The driver shrugged, and turned back around. "See what they say." He drove the car forward a space, waiting for the rest of the line to clear the gate. Dar took the opportunity to fish inside Kerry's briefcase, bringing out her ID and holding it in one hand.

Kerry glanced up at her in question, one hand still cupped over her ear. Dar held up her passport folio, and she nodded, then went back to her conversation, reaching out with her other hand to pat Dar's knee.

The car pulled forward, and the driver opened the door, putting one leg out and standing up to talk to the guard rather than opening the window. Dar didn't much envy him, since she figured he was probably telling this armed, anxious, hyper alert man that he had some chick in the car who wanted in to the White House without even a driver's license.

"Dar, Houston's saying they're running really high on usage across the net," Kerry said. "You probably need to check it out."

Dar wiggled her fingers, and looked down at her empty lap, raising her brows at her partner. "They haven't put the chip in yet, hon. Can I borrow your laptop?"

"Of course." Kerry nudged her briefcase over with her foot. "You have to ask?"

"I have to ask because I'll need to sign in with your cached credentials and then rig the VPN system to ask for mine." Dar was drawing the machine out and putting in on her lap. "I usually ask nicely when I'm hacking my SO's system."

Kerry gave her a fond smile. "I love you," she said, then paused, and looked down at her mic, cursing silently. "What's that? No, no, I was-- okay, never mind. Who has the name of the guy I need to talk to?"

Dar chuckled under her breath.

"You get me in so much damn trouble." Kerry obviously keyed the mic off this time, scribbling on a pad with her other hand. "Jesus."

The driver dropped back into the car. "Ma'am, they need to verify with the folks inside. I'm going to pull off over here so we don't block the gate."

"Sure." Dar clicked away at the keyboard. "I'll just be back here rerouting all of your paychecks to the French Foreign Legion." She inserted the cellular card and waited for the computer to fully boot, then opened a command line window and started typing.

"Didn't you rig the VPN system so no one could log in with someone else's laptop?" Kerry asked, idly.

"Yes."

"Mm." Kerry paused then cleared her throat. "Yes, Mr. Mitchell? This is Kerry Stuart from ILS." She paused again, listening. "Yes, I understand. Mr. Mitchell, I do un--sir," Kerry's voice lifted. "That's not correct. I do understand what has been going on the past two days, since I'm sitting in a car outside the gate to the White House right now waiting to talk to the folks inside about it."

Dar finished her typing then triggered the VPN connection. It obediently presented her with a login box, which she entered her credentials into and sent it on its way. "Problem?" she asked, in a casual tone.

"Not Dar level yet." Kerry covered the mouthpiece then removed her hand. "Right. So explain to me now why my technicians, who are busting their asses to try and keep their schedules on track, aren't being allowed to complete your install? The one you contracted for? You did ask us to do this, didn't you?"

Dar drummed her fingers on the palm rest, as her desktop formed itself in front of her. She could have actually used Kerry's, but their working style was so different it drove her crazy trying to find things on it.

She opened her custom monitoring application, glancing over the top of the laptop screen toward the driver. He was sitting quietly, relaxed and reading a notepad, occasionally looking up to watch the guards at the gate to see if they were going to come over to them.

Dar pondered what to do if they got turned away. Go to the Pentagon? Maybe Gerry could get her some temporary credentials. "I'm such an idiot." She sighed, as the gages formed up and she studied the results.

"Okay, then we have an understanding," Kerry said. "I'll send my team back up there, and they'll get on with the work. It shouldn't take long," she added. "Thanks." She hung up and went back to the conference call. "Jerk."

Dar keyed on the government routers that were managed from Houston, separating them out in a window and reviewing their statistics. "You're such a hardass, Ker."

"Pfft." Kerry keyed her mic. "Okay, I'm back," she said. "Lansing, this is Miami Exec. Please resend the techs up to Browerman and Fine, they're cleared to enter."

"This is Lansing, will do."

Dar heard the driver shift, and she peered past him to see the guards approaching. She put her head back down and typed quickly, her eyes flicking over the sets of numbers that flashed on and off the screen.

