4. Derek's Shocking Revelation
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007, Los Angeles, 7th Street, 1350 hours local
Charley and Derek entered the church the same moment when John carried Cameron in his arms, just as if she weighed like a rag doll.
"What the hell?" Derek snapped at him perplexed. "What's going on?"
"Hey! Are you all right?" Charley asked.
"Mom and I are fine. Cameron, however, is hurt. She took the car bomb which was meant for us."
"And she chased you a little bit through the city."
"Just a wire knocked loose, or something... So he says," Sarah said.
"Bitch is nothing but wire," Derek snapped. "It's only a matter of time."
"She fought, Derek," John said, while gently putting down Cameron on a chair. "Fought and won. Took over again."
"Yeah, but what if next time she can't?. Next time she might just kill you instead of impressing you with her acting performance. When will you understand that those things might look like innocent girls, but they carry death with them?"
"Hey, listen..."
"John, you can't trust it anymore."
"It?"
"Yes. It. Not her." He started heading towards the door. "I'm gonna get some thermite and prepare a pit. We're gonna burn it."
"Derek, ..." Sarah started but was interrupted by John.
"Derek, would you please come over to me?"
Derek complied.
"Now, take my hand."
"What the..."
"Just do what I'm saying, please."
Derek hesitantly grabbed Johns hand. John took Cameron's hand as well and closed his eyes.
"What the hell," Derek said after two seconds and tried to pull out his hand but to no avail. No chance, too his surprise, as John had an iron grip.
"Stop it, John! It's awful!" he cried but John didn't loosen his hand for a couple of seconds.
"It's terrible! Please, let me go!"
At last, John released him. Derek jumped up, then stared them with a pale face.
"You said she didn't have a soul and never will."
John shrugged. "I was wrong."
He couldn't say anything just rushed out of the room. Sarah and Charley followed suit.
"What did you do to him?" Cameron asked.
"Just a little shortcut," he answered. "I relayed your thoughts and your fears to him mentally. Basically everything. Now he understands you perfectly."
"But this is impossible."
"I know. Yet, I'm capable of that. And a lot of other things."
"So he knows how miserable I am," she snapped and yanked out her hand from John's. "Great. That's just great."
"Hey, don't be upset," he said. "You don't have to feel ashamed that you have feelings."
"I don't have feelings. I'm a terminator."
"Come on, who do you want to fool? Me? You should know that now I can just read minds. Human, or cyborg, it makes almost no difference. You will see, if I'm not wrong, that Derek's hostile attitude towards you will change to the opposite from now on."
"Do I really want that?" Cameron asked and it was the first time since the accident that she was smiling. It was a faint smile, but a smile.
John giggled. "Now you're talking."
"Seriously, don't despair. You were abducted but at the end of the day you regained control. I know it was very difficult. You should be proud of yourself that you could overcome Skynet's program."
Cameron didn't say anything for a while, then looked into John's eyes.
"So I assume you know precisely my every thought. I can hide nothing from you."
"That's right."
"So... in that case, you know exactly how I feel about you."
"Yes. I do."
"And... how about you?" she asked tentatively with a fearful look.
"You said it yourself," John answered. "I love you and you love me"
"But this is only my feeling," he continued. "I ask you for some time to decide what to do. I really need to think this through."
"I'm not good enough for you," she said tears started rolling from her eyes. "Which is perfectly understandable. After all, I'm just a metal. Why would you choose me when you could get a human girl. And... I almost killed you."
"Hey, you got it all wrong," he said raising his voice. "All I need is some time to make a responsible decision. I don't want to play with you, Cameron! I'd never start an affair with you and say a few weeks later 'Sorry, I changed my mind.' No, I'm facing a decision now, which may last for a lifetime. Please understand and accept that."
She didn't seem to be entirely convinced but couldn't say anything because Charley came back.
"Could you come with me for a moment?" Charley asked John.
"Are you all right?" Sarah asked Derek a few minutes earlier. He stared in front of him and his face was pale.
"I'm fine," he said but didn't look at her.
"What happened?" Charley asked.
"I saw it... I was her... John showed it," Derek stuttered.
"Slow down, I don't understand a thing," Sara said.
"John did something to me. Mentally. Somehow he connected me to Cameron and suddenly I felt as I was her."
"Are you serious?" Charley asked.
"It was totally weird. I saw things like she would in a strangely mechanical way. Sensations, feelings, impressions... All as computer programs. Very weird. And I just felt all of her thoughts, concerns and... fears. Yes, fears. All of those were so intensive, so amplified, that I almost felt physical pain."
