Ch 9
The days of the concert were fun. JJ, Kaede and the whole Atlantian clan had a good time watching the show. Tomorrow, it was back to work for everyone. Kaede and JJ were both a little surprised at Cameron's request to show in a movie how bad Kaede's life had been. JJ also understood how bad it had been for Kaede, and didn't want her reminded of the tough and horrible times she had.
They settled down in the large recliner, JJ sitting with Kaede mostly on his lap, her legs over his, her head tucked in on his shoulder, cuddled up as he held her. They had eaten already and JJ wanted to catch the news before they retired to the bedroom.
Softly, Kaede asked, "JJ do you think I should do that movie?"
Gently rubbing her side, JJ replied, "If it makes you feel bad, no. You lived it. If you don't want to remember all those horrible things, I don't want you to. I want to see you happy."
She gave him a gentle squeeze. "Thank you for that. Still, many of those people who held me in that facility are still alive, and the Government who runs that place that killed hundreds is pretending it never happened. They are getting away with what they did."
JJ thought for a moment, then said, "I don't care about them. I care about you, honey."
Kaede cracked a grin. "Yes, sweetheart."
The front door opened part way Sophie stuck her head in and called, "JJ, Kaede, can I talk to you for a minute?"
JJ chuckled. For her initial reaction to Kaede, screaming her lungs out and fainting on the spot, he noted Sophie had become quite fond of Kaede. "What can we do for you, Sophie?" he asked.
Sophie came in and shut the door, then hurried over to a nearby chair and sat facing them, elbows on her knees, casting them an intent look. "I'm going to be fifteen this fall, on the 5th of November."
JJ raised an eyebrow. "You don't seem that old. Is there something special you'd like for your birthday?"
Sophie shrugged. "Yeah, I'm a bit small for my age, but I will be an adult on my birthday."
"At fifteen?" Kaede asked, eyeing her.
"That's the Atlantian way, hon," JJ told her. He remembered the hard time he and Peggy had. Her family had kicked her out of the house because she was seeing him and wouldn't stop. Mom Cameron had gone to adopt her on the spot so Peggy wouldn't be a homeless child.
"You family's not going to give you the boot out the door, are they?" JJ asked.
Sophie eyed him. "Why would they do that?"
"Never mind," he told her.
"So, there's a special birthday present we can give you?" Kaede asked.
"Yes!" Sophie beamed. "I would really love it if I could join your family!"
JJ's jaw dropped. He let out a huff. Yup, she was Atlantian all right.
"What do you mean?" Kaede asked. "You want to be our child?"
Sophie giggled. "No, silly! I want to be another wife for Johnny!"
"WHAT?" Kaede asked in a hard, flat tone.
"Yes, see, I know both of you have…" Sophie started and was cut off by Kaede.
"NO!" Kaede stated firmly.
"Sophie," JJ said in a gentler tone. "It's me and Kaede here. That's it…" He got cut off too by Sophie.
"I know! It's just the two of you and you have both had it very hard," Sophie complained. "I want to live with and help you both! I really like both of you!"
"Ugh," Kaede growled with a face plant.
JJ could feel Kaede stiffening up in anger. Quickly, he said, "Sophie, we don't usually have multiple partners here. If you want to be friends with us, fine. We like being with each other. Neither Kaede or myself is looking for more partners."
Kaede rubbed her face. "JJ is right. We consider you a friend, Sophie, but that's all you can be. JJ and I are together. No one else."
Sophie's face fell. "But I really like you both," she said.
"And we like you, but as a friend," JJ replied.
"But, you had Peggy and Lilly as wives," Sophie complained.
"I did," JJ said with a nod. "That was because Peggy insisted Lilly join us. Believe me, she worked hard to get me to accept Lilly. I did that for Peggy. I really don't think Kaede is willing to accept you as a wife."
"I'm not," Kaede stated.
"How about you?" Sophie asked him.
