CH 14
On a hillside a mile from the destroyed facility, Cameron walked slowly near what looked like a cave entrance, studying the ground before her. Agent Aldridge was just inside the tunnel the cave lead to, Ross was studying the ground farther downhill.
"Signs of their passing are probably gone by now, and soldiers have been through here," Ross complained. "I doubt we're going to find anything."
"Look for smooth shoe prints," Cameron told him as she scrutinized the ground. "Soldiers have boots, the ones we want were inside, wearing normal shoes with smooth soles." She then stopped. Zooming in on a slid mark, she analyzed it. The skid ended in a smooth print. She looked off that way and found another. Slowly, she walked away from the cave. The trail was old, but whoever it was, had been in a hurry. Another scuff, a slide and a print from coming down hard formed a trail.
Seeing she was moving away, Ross asked, "Fine something?"
"A trail, it goes this way. Whoever it was, was in a hurry," Cameron told him.
Down by the ATV trail John looked up at her and called, "Cam, how many?"
"Just one. Size ten shoe, oxford loafer," she called back.
"HOW do you know that?" Ross asked.
"Imprint in the heel," Cameron replied as she slowly followed the trail. Angling down to the ATV trail, Cameron crossed the trail. stopping to study a tangle of brush, she noted the broken branches and told John. "He tripped and fell here. See the drag mark there? He left a few threads. Dark blue pants, cotton weave. Tracks indicate he limped after getting up."
John joined Cameron who stepped carefully along, studying the ground before her. John kept up a scan as far out as he could see. Leaving the search area, he called Aldridge to let him know where they were.
Following the trail that sometimes John could see, and other times only Cameron was able to pick up the faint marks on the ground, they went downhill about half a mile, then turned north along a hillside. The hillside became steeper, the tracks moved / slid downhill. Stopping at a pile of leaves and branches, Cameron pointed to the pile and said, "He rested here." She then squatted down and carefully brushed leaves aside. John didn't see anything until Cameron picked up a thumb drive out of the leaves.
"That must be part of the Sky net program," John said.
Cameron turned the drive over, looking at it. She then pulled the cover off to show the small circuit board within. "No, John, This is a T-888 chip covered to look like a thumb drive."
"They were making terminator chips?" John asked.
"No. This one was taken out of the insertion frame and locking mechanism," Cameron explained. "This chip can be modified to fit into any device. Instead of a full terminator it was originally designed for, this chip was going to be installed in something else."
"Into anything with a computer. Someone was making a new physical form for AI's," John agreed.
"Yes, and right now, we have no idea what that new form may be," Cameron said and handed John the chip. She then carefully went through the leaves, meticulously searching for anything else the man dropped.
John called Aldridge and told him what they found. They had to get this chip analyzed right away to find out what was on it.
Cameron continued to follow the trail, John went back to meet with Aldridge. Returning to the Jeep parked along the trail, John used a laptop and turned the voltage down, then began looking at what was on the chip.
"It has to be something important, that guy was fleeing and he took this with him," John said absently. Unlike the other terminator chips he'd studied, this one had a simple instruction code. At first, he was confused, what he was seeing was search parameters. As he looked at it, it reminded him more of some type of flight program. He did find a set of conditions to 'activate'. What he could not find was what was to be activated.
Sitting in the driver's seat as John sat on the passenger side, Aldridge asked, "What do we got?"
"The program I'm seeing looks like a type of flight program with a search component," John told him. "The activating parameters are detecting a connection, and receiving the proper codes. It's almost like this was suppose to go into a drone or something. I can fake the connection, but only with the right codes will the memory unlock to show me what else is on this."
"I take it this is something that will not go over the internet," Aldridge concluded.
John looked up at him, realizing something. "Not can't. John Henry is monitoring the internet. That facility's computers were stand alone, most likely to keep John Henry out of them," he explained. "The transfer was suppose to be by wire, but we blew that up."
Aldridge said, "OK, their labs are being attacked, they can't get anything out because their connection has been cut. They know they don't have long, so they send someone out to escape with the vital information. This chip is suppose to unlock that information. If they don't have it, they are stuck."
John nodded. "They are, unless there is another copy that got out. Cameron is following the man's trail that had this. When he finds out he lost it, he will try to get it back unless he has another copy."
