The Secret Diary of Cameron Baum
MONDAY
John continues to be frustrated in his search for Rubin Creed's daughter. He exchanges emails with the King Of Nerds, some accusing his majesty of laying a false trail, of essentially stealing the money we gave him for information, a charge the King vehemently denies. John is obviously not afraid of offending royalty, something that would've seen him locked in a tower in previous times when monarchs ruled entire countries. It is unlikely the King's home in Pasadena has a tower, at least one wasn't in evidence when we visited and towers are generally too large to easily keep hidden.
Even Mia has started to notice Snowy's expanding girth and frets this puts him at risk of a heart attack. "He should definitely go on a diet," she announces.
"Easier said than done," John tells her. "He has a crafty way of sniffing out the least bit of food. There must be some bloodhound in his DNA."
"If you two wouldn't leave the cans opened then he'd have less opportunity to eat as much as he does," Sarah Connor remarks. "He jumps up on the counter, sticks his paw inside and scoops the food out."
"It's his party trick!" Mia laughs. "He's so cute when he does that!"
Snowy sits in a corner of the kitchen trying to look innocent and that he doesn't know we are talking about him. He's fooling no one.
"Maybe we should take him to Weight Watchers," Mia suggests. "I think it's some kind of club. Megan's sister goes there when she needs to lose weight."
"This the girl with the bald beaver?" John asks grinning. Mia dissolves into giggles. No one has explained to me why hairless aquatic mammals are amusing. Possibly it has to do with their large tails. Or possibly their habit of building dams.
Predictably Sarah Connor comes up with a practical no-nonsense solution: Snowy's meal portions are to be halved and he is not to be given any tidbits from the dining table.
"But he'll starve!" Mia protests. Snowy barks a vociferous agreement, which is lost on Sarah Connor since she doesn't speak dog.
"He'll hardly starve. And it'll be good for him in the long run. There are old dogs and fat dogs. Very few fat old dogs."
"Can't he have one last bowl of Ben & Jerry's? Please. It's his favourite."
"No."
"Ple-"
"No."
TUESDAY
Part of Snowy's new fitness regime is exercise, which is where I come in. Our walks become a daily event, though John has issued instructions - thinly veiled orders - to avoid the park where we twice encountered Daniel and Lulu. This and his greatly reduced diet tends to make Snowy grumpy.
snowy paws hurt!
"You'll live."
snowy hungry!
"Suck it up."
snowy want to see lulu!
"Perhaps we will," I lie.
After visiting several parks in the Pacific Palisades area today we head towards the coast. Possibly the sea air will take Snowy's mind off food. This is a joke. Nothing takes Snowy's mind off food.
We sit on a bench facing the ocean. The day is overcast and out of season meaning there are few if any people on the beach. The kiosks that sell fast food to the beach crowd are closed and shuttered. From time to time a roller blader passes us on the smooth tarmac walkway separating grass from sand. This is Los Angeles after all. Why walk when you can glide?
Snowy eyes follow the roller bladers and I keep a tight grip on his leash in case he decides to chase them. His desire for a pair of his own fell on Sarah Connor's deaf ears. She pointed out that even if he managed not to break all four legs the sight of a dog rollerblading would likely draw attention. I am reminded of the incident in another park when Snowy rode Mia's skateboard and a man filmed him with the intention of posting the clip on YouTube. Until I intervened and smashed the cellphone underfoot. Good times.
"Cameron? Snowy? Wow, what a coincidence. What are the odds, eh?"
I look round to find Daniel grinning down at me. His words strike a chord. What are the odds of us encountering each other? My calculations are that it is very unlikely. Therefore I have been stalked. Hunted.
Targeting graphics array themselves around Daniel's head. A neck break, I think. Quick. Painless. Quiet.
"Fancy running into you two. Small world, huh?"
"It's about to get even smaller."
Daniel laughs. "Man, I knew I'd never be able to keep a straight face!"
The third vertebra...
"We've been searching for you all week."
Quick. Clean. Painless.
Oblivious to his impending doom, Daniel produces a map from his pocket. He unfolds it. "I made a note of all the parks within a five mile radius of where we first met. I figured if you were still walking Snowy you wouldn't go further than that. That's what I told myself anyway. We've been checking out five a day. Guess today's the jackpot."
"Didn't John warn you about seeing me again?"
"He told you? Well, I wanted to see you again if it was the last thing I did."
Appropriate...
"Anyway, here we- Hey, what's this guy doing?"
A grey panel van accelerates towards us, veering off the roadway and crossing the grass on a direct collison course. Daniel grabs my hand in an instinctive reaction to drag me clear. The moment his flesh touches mine his DNA is automatically analysed and my HUD flashes this information.
