Jade is having a blast with the hackers, don't let her fool ya.
Thirty Two
"Hey, Dre." Tori carried her tea cup into the break room and set it down. "What's up?" She asked, waiting her turn at the hot water spigot.
"Same old, same old." Her friend replied, with a grin. "Hey, any chance of you making it out to the beach this coming weekend? We've got a cue planned."
Tori dunked her teabag up and down a few times. "Hm.. let me get back you on that. Maybe. Hey listen – are there any units open in the complex?"
"Mine?" Andre asked, in a mildly surprised tone. "Two, I think. Why?"
Tori poured a little milk into her tea and put the bottle back in the refrigerator. "Might need one on short notice." She explained. "You going back to your office? I'll fill you in."
Andre picked up her coffee mug and followed Tori out into the hallway. She caught up with her friend a few steps down. "So, what's up?"
"My sister." Tori said, with a wry grin. "Following my very bad example.. c'mon inside and I'll tell you all about it." She entered her office, toasting the newly arrived Mayte with her cup. "Morning!"
"Morning, Tori." Mayte smiled at her, as she went to her desk and slid behind it.
Andre trailed after Tori as they both entered the inner office, and Tori shut the door before going to her own desk and taking a seat. "I get this call last night." She said. "My family's hit the Enquirer again."
"Oh no." Andre sat down across from her. "Now what? Is your nephew an alien?"
"Worse." Tori sipped her tea. "A bastard, and his father found out about it." She watched Andre's eyes widen in amazement. "Did I forget to tell you my sister had an affair with my ex-boyfriend?"
"Damn." Andre covered her face with one hand.
"Hm. Thought for sure I told you that one. Anyway, Richard found out and he's suing Trina for divorce. She was hinting about places down here so I figured…"
"I get the picture." Andre held his hand up, palm out. "Let me talk to the landlord – see what he's got open. I know there's a one bedroom, but I'm thinking for her a two would be better, right? How's she going to survive – I thought you told me she's a housewife."
Tori sighed, leaning back in her chair. "She is. She can do some light office work, though, and she's not stupid. She knows how to use a PC, do some bookkeeping, that sort of thing."
Andre made a face.
"I know." The brunette acknowledged the grimace. "Honestly, Dre, she'd be better off going back to mom's house, but I'm not really the one to tell her that, you know?"
"Mm." The redhead nodded. "I know. Is she cut out for San Francisco?"
"Was I?"
"You didn't have a kid, and no skills." Andre said, with blunt honesty. "Not that I'm knocking her looking for something new, eh? It's just that I think she doesn't realize you got where you are because you earned it."
Tori looked around at her office, hand picked and hand decorated by Jade, filled with knick knacks and cute, yet mute symbols of their partnership. A brief grin crossed her face, as she sipped again at her tea. "True." She acknowledged. "But I think what she wants is to make it on her own, before she lets Brian come back into her life and it reverts to stodgy traditionalism."
A soft knock came at the door. "Yes?" Tori raised her voice.
The door opened and Mayte stuck her head in. "Tori, the conference room is booked for your meeting at nine, but Mr. Sinjin says to tell you he is running a little late. Something about a wipe-out."
"Uh oh." Tori winced."That doesn't sound good. Okay – thanks Mayte. I'll start the meeting without him. Hope he's all right." She shook her head, and reviewed her page of mails, most of which were marked with red urgent flags. "Yeesh. What a way to start the day."
Andre stood, and chuckled wryly. "Well, me friend, I'll be on my way to start my day, and hope it's not nearly so raucus as yours. I'll let you know what the landlord says." he waggled her fingers at Tori and headed for the door.
"Bye Dre." Tori turned her attention to her inbox, clicking on the first red flag. It was a plea from marketing, on a new account. She leaned forward and studied it thoughtfully, then shifted her window over and clicked on their network diagram. When it came up, she typed in a circuit identifier and scanned the results.
Her fingers drummed lightly on the keyboard. "Marginal." She nibbled the inside of her lip. The new account wanted a guaranteed amount of bandwidth, and the minor pipe they were running on, an offshoot of the main network in a far out part of Oregon was approaching their self imposed saturation limit.
Should she agree, and hope for the best? Should she ask for a bandwidth increase? They wouldn't get any more money if she had to make a bigger pipe there, unless they could bag more business in the area.
After a moment's more drumming of her fingertips, Tori went back to the mail program. She hit reply, and typed a response. "Okay, John. I'll go for the guarantee, but you guys better understand that's a very tight area. Nothing else goes in there for any existing customers and that pipe stays that size unless you book me more business."
She hit send, then sat back. After a second, she went into her sent mail file and selected the note she'd just delivered, forwarding a copy of it over to Jade. "Juuuuust in case."
