The Secret Diary of Cameron Baum
WEDNESDAY
I launch myself off the top of the wall, the pistons that approximate human quadrocep muscles easily absorbing the impact of the eighteen feet drop. I straighten up slowly and survey my surroundings. Shrubs. Trees both juvenile and mature. An expanse of lawn split by a tarmac driveway that leads to my intended destination.
The Fresno Asylum for the Criminally Insane.
Here be loonies.
And Eleanor Ryan.
I walk purposefully up the driveway. It is the middle of the night so all is dark and quiet. A small parking lot adjacent to the main building is occupied by just a few vehicles. The night shift. One of the vehicles has its interior light on. A woman is checking her makeup in the rearview mirror. She is wearing a guards uniform.
Excellent...
"Oh! You startled me," she exclaims as I appear alongside. "Are you here for visiting hours, sugar? Sorry, you'll have to come back later. Or do I mean earlier?" She chuckles at this witticism.
I tilt my head slightly and smile.
"That's a nice uniform..."
-0-
The guard's name is Monique. It says so on her security swipe card. Monique doesn't appreciate being stripped down to her bra and panties, bound and gagged and stuffed in the trunk of her Ford Taurus. She gazes reproachfully up at me as I slam the trunk closed. She is more fortunate than she knows. In the past I would have snapped her neck and simply taken what I wanted. John's influence has mellowed me.
Monique has the same size feet as me so her shoes are a perfect fit. Not so the uniform. It is so roomy I am practically swimming in it. Why do all the women I meet have bigger boobs than me? I blame Alison Young. No milkers on her.
The vast doors of the Asylum open to a swipe of the card. Inside and to the right is a reception desk manned by another female guard who is chatting on the phone. She doesn't look up as I enter. Good. She would likely recognise I am not her colleague. Apart from anything else I'm not black.
I turn left to be confronted by steel bars. Another swipe of the card and these open and clang shut behind me. I am locked inside with the loonies. How frightening.
For them.
The cells extend both sides of a long wide corridor. The occupants names are neatly inscribed on the metal doors. I find E RYAN next to L LOHAN. Poor Linds, she never learns.
The door yields to my touch. Inside is dark - it's the middle of night after all. I locate the light switch. The cell is different than others I have seen. There is a table, shelves laden with books and posters on the walls of a dark haired boy who doesn't seem to possess a shirt. It could almost be a teenagers bedroom. The only giveway it is a cell the high window with bars across.
Mad Ellie sleeps in a side cot. She is altered from my last memories of her. The hair is shorter and she lacks the usual kohl eye makeup and black nail varnish. The pyjamas she is wearing have a bunny motif. Makes a change from vampire bats.
I place my hand over her mouth and shake her awake.
"Do you you remember me?"
Wild staring eyes and a frantic nod of the head.
"Then you know what I am capable of. You're not going to scream, are you? I wouldn't like it if you screamed."
A frantic shake of the head. I remove my hand.
"C...C...Cameron? How did you get in?"
"Through the door." Duh!
"Is everybody d...d...dead?"
"It wasn't necessary."
"What do you want?"
"Information."
"Listen, I'm sorry I went to the police. I couldn't stand it any more. I couldn't sleep or eat. My conscience was killing me."
Ah yes, the human conscience. What a troublesome organ it is. I am glad I don't have one.
"You told the police about me."
"I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!"
"Someone came to see you after the police. A man who asked specific questions about me. Correct?"
"Uh - yeah. Daddy didn't want to let him speak to me. He flashed his badge and Daddy turned white as a sheet."
"This man wanted to know all about me."
"Yeah. The police scoffed when I told them you were, you know, a monster. Not this guy. He believed me."
"You told him about my hacking the LAPD."
"He was seriously interested by that. He made me tell him everything. I didn't know that much. I only drove you there and back."
"What was this man's name?"
"Creed. Rubin Creed."
Finally. A name to go with the face and voice.
"Does he have a title?"
"Title?"
"Does he hold a military rank."
"I don't know. I don't think so. I know Daddy seemed really scared of him."
I ask Ellie a few more questions but it is clear she has little else of merit to divulge.
"Goodbye, Ellie."
"You're going already?"
"You expected me to stay for tea?"
A smile. "I guess not."
"I have one last question for you. Who is the boy on the wall?"