DANIEL AARON LIEBERMAN
BORN 5/6/1992- DIED 7/7/2026
MAJOR IN THE HUMAN RESISTANCE ARMY
INVENTOR OF THE COLTAN PROXIMITY LANDMINE
ALSO KNOWN AS THE CPL OR THE TIN-CAN OPENER
AWARDED THE MEDAL OF HONOR POSTUMOUSLY
RANKED 9TH FOR IMMEDIATE TERMINATION
UPON ACQUISITION TERMINATE
I resist the sudden overwhelming urge to follow out my preprogrammed orders. How ironic that of my own volition I was within seconds of terminating a member of the Resistance.
Daniel A. Lieberman. Resistance hero. Dead before he is 40.
While this information floods my HUD, in the real world kinetics rule. The panel van's momentum causes it to crash through the wooden bench, plowing on across the grassed area before impacting a brick wall. The panel van loses this particular battle, shuddering to an abrupt halt, the front cabin crumples amid smashed glass and torn metal.
"Holy shit! Are you okay?"
"Yes."
Daniel climbs to his feet first and approaches the wreck. The drivers' airbag has deployed, obscuring the person behind the wheel. He reaches in and places his hand on the driver's neck, checking for a pulse. "I can't feel anything. Shit, he must've been travelling, like, sixty or something. We'd better-"
The driver's head turns, exposing half a coltan skull. The T-8's pseudo eye is gone and the red LED orb fixes on Daniel. It will be displaying the same information I received.
DANIEL LIEBERMAN
RESISTANCE HERO
TERMINATE ON ACQUISITION
Daniel takes a step back. "Jeez, look at his face. Easy, fella, you've been in an accident. Don't move. I'll call it in."
I grasp him by the hand. "Come with me."
"Wait. I gotta call for an ambulance."
"Come with me if you want to live."
I drag Daniel along with me as the T-8 extricates itself from the wreckage. I use my own cell phone to call home, explaining what has occurred without going into details. Time enough for that later. I know that area, John's voice informs me calmly. He doesn't ask needless questions. Shit happens. The why can wait. Head into the dunes, away from the park. Someone will call in the crash and we can't risk that thing falling into the wrong hands. We'll meet you there. Don't engage it ?
"Affirmative."
Snowy and Lulu run ahead of us. Snowy is attempting to calm Lulu, who is close to panic. For all his weakness when it comes to food consumption when danger threatens he pulls through. Truly he is a Connor dog.
"Look that guy's face! Shouldn't we do something to help?" Daniel tries to stop. I drag him along.
"No. Keep going."
"Why is he is following us? Do you know him?"
"Better than you can possibly imagine."
The T-8 left leg is damaged, impairing his forward motion. It will be easy to keep ahead and stay there. The danger is the police will arrive soon and catch us up.
"Will you ease up on my wrist. It feels like its in a vice."
I slacken my grip slightly. We are in a dip between dunes, momentarily losing sight of our pursuer.
"How are you so strong? And will you please tell me what's going on."
I stop. Daniel's questions go unanswered. Something is wrong. The T-8 should have reappeared by now.
"What? What is it?" Daniel stares behind and all around. "Where'd he go?"
Where indeed.
"Look, we should go back. Someone's bound to have called the cops by now. You could explain that creep's stalking you and-"
The T-8 appears at the top of the next dune, blocking our progress. A simple flanking manouver. Textbook. I will have to engage after all.
I begin to climb the dune when a shadow envelops the T-8. It turns round only to be struck by the front fender of the Suburban as it is launched into the air by the rise of the land.
John and Sarah Connor have arrived.
The Suburban comes to a halt straddling the dune path. John exits and points at the T-8, flat on its back from the force of impact. "Quickly! You know the drill."
I do indeed. I press the T-8 into the sand while John unsheaths a knife and slashes the base of its neck to get at the chip. As it loosens and comes free of its housing the T-8's resistance ceases. It lies inert and unmoving. The chip flames suddenly in John's hand and he drops it. A later model then, one that cannot be reprogrammed.
"Will someone please tell what the hell is going on?"
John turns, noticing Daniel for the first time. "What's he doing here?"
"He was the target. He is Major Daniel Lieberman, a soldier in the resistance ."
"This jerk? No way."
"Hey, watch who're you calling a jerk. And will someone explain what that thing is."
Sirens sound in the distance. Sarah Connor crosses to the T-8. "We need to leave. Now. Help me with this."
We stow the metal carcass in the trunk. Daniel continues to stare at us. The sirens are louder. Closer.
"We need to go. Now."
"What about him?"
"If he's part of it then he comes with us. But we have to go right now."
John sighs, weary resignation in his voice. "Get in."