Then she went on to the next note, another plea, another account, another decision to justify. Tori found herself wondering how long it was before Jade had gotten tired of handling stuff like this? She'd developed a technique of scaring the hell out of everyone so much no one asked her for favors, and so she had a lot fewer kinds of emails to deal with than Tori currently did.
Tori was perceived as 'nice' – she knew it, and she knew that often played in her favor, but in cases like this, it often caused her to have to make calls she really shouldn't have to, just because people knew they could approach and ask her for it.
So – was Jade's way of operating really more efficient?
Hm. Tori exhaled, then jumped as Gopher Jade appeared, chittering at her from behind her mail window. "Yow. You little stinker." She laughed, clicking at Gopher Jade with her mouse. Today her little pal had on a t-shirt and overalls, and was wearing a baseball cap with the letter K on it.
Gopher Jade shook his finger at her, then pulled out a placard, sashaying across Tori's screen so she could read it. "Nerds Rule, huh?" She chuckled. "Jade, Jade, Jade."
"Yes?"
Tori jumped again, despite herself. She turned and gave her boss a mock glare. "grunch."
Jade sauntered over. She was dressed in jeans again, and carrying a shoulder pouch full of various nerdy things. "I'm going to the main patch closet. If anyone's looking for me, tell em I've got my head up a router somewhere."
Tori gazed affectionately at her. "You going to be lying on the floor all day again? Here." She pulled a small sheepskin pillow from her large desk drawer and handed it to Jade. "Park your buns on that."
Her partner accepted the fluffy thing, and held it up. "You want me to walk through the hallways carrying this?" She laughed. "Tori, I don't need a duff muff."
"Well, tell them it's my muff." Tori replied, with a twinkle. "Actually, it's for your head. It's not good for you to have your head on the cold concrete, honey. I don't want you getting sick."
Jade tucked the pillow under her arm and sketched a salute at Tori, as she headed for the door. "Oh." She paused with the door half open. "Good decision on Oregon." Then she scooted through and shut the door after her, leaving Tori in momentary silence.
"Thanks." Tori said to the closed door. "Nice hat on the gopher." She added, with a grin as she spotted Gopher Jade now sleeping in the corner of her screen, the hat tilted over his eyes.
With a shake of her head she went back to work, checking her watch for the time. It was nearly eight, and she had to get through the rest of her red flags before she left for her meeting at nine, and for a minute she wished she were working with Jade on her project instead.
"Bad Tori." She resolutely clicked on the next mail.
It had been a very long time since Jade had wandered down to the first floor of their building and into the big central core telecom room. She propped the door open from long habit, looping a piece of old Ethernet cable tied around a conduit just for that purpose over the door handle and proceeding inside.
It was a far from glamorous place, concrete block walls lined with rack upon rack of circuit cards, cables, and routers. It also held two big UPS units to power the room if they lost outside electricity, it's own air conditioning unit and a thankfully raised floor so she didn't actually have to lie on concrete.
The walls were covered in steel conduit that lead to every other floor of the building, and there was a set of bright red pipes that indicated the lines coming in from outside. Those had tiny camera attachments to one side that allowed a fiber optic thread to penetrate the pipe at the top and give the security department visibility through the conduit to it's terminus outside.
There were also cameras pointed towards them inside the patch room, a bit of extra insurance Jade had installed a year or so back. It never paid to take chances, and admittance to this particular room was restricted to four people inside the company, her being one of them.
Tori and Sinjin being the other two, and the fourth key residing in New York in the hands of the corporate security officer in case of disaster.
Jade set her bag down and ran her eyes over the racks to re-familiarize herself with the configuration. She'd supervised the original installation in this room, but it had been a while since she'd seen the hardware. She ran her fingers over the patch panels, peeking behind them to inspect the jacks.
Everything looked in order. Jade circled the room one more time, then she selected a spot on the floor and knelt, pulling out her laptop and a set of cables. She plugged the end of the cable into one of the two master routers and sat down, leaning against the rack and putting Tori's pillow behind her head to cushion it.
It added a bit of unexpected comfort, welcome considering the number of hours she suspected she'd be sitting here on the floor working. Jade smiled, taking an Ethernet cable from her bag and attaching the back of her laptop into the network with it. Tori was so cool sometimes.
Okay, most of the time. In fact, there were times Jade did wonder what exactly she'd done in a past life to deserve meeting Tori in this one.
Ah well. She booted up her laptop and pulled a can of Yoohoo from her bag, opening it and setting it at her side in direct violation of the strict no beverage rule she'd put in place for this room.
The screen came up, and she started up her analysis program, then booted the network monitor. She cracked her knuckles, then started typing, calling up the router configuration on one screen while she set the monitor running on another.