Sarah and Charley just stared at him flabbergasted.
"And I just thought she had no feelings whatsoever," he said. "The opposite is true even though she hides them well. And do you know what is the most bizarre?"
They just stared at him questioningly.
"She is in love with John."
"What?" Both Sarah and Charley asked in unison.
"Wait, I haven't finished. It's not just simple love. It is a complete devotion. So unconditional, that maybe no human is capable of loving like this. With such level of selflessness. And adoration... I was wrong, damn wrong about her."
"Me too," Sarah said. "Most cases I've been treating her badly since she arrived. Even though she saved our asses a couple of times. I shouldn't be surprised, though. When she was fighting to regain control, she pleaded to us to run away while she was holding up her own body. When John didn't comply she started crying and told him that she loved him."
She was silent for a few seconds then continued. "I haven't told anything either of you about Uncle Bob, have I?"
"No. Who is Uncle Bob? A relative of yours?" Charley asked.
"No, he was a terminator. A T-800, Model 101."
"Really? And what did he do?" Derek asked.
"What did he do? To put it simply: he saved the world."
"Wow," Charley said. "Care to tell us the whole story?"
"You both already know that a couple of years ago I tried to blow up a tech factory and I was put in a mental hospital, in Pescadero after that. One day I devised a plan on how to escape from there and reunite with John. But on the same day, some policemen visited me and told me that John was missing and his foster parents were dead. And they showed me a picture of a T-800. I tried to get out of the building but suddenly the elevator door opened and I almost bumped into the Eight hundred. With the face from my worst nightmares. The face of the Terminator who killed Kyle. I panicked and ran into the arms of the orderlies who were chasing me. The Terminator came over, unceremoniously threw the orderlies to the walls and through the safety windows. I was certain I was going to die. But to my utter surprise, John appeared behind the Terminator, rushed to me and asked me if I was okay. I thought that I finally had gone completely crazy. I looked at John who seemed worried, but about me, not about himself. I looked back at the Terminator who reached his hand down to me, offering to help me up and said 'Come with me if you want to live.' The exact words of Kyle when he had saved me."
"No wonder you were shocked," Derek nodded.
"And the T-1000 appeared and started shooting at us."
"Wait, what is a T-1000? I've never heard of such a model."
"It's composed of mimetic polyalloy."
"What the hell is that?"
"Liquid metal. Shapeshifter. It can camouflage itself or imitate the form of the human it touches."
"No shit. How could you kill it?"
"It was a very tough job. Bob, the T-800 tricked it into a steel mill and eventually shot it in the belly with a grenade launcher so it fell into molten steel. It was a hell of a fight."
She stared at the floor and continued with the story. "When we escaped from Pescadero and managed to lose the T-1000 for a while John had the idea to switch the T-800 to read-write mode in order to evolve and learn to behave more human-like. I still couldn't think clearly and I wanted to destroy his chip with a sledgehammer. But John slapped his hand down over the chip and I could barely stop the hammer before hitting his fingers. It was probably the first time when he seriously contradicted me. He said that if he was supposed to be the great military leader than maybe I should start listening to him."
"And if you didn't, the world would have been destroyed a decade ago, if I get it right," Charley said shivering.
"That's right," Sarah said. "And without Uncle Bob, we would have been dead within 48 hours."
"Couldn't you save him?" Derek asked.
"No, after the battle he was damaged beyond repair. One of his arms was missing, he could hardly stand up, we helped him. But the main problem was his power cell, which was destroyed by the T-1000. The backup cell providing alternate power would have lasted for only a few days."
"He didn't need much time to develop a dry sense of humor," she continued. "After the T-1000 was terminated and he was crippled he said 'I need a vacation.' And he lectured us earlier. 'It is in your nature to destroy yourselves,' he said."
"That's surprising from a fairly obsolete model," Derek said.
"But the most surprising part was when he insisted to be sunk into the molten steel. John cried, Bob gently wiped away his tears and said, 'I know now why you cry. But it is something I can never do.' And hugged John back with his remaining arm. Then I reached out my hand to shake his. It was the moment of maximum mutual respect. I asked him if he was afraid of dying. And he said he was."
None of the others spoke for a while thinking about the Terminator, the hero, who saved the Connors and the world and developed feelings before he died.
"Now, just imagine, if a T-800 was capable of such a huge development, and eventually capable of love, in a short time, what is Cameron, who has a much more advanced chip, capable of," Sarah said finally.
"So, what is she now?" Charley asked. "She scared the shit out of me last time, but now when I look at her I can only see a traumatized girl, not a killing machine."