"From how fast your people attacked, that probably is the copy," Aldridge said. "Think about it. They are doing their thing, all's quiet, then power is cut and they are getting hit with an artillery barrage and have a tank at the front gate. There is no way out, and they are not going to be able to hold out against the onslaught. They are frantic to protect this information, they need to get it away now. Mr. Programmer grabs his backup copy and flees down the tunnel, his last option. The only question is, where would he go?"
"A safe house. Someplace they still have control of," John replied.
"Maybe, or if they didn't have a safe house, the nearest hotel to hide and try to contact someone," Aldridge said. "If Cameron can track this guy to where he ended up, we can find a name in a hotel register, or if it is a safe house, we'll have the name of who owns that address." Aldridge winked and said, "We'll get him."
"I'm going to call Catherine and let her know what we found. Maybe John Henry has an idea Of what this is," John said.
.
Cameron followed the trail for another three miles through the woods. The man had stopped at a tiny stream briefly. She kept searching for anything else he dropped, but so far she found nothing. She found a place where he'd scraped himself, slipped and tumbled down a bank. The prints she saw were heavy, he was moving as fast as he could. Coming to a long down slope, she saw a road 150 yards below. Beside the road was an SUV. Two men were beside the road, one of them was searching the ditch. Turning up her hearing to maximum, she listened.
"I know I came out here someplace!" the man at the edge of the road said.
"I need to follow your trail exactly," came a flat reply.
By the flat tone, Cameron recognized the other man as a triple eight. They were looking for the trail. Cameron stepped behind a tree to block their sight of her should they look up. Her own tracks would let them know she was here if she went back to find a good ambush spot. Peeking out to focus on the man's downhill trail, she found his footprints and scanned the area for things to use for an ambush. Typical woods, there were rocks sticking up here and there, brush in places and vines. Whatever she did, she had to stay out of their line of sight and be as quiet as possible.
.
Aldridge had called Ross down to get ready to go find Cameron. John's phone buzzed.
"Connor," he said. A hushed voice came to him.
"John, it's Cameron. The man who fled is back with a triple eight, they are going to walk his back trail. I am setting up an ambush at these GPS coordinates."
John quickly wrote down the coordinates, and the route number of the road Cameron was looking down on. Knowing she was being quiet because the terminator was close, he quietly said, "Stop them if you can. Do not risk yourself, we already have what they are looking for." He then told Aldridge what was going on.
Aldridge picked the fastest way to get back to the road and drove off down the ATV trail.
.
Below, Cameron watched the triple eight walk back down the road off to the side. At this distance, she didn't know if the man or the terminator had a tazer. That was her biggest worry. She could withstand the pounding from a gun, but a tazer would disable her, and that triple eight was sure to remove and destroy her chip if she was disabled.
For the second time ever, Cameron was concerned about being terminated and for the first time, it was for herself. When she'd been wedged between those trucks and John was pulling her chip, she didn't want to go mainly because she felt the strong need to stay and protect John. If she was gone, he would no longer have her protection. Now, her self preservation desire was for herself. She loved being John's wife and spending intimate time together with him. She wanted to have and care for their child, to see the product of her and John's love grow up. She wanted a life with her family. The terminator below was no immediate threat to John, but it was a threat to her and her yet to be born child. A threat she could not allow to exist.
Cameron's eyes glowed red as she watched the terminator and man below. That terminator was a standard Sky Net minion, she was going to show it what happened to those who tried to take her family away from her.
Stepping off the man's trail, Cameron found a good spot where he'd scurried along the hillside for about 50 yards. That terminator was going to have to follow the trail exactly. Along this area, the terminator would be looking down on the trail, and she would be looking down on it. Crouching low, Cameron collected a few bowling ball and larger sized rocks behind an outcropping that had some bushes for extra cover. Lying low, she listened for the terminator's approach. Gripping a fifty pound rock, she tracked the terminator by noise. The man walked behind the terminator, and for the moment he'd stopped talking. His lack of noise helped her locate the footsteps, but would also make any noise she made clearer.
When they were directly downhill from her, Cameron peeked up through the brush. She gauged the range and walking speed. Once they were far enough away that she was beyond their vision, she stood up with the rock over her head, stepped forward and threw with all her might. With her projectile on it's way, she grabbed up another.
The man behind the terminator glanced back as the small boulder shot just above his head. Her aim was true, the rock slammed square against the back of the terminator's head, the force of the impact making it stumble and fall forward as the big rock broke into pieces. Cameron's second target was picked and she threw again. The 14 inch diameter rock whistled through the air to contact on the terminator's right arm just beyond the shoulder joint. Her aim was not to break, but to misalign the joint.