An alert flashed. Jade paused and looked at it, surprised. "What the…" She pulled up the monitor and made it full screen, her eyes flicking over the readouts. Her attention zeroed in on one escalating counter, and with a curse, she switched to the router screen and started typing like a demon.
"Son of a bleeping pissant hacker.. wait till I get you…"
"You okay to walk from here, sailor boy?" Ceci put the truck in park, and peered across the bridge leading to the port. "Or you want me to drop you down inside?"
"Naw." Jim gathered up his hard hat and a small sack lying next to him on the seat. "This here's fine. Don't want them beagle brains wondering nothing." He paused to regard the line of old ships stretching out down the cut, plucking a seam on the nicely worn jeans covering his legs.
Ceci watched him, with a faint grin. "Well, go have fun then." She nudged his shoulder. "My husband the corporate spy."
Jim chuckled, turning his head and giving her a light kiss on the lips. "Just doing Gigi a favor." He opened the door and hopped out, giving the side of the truck a slap before he moved off down the sidewalk towards the bridge.
"Hm." Ceci leaned on the truck steering wheel, resting her chin on the top of it. "I'm not sure who did who a favor." She made a mental note. Her beloved husband had settled into retirement, but Ceci knew him well enough to know having something to do was coming as a definite relief.
The fact that it was a truly interesting, actually important task only made it all the better. Had Jade known that before she asked?
Well. Ceci mused. The apple didn't fall far from the tree, to quote a hoary old saying, and very probably her daughter had an inside insight into mentally hyperdriven restlessly active behavior that she just thankfully didn't.
In any case, Jim was excited as a kid with a new sling shot, and she found herself surprisingly grateful to Jade for making him that way. She looked around, spotting the wharf just to her right. Hm.
Maybe she could get Jade a present to say thank you. With a brisk nod, she put the truck in gear and made a swift u-turn, crossing six lanes of traffic with placid non-concern.
James walked slowly down the pier, nodding briefly at the few men wandering in to start work along with him. "Lo." He greeted the foreman, who was standing near the gangway drinking cup of coffee.
"Hey there, ugly." The foreman responded, with an easy grin that stripped the insult of most of it's sting. "Listen, buddy. The folks inside gave me a good write up on you."
James stopped at the edge of the gangway and leaned on the chain rope. "Yeap?" He replied. "That so?"
The man nodded. "That Norskie said it was nice to have someone who spoke English but kept their mouth shut for a change."
Jim chuckled. "Them fellers inside done chatter a bit, that's true." He allowed. "Didn't seem any too organized, though." He added offhandedly. "Lots of them boxes went all over the place."
The foreman sighed and shook his head. "Yeah, I know. I heard that." He frowned. "Problem is, the people who ordered all the stuff for the fixing up didn't palletize it."
"Yeap." Jim nodded.
"So we've got dishes mixed with plumbing fixtures. What a mess." He showed James his clipboard, which held reams of receiving invoices. "Look at this. You're going to have an even bigger mess coming in today."
Since he so nicely offered, James took the board and examined the papers. "Wall." He leaned on the chains again and pointed at one of the lines with a scarred finger. "See that there?"
"Yeah?" The man looked at the line warily. "What about it?"
"Way back when in the Navy, that there used to be called a source tick." Jim told him. "I ain't got a half clue what them boys back in the office do with it, but all them with the same number done belonged together."
The foreman looked around quickly. "Yeah?" He studied the number, then flipped a few pages, and looked at another invoice. "Son of a bitch! Look! Cups, saucers, and silverware.. all the same one!" His voice rose excitedly. "If we can get a couple of big magic markers we might make sense of this damn crap… hang on.. I'll be right back… Ugly, you're a genius!"
James watched him hurry off. "Lord." He moved on in search of a roach coach, spotting one outside the walkway. "What the hell these people being paid for I do wonder. Mah kid come in here and this whole basket'd been tossed head over keester by now."
There was a small crowd around the wagon and he joined it, standing in line to wait his turn, then pointing mutely at the coffee and holding up an apple he'd taken from the back of the coach when he got to the front. The vendor handed him a steaming cup and took his proffered money, then moved on to the next guy in line as James set the cup down and applied as much of everything he could to get it to stop tasting like watery coffee.
It was already warm, and he was sweating under his t-shirt, but as he walked over to stand near the gangway again and sipped his coffee, he felt good to be there anyway. He leaned against the huge cleat the ship was moored to and crossed his ankles, his military issue boots showing dark against the white concrete.
Two figures approached down the pier, attracting his attention. He remained in place, however, idly munching on his apple as the two women approached. They were talking as they walked, looking around but not really paying much attention to the men standing around on the pier.
As they came even with him, though, James dropped his eyes to his cup, cocking his ears to listen instead.
