CH 86

Joan stared up at the big black man who had tears running down his face. She knew she was on the ground in pain. She looked over at the ignored football as others were running to her. She knew what her contract said.

"I have to get up," she explained to the man holding her down. "The coach said if I get hurt I can't play, so please, help me up."

His voice quivered as he said, "No, lay still, you've been shot."

"I have to get up!" she insisted, she was feeling a little dizzy and weak. "If I don't get up I can't play any more. Please! I have to get up!"

Th teams collected round her, even a few cheer leaders who clapped their hands to their faces in horror. She looked around. "The coach hasn't seen me yet, Please, help me up, I don't want to stop playing football!" she pleaded.

She searched the sad faces over her. "Bob? Are you there? Bob, come help me up, please! The coach can't see me like this!"

Bob's teary face appeared over her. He petted her cheek," Joan, stay still, you're hurt bad."

"No, I have to get up before I'm kicked off the team," she cried. A wave of fatigue washed over her. She almost fell asleep, but forced her eyes open. "Come on, there's enough of you, help me up. Don't tell the coach, just please, get me back to the benches, please?"

"Joan, stay with us!" Bob cried.

She reached out with her left hand, he clasped her hand. "Have to get up," she forced out. "I'm tired, I can't do it myself, please help me up."

Inside Joan, arteries constricted and nanites blocked the ruined edges to stop her blood from pumping onto the ground. heart, brain and lungs shared the remaining blood supply, but it wasn't enough to keep her conscious. She wanted to reply to Bob, who was screaming for her to stay with them, but she just was too tired. Joan passed out.

The wail of sirens announced police and ambulances coming. The gates outside were opened to let the ambulance straight onto the field. Security and police rushed in, the announcer said everyone was to remain calm and stay in their seats, the police weren't letting anyone leave, they were started an investigation. They needed to know where the shot came from.

Cameron went with Bob in the ambulance. Joan's helmet and the bloody football still laid near the pool of blood left at the scene. Delilah showed her badge and got to work trying to find out where the shot came from. First she looked at the footage that showed Joan getting hit. She stood near where Joan had fallen. Taking in Joan's pose when she was hit, and the angle the bullet hit her, she looked up at the big lights high over head at the other end of the stadium. She grabbed a couple cops and they went searching.

Collecting a stadium maintenance worker, they climbed up onto the catwalks above, and began searching.

"If anyone way up here, they would have been seen coming down," The worker told them. "This place is restricted access. The doors up here are locked. The keys need to be signed out from security."

The security logs were checked to see who had come up here. It was found the last group of workers had come up to install a new lighting control box.

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Besides doors and police, Homeland security was also present in the hospital just outside the operating rooms where Joan had been taken into. Cameron provided paperwork that she was a 'cyborg surgeon', so she was inside the operating room with the medical team. John gave blood to help refill Joan's system.

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Horton was watching the news. A doctor came out to speak to the press that had collected. "The bullet that hit Joan Connor was a large fragmentation round. It hit the center of her chest at an angle, tearing apart her right side pectoral muscle before the remains exited the right side of her chest. It also destroyed must of the arteries and veins in that region of her chest. The bleeding is stopped, but there isn't enough of that muscle left to begin rebuilding that muscle. There is enough blood supply that her breast will not be strangulated, so that has been saved. At the moment, she is in critical condition due to the massive damage she suffered. That should be upgraded to serious condition, after she recovers from surgery."

Damn, it looked like she was going to live. If he had been able to get that second shot off, it would have finished her. Even so, the fact she didn't die from that one wound, proved she was some kind of mutant. There was a heavy police presence at the hospital where she was. No chance of finishing the job in the near future. He did get intel though. The news showed her family and her boyfriend. Following them, he could find this nest of mutants and clean them out.

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Joan woke up with an IV in her left arm and tubes up her nose. The first thing she noticed was Bob sitting by her, staring at nothing. "Bob, where am I?" she asked weakly.

Bob snapped his head to her, He smiled. "Hey, you're awake! You really had me worried there for a while."

She looked at her heavily bandaged chest. By her right arm felt diminished."What happened? I was set to pass to you and something hit me."

"You were shot," he said and gripped her hand. "Some asshole shot you."

A terminator walked in. "Joan Connor is awake," he announced.

