"Y'know we've got a mix here," Dave said, pointing to the secured space. "One side is the government racks, they're green, and the other side is the commercial ones. They are that flat gray color. We keep the cabling and everything color marked so no one gets confused and connects the wrong thing to the wrong infrastructure."

Kerry nodded. "Looks very good," she complimented him. "Dar would approve."

Dave managed a grin at that. "Anyway," he said, "The only thing they share is the net d-marc. Ms. Roberts put in a parallel infrastructure, but they all terminate to the same blocks in the back. That's where this guy wanted to put his thing."

Kerry folded her arms. "What did he want to connect it to?"

"That's just it," Dave said. "He wanted us to let his guys in there, and let them connect it to whatever they wanted to."

"Oh hell no," Kerry said. "What are they nuts?"

"I heard them, ma'am." The nearest of the console ops had turned around. "They said they were trying to find the terrorists, and we had to let them."

"That's right," Dave said. "So we have console ops here, split into two sides. The left side is government, the right side is commercial, and John here was the man on ops when it all came down yesterday on the government side."

Kerry remembered the voice. "Hello, John." She extended her hand to the tech. "Thanks for the great job."

The lanky, blond man blinked and accepted her grip. His eyes had shadows under them, and he looked tired. "Thank you ma'am. I hope I never, ever have to do that again."

"Me too," Kerry agreed. She looked up at all the operators, who were now openly watching her. "Everyone did a good job. Everyone's doing a great job today, and we're just beginning. I think everyone here knows that the hard part's just starting."

The men all nodded.

"Show me the big board." Kerry turned to Dave. "I want to see what we're up against in bringing services back before I talk to those folks in the guest center."

"Sure." Dave walked over to the other side of the ops console and turned, pointing at the large screen display with the trace work of connectivity for the resources the office was responsible for.

Kerry exhaled, seeing the big red circle around the Pentagon, and the scattering of outages around that area due to the loss of infrastructure. "Boy, that's a lot of damage."

"Problem was we were using one drop room," Dave said. "Cause the other one was in the section that got taken out." He sighed. "So you'd figure we'd be fine, but the other drop room was at the inner edge of the area and it got trashed, and the one under construction is--well..."

"Still under construction," Kerry finished for him.

"Yes ma'am."

"Okay." Kerry knew there wasn't much she could do from the office. "I'm going to need a ride out there after I finish with these guys. I have resources coming up, but I want to see the lay of the land firsthand."

"Nan will take you," Dave said. "She's all yours whatever you need."

Kerry retrieved her briefcase. "Then let's get this over with." She motioned for him to precede her. "Lead on. I could guess where the guest conference room is based on the floor plan, but you probably don't want me wandering around knocking on doors."

Dave managed a smile at that and led the way out the door. He opened the door with his badge. "You'll have to clear through after me. We have a scan in, scan out policy."

"Sure." Kerry waited for him to pass through then followed. She took the few minutes the walk through the halls afforded her to concentrate on relaxing as much as she could, and preparing herself mentally for what she suspected was not going to be a pleasant confrontation.

She didn't really mind confrontation any more. She hadn't liked it much when she'd first started with ILS, but over the months she'd gradually gotten herself used to the stress of it, getting her mind around the fact that it wasn't so very different than her debating challenges had been way back when.

"Hope they're not too pissed," Dave said. "I'd hate to have them just go off at you, ma'am."

"I'm used to it," Kerry said. "I've done a lot of new client consolidations and contract challenges," she assured him. "And my very first confrontation with ILS was with Dar Roberts. It kind of goes downhill from there, you know what I mean?"

Dave produced a surprised little laugh. "Ms. Roberts sure is something."

"She sure is," Kerry readily agreed.

They passed through a larger hallway, and came around a corner where a security door blocked the way. "Guest sections past there," Dave said. "You want me to go with you?"

Kerry was pretty good at reading body language, but in this case she had no need do. Dave's voice told her everything she needed to know. "Nah." She patted him on the shoulder. "Hang in there, Dave. Just try to keep what we have working, running as smoothly as possible, and call me if anything starts going to hell, okay?"