"I'm telling you, Shari. It's going to take three weeks to get the damn wireless gear in here, and even then the best I can hope for is maybe 2 megabit pipe to that rented office over there."
"We are not giving those bitches one flat dime, Michelle." The taller, older of the two women retorted. "I don't care if we have to move the office here. Rent space in that damn Catholic trailer. I don't give s shit. I've got other people working on screwing WesTrek, so I'm not going to sit here being screwed by them in the meantime."
"Well, hell." The shorter woman replied. "I say let's bury the hatchet long enough to get a connection, for Pete's sake. I need the access to the system, Shari! I can't run the hardware part of this with a fucking tin can and a roll of string!"
"Fine." The taller woman stormed onto the gangway, brushing right by James as she did so. "Do whatever the fuck you want. Go screw the little Latina rat you're lusting for. Maybe that'll get you what you want."
The smaller woman stopped at the edge of the gangway. She glared at the other woman's retreating back, then glanced at James.
"Mornin." James tipped his coffee cup to her.
With a disgusted look, the woman turned and stalked off, her heels clattering loudly on the concrete. James liberated an apple seed from the core he'd been nibbling and spit it after her, watching it bounce along the pier, skittering merrily in her wake.
"C'mere.. c'mere.." Jade was focused intently on the screen, her body arced forward and hunched over the laptop. She had three windows open, and she was running traces in all of them, using a fourth to scramble rapidly after the would be hacker as they probed the gateways into her network.
It was a tough balance, trying to follow the hacker around while at the same time, not revealing her presence, while at the same time running traces on him to find out where he was from.
Instinctively, she'd thrown up a zone around the router he was attacking, locking off the security to her login alone, and restricting all inbound traffic to reroute through her analyzer. So – there was no danger in letting him poke around, because there was literally no place for him to go.
And maybe she could learn something about what he was looking for if she let him keep looking. But the probes did not seem to have any particular intent – the hacker was looking for something.. anything, as though he was just opportunistically searching for any crevice he could.
Which, if she thought about it, made a peculiar kind of sense given the jerkwad challenge she'd tossed out there.
Without looking, Jade picked up the can of Yoohoo and took a swallow, then set it down quickly as her nemesis apparently decided to give up, and backed out of the gateway. "Ah ah ah…" Jade glanced at the trace, then chuckled wickedly. "Ah, gotcha."
She followed him back out, away from their hardened entry point, back through the backbone he'd come in on, back to his own front door.
He vanished, his IP disappearing behind a firewall, but before he did, Jade got one last bit of information from him she hadn't expected, an unusual port that she took a chance on, and went in after him with.
She never expected it to work, but the next thing she knew, she was in the raider's gateway router, a bland, innocent prompt facing her with a pound sign that rang alarm bells so loudly she had to look up to make sure she wasn't actually hearing them real time.
For a moment, she just sat there, fingertips resting on her keyboard, letting her heartbeat settle down.
Okay. Jade took a deep breath. From where she was, she could do damn near anything, far more in fact than the hacker could have done to her network if he'd gotten as far as she had.
It seemed a perfect opportunity – she could find out where this guy was from, what his motives were.. maybe turn the tables on him? He'd been pretty confident he'd get to her – now she could chase him down to his very desk and…
Paybacks? Jade drummed her fingers, feeling an instinct rising that she knew from long experience that she ignored at her own peril.
Carefully, she screencapped where she was, then very deliberately, she clicked the x box on her command window and took herself out of the alien gateway.
If she could set up an trap, so could he, and the stakes were a lot higher for her if she was caught snooping inside someone else's network. If Sinjin had done it, well.. he was her security chief. But to have the CIO of WesTrek get caught red handed breaking in?
No. Much as her fingertips itched to do it, that open router with a pre-set enable password.. that was just too easy. While there was always a chance someone really was that stupid, Jade found herself growing just that much over the conservative line.
"Guess I'm really not that hotshot punk anymore." Jade announced to the blinking routers, which did not change their placid LED flashing for her. "Ah well." She sighed.
Then she sat back and pulled her bag over, taking a swig of her drink and pulling an apple out. She set it on her lap and pulled out her pocket knife, slicing the apple in half. With one eye on the monitors, she pulled out a tube of peanut butter and squeezed a blob onto the apple, taking a bite of it as she freed her other hand to type in a command.
Now. She could find out more about the hacker. She had a spoofed IP he'd been using, but the router she'd dropped into had a real one, and finding out who owned that was a relatively…
Jade blinked at the screen. A square was blinking in the center of her screen, with a simple, red heart in the middle of it, beating slightly.
Then a message appeared. Okay, so it's not Gopher Jade, but it gets my thoughts across, right?
Jade clicked on it, and answered back. Definitely. Where are you?