"Me either," JJ told her. "Sophie to me, you're a kid. I also think that you'd rather have a guy all to yourself, than have to share."
Sophie's head dropped down. She sniffled and got up. Weakly, she said, "Sorry to have bothered you." She got up and all but ran out the door.
JJ dropped his head back to look at the ceiling. "Shit," he grumbled.
"She'll get over it," Kaede assured him. So far, that's four."
"Four?"
In a huff, Kaede said, "Ron, Tobru, and Laura also asked us to join their family. They think we are very lonely with just the two of us."
"That's the Atlantian way, hon." JJ then let out a snort and added, "If there's not at least five mother and fathers all together, they don't think the family is big enough."
"I take it they like orgies?" Kaede asked with a snort.
JJ chuckled. "I'm not even going there."
.
John was at the concert site helping to pick up all the refuse left by the crowds. As far as trash, there was plenty for everyone to pick up. The fields were covered with it. His tools were a rake and a wide plastic shovel.
Most of it was burnable. Papers, wrappers, the occasional clothing item. The food bits, they just left. They also found two abandoned small grills that were going to be cleaned up and put in the general store in case someone wanted them.
With others, mostly terminators everywhere helping out, he didn't notice the pair of women until he got close to them. Both were dark haired Orientals and fairly pretty. Both were also dressed nice. Too nice for being out here collecting garbage in their dresses. Dumping another shovel of debris into the truck he watched as they came over to add handfuls of bits.
"John Connor?" one asked meekly.
"That's me," he replied, eyeing them.
The one who spoke breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally," she said. "I am Lee Kwan. This is Mei Ling. We have been trying to find you to get you to assist us, Mr. Connor. We are in desperate need of help."
"What is it you need help with?" he asked cautiously.
Mei Ling spoke up. "We were sent here to collect intelligence for our Government. That is not why we came."
Lee quickly said, "We fear for our people, Mr. Connor! The Government treats everyone badly, but lately it's getting worse! Entire towns being locked into their homes, People who have done nothing come up missing. They don't even bother with trials now."
"Some go to the hospital and never return!" Mei insisted. "If someone says anything but what is allowed, they are beaten badly or hauled away," she said in a pleading tone.
John frowned. "That is sad to hear, but what do you expect me to do about it?"
"We heard of you, Mr. Connor," Mei said firmly. "We were warned that you have great power and to be sure we are not caught, we were to stay far away from you and your family. Some say you are the devil. Others think you are the one who truly runs the United States. We are sure you can change things for the better in our Country."
"We give ourselves to you," Lee stated. "Do whatever you want with us. We only ask that you make the CCP less violent towards our own people!"
John cleared his throat. "Ladies, China isn't my country. I also have no way of knowing you're telling the truth. If I do anything and my name is connected to it, that may start another war. We have had some trouble with China, yes, but you're talking about becoming deeply involved with China IN China. That is dangerous for me, and for you also."
Lee's face firmed up. "Then take us and kill us. We will be sacrifices for you if you just help our people. Perhaps that will convince you we are being truthful to you."
"We left all our identification behind when we came here," Mei stated. "We rode a bus to get here. There is no way for anyone to track us. Please, search us to show you we are telling the truth."
Neither Delilah nor Cameron was around at the moment. These two sounded sincere to him. Not having one of his lie detectors here, he couldn't trust what these women were saying. He called home.
Delilah's voice come on. "Yes John, are you finally done for the day?"
"Not quite. I got a pair of admitted Chinese spies here talking to me. Could you come out to the concert fields on the left side of the road? I want to check if they are telling me the truth."
"On my way." Delilah stated and hung up.
"Mr. Connor, we know doing this will lead to our death," Lee said. "If you don't kill us, we will be tortured and killed if we go back home. Promise to help our people and we will do anything for you, even stand ready for execution or kneel down to be beheaded."
"Delilah's coming," John told them. "If anything you say is a lie, she will know and she will get the truth out of you, very painfully. She's an expert at interrogation."
