"Miami HR, this is Roger at the Pentagon. We sure could use a chuck wagon and a hot spot here."

"Roger, we already have the big bus headed your way," Mari said. "I'll tell them to stop and pick up food."

"I remember that big bus," Kerry commented to Angie. "It's what showed up outside the hospital the last time. I was so glad to see it I almost cried."

"I remember you told me about it," Angie said. "I think you mentioned leather couches and a beer tap."

"Oh, thanks ma'am." Roger did, truly sound grateful. "We'll tell the guys with guns to let us know when it gets here. They're really tight right now."

"I can well imagine," Mari said. "Which reminds me, Miami exec? Do we know when we can get relief teams into Manhattan? I heard the bridges and tunnels are all closed inbound."

Kerry's brow creased, and then she keyed her mic. "Hang on. Let me see what I can do." She turned to her mother. "Mother? Can you find that out for me?"

Caught utterly by surprise, Cynthia Stuart stared at her for a long moment. "I beg your pardon, Kerrison?" she finally spluttered. "What are you asking me?"

The irony was almost too much. Kerry felt uncannily like she wanted to sneeze. "We want to send community support trailers into New York to help our people, and anyone else," she explained. "I need to know when they'll let people into the city. Can you find that out for me?"

Her mother looked honestly perplexed. "Me?" she asked.

"You're a Senator, Mom," Angie supplied helpfully. "I think Kerry figures the government would probably tell you sooner than they'd tell her if she called." She ignored Mike, who had covered his mouth with one hand. "Right Ker?"

Kerry nodded. "I think our nearest ones are in Boston and Albany."

"Senator." One of Cynthia's aides poked his head in the door. "I think they are ready to start the conference call again, apparently the lines are working better now."

Cynthia regarded him. "Albert," she said. "I need you to find something out for me, urgently."

The aide blinked in surprise and entered all the way in the room, glancing at Kerry and her brother and sister briefly. "Yes, ma'am? Do you want to discuss it in your office?"

"No," Cynthia said. "Please find out at once when the roads into Manhattan will be reopened to allow assistance into the city."

"Senator?"

"Was I not clear?" Senator Stuart asked. "I realize there is much confusion in this situation, but there are resources ready and willing to help some of those poor people and we must assist. So please go at once."

"Ah, sure," the aide said. "We have resources?"

"Yes," the senator confirmed.

"Okay." The aide turned and headed for the door. "I'll start working on that right away. Do you want to come to your office for the conference call?"

Cynthia sniffed. "Based on the last one, I think my time is more valuably spent sitting here. I certainly have learned far more."

The aide looked puzzled. He merely nodded and left.

There was a brief, awkward silence. "Hey Ker." Angie got up. "Want some ice tea? My throat's dry listening to you yak this whole time."

"Sure," Kerry said.

"I'll help." Mike followed his sister out the door, leaving Cynthia and Kerry alone in the room.

Kerry made a mental note to properly thank her siblings at a later time. She sat down and rested her elbows on the desk, half hoping for an interruption from the conference line. "Thanks," she said belatedly. "I know there's a lot going on but we want to help where we can."

Her mother folded her hands together. "I had no idea how involved you were with this sort of thing," she said. "Your company seems quite organized."

"We try to be," Kerry said. "I don't think you can ever prepare for something like what we're living through today, but we do have plans for different types of problems."

Her mother digested this. "You seem very competent." She looked up to see Kerry's expression. "I'm sorry. That must sound very patronizing," Cynthia said. "But to be truthful, I really had no idea until today what it is you actually did, Kerrison."

Kerry grunted.

"And, actually, I still don't really grasp what it is you were discussing on that machine." Her mother went on. "Except that it seems to be very involved with different parts of the government, which surprises me."

"It shouldn't," Kerry said. "Don't you remember father saying he wanted our company out of all the government contracts we hold?"

Cynthia studied her. "Extraordinary," she murmured. "I do remember him saying that. I just had no understanding of what he meant until now."

It almost made Kerry smile. But not quite. "Don't worry," she said. "You're in good hands." She turned hers over and exposed the palms of them. "We know what we're doing."

"It certainly sounds like you do," her mother said.

"Does that surprise you?" Kerry asked.

Her mother frowned. "Of course not," she said. "You've always been quite clever, Kerrison."

"Senator? The call's starting." Another one of the aides popped his head in. "They think they've gotten hold of someone at the Pentagon to give an update, and they're asking for all of Congress to go to Washington to be in session tomorrow."

Cynthia Stuart glanced at him. "Please put the call in here, to this phone." She indicated the console phone on the desk where Kerry was sitting. "I'll take it here."

"Ma'am?" the aide looked pointedly at Kerry. "It's a secure line."

"Yes, thank you for clarifying that for me," the senator said. "Now please just do as I asked, and while you are at it, tell the staff to bring coffee service in as well," she added. "I will need to evaluate if I can leave my family here before travel is arranged to Washington."

"All right, Senator. If you say so." The man still looked dubious, but he nodded and escaped out the door, shaking his head a little.

Cynthia waited a moment, and then she turned to Kerry. "I would rather we have all of the information in one place. I trust you understand how confidential it is."

"It's okay." Kerry rested her chin on her hand. "I've got a top secret clearance."

Her mother paused in mid breath, tilting her head to one side as she regarded her daughter. "You do?"

Kerry nodded.

"Miami exec? This is the Air Hub."

