Several of the group nodded.

Kerry stayed where she was, aware of the eyes watching her. She was conscious of her own breathing, a little faster than normal and the uneasy knot in her gut as she sensed the edginess in the room. "Now I really wish I had that Mojito."

"Kerry?" Her mother leaned closer. "What was that?"

"Just clearing my throat." Kerry lowered her hands and folded them. "Wish I'd brought my briefcase."

"Ms. Stuart." Senator Markhaus half turned to face her. "It's come to our attention that during the crisis yesterday, when attacks were being made in various places, that you had a good deal of information, immediate information, as things were happening." He paused and waited.

"Yes, I did," Kerry answered.

The Senator waited, but when it was obvious nothing more was coming, he glanced back at his notes. "It's been suggested that you had more accurate information than we were provided." He returned his eyes to her. "Is that true?"

"I have no idea," Kerry replied. "I don't know what you were being told."

Markhaus nodded briefly. "Fair enough," he commented. "Suppose you tell us then, what your experience was, and how this information was provided to you."

Kerry stood up, always more comfortable standing when she had to address others. Part of that, she suspected, was her relatively short stature, but she also found it easier to project her voice that way. "Certainly."

Chairs shifted and she waited for everyone to turn to face her. She took a moment to collect her thoughts then returned the gazes evenly. "It's fairly simple," she said. "Let me give you some background on what my company does, however, so you will all understand the context of the information we gathered."

She stepped around the table and put her fingertips together in front of her, putting out of her mind her history with some of the people in the room not the least of which was her mother. "ILS has been contracted by a number of government agencies, including the military services, the general accounting office, the logistics office, among others to provide information technology services."

"What does that actually mean?" an older woman asked. "Information technology services?"

"It depends," Kerry backtracked. "We provide a wide range of services ranging from onsite help desks to programming, to network management." She paused, but the woman didn't speak up again. "We also manage a wide area network that carries most of the data between government agencies, and from the government and military to the public internet."

"What kind of data?" Markhaus asked. "Confidential data?"

"Again, it depends," Kerry said. "A large percentage of the data we carry is confidential at the least, and up to top secret encrypted on the other end of the scale. Accounting traffic. Payroll for the civil service. Command and control data streams for the armed forces."

She could see eyeballs starting to roll back in some heads. "In any case," she said. "We do a lot of work for the country. We have a presence in most military bases, in the Pentagon, at Cheyenne Mountain, and we maintain a good percentage of the computers all of our tax dollars pay for."

"Incredible. One company?" The woman turned toward Markhaus. "How was this allowed?"

Markhaus merely looked at Kerry, raising his eyebrows.

"It's called the free market," Kerry dryly informed her. "The government sends requests for pricing. We bid on them. So do a number of other companies."

"Ms. Stuart," Markhaus said. "Let's get off the subject of contracts. I am sure this is interesting to my colleagues, but frankly, I know all about your company's portfolio so please move on to the information we asked."

Kerry studied him for a moment. "I'm sure you are aware," she said, with a faint smile. "In any case, during the attacks yesterday we instituted a process we have for crisis management that involves the widespread communication of all of our resources."

She walked toward the dais. "One of the components of this process is the rapid collection of observations, information, and statistics between all parts of our company."

"But how did you get the information?" the woman asked. "That's what I am interested in. I understand passing it among yourselves, though I have to question the security around that."

"Boots on the ground," Kerry replied, in a mild tone. "The information comes from the people who were there. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to describe what you're seeing with your own eyes. We had people in the Pentagon when that plane hit. We had people handling data centers who were affected by the buildings collapsing. We handle the telecommunications for the airlines so of course we knew what was going on." She lifted her hands a little and let them drop. "We were in the middle of all of it. When the planes were rerouted to Canada, and they needed extra bandwidth to send reports and let people call home--we get that request."

