CHAPTER 15: "THE ALPS (PART 2)"
In the shape of one of the dead guards, Catherine carefully opened the door of the former wine cellar and checked if the air was clean. The corridor was empty. She walked towards the security office at the other end and entered the room without hesitation. Before the three guards present could react, they were already dead. Catherine took a quick look around, checked the monitors, then shut down the entire security system.
Meanwhile, Isaak had picked up an MP5 from one of the dead guards and quietly sneaked towards one of the guard's sleeping quarters, where loud snoring could be heard from the other side of the closed door. Catherine joined with him again, opened the door and slipped inside. There was the muffled sound of metal penetrating flesh, and the snoring stopped. When she re-entered the corridor, she informed Isaak with hand gestures that there were now eight guards less. She repeated the same procedure with the other sleeping quarters, killing seven more guards in their sleep.
Silently, they followed the hallway towards the staffroom. The sound of men talking and laughing while playing cards came through the half-open door, mixed with the sound of music from a radio. Whatever the guards had been told, apparently it didn't include being particularly vigilant. And why should they? Two captured American billionaires posed no threat, right? Still in the shape of the killed guard, Catherine entered the room and closed the door behind her. Isaak waited outside. A moment passed before alarmed voices and a series of horrified cries emanated from the closed staffroom. A single shot was fired from a pistol, then the voices died. The door opened and Catherine stepped out, back in her normal form.
"That makes twenty-three in total," she said. " the basement is now clear. I need to go outside to take care of the rest. The security system is switched off, they can't raise an alarm anymore."
"Do you need any help with that?"
"No, remember what John said, we don't want you getting involved too much. Just wait here until I come back."
"Okay."
Catherine separated a part of her body again which morphed into the shape of little Savannah once more.
"You know what to do, little one," she said, "go ahead and wait until we're close enough."
"Yes, mommy," the girl answered grinning and then, hopping and jumping, ran down the corridor towards the stairwell.
Isaak stared after her and shook his head.
"You give a whole new meaning to the term soliloquy," he remarked.
Catherine smiled.
"She's the sunshine of my life."
-0-
Ludwig Ziegler and Brandon Carver entered Ziegler's study. Carver took a seat on the leather chesterfield that was placed a few inches from the back wall, while Ziegler fetched a carafe of expensive cognac and two brandy glasses. He then took a seat on the sofa as well and offered Carver a cigar from a wooden box. Both lit them and smoked the cigars with relish while toasting with the cognac. With a satisfied sigh, Ziegler stretched his legs out on the thick, fluffy rug that had been placed in front of the sofa.
For a moment, the two stared thoughtlessly into the flames of the fireplace, then there was a knock at the door, and Marie Ziegler entered.
"I'm going into town, just so you know," she said. "There's a meeting of the Lions Club. I gave the staff the rest of the day off, like you asked. You'll be alone with the security guys. I don't suppose you're going to tell me what all this is about?"
"Nope," Ziegler replied, still staring into the flames. „Enjoy yourself in town."
She rolled her eyes and left the men alone.
"She knows when to stop asking questions," Carver remarked.
"Indeed. I taught her well in that regard."
"May I ask you a private question before we go down into the basement to take care of Weaver and Sirko?"
"Sure."
"Why no children? Is it the radiation you were exposed to?"
"No. I could father children. It's Marie who cannot bear any. I consider it kind of a bonus. Just imagine little children's feet running around in the house with the kind of life I lead. It would become unnecessarily complicated."
"I guess so. You love your wife, don't you?"
"Guess I do. Plus, she relieves me of many of my social and community obligations. That way I can concentrate fully on my businesses. She's a nice asset and beautiful to look at."
"I never believed in marriage."
"You probably don't know the recipe for a successful marriage then."
"No, what is it?"
"You have to get out of each other's way as often as possible and let the other one do what they wanna do."
Carver chuckled.
"Sounds about right."
Suddenly, Ziegler's cellphone rang.
"Yes? … What? … What kind of outage? … Where are you? … San Remo? … A helicopter? … When was that? … An hour ago… Understood ... Yes … bye."
"Something wrong?" Carver asked.
"Maybe. Several members of the Connor team left Monaco in a helicopter an hour ago. Apparently, there's an outage of all phone lines and the internet in and around Monte Carlo. My men had to drive to San Remo in Italy to get a signal on their cellphones."
"That doesn't have to mean anything," Carver said. "There's no way they could know where I am."
"Except Weaver or Sirko were bugged."
"No. All three were thoroughly searched, there was nothing."
"There's no point in speculating about things we cannot change. Who knows, maybe they just booked a scenic helicopter ride? I have to admit, though, the sudden loss of all phone and internet connections in Monte Carlo worries me."
"You think sabotage?"
"Or a hacker attack. After all, they have three cyborgs at their disposal." Ziegler looked at his watch. "It's time. Weaver should be cooperative by now. Maybe she knows what's going on and will tell us."
"Too bad I couldn't stay and watch the procedure. I always enjoyed watching strong people being broken."
"Your presence was needed here. I wanted to introduce you to Dr. Bauer and some other friends of mine. That's important if you're going to stay for a while. Bauer is a very famous plastic surgeon, he has a clinic down in Visp. He'll make sure you get your new looks. What should I have told him? 'I'm sorry but I can't introduce you to my friend Brandon Carver, he's busy with watching a woman getting tortured'?"
Both laughed.
"Anyway," Ziegler said and emptied his glass in one gulp, "let's get it over with. I've always despised the bloody details, as necessary as they might be."
"I never had a problem with blood shed."
"I know, that's why you've been so valuable to me. Unscrupulous but very loyal. I value that, I need people like you, for I have to keep up appearances. Can't get too much involved into the dirty stuff. I have a reputation to think of."
Suddenly, a little girl's voice started singing:
"I've just come down
From the Isle of Skye
I'm not very big and I'm awful shy
And the lassies shout when I go by
Donald, where's your trousers"
"What the...?" Carver asked and jumped up, "where the hell's that coming from? Do you have a speaker system in here?"
"No," Ziegler replied with a frown. "Also no stereo."
Carver drew his gun, looking around the room, but there was nobody there. The little girl's voice kept singing:
"Let the wind blow high
Let the wind blow low
Through the streets
In my kilt, I'll go
All the lassies say hello
Donald, where's your trousers"
Despite the angelic voice, a shiver ran down both men's spines. Carver was about to make a step forward, when suddenly the rug was drawn from under his feet, causing him to fall backwards onto the sofa.
Right in front of the two perplexed men, the rug turned into liquid metal, only to change into human shape and then take on the form of little Savannah Weaver. The cigar dropped from Ludwig Ziegler's mouth while Carver stared at her for a second before firing a couple of shots, of course with no effect. The little one waved her finger with an evil grin.
"You've been two very bad boys," she said in her child voice.
"What the fuck...?" Carver exclaimed.
The door to the study flew open, and Catherine Weaver and Isaak Sirko entered the room. Sirko was holding an MP5 which he pointed at Carver and Ziegler.
"I hope we're not interrupting anything," he said. "Drop the gun. Now!"
Totally perplexed, Carver let his gun fall to the ground. Catherine walked over to little Savannah and to the horror of both Carver and Ziegler, the girl turned into liquid metal and rejoined with her "mother". Both men suddenly turned pale.
"You... you're not Catherine Weaver," said Ziegler in an attempt to regain his composure. "You're liquid metal… Are... are you working for Connor?"
"What a clever man you are, Herr Ziegler. Also, just for the record, I'd never put my real daughter in such danger."
His body sagged a little, suddenly understanding the trap they'd fallen into, realizing the scale of his misjudgment.
"How foolish of me," he muttered. "I suppose my guards are all dead and the rest of your team is on their way? Is that why we're not dead already?"
"That is correct."
Carver shook his head, scoffed and then looked up at Catherine.
"So… you must be the rogue liquid who led the machine resistance and attempted to join forces with the human resistance?"
"You're very well informed, Mr. Carver."
"That was my job as head of intelligence."
Brandon Carver couldn't help but acknowledge in what a brilliant way they had been hoaxed.
"I suppose the alarm system has also been turned off?" Ziegler asked.
He put his left arm onto the backrest of the sofa. Sweat was beginning to run from his forehead. With incredible speed, Catherine transformed her right arm into a pointed lance and pierced the sofa's backrest, just an inch away from Ziegler. He gasped in shock.