Kerry turned to her screen. "Go ahead, Air Hub, this is Miami exec."

"We've been alerted to possible power disruptions." The Air Hub tech sounded exhausted. "We've only got a four hour generator at the moment since the big one is on service."

"I'll take this one," Dar's voice broke in. "I'm just in the mood to scream at someone."

Now, Kerry couldn't help but smile. "Thanks boss." She keyed her mic. "My throat's giving out."

"Miami exec, this is LA Earth station. Any word on Newark Earth station? We're running out of transponder space here."

Kerry checked her text messages. "Miami ops, anything from Newark?"

"Nada," Mark answered. "I'll text them. See what I can find out. They probably lost the backhaul. It went through the 140 West station into the Niagara 3 hub."

"Everything's down on that hub," Dar said. "We lost a ton of facility."

"Miami, this is Sherren in New York. We're all back in the office at Rockefeller." She paused. "No one else has showed up from the Tower yet."

"Okay, thanks Sherren," Kerry said. "Are you sure you all don't want to leave and go home?"

"No." The woman sounded tired, but definite. "We want to stay together here and wait for the others. Anne's making some soup for us in the kitchen."

The aide returned, and went to the phone, picking up the receiver and punching some buttons on it. "They're a little late Senator."

"Mm," Cynthia said. "More than you possibly know."

"Ma'am?"

"ALL RIGHT, THANKS Bea." Alastair closed his PDA, and sighed. "Well, damn it all. Bea said it's hard to even get the travel agents to talk to anyone. Everyone's packed to the gills busy with people stuck all over the place trying to get from point A to B."

"Mm?" Dar was chewing on a rib.

"Right now, there are zero planes flying," her boss said. "So everyone's trying to get around that, and Canada's not letting anything take off so a lot of people are looking to Mexico." He rubbed the back of his neck, looking more than a little stressed. "Mexico City and Guadalajara are booked solid. Cabo's open, but that's a hell of a trip."

Dar put her rib bone down and selected another from the plate in front of her. "Fly us into Cancun and I'll have my parents pick us up in the boat," she suggested. "They can drop you at Galveston and take me home."

Alastair pursed his lips. "Are you serious?" he asked. "That's an awful lot of trouble to go to."

Dar shrugged. "It'll take days, but it's going to take days to get home anyway," she said. "Dad's boat will go thirty five knots and he's got a small satellite onboard," she said. "Worth a try, anyway."

Her boss pondered a moment. "Well, let me let Bea look at that possibility." He opened his PDA gain, half turning away as he typed. "Beats driving up from Cabo I guess."

The idea was on the crazy side. Dar had one ear cocked in the direction of the laptop, and she was listening to the stream of chatter from the conference bridge while she worked her way through some unbelievably excellent barbeque. Everything today had been on the crazy side though, and she saw little advantage in not thinking as outside the box as she could.

The pictures on the large screen flat panel television were bleak. She'd watched the crashing of the planes and the falling of the buildings dozens and dozens of times and she found she was starting to get a little shell shocked from it.

The pictures of the men and women covered in gray dust were almost surreal, and she had to keep reminding herself that this wasn't a made for television disaster movie every time they showed the huge, billowing cloud chasing people down the street.

Hard to believe it was real, until she heard the counterpoint of Kerry's voice behind her acknowledging this outage and that, and taking reports from people who were really there, really experiencing the horror and trying to stay professional and work their way through it.

High point for the company. Bottom of a crater point for humanity.

Sir Melthon entered. "Well, things seem to have settled a bit."

"Planes are out of the sky," Dar agreed. "Who knows if that's the end of it though?"

The magnate sat down in the seat across the desk from her. "Hell of a thing," he said. "We've still got some missing people in New York. Could I pass you along the names, and see if your fellows there have seen or heard of them?"

"Sure," Dar said. "We're missing some of our own."

"So I heard," he replied. "Dinner turn out all right for you? My second chef's from Dallas, and he insisted on making some of this stuff for you lot. Been cooking since last night."

"It's very good," Dar said. "I don't get to eat barbeque very often. Takes too long and the local joints are all chains," she admitted. "Miami's not really a part of the south."

Sir Melthon snorted. "The wife's been after me to visit there. Worth it?"

Dar shrugged one shoulder. "My hometown, so I think so. If you want to enjoy it, come in winter. If you want your wife to ask you to go somewhere else stop by in the summer."

"LA Earth Station, this is Miami exec." Kerry's voice sounded more than a bit hoarse. "We have Newark on text, they not only lost their backhaul, they have a total power outage and their plumbing backed up."

Dar turned all the way around and stared at the laptop in bemusement.

"Uh. Miami exec, this is LA Earth. We copy that," the Earth station replied. "Sorry to hear it. We'll keep squeezing everything we can up to the birds."

"Thanks," Kerry answered. "Okay, what's next?"

"That one of your people?" Sir Melthon asked. "That gal? Sounds like a sharp one. Been listening to her go on for a while now."

Dar put her rib bone down. "That's our vice president of operations," she replied. "Kerry Stuart." She picked up her napkin and wiped her lips. "She's very sharp." She caught sight of Alastair watching her out of the corner of her eye. "And yes, she's mine."

"Another one of those smart mouthed women?" But Sir Melthon smiled when he said it.

"I wouldn't have any other kind," Dar replied mildly. "Especially not in Kerry's position." She picked up a french fry and bit into it, aware of the faint shaking of Alastair's shoulders nearby.