That dude is p3ersistent. But are Jade's instincts right?

Eleven

"No." Jade slung her leg over one chair arm, leaning on the other. "I'm not interested."

Peter Quest looked puzzled. "You're not?" He asked. "I don't understand. You're a services company, we're looking for someone to come in and install, maintain, and run networks on all our ships. What's the problem?"

"I'm not in the business of being part of a circus." Jade replied. "Why don't you just throw open the business for bids? Plenty of companies around who'd be willing to tender. Why sneak around making secret deals to have people come in?"

Quest looked around carefully, then lowered his voice. "It's really complicated." He said. "Listen, can we go somewhere more private.. like the bar?"

Jade's eyebrow lifted. "No." She said. "My partner's going to come back through here looking for me and damned if she'd look there." She told Quest. "So talk, or take a hike."

The man exhaled. "You're a difficult person, Ms. West."

Jade shrugged.

"Okay, here's the deal." Quest went on. "My company, American Visions, intends on being the first American cruise line in decades." He said. "We've gotten ahold of six ships, and we're having them rebuilt to US specifications in New Zealand."

New Zealand again? Jade almost let herself get sidetracked. "Yeah?"

"But it's all hush hush. If we can bring them into the States by January, we can grab a big segment of the homeland cruise market."

Jade looked at him. "Hush hush?" She repeated. "They're cruise ships. What do they go… seventy, eighty thousand tons? How the hell do you hide them?"

Quest looked around again. "We're not revealing who owns them." He said. "And they'll get their final paint in San Diego. Anyway, seventy percent of the referb stuff needs to be US, and that includes the technical infrastructure."

"And?"

"And if we throw open bids, chances are people we don't want to find out about this are going to find out, because they'll send spies in to figure out what we're up to."

Jade braced her chin on her fist. "So what if I'm a spy?" She asked.

"Your company has no connection with the business." He answered readily. "Neither does the other two American companies we asked to compete for the contract… and I've got some friends in the government who tell me you can keep your mouth shut."

Jade shook her head. "Still not interested." She said. "Who else are you asking? Maybe I can give you some names to talk to."

Quest gazed at her, biting in the inside of his lip. Finally he leaned forward a little. "Advanced Tech, and Telegenics."

"Ah." Jade's expression didn't change, but a dark sparkle lit in her eyes. "Interesting choices."

"Telegenics talks a good game. They've been wooing my director over another contract, so.." Quest shrugged. "Anyway, since you're not interested, let me stop wasting your time." He straightened up in his seat, and half turned, pausing as one of the figures walking across the lobby caught his eye. "Sure must be raining outside."

Jade watched the object of his attention, an unconscious smile appearing on her face. Even drenched, Tori had her head held high, and despite the rain dampened clothes she had an innate grace as she approached that attracted more eyes than Quests. "Mm."

Quest started to stand as Tori closed in on them, but she just gave him a polite smile as she dropped into the chair next to Jade's and leaned on it's arm. "Hi."

"Hi." Jade rolled her head to one side and indicated her somewhat unwelcome visitor. "Tori, this is Peter Quest, Mr. Quest, this is Victoria Vega, my partner."

Tori extended a hand politely, and gripped his, then released him. "Mr. Quest."

"Nice to meet you." He replied. "Well, Ms. West, as I said, no sense in wasting your time. I'll leave you to get on with your..day."

He turned and walked out, leaving Jade and Tori behind as he disappeared.

Tori remained silent for a moment, then she turned to Jade. "So, what was that all about?" She asked. "Someone propositioning you, since you're hanging out in such cutely provocative clothing?"

"Hardly." Jade pushed herself upright. "Let's go upstairs and I'll take your clothes off while I fill you in." She stood and waited for Tori to join her. "You look like a.."

"Drowned rat?" Tori sighed, getting up and following her partner. "I feel like a drowned rat that's been hit on the head with a brick." She rubbed her neck. "I'm not having a good day."