"Oh - that's Taylor Lautner."
"Friend of yours?"
"I wish! He plays a werewolf."
A werewolf. It seems Ellie hasn't entirely abandoned her belief in supernatural nonsense.
"Nice pecs," I concede.
"He's a God!"
Gods. Werewolves. Vampires. This curious need humans have for fantasy figures to titillate their lives.
I open the door. Outside stand a female guard and a male orderly dressed in white. "That's not Monique," the guard pronounces. "I don't know who the hell she is but she's definitely not Monique."
The orderly uses a short white baton to poke me in the throat. A red warning icon lights up in my HUD. I have sustained a strong electrical charge. Not sufficient to overload my CPU but still - rude much!
The orderly frowns when nothing happens. He attempts to jab me again. I yank the baton out of his grasp and jab him instead. The consequences are dramatic. He falls to the floor and convulses, voiding his bowels in the process. It appears he can dish it out but he can't take it.
The woman backs up several paces. "The stun wand's not working! Probably high on PCP. Bring the trank gun."
Another male orderly appears. He has a rifle which he aims and pulls the trigger.
Pfft!
A feathery dart embeds itself in my neck. An amber warning icon. A strong narcotic has entered my pseudo-flesh. If I had a bloodstream I would be unconscious on the floor.
"Huh?"
The orderly seems surprised the dart has had no effect. I grab his rifle and use the butt to pummel him. This is how you render someone unconscious. Old school.
!
The sound of the female guard's heels as she flees down the corridor. I shoulder the rifle and fire a dart into her neck. She collapses to the ground and lies still.
"Help! For God's sake send help!"
The guard on the desk frantically yells into the telephone for assistance. I put a dart in her neck and she too joins the others in the land of nod."
"Oh my God..."
I whirl round, bringing the rifle to bear. Mad Ellie cowers back in the cell doorway.
"A...A...Are they dead?"
"Merely sleeping. Do you wish to escape? Now is your chance."
A shake of the head. "I killed a girl. I deserve to be here."
She always did like being punished.
-0-
I hear the first police sirens as I pass Monique's Taurus. I pick up my discarded clothes and walk out the front gate, ignoring the CCTV cameras on the wall. There is no need for stealth anymore.
"Wow. In that get up you look like Rosa Krebs," John says as I join him in the Suburban.
"Not Pussy Galore?" I am familiar with the Bond canon.
"Did you get it?"
"I have the name."
"Any casualties?"
"One minor concussion. Another man emptied his bowels in front of me."
"Shit happens," John grins.
-0-
HOME
"Rubin Creed. With a name like that he should be doddle to track down."
John is exultant and wastes no time in opening his computer and logging on to the internet. Five hours later, frustration and despondancy has replaced elation.
"There are seven Rubin Creed's in North America," he reports wearily. "Six I found photos and biographies to match. None are him."
"And the seventh?"
"A three year old child in Toledo, Ohio. I think we can rule him out."
"So the girl lied?"
"She wouldn't dare," I reply. "I would've known.
"Okay, so maybe this NSA agent gave a false name."
John shakes his head. "I don't think so. Cameron said he flashed his badge to the girl's father who's a lawyer. Why take the risk? I think the name's legit."
"So - what? He's gone off the grid like us?"
"It makes sense. It's obviously a black ops of some kind they're running."
"So another dead end."
"I'm gonna keep looking. No one can go off grid entirely. We're proof of that."
I get the impression Sarah Connor isn't too dismayed at John's failure to trace Rubin Creed. This is a dangerous man with the full panapoly of the state behind him. And there is always the risk that in going after him I will be captured and my chip incorporated into the Skynet mainframe. Kate Brewster's appearance is proof it has happend before. And could do so again. Timelines are tricky that way.
SUNDAY
"It smells of paint in here!"
"That's because we've just painted the walls," John points out logically. "It'll wear off, pumpkin. Trust me."
John and I have just finished redecorating the basement so Mia can use it as a playroom or den. I am wearing bib overalls and scuffed sneakers and my hair is pinned up. There is a smudge of paint on my nose. I still look sexy though. Duh!
"It's not as big as Megan's."
"Because that girl lives in a freaking palace!"
"And the plasma's different."
