"That was something, wasn't it?" Alastair had been listening with one ear, apparently, carrying on two other conversations with the other.

"I think it was the finest moment this company ever had," Mari said, simply.

"Well." Dar reached the elevator and got in, going to the back corner and turning to face those following her in. "Maybe we can look at it sometime. Right now, it's a drop in the bucket." She clasped her briefcase in both hands as the elevator filled, and they started up.

"Alastair, I'll have an office set up for you," Mari said. "Just give me a few minutes when we get upstairs."

"Oh please," Alastair said. "What in blazes do you think I'm going to do here? Just give me a damn phone and a chair so I can let people bitch at me." He glanced sideways at Dar. "Keep them off the back of the people who do the real stuff."

"Well..."

"Shut up, Alastair. You do plenty," Dar said, in a loud enough voice to cut through the chatter in the elevator. "Cut the BS."

Her boss looked over at her, both gray eyebrows hiking.

Dar mirrored his expression right back at him.

The doors slid open, and everyone escaped out of the car into the hallway, pouring into the gray and maroon space as they cleared the way for Dar and Alastair to exit. Dar turned and headed toward her office, and after a second, her boss followed her.

Maria also followed her. "Jefa, do you want something from the café?"

"More coffee," Dar said, "and some of the cheese pastalitos. They make them better here than at Versailles." She glanced back at Alastair. "Want coffee?"

"Sure," Alastair agreed. "I'm just going to borrow your outside office to make a call until they finish setting up whatever poobah area they've come up with for me."

Dar snorted. "You can go work in Kerry's office if you want. She's got a boxing dummy in there if you get bored." She led the way into her office, pushing the door open and feeling a sense of relief as her eyes took in the familiar surroundings.

It was all a little too much, coming back like this. It had been too long a day, too long a flight, too many strange happenings to end with this clamor of familiarity rubbing her nerves so raw.

She opened the door to her inner office and went through, slowing down a little as she took in the plate glass walls, and the view of the ocean. Her desk was clean, as always, only the fighting fish and her monitor disturbing the sleek wooden surface.

"Well, you do have a couch in here. What do ya know." Alastair poked his head in.

"Yes, I do." Dar put her briefcase down and settled into her comfortable leather chair, its cool surface chilling her back a little through her thin T-shirt. She reached under her desk to boot her computer, giving the trackball a spin as it started up. "Okay."

"Okay." Alastair came inside. "I'll take you up on that office offer. Just tell me where it is and I'll get out of your hair.'

Dar gave him a wry look, and pointed at the back door. "Go down that hall, door at the other end is Ker's."

Alastair looked at the door, then at her. "You've got to be kidding me."

Dar lifted both hands up in sheepish acknowledgement. "You can go out in the hall, turn left, find the kitchen, and go in the front way if you want to. Don't scare her admin though."

"The two of you, I swear." Alastair chuckled, making his way to the door and passing through it.

At last it was quiet. Dar sat back then turned her chair around to face the water. The surface was ruffled with white waves, a cavalcade of boats heading up into the bay and reminding her of yet another potential issue. "First things first."

She turned back around and tapped her speaker phone, dialing Gerry's phone number. Her desktop came up, and she typed her password in, watching as her backdrop came up, along with the global meeting place login box. She logged in, and changed her status.

Login: Roberts, Dar

Location: Miami Operations Center

Role: Miami operations executive.

Status: Missing my wife.

She backspaced over the last, and typed in good instead, and sent the box on its way.

The phone range twice, then was answered. "General Easton's office. Can I help you?" a woman's voice answered, sounding harried and a touch out of breath.

"I'd like to speak to the General please," Dar said. "It's Dar Roberts. He's expecting my call."

"One moment."

Dar scanned the screen as the status boards popped up, and there was a soft crackle that warned her the conference bridge was starting. She lowered the volume, as the phone came off hold.

"Hello, Ms. Roberts?" The woman's voice came back. "Hold on a moment, the General is getting to his desk."

"Sure. Tell him to take his time. I bet he's as tired as I am," Dar remarked.

"You know it," the woman said, her tone warming. "Hang on, I'm transferring."

A click, and then Gerry's voice boomed over the line. "Dar? That you?"