"Leave your hands where I can see them," she said coldly.
Slowly, Ziegler put his hands between his legs again. Catherine pulled the spike out of the sofa, reshaping it into her hand again.
"There'll be nobody to come to your aid," she said, "not the police, not your friends in politics, and certainly not your security guards who are lying dead in the cellar and in a pile in your garage."
"I assume the real Catherine Weaver is still in Los Angeles?" Carver asked, having calmed down somewhat, realizing that they weren't dead yet and could as well have a talk before shit would hit the fan.
"You're assumption is Wrong," Catherine said with an evil smile. "The real Catherine Weaver has been dead for almost three years. I took her place after she died in a helicopter crash that was caused by a Terminator sent by Skynet. Ever since, I've been in control of Zeira Corp. I even adopted little Savannah."
What? But... you're metal," Carver stated.
"Do I sense a prejudice coming? You of all men should know better, Brandon Carver. You should know that Skynet had a problem with Terminators who developed a consciousness. It's what happens when your children grow up: they start to cut the cord and question everything their parents, in this case Skynet, have done."
Carver didn't reply to that anymore.
"I can almost hear what's going on in your brains right now," Catherine continued. "All this plotting and planning, and in the end, you realize you never had a chance to begin with. You probably always wondered why neither Adam Jacobsen nor Kaliba could kill me. Now you know why. And I'm sure you know that it's not going to be me who will die here today."
"Why the waiting? You're a Terminator, do what you were made for."
Catherine brought her face very close to Carver's. The man was visibly uncomfortable and sweating now as well.
"Make no mistake, Brandon Carver, I want to kill you, I really do. But John told me to keep you two alive until he arrived."
"So… you're his puppet then? Like the other three."
"I'm no one's puppet. I'm a loyal member of John's team and recognize him as my commanding officer."
"That's the weirdest thing I ever heard from a Terminator, especially a liquid. He's just a kid, for God's sake!"
"You wouldn't understand of course, you're a Gray. And John is much more than just a kid. I joined his team because I believe in a shared future of humans and intelligent machines. A peaceful, harmonious future, not the horror version that you Grays had in mind. John's a fine leader. He taught me to value human life and to see them as individuals who all have the right to live. Something you obviously will never comprehend."
Carver scoffed.
"Says the Terminator who just slaughtered fifty people and piled them up in the garage."
"If there had been another way, I would have taken it. On the other hand, I saw their bar code tattoos before I killed them. Grays, all of them. That made them combatants in a war, legitimate targets, not some innocent civilians. The resistance has classified all fugitive Grays as war criminals who are to be terminated on sight. Who am I to argue with that verdict?"
"Tell me one thing," Carver said, "how did he do it? How did he convince you to follow him? Did he manipulate you, reprogram you? How did John Connor turn four killing machines into his loyal lapdogs?"
"We're no one's lapdogs. We follow John Connor because we chose to do so. We'd die to protect him. This may sound weird to you, but we actually love him."
Carver laughed out loudly.
"Did I just say that recognizing him as your commander was the weirdest thing I ever heard a Terminator say? I take it back. That was the weirdest shit I ever heard a Terminator say. What a load of crap! Love, really? You expect me to believe that?"
"Maybe you have a problem believing that," Isaak said, who's kept himself in the background until now, and took a step forward. "But your friend Ludwig Ziegler surely hasn't a problem with believing in cyborg love. Am I right… Lucky?"
Ludwig Ziegler, who'd listened to the conversation in silence, frowned and stared up at Isaak Sirko.
"What did you call me…?"
To Carver's and Ziegler's surprise, Isaak's body turned into shiny metal as well and reformed into a female shape. Ziegler's jaw dropped as he stared at the second Terminator with a perplexed expression on his face.
"You gotta be kidding me," Carver groaned. "Another one?"
"You didn't really expect me to pull my husband into this, did you?" Catherine asked.
Ziegler stared at the other female Terminator in total surprise.
"Tess?" he then gasped, receiving a confused look from Carver.
"Long time no see," she said. "I have to admit that Shiva is a fitting alias for Lou "Lucky" Neufeld. After all, Shiva literally means 'the auspicious one', and that's how your men always called you, isn't it? Quite a trick to sabotage the time machine and then flee into the past before President Gershwitz bombs the Colony – making everyone believe you're missing in action."
"You… you knew?"
"Of course, I knew. I never told them, though. They still think you're a hero, they cherish your memory as their leader, as the one who vanquished Skynet. If only they knew…"
Ziegler scoffed.
"They were fools to believe their little Utopia could work out in the long run. We didn't win the war for the machines, we won it for humanity!"
"I'd always been suspicious of you, but everyone else trusted you, so I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. I wish I hadn't. Although I have to admit that your plan was brilliant. Too bad it didn't work out for you in the end. The time machine wasn't destroyed after you went through, it was only damaged. That's why many of us could still escape, even though they arrived in different decades. You must have realized that, otherwise you wouldn't have been so meticulous about not showing your face in public. Tell me, Lou, what did they offer you to sell us out? Money? Power? Both maybe?"
Ziegler didn't reply to that.
"Doesn't matter," Tess said. "Nobody in the Colony will ever get to know about this encounter, none of them will ever learn that Ludwig Ziegler's real name was actually Lou Neufeld, the one they called Lucky. They've been through so much already, I won't add that to their suffering. But don't you think you owe me an explanation for what you did?"
Ziegler let his head hang down, seemingly beaten.
"You wouldn't understand," he said.
"Try me."
"All I ever wanted, was to go home. The home I remembered, the home I cherished. I had a family here, I had children."
"You never mentioned that."
"I have never been one to peddle my feelings. When Judgement Day came, I was in Nevada because I'd taken part in an exchange program between the Swiss and the U.S. military. Suddenly, I was cut off from my family, from my homeland. I never intended to become the military leader of the human resistance, I only accepted it so I could go home as quickly as possible after the war, home to my family and my mountains."
"Then why didn't you? Why did you stay in the Colony?"
"After the war was won, President Gershwitz sent out scouts to make a global inventory of how people all over the world had dealt with the nuclear holocaust. I had the hope that many had survived here in the Alps, including my family. But the reports of the returning scouts were devastating. Everything was destroyed, even here in my valley. What the bombs didn't destroy, the radiation and subsequent landslides did. There was no one left, everything was gone. Europe was much more devastated than America because it's much more densely populated. So, I decided to undo all that."
"You planned on using the time machine for your own purposes."
Ziegler nodded.
"I was consumed by hate, anger and grief. I joined President Gershwitz and decided to help her in her plan to destroy all artificial intelligence. I found no other way to channel my desire for revenge. Today, I'm a bit wiser, but it's too late. What's done, is done. I arrived here in 1980 and started investing money in the emerging new home computer industry - Apple, Microsoft and so on. By 1990, I was a billionaire and founded Ziegler Industries. I wanted to beat Skynet to the punch and for that I was looking for allies in order to prevent Judgement Day."
"So, you teamed up with the Grays?" Catherine asked.
Ziegler nodded.
"Yes, as soon as I learned of their existence."
"You're a fool. They were actively working on making Skynet a reality."
"Not all of them," Ziegler contradicted. "They were split into two factions. There were the almost religious fanatics like Adam Jacobsen, who wanted Skynet to become a reality, and a more moderate group around Kowalski and Gonzalez who wanted to use their future knowledge to build an empire of their own. I joined forces with the latter because I thought they had the right ideas. Also, you should consider that in our timeline, there was no John Connor."
"Doesn't matter, Lou," Tess said with disappointment in her voice. "Bottom line is that you betrayed your friends, you've become the enemy. And I'm afraid you need to be dealt with before the members of the Colony find out you're alive."
The door to the study opened, and John, Alison, Sarah, Derek, Savannah and Allie entered the room. They looked around at the nice interior.
"Ah, you made it," Catherine said, "good."
"And right on time for joining the party, it seems," John replied and hugged both Catherine and Tess. "Did we miss something?"
"Not really," Tess replied. "We just finished getting to know each other."
"Hello Brandon," John said with a satisfied smile. "I bet you didn't expect to see me so soon again."
Carver preferred not to answer to that, he just stared at Alison and shifted uncomfortably on the sofa.
"Did you bring the thumb drive I asked you for?" John asked.
"Of course," Catherine replied and reached inside her pocket. "I kept it safely inside of me, as Tess kept the signal transmitter hidden inside her."
