so I am leaving my current job. I might actually slow down in uploads. Maybe I am not sure... at least not for this story but deffinitely everything else because I will only have three days to do any writing and editing so yeah we will see what my next job is like. will let you know in two weeks.

Thirty

Tori settled into her seat, glad of the very early morning quiet of the office on a rainy Monday morning. She had a meeting scheduled with Sinjin and the technical team for the bid in an hour, and she intended on using the time before then to square away the project and tie up a few loose ends.

"Hey, Mayte?" She pressed her intercom. "You there?"

"Yes! I am."

"Did we get the circuit completion on the pier?" Tori asked. "I don't have anything here on it."

"I will check." Mayte promised. "They were saying on Friday that it would be done."

"Okay, thanks." Tori set that problem aside. She pulled over a folder with requisitions for the project, and reviewed them. "Yikes.. is this just for the setup team?" She sighed, leafing through the pages. Money to establish an office at the pier and get that up and running, and provisioning for the gear to equip the office. "Damn, IT is expensive." She shook her head and signed the pages, closing the folder and tossing it into her out bin.

"Tori?" Mayte's voice crackled in.

"Yeesss?" Tori answered.

Her assistant laughed softly. "You sound so funny when you do that."

"Do I sound like Jade?" Tori's eyes twinkled.

"A little." Mayte admitted. "Only not so big."

Tori's eyebrow lifted.

"The circuits have come complete." Mayte went on. "The Bellsouth man says it is terminated in the local office on Brickell – he needs to know from you which to patch here."

"Tell him the Pier 10 one." Tori replied. "But hold on to the other ones – I might be able to rent them." She hummed softly in satisfaction. "Okay, we're good to go." She typed a message to mark, then took a sip of her morning tea.

The door opened and Mayte slipped inside, coming over to her desk with a folder in her hands. "Good morning."

"Morning!" Tori pointed at her outbox. "Can you make sure that gets down to purchasing? We're gonna need it." She glanced at her assistant. "That's a pretty shirt. I like it."

Mayte blushed visibly. "Mama got it for me this weekend." She fingered the silk shyly. "I think she was trying to make it up to me for getting me in so much trouble when you went to New York." She hesitated. "Tori, you were talking last week about going diving. Do you like that a lot?"

Tori leaned back in her chair. "Absolutely." She said. "In fact, Jade and I went on a night dive on Friday night… it was wonderful. I saw a moray eel."

Mayte nodded seriously. "I think I would like to try that. Do you know where I could find out about it?"

"Sure. Matter of fact, you can borrow my study materials, to see if you like it. Remind me and I'll bring them in tomorrow." Her boss promised. "It's a great sport… ah, did you tell your parents you wanted to do this?"

"No." Mayte grinned a little. "I did not think they would like it. Mama is always worried the sharks will eat you and la Chefa when you go." She confided. "Have you seen a shark?"

"Sure." Tori said. "But it was in a tank at Disney World. Does that count?" She grinned at her assistant's look of bewilderment. "Anyway, I"ll bring the stuff in and you can read it. Really, it's a lot of fun."

"Thank you." The girl said. "I will tell mama afterwards. Yes?"

"You learn fast." Tori winked. "Hey, maybe you can come out with us diving if you decide you like it. I think your mama trusts us to take care of you."

Mayte's eyes lit up. "I think so too!" She blurted. "Thank you!" Her gaze dropped to the folder in her hands. "This came for you." She held it out. "I am sorry, I am taking up your time."

Tori took the folder, and watched in some bemusement as Mayte trotted for the door and escaped into the outer office. "Huh." She put the folder down and opened it. "What got into her, I wonder?"

"You."

Tori nearly jumped out of her seat before she recognized the voice. "Jesus, Jade." She looked over at the inner door. "You scared the shit out of me." Her brow creased. "What do you mean, me?"

Her partner strolled over and took a seat on the edge of Tori's desk. "You haven't noticed she has a crush on you yet?"

"Oh, she does not." Tori scoffed. "Get out of here. She's a nice kid, and she loves working here. What, because she's interested in diving, you think she's got a crush on me?"

The corners of Jade's eyes creased as a little grin appeared. "Okay, don't say I didn't warn you. Did those lines come in?"

