Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series (23 page)

"You all right?" Dar asked.

"Yeah," Kerry replied. "Just thinking."

They both stepped over a parking bumper in unison, and then continued on. Dar 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, 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. Kerry resolutely pushed her lingering unsettledness back, and turned her attention to the project hoping their wiring team had been able to make some progress. "Looks like a mess."

"Mm." Dar 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," Kerry muttered.

"Right there with you," Dar agreed, taking off her sunglasses as they entered the gloomy building. She could hear raised voices from the back office, and headed in that direction with Kerry 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 Kerry had assigned to the building. "What's going on here?" Dar asked crisply.

The two men turned, and the two ILS employees' faces brightened when they spotted Dar and Kerry. "Ma'am, I'm glad you're here," the guard addressed Dar. "These gentlemen are demanding we give them access to our switches in here."

Kerry 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 port's network," the man nearest Dar said. "We need to check it out."

Dar 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 Dar 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," Dar replied, "since this space has been bought and paid for, and isn't part of the port for the time being."

Kerry 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 Dar's card at her. "I'll go get our security and be right back. Don't go anywhere, lady." He brushed past Kerry and walked out, followed by his silent companion.

Kerry waited for him to turn the corner, and then she folded her phone shut. "Hmm."

Dar 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." Kerry stuck her phone back on her belt. "So, other than the goon squad visiting, how are things going?"

Cheryl had perched on the corner of one of the gray laminate desks they'd stocked the office with. She was a good looking woman of perhaps forty, with ginger colored hair and gray eyes. Dressed in jeans and a neatly pressed, floral shirt, she appeared comfortable, if a bit harried. "Oh, well, actually, things are going pretty good, ma'am."

"Ahem."

Cheryl smiled slightly. "Sorry, Kerry." 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."

Kerry 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."

Dar 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. Dar scanned the box's contents, then abandoned the 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. Dar 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.

"Anything?" Kerry peeked in the front and peered between the switch and the router at her, the edges of the gear framing her sea green eyes.

"Nah."

"Should we call the cops, Dar? I don't think those guys are going to take no for an answer again, even from you." Kerry lowered her voice. "I really don't want to be involved in a dockside brawl."

Dar rested her chin on the switch. "We could call my Dad. Then you could just watch a dockside brawl instead of being in one." She removed her head from the cabinet and closed the door, locking it carefully. Walking around to the front, she pulled Kerry 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." Kerry leaned against the rack. "What would make them think something was coming from here, then?"

Good question. Dar bit the inside of her lip gently. "Did we have the circuit pinned down right into here?"

"Yes." Kerry nodded. "I could have had it into the central telco closet, but I elected to pay the extra bucks and have it drop directly into this room." She pointed to a locked, gray box on the wall. "There."

"Nice." Dar said approvingly.

"Kerry, we did get this today." Cheryl came over and offered Kerry a fax. "It's the pre-order shipping list for the network gear."

Kerry studied the paper. "Good. 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."

Kerry 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. Kerry 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 Dar near the rack and grinned. "Should have put in ten percent just for aggravation. My god, those people are a ratchety bunch."

"The ship people?" Kerry 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."

Dar and Kerry exchanged looks. "Well, after we arm wrestle the pier people we can go talk to the captain," Kerry said, with a sigh.

"Good idea," Dar 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?"

Kerry moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with Dar 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.

Dar folded her arms and fixed the men with a cool, blue glare.

On the other hand, Kerry smiled inwardly, smart guys didn't mess with Dar, 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 Andrew had gotten her note.

THE SCENT OF acrid, hot oil attracted Andrew'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 Andrew 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 multi-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." Andy 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 toward 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 toward the ship Dar and Kerry were taking care of.

Andrew's brow creased a little. He pushed himself to his feet and walked toward 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, Andrew 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 as hell everyone else did too."

"Hey, Ugly!"

Andrew turned, to see the supervisor near the gangway of his ship. He pondered a moment longer, then turned and headed toward the man, ambling along with deceptive speed until he caught 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."

Andrew 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."

Andrew'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 sees it...well, crap. Let me go make a phone call. You go get that box unloaded before those damn women show up again."

Andrew watched him walk off. "Huh." He slowly started across the gangway again. "Paid off them gov'mint types, 'magine that." 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!"

Andrew 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 let you in on a little secret." The biggest of the port security men addressed Dar. "You don't own this place. We do. So step aside and let this guy do his job, okay?"

Dar 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 toward the equipment in question, clearly expecting both Dar and Kerry to move aside. Cheryl was already standing near the wall away from them, and the security guard from ILS was behind them.

"Kiss my ass." Dar suggested. "And make sure your lawyer's on speed dial."

The security officers shifted and looked at their leader. Dar was standing in front of the equipment rack, leaning against it in fact, and showed no signs of moving. Kerry 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." Kerry 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 a 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 Dar, as he stopped within 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." Dar warned, in a soft voice.

"Excuse me." Kerry finally felt her interjection would be appropriate. "I tell you what. We'll let you look at our equipment..."

Dar gave her an outraged look. "Kerrison."

Kerry 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?" Kerry finished.

The security officials turned and looked at the technicians.

"Can you explain that?" Kerry gave Dar'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 it as coming from this location. Can you explain that?"

Kerry stepped forward and reached out for the papers. "Let me see them."

"No way." The tech jerked them back.