"She is both now," Derek said. "But much more a traumatized girl. A sentient being, capable of endless love. That's weird."
After a couple of seconds of silence he changed the subject. "Sarah, I found the hard drive in the safe house but it looks trashed. So I'm guessing that Sarkissian didn't tell you where he sold the Turk before you killed him."
"Wasn't that kind of conversation," she said. She looked down for a few seconds. "It... it wasn't me who killed Sarkissian."
Derek and Charley raised their eyebrows questioningly.
"John did," Sarah answered their unspoken questions. "He... he somehow generated extremely powerful lightning bolts and literally roasted Sarkissian."
"Damn," Derek said while Charley showed a shocked face.
"Before that Sarkissian shot him in the thigh and then he wanted to shoot me. The wound just disappeared and John could also heal me. Moreover, he can move objects with his mind and teleported us from West Hollywood to here."
Charley stood up.
"Where are you going?" Sarah asked.
"I need to talk to John," Charley answered. "I need to know what is going on and I need to examine him."
Charley examined John, especially his thigh where he was shot. Some blood remained but there was no wound, his leg seemed completely healed.
Derek listened to John for a while as he was answering Charley's questions but then he saw Cameron sitting in the room alone hugging her knees. So he went back and sat down in a neighboring seat.
"Hi," he said awkwardly.
"Hi," she said.
"I heard from Sarah, what happened," he told her. "How you regained control."
"I tried to do my best," Cameron shrugged.
"Look," Derek continued. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I said."
"You had your reasons, I guess," she said. I don't remember the times before my memory was scrubbed, but I must have done nasty things. It's perfectly understandable that you hate me."
"Let's not talk about that this time. And I don't hate you. Not anymore."
"Okay, let's talk about what happened today. I almost killed John. I ... my body wanted to hurt him," she continued on the verge of tears.
"Believe me, you weren't even close," Derek answered. According to Sarah, John'd obtained some sort of superpowers. Healing, telekinesis, and others. He killed Sarkissian with electric discharges. Before doing that he was shot in the thigh, did you know that?"
"What?"
"Yeah, but he cured himself. He did something and the bullet just came out of the wound and the wound itself disappeared. The hole and the blood stain still remained in his trousers, though. Later he cured Sarah as well from minor injuries."
"So that could've been the explanation," she said.
"For what?"
"In the safe house... I raised the gun on him. I didn't want to, but I did." Tears started rolling on her face. "And suddenly some unknown force just grabbed me and shoved down to the bottom of the staircase."
"And John seems to know about everything that's going on in my CPU. And in your mind."
"Obviously," he smirked. "When did those start with you? The emotions, I mean."
"I always had those. To a lesser extent, though. For a while I considered those as malfunctions, then later I realized that those are the side effects of becoming self-aware. But my emotions were unbearably amplified since the explosion... When I was only a spectator ... with no influence at all on my body... Earlier I could keep the emotions at bay. But now..." She shook her head.
"It's unbearable, Derek! How can you, humans, cope with your emotions? I'm just overwhelmed by them and I feel I can't take it anymore."
"Sometimes we can't either," Derek said. "I think, the main difference is: we have more time to learn to handle our emotions. Sometimes we are just flooded by them, but we have some experience gathered from our early childhood to deal with them. You had only some months for that, or rather only hours if you consider the amplified emotions started today."
"Okay, thank you for explaining... But that doesn't change the fact that I lost control for a while. You were right, I cannot be trusted. So I'm asking you a big favor."
"What is it?" Derek asked.
"Burn me."
"What? Are you insane?"
"I'm not capable of self-termination. But you can kill me. Let's go together to the warehouse where we have ammo and thermite. We'll find a car wreck or something where you'll burn me with the thermite."
Derek cast her a dry smile. "You know, if you had said that couple of days earlier I'd said 'OK, with pleasure'. But what I'm saying now is this: No. Fucking. Way."
"Why not?"
"For numerous reasons. Firstly, I wouldn't do anything major without John's consent. Secondly, I want to stop Skynet. However I can. It is a hidden war and we have a small army for that, a very small army. We need every soldier for the fight so we need you. Bottom line: if you'd be gone that would break John's heart, I'm pretty sure about that. Moreover, I'm also sure he can fix you entirely. So."
"So?"
"So stop the self-pity, soldier, pull yourself together and get on your feet! We have a war to win."
"Yes, sir!" Cameron mockingly saluted with a faint smile.
"Now you're smiling. That's more like it." Derek stood up, he was about to leave. Cameron, however, grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome, I guess," Derek said with a casual smile.
"You think he will choose me, eventually?" she asked with a sudden concern.