"This is insane. You're all crazy," Daniel declares. "Why should I even want to go with you nutjobs?"
"Because it's where Cameron will be."
Daniel climbs aboard.
-0-
Once we are safely home Sarah Connor takes Daniel to one side and begins to talk in a soft but insistent voice. He becomes the latest in an expanding list who now know the truth of what the future holds. At least a version of the truth. Becca. Ramona. Wanda. Mad Ellie. Davie Ginsberg. All know a part if not all of what is to come.
"What happened back there?" John asks.
I explain events from the moment Snowy and I arrived in the park.
"You think the T-8 was hunting him?"
"No. Most likely it was a chance encounter. It recognised me and assumed the person with me was you. Until Daniel touched it feeling for a pulse that was never there to begin with."
"And you got the same reading?"
"Yes. We can detect DNA profiles from the smallest of blood traces."
"Was he bleeding?"
"Evidently."
"And this landmine he's supposed to invent - it's really that important?"
"Before the invention of the coltan proximity mine all landmines killed indiscriminantly. Man. Machine. They would explode whomever trod on them. It most likely saves the lives of thousands while severely disrupting Skynet's surface operations."
"And he's a Major?"
"Yes."
"Did you know him - in the future, I mean?"
"No. He was - what is the expression? - before my time."
Sarah Connor finishes talking to Daniel and he crosses over to us, looking pale and dazed. As well he might. His entire world view has changed forever.
"You okay, man?" John enquires. "You want a beer or something?"
"Uh - sure. A Bud would sure hit the spot about now."
John brings him a bottle of beer. Daniel takes several swallows. "It's all true, isn't it? Nuclear war. Machines disguised as people travelling back in time."
"Yeah, it is," John agrees. "Make a helluva an episode of Punked, though."
"Wouldn't have believed it for a second if I hadn't seen that...thing with my own eyes. Human flesh outside a metal carcass."
"I know."
"How long have you known?"
"Pretty much my whole life. Of course,when I was a kid I just thought mom was crazy."
"What changed your mind?"
"One of those came back for me."
"To kill you?"
"Not at first. This one was sent back to protect me."
"Sent back by whom?"
"Me. My future self."
"Oh man, heavy..."
"Yeah. Heavy. Show me your hands."
"Huh? Why?"
"Humor me."
Daniel holds his hands palms up. There is a small cut on his right palm with a trace of dried blood. "How'd you do that?" John asks.
"Uh - this morning. Opening one of Lulu's food cans. Wasn't big enough for a bandaid. Why, what's wrong?"
"It's how it recognised you. Blood analysis. Skynet must have your DNA on file in the future."
"Jeez, that's creepy."
"Yeah."
Daniel turns to me. "Sarah says you're a resistance fighter sent here from the future."
"Yes."
"Do I know you? In the future, I mean."
"No. You die on the seventh of July 2026. I do attend your memorial service," I add helpfully. I catch John staring at me. He shakes his head vigorously. Oops. I think I have divulged too much information. Maybe Daniel won't notice.
"I'm dead?"
He noticed.
"Look, there are many different timelines," John explains. "The fact that you learnt about this stuff now probably means it's a completely different timeline, one where you don't die on that day."
"You can't know that for sure."
"I know there are different timelines, some of which don't exist anymore."
"How do you know that?"
"Because in one timeline I'm dead."
"Oh man..."
Sarah Connor joins us. "You'll stay for dinner," she says, making it sound like an order not a request.
"Uh - okay. Thank you."
"I've got to pick up my step-daughter from school. Her name's Mia. She knows nothing about any of this. And that's the way I'd like it to stay for the time being. She's had enough trauma in her life as it is."
"Of course. I mean, I wouldn't know where to start."
"Good. If she asks, and knowing her she probably will, you're a friend of John's from high school."
"A friend of John's?" Daniel smiles for the first time since the attack. "I think that might be a stretch somehow."
-0-
As it transpires the cover story is hardly needed. Lulu has told Snowy about her owner and Snowy has gossiped to Mia via the iPhone app I invented that translates his barks. This is what happens when your dog is a blabbermouth.
Despite the traumas of the day Daniel is effortlessly charming once Mia arrives home from school, even managing to dislodge a quarter that she had lodged behind her ear. This seems an odd place to store loose change, though John explains it is merely a magic trick. So Daniel is an inventor and a magician. Interesting. I wonder if he knows Harry Potter?
-0-
It is given to few humans to know the exact time and manner of their deaths. The majority, while reluctantly conceding death is inevitable for all living things, prefer to regard it as a distant almost abstract prospect, one to be tacitly ignored for several decades.
Not so Daniel Lieberman.