The security officer turned to Kerry. "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." Dar 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," Dar 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!"

Kerry planted herself squarely behind her partner, her heart beating fast as she hoped the men would back off. Not that she doubted Dar'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 Dar hurt.

"Wall." A new voice interrupted the chaos briefly. The men turned as Andrew slipped into the room, ducking around the desk to end up next to Dar. "What's all the hollering about, Dardar?"

Kerry relaxed against the rack, reassured now they weren't going to get bruised in any way. The ILS 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. Kerry 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 Andrew'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."

Dar actually growled, low and deep in her throat. Kerry 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 Dar. 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 Kerry, holding out a hand to stop the tech from advancing. "Stop it. I'm not missing my beer because of you."

Kerry glanced at the trace, her eyes flicking over the details as she moved closer to Dar. "Here." Dar put a hand on her shoulder and read the page as well. "What do you think?"

Dar'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 MCI router." Kerry told him. "The building's lit with Bellsouth. You should know that."

The tech grabbed the paper back and looked at it. "No way."

Dar shifted her position and now leaned her arm on Kerry's shoulder. "Sorry. She's right."

"Someone making trouble for you all?" Andy asked his eyes fastened on the techs.

"Shit." The tech put a fingertip on the paper. "That's the damn Seaport center router."

The other tech looked at it then silently shook his head, his expression altering to glum.

"You couldn't have checked that before you dragged our asses over here?" One of the other security men asked. "That lady spotted it in a half second."

"I wasn't looking at that, I..." The first tech was turning red. "We just ran a check on that IP and it was assigned to them." He pointed at Dar. "And they just put up an office here. What would you think?"

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 Dar. "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." Dar 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 made 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. "Next time you call us, try to have your act together, huh?" He and his men herded the techs out of the office. "Sorry again."

"Jerks." The second security guard muttered, shaking his head. "Get us all tangled up for no reason."

Dar folded the paper in her hand in half, sharpening the crease with intense, precise motions. She waited for the men to 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." Andy retrieved his cell phone and held it up. "Kumquat sent me a note thing."

Kerry sat down on the edge of the desk. "What the heck was that?" She looked up at Dar. "Can you trace it from those notes?"

"I don't know." Dar 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."

Kerry's eyes darkened. "Oh, I can't imagine anyone would want to do that," she replied sarcastically. "But Dar, 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 Dar and Kerry. "Ah, not that?"

"Why not? I've got a black eye. Maybe we moonlight." Kerry remarked dryly.

Andrew chuckled under his breath. Dar 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.

Dar 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 Kerry 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 Kerry and Andrew standing in the center of the space.

"Long as there ain't no more hollering, I'm going to get back to mah work." Andrew said. "Them fellers don't much like when folks wander off."

"Thanks for coming over Dad," Kerry told him. "I just wasn't sure what was going to happen."

"No problem, kumquat." Andy told her. "You find anything up there, Dar?"

"Dust bunnies with fangs." Dar sneezed. "Thanks for asking," She looked down for a moment, "and thanks for coming over to make sure we weren't in trouble."

Andrew 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." She waited for Andrew's tall form to disappear beyond the door before she looked at Kerry in question, her brows lifting. "Dad?"

Kerry nodded. "Hers, not mine unfortunately." She pointed at Dar. "He's doing some work on one of the other ships."

Cheryl peered at the now empty door. "Is he working for them?" She indicated the next pier.

"He's working for us."

"Ahhhh." The office manager smiled, giving Kerry thumbs up. "Nice."

Dar 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, bracketed to the concrete true ceiling, and dropped back down through the panel to the box on the wall.

No taps, no junction boxes. Dar 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.

"Dar!" Kerry popped up off the desk and grabbed hold of the chair back as it threatened to squirt out from under Dar. "Careful!"

"Ah, with any luck, I'll fall on my head." Dar now carefully examined the box on the wall, unlatching it and swinging it open. 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 to that unless I'm standing here watching. Got me?"

"Yes, ma'am." Cheryl nodded.

Dar dusted her hands off, her eyes falling on Kerry as she reached for the chair to move it back. Kerry had her fingers resting on the rack, a look of quiet pensiveness on her face.

Sensing the attention, Kerry looked up. "Maybe we should stick around here this weekend?" She suggested.

Perhaps they should, Dar acknowledged silently. There was too much going on, too many loose ends for them to just take off out of town. She could see the agreement in Kerry'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 Kerry on the arm and pointed to the door. "Let's go onboard, and get moving."

Without further argument, Kerry simply nodded, and headed for the door. Dar followed her, wondering if that decision, too, wouldn't come back to bite her in a bad, bad way.

"C'MON, CHI...IN you go." Dar held the door to the cabin open, allowing her family to enter before she stepped over the threshold and followed them inside.

It was dark, close to ten p.m., and later than either of them had expected to arrive after traffic and a stop at a tiki hut. But it had been a nice drive even so, and Dar didn't regret it as she detoured toward the wall switches.

Ah. She turned the lamps on and gazed around appreciatively.

Definitely worth the trip.

Kerry dropped her overnight bag on the couch as she headed for the cabin's kitchen, putting down the bags she was carrying on the stone countertop just inside the door. She whistled softly under her breath as she put away the supplies they'd picked up, listening to Dar ramble around turning on the air conditioning and flipping on the lights.