In my meeting. We're getting a price list together.
Jade watched her trace finish, then exhaled, her eyes narrowing. Well, Telegenics just tried to send a hacker in here.
Big surprise. Tori's snort could almost be heard.
No, it wasn't, but it was definitely a two edged attack, Jade realized. If they were coming after her and, as she suspected, trying to lure her into a trap – what would happen if they realized she'd already laid one for them?
Hey, Jade?
Jade took another bite of her apple, and typed a one handed reply. Yeah?
Sinjin says his alert monitor is going bonkers and no one can get into the master router. You got any ideas what's up?
Oops. Tell him to relax. I'm doing something. Jade put the apple down and rattled the keys, resetting the router security and giving access back to the automated systems. Better?
A few seconds of silence, then… He's not hyperventilating anymore. Must be. Can you take a break and come up just to hear the recap?
Jade drained her YooHoo, looking thoughtfully at the question. Yeah, Be right up.
She needed to think about what she'd just seen, anyway.
"What did you think?" Tori asked, as she and Jade walked down the hallway towards her office.
Jade glanced at her. "About your presentation skills, the plan, or how cute you look in that outfit?" She asked, with a rakish grin.
"What.." Tori sighed in mock exasperation. "Am I going to do with you?" She shook her head, giving a wave to Mayte. "Get in here." She added, pulling the door open and standing back to let Jade pass.
"Or?" Jade sauntered by, and waited for Tori to close the door. "You going to spank me? Should have done it out in the hallway. That'd keep the rumor mill going for weeks." She walked over to the small couch in the office and sat down, letting her elbows rest on her knees.
"You're such a little devil sometimes." Tori walked over and sat down next to her, preferring the couch's soft confines to her lonely desk chair. "And no, I meant the plan. I already know what you think about those other two things." She nudged Jade's shoulder.
Jade wiped a bit of router room dust off her fingertips. "I like it."
Tori waited. Nothing else followed. "And?"
"And?" Jade reached down and retied the shoelace on her boot. "I think you've come up with a solid proposal – the one question is gonna be the cost."
"Well, sure." Tori agreed. "But you think the way it's laid out, that'll work?"
Jade leaned back and crossed her arms, giving her partner a sideways look. "Can I ask something?"
Tori also sat back. "Sure."
"You've done, easy, four dozen accounts without my help." Jade said. "So why do you think you need it on this one?"
Hm. Tori crossed her own arms and stared thoughtfully at the carpet, giving the question it's due deliberation. Finally she just shrugged. "I don't know." The admission surprised her, possibly more than it did Jade. "Maybe because I know how important this is."
"They're all important." Jade unfolded her arms and laid her right one over Tori's shoulders. "Just run with it, Tor. Don't' worry about what I think. Just do what you think's right."
Tori's index finger traced a light pattern on the denim covering Jade's thigh. "Easy to say, harder to accomplish." She smiled briefly. "So, anyway.. what were you doing in the closet?"
"I've never been in the closet." Jade deadpanned, accepting the change of subject. "But I'm glad you asked. C"mere." She got up and lead Tori over to her desk, sliding into the chair and giving Tori's trackball a roll. "Maybe I'm nuts. But I think I got out of a trap by the skin of my teeth."
"You?" Tori leaned on the desk next to her. "Trap set by who?"
Jade looked at her, and smiled grimly. "Someone who'd love to embarrass the hell out of us and plaster it all over the trade press. Look." She called up the screen on her own laptop, which she'd locked in the closet. It still had the screen captures she'd done on it, and her notes.
Tori bent close, leaning on her elbows as she read, her lips moving slightly. She was aware of Jade's close presence, her breath warming the skin on the outside of Tori's arm. "Wait, you got right in there?" She said. "Into that router? Holy pooters!"
"Uh huh." Jade rumbled softly.
"Wow. Bet you wanted to go right in there and smack em." Tori mused. "I might have. How did you guess it was a trap? What if it wasn't? What if they're really that stupid?"
"Tor."
A sigh. "Yeah, I know. I just can't help it." Tori flicked her fingernail against the monitor. "I can't even believe I'm suggesting that. I think my business ethics got chucked in the dumpster when it comes to those two erfing bitches." She gazed down at her desktop. "Maybe that's why I'm all off balance on this thing, Jade."
"Mm." Jade glanced up as Tori's intercom went off.
"Tori?" Mayte's voice broke in. "I have that Michelle Graver person on line one." Though polite, Mayte's voice had a definite tinge of disapproval to it, much like the one her mother's had when necessary.
"Am I in?" Tori swiveled around and laid down flat on her back, her legs dangling off the edge of her desk. "I have to ponder that for a minute. Tell Michelle to hold on, hm?" She turned her head and gazed at Jade.
"Sure." Mayte clicked off.