"Yes." Tori nodded. "I was going to send Sinjin and a team there to get the office set up and facilities working. Did you want to go look at the ship?"

Jade got up and went to the window, looking out as she pressed her fingertips against the glass. "No." She did a few vertical push ups. "I've got something I'm working on in ops. Maybe I'll go over tonight, after the crowds take off."

"Okay."

"I just talked to Alastair."

Tori half turned to face her partner. "And?"

"The contracts this contract is tied into will either make or break the quarter, he thinks."

Nothing like a little pressure. "Okay… but the quarter just started."

"New business is down forty percent on the month." Jade kept doing her push ups. "Alastair said people are waiting to see what happens with this one. It's too public."

"So we have to win it." Tori exhaled. "No options."

Jade nodded. "I've got to go to ops." She pushed away from the window. "Tell Sinjin I'm sure Telegenics and everyone else is going to be crawling over our people at the pier. Pick the right people to go down there. I don't want a leak inside."

"All right." Tori watched the door close behind her. "I'll do that." She added softly.

Things were getting serious. She figured it was only going to get uglier as they went along, and at the end? What if they just couldn't put in a competitive bid? Would Jade agree to a money losing contract to secure the more lucrative one behind it?

Tori picked up her pen and chewed the end of it, thoughtfully.

"Okay." Tori removed her sunglasses as she entered the port building, looking around and spotting one of their security people near the back door. "Hey, John."

"Ms. Vega." The man hurried over. "Glad you're here. There are some people over in the office causing a problem. The pier folks brought them over."

Tori sighed, and stuck her glasses into the pocket of the red camp shirt she'd put on for her visit to the port. "Lead on." She gestured towards the back. The building was a lot more noisy than it had been on her previous visit, and she could hear the sounds of various power tools going as the infrastructure staff put together their temporary office.

They walked through the entryway and into the back hall. Tori spotted Michelle Graver's distinctive figure in the doorway to their office, along with her camera people and she only just prevented herself from audibly growling. "What's going on here?" She asked instead, putting a sharp note into her voice.

Michelle turned, along with the cameraman, and the port agent. The port agent had the grace to look apologetic, but Michelle certainly didn't.

"We're just documenting the first of many instances of WesTrek's attempting to sabotage everyone else's efforts." Michelle said bluntly. "In this case, by taking all the spare pairs into the port, and preventing us from putting a circuit in." She advanced aggressively on Tori, pointing her finger at her. "Didn't think we'd find out?"

Tori waited for Michelle to stop walking, then she made the most of her few inch height advantage. "If you can the Joe Friday routine, I'll rent you one of the lines. Otherwise, take yourself out of my administrative space, please. I have work to do." She was very aware of the camera focused on her, and the wide eyed stares coming from her people inside the office, but she kept her even gaze on Michelle's face. "And for the record, my forethought does not equal your sabotage. Now take off."

"Forethought? No one knew what building we'd be in." Michelle shot back.

"That's right. So I had lines dropped in all of them." Tori replied. "Now, if you're interested in that rental, we'll talk price. If not, goodbye."
"And help you recoup the cost you'll have to charge the client? Over my dead body." Michelle moved around her and motioned for the cameraman to follow her. "We'll find another way." She brushed by Tori, coming very close to making physical contact before she got past and headed for the door. The port agent hurried after her, not without giving Tori a frazzled look.

"Nice way to start the day." Tori exhaled, turning back to the office. "Brenda, give the other two piers a call. Offer them use of those lines for a passthrough cost, with a two percent administrative charge for our carrying them and paying the bills."

"Yes, ma'am." Brenda went to a phone immediately, and dialed after consulting a small directory.

"Smooth, boss." Sinjin commented. "Slick idea to trip them all up."

Tori sat down on the edge of one of the folding tables. "Wasn't really the plan. I just needed to be sure we'd have a line on startup.. I had no idea they were short on pairs." She admitted wryly. "Ah well. How are we doing here?"

Sinjin came over and sat next to her. "Pretty good. The line's up to the office, and I just got the router in place. This room is crap for security, though."

