Dar removed a pen from her pocket and scribbled down the jack numbers on the pole Kerry had spotted. She paused when she saw several people standing near the back entrance watching them.

None were familiar, but if she squinted, she could make out the logo on the nearest one's shirt. "Ahh," Dar murmured, "our low-balling adversaries." The faintest twinkle appeared in her eyes, as she stuffed the bit of paper she'd written on in her back pocket, and headed for the Telco room, which they'd passed on their way in.

Two of the newcomers walked on past her into the room, sparing her only cursory glances. The other three remained at the entrance, talking amongst themselves with sour looks on their faces. They absently returned Dar's nod of greeting, then dismissed her as she walked by and continued talking to each other.

"I'd love to take off, but I want to wait till ILS gets their system set up, and then see what we can find out about it. Those guys look like they'll talk our ears off." The one nearest the booth--a well-built man with thick, black hair who had the air of a manager--pointed toward the ILS area. "Maybe we can recruit some of 'em...I heard they're looking at layoffs."

The other man laughed. "Typical. Cut the people who do the real work and protect the do-nothing executives."

He probably would have stopped, if he'd bothered to turn around and see the ice blue eyes drilling unseen holes in the back of his head, but his attention was focused on the booth and so he missed the rude gesture as well.

"You go for the guys. I'll take that babe with the cables." The shorter man also laughed. "I'll give 'em one thing, they hire for looks. She's hot."

Dar glanced at the kit in her hands, and opened it, selecting a pair of needle nose pliers and studying them, wondering how much jail time she'd incur if she pulled the bastard's gonads out with the tool. Then she sighed, and put it back, turning and continuing on her way with commendable restraint.

Work before pleasure. Their time would come soon enough.

"HERE YOU GO, guys." Kerry eased back into their booth, cradling a half dozen cans of soda in a pouch made from the long tail of her T-shirt. The techs gathered around her shyly selecting their choices as Kerry stood in their midst. "C'mon, they're cold."

"Thanks, ma'am." Bruce sat down on a switch, wiping his brow.

Two hours had gone by, and they'd finished the structure of the booth only to realize the center had turned off its air conditioning.

It had rapidly gone from relatively comfortable to stuffy to stifling before Dar had hoisted her pirate's pennant and found the A/C control room. She got busy picking the lock and flipping switches inside until the units turned themselves back on.

Now the air was sluggishly circulating again, and Dar had gone back to methodically hacking her way through the unlabeled circuits in search of the one they'd ordered.

"Okay." Kerry sat down with her own soda and opened it, taking a long swallow before she continued. She was sweaty and covered in dust, and her knee ached where she'd banged it on the corner of a switch, but as she looked around at their progress, she was satisfied. "Once we get the line up, we're pretty much done until the servers get here tomorrow."

The techs looked tired, but relieved. "Think the circuit'll be up tonight?" Bruce asked.

"Oh, I'm sure it will." Kerry leaned back and extended her legs, crossing them at the ankles and regarding their bare length studiously. "Even if Dar has to run a fiber cable all the way to Miami, it'll be up." She looked up at her troops, with a grin. "I have faith."

The four techs grinned back.

"Thanks for stopping by and giving us a hand, ma'am. That was really cool," Cody said.

"No problem." Kerry glanced to one side as a motion caught her attention, and stopped speaking when she spotted a pod of their competitors approaching. She watched them as they came over, observing the booth with intent eyes. "Hi."

"Hi," the man in front greeted her with a friendly grin. "You guys sure have been busy."

"Hasn't everyone?" Kerry replied. "What a mess, huh?"

"Yeah," the man agreed. "We're going to wait for some help tomorrow to put things up, but I guess you folks decided to do it yourself, huh?"

Kerry glanced around at their booth. "Looks like it," she agreed. "We can take off and go to sleep in peace now."

The man stuck his hands in his pockets and chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sure you guys have to be careful about that. I hear things are up in the air for you. You don't want to take any chances, huh?"

The techs all looked at Kerry, who looked at the man with gently inquisitive green eyes. "Pardon me?" she asked.

"Ah, c'mon, we've heard about your problems...hell, we caused some of 'em!" The man laughed. "No hard feelings. In fact, you guys look pretty bright. Interested in coming over to the other side?"

Kerry's eyebrows lifted. The rest of her troops remained prudently quiet, apparently quite satisfied to let her do the talking. "I have no beef with who pays me," she said. "What about you folks?" Her eyes shifted to her techs.

"We're fine," Bruce replied. "No gripes here,"he added, as the rest of the techs shook their heads.

"Now, come on." The man lifted both hands up. "Here you are, sweating like pigs, busting your humps to get this all running, and the guys who make the big bucks are sitting on their asses in some leather chair in a penthouse. That how you like things?"

Bruce giggled, his eyes fastened on Kerry's disheveled figure, which had started taking on distinct lines of angry tension. "Ah huh..."

"That's not how our company works," the man said, apparently oblivious.

"That's not really how our company works either," Kerry replied in a quiet tone.

"Yeah? When was the last time you saw your boss pick up a cable?" the man countered. "I bet you never have."

Kerry's lips twitched into a reluctant grin. "I bet you're wrong," she said, as she spotted Dar's distinctive figure approaching the group. Her lover looked harassed, but triumphant, and she brushed past the intruders as she picked up an interface cable and shoved it into place. "We up?"

"Son of a bitch piece of shit, half-assed infrastructure," Dar growled, plugging in their router and booting it up. "I'm surprised the damn sixty-six block wasn't put together with grape bubble gum."

