I ran out of the house to stop the burglars. It had been pointless; they were already speeding down the driveway in a van.
I took note of the logo on the side of the van; it was a well-known mall complex. The van had no license plates, so the police database was out of the question. I would have to track them by standard means. Like attempting to acquire the van immediately, and failing to do so, search each of the malls owned by the company. This particular van would have traces of thermite on the bedding.
First things first, I was going to need a vehicle. I looked around for any witnesses, finding none I plotted the fastest course down the hill in front of the house, and jumped.
I visually re-acquired the van as I ran, slid and skipped down the hill avoiding obstacles. Cutting through the hill had been the best course of action, now I only needed a fast car.
Probability favored me. When I got to the streets, I recognized a Ford Mustang model 2005 waiting at a nearby traffic light. Running at top speed before the light changed I stopped by the driver's door. The window was down, so I could be straightforward.
"Hello sir," I said beaming my best smile.
"Uh, hello?" the young man in the car answered nervously.
"It appears you caught a piece of clothing with the door, it's hanging out of the car."
"Oh," the man responded, and proceeded to open the door.
As soon as the door opened a little, I pulled it, and dragged him out of the vehicle. He cursed at me when he landed hard on the pavement. I got behind the wheel, closed the door, and looked at him. It was then that it happened, like the glitch in my left hand, but bigger. I flashed him my middle finger, and stepped on the gas to take off, over-revving the car, tires screeching.
The burglars had interrupted my self-testing standby; I was trying to determine the origin of these glitches. Assuming by the silence that the house was empty, they broke in to steal an endoskeleton I was getting ready to burn. I was going to have to ask John for assistance with my self-testing; going into standby alone at the house had proved a catastrophic idea. I couldn't help but wonder if I would have made this mistake before my chip was damaged.
I sped through the traffic lights ignoring whether they were red or not. Cornering some turns at 100 kilometers per hour, and drifting around others, was gaining me much undesired attention. I could not let the burglars keep the endoskeleton though; they were probably working for Kaliba.
Recalling that John might get to the house and not find me there, I decided to let him know I was out. I took my cellphone out from my leather jacket's pocket and dialed his number. He picked up after it rang three times.
"Cameron?"
"Yes," I answered and then punched in my code.
John punched in his code. "Is something wrong? You're not one to call just to say hello."
It was not as if he would give me the chance anyway. Another glitch, but this time in my CPU, this problem was getting out of hand.
"I just called to let you know I had to go out, so you will probably find the house empty when you return."
After barely finishing my line, I faced a problem. A car transporter was blocking the street I had just turned into. It was empty, and the road ahead did not appear heavily transited, so I quickly calculated my odds of a safe landing. Getting slightly favorable ones, I floored the gas pedal and aimed for the trailer's ramp.
A delay such as waiting for the transporter to move, or having to double back was unacceptable. I would have to rely on probability being on my side again. Was this another glitch? A computer is not supposed to rely on the unknown, or less than optimal odds of success. I added one more glitch to my reviewing list.
"Are you there Cameron?" John's voice yelled from the speaker of my phone.
"Yes, I'm here. Is there anything else you need to tell me?"
The car's front tires rammed hard against the ramp, making the front leap, and the rear bumper hit the pavement, which in turn ripped it off the car.
"What do you mean Cameron? I was asking you where were you going but you never answered, and what was that noise just now?" John's voice was starting to sound distressed. I decided it was time to end the call.
The car was now flying several meters above the ground and descending towards the street.
"It was nothing," I lied, "I just wanted to know how it felt to get away from it all." The latter was not so much a lie, at the highest point of a jump, gravity becomes null for an instant, which filled my mind with positive feedback.
As I landed with a huge crash on the ground, I heard John alarmed, asking what the noise had been. Ignoring him, I hung up the call.
The van was a number of blocks ahead of me, but the thought of losing sight of it did not disturb me anymore. According to the route we had been following, I was able to determine which one of the mall complexes they were most likely going to stop at.
I saw the van turning into the last corner before the mall complex, so I slowed down the car and stopped there. Knowing the complex was close, I decided to proceed on foot, in order to reduce the chances of detection.
This mall complex was clearly different from the rest; it was obviously more important judging by the amount and size of the office buildings.
It was the middle of the day, so I decided that stealth would be the best approach, instead of forcing my way through the place. There were so many people around right now, that I would risk making this incident massively public.
Looking around I determined that the mall would have at least one direct access to the offices, and getting in through there, melding with the crowds, would provide me with cover. I made my way around to the mall's main entrance.
Walking to the back end of the mall, I started calculating the position of the office buildings. My calculations pointed me in the direction of two doors. One of them was polished metal with no special characteristics. When people try so hard to be inconspicuous, they manage the opposite effect.
I walked around in the surroundings of the polished metal door, and waited for a chance to walk in.
Once no one was looking my way, I got inside. The door led into a long corridor with offices at the sides. I made my way through it trying to make as little noise as possible; everyone in the offices seemed to be busy and didn't notice me.
