I finished one chapter of the next story so you get a giftie.
Forty One
"Urgf." Tori took a breath, and continued her sit ups, the roll of thunder percolating into the island's gym. Behind her, she could hear the soft clank as Jade did leg presses, and she resisted the temptation to move from her current exercise to that one.
Sit ups were definitely not her favorite things. They made her back ache, for one thing, and since she was now using an incline board, they were just plain hard to do.
Still, she kept them up, resolutely closing her eyes and concentrating on the positive results she knew she'd get by completing her self imposed sets.
The rain outside had canceled their morning run, and they'd decided on a work out to replace it – possibly suffering from some mutual guilt brought on by consuming an entire baking pan full of Tori's promised rice crispy treats the night before.
With fudge. Tori blinked her eyes open, scattering a fine mist of sweat as she regarded the stolidly boring ceiling. She let her back rest against the padded surface, breathing deeply as she waited for the burning ache to dissipate from the muscles that lined the front of her stomach.
"Tor?"
"Uh?" She grunted.
"You okay?"
"Just resting." Tori extended her arms over her head and stretched her body out. Her bare legs were hooked around supports at the end of the board holding her in place, and she flexed her thighs a little, watching the skin tighten and relax.
"Thought you didn't like doing those." Jade commented.
"I don't." Her partner readily admitted. "But I do like having a six pack." She patted her belly. "Do you know how horrified my family would be if I told them I did?"
Jade merely chuckled.
"When I went home the first time." Tori said. "I took my shirt off in front of my sister, and she started teasing me about being She Ra. You remember She Ra, Jade?"
"Bwahshahahaha."
"Uh huh. I used to have a plastic sword, and everything." Tori chuckled. "Until my parents found it and threw it out."
They both stopped chuckling. Jade cleared her throat. "I think… I first started to be aware of the way I looked when I was around thirteen or fourteen or so."
"Mm?" Tori took another breath, and started in on her sit ups again. "Puberty?' She grunted.
Jade got up and went to the free weights, picking up a triceps bar and starting some curls as she walked over to be nearer to Tori. "Yeah. Killer growth spurt." She said. "I grew... almost five inches in a year and my whole metabolism went nuts."
"Uh huh." Tori agreed in sympathy.
"I started eating like a horse... and I figured if I didn't working out, it was all gonna stay on me like it was on a lot of my classmates." Jade related. "So I did."
"Sensible decision."
"Yeah." Jade chuckled. "Except I went to the base gym, and worked out with the all the guys. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to use the same weights they were using, and my mother walked in on me one day while I was dressing and nearly had a fit at what I looked like."
Tori snickered, but kept crunching.
"Hey, I thought it looked good." Jade mused. "And the guys all sure respected me."
"I bet." Tori finished her second set and pulled herself off the board, escaping gratefully to the lat pull down machine. It was angled perfectly so that she could see Jade while she was doing the exercise, and she studied her partner's body as she started the new routine.
Jade had definitely grown into her height. Her shoulders were broad, and rounded with muscle, and that extended down her arms to corded wrists that were currently tensed as she did her curls. Yet, her skin fitted over her body in supple curves, never giving the impression of a bodybuilder's starkly ripped muscularity at all.
Tori liked that. She liked the impression of strength Jade had, without looking at all masculine and she'd consciously or unconsciously pattered her own aspirations in the same direction. She'd first started noticing a difference a few months into their relationship, before she'd moved in permanently with Jade.
It had all started with a shirt. She'd been dressing for work one day, half in the dark of a very early morning when she'd pulled on a silk blouse she hadn't worn in several weeks and found the sleeves binding uncomfortably around her upper arms and shoulders.
"Huh?" Tori turned to the mirror in her bedroom and flipped the light on, giving herself a puzzled look in the reflection. Sure enough, the fabric was pulled taut over her upper body, the length draping down over her half bared torso still unbuttoned.
"Great." She sighed, apprehensively reaching for the lowest button, and matching it with its hole on the other side. To her mild surprise, it mated easily around her waist, easing her sudden fear that her recent change of habits had added more pounds to her frame than she'd realized. "So... what the heck?"
With a touch of impatience, she stripped the shirt off, and let it fall to the dresser, studying her body in the mirror with a very critical eye. What she saw surprised her, and she straightened up a little, squaring newly broadened shoulders and holding her arms out a way, turning them a little as she flexed her muscles.
Holy shit. Tori exhaled. Under her skin she could now see visible power, bunching and moving in the lamplight as she shifted. Her shoulders had gained a cap of sinew over them and she could see the beginning shadow of an arch that extended from the points of them to her neck.
It felt very strange, and for a moment, she felt a little scared of the changes. She'd kept an image of herself in her head for so long, hammered in by her parents that this shift was almost as intimidating as the twenty pounds she'd carried home after her first year in San Francisco.
That had merely ended up being embarrassing. This… Tori spread her arms out fully, and almost shook her head at the new shape of her outline, the widened shoulders giving her body a very pleasing taper she hadn't really anticipated.
"Wow." She finally said, letting her hands drop to her sides. "You know, I think I like this." She met her own reflection's eyes and grinned, a touch hesitantly. "Wonder if Jade's noticed?"