"Why would someone shoot me?" Joan asked. "What did I do?"

Bob frowned heavily. "What I'm finding out is a guy named James Horton is out to kill everyone he sees as non human. He's the one behind killing the Littletons. Your Moms and the sheriff are sure he's the one who tried to kill you. There's a manhunt out for him. It's not the police who are looking."

.

Cameron knew those idiots after Allison and Joan had connections to the Chinese Embassy. She told the Homeland security Colonel about that as well a her plans. "I am going to monitor that Embassy. Horton must be getting funding from somewhere, and I know they were funding the others who attacked our girls. They will lead us to him."

The Colonel shook his head. "You can't go messing with their Embassy! We don't even have proof they or this Horton is tied to anything! We cannot act without proof!"

"You can't," Cameron agreed. "I have proof and Horton is going down. Tell General Watson, I will find Horton and end him."

"You can't go vigilante! If you try, we will stop you!"

"Do yourself a favor, stay out of our way," Cameron said blankly. She left to go give her terminators their instructions.

Colonel Bishop got on the phone to General Watson. He told him what Cameron said and asked for permission to detail her and anyone with her.

"I expected this," Watson said in a tired voice. "You do nothing but try and find this Horton before they do. If you find him dead, then clean up the mess and call it case closed. I'll trying to get that Embassy shut down before there's a bloodbath there. Look, you're not going to stop them. The most you'll do is get our men hurt or killed."

"We have terminators, surely the new models are more efficient. We can stop them."

"All those terminators hold Cameron Connor as their hero. She can do no wrong by them. You even mention grabbing her to put her in jail, and you are going to have a revolt on your hands that will be very ugly. like I said, don't try to stop her. Try to get to Horton and whoever's with him before she does. Those are your orders, Colonel."

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The fake light box was found, the rifle within had an empty shell casing jammed into the action. Detectives had it dusted for prints and tracked down who the workmen were who installed it. All but one had a criminal history. As they were hunted down and brought in for questioning, the name James Horton as the work supervisor was brought up by a couple who didn't want to be charged with attempted first degree murder. A police raid was performed on Horton's known address. The place was cleaned out.

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Taking in everything she knew about this Horton Cameron knew he was slippery. He knew how to hide, but he also needed funds to keep making his attacks. The sheriff's secretary had seen him. First Cameron called the sheriff's office to see if his secretary could provide a picture of Horton. She did, an sent a fax with Horton's likeness. Cameron then had John Henry hack into TV stations to and show Horton's picture put on every news outlet. 'Wanted terrorist, James Horton. 2 million dollar reward, dead or alive. Bond and lawyers fees provided to the one who kills him.'

The announcement source was anonymously. Police and government officials went crazy and did their best to discount this as a hoax and warn people not to try and collect that reward. Politicians worked to assure the public this was not a real offer and James Horton wasn't suspected of anything, Newswires kept getting pictures of Joan shot on the football filed, the rifle in the box that was found and pictures of Horton himself, as well as the Littletons dead in their bed. These things popping up sometimes on the middle of a regular TV show assured people the 2 million reward offer to kill James Horton was real.

News reporters were digging into what the truth was, which made politicians push for progress on the case.

Cameron didn't intend for the reward to be collected by police or the average person on the street. It was the rif raff, the criminals who she wanted to see this reward offer. They were the ones Horton would go to to get his hit squads. With the offer of two mill just to shoot him and get rich, he was going to have to be very careful of who he tried to recruit. Since he was very careful, she knew he was going to be extremely nervous. Nervous people made mistakes.

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Aliana was healed up from her wounds. Although she had no direct tie to Horton, she did to Simon. Before he let her go, the sheriff sat her down with do's and don'ts about how to approach Horton. For many reasons, the sheriff wanted him dead. Simon was their only link to him.

After getting one last deep, energizing kiss, Aliana was off, headed for the direction she felt Simon was in. She'd taken a bit of his life force, so his soul was like a beacon to her. She was drawn to the motel where Simon was. Floating in the air outside the room, she saw the 'do not disturb' sign. She ignored it and teleported in, invisible.

Simon lay on the floor in a pool of blood. he was passed out, barely alive. She saw the phone on the bed, the cord was cut. No one else was around, she saw no remotes or traps. Drifting down to just above Simon, she cupped the back of his neck to numb his body and kissed him to give him some energy.

