Sarah looked up as he went in, her face grim. She evaluated the progress of the fire and redoubled her efforts at chopping the Terminator apart.
"Here," Dieter said, reaching for the ax. "I think I'll make more progress on that than you can. Why don't you start with the bolt cutters."
She nodded and handed it over without a word. He was right, and they had the fire to consider; time for discussion was a luxury. John came out and gathered a second load. He was back in a much shorter time.
"We'll have to throw the rest in," he said, shouting over the roar of the fire.
Sarah just nodded and kept on with her work. John hefted the crowbar and went looking for the head. He slid one end of the bar into an eye socket and lifted it up to examine it. Two rounds had gone completely through the skull and the components rattled around inside; some mangled pieces fell out through the holes. The problem with this thing was that it was a very solid piece of workmanship. Breaking it up was going to be a stone bitch.
"I think you'll get further using this," Dieter said from beside him.
He offered the ax and John took it. He checked the edge and found it very chipped and dull. He gave von Rossbach a lopsided smile.
"Maybe so, but not much further."
"There's a trick to it," Dieter said. "Put it down and I'll show you."
John lowered the head to the ground and worked the crowbar out of they eye socket. Then he made an inviting gesture and stood back.
Von Rossbach lifted the ax, the muscles on his arms bulging, and brought it
down lightly, just touching the Terminator's skull, lifted it again, and brought it down, as though making sure of his aim. John watched him attentively as Dieter brought the ax up a final time and brought it down with an unstoppable, irresistible strength that split the metal as though it were made of foil. He raised the ax again and split it crosswise, breaking the teeth into unrecognizable white splinters.
Then together they pried the remaining shreds of metal apart. John gathered up the escaped plastic bits and components from inside the skull, using part of the head as a bowl to hold them. Then he got as close to the burning house as he could and flung it into the flames like a Frisbee.
Dieter looked around; there was nothing left but a few bloodstains on the ground, and the bacteria and ants and monsoon rains would take care of those.
He shuddered, feeling slightly nauseous for a second.
"Reaction," Sarah said from beside him.
He looked down at her. The fake glasses were gone and he could see her eyes clearly for once, " fa," he said. "I could use a comforting hug." He opened his big arms and turned toward her.
Sarah looked at him in disbelief, momentarily disgusted at the thought of hugging what she'd just torn apart. Then she looked at his very human eyes and smiled, then laughed. "Of course," she said, and stepped into his arms. "We Connors provide full-service disasters."
She put her own arms around him and rested her cheek against his solid chest.
One hand patted his back, making circles, then patting, the way she had with
John when he was a baby. Dieter rested his check against her hair and she felt, rather than heard, him sigh.
We've been attacked by a Terminator, my house is burning down, and we have to flee Paraguay. But this is rather nice, she thought. Dieter's big hands began to imitate her own, gentle circles and pats. Am I going into shock? After a moment she decided she wasn't. After a longer moment she decided to let go of von Rossbach and stand alone. But she didn't. Instead she closed her eyes and sighed.
Von Rossbach moved his head to look down at the woman in his arms. He stroked her hair and Sarah lifted her head to look up at him. She lowered her eyes, smiling slightly.
"Comforted?" she asked.
"Oh, yes," he said.
"Guys?" John said.
They both moved apart as though he'd thrown water on them.
"Yeah," Sarah said, nodding. "You will take Linda?" she said to von Rossbach.
"Linda?"
"The horse," John explained with elaborate patience.
"Of course," Dieter said. "You two can come to my place so that we can make plans."
"I don't think so," Sarah said. "I think it's best we disappear now." She turned away. "I'll get Linda into the trailer."
He grabbed her arm and she spun, yanking her arm from his grip.
"I want to help," Dieter said, willing her to believe him. Feral as she seemed to be going that belief was going to come hard. "You can't just go off half-cocked.
You need to plan this and I have the resources to help you."
"Dieter," John cut in, keeping a wary eye on both of them, "I know you mean well, but you do realize that they probably found us because of you."
Von Rossbach's head snapped around to look at him. "You do realize that don't you?"
"I told no one," Dieter insisted. "I denied everything to my colleagues. They didn't find you through me, I swear it."
Sarah and John exchanged a look, and she gave a slight jerk of her head toward the barn. John hesitated and she gave him the look. He rolled his eyes and moved off; after a few yards she and Dieter could hear muttering.
Now Sarah and Dieter looked at each other. She lifted her hand to brush back her hair, then dropped it when she saw the caked blood on her fingers.
"Are you really that naive?" Sarah asked. She put her hands on her hips. "Maybe you are. After all, you've never had to fight machines that think before." Sarah drew in a deep breath and then let it out, her eyes on the fire for a moment. "You put my name out there. They'd be watching for that." She looked up at him.
"And, obviously, they can interface with other machines like no human being.
Maybe this one was just sent down to check out the possibility that you had seen me. But it isn't going home, and that, I assure you, will alert them to our whereabouts." She held up a finger. "And let's not forget that Victor wasn't too happy with either one of us when he left Villa Hayes the other night. Who knows who he's told."
Von Rossbach drew his mouth into a tight line and, frowning, stared at the bloody dirt beneath his feet. She was probably right. Worse, he didn't know the enemy the way she did. But she had learned and so could he. He nodded once and looked at her.
"I am going to help you," he said. "And I am going with you. I have contacts that you can use and, forgive me—this isn't a criticism—I have credibility that you do not." He shook his head. "Don't throw away a good tool before you've even examined it, Sarah. I can help you." He looked toward the barn. "And him."
Sarah's expression was troubled. But all she said was, "Why don't you drive your car down to the barn so we can hitch you up." Then she turned and walked away.
He would have preferred a direct answer, but he decided to believe that she was thinking it over. By the time the trailer was hitched and the horse loaded, she would have an answer for him. It had better be the right one, he thought.
Because I can be just as stubborn as she is.
"Dieter, we can't go to your estancia," Sarah began after shutting Linda into the trailer.
"Sarah," he interrupted, not letting her continue.
"Of course we can't go to your place," John cut in, with the eye-rolling exasperation that only a sixteen-year-old can show for adult obtuseness. "First of all, we can't drag a whole bunch more people into this without someone getting hurt. Second, we are like, wanted fugitives, on the run again. That doesn't stop, Dieter. That just goes on and on and on. Do you really want to taint your pristine reputation by associating with us?"