To find the date Ron consulted the secret files he'd been sent. It was wonderful to stick it to a major corporation and the military at the same time.
He and his people would hit them seven ways to Sunday. Protests, lawsuits, and sabotage, maybe even a little bribery in the right places, maybe a few carefully placed bombs. Ron felt no guilt about moving to the next level. This thing was evil, he knew it, and it had to be stopped at any cost.
Humanity against the machines, he thought, and their implacable masters!
CYBERDYNE SYSTEMS: THE PRESENT
Serena read Ron Labane's article with pleasure. It was good. It might even motivate some otherwise rational humans to get involved in his cause. Labane and his ilk were the seeds from which the scientists who had created her and her siblings had sprung. It gave her what humans called a "warm fuzzy feeling" to see his progress. And encouraging humans to self-terminate was so… so efficient.
Besides, having protests and sabotage and sundry other dramas would make the president and CEO of Cyberdyne less inclined to keep her out of the loop from now on.
Serena smiled. One day she would make them very sorry that they'd tried to put one over on her. But she could wait—a lot longer than they could.
NEAR CHARON MESA, CALIFORNIA: THE PRESENT
Sarah drove with her eye on the gauges, ignoring the mesquite-and-scrub landscape that sped by in a blast of hot dry air. This Jeep was going to overheat; she knew it. They should have enough water to take care of it, but what with the Terminator and all, she felt they were operating under Murphy's Martial Law. So they'd probably blow a hose.
Still, they'd crossed into Texas and traveled through New Mexico and Arizona without raising the interest of the police. Maybe that was the problem; it had been nearly five days without any sort of incident. It was like waiting for the other shoe to drop.
She expected to come upon Enrique's small compound in a few miles. But she'd hate to have to walk there in this heat.
"Is your friend expecting you?" Dieter asked.
"My friend is always expecting somebody," she answered. "Assuming he's still there."
John looked up at that. There wasn't much in his young life that seemed eternal,
but Enrique and Yolanda were two of them. What might have happened to them and their kids if they weren't there made his stomach curdle.
Don't borrow trouble, he warned himself. Wait till you're there.
The Jeep bounced and he almost fell off the seat.
"Yo! Mom, watch the rocks, okay?"
"You want to drive?" she snarled.
"Yeah!" John thrust his head into the front seat, grinning eagerly.
"Well, forget it," Sarah snapped.
Dieter laughed and Sarah frowned at him.
"Give the kid a chance, Sarah. He has to learn sometime," von Rossbach said.
Sarah narrowed her eyes. This part of the desert was beginning to look familiar.
"Well, not right now," she said. "I'd prefer to have a vehicle I can trust for one thing. Besides, we're here."
Von Rossbach stared at the clutter of stripped helicopter carcasses, Jeeps, and an old bus. Tumbleweeds rocked in a breeze too mild to move them. Everything else was deathly still and silent. "Nobody could possibly be living in this hole,"
he muttered.
"They're here," John said confidently.
Sarah drove on, saying nothing. She pulled up at the edge of the compound and got out of the Jeep slowly. She drew her pistol and looked around. Dust, weeds, and rusting wrecks. "Enrique?" she shouted.
They waited in the desert heat and silence.
"Hey!" John shouted, jumping out of the Jeep and running a few paces into the compound. "Anybody here?"
" John?" a disbelieving and familiar voice said. "Is that you, Big John?"
Enrique appeared from behind one of the helicopter bodies, rifle in hand. His hat was off, so they could see that his hair had receded and gone gray.
"Hey!" John said, smiling. He held out his hand and Enrique shook it. "We weren't sure you guys would'be here anymore."
"Some aren't," Enrique said. "My cousin's moved to Austin. He plays a little guitar and I think he wants to be a rock star or something."
John grinned at that; he'd heard Carlos play. "Where's Yolanda?" he asked.
"Right behind you!" she said. She gave John an enthusiastic hug. As Sarah walked up she released him and reached for her. "So good to see you!" she said.
Yolanda hadn't changed at all; even her hair was the same length.
"Hey, Connor, you look like a schoolteacher," Enrique said.
"You look like a grapefruit farmer," she countered. They shook hands, laughing.
Sarah's eye fell on a solid-looking little boy of about seven. "Paulo?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Si," Yolanda said with motherly pride. "The last time you saw him he was just a tiny nino." She ruffled his straight black hair.
Paulo ducked his head in embarrassment and cast an eye at Dieter, who stood at least a head taller than his father. Sarah took notice.
"This is Dieter von Rossbach," she said. "Dieter—Enrique, Yolanda, and Paulo."
Dieter held out his hand to Enrique, who seemed surprised and took a moment to respond. He glanced at Sarah and raised a brow.
"Later," she muttered.
"We heard a lot about you for a while," Enrique said. "Then nothing. Well, not nothing. Did you know there's a Web site with your name?"
"You're wired?" John said, surprised and delighted.
"Hey, everything up-to-the-minute with us! You know that!" Enrique said with a grin. "Don't let appearances deceive you, senor," he said to Dieter. "What you want, we got, can get, or can make." He looked at Sarah. " Si?"
" Si," she confirmed. "I hate to break up our reunion with business…" she began.
"Oh, don't worry," he said. "Business is as welcome as company, always! What can I do for you?"
"Well, my computer needs its battery charged," John said.
"And this piece-of-shit Jeep Lupe sold me is ready to die," Sarah finished.
"Lupe, eh?" Enrique moved toward the Jeep and he started to grin. " Ai, caramba!" he said. "What are you doing dealing with that one, eh? You know Lupe is a capitalist at heart."
"Oh, he's got a heart now, does he?" Sarah said. "I'd never have guessed from the way he robbed me."
Enrique opened the hood and immediately started to dicker.
"Come with me, John," Yolanda said, slipping her arm through his. "I'll show you that Web site and we'll let these two hard bargainers go at it."
"Where's the tequila?" John asked.
"Ts ts ts," she shushed him. "We don't drink that anymore. I have Classic Coke, though, and Mountain Dew."
Sarah leaned over the engine, pretending she hadn't overheard. Enrique gave her a glance.
"I have a pacemaker now," he said. "So I watch what I eat and drink. Eh, we grow more stupid as we get older," he said. "Depriving ourselves of pleasure so that we can stay old longer."
Sarah laughed with him at that. She looked up at Dieter, who stood beside the
jeep looking awkward.
"Would you mind taking a look at that Web site for me?" she asked him. "I'd like your opinion."
He gave her an ironic smile and followed Yolanda and John into the dilapidated school bus.
Enrique watched him go, then turned back to the engine. After a moment he glanced at Sarah. "He's different. Not so stiff like before."
Sarah's laugh was more a squawk. "You've no idea," she said fervently.
"So, how come he's 'Dieter' now and not 'Uncle Bob'?" He reached in and squeezed a hose, then gave her a significant look.