Jade slipped her arm around Tori's back, ignoring the dampness. "Problems at the show?" She asked. "You should have called me."

Tori sighed and fell silent, taking solace in the comfort of Jade's close presence. "Not the show." She admitted after they'd entered the elevator. "I got pegged by both our new little friends and I think I lost it with them. They pissed me off."

"Uh oh." Jade chuckled softly. "Did you draw blood?"

"It's not funny, Jade." Tori muttered. "I told them both off."

Jade slid her keycard into the door and opened it, then held it open as Tori entered. She followed her partner inside and closed the door, blinking as she realized housekeeping had been in and cleaned the room while she'd been gone. Somehow, they'd managed to make the bed and place the laptop in it's exact position where she'd left it. "Glad I locked the screen."

Tori took off her jacket and laid it across the back of a chair. She didn't look up when Jade came over to her, but as a pair of a warm, strong hands touched her neck and began to massage it she turned her head to the side and brushed the nearer one with her lips. "So what was that guy all about?"

"Had an offer I refused." Jade said. "But now I'm not sure I should have."

"Mm. Been that kinda day."

"I may call him.. but I wanted to talk to you first." Her partner replied, keeping up her rhythmic kneading. "You had lunch?"

Tori shook her head. The ache in her head was fading, and she felt the tension draining out of her at her partner's skilled touch. She unbuttoned her skirt and let it slip down, kicking it off to one side and almost tripping as Jade started mixing a few playful nips along with her massage. "So you don't mind if I blew out any possibility of us being civil to our booth neighbors?"

"Nope." Jade blew in her ear. "You just saved me the trouble." She slid her arms around Tori. "Besides, it might work to our advantage if we end up competing head to head with them for a new services contract."

Tori stopped in mid motion and looked over her shoulder. "What?"

"How do you feel about New Zealand?"

Tori's brows knit. "New Zealand?" She asked. Wh.."

Jade chuckled. "Let's get some lunch, and I'll explain the whole damn thing." She said. "And you can tell me what happened with Heckle and Jeckle"

"Mmph." Tori half turned in Jade's arms and snuggled up to her, plucking at one of the catches on her overalls. "That's the best deal I've heard all day." Her eyes fell on the table. "Oh." She blinked. "Did that come for me?"

"Uh huh." Jade waited expectantly. "Gonna open it?"

Finally, a smile appeared on Tori's face, along with a devilish twinkle in her eyes. "Nope."

"No?"

"We'll never get lunch." Tori gave her a quick kiss, and slipped out of Jade's grasp, heading for her suitcase to get a change of clothes.

Jade looked at her, then turned and looked at the mysterious box. Both eyebrows crawled up into her hairline and a delighted grin appeared. "Ah hah." She folded her arms. "Couldn't we just call room service?"

Tori merely chuckled.

If anything, the hall was even more crowded when they re-entered it. However, the rain had slowed at least, so they were only lightly misted with dampness as they passed from the warm humidity into the chill of the hall.

Tori ran her eyes over the throng, and spotted Sinjin making his way back from the snack bar "Sinjin!"

The MIS manager recognized the hail and paused in mid stride, turning and giving them a wave as he saw them approaching. "Hey."

"Everything okay?" Jade asked. She'd reluctantly traded her comfortable overalls for a well fitted business suit, and she was aware that her distinctive appearance was already attracting attention from several people in the nearby stream of people. "Looks like a good crowd."

"Smooth so far, jefa." Sinjin nodded. "The marketing goons were looking for you a few minutes ago… some kinda presentation or something."

Jade frowned and looked at Tori. "Was I supposed to do one? Someone forget to tell me?"

Tori was equally surprised. "Not that I know of." She replied. "I didn't see your name on the schedule, Jade. I would have mentioned it."

"I figured you would." Jade straightened, and peered over the crowd, finding Elle standing near the entrance to the hall. "Let me go find out what the hell's going on." She made her way forward, easing through the packed lobby with surprising ease.