When I reached the end of the corridor, I saw an elevator with a sign that said management. I pressed the button to call it. Kaliba was most likely involved, and they would surely hold such strategically advantageous positions.
The top floor was going to be my start point to see if I could find the leaders first. What I found there was very unusual. It was like no office I had seen before. Mainly because no regular office should have looked like this. It was a single room taking the entirety of the building's area. Split at the middle by a small two-step stair, the lower ground covered with ceramic flooring, and the higher with parquet.
In the middle of the higher ground was a single desk with two tall plants at its sides. A number of work related and decorative objects populated the desk. Behind it, sitting on a high-back leather chair, was a man in his middle forties looking at me.
"So you came alone?" he asked, smiling and with a mocking tone in his voice. "Such a brave leader of the resistance Connor is! Sending his puppet to do his bidding while he hides in his house."
Humans would always be an enigma to me. This men knew what I was, why would he try to taunt me? Surely he knows my kind cannot feel anger.
"John Connor is not aware of my presence here, I came on my own." I answered while scanning the room for any traps. No heat or electric signatures were present in the room. He would not face a Terminator without at least a planned escape route, and yet, I could not find anything out of the ordinary in here.
"Are you looking for traps or secret corridors?" the man asked. "You'll find none such thing in here, this is after all my sanctuary, I wouldn't defile its perfection. You see, I'm pretty sure I won't be needing anything, I know your kind, and after we have a chat I'm certain you won't kill me." The man ended his sentence looking at me. I was sure I could see smugness in his face.
"What makes you so sure I won't terminate you?"
"The fact that only I know where the triple-eight is being kept. You see, in the future I did many services for your maker, and it decided to reward me. I was sent to the past to direct one of our many operations, and receive the luxuries that entails." He walked around his desk, indicating around the room with his arms.
"You know I will torture you to get the information I require," I answered walking towards him.
"I'm trained, I won't talk that easily. Go ahead and try, and waste whatever little time you have before the endoskeleton is moved from this place."
I lunged forward closing the space between us instantly, but when I was in front of him, he indicated something with his eyes. He had some sort of remote control in his hand.
"With the press of a button I can call security up," he explained smiling. "I'm sure you can take them all out, but you'll risk this becoming a big incident, and again, waste valuable time."
Humans could be so closed-minded. There were always alternatives, especially with the wider range of options at my disposal. Being faster than he could possibly be, I reached out for his hand, and crushed it along with the controller embedding parts of it in his skin. The man fell down to his knees grabbing his hand while cursing at me. What was it with humans and the need to use foul language?
"Will you talk now?" I asked him.
"No!" the man yelled back at me, "I won't tell you. You're already wasting valuable time here, why don't you go and look for it yourself."
"You know that I won't find it in time, so if you know how my kind works, then you know I will torture you for the information." I lit up my eyes to make my point.
The man laughed at me before speaking again. "I'm obviously not fond of pain, especially after months of living in such luxury, but I can take it. So go ahead metal bitch, and when you fail, go back to your master with your tail between your legs."
Lifting him by the neck with one hand, I punched his solar plexus with the other; before he fell to the ground again, I punched him in the face, feeling and hearing the crunch of his nose breaking. The man flew a pair of meters away from me, and I closed in to continue.
"I'm not going to talk!" he yelled, holding his nose with his good hand. Once I was in range, he spat blood at my face.
"We'll see." Was my simple answer, and without minding his bloodied spit, I continued with my task.
After a while, I realized he was telling the truth, he was not going to spill the beans, as the human saying goes. So I decided to change my approach, and try to at least extract other information from him. Perhaps the purpose in acquiring the triple-eight, were they after research material?
"Tell me, what do you plan to do with it?" I questioned, pinning him by the neck against the parquet floor.
"Oh, that I can tell you," he answered trying to smile. "One of these days, when you least expect it, we will send it to kill the Connor boy; and trust me, working with us, it will succeed."
Having obtained at least a part of the information I needed, I decided to retreat from the building. I walked backwards away from the man, for some reason I could not take my eyes off him. Was I experiencing another glitch?
"That's right!" he angrily yelled at me. "Take off and go back to your owner, so he can see how much of a failure you are. Don't worry; when we kill him, I'll make sure to save you a couple of body parts as souvenirs."
My hand twitched. Then, a flood of commands overcame my processor. Orders I was not issuing. I was barely able to override some of them, when more had already taken their place.
The next instant I was pinning him to the floor again. I punched the parquet floor hard, making a hole in it. I proceeded to grab a fistful of wood. Splinters were tearing my pseudo-skin as I clenched around them, but I did not care.
Still pinning the man to the floor, I saw in his eyes the reflection of a blue light that flared suddenly, indicating my optics were lit up at maximum.
The orders kept going to my body faster than I could cancel them. I kept trying, but my body did not stop.
I grabbed the man by the hair and saw his face contort in a horrified expression, as the realization of what was about to happen finally dawned on him. He started screaming, struggling and wriggling uselessly in my grasp. Without a word, I began carving his flesh with the wood in my other hand.
Starting with the face.