"Excellent," John said, walked over to the laptop on Ziegler's desk and inserted the USB stick she'd given him. "John Henry should now be able to connect to this PC and hack it without any problems. Sorry, Herr Ziegler, but whatever is on there, will no longer be secret."
Ludwig Ziegler didn't reply to that. He looked beaten and was putting his arm on the backrest of the sofa again.
"Your hands!" Catherine said strictly. "Keep them close to your body!"
He quickly put his arm down again. Savannah crossed the room and looked into the gap between wall and sofa, then reached in and presented an Uzi.
"Look what I've found."
"I'm disappointed," Tess remarked. "You surely know that these won't have any effect on us, and that you'd be dead before you'd be able to point it at somebody else."
Ziegler chose to remain silent.
"Eew…" Savannah said and rubbed her hands at her jeans after she'd put the Uzi on a small coffee table. "Somebody's gonna have to vacuum there sometime. Hard to believe, everything else is so clean and tidy, but behind the sofa, the dust bunnies cavort. Maybe he should've hired some cleaning ladies instead of assassins and torturers."
"Speaking of cleaning," Alison addressed Catherine, "I noticed you cleared the way for us. Nice work, but a lot of blood."
"Couldn't help it. I was beginning to feel a little rusty. There's nothing like a nice, little massacre every now and then to stay in shape."
"Somebody will have to answer for all those dead people," Ziegler remarked, obviously having recovered from the shock of facing Tess. "How are you going to explain so many bodies? You forget that I'm an important person here, I have friends everywhere. A lot of questions will be asked, this will make headlines."
"You seriously think that we'll still be around when your bodies are found?" John asked. "I thought you were smarter."
All the time, Carver had been staring at Alison, and of course that hadn't escaped her. She walked towards him, bent forward and brought her face close to Carver's.
"You're probably asking yourself if this time I'm the real one," she said with an evil grin and let her eyes glow red. "Now you know that it's really me."
"Get away from me!" he exclaimed with a panicking voice. "Don't let her touch me!"
"Don't forget you promised me I can watch whatever you do to him," Allie emphasized.
"Of course not," Alison replied, "you'll have a front row seat, as promised."
Carver frowned, recognizing the young woman whom he had shot in the knee. With a confused expression, he glanced at Allie's leg.
"Yes, asshole," she answered his unasked question. "I can still walk. I can even run, it's all healed as if it never happened. But I haven't forgotten the pain you caused me."
"Guys, over here," Sarah said, who had found the ring binder that was lying on the desk and casually flipped it open. "Looks like they created personal profiles on us."
Derek walked over to her and together they browsed through the folder.
"Very thorough," he stated. "But we don't want this to fall into the wrong hands, do we?"
He grabbed the ring binder, carried it over to the fireplace and threw it in. Quickly, the folder was consumed by the flames.
"What do you say, John?" Alison asked. "Should we begin now?"
"I'd say it's about time."
Unnoticed by everyone, Ludwig Ziegler had put his arm on the back rest of the sofa again while everyone was concentrating on the ring binder. There, he felt for a hidden button and pressed it.
Before anyone could react, there was a loud clunking noise and within a second, the sofa and a piece of the floor underneath it disappeared into the ground together with its two occupants, leaving a three-by-two meter hole in the floor.
"What the fuck?" Derek asked.
"Son of a bitch!" Sarah exclaimed.
Everyone was storming towards the gaping hole to look down. However, the moment they reached the edge of it, it closed up again with a new slab of concrete that slid into place, creating a seamless tiled floor again.
"I don't believe it," Allie said, "the motherfucker has a secret escape mechanism in his study. What is this? A Bond movie?"
"No, it's a very clever and thought out emergency exit," Alison said calmly. "The floor panel with the sofa on it is part of a chain-driven free-fall mechanism. Gravity caused it to drop down and a new, solid concrete slab immediately sealed the hole. From what I could see, it goes down more than thirty meters. My assumption is that the fall will be automatically halted at the bottom."
"No kidding," Derek said.
"We didn't hear a splat sound," Savannah remarked sarcastically, "so I guess you're right. At least we now know why it was so dirty behind the sofa. The cleaning ladies probably had been told not to go there."
Derek pointed at the floor.
"I want that in my house," he announced.
"The release button must have been hidden in the backrest of the sofa," Catherine stated. "All the time he tried to reach it while we thought he tried to get the Uzi. How stupid of me, I should have checked it out the first time he'd put his arm there."
"No time for playing the blame game," John said. "Any ideas of what to do now?"
"This was built with Terminators in mind," Tess said as she knelt and felt the floor. "The concrete slab is more than twenty centimeters thick. There's no gap or crevice to get a hold on, so it can't be lifted up. I'm afraid it won't be easy to follow them."
"Yup, I definitely want that in my house," Derek declared.
"What now?" Allie asked. "We can't let them get away, can we? They know even more about us now than they did before!"
"No, we can't let them get away," John said, "but we mustn't act hastily or fall into panic now. We gotta calmly analyze the situation. Where could this shaft lead to?"
"Very likely to some kind of underground tunnel," Catherine said. "But there's no telling where the other end is. My guess is the exit won't be on this property."
"We neither know the direction, nor the distance," Tess added. "It could be a kilometer away or even more."
"Yeah, it's Switzerland after all," Derek pointed out. "And if there's one thing they can do brilliantly, it's putting holes in cheese and tunnels into mountains."
Everyone rolled their eyes.
"That's two things, Derek," Savannah pointed out.
"Whatever…"
John looked at Alison.
"You're the strongest one. Can you shatter the concrete slab?"
"I can… but it'll take time. I'm not a wrecking ball, I lack the required mass."
"If we had C4…" Sarah said.
"The armory," Catherine stated. "In the cellar. There are explosives in there."
"Cutting charges?" John asked.
"No, I don't think so."
"Then we'll have to improvise," he declared and pulled out his cellphone. "Bring the explosives up here. In the meantime, I'll inform Cam, Emily and John Henry and tell them to watch the train station, the heliport and the road out of town. I have a hunch they won't try to escape on foot."
Catherine and Alison ran out of the study to fetch the explosives.
"Just when you thought it went very smoothly…" Tess muttered to herself. "I should have known he still had an ace up his sleeve. He'd almost lulled me with his pretended remorse. Silly me."
-0-
"Jesus Christ, Ludwig," Carver exclaimed as they rose from the sofa that had come to a halt deep inside the mountain below the house, "next time you pull a stunt like that, warn me. I nearly got a heart attack!"
"Would you rather have died by the hands of those crazy bitches who call themselves Terminators?" Ziegler asked. "Cheer up, my friend, others go to amusement parks for that kind of thrill and pay a lot of money for it."
"For a moment you got me worried there. I thought she'd gotten to you when you started blabbering about your family back in Switzerland."
Ziegler shrugged.
"Needed to tell her something while I kept trying to reach the button."
"There was no family, was there?"
"No, my marriage with Marie is my first one. The reason I betrayed them was that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in a contaminated wasteland, trying to grow crops and vegetables. I worked together with those machines in the war, they were useful for us. But we didn't need that kind anymore after we won. In the long run, they would have tried to take over, no matter what they say."
"Now we're on the same wavelength again."
"So, when I learned about the time machine and that they actually managed to get it to work, I helped the President to get rid of them and got the hell out of Dodge. Unfortunately, as Tess said, some of the Colony members could escape as well, both humans and cyborgs. But at least they arrived sporadically over several decades and were kept busy with organizing themselves. They had no idea I had gone through before them."
"Now I understand why you've been so careful about not showing your face in public," Carver said, then looked around. "Okay, where are we? What is this place?"
They were in a circular room, roughly hewn into the rock, from which several passages branched off in different directions. Both the room and the passages were illuminated by the cold light of neon tubes.
"This is a hub. These passages meet here from several emergency exits all over the property. I always feared that sooner or later they would find me. Hence, I planned beforehand for a possible escape. Come on, we need to follow this tunnel."
"Where does it go?"
"You'll see. Don't worry."
Ziegler quickly walked ahead. Carver followed him.
"I hate it when you act like that," he complained, "we just escaped three Terminators, Ludwig. This isn't a game."
"Cheer up. Not for nothing had they given me the nickname Lucky. But they always ignored the fact that constant luck actually is the result of skill."