"You know something? I'm getting really tired of having perfectly good meals ruined by bullshit." Tori shook her head and started after Jade, finding it quite a bit tougher to get through the crush than her partner.

She reached Jade's side in time to see her take up a belligerent stance, however, and deftly avoided Jade's elbow as the woman planted her hands on her hips. "What's up?"

Elle looked more amused than worried. "Oh, her nibs don't want to go show off, that's all."

"That is not the point." Jade growled. "Where do you get off volunteering me for a dog and pony show?" She kept her voice low, but the anger behind it was real.

"C'mon, Jade.. I thought you'd love it.. you and a couple other geeks up there talking over everyone's head.. what more could you ask for?" The marketing VP protested.

Jade glanced around, spotting a small vending room just off to one side. She took hold of Elle's arm and turned, pulling the smaller woman with her as she started for the alcove. Biting off a protest, Elle did her best to keep up, as Tori slid up on the opposite side of her and helped clear the way with brief smiles and somewhat charming 'excuse me's.'

"Hey. If you two are gonna put me in cement boots, lemme call home first, okay?" Elle said, in an exasperated tone as they reached the room and entered it. "C'mon now. This is business, Jade!"

"Yeah." Jade whirled and let her temper ignite. "It's business."

Elle took a step back out of pure instinct. "Now, Jade." She held up both hands. "Just take it easy. I'll go tell them you're not interested. I don't need a screaming match with you in here."

Jade held her eyes with fierce intensity. "I wasn't going to scream."

"Whoa, whoa whoa." Tori stepped between them, putting a hand on Jade's back. "Hang on, guys." She kept her voice gentle. "Let's do a zen break here."

Jade swiveled her head around. "Zen break?"

Tori's objective was to break Jade's single minded focus, and she congratulated herself silently on doing it in one try. It wasn't easy, and despite their relationship she always held her breath when she did it. "Jade, you're right."

"Damn friggin' straight I am." The dark haired woman snorted. Elle sighed audibly.

"But that aside, would it really tank you to do it?" Tori asked. "You and some nerds…talking electronic gears and sprockets.. sounds more fun than listening to Jose's repetitive bs all afternoon."

Jade scowled at her. "Victoria."

Mild brown eyes watched her. "Would it?" Tori asked, relying on the simple logic of her argument. "I mean, yeah, I know how you feel, Jade. I would feel the same way if someone volunteered me for something without me knowing." She turned to Elle. "You didn't do that, did you?"

"Crossed my mind." Elle admitted.

Tori's eyebrows hiked up. "Elle, that really is inappropriate." She said. "We don't work for you."

"Yeah, yeah." The other woman held up a hand. "Look, I'm sorry." She said. "I honestly didn't think you'd give a damn, Jade. You've got to be here anyway, I figured you'd have some fun."

"I make my own fun." Jade growled. However, she straightened a little and moved closer to Tori, relaxing her posture. "Damn it, Elle, don't do this shit to me." She poked the other woman in the shoulder, then brushed past her. "Or I'll make sure your entire department works on scratch pads with VGA screens."

Out of Elle's line of sight, Tori gave her partner a pat on the butt, then watched as she stalked across the lobby and ducked inside the hall. Her head then turned to regard Elle. She put her hands on her hips. "What was that?"

Elle shrugged. "Y'know, I didn't even think about it." She admitted. "These days, we forget sometimes what Jade used to be like. I just got reminded. I'll remember next time."

Tori was at a loss for words briefly. "Oh, I don't know, Elle.. I mean.."

"Don't you dare say it." The marketing vp cut her off. "Don't you dare say she hasn't changed, Tori. We both know different. You remember what it was like when you first started. You remember walking into meetings representing ops and having people cheer."

Tori did remember that. "Mm." She nodded briefly. "Damn, I hated the place." She admitted. "I wanted to just throw up most afternoons."

