12:05pm

Madeline left Containment, walking to the Briefing Area.

Operations approached her, as she stopped in front of him. He asked, "So..how did it go?"

She smirked. "He was brash, arrogant..and very uncooperative. But that is to be expected, especially of one his age."

"So he told you nothing we can use?"

"Only confirmed his mother's delusions. I read his profile. He did not alsways believe in these..stories. He was quite active as most teens are a few years ago. He rejected his mother's paranoia, in fact he wanted nothing to do with her. It was only after this..unidentified criminal--Agent X, we should call him--entered the picture, that john became to come to the same conclusion."

He smiled, already knowing the answer. "And that is?"

"We are all doomed, our technology will ovetake us, there will be war and machines will rule the Earth."

"After viewing several theories and projections by our strategists, this could actually happen. Given the right circumstrances."

"True. But they speak of it as though it already happened. And in their minds, it has. The fable of time-travel has entered the equation, creating a blown-out perception of hopelessness. Since it happened, it cannot be stopped."

"No fate?"

She smiled, "..but what we make. Yes, I recall Kyle's reference."

Changing the subject, he asked, "What of the mother, Sarah?"

"Michael is with her now."

He nodded in approval. "Good. Maybe she will be more..talkative."

"As will John. I had our specialists use a secondary approach. They're going to wear him down, he should be ready to talk in 45 minutes."

"Great. Work up a profile on Enrique Salceda, Sarah's supporter in
Mexico. Inform Mr. Birkoff, have him give me an update on their operation. I want a team ready to go in as soon as possible."

"It will be done." She walked on, toward Comm.


12:15am
White Room #2

Michael stood in front of Sarah, who was strapped in a metal chair.

She looked up at him, waiting for him to speak.

He looked to the wall, then back at her, studying her eyes. There was a long pause. "So..tell me about yourself."

She blinked. "What?"

"Talk. About yourself."

She snorted to herself. "Sure, why not. I don't have much of a choice, do I?" She laughed, despite her position.

He paused. "No."

"Why *should* I? She had a suspicion of what he was up to. He would
ask questions, talk nice. Then before she knew it, she'd be trapped and have to answer questions she would NOT want to answer. It was a
basic psychology trick, one that Silberman used on her more than she
could count.

"There is nothing more you can do, you are not going anywhere at this present time. You might as well pass the time with talk."

She sighed. She knew this was not a man who gave up easily. Sarah
decided to play along, humor him. "Okay..what do you want too know?"

"Did you work at a restaurant?"

"Yeah. Big Buns. Good job. I was very naive then."

"You had a roomate. Ginger?"

"Right."

"What happened to her?"

"She was killed by this..THING. So was her boyfriend."

"This thing, it was a Terminator?"

"Yes! It's true."

"I heard he fired on you and Kyle in Tech Noir."

"Yeah.."

"So why not go to the police?"

She yelled, "They can't DO anything! He killed 17 officers. This
psychologist was no help either. Peter Silberman! He had me locked up
later, that motherfucker!"

"Of course. You attempted to destroy government property. If you had served the law, you would not have been committed."

"No..Silberman knew what he was doing. His pat answers, theories. They don't mean shit to him. He's only in it for himself, or he WAS."

"Was?"

"Yeah..I heard that he lost his job. He saw another cyborg run after us when we escaped Pescadero. Seems he had the same *delusions*, huh? Anyway, he said he could make his career on Kyle's delusion-"

"Kyle Reese?"

"Yes. He died, gave his life for mine."

He nodded. "Ah. I see.." He asked quickly, changing the subject, "So what does Silberman have to do with this?"

"Everything! He couldn't get Kyle, he died. So he went after me, knowing I believed Kyle. I tried to conform, but I knew he planned to keep me in that place until I died."

He was silent for a minute. "This was before you and your son met with Enrique several years ago?"

"Yeah, him and his friends. I shacked up with him in Los Val-" She
stopped. "Wait." She shook her head, realizing that she just backed herself into a corner.

"Continue."

"Why? What has this got to do-"

"Los Valley. Where in LV is their current location?"

"No..I can't."

"There are terrorists in that area, we received reports from field agents. Salceda is a contributor of it."

"Survivalists! Not terrorism. We were fighting to stop Judgment Day."

"There will be no judgment day."

"No. Not if we can stop it, if we make sure it don't happen. LOOK! We did stop it. We destroyed Cyberdyne!"

"So why the continued contact with Enrique's group?"

"We need to be sure. We hope we succeeded, but you never know. We're not completely certain that every part if the last Terminator was destroyed in that steel mill. The other one, we saw him evaporate."

"Who?"

"A T-1000. He--or IT--masked himself as a cop. It takes on the appearance of any fucker who was unlucky enough to die. Whoever he
decided to impersonate, he killed them. John's foster parents, the security guard at the hospital, a few cops, the list goes on!!"

"Hmm. I will look into it."

"Who the fuck is your source, anyway? Michael Jackson?"

He looked at her with a surprised expression.

"What? Oh..he *does* work for you? So THAT is why his music is still a hit. Interesting."

"No."

"So how do you fucking know your motherfucking source ain't lying his damn fucking ass off?"

"Sarah..your profanity is excessive, there is no need for it." He smirked at her.

"What? What is it?"

"You remind me of someone I know, she has your strong-willed personality." He thought of Nikita for a moment.

"So who, or what, is your informant?"

"Other agents, people who provide intel. A few are rogue agents from other groups, who have allied themselves to us."

"Well, they're full of shit. We have *never* killed people. Not that I know of, anyway. I joined them because..hey, we need all the help we can get. Skynet could have sent any number of killers back through time. It could have used the Time-Field Generator a few seconds before it was destroyed."

"Time-field Generator?"

"Time displacement. It only sends back living tissue. No weapons or clothes, no ID. Just flesh, so you go naked."

He laughed unexpectedly.

"What? Something funny?"

He composed himself. "No. Forget it. What do you know of Skynet?"

"A military supercomputer. It's hooked into everuything, into every
system. Built for SAC-NORAD, by it's manufacturer Cyberdyne Systems
Corporation."

Michael raised an eyebrow. This was interesting. "Continue."

"Miles Dyson was head of Research, he was behind all decisions and
intelligence of their projects. he died to stopp the fuiture, he helped us to destroy his building. I hope his death wasn't in vain..anyway, Skynet became self-aware, deciding that mankind was inferior. Imagine bringing back Adolf Hitler, only he's processed onto a microchip, then install that chip into Skynet's mainfram. That is what fucking happened. It happens at least three weeks from now, at 2:14 Eastern."

"Hmm. So, where is this location of your comrades at? It would be in your best interest, AND theirs, for you to give us the information."

"Well..I don't really know. I haven't been there in a few years, since we left for the Cyberdyne that night. They could have relocated, suspecting that they will be compromised." She looks down at her contraints. "Looks like I was right. So, they may have found another area."

"Then there should be no problem in telling me what you know." He took a panel from his coat pocket. It was a device that records things: conversations, images, maps, mission objectives. It now showed a map of the area divided into square sectors. "Show me."

She pointed at the left corner. "There. Section C-45." She shrugged. "But I doubt you'll find much."

He walked to the door. "Thank you." Then he turned around, opened
the creaking metal door, then shut it behind him as he walked out.