Tori looked around and had to agree. The office was light plasterboard walls, and a single door with a simple bolt lock. No alarms, no reinforced panels, nothing. They were putting in six computers and the requisite network gear to support them, and aside from the need to protect corporate data, there was also the question of protecting the hardware itself from being walked off with. "Can we put a monitoring rig in here?"

"Sure." Sinjin said. "But when it goes off, it'll take us about twenty minutes too much to get down here before it all walks off. Not to mention, the line comes in to a public telco punchdown."

Ig. Worse and worse. "Okay, put a full security suite on the data." Tori sighed. "I'll see what we can work up to put security out here. Otherwise we'll have to make these boxes boot to the network, and keep everything at the office."

Sinjin nodded. "See what I can do." He got up and went back to work. Tori remained where she was for a few minutes, watching the activity, then she got up and left the office to head over to the ship.

The port agent entered from the front just as she was heading up the escalator, and she paused at the top for the woman to catch up with her. "Hi."

"Listen, I'm really sorry about that." The port agent apologized. "I had no idea Ms. Graver was going to do that, or that she'd bring those men! What's this all about?" The woman seemed very agitated. "The port didn't bargain for anything like this!"

Where to start? Tori decided no amount of explanation would really be adequate. "It's business." She explained shortly. "Just try to steer clear of it."

The woman eyed her. "Was she right? Did you do that to stop those people from working?"

Tori blinked. "That's really none of your business." She replied. "I'm telling you, don't get caught up in this. It's just going to be messy for the port if they try to get involved."

The woman's radio spluttered, and she listened intently. A man's voice came through, sounding rather desperate, asking for her to come mediate another dispute on the next pier. "That might be easier said than done." She told Tori. "So far it seems like all you people want to bring here is trouble." She turned and headed down the steps two at a time, talking into her radio.

"Yeesh." With a shake of her head, Tori went to the outside door and pushed it open, emerging into a blast of shimmering sunlight.

She had plenty of time to look at the ship in the daylight, as she walked along the endless outdoor passage that eventually got her to the gangway. The bottom was painted a dark blue, and the upper part was once apparently white – but now rust covered a good portion of the exterior and it was more a mottled yellowish gold color.

It looked sad, and worn, and she wondered again if all the work obviously needed to make it functional would be worth it. She ran a hand along the railing, the chipped paint spots feeling harsh and almost sharp against her fingers. The port showed it's many years resting here on the waterfront – it's concrete was pitted from wind and rain, and the walkway she was on had cracks both near the railing, and more ominously, near the wall.

Tori eyed a large split as she walked past it, and reasoned that if it held legions of cruise ship passengers en mass, it probably was fit to hold her hundred and thirty five pounds – but she scooted past it anyway just to be sure.

There was a guard hanging around the end of the gangway, but he just nodded as Tori showed him her corporate badge and went on gazing listlessly down the pier, watching men with forklifts move boxes around.

Tori walked up the gangway and across the metal bridge leading onto the ship. The railing had been folded back, and she found herself on the outside deck, about mid way up the vessel.

She looked down, to find worn, salt scoured teak meeting her eyes – in some places so discolored it was almost impossible to see a grain. But it was teak nonetheless, she recognized it from her experience with the Dixie, and as she walked towards the inside doors, it oddly comforted her.

Inside the doors, her first impression was one of overwhelming mildew. She stopped short and stifled a sneeze, staring around her in disbelief. The interior of the ship was, to put it mildly, a wreck. She was standing in what was apparently the main reception area, and all she could see was broken, dusty furniture, a ceiling in pieces, some of it hanging down almost to the ground, and dozens of rotting wooden boxes.

The stench was disgusting. It got inside her throat and she could taste it on the back of her tongue, a tinge of bad sewage lingering on it's edges. "Ugh." Tori swallowed hard, glad she hadn't stopped for lunch before coming over. After a moment, she got control of her stomach, and she then proceeded on, picking her way carefully through the debris. The interior of the ship seemed to be a total disaster, and it appeared to her that everything would have to be rebuilt to be used.

Which worked for her purposes, since she'd have to put cabling in ceilings and walls and that was always easier when they were being constructed. But she had to wonder yet again at Quest's purpose in refitting these old vessels. Surely it would take more money than the darn things were capable of recouping.