"Simon, wake up," she coaxed.

He slowly opened his eyes. "I don't hurt any more," he said with a weak grin.

"Who did this to you? Was it Horton?"

"Yeah, he had me get the room. right after we were in, he shot me! No explaining, he just shot me, cut the phone cord, took my phone and left!"

"Simon, You're going to die. I can't save you. All I can do is stop the pain and go get revenge on Horton. Did you hear anything about where he was going?"

A weak shake of his head. "No, he got angry when he heard the radio broadcast about the reward for him. We got the room, he shot me and left."

She gave him another kiss to keep him conscious. "Simon, did he say anything about his plans? Please, I must know."

"He just went on about his plans were in ruins. He talked about getting his money and going back to the safe house. I ... I'm so tired."

"Simon, you can rest soon. Where does he get his money from?"

"Some Chinese guy..."

Simon was finished. Aliana slapped her spaded tail on his forehead to get as much as she could from him, then kissed him to absorb the remainder of his life energy. She left the body and went to Dallas to the Chinese consulate.

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Cameron knew the place where dirty deals were made outside the Chinese Embassy. She had watches all the way around the Embassy, looking for Horton coming or a suitcase bearing man leaving. If Horton came, or if a man was leaving to give him money to operate, she would have his ass. Cameron watched the wall by the street herself. Tucked in by a pillar and obscured by bushes, she stood motionless, waiting. Terminators were patient when they had a target.

It took a couple days, but a man in a long overcoat, hat and sunglasses came off the sidewalk to stand behind the wall. Strange sight, since it had gotten dark an hour ago and it was fairly warm out. He stood leaning back against the wall shifting in place as he waited. A Chinese man came back behind the wall with a suitcase.

"About time," Horton said.

"You promised us a body. Where is it?" the Chinese man asked.

Cameron wasn't going to wait out their conversation. She leaped out, Pushed the Chinese man's head into the wall to knock him out, then spun kicked the cloaked man mid torso in his solar plexus. The man in the long coat bounced off the wall and dropped to the ground, mouth open and desperately trying to breathe in tiny squeaks. She knocked him out and grabbed them by their collars and dragged them away through the small park. "Cameron here, I'm going to get rid of the trash." she said on her hidden mike.

The arm she was holding Horton in jerked. He was pulled from her grasp and ripping and tearing noises sounded behind her. She stopped and turned to see a familiar Demon, nails out slicing him into pieces, her arms flailed in blurred motions and bits and chunks of Horton flew.

"Sheriff's secretary?" Cameron asked.

Aliana stopped, seeing she had gouged his heart out. "Yes, Mrs, Connor, Master warned me he was very dangerous. He said kill him fast."

Cameron looked down on the remains of Horton. "He'd dead," she agreed, seeing bits of him spread in a fifteen foot circle. "I have questions for this other guy. If you could please, cut Horton's head off and stick it atop that lamp post there? If you want to stay, you can put this guy's head on another post after I'm done with him. Oh, and grab that suitcase back there if you would."

Aliana left for a moment to tell the sheriff Cameron was there, he OK'd her to do as Cameron asked. Coming back, Aliana did as she asked. The top of the lamp post was a spike. Horton's head fit down over the spike perfectly. She got the suitcase and helped Cameron load the unconscious man into a van. She got in with Cameron.

Delilah was driving. She took them outside the city and into a secluded wilderness. Waiting for the man to come around, they opened the suitcase and counted the money. five hundred thousand dollars in 20's and hundreds.

"This is handy," Cameron noted as she counted the money. "Secretary, This money is yours for killing Horton. I will give you the rest after we are done."

Ailana frowned. "I cannot have anything. That belongs to Master."

"Then I will pay him the rest after we're done interrogation this guy."

"Mrs. Connor, I can Charm him and make him tell all he knows," Aliana offered.

Cameron and Delilah looked at each other. "Show us how that works."

Finding out Aliana could charm people, Cameron decided to do that for interrogation instead of ripping his nerve endings free. Actually, it was fun to watch. Aliana in full demon form, wings out and tail twitching back and forth, completely mesmerized the man. He gaped at her, totally in love. Eager to please her, he told them about the policy to create unrest anywhere they could in the US, help every criminal organization, and their plan to somehow steal one of these AI driven robots so they could create their own. To show her he was important, he gave her secret codes and frequencies, courier schedules and offered to show her their internet IP's and access codes.