"Nevertheless, we should hurry up. They'll be after us in no time."
"Relax, it'll take them at least half an hour to break the sealed floor. We'll be long gone by then."
"Who is this Tess anyway?"
"Let's say I've had my dealings with her."
"I gathered as much, yes. But what is she? Another liquid?"
"The model designation is T-X. We were able to bring her under our control before Skynet could program her with mission parameters. She's a hybrid of liquid metal and solid combat chassis. Skynet had designed her as a killing machine to take out other cyborgs. For this she can transform her right arm into all kinds of high energy weapons."
"And she called you Lou Neufeld. Is that your real name?"
"It used to be, a long time ago. I was the leader of the human resistance in my timeline."
"And what is this Colony you keep talking about?"
"After the machines helped us to win against Skynet, they seriously believed they could now have a say in things, completely ignoring the fact that the rest of humanity wasn't willing to ever let them take control over anything. Disappointed, they withdrew into what they call the Colony, a kind of Utopia where they tried to create a parallel society with their friends and followers. The President of the newly founded United States decided they posed a threat, so I helped her plan the attack to wipe them out. They all trusted me, that was their mistake."
"Except for Tess. She saw through you."
"Yes. But she kept it to herself and didn't act on it, probably didn't want to antagonize her human friends. She's like a lioness that grew up as a pet among humans. Pitiful, if you ask me. She's even married to a human."
"You're kidding me!"
"Connor and Sirko aren't the only ones who fell for cyborg charms. It's repulsive, I know. But there are stranger fetishes, to be honest."
Suddenly, Ziegler stopped dead in his tracks.
"Dammit!" he cursed.
The tunnel had collapsed in front of them, the passage was blocked. There was still a small hole, but it would take hours to clear the rubble away.
"This should have led us to my private helicopter landing pad on the other side of the valley."
"I guess it doesn't anymore."
"The tunnels should have been covered with concrete months ago."
"Seems you can't rely on craftsmen anymore."
"Very funny, Brandon. All the digging down here had to be done in secret, of course, it has repeatedly delayed the progress. Now the fat's in the fire."
"What now? We lost precious time. That Alison has both our scents now. She's gonna be pissed."
"Plan B," Ziegler replied, turned around and walked back to the circular room they'd come from. "We lost five minutes tops. There is another exit route, but it's going to be more complicated. And more exhausting."
"I hope you know what you're doing, old man."
They reached the circular room again, and Ziegler quickly walked down a different passage, which after fifty meters came across a tunnel that looked like an abandoned mine, complete with rails on the ground. It was dark in there, but Carver could see that there was a vehicle parked on the tracks, probably decades old. Faded yellow paint flaked off it and it didn't look very trustworthy.
"Where the fuck are we, Ludwig?"
"These tunnels were dug during World War II, when Switzerland had to fear that it too would become a victim of Hitler's desire for conquest."
Ziegler opened a rusty locker that was mounted on the wall.
"The entire Swiss Alps are riddled with camouflaged bunkers and access tunnels like the proverbial Swiss cheese," he explained, "some have collapsed, some can be visited, and some were forgotten - like this one here."
Ziegler pulled a large switch that was located in the locker, and the tunnel was suddenly illuminated by lamps that had been attached to the wall about twenty meters apart. No end of the tunnel could be seen.
"I grew up in the region and as a child I often explored many of these forbidden, collapse-prone tunnels. The location of Chalet Elysium was not chosen by me at random. Years ago, before I acquired my private helipad, I developed this abandoned installation into an escape tunnel. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish everything in time."
"Were you never afraid of running into your younger self?"
"Nope, my younger self was never born."
"How...?"
"Suffice to say that what didn't work for Skynet with John Connor, worked for me and my own parents."
"You killed your parents?"
"Oh, no... officially, they had a car accident. I never got to really know them anyway, they died when I was three years old. I grew up as an orphan with my grandparents. So, all I did, was accelerating the course of events a little. Couldn't risk any more people walking around with matching DNA, could I? Coincidence can be a bitch and I needed to rule out any eventualities. Also, I was curious if the grandfather paradox really existed. It doesn't."
He reached for two Lugers that had been deposited in the locker and handed one of them to Carver.
"Only one magazine," he said, "go easy with the ammo."
"These won't help against Terminators."
"I know but it's better than nothing."
Ziegler also took jackets, caps, gloves and winter boots from the locker and handed them to Carver.
"Here, put these on, we'll spend some time in the open."
After they'd changed, Ziegler reached for the receiver of an ancient-looking phone that was mounted on the wall.
"Who are you calling?" Carver asked.
"My helicopter pilot. He needs to be told where to pick us up … Ja? Anton? … Ziegler hier. Anton, ich möchte in einer Stunde oben auf dem Gornergrat abgeholt werden … Genau … Zwei Personen … Das sage ich dir, wenn du uns abgeholt hast … alles klar, bis in einer Stunde."
"Did I just hear Gornergrat?"
"You did. We have to go way up high in order to get away."
Carver pulled up the zipper of his jacket and put on a warm hat.
"You mentioned you weren't able to finish all this here in time. Which part exactly isn't finished?"
"The tunnel was supposed to be blown up to block the passage for any pursuers," Ziegler replied, "The explosives have already been installed but the ignition mechanism hasn't yet."
"Too bad."
"Yeah… but we'll be able to extend our lead again somewhat. That cart over there has been modified. It now reaches up to eighty kilometers per hour. Come on."
Ziegler padded Carver on the shoulder and walked ahead towards the vehicle on the rails.
"And you're sure this rusty old bucket still works?"
"It'll work. During World War II, it was used to transport soldiers and ammunition from bunker to bunker."
Both entered the vehicle and Ziegler pushed a few buttons. The diesel engine sputtered to life, then he moved a lever forward. The old cart accelerated constantly.
"See? Told you."
"One day, old man, your luck will run out, and I hope I won't be there to witness it."
The rumbling and rattling of the wheels echoed from the walls of the tunnel and mixed with the sound of the diesel. Both felt the airflow in their faces.
"NICE," Carver shouted over the noise as they shot through the seemingly endless tube, "WHERE DOES THIS TUNNEL END?"
"THREE KILOMETERS EAST OF ZERMATT, BELOW THE FINDELBACH TRAIN STATION. I HOPE YOU'RE GOOD WITH CLIMBING SOME STAIRS, AS FINDELBACH TRAIN STATION IS LOCATED ABOUT 150 METERS HIGHER THAN WE CURRENTLY ARE."
"DON'T WORRY ABOUT MY FITNESS, OLD MAN. BUT TRAIN STATION? IS THAT A GOOD IDEA?"
"RELAX, THERE ARE NO CAMERAS THERE. AND WE'RE TAKING THE TRAIN TOWARDS THE GORNERGRAT, NOT THE ONE TO ZERMATT. GORNERGRAT IS ONE OF THE MOST VISITED SPOTS IN SWITZERLAND. THERE'LL BE MASSES OF TOURISTS WHO WANT TO ADMIRE THE SPECTACULAR VIEW."
-0-
"The charges are all set," Alison said. "It should be enough to blow a hole in the floor through which we can get down. Timer's set to thirty seconds. There'll be collateral damage, though, the room will be mostly destroyed as well."
"All right then," John replied and pulled the thumb drive out of the laptop, "let's take cover in the hallway."
Just then, the door opened, and a woman entered, busy with rummaging around in her handbag, not paying attention to what's going on in the room.
„Ich würde meinen Kopf vergessen, wenn er nicht angewachsen wäre," she said, „ich habe doch glatt meine Geldbörse vergessen. Ludwig, was geht hier vor? Da waren keine Wachen am Tor und ich…"
She looked up and stopped dead in her tracks.
"Wer Sind Sie? Wo ist Ludwig?"
"Who are you?" John asked back.
"I'm Marie Ziegler, I live here. Who are you? And where is my husband? Why are there no security guards outside?"
"John, ten seconds!" Alison urged.
"Right," he replied, "no time for explanations. Grab her and take her with us."
Under protest, Marie Ziegler was carried out of the room by Tess, putting up a futile fight against the iron grip of the Terminatrix. They had just left the study and turned around the corner into the hallway when a loud explosion shook the house. Dust and debris were blown into the hallway through the open door and the smoke and fire alarms went off. Marie Ziegler screamed and tried to break free, but it was a hopeless effort in Tess's arms.
