Autumn Belfontaine had just finished copying the files from Steffi Roderick’s USB stick onto her own computer and was about to take a look at the data when her phone chimed incoming text. Surprised, she retrieved the phone, wondering if Steffi had arranged for one of the data analysis people to reach out to her in case she needed help.
Instead, the message was from an old friend from her Radio K days. Dan had been on the Engineering side of stuff rather than an on-air personality, but she’d been interested enough in the technical aspects of radio that they’d talked a lot. As a result, they frequently worked together at remote events. They’d gone their separate ways after graduation, but they’d tried to keep in contact, until their diverging lives led too far away.
From the sound of his message, Dan was still in the radio business, but somewhere in the Southwest, a long way from Minnesota. And he was having some trouble keeping his station running, what with power becoming increasingly intermittent and the difficulties of replacing malfunctioning or damaged equipment.
Doesn’t that last one sound familiar. We’d be in a pile of trouble if Ken Redmond and his people hadn’t gotten so adept at jury-rigging things and fabricating parts when they needed them.
After a moment’s consideration, she wrote back to Dan, telling him that if he could e-mail her a full description of what he was having trouble with, she could talk to some people up here. Even if they couldn’t help directly, at least having some additional ideas was always useful.