They walked back into the Embassy as friends. Before the night was over, John Henry had all the Chinese electronic data he could dream of. After their 'tour', Aliana made the man forget what he'd done. They even got to keep the half million plus Aliana took home the rest of the ready cash at the Embassy, another million dollars. How nice of him. A call to General Watson, and Cameron let him know where his Colonel could pick up a host of Chinese intel, as well as back doors into thousands of Chinese government computers. Cameron decide turnabout was fair play. The Chinese wanted to screw them over, so they screwed the Chinese.

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The doctors agreed there was nothing else they could do for Joan. Her football playing was done for the year at the very least. They thought permanently. She got visits from the coach and them team. Even the cheer leaders got together to get her some gifts. One being a large makeup box with a mirror in the lid and insurrections on how to put makeup on. She also got a 'guide to high heels'.

Coach Baker and some of her Austin team also came to see her. They made her promise to show up in the spring, even if she couldn't play.

Cleared to leave the hospital with her right arm in a sling. Joan and Bob walked side by side, with Allison, Cameron, Delilah, John an two terminators around her.

Out in front of the hospital there was a gaggle waiting for Joan. The Patriot player who'd held the towel down on her to help keep her from bleeding to death was here. He'd been telling the press about how Joan's main concern, while she was lying there, in danger of dying, was the possibility of not being able to play football any more.

Joan took the microphone filled podium like she was expected to. "I didn't know at first what happened. This wonderful guy," she said poking the player on his shoulder, "I thought he was coming up to tackle me, but he ended up saving my life which I am very grateful for." She hugged him. "He proves that even though we were on different, teams we are all part of the same brotherhood of football players. Guys like him, and many others I've met, make me fell proud to know them."

"Joan, will you ever be able to go back on the field?" a reporter asked. "We heard your right side pectoral muscle is gone."

"Yeah, it's pretty thin on that side now," she said as she poked at the spot. "I can feel rib there, where muscle should be. I guess I'll have to wait and see, but I'm not going to give up trying."

"The one who shot you, do you know why he did it?"

"No clue," Joan stated. "All I know is, he won't get away with it. Neither will the people who egged him on to do it."

"You know who it was?"

"No. The police are investigating, so I can't say even if I did know. Right now, I just want to go home and rest. Maybe do some swimming to relax."

"We heard you swim in a lake that has alligators."

Joan grinned. "Yeah, that keeps you on your toes."

That made them laugh.

The bus driver reminded them they had to get going. Joan waved to the reporters and they headed for the bus as the reporters talked to their cameras.

Joan got on the bus and sat in the middle between Bob and Allison. The last few days for her had gone fast at a rate that spun her head. Thinking about the last few days, she said, "It happened again."

"What?" Allison asked.

"Remember when we were playing soccer, that girl kicked me in the face? I was told I had to leave the field? It was a bullet this time, but still, some asshole was able to stop me from playing any more. Why can't others just leave us the fuck alone?" She then burst out crying.

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With JJ and Peggy now farmers, they were told by every adult that they still had to finish school. The harvest was in for the year, so the work was repairing the arbors that had been neglected. Enough migrant workers stayed behind to do these jobs, and the harvest the Younger Littleton's had was enough to pay off the promissory note to Cameron, pay all the help and still allow them enough money to keep operating.

Hearing of his older parent's demise, Daniel Littleton and his family squad came to help. Once the upper house was cleaned and refurbished on the inside, they took up residence there. Another addition to the farm was the occasional drone that flew overhead. Another drone scanned the Connor property out past the lake area to ensure no one snuck in from that direction.

The Driftwood Air Force was active. A terminator in the sheriff's office flew two drones by remote, scanning the area in and around Driftwood. Upon bringing Joan home, Cameron and Delilah began putting together a defense network in case anyone decided it was a good idea to attack them again.

Although he didn't want to, Now that Jackie's face was healed, Daniel Collins had to go home. They both sniffled and shared a tight hug. Jackie told him it was her turn to come visit him, and THIS time, the plane she rode would be checked out by their own staff so it didn't fall out of the air. John confirmed that by starting construction on an airstrip and hanger north of the lake.