Elle had the grace to look uncomfortable. "Anyway, it's been a huge difference, and even though some things probably got done faster the old way, I wouldn't trade for it. I used to dread staff meetings." She peered back into the lobby, which had started to empty. "She isn't intimidating the entire industry anymore, and yeah, we probably lost out because of it, but I don't care."

Tori's brow creased. "You don't' really think that, do you?" She queried. "That we lost sales because Jade isn't screaming at everyone all the time?"

"Well." Elle turned and leaned one shoulder against the wall. "It's tempting, isn't it? Easier to think it's because of that than because me and Jose aren't doing our jobs." A sardonic look crossed her face. "Nah, I don't really think that. The market's just turned towards smaller companies right now. Everyone thinks it's better economics."

"But it really isn't." Tori relaxed. "In the long run."

"Mm." Her companion gave a half shake of her head. "Doesn't help my quarterly earnings statement though." She gave Tori a wry look. "Want to go hear the old grump blow the new kids on the block away? They have no idea I volunteered her."

An irrepressible grin appeared on Tori's face. "You've got a mean streak yourself, El." She gestured towards the hall. "Sure, let's go."

Jade paused at the edge of the open space, reviewing the small group of men clustered on a single step mini-stage. Two she knew slightly, senior technical managers in the industry she'd met earlier that year at a networking function, and three others whose names she'd heard around. All men, all in their thirties, all with that air of not quite management about them that technical people did tend to have; pleated chinos with sports jackets, or workmanlike suits.

Jade halted briefly to shed her annoyance at Elle, and then she eased her way through the last line of watchers and took the one step up onto the platform. "Afternoon, gentlemen."

The five men, and what apparently was a moderator turned at the sound of her voice. The two men who knew who she was immediately took on what Jade had always thought of as the dirty diaper attitude, and she realized it had been quite a while since she'd seen it.

The moderator stepped forward and extended a hand. "Ah, Ms. West? Glad you could join us."

Jade gripped his fingers in hers then released them. "Anytime." She drawled, turning her eyes on the two men nearest her. "Hello, John. How's that experiment with consumer grade switches going?"

The man she addressed winced. "We.. ah.. well, we went a different route with that one, Jade. Thanks for asking!" He turned to his companion. "Ted, you know Jade West, don't you?"

"Uh.. sure." Ted extended his hand gingerly. "We bumped into each other at the IEEE conference a couple months back.. great presentation you did there."

"Thanks." Jade replied graciously, giving the other three a brief nod as the moderator made introductions. "So what's the deal with this? We talking about IP v6, or something really earth shattering like the latest security holes in SNMP?"

"Eh.. hah." The moderator finished putting some stools in place for his guests. "Well, securing our networks was the topic.. ah yes."

"Mm." Jade claimed the last stool on one side and settled onto it, letting her eyes run idly over the crowd as the rest of the speaTors got into place. She spotted Shari's distinctive features near the back but let her eyes just pass right over her, settling instead on the brunette who had picked a perch on a nearby booth that was a foot higher than the floor.

Tori gave her a thumbs up. Jade rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, but directed a wink her partners way nonetheless.

"Okay, folks." The moderator clapped his hands. "Let's get this debate going."

"Debate?" Jade chuckled. "Elle screwed up again. She picked the wrong one of us."

John leaned closer. "Sorry, did you say something, Jade?"

"No." Jade replied.

"The question we're posing here… " The moderator glared surreptitiously at them. "Are our networks safe?" He asked. "With all the stuff we've been hearing in the news lately.. Internet sites hacked, credit cards stolen, drive by hacking… are you all worried? Are your networks safe?"

Jade watched the speaTors glance at each other, waiting to see who was going first. "That's an idiotic question." She threw out the sentence, just to stir up a little fun.

"Wh.. what?" The moderator stammered.