A wink of dawn light peeked through the blinds and she put her hands on her hips, turning her attention to the problem of dressing for work. She walked back to her closet and reviewed her options. The skirt she'd intended on wearing hung there mutely, but she pondered now what top she could put on to go with it.
Long sleeved, staid garments looked back at her, and she frowned. Then her eye fell on a simple, tailored linen shirt with crisp lines and a conservative cut right up to the point where it became sleeveless. "Hm." Tori removed it from its hanger and slipped it on, the whispered chill of the air conditioning feeling slightly illicit on her bare shoulders.
It fit neatly, and she put on her skirt, tucking the ends of the shirt into the waistband and buttoning it. She buckled the slim leather belt, then removed her linen jacket from its hanger and put it on. Facing the mirror she observed the effect.
Businesslike and conservative. Tori gave herself a brief nod, and then she let the jacked slip off her shoulders and looked again.
A grin appeared. She put the jacket back on and headed off to work.
"What's so funny?" Jade inquired, pausing in her curls. "Am I making faces again?"
Tori chuckled. "No, I was just thinking of something." She stood up and let the pull down bar return to its resting position. "Hey, let me ask you a question." She let her arms rest against her thighs.
"Hmm?" Jade cocked her head in inquiry, the muscles in her arms jumping as she brought the weighted bar up.
"Do you think I look too butch?'
Jade paused in her upswing, the bar ending up pressed against her breastbone. Her nostrils flared, and she made a small snorting sound, attempting to stifle a laugh.
Tori put her hands on her hips. "What was that supposed to mean?" She cocked an eyebrow at her partner.
Hastily, Jade put down the barbell and walked over, wiping her hands on the towel she had tucked into her shorts. She cupped Tori's chin and tilted her head up, regarding her with serious affection. "You don't look at all butch."
"I don't?"
"No."
"Not even with these?" Tori lifted her arm and tensed her biceps.
"No."
"Really?"
"Really." Jade said. "Just incredibly sexy." She paused. "Why? Do you want to look more butch?" She asked curiously.
Tori shook her head. "No, not really." She said. "I was just remembering something someone told me right after I first moved out here, about not falling into the typical gay routine of becoming a .. um…" Her face scrunched a little. "Um.."
"Baby butch?" Jade inquired. "Well, I don't know... you looked great as a Revolutionary." She chuckled softly, giving Tori a pat on the cheek. "But I love the way you look, no matter what it is, Tor. You know that."
"Mm."
Jade gave her a one armed hug, and then she went over to the incline board, and took Tori's place on it. She adjusted the length, and then settled herself in to start her own set of sit ups – the motion not the usual relaxed and easy. "You sure that's a good idea?" Tori asked
and as she did, jade hot a serious charlyhorse in her abdomen and she curled herself into a ball. "Maybe not."
Tori watched her a moment, "you okay?"
"yea, just need a minute." Jade breathed. Tori teached for her but Jade waved her away. Soon Jade was up on her feet and running on the threadmill like nothing happened.
Tori always admired how her partner could bounce bac from things. She sighed enviously and got up on the stair climber. "What do you think... another twenty minutes? We should leave a little early in this weather."
"Yeah. Sounds about right." Jade had her arms crossed over her chest, and was moving up and down steadily. "You said you had to go over to the pier today?"
Tori increased her pace. "Yep."
"How about we go there, and then take off." Jade said. "If you drive, I can get the revisions done on my program, and I won't feel guilty all damn weekend."
"Sounds like a plan."
They were both quiet for a few minutes, concentrating on their exercising. Finally after several sets, Jade let herself down on the board and gazed up at the ceiling, sweat dripping liberally across her body. "Hey, Tor?"
An equally dewy dark head lifted. "Hm?"
"Any time you want to quit this and become couch potatoes, just drop me an email, yeah?'
Tori managed a wry chuckle, as she straightened on her machine and took a swig from the water bottle hung by her wrist. "You got it, baby. You got it."
They both started laughing, the noise echoing softly off the ceiling of the gym.
"All right." Jade motioned Sinjin to follow her into her office. "Let's see what you've got." She walked across the carpet and changed direction at the last minute, going to the small worktable in the corner of her office instead. "Here."
Sinjin followed her, and put a cardboard box on the desk. "Sorry to grab you so early, JW, but I heard you were taking off today so I figured I'd better do it when I could."
"No problem." Jade perched on one of the two stools behind the worktable. She opened the top of the box and peered curiously inside, reaching in to remove the cellular gadget along with several other miscellaneous bits of hardware.
"Going down south?" Sinjin asked.
"Yep." Jade set the cell unit down and leaned forward, removing the battery pack and examining the inside surface. "We're taking off after lunch. I'm going with Tor down to the boats, and then we're jetting outta here for the weekend."
"Ah." Sinjin picked up a second bit of technology and showed it to Jade. "This is the remote interface. I took it apart. It's got a circuit card in it to mask its internal id."
"Huh." Jade took it.
"So, I guess after all that crap you guys needed some time out?"
Jade glanced up. "Not really... we just decided to go down. Why?"