"Is it unprofessional of me to just want to keep her waiting for the hell of it?"
"No." Jade rested her elbows on the desk and leaned forward, tilting her head and gently exploring Tori's lips with her own. "On the other hand.." She kissed her again, this time for a longer period. "Making her wait for this is highly unprofessional."
"Oh." Tori folded her hands over her stomach and let her eyes flutter closed briefly, as Jade continued her extremely unprofessional behavior. "If someone walks in right now, I think we'd both deserve to be fired." She finally said, with a small sigh.
"Probably." Jade agreed. "But I'd have to fly Alastair in to fire us, and by the time he got here, something would break and he'd just be asking us to come back."
Tori's eyes twinkled, but she made a face as she reached across to hit the intercom. "Okay, put her through, Mayte."
"Okay." Mayte responded. "But are you sure? I think the music is very enjoyable for her."
Jade chuckled softly. "Mayte, you're sounding more and more like your mother every day." She added, watching Tori's eyes crinkle at the corners as she grinned.
"Thank you." Mayte said. "Mama will like that you said that, I am sure."
"Go ahead and connect her, Mayte." Tori said. "I wouldn't condemn even Michelle to much more Muzak regurgitated Nine Inch Nails."
Mayte clicked off, then after a second, a soft buzz replaced her. Tori reached over an hit the answer button. "Operations, Vega." She addressed the ceiling.
"Hello, Tori." Michelle's voice was a mixture of cordiality and veiled frustration. "Sorry to disturb you."
Jade reached over and traced the edge of Tori's ear, watching it turn pink after a few seconds.
"Ah, no problem. What can I do for you?" Tori gamely replied. "Or are you just calling to insult me a little more? It's been a slow morning." She ignored the tiny mewing sounds from very close to her ear.
An audible sigh came through the phone. "Actually, I'm calling you to eat crow, which I know you'll enjoy, and ask how much you want for your blackmail circuit."
Tori wriggled a little on her back, doing a small victory dance. "To be honest, Michelle.."
"Oh yes, I know you'll be that."
The mewling had altered, growing deeper and into a low growl. Tori glanced at her partner, not surprised to see the pale blue eyes narrowed into slits. Experimentally, she reached over and touched Jade's lip, lifting it to inspect a well formed canine tooth just underneath.
Jade cocked an eyebrow at her, and stopped growling.
"Pass through cost plus five percent." Tori said. "Take it or leave it." She drew a line up the center of Jade's nose, watching her eyes cross as she tried to follow it, and smiled as she imagined she could hear Michelle's teeth grinding together on the other end of the phone.
"Fine." Michelle answered, clipping the word short. "What do you need to get it done?"
"A check and a circuit terminus." Tori replied. "Just have someone see Sinjin Polenti at our office in Pier 10 tomorrow, he'll take care of it."
"Fine." Michelle said again. "Thanks. Bye."
The line went dead. Tori exhaled. "Well, boss – we made almost four percent profit on that insurance policy.. not bad, huh?"
"Brilliant." Jade blew in her ear. "So brilliant, I'm going to leave this other little problem in your hands… because when I backed out of that router because I didn't want the CIO of WesTrek to be caught hacking – I remembered I put an industrial spy in Telegenic's camp. What happens if that comes out?"
Tori eased herself upright, her back not particularly appreciating the hard surface of her desk. It gave her time to think about Jade's question, and consider the impact of it. "Well." She hopped off the desk and walked around in front of it. "How would it come out? It's not like he's not there, just doing a job, right?"
"Mm."
"Shari never met him, I guess, or she'd be a long squashed mango on I-95 by now." Tori went on. "So unless he.."
"Hears them talking about us." Jade got up and ran a hand through her hair. "and behaves like he usually does, we're safe. Right?"
"Oh boy."
Jade headed for the back door to the hall that connected their offices. "Worry about it when it happens." She waved a hand at Tori. "Meanwhile, I'm going to see if I can't find a way to turn the tables on our little bucket of chum."
Tori sat down in her chair, the leather holding a hint of Jade's scent which surrounded her as she leaned back. What would really happen, she wondered, if Jim was found out? Would it be viewed as a scandalous criminal act, or just a smart piece of business? It wasn't as if , as she'd said to Jade, that James had gotten the job on false pretenses.
He was qualified and more to do what they were paying him for. If he did the work, then what could anyone say, really?
Tori felt the irony, though. She knew this was something her father would have done in a bare instant, and in fact, he'd readily approve of her tactics.
She grimaced.
That sure wasn't a nice feeling. Yet – James hadn't seemed to object to the task either. He'd agreed readily and seemed to think it was a good idea.
So where was the 'right' in all this? Tori opened her drawer and removed a piece of dried apricot from the bag there, putting it into her mouth and chewing it slowly. Was there any right?
