Tropical Convergence Read Online Free PDF

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