Sinjin looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Just some stuff I heard." He knew better than to dissemble in front of the WesTrek founder and CIO. He could get away with it with Tori on occasion, but those icy blue eyes lanced right through him as Jade's expression changed.
"Now what?" With a look of disgust, Jade dropped the part on the table. "C'mon, spill it. What bullshit are they passing around this time?"
Sinjin studied the table, wondering for the nth time how he let himself get into situations like this one. Stolid loyalty to Jade? Maybe. "People are saying you guys are having problems."
"Problems?" Jade's tone sounded honestly puzzled. "Sinjin, we always have problems. Our whole damn job is nothing but problems."
Sinjin looked up. "No, not here." He took a breath. "Like, between you." He watched Jade's face, feeling a sense of weird relief at the expression of mild confusion that appeared there. "It made like, no sense to me, you know?"
Jade crossed her arms over her chest. "Is this…" She fished for an explanation. "Having something to do with her black eye? I'd heard rumors some idiots think I did that."
Jade's reaction wasn't what he'd been expecting. Sinjin fingered the piece of gear again. "No, um… it was more like that Tori's mad at you and thinking about moving out." He said. "And that, yeah, I guess you guys were fighting, and that's how she got a black eye."
"That's ridiculous."
"Well yeah, I know." Sinjin said. "I don't know where this crap comes from."
Jade sighed, tossing the bit of technology from her. Then she paused and considered what she was feeling. Impatience, annoyance… "Maybe we should put on a boxing exhibition." She remarked, with wry humor. "Or... I know. We'll put on a kissing exhibition in the lobby. How's that? Think anyone will catch a clue we're not breaking up?"
Sinjin blushed a little. "Um..."
"I just don't get it." Jade gazed thoughtfully at the other side of her office. "We've both been hurt before… hell, we've spent weeks in slings since Tori's started working here. Why all this crap now?" She rested her elbows on the table and shook her head. "Hope Tor doesn't hear all of it."
"Me either." The MIS manager said. "She's got a mean temper."
The words made Jade smile a little. "Anyway." She picked up the cellular device. "Talk to me about this thing. When are its owners coming after it?
Sinjin gathered his wits and accepted the change of subject. He'd half expected Jade to fly off the handle, or react in some way, and the almost benign indifference she was exhibiting puzzled him. It wasn't as though he thought the rumors were true – after all, he interacted with his two bosses on a daily basis, and neither of them was great at hiding even minor spats.
Tori got all nervous when they were disagreeing. She was restless as hell in meetings and she lost her usual even tempered patience when dealing with the staff or the daily problems they often faced. Luckily it never lasted that long, but it was easy to spot.
"I think they'll be here Monday." He told Jade. "But the basics are - it's a remotely accessed cell device."
"I got that far on my own." Jade cocked an eyebrow at him.
Now Jade, on the other hand, she'd pull back into her shell, glaring and snapping at everyone. Nobody liked dealing with her when she was like that, but Sinjin could also remember that nobody had much liked dealing with Jade even when she wasn't like that most of the time before Tori had entered her life.
So, he knew usually when they were squabbling. Just looking at Jade's relaxed body posture reassured him that nothing like that was going on, so now he considered her previous words and wondered himself, yeah, why now?
Why now? "It doesn't ring like a cell; it just picks up and makes a data link." Sinjin went on. "It's got a processor chip inside with a couple of pretty squiggy routines burned to RAM."
"cloud?"
"Yeah." Sinjin nodded. "Subnet scan, mini-sniffer, and that. It's pretty sophisticated." He picked it up and looked at it. "I was trying to think of what the hell legitimate purpose it had for those guys developing it."
Jade snorted.
"Yeah, I got that too."
"No wonder they're coming out here." The tall, dark haired woman got up off the stool. "What you're telling me is that this thing was designed to bust networks from the inside."
"Yeah." Sinjin agreed. "Pretty much. The slickest thing is, it pops up on the network, listens for a real MAC address, and then spoofs it, so if you have MAC security turned on, it bypasses."
"Hm." Jade juggled the device. "What about these things?" She pointed at the smaller pieces of technology, as she turned her hand and checked her watch. Almost lunchtime. "Anything to tie them back to who planted the damn things?
Sinjin got up and paced around a bit. "Boss, you sure this isn't from those Telegenics guys? I mean, the time's right, you know? I checked with the projector people, and the tech they sent out here is a guy who's worked for them for like twenty years. He's pretty clean."
Jade put the phone down and leaned back. "It's not them."
"Boss… c'mon. They were the only ones in there from outside the company in weeks." Sinjin coaxed. "I know it sucks to think they got one over on us, but chasing the cleaning people kinda sucks too."
Jade crossed her arms and visited a dour glare on him.
"Y'know, it does." After so many years, he knew pretty much what he could get away with. "If we know it's them, maybe we can do a jive on the guys coming over here, and get them to spill."
"It's not them." Jade repeated stubbornly. "I don't give a damn how much sense it makes, I'm telling you it's not them. Find another possibility." Part of her acknowledged that Sinjin was right – believing it was Shari and Michelle burned her guts. But another part of her, the instinctive part that understood people at a base level that was telling her that someone smarter than either of them was behind it.