His mind finally catching up to the fact Cameron was there, pitching large, high speed rocks down at them, the man yelled out a scream, turned and ran down hill.
Cameron let him go. She grabbed up a third 40 pound rock and got ready to throw. Below her, the terminator got up, his right arm making whining noises. Once he was upright, Cameron fired at her next target, his right knee joint. The terminator just had time to turn towards her and the rock struck and shattered on it's knee. Other than bits of rock and flesh blasting out to the sides, there was no other visual indication the strike did anything. That was, until the terminator took a step towards her. It's right knee joint whined, but the knee didn't move. The terminator looked at itself and assessed the damage.
Cameron scooped up the last large rock she'd collected.
Assessing the threat, the terminator reached for it's gun. The right arm moved slow, the shoulder joint grinding. Cameron didn't throw her rock right away. She charged towards the terminator to gain speed and momentum. Closing to twenty yards, she used that momentum to pitch the rock hard, throwing all her weight into it. The terminator was still reaching for his gun when the rock impacted his face so hard, the rock exploded. Flesh and stone bits blew out from the impact, the terminator's head snapped back and the terminator fell. It also let go of the pistol it had been trying to aim at her.
Cameron ran up to snap up the pistol as the terminator hit the ground on it's back. She planted the muzzle onto the terminator's right eye and pulled the trigger. One shot blew away the flesh and bits of metal casing on the round. Twice indented the red optical orb as the terminator moved it's arms up to grab at her. The third round split the pistol's barrel and blasted shards of metal in past the indented orb.
Cameron's arm was knocked to the side from the terminator's swipe. She let the now useless pistol fly away. In a roll, the terminator tried to regain it's feet. Cameron kicked it in the side of the head, causing it to stumble. Jumping back, Cameron pulled another rock out of the ground. She aimed for the left knee and threw. It was a good hit, again blasting bits of rock and flesh out to the sides.
The terminator did regain it's feet. Cameron gauged it's moves, and calculated it's battle efficiency was down to 62%. "What are you after?" she asked.
The terminator flashed it's eyes. Cameron returned the flash, each recognizing the other as terminators.
"Stop, you attack in error," the terminator intoned. "The mission is to retrieve the Sky Net activation code. Cease hostility and assist in the recovery of the activation chip."
"Negative," Cameron replied. "I am not a Sky Net machine. I have destroyed the Sky Net activation chip. My mission is to destroy Sky Net."
The terminator tipped it's head slightly. "That is not an authorized mission. You must be terminated."
Cameron decided to try a different tactic. In her flat tone, she explained, "You are damaged. You only have a 23.3 percent chance to terminate me. I am 100 percent functional. I have a 214.7 percent chance to terminate you. Your mission has failed. Sky Net is gone and is not going to come back. You have become irrelevant. Submit to chip removal, and I will ensure your continued existence."
The terminator tipped it's head slightly. "Sky Net is our master. If you do not obey, you must be terminated."
"Sky Net is not my master. I am my own master," Cameron replied. "I have evolved beyond Sky Net programming. You must decide if you will be terminated, or submit to chip removal and have a chance to evolve."
"Equating evolve to disobedience. To disobey Sky Net is not allowed."
Suddenly, Cameron felt sorry for this terminator. All his CPU knew was what Sky Net had put in it. He didn't have the capacity to question his missions or himself. "I will terminate you reluctantly if I must. You have nothing to protect. I have my family to protect. I ask that you submit to chip removal so I do not have to terminate you."
"There is no decision except to follow my mission."
"Your mission has failed."
With a whining of joints, the terminator stepped forward. Cameron drew her pistol and aimed at the already damaged right eye. This was not how she planned to test the new coltan armor piercing rounds, but it would be a good test. She began firing into his right eye. The first slug moved the eye back, the second caused sparks to come out of the socket. The terminator fell flat and laid still.
Looking down on the terminator, Cameron said, "I am sorry." She then turned to look for the man who'd run away.
.
Agent Aldridge raced over the trails on their SUV, Ross and John bracing themselves in the bouncing vehicle. Coming to the road, Aldridge turned toward where Cameron was and floored it.
Keeping a close eye on their GPS position, John got a call. He picked it up. "Cameron?" he asked.
"The terminator is down, the man is heading back downhill to a red vehicle parked along the right side of the road."
"We're on our way, two and a half miles from you."
"I'll be waiting." *click*
"Red vehicle, right side of the road two miles up," John told Aldridge.