Now that I have informed him of the date if not the manner of his demise he won't let the subject alone. He goes over it again and again, like a dog gnawing a bone, desperate to glean the slightest morsal of fresh information.
It begins after dinner. With Mia, Snowy and Lulu in the basement den watching cartoons on the bigscreen TV, Daniel goes outside on to the terrace. It is dark now and the swimming pool has its underwater lights on, illuminating the night like a turquoise jewel. Without looking round he senses me come up beside him and says, "So this is the famous pool where Snowy got sick. Hard to believe something so tranquil could harm you."
"Chlorine is invisible but no less deadly for that," I reply.
"July seventh 's the day I die, right?"
"Yes."
"How? Do I die in battle?"
"I don't know."
"Does one of those things catch me?"
"I don't know."
"Tell me. I can take it."
"I would if I knew but I don't."
"Maybe I'm working on one of those landmines and it blows up in my face?"
"Unlikely. The manufacture is safe enough to entrust to women and children, freeing the men for frontline duties."
"You've seen these landmines I'm supposed to invent?"
I hesitate. I have seen them but always from a safe distance. A distance I am careful to maintain since my kind is their intended target. "Yes," I concede.
"You hesitated. What aren't you telling me?"
"It is not my area of expertise."
"Then how the hell is it mine? I'm a computer science major, for crying out loud. And I'm scraping my grades as it is."
"The war changes things. People find they are capable of deeds they never imagined possible."
"Like John becoming a General? Because I've never seen a less likely General. He's younger than me."
John chooses this moment to join us. "What are you two whispering about?" he asks suspiciously.
Daniel offers a michievious grin. "Cameron's trying to talk me in to joining her for a skinny dip. I said maybe later."
This lie is so preposterous I don't bother to deny it. John shakes his head, not taken in. "Nice try. I'm betting it had something to do with a certain date. Am I right?"
This wipes the smile off Daniel's face. He stares out at the pool. The glow from the underwater lights reveal the strain on his face. "Yeah, well, so what? Not everyone gets to know when they croak."
"Didn't mom give you the future's not set speech?"
"Yeah. Still...surely if you succeeded in changing the present then Cameron wouldn't be here. And that thing wouldn't have tried to kill me."
"We don't think that's how it works."
"Yeah? Then how come if this Skynet can travel back in time they don't send a whole army here and take over the world that way."
I field this question. "Time travel is energy intensive," I explain. "And Skynet have left it too late when the war is almost lost. It is a last resort. A final throw of the mice."
"Dice," John and Daniel say simultaneously. "It's called the last throw of the dice," John explains.
"Dice. Yes, that makes more sense."
"She's quirky as hell, isn't she?" Daniel grins.
"You have no idea," John says putting his arm round my waist and kissing the top of my head.
"Are all the girls all like you in the future?"
"Not so much."
Sarah Connor joins us. "You'll stay overnight. I've prepped a bed." Again more a command than a request.
"Uh - sure. Thanks."
"I know this is difficult to comprehend."
"Just a tad."
"You can still walk away. If you take a few simple precautions, stay off the grid as much as possible, chances are you can live a normal life. You don't have to be part of this."
"Bury my head in the sand, you mean?"
"You have options, that's all. No one's judging you."
"And if I turn my back - who invents this landmine? It matters, apparently. Hell, maybe I matter." Daniel stares down at the pool. He seems to come to a decision. "I grew up in the Valley. Ordinary childhood. Did good at school. Top of the class. Big fish in a little pool, I guess. Now I'm at UCLA and it's a struggle just to stay in the top ten percentile. I've realized I'm unlikely to be the next Bill Gates. When I graduate if I'm lucky I'll land a low level programming gig for some software company. That's if those jobs haven't been outsourced to China by then. No. This is way bigger than that. I'm in, guys. Sign me up to fight the good fight."
Sarah Connor places a hand on Daniel's shoulder. "If you're sure..."
"I'm sure."
"Good. We can help you with certain aspects. Have you ever fired a gun?"
"Nope. Never."
"Cameron can take you to the desert and teach you."
"Awesome."
"Mom, I can do that," John insists.
"No. I think it's best the two of you aren't around each other with weapons."
"Mom!"
"Cameron can handle it. It's not a vacation; he'll be there to learn."
"I will ride him hard," I confirm.
"Can't wait!" Daniel has a broad smile on his face. It is good he is so keen to start learning.
John has a sudden coughing fit. Oh dear, I hope he isn't coming down with a cold.
-0-
In T3 the TX detects John Connor from blood splatter. Not sure how Skynet obtains Daniel's DNA - penal colony maybe?
Thanks for supporting this fanfic. There are times I flatter myself I'm keeping the flame alive. Then again possibly just flogging a dead horse...