Was it just wishful thinking? Jade got up and went to her desk, dropping into her chair and putting her booted feet up on it. She was dressed down, glad of the excuse of the pier visit to be wearing her broken in jeans and short topped hiking boots.
"Okay." Sinjin gave in gracefully and collected his technobits. "I'll see what else I can find out." He started to back away towards the door. "Sorry about all the talk and crap."
"Not your fault." Jade picked up her keyboard and put it on her lap. "Just tell everyone from me they're full of shit."
"Will do, boss." Sinjin disappeared and closed the door behind him.
Jade pecked out a few words, and then paused. She half turned in her chair, as the inner door slammed open and Tori stormed in, brown eyes snapping, hands half clenched, to all intents and purposes a thunderstorm halfway to happening. "Hi."
"Stupid mother effing sons of bitches." Tori spat out. "Do you want to know what kind of horse manure I've had to listen to for the last twenty minutes?"
Tori was adorable when she was mad, just so long as it wasn't Jade she was mad at. "Let me guess." Jade put her keyboard down. "I hit you. We're breaking up, you're moving out, and maybe... the sky is falling?"
"Augh." Her partner sat herself down on Jade's desk. "I am so pissed."
"I can see that."
"Aren't you?" Tori frowned. "Jade, this is bullshit!"
Was she? Jade leaned an elbow on Tori's leg, and wondered about that. "It's bullshit." She agreed. "And I know it's not true, so while I'm aggravated that people are wasting their time, I'm not going to waste mine by blowing my top."
"I know it's not true also." Tori growled. "But I want to boot these people, Jade. They have no right to talk about us like that. It's insubordination."
True enough. "Do we know who it is?"
Tori got up and paced around Jade's desk, still visibly upset. "No one. Everyone." She groused. "It's cowardly! No one has the guts to say something to my face, it's all damned whispers, or they heard from so and so or..."
Jade rounded the desk and intercepted Tori, laying her hands on her partner's shoulders. "Tor, take it easy.
"I'm not going to take it easy." Tori shot back. "I'm sick and tired of people just… just…" She let the words trail off. "Heck!" She pulled a square of cardboard from her pocket and tossed it on Jade's desk. "See that? Some freaking real estate agent was just in my office, saying she heard I was looking for a place."
Jade's eyebrows lifted.
"Augh!!!" Tori balled her fists up fully and shook both of them. "Jade, I am so pissed!!!!!!"
"Shh." Jade put her arms around Tori and hugged her. "Take it easy."
"Grrrr!!!
"We'll figure out what's going on."
Tori allowed herself to collapse against Jade's warm body. Her entire insides were tensed in knots, and her anger had really no place to go. "God damn it." She felt the knots ease, as Jade's hands rubbed her back. "Someone's trying to get between us, Jade. You realize that, right?"
"Yes."
Tori took in a breath. "And you're not upset?"
Jade heard the catch in her voice. "Of course I am."
"You're just not freaking out." Her partner exhaled. "Like I am." She leaned against Jade and let her breathing settle. "Sorry." She felt the gentle pressure as Jade kissed the top of her head, and suddenly felt very tired as the anger drained away.
Jerks.
Just…. Jerks.
Tori was still unsettled as they walked across the parking lot towards the ship buildings. She'd considered putting out a scathing memo, but Jade had convinced her not to, reasoning with her that making a big deal out of the whole thing would just cause more talk.
She knew that was true, but she didn't have to like it. Tori booted a small rock across the parking lot, glad of her heavily tinted sunglasses protecting her eyes against the glare. The late afternoon thunderstorms hadn't built up yet, and the sun was beating down them as they walked, making even her light cotton shirt feel like it weighed a ton.
"You all right?" Jade asked.
"Yeah." Tori replied. "Just thinking."
They both stepped over a parking bumper in unison, and then continued on. Jade looked between the buildings to where the ships were moored, seeing a great deal of activity around them. Cranes had been set up as well, and men were working all over the place. She could hear rivet guns working, and the sound of saws and sledge hammers, beating away at the aged metal hulls.
There was a scent of ozone in the air, from the welding torches being used, and as they moved closer, they could hear the rough voices of the workers calling out. Tori resolutely pushed her lingering frazzles back and turned her attention to the project, hoping their wiring team had been able to make some progress. "Looks like a mess."
"Mm." Jade stepped around a jagged pothole in the road and produced her identification as they approached the door to the pier building. The guard barely looked at it, and then just stepped to one side so they could walk inside.
"Warm and fuzzy." Tori muttered.
"Right there with you." Her partner agreed, taking off her sunglasses as they entered the building's gloom. She could hear raised voices from the back office, and headed in that direction with Tori at her heels. They rounded the corner and saw two men at the door to the office, facing off against their security guard and the office manager Tori had assigned to the building. "What's going on here?" Jade asked crisply.
The two men turned, and the two WesTrek employees' faces brightened when they spotted Jade and Tori. "Ma'am, I'm glad you're here." The guard addressed Jade. "These gentlemen are demanding we give them access to our switches in here."