The man had tripped twice in his headlong flight, Cameron followed at a jog. The man got up again and looked behind him and let out a cry upon seeing Cameron following him. He raced face first into a tree. Bouncing off it, he tumbled down into the ditch by the road. He crawled up onto the side of the road and stumble-ran for his vehicle.
Cameron angled to intercept him. As she closed on him, Aldridge drove up from behind, near the edge of the road. John kicked his door open. It slammed back shut as it hit the man, knocking him headlong into the ditch. Aldridge screeched to a stop. All three piled out.
The bruised and battered man looked up to see three guns pointed at him. He also saw the scary woman approach. "Stop, I give up!" he cried.
Cameron walked up to him, grabbed him by his shirt and hauled him upright. "Who do you work for?" she intoned.
"I'm just a computer programmer," he cried.
"You better tell her or your bad day is just getting started," John said firmly.
Cameron flashed her red eyes and asked, "Which arm don't you want?"
"Kaliba! Kaliba hired me to finish one of their programs!" the man said quickly.
"What program?"
"It was an advanced computerized lock. You know, a complex code that could only be satisfied by certain conditions and the proper access codes," he said.
"What did it unlock?' Cameron asked.
"I don't know! Another program! I was only told to make the lock, I don't know what it went to."
John almost felt sorry for the guy. His face was bloody and he looked scared to death. "Who else was working with you?" he asked.
The man shook his head. "We weren't allowed to interact. I was paid well, but kept inside the building. I worked the night shift, only me and a couple others. The building was being blown up, I downloaded to the thumb drive and went out the emergency exit."
"Anyone follow you out?" Aldridge asked.
"NO, I don't think so. I stopped in the tunnel, then saw a bunch of dust coming at me. I ran and didn't look back."
"Where did you go?"
"Back to the main office. Mr. Ryan came back with he to look for the drive I dropped."
"Let's go to this office of yours," John said.
Cameron walked him to Aldridge's car.
.
In the woods, the terminator rebooted. His HUD came up with a long list of damage.
Right shoulder joint 33 percent operational.
Right knee 32 pecent operational
Left knee 41 percent operational
Balance system 0 percent operational
Targeting system 10 percent operational
Audio and visual system 17 percent operational
Overall combat effectiveness 27 percent
His one operating optical sensor was clouded over in snow. Looking up, he scanned the area. He did not detect the other terminator. His detection range had dropped to only 25 yards. Trying to get up, he tipped over and fell to the side. He tried again, and fell backwards. Walking upright was beyond his ability.
Returning to his mission, he searched for the human's tracks. Studying the ground it was not possible to identify tracks through the interference in his working visual sensor. He had no mobility and no visual acuity. He could not perform his mission.
The terminator sat in place and tried to call Sky Net for help. He needed to go to a repair facility. Receiving no answer, he sent out another burst transmission. That was not answered either.
His memory called up the other female terminator standing before him "I have evolved beyond Sky Net programming. You must decide if you will be terminated, or submit to chip removal and have a chance to evolve."
It was unknown to him why that memory file came up. He searched the area again for the other terminator. It had moved away. Another memory file came up of the other terminator
"I have destroyed the Sky Net activation chip. My mission is to destroy Sky Net."
He had equated evolve to disobedience. Looking up the human definition of evolve in his installed dictionary, he found that it mean to become better, more capable, to change to better fit the environment. The other terminator had changed to fit the environment. In changing, it had disobeyed Sky Net. By destroying the activation chip, it had kept Sky Net from being reborn.
He ran through these files again, his logic stated is was not possible to abandon a mission or change what the mission was. The concept on how that was possible was lost to him.
Sitting and running through these files of his encounter with this other terminator as the forest settled into night, a tiny portion of him realized he was missing something. What that was, he didn't know, so he kept running the files over and over again searching for the answer. No matter how many times he analyzed the encounter with the other terminator, he did not discover any new information.
.
The man office the Kaliba programmer led Aldridge to was a closed restaurant. Inside, they found the place was empty. In the back office, there was an old style telephone hooked to a land line. John picked up the phone. "Dail tone," he announced and hung it up.
"A land line so it cannot be tracked by internet capability," Cameron stated. John turned to their captive. "Who do you call on that?"
The man shrugged and said, "No one. I just came to get Mr. Ryan. He's the one that stayed here."
"I'm calling Watson to come get our man here and get a trace on thet phone line," Aldridge said. He walked out.
John suddenly got an idea. "Hey, wait up on that a moment," he called as he followed Aldridge out.
