"I suppose not," he agreed. "But it should be looked into."
"Yes," Serena said, with a slow nod. "It should." You humans have to be "looked into" constantly, don't you? she thought with a flick of exasperation. "This Labane character should be looked into as well," she said aloud. "That was a threat he made against this company, and with Cyberdyne's history, that shouldn't be taken lightly. I advise you to mention this to Tricker."
Colvin shrugged, looking puzzled. "It's not like I can call him up, you know."
"Mmm," she said noncommittally. "He needs to know about this. He'd be the one
to question the types who are involved in this project." She swiveled her chair slightly. "I'm sure you'll hear from him soon. It's his job to show up when he's needed. Or not wanted," she added wickedly. "I'll look into who might have known about those plans at Cyberdyne. You'll provide me with a list of people you and Mr. Warren discussed it with?" Since I don't know anything about that because you certainly didn't discuss it with me!
"Of course," the CEO replied.
"Do you want me to investigate the contractors?" she asked. "Or shall we leave that to Tricker?"
Colvin thought. "It might be a good idea for you to do some preliminary checking into the company's background," he said. "I'm reluctant to step on Tricker's toes. But it's probably a good idea for us to know more about them anyway. And then, if he doesn't want to investigate, we'll have a head start."
Serena smiled and nodded. This poor little human was terrified of the government liaison. I wonder what Tricker has on him, she thought. Perhaps she should do something to make him as terrified of her.
"I'll be very discreet, whatever I do," Serena assured him with a smile.
There wasn't much to say after that, so they concluded their meeting quickly.
Serena left annoyed, because she'd been unaware that this project had even moved forward.
The brutally honest self-evaluation that had been drilled into her from birth acknowledged that she should have been aware of what they were doing. She'd
grown careless and had neglected to keep an eye on the president and CEO.
Allowing yourself to have contempt for your enemy is a betrayal of common sense, she quoted to herself. It was one of John Connor's sayings. Still, since she was the one who had given the schematics and plans to them, as well as being their head of security, they should have kept her informed.
As Serena walked back to her office, Third succeeded in connecting her to the video spy devices the Sector had installed. She watched the activity in Jackson Skye's home-based office superimposed over Cyberdyne's surroundings, waiting impatiently for the sound to come through.
The Connors and their ally had been interrupted by another man— Skye, no doubt, who seemed to be arguing with them. For this she was grateful since it allowed her time to get back to her office, where she could give this situation a bit more of her attention.
When she saw the Sector agent's face a small chill ran up her gut, and she almost missed a stride. That face! A quick search of passive storage… Yes. That is the model for the features of the T-101A series. The originals… Skynet had chosen the template from a list of antiterrorist personnel; ironic, in a way, since the Terminators were the greatest terror weapon ever developed.
The Connors and von Rossbach's efforts to get rid of the man were not proving very successful. Good! she thought emphatically. Why should she be the only one to suffer the consequences of someone else's self-important stupidity?
As she walked along, she booked Third on a flight to Florida, where it would pick up a short flight to the Caymans. It should be able to prevent the Connors
and their ally from heading for Sacramento within eight hours.
From the way the Connors were pursuing their investigation, Serena doubted they'd be ready to leave before tomorrow. At least she hoped not. It would be better if they could be contained on the island. Once they hit the United States, they'd be much harder to track.
Finally von Rossbach ended the man's arguments by turning him around and pushing him through the office door, which he then slammed in the investment counselor's face and locked. Then he turned to the other two and brushed his hands off. They smiled.
So that's what he looks like, the t-950 thought, studying the smaller male. Of course, he's young just now. She'd only seen his shoulder and the top of his head before Skynet called her away. Her earlier impression had been that Connor was a slender man, but not unusually so, what humans called wiry. Right now, though, he was a skinny little thing and very unimpressive. And that's Sarah Connor. The woman was frowning with concentration. She was also smaller than the t-950 had imagined her.
Well, it was only natural to have imagined them bigger than life. They had, after all, and with twentieth century weapons no less, somehow defeated two Terminators. Not an easy task. But a very, very impressive accomplishment.
Serena frowned as she entered her office, locking the door behind her. Did that thought have a touch of negativity about it? The Connors weren't that impressive. And negativity led to defeat.
The t-950 sat behind her desk and studied them; They were trying to hack into
the Sacramento database. She concentrated on the files her three enemies were working on. She allowed them to look at some administrative records and smirked at their excitement.
Then she had to move quickly to prevent John from exploiting what he'd found to locate another site. For the next hour she dueled with him, over the information she would concede as she struggled to hide anything of real worth.
Sarah and von Rossbach ably assisted him and things were almost at the limits of her control for a while. These people were smart!
It was easy to forget that humans could be so dangerous. The ones she dealt with every day, with the exception of the elusive Tricker, were easy to anticipate and to deal with. Most of them were barely awake, sentient only as a matter of genetic technicalities.
The Connors and their ally were exhilarating. She would have to be careful not to give in to her currently more humanized nature and compete with them. The object was to totally defeat them, not gratify her own ego.
A part of Serena's mind reflected that it was regrettable that she had an ego at all.
She'd prefer to be less annoyed by Colvin and Warren's end run around her awareness, it was distracting—and unquestionably the result of bruised ego.
But experimentation had shown that dealing successfully with humans required the Infiltrator to have one. You couldn't pretend to have something so incomprehensible. It was necessary to have actually experienced it.
True, hers was stunted next to a human's, but the damn thing had a tendency to grow if it wasn't carefully attended to. Part of the responsibilities of her
computer brain was to send a prompt if the thing got out of hand. She expected to receive one momentarily.
The Connors were slowing down now, beginning to get a bit frustrated.
SERENA'S LAB: THE PRESENT
The third Terminator decanted the two who had been in the vats growing their disguise of flesh. He then set them to prepping the next pair, now mere metal skeletons, while he checked the fourth and fifth over for flaws or gaps in their newly grown skin. Finding nothing amiss, he reported a satisfactory rating to the t-950.
Acknowledged, she said. I'm sending you to the Cayman Islands. Dress in light-colored casual clothing, wear sunglasses at all times. Pack a small bag so that you'll blend in with other travelers. Take the low-signature automatic, your passport and driver's license, and one of the copies of the special health certificate. Call a taxi to take you to the airport. She transmitted the details on its flights. Go to Skye's home, terminate all humans that you find there. Your primary targets are Sarah and John Connor. If they are not at Skye's home find them and terminate them.