Tori removed her sunglasses, and gave the men a direct stare. "This should be good. For what?"
The two men appeared caught slightly off guard. "We had a report someone in this office was trying to hack in to the ports network." The man nearest Jade said. "We need to check it out."
Jade looked him up and down. "Buddy, if I was hacking into your network, you'd never know it." She said. "You don't get access to anything. You have a problem with that, have your boss call me." Digging in her wallet, she pulled out a business card and handed it to the man. "Now, excuse us."
The man looked at her card, and then gave Jade a dour look. "Lady, we don't need your permission to go anywhere on this port. I was just being nice. I'm going to stop being nice now."
"I'm going to call the police now." Jade replied. "Since this space has been bought and paid for, and isn't part of the port for the time being."
Tori removed her cell phone and dialed it, content to let her partner exercise her kickass gene. "Hello, yes. Can I speak to someone about intruders on my property?"
The man pointed Jade's card at her. "I'll go get our security, and be right back. Don't go anywhere, lady." He brushed past Tori and walked out, followed by his silent companion.
Tori waited for him to turn the corner, and then she folded her phone shut. "Hm."
Jade edged past the guard and headed into the office. "I'll check the damn thing. With my luck, it's in a loop and the bastards think it's trying to attack them." She headed for a nearby workstation, sitting down in front of it and keying in her own login.
"Hi, Cheryl." Tori stuck her phone back on her belt. "So, other than the goon squad visiting, how are things going?"
The office manager had perched on the corner of one of the staid gray laminate desks they'd stocked the office with. She was a good looking woman of perhaps forty, with naturally ginger colored hair locks, and lightly toasted skin. Dressed in jeans and a neatly pressed, floral shirt, she appeared comfortable if a bit harried. But she smiled a friendly smile at Tori as she entered, her freckled cheeks lifting. "Oh, well... actually, things are going pretty good, ma'am."
"Ahem."
Cheryl smiled slightly. "Sorry, Ms. Tori." She cleared her throat. "The wiring guys have been killing themselves to get work done. They've turned off most of the AC inside the ship and the other vendors have been giving us a very hard time."
Tori entered the office and leaned against the wall. "Deliberately?"
"No, I don't think so. It's just very close quarters, and everyone wants to get their part done and get out of there. We're fighting with the electrical and air conditioning people right now."
"Ah."
Jade half listened to the conversation, as she poked around inside the switch they'd installed in the office. The inoffensive green box was mounted in a rack near the back of the room, with a locked door and sides around it. Jade scanned the contents of it, then abandoned the relatively un-intelligent device and switched to their router instead. "I don't know what the hell those guys are talking about. We're not even touching their network."
She checked the router's interfaces just to be sure. The piece of gear had been a spare in their office, and only two of the interfaces were in use, but she investigated the others to make sure they were properly turned off, and that no one had plugged something into them they shouldn't have.
Everything appeared clean. Jade got up and went to the rack, opening its door with the universal key she kept on her ring. She checked the cables on the front then went around to the back and stuck her head inside the cabinet, a warm gust of vented air blowing against her face carrying the distinct scent of electrons to her.
"Anything?" Tori peeked in the front and peered between the switch and the router at her, the edges of the gear framing her honey brown eyes.
"Nah."
"Should we call the cops, Jade? I don't think those guys are going to take no for an answer again, even from you." The brunette lowered her voice. "I really don't want to be involved in a dockside brawl."
Jade rested her chin on the switch. "We could call my dad. Then you could just watch a dockside brawl instead of be in one." She removed her head from the cabinet and closed the door, locking it carefully. Walking around to the front, she extracted Tori from the rack and shut the front panel as well. "Now that I'm sure we're clean, maybe I'll be nice and let them look. But don't count on it."
"Huh." Tori leaned against the rack. "What would make them think something was coming from here, then?"
Good question. Jade bit the inside of her lip gently. "Did we have the circuit pinned down right into here?"
"Yes." Tori nodded. "I could have had it into the central telco closet, but I elected to pay the extra bucks and have them drop it directly into this room." She pointed to a sedate, locked, gray box on the wall. "There."
"Nice." Jade said approvingly.
"Tori, we did get this today." Cheryl came over and offered Tori a fax. "It's the pre-order shipping list for the network gear."
Tori studied the paper. "Good." She said. "Do we have a completion yet from the wiring guys?"
"No." Cheryl shook her head. "And my problem is, if this stuff shows up before they're done, we're going to have to find someplace to store it all. I don't think it'll fit in here."
Tori looked around at the interior of the somewhat dingy office. She'd had a cleaning service come in, but the walls really needed a coat of paint instead of the scrubbing they'd done, and she could still smell the sharp scent of new office carpet underfoot. "We'll need some place to set the gear up before it goes on the ship, too."
"Yes."
That meant she had to rent more space. More expenses to charge against the project, which was already expensive and she was under pressure to deliver a price to Quest that was bare minimum. Tori sighed. "I'll see what I can do."
Footsteps made them all look up, but it was only John, the wiring contractor who entered. "Afternoon!" He noticed Jade near the rack and gave her a wry grin. "Should have put in ten percent just for aggravation. My god, those people are a ratchety bunch."