"That's an idiotic question." Jade repeated, a little slower for him. "Do you really think anyone here is going to stand up in front of potential customers and their peers and say 'why no.. my network's a positive sieve! Thanks for bringing it up!"

The other men on the platform chuckled a little and John nodded, gesturing in Jade's direction. "Yeah, what she said."

Discomfited, the moderator cleared his throat. "Okay, okay, I see your point. But what if.. " He paused. "Okay, what if I brought a hacTor up here, onto the platform, and he said he could break into any of your networks. What would you say to him?"

The other four looked at each other, then in unison, they looked at Jade.

"Want a job?" Jade remarked, with a grin.

The entire crowd started laughing.

"Ms. West, it's a serious question." The moderator desperately tried to yank control back.

Jade got up and stuck her hands in the pockets of her skirt. "Of course it is." She replied. "We all pump a significant portion of our collective budgets into hardening our networks." A half tilt of her head. "But to answer your question, no."

"No?"

"No, nothing's ever perfect." Jade shook her head. "You can put machinery and manpower into it until you're blue in the face, but somewhere there's gonna be a hole. There's too many places where it's possible and sometimes out of your control."

John nodded again. "Jade's right." He said, then paused. "Well, of course, because Jade's always right, and we all know it."

The crowd laughed again. Jade responded with a relatively gracious smile. Her eyes caught a motion at the back of the crowd, the distraction turning out to be Shari having a some what animated discussion with Michelle.

They were arguing. Jade's eyebrows hiked, as she caught a gesture in her direction. But Michelle got a firm hold on Shari's arm and just started pulling her away.

Hm. Jade's eyes slid to her left, seeing Tori's head turned in that direction.

"But you know, we really have made some strides in that area.. let me go over some of them." John went on.

"Wait a minute." A stocky man in a light gray suit interjected. "Lemme just ask.. hey, lady."

Jade gazed at him.

"You really hire hacTors?" The man asked. "I mean, that's a big story.. that WesTrek hires hacTors." He turned and got agreement from those next to him. "As a customer, I don't know how I feel about that."

"You ever been compromised?" Jade asked.

"No.. I mean, not that I know of." The man replied.

"Like you'd tell them?" Shari's voice cut through the crowd.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jade saw Tori slip down from her perch and start through the crowd like a determined miniature cyclone. The romance of the motion appealed to her, and the chuckle it caused brushed the sound of Shari's voice form her ears. "Of course we'd tell them." Jade answered the question in an unruffled tone. "We've just never had to."

"You didn't answer my question." The man in gray accused.

"What's your question?" Jade turned the tables on him. "Are you asking if I ever knowingly hired someone who had deliberately broken into someone else's computer systems?"

"Yes."

"Sure." Jade answered.

The other men on the podium were shifting away from her, putting some distance between them as if to disassociate themselves from the very idea.

"But only if they were successful at it." She continued. "I only hire the best. That's why our network… " Her eyes went over the room. "Has never been compromised."

"Never?" John blurted.

"Never." Jade said, with quiet certainty. "G'wan. Give it a try." She threw the challenge out. "Anyone out there got the guts to take us on?" She looked over to where Shari had been, but that was just a hole in the crowd now. Tori had, ominously, also disappeared.

"Bet your security manager's not loving you at the moment. "John muttered.

Jade gave him an amused look. "He'd lick his chops at the challenge."

"Okay, folks." The moderator finally decided to wrest control back again. "So this turned out to be a pretty interesting subject after all."

"Very." The man in gray muttered.

Jade sat down on her stool again and folded her arms. And that, she mused. Would teach Elle to volunteer her, wouldn't it? She felt eyes on her, and she turned her head, not entirely surprised to find her friend Peter Quest nearby, watching her, a grin on his face.

Now he didn't seem worried about hacTors at all. While Jade, on the other hand, was worried about having to bail out a certain brown eyed woman she dearly loved.

Time to end the debate.