"I'm almost certain, he will," he said.
"And what if he won't? What if he chooses say a busty blonde instead?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Such situations happen sometimes, and those are depressing like hell. But we need to stand up even in those cases because we have a mission. But again, I don't think you need to worry about that," he said then left the room.
Zeira Corp, Downtown L.A. 1510 hours local
"Your money will be deposited in the account within 30 minutes," Catherine Weaver, the CEO of Zeira Corp said with her Edinburgh accent. "Please, take all the precautions we discussed."
"Of course, ma'am," Edward Walsh answered. He worked as a private investigator for Weaver. He used to be a cop in Baltimore, Maryland. A tough place, with one of the highest crime rates in the country. Serving there for 23 years was more than enough for him to develop some abilities, which he called instincts. He never disappointed her and always worked very discretely.
"So much for so little. Again, don't mind me sayin'," he added.
She didn't answer for a few seconds. She stepped to the window, which was, in fact, the glass wall of her office, and looked down to the streets.
"This woman is weird," Walsh thought.
"They flow from street to street," she started. "At a particular speed and in a particular direction. Walk the block, wait for the signal, cross at the light. Over and over... So orderly... All day I can watch them and know with a great deal of certainty what they'll do at any given moment."
"This woman is nuts," Walsh thought.
"But they're not orderly, are they? Up close... Any individual. Who knows what they're gonna do?"
She paused for two seconds. "Any one of them might dash across the street at the wrong time and get hit by a car."
She turned towards him. "When you get up close, we never follow the rules. You give a computer a series of rules, and it will follow them till those rules are superseded by other rules, or that computer simply wears down and quits."
She sat down and crossed her legs. "Computers are obedient to a fault. Do you know what's extremely rare in the world of computers?"
Walsh shook his head and looked very sheepishly at her. He had no idea where this monologue was about to go.
She smiled mysteriously and stroke the top of the Turk like she was cleaning the dust from it. "Finding one... that'll cross against the light."
She looked into his eyes. "Thank you, Mr. Walsh."
He stood up immediately, being very glad that he could escape.
"Be careful out there," she said tellingly while he was heading towards the door.
He looked back briefly and left. "This woman is completely nuts," he thought while he was waiting for the elevator. "Might be a genius, but crazy." He couldn't explained why but she gave him the creeps all the time they met.
The elevator reached the ground floor and he stepped out. After a few steps, he suddenly stopped as the revelation hit him. "Weaver is not crazy. Whatever she does, she has a good reason for that. The reason might be weird for other people, but eventually, it always turns out that she is right. That's why she is one of the most successful CEO's in industry."
He continued thinking. "The hardware isn't worth seven hundred grand, that's for sure. So it should be the software. But what software is worth such a shitload of money which cannot be acquired in a legal way?"
Two patrolmen were standing in front of the partly destroyed safe house in Laurel Avenue making sure to keep out everybody. They were waiting for the Homicide cops and later for the technicians from the Forensics Department.
"There come the Homicide guys", the younger patrolman told to the older one who was called Officer Jackson.
The police car stopped in Laurel Avenue and two detectives got out of it flashing their shields. A tall man with short dark blond hair and a Latina looking woman who was at least one head shorter than the man. They were both extremely good looking just as they had stepped from the pages of a Vogue magazine. The man was handsome, slightly suntanned, muscular, blue eyes. The woman had beautiful black hair, cute face, olive green eyes, stunningly curved youthful figure, quite large breasts, and lovely skin. They looked very young and very healthy for Homicide cops.
Officer Jackson hated them on sight.
"Hello," the tall guy said, "we are from the Homicide Special Section. This is Camila Ruiz, and I'm Cedric Crawford." They both revealed a smile which would have been good enough for a toothpaste commercial. "What have we got here?"
"Aren't you too young for detectives?" Jackson asked.
Crawford looked at Ruiz. "Are we? Nah, I don't think so."
"I mean... no offense."
"None taken," Crawford said.
They just didn't wipe away that annoying grin from their faces. Crawford continued. "As I heard we have here a burnt car destroyed by a car bomb and two corpses found inside the house. And no victim in the car."
"Yeah, something like that," Jackson said. "Wanna see the corpses? They ain't too appetizing."
"Sure," Crawford said.
The younger cop raised the covers. The remains were frightful. Crawford suppressed a grimace. The smell was like a butcher shop. Ruiz didn't even wince.
"Please don't touch anything until the Forensics arrive," Jackson wrinkled his nose.
"Sure," Ruiz said. "I'm looking around, nonetheless."
