Chapter Two



THEY ARRIVED AT the convention center later than Dar had originally planned. The building was lit on the outside though, and there were both security guards, and a stir of motion about the place that reassured them.

Dar strolled across the front courtyard, approaching the doors and making eye contact with the guards. "Evening," she greeted the first one cordially, as she removed her ID from her back pocket and offered it up.

The man studied the card, and then glanced at her. "Dock entrance is round back," he told her politely.

One finely arched dark eyebrow lifted. "Excuse me?"

"Construction workers enter in the back," the guard clarified, still with careful politeness.

Dar looked down at herself, then up at the guard. "Do I look like a construction worker to you?"

"Yes, ma'am," the man replied. "You can enter in the back."

Kerry covered her mouth to keep in the laughter threatening to burst out. The expression on her lover's face was so priceless.

"This is not funny," Dar told her, testily.

"C'mon." Kerry swallowed her amusement, taking Dar's arm and starting for the rear of the center. "No point in arguing with him, Dar. Call the convention services group in the morning and have the entire company fired." She let her voice raise slightly, enough to know that the guard would hear her.

"Do I look like a construction worker to you?" Dar ignored the speech, turning and giving her an indignant look.

"Absolutely not," Kerry reassured her. "It's must be the tank top and ripped jeans, sweetie. Orlando is obviously not ready for CIO's in less than pin stripes." She took Dar's arm again and patted it. "C'mon." Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the guard's eyes turning into round saucers. "I bet if you really tried, you could get the entire convention services company kicked out. Wouldn't that be fun?"

Dar's eyes narrowed suddenly. "You're having fun freaking the guard out, aren't you?" she uttered, in a low voice.

"Yes." Kerry smiled charmingly at her. "Give me two more minutes, and he'll need a change of shorts." She waggled her fingers at the man. "He deserves it for being a prick butt with the vision of a rhino in the dark."

Dar snickered, her humor restored. She draped her arm over Kerry's shoulders and headed toward the rear of the building, leaving the hapless guard behind them. Her ego was still stinging from the man's remark, though, and she was self aware enough to know it.

"Jerk." Kerry held the gate open that lead into the loading dock and waited for Dar to pass through. "What could he be thinking, Dar? Let's just say it was true."

"What?"

"Shh. Let's just say you were one of the setup crew," Kerry pacified her prickly partner. "It's nearly midnight. Who cares if you go in the front door? Who's gonna see you, the cleaning staff?" She closed the gate behind them and followed Dar toward an open loading dock door, the sounds of hammering and banging clearly audible inside.

"I don't know, and I don't give a damn," Dar grumbled, as they crossed from the warm night air into the cooler, but musty smelling building. Lit by fluorescent lights, and featuring a poured concrete floor it resembled the inside of a warehouse more than anything.

Which, of course, it basically was. Kerry's nose wrinkled at the scent of mildew coming from a set of draperies dropped in a pile near the door. "Nice."

"Maybe they'll have a sledgehammer I could borrow," Dar muttered.

"Dar." Kerry patted her on the behind. "Would you relax? He was full of horse poots. Don't tell me you're getting so sensitive in your old age."

Her partner scowled dourly.

"Okay." Kerry could see a pile of people ahead of them, all busy. She took hold of Dar's arm and pulled her to a halt barely inside the loading area, out of sight of the main room. "Sweetheart." It really wasn't like Dar to be so sensitive, and Kerry sensed a moment taken here would pay off in the long run. "Did that really bother you?"

Her taller partner leaned against the wall, and scrubbed one hand through her hair. "Stupid, isn't it?" she admitted, lifting her eyes. "Just hit me the wrong way, I guess... and I don't even have the excuse of it being that time of the month."

Kerry tucked her fingers into the waistband of Dar's jeans. "Listen, I asked you to wear this because I think it's really sexy." She tugged a little. "And I didn't marry a construction worker." She paused, considering. "Though, I would have if you'd been one."

"Would you?" Dar grudgingly smiled.

"Absolutely." Kerry gazed up at her. "You know I would."

Dar's expression gentled. "I know." She looked down. "And given I picked a pair of boots to wear that I used when we were painting the cabin, I guess he might have had a point."

"Hm."

"Tank top, ripped jeans, paint splattered hiking boots...all I need is a tattoo and I could pass as a very good butch stereotype."

Okay, crisis over. Kerry relaxed, and smiled. "Nah, you'd need leather pants for that."

"I have those," Dar reminded her. "But you'd have to arrest me to get me to wear them in summer." She bumped Kerry's knee with her own. "C'mon. Let's go see what the kids are doing, and get the hell out of here."

They walked through the open garage door and into the convention center, pausing for a moment to catch their bearings. The room was huge, and it was full of nerds. The smell of new computers mixed with the scent of old coffee was almost overwhelming.

"Whoa." Kerry rubbed her nose. "What a zoo."

"Uh huh." Dar stretched to her full height, reviewing the room. It was laid out in regulation trade show fashion, with wooden frame booths stretched in orderly rows interspersed with larger displays custom built by some of the bigger companies. "Ah. There we are." She pointed to a familiar logo banner, half hung, half draped over some metal pipe supports.

"Nice spot." Kerry followed her between two wooden stalls, ducking as a technician struggled with a projection screen and almost clocked her in the process. They walked through piles of equipment cases, and emerged into a more open area that held the ILS display.