Hm.
Tori edged through the construction zone in the middle of the ship, and looked around. She spotted WesTrek's senior electrical contractor near the other end of the space, and hastened towards where he was standing, surrounded by ship staff. "Jack."
The man turned and saw her. "Ah. Ms. Vega. Glad you're here." He waited for her to join him. "We seem to have a problem here."
Only here? Tori allowed her public, diplomatic cloak to settle over her shoulders. "What seems to be the issue, guys?"
"Are you in charge of all this?" One of the men standing around asked her. "I am hearing this person say he needs to turn off power to several decks of the ship."
Tori eyed him thoughtfully. "Well, sure." She said. "He has to do that to put in more power, and the cabling we need for the new computer systems. He can't do that with the power on."
"What are we supposed to do?" The man asked. "We live here. Would you like to be in this damn heat with no power?"
"I was, just a little while ago, matter of fact." Tori said. "No, it's not pleasant. But it's the only way we can get the job done, so what do you think we're supposed to do? I'm sure Jack will work with you and shut down a section at a time, not all the decks and once." She turned. "Right?"
Jack hesitated, then nodded. "Right."
"But we've got jobs to do too." The man continued arguing. "I have people to administer, services to fufill.. I can't be without power."
"We can move you to someplace that has it." Jack said.
"Certainly not! I have far too many important things in my office!" The man stated flatly.
Tori folded her arms over her chest. "Okay." She looked him right in the eye. "I understand."
"Good." The man smiled.
"Just give me your name, so I can go back to Mr. Quest, and tell him why we can't proceed with his project." Tori smiled back at him. "I'm sure he'll understand, too."
The man blinked in shock, then stiffened. "I didn't say you couldn't proceed!"
"Sure you did. You said you can't be without power. We have to turn the power off to go forward. So if you can't be without power, and you won't move to where power is, then we can't go forward."
The rest of the staff seemed content to watch, their eyes shifting between the man, and Tori as though watching an exciting ping pong match. They all seemed to be deferring to the argumentative man, whose bearing indicated he was used to obedience and authority.
That was all right. So was Tori, but in a different way. "So, can I have your name?" She asked gently. "Because Jack and I both have other things we could be doing if we're not going to be able to start up here."
"Right you are, ma'am." Jack stuck his thumbs into his jeans pockets, and rocked on the heels of his work boots. "Plenty of projects lined up."
"Unless maybe we could work something out with you – maybe we could have our guys move your stuff when we needed to." Tori read the man's body language and decided giving him an out was a good idea. "We'd be glad to do that."
Jack scowled.
The man snorted, and lifted a hand. "Fine." He relented. "If you have to, you have to. But you must come to me before you turn off anything, so I can make sure nothing gets disrupted."
"Sure." Tori said. "Jack, can you assign someone from your office to liase with…" She looked at the man questioningly.
"Pieter Oshousen." The man supplied. "Staff Captain." He gave them all a nod, then turned and walked off, his back stiff.
"Right." Tori watched as the rest of the staff dispersed also, their attitudes half amused and half disgruntled. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun." She added, once they were gone. "It's like being in a inhabited construction zone."
"Got that right." Jack sighed, scratching his head. "Where in the hell do we start? Every time I try to put a plan together, I keep running into these roadblocks."
Tori shook her head. "Yeah, I know. C'mon, I think I found us something we can use for a central core, since my first choice just isn't going to fly." She lead the way to the stairwell, and started down. "They don't like this idea either, but it takes space away from passengers not crew, so at least they won't stand in our way, and the overall ship management approved it."
Jack snorted. "Figures." He followed Tori down the steps, and then though a series of doorways until she stopped in front of one. She pushed it open, and stood back, pointing inside. With a doubtful look, he stepped past her and entered the space. "Ah."
Tori entered after them. "Yeah."
Jack turned around. "This is a cabin."
"It is. But it's an inside one, and they've actually given me two of them." Tori agreed. "This one, and the one next to it, which is through this connecting door." She shoved the inner door open and looked through.
Both cabins had seen far, far better days. The carpet was an indiscriminate color, perhaps it had once been aqua, and the walls had peeling laminate of an equally grayish hue. There were no beds, but on one wall, a pull down bunk was clamped.
It smelled horrible.
"We'll have to strip both rooms, but I think it's workable, and this wall.." Tori walked over and slapped the inner partition, near the bunk. "Backs onto the elevator shaft and all the conduit trackways."
Jack looked measurably happier. "Eh? Do they? Now that's workable." He walked over to inspect the wall, then reached up to push at the ceiling. It gave under his touch, the panel lifting up and showering them both with debris best left undescribed. "Uh.. sorry."