"We are not lying," Mei stated firmly.
"We shall see," John replied.
.
Delilah came and John had the two Chinese women tell her everything they told him. She asked them a couple more questions. Where in China they were from, how they got into the esppionage buisiness, who their bosses were, how often they were to report. Each time they gave truthful answers.
Delilah said, "They are telling the truth, John. They say they are ours, so let's use them."
"They aren't brainwashed of anything?" John asked.
"No, and they have no tracking or listening devices on them. Just from being gone where they were suppose to be, if they return, they will be interrogated and probably killed," Delilah told him. She then jerked a thumb back towards Christine. "You two, get in the car. Back seat. It's getting late, let's go home, John."
They went to Christine and got in. John was half expecting them to try and strangle him or Delilah. The pair sat in the back seat quiet and unmoving all the way to the house.
Once home, Delilah led them down to the basement and into the room they'd kept Barnabas in. The coffin was still there. Both women winced at it, but kept quiet.
Cameron came down shortly after and asked them more questions. Computer use in China was local only, no, the China Net was not back up yet. They used code by phone to pass information. Apparently, Cameron had done severe damage to China's network. No one in China knew what happened to their networks, all Lee knew was the programmers she'd seen had been disappeared. Mei was told there were rebel terrorists in the country sent by the US and they were to find out who in the US were controlling these terrorists. Cameron was happy with this information.
Before they went up for dinner, John had Mei and Lee locked down in the coffin room with some food and water.
.
At dinner, Cameron discussed the movie Charlie wanted to do. John was relieved he wanted to do a sword and sorcery movie. Delilah agreed to plan it out with Cameron. The main question was what to do with their 'spies' down in the cellar.
"Have them tell of every other spy the know of," Cameron stated. "Perhaps we can begin with turning those spies around on China. Or eliminating them."
John winced. "Instead of eliminating them, how about finding out who they report to and where."
"Yes, torture them. That would be a better option," Cameron agreed.
"We'll work on that."
"Maybe sneaking into their places to find information will be better," John offered. "We don't want to be blatent."
"When we can. If not we know how to interrogate," Cameron stated. "We'll get started after dinner."
"We should see if Anne will help us," Delilah said. "We have a real chance here to do some major damage to the Communist party in China."
.
Mei and Lee were eating when a knock came at the door.
"It's John, I'm coming in," he announced.
They both sat up and watching him open the door.
John eyed them, then asked, "You are both committed to help your people, Even if it means your deaths?"
"We are," the pair chorused.
"Then we will help you do that." he said firmly. "You'll be sent back to China in your own home towns. We cannot be part of this, except to give you support secretly. That means when you're in China it will be just the two of you unless you can get others to help you. You are talking about removing the communists. That has to be done from within China. You will be declaring war on your own government and they will respond in kind. Are you aware of that?"
"We are," they chorused.
"We know we will most likely be killed," Mei said flatly. "But someone has to do something."
John nodded. "So long as you're sure. Rest tonight, we will train you the best we can, and get you as prepared as possible. Once we do, we're going to drop you back into China and the rest will be up to you. Your lives for the next few weeks are going to be hard. Get yourselves ready to become warriors."
He then bowed to them and left.
.
In the morning, Cameron woke both women up early to take them to the practice room in the basement. There, she showed them t-shirts and shorts their sizes. "Get dressed in those then we'll see what you can do."
Being Chinese, Cameron was sure they had some martial arts experience. When they were ready, she pointed to Lee. "You, come attack me. Take me down."
Lee stared at her. "Take you down?" she asked, looking meek.
"Yes, knock me off my feet at least." Seeing Lee just stare at her, Cameron strode towards her. "I am your enemy! If you don't fight, I will kill you! Defend yourself NOW!"
Lee swung up with a weak punch that Cameron caught in her hand.
"Crude and slow." Cameron stated and pushed her hand away. "Mei, attack me!" she commanded.