"The ship people?" Tori was mildly surprised. "I thought we ironed things out with them?"
"Ah." John went to the small refrigerator in the back of the office and removed a soda, popping it open and taking a swallow. "It's the engine guys. They get their pusses into everything in there – want to know what I'm doing, where I'm doing it, what kind of cable… for the love of god, what part of shielded twisted pair are they not getting? Damn chief engineer made me give him a sample this morning."
Jade and Tori exchanged looks. "Well, after we arm wrestle the pier people; we can go talk to the captain." Tori said, with a sigh.
"Good idea." Her partner agreed. "Ah, here comes the goon squad now." She watched through the open office door as a group of men rounded the corner and headed in their direction. The two men they'd chased out earlier were in the lead, with three other men, big guys in jackets, coming after them.
"What the hell's up with that?" John wondered. "Who are those guys?"
Tori moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jade, in front of the network rack. If she stopped to think about it, the entire situation was almost sublime in its ridiculousness. Intelligent human beings did not put their bodies on the line for enterprise switches, no matter how expensive they were.
Jade folded her arms, and fixed the men with a cool, blue glare.
On the other hand, Tori smiled inwardly; smart guys didn't mess with Jade, either. Watching the group approach, she had to acknowledge that she could almost smell the stupidity in the air.
Her nose wrinkled, and she hoped James had gotten her note.
The scent of acrid, hot oil attracted James's attention as he crossed over the gangway into the ship. He stopped midway and leaned over the rail, peering down at the green water with a frown. The surface appeared clear, but the smell continued, and he stepped back off the gangway to walk along the edge of the pier.
With all the construction going on around, there were chemicals and stinks everywhere. But to someone who had spent as much time as James had on ships, certain smells always meant trouble, and diesel oil was one of them.
He walked along the ship, pausing to look down between the hull and the water, until he was halfway down. Then his eyes caught a parti-color reflection on the surface that caught the sun in a bad way. The smell was much stronger, and as he knelt down and examined the slick, he also heard a faint grinding sound from inside the ship.
"Wall." Jim sat down on the concrete and let his legs dangle over the side. "That does not sound like any good thing."
The surface of the water was shiny with oil, and the slight current was taking the slick forward of the ship, heading out the cut and towards the sea. Boats discharging into the ocean weren't a rare thing, but he knew cruise ships were watched closely, and fined if they were found doing it.
He kicked his boots against the seawall, regarding the slick. If he looked all the way down the channel, he could see the oily reflection extending past the ship he was working on, past the space between the piers, and on towards the ship Jade and Tori were taking care of.
James's brow creased a little. He pushed himself to his feet and walked towards the other ship. The sun revealed the slick extending to the rear of it, as he'd suspected, but as he closed in on the other vessel, he could see that an oily residue seemed to be seeping from it, as well.
Midway between the ships, James stopped and put his hands on his denim clad hips. Several workmen passing by looked at him, but none spoke. He stood there regarding the water, considering his options. "If I saw this here stuff, sure a hell everyone else did too."
"Hey, Ugly!"
James turned, to see the supervisor near the gangway of his ship. He pondered a moment longer, then turned and headed towards the man, ambling along with deceptive speed until he caught him up. "Lo."
"Hey, what the heck are you doing out there, looking for fish?" The supervisor asked. "I thought you were supposed to be checking in that new order."
James leaned on the gangway railing. "This here ship and that one down yonder are leaking oil." He said. "Them uniforms gonna bust someone up for that?"
The supervisor jumped off the gangway and went to the side of the pier, looking over. "Shit." He glanced both ways. "I told those guys…. Man, if the environmental people see this, they're going to pitch a fit."
James's pale blue eyes rested briefly on the supervisor's face, then drifted off again to the water. "Yeap." He agreed. "Them gov'mint types too."
"Nah." The other man shook his head. "They got that paid off… but if one of those mangrove huggers see it… well, crap. Let me go make a phone call. You go get that box unloaded before those damn women show up again."
James watched him walk off. "Huh." He slowly started across the gangway again. "Paid off them gov'mint types, didja?" His pocket started beeping, and he stopped, tugging the cell phone out of his pocket and opening it.
Rather than ringing, it was displaying a symbol he'd never seen before. After a moment's thought, he punched the buttons over the flashing icon, and was rewarded by text scrolling across the phone's screen. "What'n the hell is…" The words penetrated, and he turned around, heading off the gangway as he stuffed the phone back into his pocket. "Ah swear them little girls get into more hellfire trouble than a humvee full of wet swabs."
"Hey!"
James heard the hail, but paid it no mind. He broke into a loping run, picking up the pace as he headed for the port buildings.
'All right, lady. I don't know what you think the rules are here, but let me just let you in on a little secret." The biggest of the port security men addressed Jade. "You don't own this place. We do. So step aside and let this guy do his job, okay?"
Jade didn't budge. "No." She stated flatly. "I don't own this place, but I own this gear, and you're not touching it."
"We are going to touch it, and you're going to just move aside and let us." The security chief stepped towards the equipment in question, clearly expecting both Jade and Tori to move aside. Cheryl was already standing near the wall away from them, and the security guard from WesTrek was behind them.