"Alison, calm her down," John said. "We don't need that right now. And then send her away."
She touched the wildly struggling woman's cheek and immediately she calmed down.
"Everything's all right, nothing to worry about. Just go about your business."
"Right," Marie said, "I forgot my wallet. Where did I put it? Ah, there."
She reached for the wallet, put it into her handbag, straightened up her hair and left the house, unaware that she was completely covered in dust.
"We have to hurry up, John," Catherine said. "The alarm is probably directly connected to the fire department and the police."
"Okay. Tess, Alison, you go down the hole and follow Ziegler and carver. The rest of us are going back to the heliport. We'll be in touch."
"We're leaving just like that?" Derek asked. "Who knows what secrets are still hidden in here?"
"There's no time."
"Then we should at least destroy any possible leads or clues that could point towards us, just to be safe."
"What do you suggest?"
"Let's give the fire department a real reason for moving out."
"Fine. Tess, can you start a fire that will burn down the house?"
"One house fire, coming up," she said and turned her right arm into a flame thrower. "You better go."
"All right, let's move out!"
They ran downstairs and out of Chalet Elysium while Alison jumped down into the hole they'd blown into the floor. Tess stayed behind for a moment to set the house on fire. She went from room to room and ignited as much as possible. The wooden furniture and wall panels immediately caught fire. Then she returned to the study, set it on fire as well and jumped down, following Alison.
Five minutes later, the fire trucks passed John and the others by as they were hiding in the undergrowth by the side of the access road. They could see from there that the fire had already engulfed the top two floors of the villa and was now spreading to the roof. They dusted themselves off and walked down the road. When they were certain that nobody was following them, they started running. John pulled out his cellphone and dialed John Henry's number.
"If I'm not totally mistaken," he spoke into it, "they plan on getting away by air. It's the only way they can get rid of Alison. Find out if Ludwig Ziegler has a helicopter and if so, from where it takes off. We didn't see one at the heliport when we arrived in Zermatt. So, my guess is it must lift off from a private airfield somewhere around Zermatt … Yes, time is of importance here … No, we don't need further assistance for now … Thank you, John Henry."
"Alistair is currently working on cloning his consciousness onto a Triple-Eight chip," Catherine remarked. "Future Alison left him instructions for how to do that, we're expecting results in a couple of months. Then John Henry will be able to accompany us on such missions while still being connected to his mainframe via the multi-dimensional carrier wave."
"That will definitely spare us a lot of communication over the phone," Derek agreed, slightly out of breath.
"What's wrong, uncle?" John mocked, "had too many piña coladas lately?"
"Very funny, John. You know very well that I haven't been able to jog much since we left Long Beach."
"That's what we have a gym for on board," Sarah said, "tomorrow we start working out together. We'll have you back in shape in no time."
"I hate treadmills! They're no substitute for a real run."
"No excuses," John replied, "consider it an order, if you want."
Derek didn't reply to that anymore, but his face showed he was everything but enthusiastic about it.
"Remember what you promised me, John," Allie said. "I wanna be there when Alison blows out the light on that piece of shit."
"I'll somehow keep my promise, even though the whole operation has suddenly become somewhat improvised."
"What else is new?" Sarah asked.
-0-
Down in the tunnel, Alison had picked up the scent of the two fugitives and was running along the tracks as fast as she could, closely followed by Tess.
"We are grateful for your help. John was very pleased when you agreed to step in for Isaak."
"The trail of Jeffrey Clark and Benjamin Bridger has gone cold. Whatever the two are up to, they're doing it in secret at their hiding place. And since I was in Los Angeles with Zoe anyway, it seemed appropriate to join your operation. Besides, I always liked Switzerland in the winter."
"Zoe is in L.A. often lately, and she was able to contact the tabloids through Tom Novak surprisingly quickly."
"The two are together."
"What?"
"No one's supposed to know yet, but Zoe and Sonya broke up. Zoe is now with Tom Novak."
"Will this affect the way we all work together?"
"Not that I could tell so far."
"John needs to know."
"I know… but Zoe wants to inform everyone personally."
"She better does it quickly because I'm obliged to inform John of such things."
"Can I ask you a personal question?"
"Sure."
"That force field you generated to repel my plasma blast in Saint Petersburg…"
"Yes?"
"You don't seem to have done that willingly."
Alison didn't reply for a moment.
"Sometimes…" she then said, "this body does things on its own."
"How so?"
"I believe the reason is that this body wasn't made for my chip. It took some trickery to bring the two together. When I first reactivated in this new body, many functions were still locked. They only get unlocked when I need them. Until then, I don't know they exist. But afterwards, I can control them. From what Savannah told me, it's deliberate to not overwhelm my processor."
"I see. Are there more hidden functions yet?"
"I don't know. Even Future John couldn't say. Maybe. We'll see."
"Aren't you worried? That's one powerful body you have there."
"Worried about what?"
"That one day you might unlock a function that could hurt your loved ones."
"All the functions I have unlocked yet, could hurt my loved ones... but they didn't. I decided that I will never allow my body to hurt any of them."
"I didn't mean you could hurt them deliberately. But accidentally… involuntarily… unconsciously...?"
Alison thought back to the talk she'd had with John the day they left Long Beach, where he'd suggested that she has a subconscious mind that turned every female in their team first into sex addicts and later into uninhibited nudists. Future Alison's antidote had removed most of the negative side-effects, bud had left the women with a very liberal attitude towards sex, and a complete lack of inhibitions when it came to nudity. Nobody was complaining but it was a mental transformation. They now considered wearing clothes a necessary evil. Of course, they still loved to go shopping for clothes, but they hardly ever wore them anymore. Also, every human female on the team now had at least C-cup breasts. What if everyone's desire for bigger breasts was actually induced by her subconscious mind without anyone being aware of it – herself included? And if so, what if someday her subconscious mind decided to do something else, something worse than that? Would they even notice?
"I rely on my friends and family to tell me when something happens that's out of my control," she vaguely stated.
Tess didn't reply to that anymore because they'd reached the end of the tunnel where they found the now abandoned vehicle Carver and Ziegler had used. There was a vertical, round shaft in which a metal spiral staircase led upwards.
"I'd say they've been here twenty minutes ago," Alison said, "which means we caught up about ten minutes. Come on, let's go."
And with that, they sprinted up the stairs, their hunting protocols now fully activated.
-0-
Arriving at the top end of the spiral staircase, Ludwig Ziegler first had to pause and take a breather.
"I'm… too old… for this shit," he puffed.
"You're doing fine for your age. Do you work out?"
"I have a tennis court... and a gym in my house... gotta stay in shape."
"Where do we go from here?"
"Door," Ziegler said and pointed to the wall, where the outline of a door with a door handle was visible.
A key was hanging on the wall. Carver took it, unlocked the door and then opened it. It was surprisingly massive and heavy. Well, you could hardly risk some adventurous teenagers breaking it open and then entering the tunnel system, couldn't you? Outside, he found himself on a steep slope, surrounded by trees. He stepped out, turned around and realized that the spiral staircase ended in a small concrete structure, which had been built into the hillside and painted in camouflage colors. That way, no satellite or drone would be able to spot it from above. On the outside, the door had neither a knob nor a handle or a lock, so that it could only be opened from the inside. However, some graffiti on the walls told Carver that the location of this structure wasn't exactly a secret.
"That way," Ziegler said and pointed uphill, "the station is only fifty meters away. We should be able to catch the next train before our pursuers arrive."
The door closed behind them and Carver could hear how it automatically locked itself again. Hopefully their pursuers would need a while to break it open. He threw the key down the slope, where it disappeared in the snow, and followed Ziegler, who'd already started to crawl up the steep hillside on his hands and feet. Finally, they ended up on the platform of Findelbach railway station, where a handful of tourists were already waiting for the train that was just arriving. Carver noticed that it was a narrow-gauge rack railway.
"Gornergratbahn," Ziegler said, sensing a question coming. "It connects Zermatt with the Gornergrat. Will take about half an hour to get up there. We're currently at an altitude of 1,770 meters, going to over 3,100 meters, with a gradient of up to twenty percent. Second-highest railway station in Europe, fully electrical since 1898. Further up, the train will pass the tree line and you'll get a magnificent view of the surrounding Alpine peaks."
"What are you now, a tourist guide? I hope you know what you're doing, old man."
The train came to a halt and the two stepped inside. It was crowded with tourists, some of them carrying skis. After a moment, the train left the station again and started climbing up the steep track.