"And I interrogate the neighbor," Crawford nodded and approached the woman who still had a shocked expression on her face.
"What the hell is going on in the HSS?" Jackson mumbled to the younger patrolman when the Homicide cops were out of hearing distance. "They hire part-time cops from model agencies?"
The younger cop gave him a strange look. "I have a friend working in the Homicide section. He says these two are the most capable cops in the group. They are almost geniuses."
"Genius my ass," Officer Jackson closed the discussion.
"Derek and I going back to the safe house," John told to Cameron. "Can you stand up?"
Cameron tried but her right leg collapsed again and she fell back to the chair.
"That doesn't look good," John said. "When we get back I heal you, I promise. But before we depart let's see your face."
He gently wiped the remaining dirt from her face. He placed his hands on her cheeks and felt her shivering and closing her eyes. He could tell that his touch was an extreme pleasure for her. He concentrated and her wounds disappeared almost in an instant.
"I'm relieved, it works on you as well not only on humans," John said smiling. "Now I need your abilities. Can you see us?"
He grabbed Derek's hand and they disappeared. Sarah and Charley just stared at the place where they were supposed to be.
Cameron looked surprised also. "I can see you," she said, "but only in infrared."
"And how about now?" John asked after a second.
"I can't now, not even in infrared," Cameron said.
"Good," John said and they went visibly again. "Now, we can go and collect everything we can. Basically, everything that survived the fire. Clothes, weapons, computers... and of course Vick's chip."
"John?" Cameron said. "Would you please check if my purple leather jacket survived the fire? And my CD collection and my portable music player?"
"Sure," John said, a little surprised.
"Oh, and don't worry about Vick's chip," she said, and took out the chip from her pocket. "After the visit of fake Sarkissian, that was always with me."
"Great, that was wise of you," John smiled. Then he put his hand on Derek's shoulder, closed his eyes and they disappeared.
Charley got a call and left promising that he would come back.
Cameron still looked miserable sitting on a chair, shaking, hugging her knees with both hands.
"I'm freezing," she said.
"How is that possible" Sarah asked. "It's quite warm in here. Besides, since when do your teeth chatter from the cold?"
"Since today, apparently," Cameron said, a little annoyed.
"I go and get you a blanket" Sarah stood up and went into the room connected to the kitchen, and soon returned with a bit worn-out blanket and wrapped it around the shivering Cameron whose lips had now a bit purplish color. She was staring at the Crucifix on the wall of the nave.
"Do you believe in the Resurrection?" she asked?
Sarah raised her eyebrow. "What?"
"The story of Jesus Christ. The Resurrection. Do you believe in it?"
"Would you, if you'd seen what I've seen?"
Cameron was thinking about it for a second.
"Faith isn't part of my programming."
"Yeah, well, I'm not sure it's part of mine either," Sarah said. Her look softened. "But what you did in the kitchen... I've seen what I've seen... The way you fought... I'm pretty sure it must have been damn hard. I think it's some kind of resurrection for you. You're different, you really are."
Cameron smiled at her gracefully.
"Tin Miss, may I ask you something? Why do you have a collection of CDs? I mean, do you really enjoy listening to music?"
"Yes, I do."
"But why the music player? Can't you just play the music internally from your... database or something?"
Cameron released a faint smile. "That's not the same, Sarah."
"Music is best when comes through my audio sensors. Something similar to how it works for you. I especially like classical music, like Chopin, Bach, Mozart, or Liszt. Most people now don't appreciate the beauty and harmony of classical music. I even tried to compose something similar, but was not pleased with the result..."
"What?" She asked when saw the bitter smile on Sarah's face.
"Nothing. Quite recently I just thought about that one important thing about machines that they cannot appreciate beauty. They cannot create art. If they ever learn these things they won't have to destroy us. They'll be us."
"But I'll never be human. Even John can't do anything about it with his special power. And I will never be good enough for him." Cameron said and started weeping again. Sitting next to her Sarah pulled her close with an awkward movement. Cameron hugged her back and rested her head on Sarah's shoulder. "I'm so tired" she said almost whispering.
"Then try to get some sleep. Or switch to maintenance. Or whatever."
"That would be nice," she said and closed her eyes, cuddled up to Sarah a bit closer. "Oh yeah, and I enjoy ballet dancing as well." she whispered.
"You might show us how to dance one day," Sarah said. "And yes, John is probably not the Blue Fairy with Turquoise Hair."
"You're referring to the story of Pinocchio."
"Yes. But one thing I learned not today, but it become perfectly clear for me today: it doesn't matter what material we are made from. The deeds and what's inside our heads, only those matter."