"Kiss my ass." Jade suggested. "And make sure your lawyer's on speed dial."
The security officers shifted, and looked at their leader. Jade was standing in front of the equipment rack, leaning against it in fact, and showed no signs of moving. Tori was standing next to her, also clearly challenging their authority with her hands balled into fists and planted on her hips.
"C'mon, we need to get this done." The port technician said.
"I don't really see what your point is." Tori said. "There's no attack coming from here."
"Not according to this." The tech held up a sheaf of papers. "There's a probe coming from this location, and frankly, I don't give shit what you think my point is. I think we should call the cops and just have you thrown out and shut down. This is a security area."
"Is that what you want, lady?" The security chief asked Jade, as he stopped with in reach of her. "Why not just move, make it easy for all of us?" He suggested. "Because the fact is, this is government area, and I can throw your asses out of here if I want to."
"You can try." Jade warned, in a soft voice.
"Excuse me." Tori finally felt her interjection would be appropriate. "I tell you what. We'll let you look at our equipment..."
Jade gave her an outraged look. "Victoria."
Tori reached out without looking and put a hand on her partner's back. "If you can explain to me how it can be affecting your systems when there are no wires connecting us to you?" Tori finished.
The security officials turned and looked at the technicians.
"Can you explain that?" Tori gave Jade's back a little scratch, feeling the shift as her partner relaxed a trifle.
The security chief turned to the port tech. "Can you?"
"Sure they'd say there's no connection." The port tech laughed. "They're not stupid." He held up the papers. "This trace shows as coming from this location. Can you explain that?"
Tori stepped forward and reached out for the papers. "Let me see them."
"No way." The tech jerked them back.
The security officer turned to Tori. "Can't you just let him look?" He asked. "It's almost quitting time, lady. I don't want to be filling out paperwork all night, y'know?"
"No." Jade reasserted herself. "This is a secure network. Nothing goes on it that isn't our hardware."
"Okay, then you're admitting to hacking us. That's pretty clear. So get them out of here, and let's do what we need to do." The tech said. "We're wasting time."
"Our time." Jade said. "But if you throw us out of this room, you'll be wasting more than that. Your boss better be ready for a very expensive lesson." Instead of standing back, she now advanced on both the tech and the security guy. "And your boss, if you decide to put a finger on anyone." She warned the bigger man. "Because I don't give a damn what rules and what regulations this damn piss poor port runs under, I guarantee if I go high enough up in the chain around here, someone's going to get FIRED." Her voice rose with each word until the last one was a shouted bark. "Now get the hell out of here!"
Tori planted herself squarely behind her partner, her heart beating fast as she hoped the men would back off. Not that she doubted Jade's threats were real – after all, she knew darn well they were in the right – but the men looked like they were used to getting their way, and she didn't want to see her lover hurt.
"Wall." A new voice interrupted the chaos briefly. The men turned as James slipped into the room, ducking around the desk to end up next to Jade. "What's all the hollering about, Gigi?"
Tori relaxed against the rack, reassured now they weren't going to get bruised in any way. The WesTrek security guard, apparently emboldened by the new arrival, also came around the desk and stood facing the bad guys as well.
Cheryl slipped around and came up next to her, wide eyed. "Jesus." She whispered. "What in the heck's going on around here?"
Good question. Tori observed the bristling antagonism in the room, and felt compelled to try and circumvent it again, though her first attempt had been a dismal failure. "Okay, folks." She edged around James's bulk and got in front of him. "Tell you what. This is going nowhere. How about you show me what makes you think anything's coming from here, and if it's our stuff, we'll let you look at this end."
Jade actually growled, low and deep in her throat. Tori decided to pretend she didn't hear it, and waited for the technician to answer. "It's the best deal you'll get. Otherwise, I think we're really talking police here, because without seeing that, I agree with Jade. You're not getting access to our corporate systems. No way."
The security chief decided to take control now. "Give me that." He reached over and grabbed the papers from the tech, who squawked in protest. Shuffling them, he handed them over to Tori, holding out a hand to stop the tech from advancing. "Stop it. I'm not missing my beer because of you."
Tori glanced at the trace, her eyes flicking over the details as she moved closer to Jade. "Here." Jade put a hand on her shoulder and read the page as well. "What do you think?"
Jade's brow creased. The trace without a doubt contained one of their addresses, but… she leaned closer. "That's not our router." She indicated the resolved name. "Someone's spoofing us."
"Oh, sure."
"It's an AT router." Tori told him. "The building's lit with Verizon. You should know that."
The tech grabbed the paper back and looked at it. "No way."
Jade shifted her position and now leaned her arm on Tori's shoulder. "Sorry. She's right."
"Someone making trouble for you all?" Jim asked.
The security chief now appeared impatient and bored, rather than impatient and menacing. "Okay, so it's not them. Let's get out of here, and you can figure out who it is, right?" He edged away from Jade. "Sorry about that, but you know security's a touchy subject around here. We got a lot of merchandise going through the port."
