Melissa Good - Storm Surge

Chapter Twenty-Three

"KERRY, THE GOVERNOR of New York is on the line for you again." A quiet, apologetic voice broke into the chatter. "I told him you were working at the Pentagon, but he wants to talk to you anyway."

Kerry rested her head against her fist, her body curled up in one of the bus's leather chairs, finally vacated by one of the busy military officers. "No problem, give me a minute." She clicked her mic on, resisting the urge to rub her eyes. "Believe me, Newark, we're going to the wall here to pull the Pentagon traffic off your grid and put it back where it belongs."

"We know that, ma'am. I tried to explain that. I just--" The satellite supervisor sounded as exhausted as Kerry felt. "He just doesn't want to take that answer. I think he's as frustrated as we are."

Kerry reviewed the status on her teams. "Maybe he'll let me send the remote sat trucks in then," she mused.

"Would you like some coffee, ma'am?" One of the bus's seemingly tireless attendants stopped by with a tray. "We have some fresh cookies baking too."

"Sure." Kerry checked her watch, wincing a little at the time. "Strong as you got it. Thanks." She rattled at her keyboard and settled her ear buds more firmly. "Okay, go ahead and call my cell, Newark. Patch me into the governor."

"Stand by, ma'am."

Nearly midnight. Kerry leaned against the chair arm, glad it was big enough for her to curl up in, tucking her tired legs up under her in relative comfort. She knew herself to be far luckier than her partner. Dar was half buried in cables in that dry and dusty room faced with an almost never-ending task before her.

Kerry felt a little abashed, in fact, that she was here in the bus instead of at Dar's side, but there wasn't any way for her to connect to the conference in there and there was just so damned much to do.

So damned much. Her cell phone rang, and she closed the mic off to open it up. "Kerry Stuart," she announced quietly, turning her head a little as the attendant came back with a big, steaming mug that smelled of hazelnut.

"Hello, Kerry?"

Poised to deal with an annoyed politician, Kerry had to rapidly ratchet through her mental gears to deal with another one altogether. "Hello, Mother," she said. "Sorry, I was expecting the governor. "

"Oh. Well, of course, I'm sorry I disturbed you, ah--"

Kerry smiled, and picked up her coffee cup. "No problem. I'd rather be talking to you since you probably aren't going to ask me to do something impossible."

Dead silence for a moment. "Ah, well, yes, I see. Of course," Cynthia spluttered. "My goodness, that sounds terrible. Are you still working? It's so late. I just wanted to find out where you and Dar ended up this evening."

Was I supposed to call her? Kerry suddenly wondered. "Right now, we're at the Pentagon," she said. "Dar is hip deep in cables and I'm still working on issues from our bus."

"Oh my!" her mother said. "Kerry, it's midnight!"

"I know," Kerry acknowledged. "It feels like it's midnight. But we don't really have a choice. We have to get things fixed here, so we can get things moving for the governor, so we can get out of here and head to New York where apparently we're needed to save the Western world." She paused. "Or something like that."

"My goodness."

"By Monday," Kerry added. "So anyway. How was your day? When do you head back home?"

Her cell phone buzzed a second incoming call. She briefly toyed with the idea of letting it go to voice mail then sighed. "Hold on a minute, okay? I think that's the governor."

"Of course."

Kerry put the call on hold and answered the second. "Hello?"

"Ms, Stuart, I have the governor for you." The sound of the Newark ops manager's voice echoed softly in her ear. "Okay to conference?"

"Sure." Kerry sipped her coffee and waited for the click. "Good..." She checked her watch. "Morning, governor. What can I do for you?"

"Yes, Ms. Stuart, good morning to you too. Now listen, I know we spoke earlier but things are getting fairly critical here and--"

"Governor." Kerry interrupted him gently, but with force in her tone. "Things are critical here, too."

"I do understand that," the governor said. "But here's the situation. Our emergency command center was in 7 World Trade. Never even been used. We're working to set up a center to replace it but without being connected to anything we might as well be setting it up on a boat on the Niagara River."

Kerry closed her eyes in frustration. "I know--please understand sir I do know you need to--" She stopped and took a breath. Stop, think, then act, Ker. "Where are you setting up a command center, sir?"

"Pier 92," the governor said. "It's the old passenger cruise terminal. Right on the Hudson."

On the Hudson. Kerry racked her brains for a long moment. "I don't think we--" She paused. "Wait. That's right next to the Intrepid Air museum, isn't it?"

"Yes, yes it is," the Governor agreed. "Just down from there. Does that help? Is there something you can do? Come on, Ms. Stuart. We contracted with you because you people were supposed to be the best. Now, I need the best. We don't have a choice."

"We might be able to," Kerry said, after a pause. "I need to pull up our schematics in that area. I will have to get back to you on it."

"I need an answer, Ms. Stuart."

"You need an answer that's meaningful and correct, Governor. Not bullshit I'm pulling out of my ass just to make you get off the phone." Kerry could scarcely believe she'd just said that. "I'll do my best. That's all I can give you right now."

The man sighed. "When can I expect to hear from you? We're running out of time."

"As soon as I have the answer, you'll hear from me. That could be in ten minutes, or it could be tomorrow morning. Depends on how much detail I need, and if I can get hold of someone on the ground there," Kerry said. "You may need to clear some obstacles for us."

"Obstacles?" the governor asked. "You mean people? Ms. Stuart, you find obstacles, you call me. Understand?"

"I do."

"Hope to hear from you soon. Goodbye." The governor hung up.

Kerry took another sip of her coffee, before she clicked back to her call on hold. "Hello, Mother." She looked up as a wonderful scent of fresh cookies came close, and found a platter almost at eye level to her. "Thank you," she mouthed at the attendant, capturing three of the cookies, their warmth stinging her skin a little.

"Dear, I don't mean to keep you. I hope things are going better," Cynthia said. "I have a flight back to Michigan tomorrow. Is there anything I can do for you here before I go?"

"Hold that thought a minute, Mother." Kerry motioned to the attendant, taking a bite of the warm cookie as the woman came back over. "Could you please have a tray of those and a gallon of cold milk with cups taken to the work site?"

"Absolutely, ma'am. Let me get one of the guys to ride me over," the attendant said. "Not a problem at all."

"Thanks." Kerry smiled at her, then shifted her attention back to the phone. "Mother," she said. "Thanks for hanging on. It's a little crazy here."

"I can hear that," Cynthia said. "Are you going to get some rest? What about poor Dar? She must be exhausted after all that traveling."

Dar must be. Kerry felt faintly abashed. "I'm going to go see if I can get her to take a break right now, matter of fact," she said. "But we've got a lot on our plates and getting more every time the phone rings."

"My."

"Anyway," Kerry sighed. "Thanks for offering. Just travel safe, and give Angie and Mike a hug for me."

"Well, I'm sure they'd be happier if you were coming back with me, but I will give them your best wishes. Try to get some rest," her mother said. "If there's anything I can do to help, just call."

"I will," Kerry said. "Good night, Mother."