A man appeared, dressed in white overalls. He spotted Tori and stopped, looking her up and down with frank appraisal. "You want something?" He asked, in an odd accent not quite German.

"IT contractor." Tori responded briefly, holding up her identification.

The man grunted and turned his back on her, continuing on his way without a further word.

Tori edged down a partially blocked hallway and almost collided with another white-jumpsuited body. "Oh, sorry."
"Hi there. Can I help you?" The body turned around, resolving into a slim, good looking man with curly blond hair. "Are you looking for something?"

Tori stepped back a little. "Not really." She said. "I'm from the IT contracting company. Just looking around to see what we're going to have to do."

The man scratched his nose. "Oh, okay." He said. "It really looks worse than it is." He turned and peered back the way she had come. "The old girl's really got solid bones. It's all cosmetic stuff out there."

Tori recalled the holes in the hull she'd seen, and reserved judgement. "Are you part of the ship's staff?" She asked politely.

"I am!" He agreed. "I'm Tally Johnson, and I'm the captain's personal assistant. And you are…?"

"Tori Vega." Tori supplied. "From WesTrek. Do you have a few minutes to show me those bones you mentioned?"

The man positively beamed. "I sure do. You're the computer people, right? We heard we were going to get computers." He started leading Tori further inside the ship. "The captain's not so sure about that, but I heard we're even going to be able to get email. Is that true?"

Well, having a few friends in middling places was a good thing. Tori decided she liked perky Mr. Johnson. "That's a very good possibility, yes. We're planning on a satellite, and a new charging system, maybe even VOIP telephones."

Tally laughed. "Okay, you just went past me, Ms. Vega.."

"Tori, please." Tori gave him a charming smile. "Nah, it's not that bad, just phones that run over the computer network. You don't have anything like that now, right?"

"No way. We've got manual cash registers, and one old pc the purser used to use to make up the pax folis."

Tori chuckled. "Now you just went past me." She said. 'What's a purser, and whats a pax?"

Tally led her into another, smaller hallway with stairs going up and down. The destruction did seem to be less. Tally headed for the stairs, holding his hand out to her. "The purser is the fellow who handles all the money, and the pax are the passengers.. c'mon. Let me show you the old lady from the bottom up."

Tori followed him, avoiding the railing and it's thick coating of dust, and glad of her jeans and sturdy boots in negotiating the torn up carpet and broken steps. As the went down, the sounds of work, hammering and banging, increased and she had the sudden sensation of descending abruptly into another world.

The foreman checked off names at the gangway, glancing briefly at each worker as they came up to his desk. He eyed the next to last of them, a big guy wearing a sleeveless sweatshirt and very worn jeans. "Next?"

The man ambled up and presented a set of papers.

The foreman scanned them. "General work." He read. "You got a seaman's card?" He looked at the one presented, and nodded. "Service?"

"Navy."

"What'd you do?"

"Little'a every damn thing."

The foreman looked closely at the putative worker, noting the scars and the air of definitive but understated competence. "All right, West. Just give this to the guy at the ramp, and have at it. Contract's as long as the tubs are here. Understand?"

"Yeap."

The foreman scribbled a note on a card and handed it over. "Here." He fiddled with his pencil as the newcomer walked away, and then turned to the man sitting next to him. "Can't believe some of the guys they're passing through the security check, can you?"

The other man shook his head. "Want me to double check that one? I can have Alberto rerun him."

"Nah." The foreman made a rude hand gesture. "As long as he works, I don't give a crap. We've had worse on the docks, and at least this guy showers."

"And speaks English." The second man pointed out.

The foreman snorted, as he waved forward the last applicant. "Yeah. Probably make him a supervisor just for that."

Jade propped her laptop up a little more comfortably against her knee, and typed in another command. She was flat on her back underneath one of the racks, a pale blue cable extending from the jungle of equipment to the back of her machine.

The floor was cold against her skin, but she'd found a relatively all right piece of metal to rest her head against and at least for now, the odd position wasn't interfering with her ability to concentrate.

"Ms. West?"

The techs, on the other hand… "Yeees?" Jade rumbled.

"Um.. can I run a cable out here for you? That looks really awkward."

Jade wiggled one foot. "What does, my typing style?"

"Well, the floor, ma'am. Can't really be comfortable, huh?"

