Immediately she began planning what to do to differentiate them from one another. One would shave his head, the other his beard, and she'd apply a different hair color' to the bald one's mustache. A Fu Manchu, she thought. She'd trim and color the eyebrows, too. Some sort of stain to the skin to mimic a darker coloration should also help.
The T-950 viewed the mock-up the computer part of her brain supplied with satisfaction. Then she applied dark glasses to one and half tints to the other. It would do. Especially if they weren't constantly lined up beside each other.
The next pair will look different from the get-go, she wowed. It wouldn't be hard, a few minor adjustments to the cartilage matrixes and different hair colors. She was pretty much stuck with the same bone structure. But there's a lot you can do with that. If you were smart enough to think of it first.
She relayed instructions to the two. After they were finished, she'd set them to watching several talk and game shows that she'd recorded; then they would listen to a half-dozen radio shows of the same type. That should give them some idea of how ordinary people spoke and their body language. She'd already downloaded maps of California and information about the Sacramento target facility as well as a driving program.
Before doing their homework, however, Six and Seven started on the cosmetic adjustments she'd designed. Pity there wasn't time enough for corrective surgery.
Four she was sending to Two in the outback cabin where her own replacement was breeding. It would be taking the rest of the CPU and energy-cell packets with it. With the way I'm going through Terminators, it might be best to leave a few in reserve for Serena Two, she thought.
If it all worked out, the Connors and their allies destroyed and Cyberdyne safe, then she would probably keep the second fetus and abort the first as potentially unstable. If things went horribly wrong, she'd done her best to cover any potential outcome.
Five was young looking enough that it wasn't absolutely identical to the other Terminators; it just looked amazingly like them. Instinct prompted her to send it to Sacramento as well. There were probably cosmetic things she could do to it to further differentiate it from its cohorts.
The T-950 frowned. She could be giving the Connors more credit than they deserved here. Sending three Terminators, even this homegrown variety, after two humans was… embarrassing. Yes, perhaps she'd keep it with her at Cyberdyne.
Satisfied with her decisions, Serena closed her eyes and sat back in her chair. As the two Terminators worked on their hair and eyebrows, she sorted through the day's downloaded data. Still nothing from the Connors or their ally. They were definitely avoiding the Internet. Well, if they weren't updating her on their whereabouts and interests at least she'd deprived them of an important tool.
The last report she'd received from Three indicated that it had been captured.
Serena had come as close as she ever had in her life to genuine rage. How had humans captured her Terminator? Destroyed, she could understand, all they'd have to do was knock it off the plane somehow. But captured?
True, Three wasn't one of Skynet's best. But it was a damn sight better than any three humans, especially when one was a smallish woman and another barely more than a child. Or it should have been.
Making the best of the situation, the T-950 had ordered it to erase certain portions of memory while she planted other information. Whether or not the Connors would fall for the false information remained to be seen. But they'd seemed dead set on attacking the Sacramento facility. One can only hope that they'll remain stubborn about it.
She wanted to go there herself. Very, very much. It would be exciting to pit herself against Skynet's two greatest enemies face to face. Serena imagined herself crushing John Connor's skull between her hands. Then realized she was smiling and smoothed her face to blankness.
Daydreaming. That was the sort of thing a human would do. She ardently wished for the stabilizing influence of Skynet, instead of the silence in her mind.
Another human response, she thought disparagingly.
With an effort she pulled her thoughts away from that realization and the feelings that accompanied it. It was irrelevant. What was important was killing or capturing the Connors. Even more vital was defending Skynet from them.
Which she would do to the last drop of blood in her body. She would not fail.
Serena opened her eyes and watched the two Terminators work. We will not fail.
In the end, a day later, she decided to include the younger-looking Five. Serena gave him a haircut so distracting she was certain no adult human would be able to take their eyes off of it long enough to notice its resemblance to the others. It was an upright Mohawk roach dyed brilliant scarlet with green bars, and tattoos on the shaved sides of his head. A pair of tiny round sunglasses that made its face look wider completed the illusion.
The humans in the Sacramento facility might not like its looks, but since she'd sent it, they'd just have to rise above their feelings. One corner of her mouth lifted in satisfaction at the thought.
She ordered it to slouch and it looked like it was melting, its shoulders collapsing onto its pelvis in a move that even a human contortionist couldn't manage.
"Like this," the T-950 said, throwing out a hip and dropping one shoulder.
It imitated her perfectly.
"Now walk like this." Serena moved her shoulders as she walked, pushing her pelvis just slightly forward of them in a sort of James Dean dawdle. She looked astonishingly masculine. The Terminator duplicated her swagger.
She had him walk for her, adding little bits of business and then subtracting most of them. The others she left to themselves. "All right," the 1-950 said, not satisfied, but resigned. She'd done all she could for now. "Get dressed. We leave in ten minutes."
CYBERDYNE SYSTEMS: THE PRESENT
"Jordan?" Serena's voice came smooth as ice cream from his intercom.
"Yes, Serena," he answered, laying down the report he'd been reading.
"Could you come to my office, please? I think I have something for you."
"On my way," he answered.
Jordan stood and slipped his arms into his suit jacket. When his boss said she thought she had something, she probably did.
He still couldn't get over how incredibly good her sources were. He'd taken a sneak peek at her personnel records and her work experience sure didn't explain it. If it was life experience that gave her the edge, she must have been one wild kid; because she was a lot younger than he was and his own sources were fewer and far less trustworthy.
Of course she was also damned smart. You could almost feel her mind going in a dozen different directions when you were with her. It was disconcerting. And she had a knowing air about her, as though she found the scientists she was guarding rather quaint as they groped their way toward things she already knew.
He nodded to Mrs. Duprey, whom he had discovered was yet another of Burns's infallible sources. She smiled at him as he tapped the door and entered to Serena's "Come in."
"Hello, Jordan," she said, smiling.
Three men seated on the couch rose as one. He glanced at them, then Serena called his attention back to herself.
"I need you to take a short trip for us," she said, her eyes bright with excitement.
"There have been indications that the Connors are planning an attack on the Sacramento facility."
Jordan went still.
"Sacramento," he said after a moment. "Why Sacramento?"