Tori plucked her shirt out, scattering the grunk, and ran her fingers through her hair to send more flying. "No problem." She responded. "Anything up there?"
Her companion flipped a flashlight up and peered into the space. "Lucked out." He grunted. "Not a firewall. This is an easy punch." He turned his head. "Good pick, ma'am. We can work with this."
"Thanks. Now." Tori put her hands on her hips. "You can start laying cable in, while I get a general contractor in here to make this space livable. I can't even put a rack in here until we put down a substrate and extra AC."
"Yup." The electrical contractor nodded. "I'll get my fiber guy in here, and the cat five people. You pick where you want the access closets, or is that a fight too?"
Tori sighed. "What do you think?"
"Need to know that, fore I can have the fiber feller quote the job." Jack sounded apologetic. "I was going around the decks before you got here.. I thought I saw some electrical closets up there you could mount a switch or two in, and they can't use em for storage."
"Really? Show me." Tori followed him out the open door and down the hallway. Could she get that lucky? Electrical closets already had ventilation, and naturally they had power – could she get away with not having to fight the already hostile staff for yet more precious space?
They started up the forward stairs, wincing a little as their shoes stuck to the treads. Workmen dressed in ship jumpsuits brushed by them going the other direction without giving them a second glance, but just seeing them made Tori suddenly wonder about something.
James was in Shari and Michelle's ship. What if they'd put someone in hers? How would she tell? She looked around at the workmen, all of whom looked more or less alike, and most seeming to look right through her in return. Well, she could request all their employment details and have checks run, but…
"Here." Jack lead her off one of the stair landings into a side corridor, with cabins on either side. He found one unmarked door and yanked it open, to reveal a small, ill lit closet with a large breaker box and other electrical piping inside.
It was small and dirty, but Tori pulled out a tape measure and found a relatively clear spot on one wall of the closet. "We can squeeze a half rack in here." She said. "How many of these are there?"
"Two on each deck."
Tori snapped the tape measure shut. "Sold." She tucked the tool away. "Put an extra one percent on your estimate, Jack. You solved a huge problem for me. To retrofit space for these things would have cost me a bundle."
A big smile crossed the contractor's face. "Y'know, that's what I love about dealing with you. I never feel like it's always one of us taking, one giving, or turn around." He held a hand out. "Makes my life easier too – I've already got a lot of conduit up there I can use."
Tori solemnly shook his hand. "Okay. Give me an eight strand fiber core to each closet, terminating in our snazzy cabin digs, and cat five runs to all the places on the blueprints. When can I expect a quote?"
Jack chuckled, as they went back down the hallway. "Tomorrow, maybe. Hey, one thing though – this electrical mostly isn't up to code. Not your gig, but the stuff I have to put in will be. What about the rest?"
Good question. She wondered if that had been part of Quest's plan, since the construction would have to pass local inspection at some point. "I don't know.. how about I put you together with their admin people. Maybe they'll let you quote it, if they don't have a contractor already."
"I'd appreciate that." He grinned at her.
Yeah, bet you would. Tori muffled a smile. She liked Jack but she knew he knew where his best interests lay. However, it certainly wouldn't hurt her to have him get more business, and maybe he'd agree to adjust his costs if he could get a bigger volume.
Business was like that. You did a favor, sometimes you got a favor. Sometimes you didn't, but she'd learned that despite what Jade often said and did, you really could get more with honey than vinegar. "Okay, I'm off to go call Roberto. See you later, Jack." She waved at the contractor as they returned to the main deck.
"Oh, Ms. Vega."
Tori stopped, and turned as she saw the chief purser headed her way. In contrast to the hostility the day before, the woman now seemed anxious to be polite to her. Hm. Tori waited for her to catch up and wondered if her fencing with the staff captain had gotten around. "Hi."
"Hi." The woman smiled at her. "Listen. I just wanted to apologize about yesterday. I know you're just here to get a job done, and I was totally out of line going off like that."
Uh huh. "No problem." Tori replied. "I really do understand how strange it must be for you to have us come in here and just start doing things – we really don't know much about how you run everything." She shifted her body language, taking a more casual stance. "And now that I've been around the ship, I can see how tight everything is."
The woman relaxed into a bigger smile. "Wow, I'm glad you understand. I hear you found another spot for your stuff? Is it going to be okay?" She edged around a little. "Listen, we've got some coffee over in the mess, can I get you a cup?"
Well, when it came to gift horses, the heads were definitely better than the tails. "Sure." Tori agreed, allowing herself to be lead on by her new friend. "Maybe you can fill me in on how things work here, you know? So we can all get along better."
"Ah. Glad to." Drucilla seemed far more confident. "You just stick with me."
Uh huh. Tori produced a grin. Let's see where this goes, because sometimes you just never know.