"You got it," Dave said, watching as she held her badge to the door. "Good luck."

"Thanks." Kerry went through the door, now finding herself in the two level, stately lobby that featured a big reception desk on one side, and a glassed in conference space on the other. She could see several people inside the conference hall, and she paused to settle her nerves before she headed for them.

"Oh, Ms. Stuart?" the receptionist spotted her. "Sorry, didn't realize you were here. The gentlemen were asking for you."

"I bet." Kerry gave her a wry smile.

"Would you like some coffee brought in? We've been holding off," the woman said, her nose wrinkling. "They weren't really very nice."

"Go ahead." Kerry patted the desk. "Let me go see what I can do with them." She shouldered her briefcase and approached the entrance to the conference center, pausing at the door way just long enough to interrupt the heated conversation inside before she entered. "Good morning."

The men had been caught by surprise. They turned and watched her as she made her way around the table to the head of it, setting down her brief case and leaning her fingertips on the polished wood surface. "Okay. Let's start with who you gentlemen are, what department of the government you work for, and who your bosses are."

The men glanced at each other in some slight puzzlement.

"I'll start. My name's Kerrison Stuart. I'm the Vice President of operations for ILS," Kerry said. "I think you can appreciate that I have a slate of issues to deal with taller than I am so if we can discuss what your issue is quickly and efficiently, I'd really appreciate it."

Now they all looked at one of the men, an older gentleman of middling height, with copper curly hair. They all had dark suits on, and Bluetooth earpieces and Kerry suspected their jacket pockets held identical pairs of dark sunglasses they had no use for at the moment.

"Okay," the ginger haired man said. "I'm Dan Cutter. I'm the agent in charge for this area for the Secret Service."

"Okay," Kerry said. "So, I guess you're different people who want something from us than the gentleman from the NSA who is on his way here."

"NSA." one of the other men said. "What do they want?"

"The NSA's on the way here? Who?" Cutter asked. "This is not their jurisdiction."

Oh Jesus. "Please sit down." Kerry did so, folding her hands on the table. "Suppose you tell me what you need, before they get here and confuse things."

Cutter did. "Listen, Ms. Stuart. No offense but your people here don't seem to know there's a crisis going on."

"They know," Kerry said. "Every single person in this corporation knows."

"Well, then they don't seem to want to cooperate," Cutter said. "We have a surveillance appliance we need to install here, and they won't let us."

"I won't let you," Kerry corrected him. "The people here don't have the authority to either grant or deny that request."

"What?" Cutter stood up. "Listen, lady, who in the hell do you think you are?" I'm a Treasury officer! You've been blocking my men since yesterday and I'm not going to put up with it a minute more!"

Kerry remained seated. "I am the vice president of operations for this company," she repeated. "I am under no legal obligation to allow you to enter this facility. In fact, I have a mandate to not allow anyone unauthorized from entering it, and please don't try to browbeat me." She merely gazed up at him. "Why don't you start by explaining to me what exactly you need to do, and what information you're looking for?"

"I don't have to do that."

Kerry shrugged. "I don't have to continue speaking to you. This facility is secured. There are high level government accounting systems that process through it. If you seriously think I am going to let some people from some agency with some unknown device come in and connect to that frankly sir, you are nuts."

"I can arrest you," Cutter said. "For obstruction."

"You can," Kerry agreed. "But that's not going to get you your information. These people here not only will not help you, they cannot. Our systems are in security lock down mode."

Cutter stared at her.

Kerry gazed back at him. "Would you like to tell me what you gentlemen are looking for? Before you go off arresting me and causing yourself a lot of trouble, it would help to know if what you need is even in here."

"Cutter, sit." The man seated at the far end of the table spoke up. He was tall, and dark, and had a Latin accent. "Ms. Stuart, my name is Lopez." He stood up and came around the table. "I know you have your responsibilities to take care of, but so do we."