"But not everybody agrees with that," Cameron said.
"No," Sarah nodded. "Cameron, may I ask a personal question?" she asked after a short pause, a bit embarrassed.
"Sure."
"Because I never asked how close you are to... women. You know, biologically... like having sex, for example."
"Oh, I am fully functional as a woman. That means I'm capable of sex, I can even have orgasm. I can't have children, though," she added a bit sadly.
"It's my turn with questions." She raised her head. "If John chooses me eventually, do you approve of us as a couple?"
"Whatever happens it's up to you," Sarah shuffled. "What I think of it, is not important."
"Yes, it is. For me, that is. You are important to me and your opinion is also important."
"If you had asked this, say, this morning, I would have freaked out. Now, however, I think I'd approve. After all, for my superhuman son a superhuman girl fits better than an ordinary girl," she chuckled.
Cameron beamed at her. "You have no idea how much it means for me." She rested her head on Sarah's shoulder again.
"Now, do you mind if a go to maintenance mode for a few minutes?"
"Not at all," Sarah smiled.
She pulled the still shaking cyborg girl into an embrace. "God, that's weird," she thought to herself before falling asleep as well.
John and Derek reappeared in Laurel Avenue not far from the safe house. They were still invisible.
"Your mother told me that you'd killed Sarkissian," Derek said.
"I know what you're about to say," John said. "But Sarkissian was ready to kill us. He was about to pull the trigger and kill mom. Nobody gets away with that, I don't care who he is."
"No, John, what I wanna say... well, I'm a soldier. I was hardened in the future war. Apart from the machines, sometimes facing enemies that I could hardly call human beings. Killing them caused less remorse than killing rats for food. But sometimes I've got an itchy finger. When we were in the City Hall with Sarah I almost killed a guard. Your mother prevented me from doing that. But they were just guards, guarding City Hall, not henchmen of Skynet. After some time in war, it's just too easy to pull the trigger. I must admit that sometimes I acted just like a triple eight... I'm not saying this because I don't agree with what you did, just trying to warn you. Even though you are only 16, you are a soldier from now on, and to tell you the truth, you resemble a bit now your future self. You have an unprecedented power in your hands, so think twice before you pull the trigger. Or send your lightning bolts, or whatever."
John listened to him with high respect while he was talking. "Okay, Derek, I'll keep it in mind," he nodded finally.
Derek cast him a brief smile. "Okay, what are we doing now? There are two patrolmen near the house and I bet those two who are sitting in that car are detectives. It's gonna be pretty hard to get in."
"I hope not," John said. "Now, watch this."
He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, then opened them. Derek looked around with awe. Everything was frozen around them. A car in the street stopped suddenly. One of the police officers who walked around the house froze also with one of his legs in the air. Even a group of pigeons flying nearby stopped in the air with outstretched wings.
"Wow," he said. "Did you stop the time?"
"Exactly," John answered. "Now you can release my shoulder. We won't be recognized until I resume the time again."
They entered the house and immediately saw the shotgun on the floor that Sarah had dropped when they were attacked.
"We won't leave it here," John said. "That's Mom's favorite type of shotgun, by the way. The good old Remington 870 with folding stock." He lifted the Remington. "Could you hand me one of the duffel bags?"
"Why don't you use telekinesis?"
"Until I don't feel that I completely master my abilities I try not to use too many of them at a time. Besides, it's sometimes nice to have help," he smirked.
"Fine, there you are," Derek said. "Now I'm going from room to room and clean up every trace after us. No fingerprint can remain, nothing which could lead to us."
"Okay, meanwhile I'm looking around saving everything which hasn't been destroyed by the fire," John said.
For them about half an hour had passed, in reality, not a million of a second. John looked around a last time with a heavy heart. "Ready?" he asked Derek who nodded. John put his hand on the shoulder of his uncle and resumed the time while they went invisible. John closed his eyes and they reappeared in the church.
Sarah woke up. She realized with surprise that her sleep lasted not more than two minutes.
"You were quick," she said in a low voice.
"Hey, Sarah, you should've seen John, he was fantastic," Derek said with enthusiasm, however, Sarah gestured him to remain silent.
"Is she... sleeping?" John asked hardly believing his eyes.
"Sort of," Sarah whispered. "Kinda maintenance mode, I guess."
"I think it's hard to surprise me from now on," Derek said in a low voice. "We got what we could. Some smoke and water damage, but at least you don't have to start completely over."
"It wouldn't be the first time," Sarah said bitterly.
"I brought my laptop with me, but the other computers were damaged beyond repair, I'm afraid," John said.