A soft buzz of conversation followed her statement. Kerry watched the faces opposite her carefully, seeing surprise, doubt, suspicion, and boredom facing her. "I get that request," she clarified. "We spent most of the day dog paddling like a Chihuahua on Cuban coffee trying to keep things going."

"Who did you inform of all this?" a man asked.

"Inside our company? Everyone," Kerry said.

"In the government," the man said. "Who knew what you were doing?"

"No one," Kerry replied. "That's not what we're paid for. We get paid to know what to do and do it."

"What?" Another man stood up. "No wonder no one could tell us what was going on. How could you work in a vacuum like that?"

"There was no vacuum." Kerry felt her body tense, as she reacted to the rising emotion in the room.

"You were meddling in the government during a disaster!" The woman stood up, clearly outraged. "What do you mean, you didn't tell anyone what was going on?"

Cynthia stood as well. "Now, please," ahe said. "I did not ask..."

"Oh shut up!" the man said. "We know where your part is--"

"HEY!" Kerry startled even herself, as a loud bark erupted from her chest. She took a step toward the man as he whirled to face her. "Keep a civil tongue in your head to my mother." She glared at him. "Or you can take your questions and shove them up your ass."

There was a moment of utter, total silence after her yell's echoes faded.

"Sit down!" Kerry followed that up with another bark. "Who in the hell do you people think you are to be questioning me?" She felt the anger surging through her, making her vision lose a little color and bringing a flush to her skin. "Of course we didn't tell anyone. Why should we? What in the hell use would that have been? No one had any control over what was happening, least of all the people in this room."

"Ms. Stuart," Markhaus said. "Please recall where you are."

"I know where I am," Kerry retorted.

"Then please act like it," the Senator said. "We're due respect. I know you were raised knowing that."

Kerry turned her head and looked at him. She put her hands on her hips. "Someone once told me," she said. "Those who can, do. Those who can't, become consultants. Those who have no clue at all run for Congress."

Markhaus' lips twitched, his eyes narrowing a little.

"I can, and I do," Kerry said. "If you people did not have proper information from your regular channels, take that up with them. Don't stand here asking me why I didn't stop what I was doing to send updates to anyone." She spoke slowly and forcefully. "That is what my customers, who happen to include the government, pay me for."

Markhaus studied her, as the rest of the room shifted angrily. Uncomfortably. "So let me understand," he said. "All these people calling, all this chaos going on. People needing information, needing whatever it is--what did you call it, bandwidth?"

Kerry nodded.

"Who decides what takes priority?" the woman asked. "I know my offices were down. Why weren't they considered?"

"I make those decisions," Kerry stated. "Based on a set of priorities we catalog and adjust to fit the circumstances."

"You?" Markhaus asked.

"Me." Kerry's green eyes took on just a hint of wry amusement. "Now, let's not get too dramatic about it. We're a very large company. We have a very large number of contracts and customers and worldwide resources. We handle minor emergencies all the time. We plan for this." She paused. "We know what the priorities are."

"I am very disturbed." Cynthia Stuart came out from behind the table and joined Kerry. "Kerrison and her colleagues performed amazingly yesterday. I heard quite some parts of what they were doing. They deserve our thanks not this horrific inquisition."

"Cynthia, we just--" Markhaus waved a hand. "Please."

"Please nothing." Kerry's mother frowned at him. "I am sorry I asked Kerrison to appear here. I am even sorrier that I confided how competent her staff was yesterday. You make me very ashamed, as though you asked me to do this so you could take out your frustrations, our frustrations, on my daughter."

"Maybe we did," Markhaus agreed. "Welcome to the Hill." He didn't look apologetic at all. "You're damn right I'm frustrated. Standing up in front of the rest of the world with my pants around my ankles makes me that way."

"Then why not take that out on someone who deserves it?" Cynthia asked. "It seems to me that we have spent the day in ridiculous debate about how terrible this was, and we have not even discussed the fact that someone allowed it to happen."

Go Mom. Kerry eyed her mother with wry surprise.