"It's me," Dar acknowledged. "How's it going there, Gerry? I'm in Miami."

"Miami! What the hell? I thought you were heading for Houston!"

"Me too. Long story."

There was a rustling noise and the sound of a door closing, then Gerry cleared his throat. "Well, I'm damn glad to hear you're back and on the ground safe," he said. "Things are a little better today. Had everyone on my backside this morning until I got a call from the fellas trying to make sense out of this place and found out your people are already moving on everything. Wonderful!"

Dar smiled. "I sent the best I have there, Gerry," she said. "Mark Polenti, my chief tech head, and Kerry's there, too."

"Y'know, that's what my fella said," Easton agreed. "Said your people are the best. Bringing in cupcakes and fixing everything. I really appreciate that, Dar."

"Anytime," Dar said. "So does that mean you don't need my ass up there? I'm sure Ker's got it under control."

"Ah," Gerry sighed. "Well, no."

Dar knew a moment of perfectly balanced conflict, as her desire to be where Kerry was battled against her knowledge that whatever Gerry was going to ask of her was, by definition, worse than what she was dealing with there already. "What's up?"

"You someplace quiet?"

"I'm in my office," Dar said. "The only thing listening is my fish."

"Right," Gerry said. "Listen, Dar I don't usually get involved in the civilian side of things, I've got more than enough on my plate right now, you see?"

"Sure."

"Just had the head of the White House financial office in here kicking me in the kiester," Gerry said. "Thing is, they lost a lot of facility there in New York."

"I know," Dar said. "We have a lot of customers down."

"Well, you'd know more about that than I would.

Anyway, you know they shut down the Stock exchanges, right?" Gerry asked. "All the financial stuff down in the south tip of Manhattan?" He paused. "You knew about that right?"

"I didn't--well, I probably heard that in all the clamor yesterday but didn't pay that much attention," Dar admitted. "There was so much going on."

"Well, don't you know? Here too," Gerry said. "Feller from the White House seemed to say I'd been derelict in my duty because I didn't know a bull from a bear." He sighed aggrievedly. "So this guy comes over here and tells me it's a national emergency about those stock houses. Have to get them back working. Government is counting on it. World stability is at stake."

Dar's brows contracted. "Granted," she said. "Having the markets down sucks but didn't they say yesterday they shut them down on purpose to stop a run on them? I thought I heard that in a sound bite."

"Pish tosh," Easton said. "I got an earful about keeping consumer confidence up and all that, but the fact is all the blinking things and doodads in there can't work because of all the damage. They don't want to admit it, trying to make everything seem like it wasn't that much. You see?"

"Ah," Dar murmured. "I see." She paused. "Why the hell are they after you for that, Gerry? Since when is the Joint Chiefs in charge of telecommunications repair?"

"We aren't," Gerry stated, with a snort. "Which is what I told this feller, and he told me he didn't want to hear my problems. He wanted me to get his solved." The general cleared is throat. "Apparently because I," he said, "know you."

"Me?"

"You," Easton confirmed. "Someone told this guy that you'd be able to fix this thing."

"Me?" Dar repeated. "Gerry, they're not customers of ours. We have nothing to do with the Exchanges. That's all private line work," she protested. "I don't even know anyone down there."

"Well, Dar, I don't know what to tell you, but this guy said I should get hold of you and make you fix this problem for the White House," Gerry said. "Now, he said I wasn't suppose to tell you it was for the White House, but I told him if he wanted me to ask you to do something you had to know why or you'd tell them to--ah--"

"Kiss my ass?" Dar exhaled. "To be honest, Gerry, I really wouldn't tell the White House that, even though I think the current occupant has the mental capacity of a woodchuck, and the personality of what it excretes."

General Easton cleared his throat.

"I just don't know what we can do about it," she went on. "Honestly. None of that is ours, and they lost so much infras--"

She paused, thinking hard.

"Dar?"

"Yeah, sorry," Dar said. "I was just considering something. So what do they want me to do, Gerry?"

A soft buzzing sound came through the phone. "Damn thing," Gerry sighed. "Dar, honest, I don't know because all that whoohah you do is just so much mumbo jumbo to me. I think you need to come up to talk to this guy. Tell him the straight facts. If you can't do it, you can't."