Goldberg winced.
"Anyway, after all this I'm curious about Sarah Connor. Could you send me the
file on her case?" Dieter asked.
"You're bored, aren't you?" Jeff asked. "I warned you retirement was boring."
Dieter sighed. "Give my love to Nancy."
"Give my love to what's-her-name," Jeff countered with a smile in his voice.
"Drop dead," von Rossbach said, and hung up.
"You too, buddy." Jeff hung up, turned off the lamp, and headed back to bed. He couldn't wait to tell his wife.
* * *
John looked up from the book he'd been not reading for the past hour at the sound of his mother's car and waited for her to come in.
"Hi," she said, closing the door behind her and turning the lock.
"You're later than I'd thought you'd be," he said. "I was starting to get worried."
Sarah grinned at him. "If you were worried," she said, "you'd be doing the ninja thing up by Dieter's estancia." She dropped onto the couch and leaned her head back for a moment. Then, groaning she straightened her neck to look at him, a smile playing about her lips. "Torture and death? Poor Victor was very put out."
John grinned, and shrugged. "It worked, didn't it?"
"Pretty much," she agreed. "But you marked him. That wasn't wise under the
circumstances. Especially since you didn't mark him enough to really scare him.
Next time dangle a scorpion over his eyes or something."
He nodded, watching her. "What do you mean by 'pretty much,' " he asked.
"He got drunk," his mother told him. "Some men forget to be afraid when they're drunk. Fortunately he lost his balance and fell into me in a way that really didn't look good," she said, closing her eyes. "So anything he said was suspect. In fact, Dieter didn't believe him at all."
John blew out his breath. "Lucky break," he commented.
Sarah nodded absently. "Lucky Victor isn't steady on his feet when he's drunk."
After a moment John asked, "So what happens now?"
Sarah tipped her head and tugged down the corners of her mouth, staring at nothing. "Now I guess we wait and see. I'd say we're safe for the moment." Then she looked at him. "But we should be prepared for anything."
John nodded. He watched her for a moment. "So are you gonna keep seeing him?"
Sarah's lips jerked into a smile. "I dunno." She yawned and sat up. Leaning forward she rested her forearms on her thighs, her hands dangling over her knees. "Things got very awkward after the Victor incident." Sarah smiled warmly, her eyes looking back to the evening behind her. "In a lot of ways Dieter is kind of old-fashioned. I think he felt he'd let me down."
John studied her. This was different somehow. He had no sense that she was weighing von Rossbach's usefulness, his ability to teach him necessary skills.
Though he sensed that Dieter could teach him quite a lot.
It had been a while since his mother had been with anybody. Which was a relief given some of the bozos she'd taken up with. But there hadn't been anybody since he'd rescued her from Pescadero. Six years was a long time.
"You like him, don't you?" he asked.
Her eyes snapped back to him and her lips tightened.
"Maybe. Bad idea, huh?" she said. "He could be dangerous for us."
John pursed his lips. "Yeah, well, you know what they say, Mom."
She tipped her head inquiringly.
"So far life is one hundred percent fatal. All the rest is just details."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CYBERDYNE SYSTEMS, CONFERENCE
ROOM: THE PRESENT
Darling! Have you forgotten that we have a luncheon date with Senator Gallagher?" Mary Warren asked.
She walked into the conference room with a click of heels, as though they were alone in her husband's office. Tricker half rose from his seat, then settled back,
giving Warren a scathing look.
Serena had shut the case containing the Terminator's arm as soon as the door opened. She and Tricker exchanged glances and he relaxed marginally.
Colvin wore a serious but noncommittal expression, doubtless designed to disguise his real feelings. The president himself was looking as though he'd just swallowed the arm, case and all, and it was trying to escape.
"I had forgotten," he managed to get out after a stunned moment.
"Then it's a good thing I left time in my schedule to come and remind you." She smiled, a strictly pro forma gesture, her eyes sweeping around the table and coming to rest on Serena. "I don't know you," she said, her voice warm, her eyes cold.
Serena stood and offered her hand across the table, her own smile strictly professional.
"Serena Burns," she said. "The new head of security."
Mrs. Warren reached across, barely touching Serena's hand before withdrawing her own. "Are you the one who called us the other night?" she asked.
"I'm afraid I am," Serena said. "I—"
"You mustn't do that," Mary Warren said coldly. "Paul doesn't allow it."
"So he told me," Serena said calmly, taking her seat again.
The president's wife looked at her for a long moment, then turning to her husband, she pinched his tie and said, "I'm glad I brought you another one, darling; this just won't do." Stepping back, she said, "Come along or we'll be late, and one doesn't keep a senator waiting." She gave the table a general, gracious-lady smile, ending with her gaze fixed on Serena, and walked to the door.
"I'm sorry," Warren said, rising. "But I really do have to go." He got up and moved to join his wife.
"I'll fill you in later," Colvin said, "if anything comes up."
With a nod and a pinched smile Warren followed his wife out of the door. In the conference room, silence reigned for a long moment.
"Well, that was nasty," Tricker observed.
"Mary has her moments," Colvin said ruefully. "This has been one of them."
"So why are they still married?" the government liaison asked. "Does she hold the purse strings, or what?"
Colvin didn't answer, but sat staring at the table top. "That's kind of personal," he finally said. "Why don't we go on with the meeting?"
Tricker looked at him with a flat stare, ignoring the tension that stretched between them. Civilians always buckled first in a situation like this; they had low discomfort levels. He could stare all day…
Eventually Colvin let out an exaggerated sigh.
"Mary has most of the money. But the company has done well, so Paul is hardly a pauper. Mary's political contacts, however, have often been invaluable to the company. She's kind of an undeclared member of the team."
"She's kind of a castrating bitch is what she is," Tricker snarled. "I look at that situation and I see potential trouble. This company can't afford any more trouble." His eyes and manner demanded a response.
"I'm aware of that," Colvin said coldly. "But they've been married for fifteen years and the bumps in their relationship have never, in any way, affected Cyberdyne. I see no reason why they suddenly should."
Tricker pointed at Serena, his gaze still on the CEO.
"Did you see the look she gave Ms. Burns?" he asked. "After all the time it took you two to get someone into that job, I'm not prepared to see Warren's wife have her fired because she thinks your head of security is too cute! Do you understand?"
"Hello?" Colvin said, leaning forward. "None of that has happened, nothing like that has even been mentioned. This is all some fantasy you've dreamed up on the spur of the moment based on your instantaneous dislike of Paul's wife. Mary Warren wouldn't do anything to hurt this company. She helped to build it and it's important to her. So don't take that tone of voice with me. I don't deserve it and I don't appreciate it."