"I want to help you," von Rossbach said. "You need my help. The entire world and the human race in general need my help, if what you have said is true."
"We've done okay until now," John said, sounding cocky.
"You did okay until your enemies came back and started up the Skynet project at Cyberdyne."
Dieter stared at him with no expression on his face and John shuddered at how much he looked like the enemy.
"There's a good chance that I can get you in there," Dieter said. "Their facility is on an army base, underground. And they'll have backup, Sarah, just like the last time. I can help you find those locations." He leaned in close to her. "You need me, Sarah."
She looked at him and they stared into each other's eyes for a long time. "You'd follow us if I said no, wouldn't you?" she asked.
"And I'd find you." He straightened. "I was the best the Sector had, Sarah." He held out his hands. "Use me."
She gave a single, explosive laugh. "How could any girl resist that offer?" she said.
"Mo-om!"
She held up her hand and John subsided, reluctantly.
"Look," Dieter said, "I know you can't just come over and stay in my guest room. But there's a cottage on my property that you can use. It's primitive, but it should be safe for one night. Especially since it's over a mile from the house.
Tonight we can discuss our options and tomorrow we'll hit the road."
Sarah raised her brows, looked up at her house, burning merrily, glanced at John, whose arms were folded across his chest and whose frown spoke of his resistance, then smiled at Dieter.
"Sure," she said. "Sounds like a plan." She looked around, then gestured toward his Land Rover. "Just let us grab our gear and we'll go."
LOS ANGELES: THE PRESENT
Frowning, Tarissa Dyson put down the phone. She'd been disconcerted by the disconnect message she'd gotten when she called Jordan. But she was more troubled by the fact that, according to the phone company, he no longer seemed to have a number in Delaware.
Either he'd moved or he really, really didn't want to talk to her. He could be using a cell phone, I suppose, she thought. That way he could stay in touch with friends and work. Aha! Tarissa thought, and started dialing again. It didn't
connect.
She put down the phone again and rattled her fingernails on the coun-tertop as she thought. Well, if there's one place on earth that I can get in touch with him sooner or later, it would be at work. Tarissa was reluctant to do it; she thought calling someone at work, especially Jordan's work, was rude. But this is kind of an unusual situation. She tapped out the number, her mouth set.
"FBI."
"Agent Jordan Dyson, please," Tarissa said crisply.
"I'm sorry, Agent Dyson is no longer with the FBI, ma'am. Can I direct your call elsewhere?"
Tarissa found herself taking in a breath that wouldn't stop, as though some internal valve had become stuck. At last she managed to choke out a feeble,
"What?"
"Can I direct your call elsewhere, ma'am?"
Tarissa thought frantically. Who had Jordan mentioned that he worked with?
"Paulson!" she said after a moment's thought. "Pat Paulson." She identified herself to the secretary and in a few moments the phone was picked up.
"Paulson."
"Uh, Agent Paulson, this is Tarissa Dyson, Jordan's sister-in-law." Tarissa bit her lower lip. "This is a little embarrassing," she said with a little laugh, "but I don't
have his current phone number and I was wondering if you could help me out."
Pat felt the corners of her mouth tugging down in surprise. Jordan had always made himself out to be a family man, with his nephew and sister-in-law more or less at the center of his life. Could there have been an argument? Shit. If that was the case he wouldn't thank her for telling where he was.
"Agent Paulson?" Tarissa said anxiously.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just surprised… that you don't know… his number or anything." Pat winced. That was smooth.
Tarissa felt her scalp tighten in apprehension. Whatever was going on here, she didn't think she was going to like it.
"Well, he said he had a surprise for us the last time he was here," she explained.
"I just need to talk to him about something and I can't find the stupid number."
Oh. Pat thought about that. Maybe Jordan just choked when it came to telling his sister-in-law that he was going to work for Cyberdyne. She could understand that. In which case he might be glad that someone else broke the news. And if he called to ream her out she could always plead innocence.
"We-el," she said, "he only left a couple of days ago and I haven't heard from him yet. Maybe you could get in touch with him through Cyberdyne."
There was a ringing silence at that and Pat winced again.
"Oh!" Tarissa said at last. It felt as though her eyebrows had disappeared into her
hairline. "Well… that certainly is a surprise." She narrowed her eyes and forced herself to sound jaunty. "But it will be great to have him living so close by."
Paulson relaxed a little. "I think he'll like that," she said. "He's always talking about you guys."
"Well, I'll try to get in touch with him at Cyberdyne, then," Tarissa said brightly.
They said good-bye and hung up. Tarissa leaned against the counter, hugging herself as she thought about this. Miles's project. Jordan had anticipated that the Connors would show up to put a stop to it.
And he's right, she thought, rubbing the knuckles of one hand against her lower lip. She dropped the hand with a sigh. I wish I knew where they were. I wish I could talk to them. She didn't want to stop them from destroying Cyberdyne; she only wanted to prevent them from killing Jordan. Who, meanwhile, will be doing his damnedest to stop them any way he can.
She brushed back her hair. Well, she couldn't talk to the Connors. But maybe she could talk to Jordan again. Maybe even get through to him this time.
She found the Cyberdyne number and called, was transferred and transferred again until she found herself speaking to Serena's secretary.
"I'm trying to locate Jordan Dyson," Tarissa said.
"He's not here at the moment, but I can take a message for him if you like."
Damn! Well, why not? After being switched hither and yon Tarissa figured this
was the best she was going to do today.
"Yes, please. Could you tell him that Tarissa asks him to please remember what she told him?"
The secretary's gossiping instincts perked up. "Certainly, Ms… ?"
"Dyson," Tarissa said.
"Ms. Dyson. I'll see that he gets your message, ma'am."
"Thank you." Tarissa hung up. Maybe that'll shake him out of his huff, she thought. Maybe not. Maybe only time would do that. I hope not, she thought. I miss him already.
CYBERDYNE: THE PRESENT
"So," Serena said, ushering Jordan into his new office, "we end the grand tour here."
"This is mine?" Jordan said.
The office was exactly the same size as Burns's, though more blandly furnished.
It was located directly across the hall from hers. Very nice, he thought. Here at Cyberdyne, where there were no windows, status came from the size of your space and this was about as large as an office could get here.
"Mm-hm," Serena said. "For the time being we'll share my secretary, Mrs.
Duprey. If it looks like that will be an unreasonable burden on her, we'll get you an assistant of your own."
"Thank you," Jordan said. He was used to sharing a secretary. "I'm sure it'll be fine."