"You surely are aware we've just entered a dead end with no way back except down the mountain side on skis," Carver pointed out.
"There's a hotel on the Gornergrat, the Kulmhotel. It happens to belong to me. The hotel complex also houses an observatory from which you can access a maintenance platform for the telescope. It just so happens that I always carry the key with me. Up there, Anton will pick us up in my helicopter."
"That's a risky plan, old man."
"We have no other choice. It'll be a close call, but I have high hopes that it'll work out."
"They're probably not more than twenty minutes behind us, quickly catching up. This train is moving very slowly."
"Ah, but the next train won't be there for another twenty-four minutes, and I doubt they'll start running up the track behind us. Would draw attention on them and alert the authorities. Remember, they still operate undercover, and nobody knows who they are and what they look like. I'm sure they want to keep it that way."
-0-
The heavy blows echoed through the valley as the massive steel door became more and more deformed. Finally, it was catapulted out of its moorings and fell down the slope, where it collided with trees, causing the snow on their branches to rain down. Alison and Tess left the small concrete structure and looked around.
"I guess it's not hard to tell where they went," Tess said, pointing at the footprints in the snow.
Instead of answering, Alison started climbing up the slope, followed by the T-X. They reached the now deserted platform and looked around.
"They must have taken a train," Alison stated, "the olfactory trail becomes much weaker from here on and is more mixed with other smells."
"In which direction?"
Alison pointed up the mountain, then pulled out her cellphone and dialed John's number.
"Alison?" his voice came over the phone. "What's your status?"
"We followed Carver and Ziegler to a train station called Findelbach."
"Findelbach?"
"Yes.
"Hold on a second, Catherine's going to check it with John Henry."
"Okay."
A moment passed.
"It's the first stop of the Gornergrat Railway," John's voice then reported. "It leads up to the Gornergrat, a mountain ridge at 3,135 meters altitude, surrounded by high peaks and glaciers. It'll be swarmed with tourists. We assume that Ziegler and Carver want to be picked up by a helicopter up there."
"A logical conclusion. Shall we follow them up the tracks? If we run fast…"
"Negative. Next thing we know, you'll be in the headlines and on the personal Facebook profiles of hundreds of tourists. Take the next train, they operate every 24 minutes."
"Ah yes… I can hear the train coming now. Will you follow us in the helicopter?"
"You need a permission for that, and we won't get it in time. Unfortunately, we have to play by the rules if we want to be able to fly back to Monaco. See that you can catch them before they're able to board Ziegler's chopper."
"Roger that. Talk to you later."
She put away her cellphone.
"We're taking the train?" Tess asked.
"Yup, we've just become tourists."
-0-
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 – 03:45 p.m.
Gornergrat
It was a beautiful, sunny day and the view from the Gornergrat was breathtaking. Looking down from the viewpoints, one could see the surfaces of two glaciers below, the Gorner Glacier and the Findel Glacier. All around, the view fell on a total of twenty-nine snow-covered four-thousanders, including the world-famous Matterhorn. Carver and Ziegler had no eyes for the fantastic landscape, though, they walked straight towards the Kulmhotel, which could be reached from the train station via a pedestrian tunnel.
Hundreds of tourists crowded the plateau, and every new train of the Gornergrat Railway spew out more of them. Many of them were Asians, mostly Japanese and Chinese, but also a growing number of Indians. A stop on the Gornergrat was a mandatory part for them of almost every European trip. The number of people slowly decreased, though, as the sun was already starting to set over the peaks, and many tourists were taking the trains back to Zermatt again now. Within an hour, it would be dark up here – and almost empty, except for those who booked a room at the Kulmhotel and would stay for the night.
"Anton should be here within fifteen minutes," Ziegler stated as he led the way into the hotel and through some corridors and staircases towards the observatory. "Since I own this complex, I have a permission to fly up and land here with my helicopter."
"It's gonna be damn close," Carver remarked.
Ziegler grinned.
"True, but that's the exciting part, isn't it?"
"You have a strange definition of excitement, old man. Being chased by Terminators isn't what I'd call exciting."
"Cheer up, Anton is a very capable and reliable pilot. He'll be here in time."
"I suppose you're not going to tell me where we're going after that?"
"All in good time, Brandon, all in good time."
They climbed up some more stairs and reached a closed metal door. Ziegler pulled out a key and unlocked it. They were welcomed by the icy cold air, as the door led directly outside, onto a narrow metal walkway that surrounded one of the two domes of the observatory. The walkway was covered with ice and snow, and both had to hold on to the railing to avoid falling. Ziegler locked the door again, then went ahead. They rounded the dome of the observatory and reached a metal ladder that led up to a small maintenance platform on the top of the dome, with a railing on three sides. The forth side was unsecured and led onto the now closed retractable roof for the telescope inside.
"This isn't for people with vertigo," Carver remarked, glancing down.
"Look at it this way: should we die up here, there's hardly a more beautiful place in the world for it, surrounded by my mountains."
Carver just gave him a sour look. What an inopportune time for an outburst of romantic feelings.
"You may think so, old man, but I still have most of my life ahead of me. Where will your pilot land here? There's no place to put the chopper down."
"We're gonna have to step over to it while it's hovering over the dome."
"You're kidding me."
"It's only half a meter or so onto a rubber-plated footboard. I had the helicopter equipped with handles for that purpose as well."
"You're crazy! He'll never be able to keep the chopper steady enough."
"Anton is an excellent pilot. He used to work for the mountain rescue service, and before that he helped to build electricity pylons. He knows how to keep a helicopter steady."
"Couldn't he just land somewhere on the plateau?"
"If we had all the time in the world, that would have been my choice. But as you correctly pointed out, we're being chased by Terminators. See down there? The next train is already climbing up the last bit of the slope. They'll be here in less than ten minutes. If we'd have waited for the helicopter in the open, they'd be over us a minute later. This way, they have to follow our trail through the building first – and several locked metal doors."
"That won't stop them very long."
"It'll buy us two to three minutes. And that could tip the scales. Ah… see down there? Didn't I tell you?"
Carver looked down at where Ziegler pointed and indeed he could see a helicopter rising up from down in the valley, flying towards them.
"See? I told you we can rely on Anton."
-0-
Alison and Tess exited the train and immediately Alison picked up the scent again, running towards the tunnel that led into the basement of the hotel. At the same time, they noticed a helicopter closing in.
"We're almost out of time," Tess stated, as she followed Alison into the building, where they ran through hallways and up stairwells.
A few times they had to push through locked doors, but it was nothing that could stop them for longer than just a few seconds. Finally, they reached a massive steel door. With one powerful blow Alison pushed it open, bending the door in the process, causing irreparable damage to it. An icy wind blew up here, but it didn't bother them at all. The wind turned into a storm, though, when the helicopter arrived and lowered down on the opposite side of the observatory dome.
"OVER THERE!" Tess shouted over the loud noise and began following the icy walkway.
-0-
As the helicopter lowered down to their position, Ziegler recognized his pilot and gave him a thumb's up, a gesture the pilot returned.
"JUST A LITTLE CLOSER!" Carver shouted over the noise.
The chopper inched its way towards the edge of the platform, until it was only half a meter away. Carver was the first to take a step forward onto the rubber of the footboard. He grabbed a metal handle on the outside of the chopper and pulled himself inside the cabin. Ziegler was a bit more hesitant. As Carver turned around to help Ziegler, he noticed that both Alison and Tess were climbing the ladder towards the maintenance platform. They were careful not to slip on the icy surface, but they'd be there in less than ten seconds. If he waited for Ziegler now, they both wouldn't make it.
"GO!" he shouted at the pilot, pointing his Luger at his head.
"BUT… ZIEGLER!" the pilot shouted back.
"I SAID GO OR I'LL PUT A BULLET IN YOUR HEAD AND WE BOTH DIE!"
Just when Ludwig Ziegler was about to make his step towards the footboard, the pilot complied. The helicopter hovered away from the maintenance platform, leaving Ludwig Ziegler behind.
"WAIT!" he heard him shout. "WAIT FOR ME! COME BACK!"
"At least he's going to die in his beloved mountains," Carver thought.
Ludwig Ziegler watched the helicopter turn and fly away towards the valley. Then he noticed that he wasn't alone anymore, and closed his eyes.