"Uh huh." Jade snorted. She reached over and grabbed the papers back. "Give me that. I've got a lot better chance of finding the damn pirate than you do." Inside, she was rattled. Seeing their own IP structure in the trace had mad her heart race, just long enough to make her lightheaded before she realized the source wasn't inside their network.
Someone was taking a lot of time and effort to cause trouble, all right. Question was, who? Was it hackers still trying to embarrass her, or … well, hell, what were the chances some hacker would pick this particular target?
"You can't have that – it's restricted information." The tech protested.
"Yeah, well, she sure looks like she can do more with it than you can, buddy. Move." The security chief knew when to cut his losses, surprisingly. "Next time you call us, try to have your act together, huh?" He and his men herded the techs out of the office.
Jade folded the paper in her hand in half, sharpening the crease with intense, precise motions. She waited for the men to all leave and disappear around the corner before she half turned to look at the rest of the people in the room. "Hi, dad." She murmured. "Was I yelling loud enough for you to hear me outside?"
"Naw." Jim retrieved his cell phone and held it up. "Kumquat sent me a text."
Tori sat down on the edge of the desk. "What the heck was that?" She looked up at Jade. "Can you trace it, from those notes?"
"I don't know." Jade half shrugged. "But I guess I'll find out." She added. "I'm sure someone was trying to make it look like we're doing something wrong."
Tori's eyes darkened, and she narrowed them. "Oh, I can't imagine anyone would want to do that." She replied sarcastically. "But Jade, who says they won't try it again? This location's so vulnerable."
Cheryl sidled up, with a worried look on her face. "She's right about that." She gave the security guard an apologetic look. "No offense, Charles, but you wouldn't have stopped those guys if they'd charged in here."
The guard didn't look embarrassed. "No, ma'am.' He agreed. "But I would have called the police. We're not bouncers." He looked at Jade and Tori. "Ah, not that…"
"Why not? I've got a black eye... maybe we moonlight." Tori remarked dryly.
James chuckled under his breath. Jade gave him a look, then folded the paper into quarters and stuck it in her back pocket. She walked past them to the rack, circling it as she considered her options. The box on the wall was connected to their gear by a set of conduits running through the drop ceiling.
Jade walked over and grabbed a chair, dragging it behind her until it was behind the rack. She climbed up onto it and punched the ceiling panel up, shoving it up and into the framing as she stuck her head up into the dark space.
The rest of the room's occupants looked at each other. Cheryl gave Tori a slight shrug, and then she went back to her desk and sat down. The security guard sidled back out to his station in the hallway, leaving Tori and James standing in the center of the space.
"Long as there ain't no more hollering, I'm going to get back to mah work." James said. "Them fellers don't much like when folks wander off."
"Thanks for coming over, dad." Tori told him. "I just wasn't sure what was going to happen."
"No problem, kumquat." Jim told her. "You find anything up there, Jade?"
"Dustbunnies with fangs." Jade sneezed. "Thanks for asking." She looked down for a moment. "Thanks for coming over to make sure we weren't in trouble, too."
James patted her leg. "No problem, squirt. See y'all later." He headed for the door, giving Cheryl a brief nod as he passed her. "Lo."
"Hi." The office worker waggled her fingers at him. "Bye."
Jade put her head back up into the ceiling, her eyes tracing the conduit. It moved in an unbroken curve from where it dropped down to her rack, up through the drop panel, was bracketed to the concrete true ceiling, and then dropped back down through the panel to the box on the wall.
No taps, no junction boxes. Jade felt better. She tugged the ceiling panel back into place, then pulled her way along the drop ceiling as she balanced on the chair, it's wheels squeaking in protest.
"Jade!" Tori popped up off the desk and grabbed hold of the chair back as it threatened to squirt out from under her partner. "Careful!" what the hell are you thinking?
"Ah, with any luck, I'll fall on my head." Jade now carefully examined the box on the wall, unlatching it and swinging it open. Inside was an ordinary T1 CSU, with no other lines except the one they were using on it. With a satisfied grunt, she closed and latched it. "Put a lock on that." She ordered Cheryl, as she turned and hopped off the chair. "No one goes near it, no one touches it, no one does anything do that unless I'm standing here watching. Got me?"
"Yes, ma'am." Cheryl nodded.
Jade dusted her hands off, her eyes falling on Tori as she reached for the chair to move it back. Her partner had her fingers resting on the rack, a look of quiet pensiveness on her face.
Sensing the attention, Tori looked up. "Maybe we should stick around here this weekend?" She suggested.
Perhaps they should. Jade acknowledged silently. There was too much going on, too many loose ends for them to just take off out of town, really. She could see the agreement with that in Tori's posture, the slight relaxing of her shoulder muscles that almost, but did not quite seem like a slump. "No." She was surprised to hear herself saying. "We've got a line at the cabin and our cell phones. C'mon." She tapped Tori on the arm and pointed to the door. "Let's get to the Airport, and get moving."
Without further argument, Tori simply nodded, and headed for the door. Jade followed her, wondering if that decision, too, wouldn't come back to bite her in a bad, bad way.
Tori half turned as she caught up with her, and smiled, a sparkle entering her eyes. Jade returned the smile, and decided the risk was more than worth the reward.
She was sure of it.