The window opened and the guard leaned down to peer in at them. "Good morning."

"Good morning." Kerry closed her mic.

"Which one of you is Paladar Roberts?" the guard asked.

"That'd be me." Dar glanced up, but kept typing. "I'm the jerk who showed up with no ID," she added. "And I am sorry about that."

The guard nodded. "That's posing a big problem for us." He watched Dar nod back. "But the people inside said to let you in with an escort, so I'm going to let you in, with an escort." He patted the window on the driver's side door. "Go on, Jack. We'll send two guys with you, and two guys will meet you at the stairs."

Kerry regarded him with a touch of concern. "Are we that dangerous looking?" she asked.

The guard just shook his head and waved, and the window closed as the driver put the car in gear and edged his way between two other vehicles toward the gates.

"Houston's right." Dar was clicking away. "They're eating up the wires. I'm going to throw some reserve at them."

"Without finding out why?" Kerry questioned.

"Wouldn't even know where to start asking," her partner admitted. "I'm sure it's all TCP/IP encapsulated frantic arm waving and ass covering mixed with legitimate intelligence movement, but there's really no way for me to step in and question it."

Kerry nodded, and went back to the call. "Folks, I'm going to have to drop offline in a few minutes here. If anything comes up, just call my cell and get me back on."

"There." Dar finished her configuration changes, saving them and cutting and pasting a large swath of tiny text into an email message. "I'll tell Houston I did that, but they need to keep it under their hat. I don't want anyone getting the idea we have inexhaustible bandwidth."

"Okay, I'm out," Kerry said, then she closed the phone, peering out of the window. They were pulling past a line of trees, liberally guarded by machine gun toting soldiers. Ahead there was a small parking area, in front of a huge, almost gothic looking building she only vaguely remembered. "Ah. The old executive."

Dar glanced up from her keyboard and looked out the window, peering at the large structure. Then she shook her head and went back to her keyboard. "Almost done."

Kerry ran her fingers through her hair. "There's Hamilton." She indicated the tall, urban figure leaning on the gate in a posture of bored waiting. "I have to admit, I'm pretty glad to see him given where we are."

Dar shut the laptop and leaned over to slide it into Kerry's briefcase. "Me too," she admitted briefly. "But don't let him know that."

The car pulled to a halt, and two soldiers approached immediately, signaling the vehicle following them. "Please wait and don't open the doors," the driver warned. "Let the soldiers do it."

"Sure." Dar leaned back and twiddled her fingers, as she watched the soldiers approach cautiously as though she was some sort of hyper technical land shark. It kept her mind off what waited for them though, and she only smiled at the man who opened the door, staying still until he realized she was pretty much harmless.

"Thank you ma'am, you can get out," the soldier said, courteously. "Sorry about that, we're a little tense here today."

"I completely understand." Dar swung her legs out and got up, surprising the soldier when she straightened to her full height that topped his by a few inches. She closed the door and paused, as Kerry made her way around behind the car to join her, then they started off toward the gates and their waiting corporate lawyer.

The two soldiers walked along side them. Both were young, but not too young, and they both had five o'clock shadows that probably had started sometime the previous afternoon. They looked tired. Dar suddenly felt empathy for them that she hadn't expected. "Hang in there guys." She told the one to her right. "I know it's been rough."

The soldier looked at her, his shoulders shifting into a more relaxed posture. "Thanks, ma'am."

They crossed the street and Hamilton pushed off his post and came to meet them. "Well, hello there ladies."

"Good morning, Mr. Baird," Kerry greeted him politely.

"Hamilton. Good to see you," Dar chimed in.

"Thanks for coming down."

The lawyer seemed to be more subdued than usual. "Good to see you both," he said. "Let's go see what this hoohah is all about."

They started up the steps. "Sorry about my father," Dar commented. "I'm not sure he realized how big his audience was."

Hamilton chuckled. "Darlin', he's your father. Of course he realized. But he's a gorgeous old salt so it didn't bother me a bit." He glanced to either side at their silent escort. "Ain't enough like him and any how my mama raised me to be proud of being a coon ass."

"I don't think he meant it as an insult," Dar smiled. "Not from where we came from."