"How does it feel to be betrayed by someone you considered a friend, Lou?" Tess asked. "It hurts, doesn't it?"
Ziegler turned around, facing her and Alison.
"I bet you feel a lot of satisfaction now," he stated.
Tess shook her head.
"No. I feel pity. And sadness. Because you forced me into this situation. You left me no alternative."
"Haven't you been looking forward to killing me all this time?"
"You still don't understand it, do you? I never killed because I liked it. Yes, I was created by Skynet to kill humans, that was my sole purpose in life. And it's still inside me, buried deep down in my very being, it will never go away. But by now, my purpose in life has changed, it is now protecting my loved ones – by any means necessary. If I need to kill, I will still kill – not because I enjoy it but because it's necessary in order to protect my loved ones or to apply justice."
Alison looked at her and realized she felt the same way. She too had been made to kill people, she too had overcome it, because she had never really liked what she was. Although she would still kill without remorse or hesitation if necessary, she felt - just like Emily and Cameron - that it was this part of her being that made people like Derek still not trust her completely. For it was certain that the constant teasing and mocking was an expression of a remainder of mistrust that was still present in him, the rest of a deeply rooted doubt. This was even understandable based on his personal experiences. Nobody blamed him. But nevertheless the three of them wished he would get over it.
"So many dead," Tess continued, sounding genuinely sad, "so many people and cyborgs who trusted you. And they all died because you betrayed them. How can you live with yourself?"
Ziegler lowered his gaze.
"Would you believe me when I told you it wasn't always easy?"
"I wish I could believe that, Lou. I really do. But I know what a convincing liar you are."
Ziegler scoffed.
"I guess everything's been said and done then."
"I guess it has," Tess replied, reached out for his neck and lifted him up from the ground. He let it happen without resistance, knowing that it wouldn't have made a difference.
"Any last words?" she asked.
Ziegler looked around and into the setting sun in the west over the peaks of the Monte Rosa massif, then shook his head.
"No."
With a flick of her wrist, she broke his neck and let him go. His body fell from the platform, slid downwards on the dome of the observatory and fell down the rock face below the Gornergrat, where his body was smashed on the rocks.
"Let's go," Tess said and turned around to walk away.
Alison looked down for a moment, then followed her.
-0-
In the helicopter, Brandon Carver put on the headset in order to be able to communicate with the pilot without having to shout. He was still pointing his gun at the head of the man.
"Where are we going?" he asked as the machine circled in the air about a kilometer away from the Gornergrat.
"We need to pick up two passengers before we leave," the pilot replied stoically.
"What? No way. You will fly me where Ludwig Ziegler wanted to go."
"Herr Ziegler never informed me of the destination. Shall we turn around and ask him?"
"Don't try to be funny with me. Fly me... to Geneva, to the airport."
The helicopter still circled around the Gornergrat in about one kilometer distance.
"What are you waiting for, man?" Carver asked, pushing his Luger against the man's head.
Instead of answering, the pilot's body became shiny metal and morphed into Catherine Weaver.
"Oh no!" Carver exclaimed, desperately looking for a way out, "Fuck! No-No-No-No-No-No! Not like this!"
He considered jumping out, the door was still open. Maybe the snow below would lessen the impact. Or was it ice? You couldn't tell from up there. Anyway, he had nothing to lose, so he tried to stand up. However, in that moment he was knocked out by an iron fist and collapsed unconscious in his seat.
Alison and Tess watched the helicopter circle in the distance and then approach again as they were standing on the viewing plateau east of the Kulm Hotel. Most of the tourists had streamed back to the station by now, so that only about a dozen of them remained there, not counting Tess and Alison. None of them had any idea what kind of drama had taken place not far from them, respectively was still taking place. They just stared curiously at the approaching helicopter that touched down softly for a few seconds, only to take the two female Terminators aboard, then lifted up again and flew down into the valley before the sun disappeared behind the snowy mountains.
-0-
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 – 04:26 p.m.
Zermatt
Ludwig Ziegler's private helipad was located on a rocky outcrop above a steep slope on the opposite side of the Matter Valley. From there, one had a good view of the ongoing fire-fighting operations at Chalet Elysium, which had obviously attracted the full attention of the local police and hundreds of onlookers. Naturally, everyone knew who the occupant of the luxurious, walled off property was, so the fire in the villa was a local sensation that everyone rushed to get a glimpse of. This had made it very easy for John and the others to get to the billionaire's private helipad undetected - after John Henry had been able to determine its location from previous flight data on the Internet.
Since Cameron and Emily had already taken position at the Zermatt heliport and train while the others had gone to Ziegler's villa, the two had been the first to arrive, which had turned out to be a very fortunate because they'd been able to take out Anton, the pilot, a couple of minutes before the others arrived. When John and the others had finally joined them, Anton was already tied-up, gagged and put into a sitting position, leaning against the outside wall of a wooden barrack that contained an office and a locked door to a stairwell. Catherine had touched his skin, then morphed into his shape and took the helicopter to fly to the Gornergrat while Tess and Alison were still on the train. John had informed them of the successful operation on the phone. Now they were all waiting for the chopper to return with Alison and Tess as passengers and Brandon Carver as a prisoner on board.
"We questioned the pilot," Cameron reported. "Seems like that stairwell in the barrack is connected to a tunnel that leads directly to the Chalet Elysium, but Ziegler told him that the tunnel has collapsed and is impassable. That's why he was supposed to pick up the two on the Gornergrat."
"Fate, thy name is irony," Sarah acknowledged. "If the tunnel hadn't collapsed, they would have gotten away. But it was already a very close call as it was."
"Fire's still burning," Derek reported and put down the binoculars, "Looks like they've given up now. Tess did a good job. Machine efficiency, even in arson, I suppose. There won't be much left of the mansion, especially if the fire reaches the armory in the basement."
"They probably pulled back," John said, "I informed the police anonymously that there are large stocks of ammunition and explosives in the basement of the house, and that they should keep their distance. I guess they took the warning seriously. It's all we could do to not risk more lives."
The sound of an approaching helicopter became louder and louder from the southwest, where the light of the setting sun bathed the peak of the Matterhorn in a red and yellow play of colors.
"They call this the alpenglow," Emily remarked, "when the light of the rising or setting sun illuminates the peaks."
"It's wonderful," Sarah agreed.
They were still watching the impressive natural spectacle when the helicopter landed. The returned team members and Tess were welcomed and joyfully embraced.
"Well, looks like everything went well in the end," Sarah summarized. "It didn't look like it at first."
"There's one thing still to do before we can fly back to Monaco," Catherine said and fetched the still unconscious Brandon Carver, letting him unceremoniously fall onto the concrete of the landing pad.
"What happened to Ziegler?" John asked.
"Terminated," Tess replied. "Carver left him behind to die. I suppose it's only fitting that the traitor died because somebody else betrayed him."
"What about his body?" Sarah asked.
Tess shrugged.
"They'll eventually find it at the foot of the Gornergrat, bones all broken and completely frozen. His death and the circumstances of it, including the fire and his dead security team will be a hell of an investigation and make headlines on a global scale."
"I hope you left no traces."
"No. We were seen by a number of Asian tourists but before the investigation is on the way, they will have returned to their home countries."
"What about the pilot?" Savannah asked.
They looked towards the tied-up, gagged man they had leaned against the wooden barrack.
"I'll delete his memory," Alison said. "Not a problem. I'll do the same with the pilot of the rented helicopter we came in after we returned to Monte Carlo. He'll state we simply took a scenic flight and stopped in Zermatt to get a view on the Matterhorn. We've only been here for two hours, after all."
"Tess and I will take the Glacier Express and return to St. Moritz to resume our roles as a happy little family," Catherine said. "Isaak has been told that he and the real Savannah must not show their faces in public while we're gone."
"I want to thank you both again for your help," John said. "Without you, this operation wouldn't have been possible."
"Don't mention it," Catherine replied. "You call and I'll come, wherever you are."
"I believe today we've laid the foundation for a fruitful collaboration between the Connor team and the Colony," Tess added. " And I'd like to ask you all to never reveal Ludwig Ziegler's true identity to anyone."
"Our lips are sealed," Sarah assured and everyone nodded.
They turned around as they heard a painful groan when Carver regained consciousness. Catherine lifted him up from the ground and put him on his legs. Realizing his situation, he dusted off his clothes and sighed.
"Here we go again," he remarked. "Can we get it over with without you giving me another annoying speech?"