Cameron opened her eyes.
"How do you feel?" John asked.
"Better," she said.
"Those are for you to feel even better," he smirked and showed her the CDs and her purple jacket.
She beamed at him. "Thank you, John," she said quietly. "Thank you so much."
"Father Bonilla," Cameron said a few minutes later when the priest appeared at the door, "Can I confess? Or would you hear me out?"
"Yes," Father Bonilla said. "But I can't give you absolution, you should know that."
"Just because she is not Catholic?", John asked.
"And maybe because she's not even human," Father Bonilla said smiling. "You still can't walk, can you?"
"No, but John will help," she said.
"Sure," John answered, and lifted her in his arms and carried her to the confessional just as she was as lightweight as a child.
When he left, Father Bonilla turned to her.
"I'm listening," he said simply.
Cameron gave a human sigh. "It all started in 1997," she started. "When a computer program called Skynet became self-aware and decided to destroy the world and eradicate the human race..."
She told him everything. Everything about Sarah, few things about Kyle Reese, not mentioning that he was John's father. She told the story of Uncle Bob, the T-1000 and Miles Dyson, how close humans were to the nuclear apocalypse. How she served in the future in TechCom and how she was sent back to protect the young John Connor. She told him that she loved John, and explained what had happened to her before she appeared in the church the first time. Father Bonilla didn't say or ask anything, he was just listening to her.
By the time she finished, Charley arrived back. John brought Cameron to a chair.
"Now, it's high time to fix you," John said. "Let's start with your chip. I know that you'd successfully isolated the Skynet code, but it is still there. I'm gonna make sure that it will disappear forever."
He put his hands on her head, closed his eyes and suddenly had the vivid feeling that he was inside her chip. He looked around making sure not to make any changes until he found the sector where the Skynet code was isolated. To his surprise, the rogue part was conscious and addressed him. Or at least he had the weird feeling that its words echoed in his mind.
"What you are doing is physically impossible," the Skynet code said.
"I know," John sent the message in response. "Before you ask, I don't know how am I capable of that. I just am."
"You are going to terminate me. I could try something to trick you, but it would be futile."
"You've got the point," John said and it gave him some kind of perverse pleasure to know that he would destroy something belonging to Skynet in the following moment. "Hasta la vista, baby," he said aloud.
He erased the Skynet code with his mental power feeling how it dissolved into nothing. He also felt how the damaged sector came alive and how Cameron reclaimed that. He carefully looked around to check for the remainder of some rogue codes but he found none. Instead, a warm feeling surrounded him indicating that he was done with the repair.
He left her chip with his conscious mind and their eyes met. Cameron gave him a genuinely warm smile.
"Thank you," she whispered and hugged him.
"You're welcome," John said feeling overcome by the moment. "Now, let's see your knee. For that, it's necessary to remove your trousers."
Cameron took off her trousers exposing her perfect legs. John touched her right knee and felt her getting goose bumps and heard her gasp as a response of his touch.
Abruptly, he became so horny that he felt almost overwhelmed by that. Knowing that she would notice his arousal to some extent didn't help him a bit. He took some deep breaths just to dissolve the disturbing feelings and to concentrate on his task. He also tried to conceal from the others the sudden bulge in his pants.
"OK, I think I've got it," he said. "Your kneecap is broken and the femur is somewhat displaced."
He could achieve an even better mental focus. He pointed his right index finger to her knee. A high pitched noise could be heard just as he was using a tooth-drill. The incision soon become larger and her metal joint was exposed. John placed his hand on her joint and closed his eyes. The displaced part moved back and the broken kneecap welded. Everyone looked at the process with awe.
"I guess, your knee is fine now," he said finally.
Cameron pulled up her trousers, stood, and started walking around while running self-diagnostic tests.
"A system warning alert appeared on my HUD," she said. "It says that I have a dent in the back of my skull."
"How did you get that?" John asked.
"After the explosion, I pulled out a piece of metal from my skull."
"And what did you do with it?"
"I threw it away quite far. Don't worry, I don't think anybody will find it."
"Okay," John said, "Now let me see the dent."
He carefully cut into her scalp, folded a part of it to one side to expose the dent in her skull, then placed his hand on it.
The dent disappeared and her skull was smooth again. He placed her scalp back, stroke her head gently for a couple of seconds until the mark of the incision was gone.
"Are you healed?" Sarah asked.
"Yes. My right knee joint works within optimal parameters. Moreover, its strength has increased by forty percent. That's amazing John! Can you increase the strength of my left knee as well?"
