. "I can have Matt send some guys over from the office. It's going to be a long night."
"Yeah," Mark agreed. "Good idea."
Kerry stepped away a little and took out her cell phone, glad the ordeal was, for her, almost over. Then another thought occurred to her and she cursed silently, waiting for the line to connect. It did, and she spoke briefly to the security supervisor on duty, then disconnected and called a different number.
"Hey, John? It's Kerry Stuart. How are...ah." Kerry could hear the chaos on the other end. "Ferries not running, huh?" She exhaled, listening to the man's exasperated tone. "Okay, well, thanks." She closed the phone and sighed. "Well, poo."
"What's up, boss?" Mark stuck his head around the corner of the truck. "No security?"
"No, they're on their way over." Kerry sighed. "But I just realized I have no way to get home. Our ferry ramps are shut down. They're getting the one island side on the generator but the one on the causeway end is dead in the water." She paused. "Literally."
"Yow."
"Yeah. Maybe I'll go sleep on the beach...and poor Chino." Kerry frowned. "Rats, rats, rats and fruit bats."
Well, there was always a hotel. Kerry gave the side of the truck a slap. "C'mon, Mark. I'll drop you back by the office for your car. Sorry about the bike."
"Couldn't have given it to me anyway." Mark climbed down out of the back of the vehicle and joined her. "Garage doors won't open."
Hm. Kerry booted a rock out of her way as they headed for the Lexus. Power outages were much, MUCH more fun when Dar was around.
Otherwise, they were just one big pain in the poot.
A FIRE ENGINE woke Dar up. She sat up in a confusion of dark strangeness, streetlights splashing an unfamiliar pattern across the sheets covering her as she spent a moment remembering where she was. The howl of the siren peaked outside, then slowly faded, piercing through the closed windows effortlessly.
Other sounds intruded after it. A chugging rumble, followed by a crash of metal against metal, some garbage truck, maybe. Then the soft, far off sound of a jackhammer.
Another siren, blaring suddenly to life almost under the window, loud and frightening, and much slower to fade.
"Damn." Dar hiked herself up and leaned back against the headboard, raking her fingers through her hair to move it out of her eyes as she waited for her heartbeat to settle back down. The darkness outside reassured her she hadn't overslept her travel alarm, but now that she was wide awake she doubted she could take advantage of the remaining time to fall back asleep.
At least not without Kerry there. Dar reached for the television remote and shifted to a cross-legged position as she flipped the button on to check the news.
Kerry wasn't a break of dawn person, Dar had discovered. Given her own natural preference, her partner preferred to let bright sunlight wake her up, long after Dar normally would be rambling around the condo.
Living together meant they'd had to learn to compromise.
As it turned out, they both enjoyed a morning cuddle, and slowly they'd adjusted their personal body clocks to allow that, plus their runs, plus time to get ready for work without making it to the office too disgracefully late every day.
Sharing a shower helped. Dar grinned slightly. Though occasionally that backfired and threw their schedule off even more when they got the giggles and lost track of time while playing around with each other, indulging in the open sensuality between them.
Natural to them now, but she could remember a time when Kerry had been far shyer, still unsure of herself and far from confident in her attractiveness at the very start of their relationship together.