She could see her quarry ahead of her, but as she squeezed through the last line of suited bodies and got into the clear, the significnt'y diminutive Shari and Michelle were nowhere to be found.

"Son of a bitch." Tori stalked towards the booths, half listening to Jade's damning commentary behind her. The security discussion had started off badly and went down from there, and her bosses blithe confirmation that they hired hacTors sure wasn't going to make her life any easier, but those were minor details.

Shari going out of her way to attack Jade wasn't. Tori prowled the aisles, looking for the two women. As she passed her own booth, though, she paused. "Okay, wait a minute." She collected herself. "Just what are you going to do when you hunt them down, Victoria?" She asked "Start a cat fight? Bar room brawl in the trade show? That'll make headlines."

"Ma'am?" One of her techs scurried over, seeing her standing there. "Did you say something?"

Tori sighed. "Nothing intelligent, no." But her eyes kept sweeping the hall anyway, half hoping she'd spot what she was looking for.

"Hey." Sinjin appeared. "Jade outed me!" He seemed amazed. "Did you hear that?"

Tori leaned on the edge of the booth. "I heard it. So did everyone else. I know what I'm going to spend the next two weeks explaining." She sensed the crowd coming back into the display area in back of her, and without turning, somehow, she just knew Jade was heading her way.

It was a really weird feeling. To test it, Tori casually turned her head just as Jade cleared the booths one aisle over and came into view. She watched a muted look of relief cross her partner's face on seeing her, and she felt a little sheepish as Jade hopped up onto the platform with her. "Hi."

"Hi." Jade glanced around. "You okay?"

Tori cleared her throat gently. "If you mean, did I flatten anyone recently, no." She muttered under her breath. "Boy, did I feel like it. I think you better get me out of here before my hormones land us in libel court."

"Nah." Jade grinned. "I'm gonna put you in a tank top with the words "My bodyguard" right across your chest." She blew a lock of dark hair out of her eyes. " you'd think you're the one getting injections… Okay, I think I botched that pretty big time. Sorry."

"Eh." Tori indicated Sinjin, who was studying a console across the booth. "Most of our clients have worked with Sinjin for years. It's not going to be that big a deal. I'll take care of it." She laid her hand on Jade's shoulder. "By the time I'm done, you'll have started the newest trend in IT hiring."

Elle hurried into the booth from the other side, hauling up as she spotted Jade. "Okay, you win!" She held up both hands. "Next time, I'll just pass out WesTrek pens for advertising!"

"Jade!" Jose arrived from the opposite direction, sweating. "Jesu! Could you have warned you were to do that? Dios Mio!"

Jade sniffed. "Got us attention." She remarked. "Aren't you the one who's always says any publicity is good?"

They certainly were becoming the center of attention quickly. The booth was surrounded by curious onlooTors, as well as customers now clamoring for attention. The man in gray pushed his way forward, heading right for Jade.

"Is this where I take off and let you all clean up my mess?" Jade inquired, with a faint smirk.

Elle sighed.

"Just kidding." Jade faced the crowd and held her own hands up. "Okay, folks. Settle down."

"Jade.."

"I've got it." Her partner told her quietly. "Keep an eye out for our friends. If you see 'em…"

"Go into my WWF impersonation?" Tori joked.

Jade turned and regarded her with a puzzled expression. "You going for a panda?"

"Panda?"

"Never mind." Jade turned back to the crowd. "All right. Let's put this in perspective, shall we?" She raised her voice. "How many people here believe police officers always obey traffic laws?"

"What?" The man in gray spluttered. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Raise you hands." Jade ignored him. ""C'mon."

"How can you seriously expect us to trust someone who breaks the law? The man stubbornly kept in her face. "Huh?"

Jade gazed at him. "I'm from San Francisco." She reminded him with a slight grin. "We elect felons."

"Jade.' Elle was getting nervous.

Sinjin wandered over. "Hey, Mr. T.!" He greeted the man in gray. "How's that website, still stable?"