Mei took on a hard face and with a yell, came up with a roundhouse kick. Cameron caught her ankle and pushed it up, making Mei tumble to the floor.
"Pathetic," Cameron stated.
"We were never taught to fight!" Lee said in a whine.
"That is obvious," Cameron stated. "How hard do you exercise?"
"We don't," Lee said with a shrug.
"You will now," Cameron stated. "Follow my lead." She dropped into the pushup position. "We'll begin with pushups."
.
By lunchtime, Mei and Lee were ready to cry, they hurt so bad from attempting to do the exercises Drill Sargent Cameron was pushing them to do. All the while they tried to make her happy, she was yelling at them.
"Hey! Little girls, you want to save your people and you can't even do more than fifteen situps? How the hell are you going to save anyone at all being so weak? Get mad! Force yourselves to do more! My youngest daughter would BURY YOU! Those police in China would club you half to death, rape you then kick you to death and hang your naked bodies up to get laughed at! GET MAD, push yourself harder!"
By the time John came down to tell them lunch was ready, he and Cameron had to pick them up off the floor and make them stumble up for lunch.
Once Mei and Lee swallowed some food looking like they'd both been beaten up, Cameron went with Delilah to do some planning on their movie.
Seeing Cameron leave, Mei hopefully asked, "Training is over today?"
"Nope. While you're recovering, I'll give you some information," John said, then motioned to their glasses. "Drink all your milk."
He watched them empty their glasses, then said, "You came here meek and begging for help. The time for meekness is over. If you want anyone to listen to you, you must be firm and speak like you mean it. Mei, what will you say to someone you want to join you?"
"Come help us to rid our land of the tyrants," she said in a semi-firm voice.
Nope," John said. "Lee, why should I help you?"
Lee paused a moment, then stated, "Our country, our people are being badly abused! Carted off for no good reason, sometimes as parts to be separated and the rest of them is burned up. We get locked in our homes, barely fed and forced to work with little pay. Either you help us now or it may be You who is the next to disappear."
"Better," John said with a nod. "Mei, I want you to convince me to give my life to see a China where people are free."
Mei thought, then said, "Even if you may be satisfied with the way things are, being under the Government's thumb. Look around you, our people are controlled and slowly dying. We are forced to do anything they say or get disappeared. We need your help!"
John nodded. Mei had spoken like she meant it. "Not bad, but never imply whoever you're talking to is satisfied to let things go on as they are. You have to make it personal for them. You have to make them want to join you, to fight to the death to see your plan through. Ladies! You want to overthrow the government. That is going to take a long time, and you will need to be smart and make any recruits you get believe that you can do it! If they don't believe in you, they won't follow you. You will need to be sneaky, you will need to get people in the military firmly on your side. You will need to think of everything possible to undermine the government without them knowing anything about you until you are ready to act. You have the courage, you need to show that bravery to everyone else, or we might as well kill you cleanly here so you don't suffer in a prison someplace."
"Or have our hearts taken out for someone else's spare parts," Lee said caustically.
"Yes." John agreed. "When myself, Mom and Cameron, just the three of us, were fighting against Sky Net to keep it from nuking the world. We had to constantly duck the police as well as the terminators that came to stop us. It was a long, lonely fight, but with learning how to fight and never giving up, we did it. Put your minds and souls into the fight, and you can do it too."
"We are weak, how can we fight?" Lee asked.
"Become strong," John stated. "We will help you with that. So, what are you?"
Mei stared into his eyes. "We will become strong!"
"Strong what?" John prodded.
"Strong Chinese rebels!" Lee stated.
John smiled. "That's a good start we can work with. Believe in yourselves. Otherwise, there's nothing we can do with you."
When Cameron returned and told them it was time to resume training, Mei and Lee stood up tall and followed Cameron back down ready to go in the training room to train until they collapsed.
Cameron was sure the nanites she put in their milk would help with that.