Jade typed another command in, and reviewed it's effect. She scowled and reversed it, tapping the enter key with unnecessary force. "Have you ever tried it?" She glanced quickly at him, before returning her attention to her task. "Lying on the floor?"

There was a moment's silence, then a squeak as the tech moved in his leather chair. "Uh.. well, sure… we have to do that all the time under there. That's why I said we'd.. um.." He cleared his throat. "Ma'am, it's uncomfortable."

"Well, I like it." Jade informed him. "It's good for your back."

"It is?"

"Sure." Jade tried to ignore the annoying object between her shoulder blades, which she suspected was a screw from the rack extracted and never replaced. A pet peeve of hers as a matter of fact. "Better than my bed sometimes, as a matter of fact."

The two techs moved around, causing more squeaks. The younger of the two, crewcutted blond Dave, leaned his elbows on his knees and gazed over at Jade. "You like waterbeds? I tried one once, but it moved too much for me. I got sick."

"I used to have a semi-waveless." Jade answered, distracted as a readout gave her an answer she hadn't expected. She switched to another screen and checked a monitor she had running, then frowned again and tried something else. "Damn it."

"Is that one that don't move, ma'am?" Dave said. "At all?"

"Not really." Jade muttered, biting off a grimace as she mistyped a command and had to redo it. "Depends on what you're doing in it."

It took a few seconds for the utter silence to penetrate her concentration. Then Jade turned her head to see two shocked faces looking back at her, jaws hanging. She took a moment to review her words, then felt her face shift into a grin. "Too much information, huh?"

Both techs nodded. "Way, way." Dave managed to get out. "No offense, Ms West."

"None taken." Jade replied graciously. "Didn't mean to freak you out."

They left her in peace for a while, shuffling and squeaking just out of her vision behind the racks and she took advantage of it to continue the slow process she'd started two hours prior.

She set the monitor running again and tried a new command, setting a complicated algorithm on one of their outside interfaces. The device accepted it, then began processing traffic with the instruction, causing her other screen to start spiking wildly. "Hm."

"Ma'am?"

"Not you." Jade typed a note to herself on yet another screen she had open, then she went back to the device and removed the command. "Just something I'm doing."

"Uh.. it's not like you freaked us out or anything."

Jade stopped typing in mid motion, and turned her head again. "No?"

Dave had scooted his chair over a little towards her. "No, I mean…you're really cool and all. We figured that out the last week or so."

"Thanks." A low beep interrupted this enlightening conversation. "Excuse me." Jade pulled out her phone and glanced at the screen. "Ah, heh."

Hey sweetie. Bet you'll never guess where I am!

Jade typed out a reply. Can you top lying under a router rack being grilled about our bed activities by the ops staff? She hit send, then waited patiently until she saw the light stutter on.

Uh…no. Not by a long shot. How did that happen?

Eh, good question. Got myself into it somehow. Anyway, where are you? Jade tapped. Thought you were going to the ship?

I'm in the morgue.

Jade stopped, blinked, and put her phone to her ear instead, kicking impatiently at the corner of the rack until the line was answered. "WHAT?"

Her partner delicately cleared her throat before answering. "Hi, honey."

"Where are you?" Jade dispensed with the niceties.

"Not nearly in as much trouble as you are, apparently." Tori answered, with a wry chuckle. "I'm in the ship's morgue. Did you know they had morgues?" She asked. "As well as a whole other lot of strange places?"

"Uh… " Jade collected her composure, scattered in tiny shreds around her on the floor. "Well, I guess I did. I mean, they have to – what else are you gonna do if someone croaks on a cruise? Put em in the freezer?"

A sound something like cross between a clucking chicken and a sneeze came from the vicinity of the ops console. Jade ignored it. "That'd be gross."

"Sure would" Tori said. "Now, tell me about our bed?" Her voice took on a slight echo, as though she'd cupped her hand around the phone. "You're not really talking to them about um…" A pause. "You know."

Jade glanced at the techs, who were pointedly not looking at her. "About what we do in bed? No." She admitted. "They wanted to do me a favor and I'm giving them a hard time. So – how's it look?"

Tori sighed. "It's a mess." She replied. "Jade, we're going to have such a pain in my butt getting cabling in here. They're going to have to puncture solid steel firewalls."