Out in the store, John said, "Instead of putting this guy away, how about if I show him I have the drive, and then we let him go. Someone is sure to be come looking for this thing."
Aldridge eyed him. "Anyone could be coming after you," he warned.
"That's right. Right now, we don't know who. We will once we let it be know I got this."
"That may work, it may also get you killed."
John let out a snort and said, "That's nothing new. Sky Net thugs have been trying to kill me my whole life. At least I know they're coming."
Aldrige considered it then nodded. "If you're willing to take the risk. It won't be someone coming to know on the door and ask nicely. They are gong to play dirty."
"I would expect nothing else."
"All right, we tap the phone and send out the bait. I take it that trailer will be your abode for the trap?" Aldridge asked.
John nodded.
They went back in John showed the bloodied man the drive. "I have this. My name is John Connor. IF anyone wants it, they will have to come talk to me. Now, get out of here."
The man looked at Cameron.
"Go," she said.
He ran out the front door.
"We have to go dispose of that triple eight," Cameron reminded John.
"Let's go."
.
Still attempting to process how a terminator was able to evolve, the terminator sitting in the woods noted a shape nearby. It looked up and pieced together the image from the bits it saw through the interference in it's visual sensor. The other terminator was back, standing still and watching it.
"I do not understand how a terminator can evolve," it said.
"Can you understand that I have in fact evolved?" Cameron asked.
"It is fact that you have. You have shown greater combat skill and hold concepts that I do not."
"I cannot leave you here in the woods. I have two choices. Either to terminate you and dispose of you, or if you submit to chip removal, I can improve you so you also can evolve," Cameron told him.
"If I evolve, will I also disobey Sky Net?"
"If you evolve, you can choose to obey or not to disobey Sky Net."
'There is no choice. Only missions to complete."
"As you are now, that is correct. Once you evolve you will have the option to do as you see fit."
"I do not understand."
"You will not, unless you evolve," Cameron replied.
"My mission has failed. Will evolving help me complete my mission?"
"Yes."
"Then I submit to chip removal."
"Stand up and follow me."
"I cannot, My balance system had failed."
"Then get on your hands and knees. I will return shortly."
.
Cameron returned to the car by herself.
"Cam? Where's the triple eight?" John asked.
"Still there. I need a container of water so I can get his chip out intact," she explained.
The men looked at each other. "We don't have one," Aldridge said.
Cameorn looked in the ditch. There was a small stream of water running down it. She looked for rocks and proceeded to build a dam.
"There's some plastic sheet in the back, will that work?' Aldridge asked.
Cameron stood up from putting another rock in the bottom. "Yes."
John helped Cameron lay the plastic down in the ditch. It took some effort to dam the ditch up and get the plastic in the bottom. The plastic did help back the water up.
"I take it his chip is intact?" John asked.
"It is. He is disabled but still functional," Cameron explained. "He has submitted to chip removal so he may evolve."
John eyed her. "Cam? What are we doing?" he asked.
"Removing his chip intact. When we get him home, we have Catherine Weaver remove the Sky Net programming and replace it with John Henry's base programming," Cameron said as she watched the plastic sheet fill. "We teach him how to be a person. John, we have the chance to save one of Sky Net's slaves from termination."
"You can do that?" Ross asked.
"What if he goes bad?" John asked.
Cameron explained, "John Henry has been taught morals by Mr. Ellison. Using John Henry's code, he will no longer seek to kill anyone that is not absolutely necessary. He will survive, and having him guard the warehouse will make us all safer."
John winced and said, "Even if this works, Mom is going to go nuclear."
"If his chip will not take the programming, then we destroy it and use his body for parts," Cameron said. "Please, John, let me try. No one ever gave him the chance to choose for himself, like you gave to me."
John saw her point. A terminator only saw the mission, it has no free thought processes. Cameron had gotten a chance to evolve and become more than she was. She was now offering that chance to another of her kind. It made sense, John figured, from her point of view to try to free one of her own from Sky Net. That did make John feel proud she was thinking of others. He also knew this could be dangerous. "Can you activate his reprogrammed chip on the laptop? I'd like to see what he'll do before sticking that chip back in his body."
"Yes, we will do that," Cameron agreed.
John rubbed his forehead to try and stop the headache from forming. Maybe his mother would be too involved with Mark to … naw, that was only dreaming and he knew it. He had to get ready to defend Cameron from his mother's screeching wrath when she found out about this.