The man frowned. "Um.. yes, fine, fine, Sinjin. Listen, we can discuss that later. Right now I want some answers about this hacTor thing."

Sinjin leaned over the edge of the booth and lowered his voice. "Hey, Mr. T?"

Annoyed, the man glared at him. "I said…"

"I'm the hacTor." Sinjin indicated his own chest. "Only I'm like the number two, if you know what I mean." His thumb inched towards Jade's towering form. "You're pretty safe. Don't sweat it."

The man in gray goggled at him.

"Okay, so let's talk about security." Another man pushed forward. "I don't give a damn who you hire. You say you can't be broken into? My site's been taken offline three times in two months. Tell me how I can stop it."

"Hire us." Jade perched on the corner of the counter, letting her hands rest on her thigh as she settled down in a more comfortable element. Her comment drew a few laughs, and she smiled in response. "Seriously. It's a lot of intensive effort, and a damn substantial budget. You can't ever stop.. there's no time where you can take a breath, and say we're okay."

"Right." Sinjin nodded. "Twenty four seven, we're out there checking, rechecking, double checking, coming up with new checks… it never stops."

Tori eased back and relaxed a little, realizing Jade did, in fact, have the situation very much under control. She leaned back against the booths' center pylon, releasing a silent sigh of relief. So then, of course, she spotted Shari and Michelle at the fringes of the crowd. Her eyes narrowed, but the two seemed content to just stand and listen.

"What a circus." Elle leaned on the pylon next to Tori. "Next time I'm gonna send my assistant. I'm going on a cruise instead."

"Mm."

"Y'know, it's kind of fun to see the old Jade again, though." The older woman mused. "I'm just glad she's pointed that way not this way."

Tori exhaled. "I'll be glad when the damn doors close tonight and we can get the hell out of here."

Elle looked at her, with a puzzled expression. 'You not feeling well, Tor? You've been antsy all day."

Had she been? Tori frowned, thinking about her actions since the morning. "Yeah, well…" She shrugged one shoulder. "Between the weather and our friends over there, my last nerve got Fedexed to Fargo around lunchtime."

Elle clapped her on the shoulder, then she groaned and headed off to join Jose. Tori watched a moment more, then she sat down behind one of the consoles and smiled at a customer brave enough to wander past Jade to look over her shoulder. "Hi."

"Hi." The man sat down next to her and looked at the screen. It was currently displaying their top level view, the huge backbones that made up the core of their network. "That's really impressive."

"Thanks." Tori smiled at him. "It's a really good design. There's so much redundancy, even when we try to crash it, we can't."

"Bet it cost a pretty penny." The man grinned back.

"It did, but it's already paid for itself." She replied. "Watch this." Tori typed in a command, taking down one of the core routing centers and removing it from the network. Other than a little greener pulse, the net barely flicTored, rerouting around it in a blink of an eye.

"Wow."

Tori restored the center before her phone started hitting the roof and watched the routes reestablish themselves. "It's flexible and self healing. A pleasure to manage."

"Hi." The man repeated, holding his hand out. "My name's Peter Quest." He took Tori's outstretched fingers and clasped them. "People tell me you're the one to talk to about some new business. That true?"

Tori's ears perked up a little. "It could be." She allowed. "I'm one of the people. What did you have in mind?"

Quest smiled at her again. "Let me ask you something first." He said, leaning on the counter with an elbow. "Are you up for a challenge? Can you put your name on a dotted line, and go head to head for some business… could turn out to be pretty big?"

Tori folded her hands. "What are you asking me?" She queried. "Can I negotiate a contract for WesTrek? Of course."

"Even if someone else in your company already said no?"

"Well." Tori sat back. "Maybe. Why don't you tell me what your pitch is, and then we'll talk about it."

Quest nodded, with a satisfied look. "That's all I'm asking for." He leaned forward. "Here's the deal."