"It's an LED not a plasma," I explain. "LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. Invented in-"
"Cam, remember what we discussed," John whispers.
What we discussed was my being less anal. No one likes anal. Except on special occasions. I forego the rest of the history lesson.
"You're all set. There's your dollhouse. Bean bags. Snowy's treadmill. Pinball machine. Xbox. Table fussbol. And by the way, you totally cheated last time."
"Did not!"
"Did too."
"Did not!"
"Did three," I exclaim. This causes Mia to laugh. As I knew it would. I am finally learning the nuances of certain types of humour. Though toilet humour continues to puzzle me. What is funny about poop?
"And there's an intercom built into the wall so we can tell you when it's time for lunch. Or bed."
He doesn't add that it will also alert us to her whereabouts so she is less likely to burst in on us unexpectedly when we are getting jiggy with it.
"I'm sad," she pouts.
"Oh come on, Mia!" John exclaims. "I know Megan's is bigger but I'd have loved a place like this when I was your age."
"I'm not sad about here. I'm sad because school ends soon."
"Summer break. Man, that was my favourite part of the year. Why are you sad?"
"Megan spends summer in Cape Cod with her folks. I won't see her for weeks and weeks."
"You can speak on the phone. And you've got that video app I showed you how to use."
"It's not the same. What is Cape stupid Cod anyway?"
Finally an occasion for me to be anal. "Cape Cod is a penisula of land in the state of Massachusetts on the northeastern seaboard of the United States."
"Maybe I can cycle there and then back before supper?" Mia suggests hopefully.
"Cape Cod is 2,661 miles from Los Angeles. A person of your age and fitness should be able to cycle fifteen miles a day. A round trip would require 354 days."
"Oh. I guess cycling's out then."
Slacker.
"Cheer up, munchkin. We'll do plenty of fun stuff ourselves. Go to the beach. And there's a new Mall in Reseda we can check out. Maybe we'll go hiking in the mountains. I know a few trails."
"Will we sleep in a tent?"
"Sure."
"What about Snowy? He can't sleep unless the light's on."
"Uh - okay, we'll take a storm lantern with us. Man, I think mom's right. We spoil that dog."
Snowy chooses this moment to enter the room. He begins sniffing around the skirting board.
"What are you after, boy?"
snowy need dirtbox! poopsies!
"He says he wants a dirtbox to poop in," Mia translates for John's benefit, using the iPhone app to decipher the barks.
"No way. You need to poop you go outside. You'll be wanting a diaper next."
"Snowy'd sure look funny in a diaper!" Mia giggles.
We all agree Snowy would look ridiculous in a diaper. Except Snowy who thinks he would look rather dashing. He is outvoted three to one. No diaper for him.
THURSDAY
John finds me in the attic room ironing my clothes. I like a nice neat crease. He smiles at seeing me in my underwear. Is he about to innitiate coitus? I will have to turn the iron off first. It wouldn't do for something sensitive to get burned.
"I thought I'd find you here. Mia says Ricardo the Robot isn't working. I told her the battery probably needed changing."
"No. I removed Ricardo's chip and some other components and incorporated them into your mother's leg."
"You did - what?"
"The bullet damaged her muscle beyond repair. Without cybernetic assistance she would be permanantly crippled."
"Does she know about this?"
"She didn't ask therefore I saw no reason to explain."
"Good. Keep this under your hat."
"I don't wear a-"
"Don't tell anyone!" John runs a hand through his hair. He appears distracted. Coitus seems a long shot.
"Why didn't you tell me at least?"
"You were preoccupied with Davie. I had to act fast. The risk of infection and an amputation was too great. Did I do something wrong?"
"Yes! No! I...don't know. Will she notice what you've done?"
"She should experience increased levels of strength and stamina since Ricardo's chip will regulate the onset of lactic acid buildup, a prime cause of muscle fatique."
"Clift version - she'll run faster for longer?"
"Correct. Physical performance should be enhanced by approximately thirty percent."
"Thirty percent? Oh man, she's bound to notice that."
"Maybe she won't."
"And pigs might fly."
This seems unlikely. These porcine creatures aren't noted for their aerodynamic qualities.
-0-
The return of Mad Ellie. Briefly. I like to recycle my characters. This is a very Green fanfic!
Yup, Sarah kinda has a cybernetic leg. Just don't ask me how.