It was definitely one of the bigger ones. It held pride of place in the center of the largest open aisle and spread out in a series of ovals to either side.

Four of their techs were on ladders trying to lift up and bolt into place the steel tube framing the marketing department had designed, and as they watched the heavy structure tilted precariously to one side. Without a word between them, Kerry and Dar reacted, leaping forward to help.

Kerry grabbed the nearest ladder, which had started to tip over, while Dar used her greater height to reach up and take hold of the steel frame, taking its weight as the techs fought to regain control over it. "Whoa!" Kerry grunted, throwing her body against the ladder as it threatened to come down on top of her. "Take it easy, guys!"

"Damn it!" the tech on her ladder cursed. "This piece of shit was built by freaking Gumby!"

"All right, hang on." Dar grabbed the ladder and climbed up several of the steps, hoisting the frame with her as she walked. "Get that end on there, Bruce."

The tech on the next ladder blinked, only then realizing who it was addressing him. "Holy crap!" he blurted. "When'd you get here, ma'am!"

"Just in time, apparently," Dar grunted. "You gonna bolt that into place, or are we all going to end up with our asses on the concrete? I can't hold this forever."

Kerry could hear the tension in her partner's voice, and beneath the worn denim, she could see Dar's legs straining to keep her load balanced. With Dar's weight on the ladder, though, it no longer threatened to tip over and she shifted her grip to wrap her arm around Dar's calves in a secure hold.

"Okay...okay...almost got it." Bruce panted, extending himself out on his ladder to put a socket wrench on the bolts that Dar was holding even. He ratcheted them quickly, muscles jumping under his skin as he tightened the grid into place on one end. "Done!"

Dar relaxed her hold cautiously, relieved when the structure seemed likely to stay in one place. She flexed her fingers and shook her arms out glancing up at the tech still perched on the steps above her. "Why the hell are you guys doing this?"

Bruce finished bolting down the other end of the structure then scampered down the ladder. He was of middling height, and lightly built, with wide brown eyes that had a perpetual look of astonishment in them. "We gotta get the booth up ma'am." He paused. "Don't we?"

Dar got off her ladder, and dusted her hands off as the tech above her gingerly climbed down as well. "They don't have a setup crew here?" She looked around, aware now that at many booths around them conspicuously corporate T-shirted crews were struggling to assemble the structures. "What the hell? Kerry, didn't we contract for this to be built?"

"Well," Kerry cleared her throat, "I don't have the paperwork in front of me, but I'm willing to bet I didn't expect our setup staff to handle the carpentry."

"Hmph."

Kerry ducked out from under the ladder and joined her, as the rest of their techs gathered around. "Hi, guys," she greeted them with a smile, keeping an eye on Dar who started investigating their surroundings like a large, suspicious house cat.

"Hey, boss." The one nearest her returned the smile, his blond head not topping her own by much. "What are you guys doing here? Mark said you'd be up in a few days."

"Eh." Kerry put her hands on her hips. "We decided to come up a little early. Did they say why no one was here from the production company? You guys shouldn't be doing this. Dar's right. We pay big bucks to have someone else come in to do it."

"Well," Bruce sidled over to her, "we got here a couple hours ago, and the guy in charge told us if we wanted anything else put up, we'd have to do it," he said, with a tiny shrug. "Everyone here was bitching for sure, but what could we do?"

"Call?" Kerry eyed him, spreading her hands out in question. "It's not like my cell phone number's a secret."

The blond tech next to him winced. "We didn't want you to think we were whiners. It's not that much to do. Get those pipes up so we can start cabling. Not like the other guys, they're trying to get that wood together without hardly any tools."

"Mm." Kerry shook her head. "The guys in charge, they still here?"

"No way." Bruce snorted. "They took off and left the guards out front. Bunch of...um..." He remembered whom he was talking to and his voice trailed off.

"We met them," his boss muttered. "They didn't make a very good impression on us. Hey, Dar?"

Her partner had wandered over to the next booth, and was talking to its occupants. She held a hand up to acknowledge Kerry's call, but continued her conversation. "Well, anyway, we can help you get set up," Kerry told the techs. "What's up next, those poles over there?" She pointed.

Dar returned before they could get started, and she didn't look happy. "The Lucent guys say they heard the center didn't pay their setup crew for the last convention or something, so they walked," she reported. "They're pretty torked. According to their lead tech, the center basically told them they could wait until tomorrow, when maybe they'd have some workers, or do it themselves and shut up."

"Nice," Kerry muttered, "very professional."

Bruce nodded. "That's what they told us too," he agreed. "So we talked about it, and decided to see what we could do. We didn't want you guys to get here and not have stuff ready."

Dar sighed. "So instead, you get to have us show up and help you haul cable. It'll make a good story back at the office. Let's go. Faster we do it, faster we get out of here."

Kerry walked over and claimed a spool of cable and a wrench. "Are those the switches over there?" She pointed at a stack of brown cardboard boxes with a familiar label on them. "Cody, why don't you start unpacking them."

"Speaking of..." Dar turned, and then tipped her head back. "Let me guess. They didn't pull any Telco drops, did they?"

"Nope," Bruce said. "That was going to be a real problem," he admitted. "Mark didn't send any WAN guys up here."

"Not a problem anymore." Kerry tossed Dar a punch down kit, which her partner fielded with consummate grace. "I think the jack boxes are over on that pole, Dar." She nudged Bruce toward the remaining not-yet-hung structure. "Let's go guys--move those ladders over."