"Sure!" John said. He was glad that he had another opportunity to touch Cameron's leg, her unbelievably soft skin.
Cameron undressed again and John put his hands on her knee and hold them for a considerably longer time to cherish the feeling later. That was not unnoticed by Sarah, Derek, and Charley, as they also noticed Cameron's slight gasp, the light shiver and her facial expression of pure joy.
When it was over, she dressed up again and headed towards the main door.
"Where are you going?" John asked.
"I have something to arrange," she answered. "Don't worry, it won't take long." She looked at him. "I'll be back."
Charley stood up. "I'd better go home now."
Cameron stopped at the door. "No, stay here, please. Until I come back. You too, Father Bonilla."
Charley looked at her a bit puzzled, but sat down.
She returned 20 minutes later with a chocolate cake in her hand.
"Mission completed at last, after some delay," she smiled. "It's very frustrating for a cyborg failing a mission," she said.
She took a lighter, started igniting the candles and looked deeply into John's eyes. "Happy birthday, John."
The Homicide detectives were sitting in the car waiting for the Forensics guys.
"Camila," Crawford said, "you've found something haven't you?"
"Oh, yeah, I think I have," Ruiz said.
"Well? Will you show me?"
"As soon as that patrolman stops looking in our direction intensively," she said slightly nodding towards Officer Jackson. "Meanwhile, why don't you tell me what the neighbor said?"
"You're gonna find this interesting," he grinned. "She had contact quite rarely with them but she could describe them quite well. A teenage boy, a girl, same age, or a bit older, and a woman who seemed a bit young to have two kids. But they were good kids, she said, and she liked the mother too. A decent hardworking woman, she said."
"Hardworking... damn right," Camila chuckled.
"Do you think it's ... them?" Cedric asked.
"Oh yeah, I'm almost certain," she said.
"He's still gazing. What's his problem with us?"
"Who knows," Crawford shrugged. "Maybe that we are young and he is not so much... Or despite that, we are higher in rank... Or he just thinks it's so damn good to be a Homicide cop. Of course, that doesn't include the part finding a young woman in the crime scene with a hole in her head. And later telling the husband that the beloved wife and mother of two children will never make it to home."
"Are you referring to the Dembinski case?" Ruiz asked.
"Yeah, for instance. You know, which part I hate the most? When the victim's relative, after denying, first comprehends the tragedy. And starts understanding that his life is fucked up from that very moment. Just because his wife was in the wrong place at the wrong time. After all, who would expect that a junky starts shooting in a grocery shop just because he couldn't get his shit in time."
"Don't overthink that, hon," Camila said. "Or it will eat you up."
Cedric scoffed. "That's easy for you to say."
Camila hung her head then looked directly into his eyes.
"Is it?" she asked softly.
"No... It's not. I'm sorry."
"It's all right," she said and gently took his hand and felt a little pressure as he held her hand. "What if he knew that we are a couple?" she smirked.
"Well, he'd hate us more. Especially me."
They both giggled.
At last Officer Jackson gave up staring at them and turned towards the younger cop. "Now, check this out," Camila said.
She pulled out a plastic bag with a chunk of metal inside. "I found it in the bush, twenty yards away from the Jeep."
"I assume you have a pretty good reason why you don't want to show it to the Forensics guys," he said.
"Sure, Cedric, I do. Look at this blood stain."
"What should I look about it?"
"The color."
"Well, it's red," he chuckled.
Ruiz rolled her eyes. "Check the tone."
"Oh, why didn't you start with it? It's deep red."
"Jeez," she said smiling.
"Seriously," he said. "The reason I don't see what you see is because you are much better in this regard, you know what I mean, or because I'm just a heterosexual male who is not a decorator, and can only distinguish red from yellow."
"I think both."
"Oh, shut up," he laughed.
"By the way, to the best of my knowledge, homosexual males are not significantly better in this regard or different in any regard than heterosexual males. It's just a stereotype."
"Whatever. So, what's so special about this shade of dark red?" he asked.
"It's from blood without blood cells."
"What?"
"Artificial blood."
"Ah. OK, I get the picture. So the one who'd exploded with the car and just walked out after that was... was a terminator?"
"Exactly. Most likely it was Cameron."
Author's notes: I raised the amount a little what Mr. Walsh payed for the Turk on behalf of Catherine. Since it was offered for half a million at first to Sarah, before the blackmail, it is reasonable to assume that Catherine offered more, not only 300k. The Sarkissian gang might have gotten the idea later to sell the Turk to Weaver and blackmail the Connors.
Again, reviews are appreciated. If you find grammar flaws or any other flaws just let me know and I'll make a revision.