While Horton and his Chinese buddies had been taken care of, they all knew there were other threats out there. Cameron put it as, "Just waiting for their chance to get their asses kicked."

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Joan was in a depression. Bob knew why. Her dreams had suddenly gotten slapped down hard by an attempted assassin's bullet. He was still with the Cowboys, but came home every chance he got. Allison was still off season with the Acoustics. Joan would go out and feed the alligator with Louise, but didn't go swimming saying she couldn't get her tail on with only one arm. Even though everyone had offered to help her.

One day, John came into the kitchen where Joan was helping Cameron. "Joan! Let's take a ride," he said cheerfully.

"Yes, go get out of the house for a while," Cameron added.

"Kay," Joan agreed. She followed her Dad out to the parking lot. He steered her towards Christine and opened the passenger door for her. Joan got in.

John got in the driver's side and drove up the driveway. "You know, there's something very special about Christine," he said in a musing tone. "Yes, she's a fine classic car but there's more to her than most people would guess. Can you guess what that is?"

Joan shrugged. "Because she's alive?"

"Because she don't ever give up," John said. "Christine had been badly damaged, even crunched up into a square by auto compactors. She didn't let none of that stop her. She wanted to be loved and cherished. Guess what, she is now. Christine knows no matter what happens to her, we'll get her home and fix her up. That is what home is. A place to be protected and loved, a place to heal. I know you're hurting right now, Joan. Bad people did something bad to you, and you're doing what you should do. Coming home to heal. Just keep in mind, if you never give up, those bad people will never win. They can't win if they can't get you to give up. You will be the one to win."

Joan nodded. "I know, it's just hard sometimes."

"Sometimes it is. Just keep in mind, that muscle will grow back, and you'll be out on the field again. Even in that skimpy assed uniform," he ended in a grumble.

That got Joan to laugh. "So, where are we going?"

"Down here a ways. Allison and Bob were looking at a place they think would be good for a house. You were still snoozing when they left, and they wanted you to come see it too."

As they drove, she saw Allison and Bob along side the road. They waved. John pulled up and Bob opened her door. "Joan, come see this," he said happily.

"OK, I'm coming!" Joan said as Bob helped her out.

"We think we found the perfect spot," Allison added, getting on Joan's other side.

the place Bob and Allison found was pretty. The hill down near the lake had a fantastic view. Looking at the land and being near Bob and Allison who were excited about this place did lift Joan's mood up. It also stiffened her resolve. She would heal, and they would get their dream.

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In a set of rooms inside the Pentagon that were guarded, Top Secret ESI, hand and eye scanner access only, a team was working on all the information the Homeland Security agents had obtained.

What they had on China was staggering. All of China's plans, access to every Chinese government computer, which also included many Chinese companies. Codes, code names, missions, military information. They had it all. Any time they could not only see, but also send a mission to any Chinese spy, military unit, or lower official and make it look authentic. Having control of the access logs, they could have a unit perform an action, or cancel a previously ordered action, then erase what they did. Basically, if the need arose, a virus to shut down the government in Beijing and they could take control of China.

One thing they got to work on was disabling the hacking programs China had set up to take over other countries computers. Changing destination Ip's, they targeted the programs to China's own financial and military networks.

If China tried to crash US, English, Australia, Japanese, or any other countries systems, they were going to get a big surprise.

The agent responsible for this was nameless, but the intel community wanted to kiss their feet for this intelligence coup.

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The town of Driftwood enjoyed a tax holiday for the year. Not that taxes were high, but the sheriff had been 'investigating' the town's bank account and discovered they had 2 million dollars in funds that had been marked for various projects over the years that had never been used. At a town council meeting, he proposed a tax free year, which was agreed to. So was his proposal to fix a few parking lots that were degrading, and spend money to upgrade school projects like the music and sports.

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The Chinese diplomat Aliana had charmed was taken back to China, accused of robbing his own Embassy. Under extreme interrogation, neither he, nor his wife or brother gave up any information about where the missing money in the Embassy went to. His family got to watch him be executed, then they went to prison with life sentences to work at the prison factory in Mongolia to make goods being sold overseas.