"Ig."

"And it all has to be STP."

A sigh. "Yeah, I figured that. It is on the Navy ships." Jade said. "Though I think there's less interference running around a cruise ship than on one of those."

"You'd think." Tori said. "I'm going to have the tech team come in here and start estimating for cable, but Jesus, Jade – they barely have telephones here! They still use handsets they plug into a live line!"

Jade winced. "It's going to be like cabling Grant's tomb." She said. "Okay, tell the guys to do it right. Find out every place they're gonna need anything, and let's just get out the bad news first."

"Will do." Tori said. "Hey, Jade?"

"Mm?" Jade shifted, crossing her ankles and gazing up at the bottom of the routers. "Did you know you can see the GBIC leds from underneath these things? They look like Christmas trees."'

Silence. "Uh.. sweetheart, why didn't you have those guys run a serial line for you?" Tori asked. "Instead of you lying under the racks?"

"That'd be too easy." Jade muttered, peeking at the techs. They peeked back at her, with nervous little grins. "So, what did you want?"

"Eh?"

"You said, 'hey Jade.'"

"OH." Tori pondered a minute. "You distracted me… and I realized I wanted the bed with you in it. But that wasn't what I was thinking about.. give me a second here."

Jade watched the leds flicker over her head, idly daydreaming about the scent of clean linen while she listened to Tori's faint breaths on the other end of the circuit. "Glad I wore jeans today." She commented. "Or this could have been really scandalous."

Tori muffled a snorted giggle. "You're so bad. Okay, I remember now. I've been hearing music from the Hard Rock every time I go out on deck. You want to have dinner over there when you come out later?"

"Sure." Jade replied, watching her monitor now. "But do you really need me to come out there? Sounds like you've got it all worked out. I could just pick you up." She juggled the phone against her ear and typed a command. "How about it?"

Tori didn't answer for a bit, and when she did, her voice had changed, a touch of uncertainty entering it. "Yeah, I guess." She said, slowly. "But don't you want to see the place for yourself?"

"Not really. I trust you."

"Jade, you said this was really important."

Jade released her laptop and took hold of the phone again. "It is, and you're really good at what you do, and I'm perfectly happy to leave it in your hands.. is there a problem with that?" She queried, unsure of what was going on with her partner. "Tor?"

A soft inhale sounded clearly down the line. "No, it's not a problem at all." Tori answered, her voice warming. "Thank you for the vote of confidence.. I know how critical this is, and I'm glad you trust me to take care of it."

Jade waited. Nothing else was forthcoming. "But?" She prompted.

A sigh.

"But you want me to look at it anyway?"

"You have much more maritime experience than I do." Tori explained, not bothering to confirm her guess directly. "This is a new world for me, and I want to make absolutely sure I size it right the first time. I would appreciate your insights, yes."

Well, that was true enough, Jade had to admit to herself. Tori knew enough about boats to get the Dixie out of dock, but there was no way around the fact that Jade had spent her childhood around big ships, and she just knew a lot more about their peculiarities. "Point made" She gave in gracefully. "Meet you there at six?"

"You're on." Tori sounded much happier now. "I'll meet you out by the front. Oh.." She cleared her throat. "By the way, I'm the Demon of the Dock, I'll have you know."

"You are?"

"I deliberately took all the pairs into the pier to keep everyone else out, and am now making a scandalous profit renting them."

"Bwaahahhahaaha…" Jade started laughing, almost banging her head on the bottom of the rack. "If I stop and get you a pair of devil's horns, will you wear them to dinner?"

"Pffft. Just for that, I'm going to stick you with my pitchfork."

"Just for that, I'm going to grab your.."

"Jade, aren't you in the ops center?" Tori interrupted innocently.

"Ahem."

"See you later. I have to go on the rest of my tour with my new friend Tally." Tori chuckled. "I get to see the crew mess next. They want to put internet in there."

Jade chuckled as well. "Have fun." She said. "See you later." A moment after folding the phone closed, she glanced at the console. Both techs had their faces buried so far into their screens she feared they were absorbing the EF right through their skins.

Ah well. Jade went back to her router. So what were a few more scandalous stories, anyway.