"So, we're up." Kerry interpreted the cursing. The techs all clapped and whistled.

Dar studied the lights, and then grunted. "Yes." She dusted her hands off and gave the two strangers a dour look. "Excuse me." She sat down next to Kerry and examined the palm of one hand, which was covered in dust and scraped raw. After a second, she looked back up at the men. "You want something?" she snapped.

Caught off guard, their jaws dropped. "Ah, no, just visiting. Listen, you guys take it easy, okay? Come talk if you're interested in what I had to say." The man in front lifted his hand and waved it. Then he stepped forward and offered it to Kerry. "My name's Robert Caustens, and I'm the director of IT, for Telegenics."

Kerry readily took his hand and gripped it. "Kerry," she replied. "Nice to meet you. Hope you get things straightened out."

The two men left.

"Jesus." Kerry shook her head. "How unprofessional was that?"

"He pitch you?" Dar inquired, her eyes flicking to the rest of the techs in question.

"Yes, ma'am." Cody nodded. "Said we shouldn't work for a company where the big shots stay up in their ivory towers." He blinked at Dar, keeping a straight face. "It was pretty funny."

Dar extended her boots, and let her scraped hands rest on her knees. "You know, that's just damn hilarious." She glanced at Kerry. "Are we supposed to be in a tower? How come you didn't tell me that? What the hell am I doing here covered in dust then?"

Kerry patted her on the shoulder. "They forgot to put that in our contracts, honey."

Dar sighed. "And how come he didn't pitch me?"

"I dunno, boss. Maybe you scared him."Kerry took Dar's right hand and turned it over. "I think you have a splinter here. Let me get it out."

"Thanks." Dar relaxed. "Okay, let's get cleaned up here, gentlemen, and get the hell out of this damn garage."

Bruce got up and straightened the router, while the rest of the techs began tidying up the space. Kerry bent her head over her task, straining to see clearly in the annoying florescent light.

"Are those the guys who took those accounts?" Cody asked Dar, shyly. "That everyone was so pissed about?"

"Mm." Dar nodded. "They're an upstart company. Only came onto the scene this past year, targeting a bunch of contracts coming up for renewal. Not just us. We got slammed pretty bad, though our other friends..." Dar pointed to the right, where another of their bigger rivals was setting up. "Lost a couple too."

"Are they that good?" Bruce asked.

"They're that cheap," Dar replied. "That's their pitch--that they're lean and mean, and they can service the contracts at a lower cost." She regarded Kerry's pale head. "Which on a small scale they can, if everything runs perfectly.

"Like when does that ever happen?" Kerry muttered.

Bruce was mounting the switch they'd brought into a rolling cabinet with a locking door, as Cody helped him. "But they tell that to everyone," he said. "So--they can do it for one company at one time, but they can't do it for all their companies every time."

Dar produced a warm, sexy grin. "You got it," she complimented him. "It's like the stock market. You can't get hung up over the short term."

"The sales guys are worried," Cody commented. "I heard them talking in the lunch room."

"I know." Dar nodded. "It's not a comfortable situation. But panicking won't solve it. Our difference in the market is the quality of our work. If we stoop to their level, we risk that. It's not worth it."

The techs studied her with solemn faces.

"There." Kerry straightened, smoothing her thumb over the roughened skin on her partner's palm. "That wasn't a splinter, Dar, it was metal," she said. "And it might have been rusty. We should go get you some first aid."

"Thanks, Dr. Kerry." Dar gave her an affectionate look, bumping her shoulder lightly. "Well, I think we're done here. Let the marketing wonks crawl all over this place in the morning." She glanced at the techs. "You guys got a ride to your hotel?"

"Um...I think there's a shuttle," Bruce said, hesitantly, checking his watch.

"C'mon." Dar got up, clasping Kerry's hand in her own and hauling her up as well. "It's gonna be crowded, but we'll get there." She straightened to her full height, looking around. Most of the crews had given up and left, and they were virtually alone in the cavernous chamber, only a few other teams still making desultory attempts at completing their set ups. "Good job, everyone."

Bruce peeked up at her. "Ma'am?" he said. "I think you all did most of it."

"Us?" Kerry drawled in response. "Nah. We're up in our ivory tower, remember? In our nice leather chairs, eating...um..."

"Quiche." Dar patted the rolling case. "Or caviar."

"Ick." Kerry's nose wrinkled. "I'll pass. How about a pizza, instead?"

The techs all chuckled, as they followed their two leaders toward the back door, after Bruce double checked the locks on the rolling cabinets. They passed a few stragglers, but didn't see any of their friends from Telegenics, and the area they'd been setting up in was dark and quiet.

Outside was dark and quiet too. The guard at the back door watched them as they left. They circled the building and headed for Dar's lonely looking Lexus. Buzzing came from crickets in the bushes ringing the parking area, and Dar made her car chirp in response as she remotely unlocked the doors.

"Someone want to let Kerry sit on their lap?" Dar asked, as they reached the car.

Four sets of stunned eyes faced her in such evident shock it made her smile. "Didn't think so." She opened the rear hatch, and shoved their bags over. "One of you in here, the rest in the back. It's not a long trip."

"You're so bad." Kerry opened the front passenger door.

Dar watched the crowd pile in, and then she opened her own door, pausing when a motion across the parking lot caught her attention. A car was parked near the front door of the center, and as she watched, two figures got out and headed for the guarded front door.