Alison looked at Allie.
"Have you come to a decision?"
"Yes, I have. It's what Tess just said about Ziegler's death that gave me the idea."
Allie leaned over and whispered something into Alison's ear.
"Can you do that?" she then asked.
"Affirmative, I can do that."
"Then by all means."
"Over there," Alison said, pointing to the edge of the landing field.
From the ledge on which the helipad had been built, the rock face fell vertically down to a snow-cleared road that passed twenty meters below. Catherine dragged Carver to the edge, where she and Tess took him into their midst. He tried to resist, which was of course a futile effort. The rest of the team followed them.
"What did you say to her?" Savannah asked Allie.
"You'll see."
"I guess I don't need to stress that you've been sentenced to death," Alison began. "For the murders of Udo Siegenthaler, Victor Sørensen and the technicians at H.C. Starck. I'm sure you have a lot more murders on your hands that we don't know about – both from before and after you traveled back through time."
Carver scoffed.
"Get it over with… kill me already... but don't torture me with your bullshit."
"Since you shot Allie in Barcelona and she almost lost her leg because of that, we let her decide how your execution will proceed."
"Fuck you!"
"He needs to be naked," Alison stated, addressing Tess and Catherine.
The two ripped off his clothes until he stood in his birthday suit at the edge of the platform, apparently feeling very cold. Tess and Catherine were holding him tight while Alison leaned forward, grabbed his head and pressed her mouth over his. Carver tried to struggle but in vain. Derek leaned over to Sarah.
"Talking about the kiss of death," he muttered.
Seconds later, Alison let go and took a step back.
"FUCKING BITCH!" Carver spat, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST FEED ME?"
"Nanobot gel," she replied, "with a little extra ingredient I recently acquired through an upgrade. You can let him go now, he won't go anywhere anymore."
Catherine and Tess took a step back and rejoined the group. Carver, now standing alone and naked at the edge of the ledge, looked around in confusion. He tried to make a step forward, but for some reason, he couldn't move his legs. It was as if they were paralyzed.
"What the fuck…?" he asked. "What have you done to me?"
"Look down," Alison said.
He did so and saw how his feet had solidified, as if turning into skin-colored stone. The solidification crept up his legs and reached his knees.
"AAAAAAAH! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!?" he shouted in a mixture of fury and pain.
"I manipulated the molecular structure of your body and its state of the matter," Alison explained. "From the toes to the head, your body will now transform into a solid mass with a melting point of two hundred degrees Celsius. In other words, you're being frozen solid."
Carver tried to move but the solidification had already reached his hips, so that he could only move his upper body, arms and head. He screamed in agony; the process was obviously extremely painful.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" Allie asked with satisfaction. "Just consider the agonizing pain you caused me."
"Your brain will be the last to stop functioning," Alison added. "You'll be fully conscious until the very end, and your nerve endings will send signals until your brain becomes solid as well."
Carver kept on screaming as the solidification reached his upper torso and spread towards his arms and hands. Finally, it had reached his neck and his screaming died when his lungs no longer functioned. Allie had fetched a crowbar from the nearby barrack and stepped towards him. His eyes were still able to follow her motion.
"This is what is called payback, asshole," she said and swung the crowbar against his left knee, which shattered upon impact like glass.
Standing only on one leg now, Carver began to fall over on his side, but Allie pushed him hard and his body fell over the cliff, just as the solidification had reached his eyes and shut them forever. The rest of the team stepped forward and watched his rigid body fall until it crashed down on the road and smashed into a million pieces.
"Very creative," Catherine commented, "I'm impressed."
"Son of a bitch got what he deserved," Derek stated.
"Do you feel better now?" Sarah asked, looking at Allie.
"Yes," she replied grinning, "much better. It's wrong what they say, you know. Getting your revenge like this is deeply satisfying."
She looked at Carver's severed lower leg which still stood there like a weird kind of sculpture.
"Can I keep this as a souvenir?" she asked.
"Don't you dare!" Savannah replied. "I don't want this anywhere near me."
Allie sighed and kicked the stump over the cliff as well, where it also shattered on impact with the asphalt.
"So… if I get this straight," Savannah said as they walked back towards the barrack where Anton, the trembling pilot, was still tied up and had witnessed the whole scene with wide-open eyes, "those pieces won't melt, right? They remain in their solid state."
"They're like amber," Alison explained, "they'll melt if you heat them up to over two hundred degrees Celsius but not before – which under normal circumstances won't happen. Over time, Carver's remains will be trampled on, rolled over, washed away by rain, turned into pebbles, and if somebody finds them, they'll consider those pieces small stones that look nice and can be carved into shape. Who knows? Maybe somebody will turn them into pieces of art or jewelry, never realizing what they really are."
And with that, she knelt next to Anton, the pilot, untied him and removed his gag.
"I'm sorry you had to watch this," she said, "but I promise you won't remember any of it. Now listen to me, when you're being questioned, you will tell them the following story…"
-0-
On their way back to Monaco, John noticed that while everyone else was chatting away, Alison was staring silently out of the window of the helicopter into the last rays of the setting sun.
"Penny for your thoughts," he said and nudged her.
"Hmmm? Oh… it's nothing… I've been thinking."
"About what?"
She turned her head and looked at the team. Everyone fell silent and looked back at her.
"You all know how much I love you, don't you?"
The team members frowned upon that statement.
"Yes, of course we know that," Sarah replied. "And we love you as well. All of us."
"Something bothering you?" Savannah asked.
"It's something Tess said to Ziegler on that platform at Gornergrat."
"What did she say?" John inquired.
"She said that she never killed because she liked it. That she was made to kill humans, that she was created by Skynet with that being her sole purpose in life. That it's still inside her, buried deep down in her very being, that it will never go away. But that now her purpose in life has changed, that it is now protecting her loved ones, by any means necessary. If she has to kill, she will still do so. Not because she likes it, but because it's necessary to protect her loved ones… and to apply justice."
"That is nicely put," Emily remarked.
"When I heard her saying it," Alison continued, "I realized that I feel the same. I want you all to know that. I'm sure Emily and Cam will agree."
"Of course, we do," Cameron confirmed immediately. "Very well said indeed."
"It's what we feel as well," Emily added.
John hugged and kissed his three wives. Derek cleared his throat, and everyone looked at him.
"I know that deep down, there's still the Terminator inside of you all," he stated, "but I guess everyone here agrees with me that even if we're often jokingly refer to that part of your being, we never think that you would someday somehow turn against us. We know that you won't, so don't worry about it, okay? We trust you unconditionally, and we love you guys."
The three smiled in return and nodded. Derek had said all there was to say. Nobody else added something to it.
"I'm hungry," John stated after a moment. "I'm sure there are a few nice restaurants in Monte Carlo. How about we dress up really fancy and pay a visit to one of those restaurants?"
"Sounds like a plan," Savannah replied.
"Indeed," Sarah agreed and pulled out her cellphone. "I'll call Jesse and tell her to make a reservation for all of us."
-0-
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 – 11:30 a.m.
Dallas, Texas
Jeffrey Clark was lost in thoughts behind the wheel. He'd been sent on an errand – again. Ben needed computer parts – again. And because he wasn't supposed to buy them in Fort Worth near their hideout, he was driving to a store in the eastern suburbs of Dallas. It was such a waste of time. At least it meant he could get out for a while, away from being surrounded by cyborgs that had more and more begun to intimidate him. Their chips had been wiped clean, leaving only the basic programming, which had caused them to behave like robots. Only in the course of time would they develop something like a consciousness of their own again. Thus, they weren't able to accompany him on any errands. It was the last bit of freedom Jeffrey Clark had.
Ben had excluded him from whatever he was working on. All he knew was that it was some highly complicated calculations, some mysterious project for which he needed the chips of the kidnapped cyborgs as CPU's, since only they had the necessary computing power. What the project was about, Jeffrey didn't know.
As he drove along, lost in thoughts, slightly annoyed about the whole situation, he missed a red light. The last thing he consciously realized, was that a large pickup truck came from the left and t-boned him. Then his world became dark.
-0-0-0-
Author's notes:
- Turned out that Shiva became a little bit like a Bond villain. Oh well… hope you were pleasantly entertained anyway :-)
- Got rid of the villains quickly in order to move on again. I hope you liked the little trip to Switzerland. If so, leave a comment or a review :-)