Mathew Murch, department head for Zeira Corp's Project Babylon, felt like he was part of the big picture. His boss, Catherine Weaver, had let him in on a huge secret: the unknown organization that had crafted John Henry's robot body had another model out there. A female this time, and a looker at that. He had seen enough of the collected footage to know she was better off in Zeira's hands.
Catherine turned her head towards him as they strode through the parking garage. "That device of yours had better work" she said.
"If it doesn't, I am directing a scathing post at DhTopher09 at the .Wiki. He swore this would incapacitate any augmented brain."
"You got the plan from one of your friends on that wetpaint site?"
"He is supposed to be brilliant. He is pioneering the field of personality imprinting. If he says this will work, I believe it. Providing that is, that he linked the right schematic."
"We will soon find out. Here they come."
An elevator door had opened. A young couple strode towards them, in stylish biker-chic clothing. They each carried mall purchases in plastic shopping bags. Catherine stepped purposely in front of them. "John Connor?" she queried.
The boy stepped back, dropping his bags. His hand moved inside his jacket. The girl also dropped her bags, and, as expected, stepped protectively in front of the boy. Catherine Weaver then shouted, "Now Mr. Murch!"
Murch held the device high and pressed to activation button. A wave of energy burst forth that stunned them all, and Catherine instantly dissolved into a shining silver puddle. Slowly they seemed to recover.
The young girl with the fingerless gloves stared incredulously at the puddle on the floor. "What the f...Ms. Weaver?"
The boy took his hands out of his jacket and stared at them. "This is problematic."
Murch turned his head quizzically at the device in his hand. "Humans will disappoint you."
The puddle of quicksilver on the floor of the parking garage formed a rudimentary mouth on its surface. "Cam!" it bawled "Help me!" It then formed an eye, which joined the eyes of all the others bouncing back and forth to each other.
The boy moved first, toward the shapeless mass on the floor. "John?" he said in an unusually feminine tone, "Is that you?"
The girl moved toward him, shouting "Get away from her, it, him, whatever, that thing signs my paychecks!"
The boy's face grew determined and he shot his fist directly into the face of the girl, who didn't even flinch. At the sound of knuckles cracking, he looked puzzled at his deformed fist. "This endoskeleton is ineffective." He then turned to the bald engineer, who was staring intently at him and pointing his index finger as if he expected it to do something. "I do not understand your actions."
Murch looked at his uncooperative finger, then at the young girl. "Mr. Murch... Mr. Murch! Stop staring down your own shirt and rectify this situation at once!"
The girl replied, "Ah, Ms. Weaver, hit the green button." and readjusted her shirt, which she had been staring into. Murch looked at the device in his hand as if he just realized he had been carrying it all along. "Oh, of course." and hit the button.
They all were affected by the blast of energy once more. The first to recover were the bald man and the young boy. The boy stuck his right hand into his left armpit and howled in pain."Son of a... Who the hell are you people?"
Murch raised his hand, "Never mind that, get your cyborg out of here before my boss wakes up. I'll contact you later. This is bigger than both of us."
John Connor managed to get Cameron's rigid form back into the elevator before Catherine Weaver once more regained control of her polymimetic alloy. She dragged Murch back to their unmarked van and drove out of the garage. He waited to see if he would be given the same retirement plan as Justin Tuck. Catherine, however, looked at him and smiled. "Given the time frame involved Mr. Murch, I think you did quite well. While our objective was not accomplished, you seem to have discovered an effect that may prove useful in the future."
He sighed in relief as he nodded his agreement. Yes, he thought, it may prove useful at some point after all.
Epilogue:
[Newscaster] Next, in business news, in an uncharacteristic display of generosity within the industry, Bill Gates, founder and ex-CEO of Microsoft granted forty billion dollars to a little known PhD Mathew Murch to start up Murch Industries, a fledgling neural engineering company. The recipient, Mathew Murch, did not answer our calls, but there is a persistent rumor that Mr. Gates is trying to rescind the donation for unknown reasons.
Fin