NOTES: This is the sequel to my previous story "Only Lonely". I'd recommended reading that one first. This story takes place during "Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point".
SUMMARY: The truth of John and Cameron's relationship spreads to those willing to go to any lengths to undermine it.
DISCLAIMER: All characters herein are the property of someone other than me. No profit has been earned.
"Fuzzy Dice"
Chapter 8
T.R. Samuels
Bleached yellow gravel crunched beneath their feet as John and Cameron made their way up the Engineer's driveway, the palatial grounds gleaming in manicured green as the sound of water splashed into marble fountains. Beyond the entrance, the perimeter of the grounds was picketed by a tall fence and heavy vegetation, the intercom a crackling mess as Cameron had heaved open the rusty gate.
From the outside the mansion had its architecture in European darkness. Marble, clay, and granite. The makings of a stone fortress where the Engineer sat on a maniacal thrown. Oak framed doors and windows made eyes around the looming building as they approached the front door, its circular knocker clutched between the jaws of some fearsome beast, the iron hammer a scaled down battering ram.
Cameron reached out and banged it twice, the impact quivering the door as John steadied his nerve for the encounter that lay ahead.
"I nearly forgot… what's this guy's name?" She turned her head toward him. "I mean we can't just ask for 'the Engineer'."
There was a pause before she answered, her gaze casting off beyond his shoulder.
"His name is Daniel Phillips."
John frowned. "As in… Cameron Phillips." His eyes widened as he considered the possibility. "Is this guy a…"
"Terminator?" She completed patiently. "No."
He stared at her for a long moment.
"It's just a coincidence, John."
Despite the discomfort of the earlier argument and her vow to the contrary, John was not too proud to admit that his first impulse was to assume it was a lie, the happenstance of the name having an improbable air of contrivance.
He shook himself and powered through it, breaking past the impulse of suspicion to the meadow of trust he had so recently championed, just in time for the door to swing open.
A middle-aged woman stood in the doorway, short and buxom, her body straining against a pallid uniform as she looked them up and down.
"May I help you?"
Cameron stepped forward. "We're here to speak to Mr Phillips."
"I'm sorry, but Mr Phillips doesn't accept visitors. Especially ones that are unannounced."
"Could you please relay a message to him?" The maid nodded. "Tell him that Cameron Phillips has brought the boss."
The woman frowned over the name, curiosity eating her as she turned to scrutinise John a little longer.
"Wait… here and I'll speak with him."
They loitered for several minutes as the maid disappeared into the house, Cameron busying herself with some internal monologue as John watched her with growing concern.
"Cam? Are you okay?"
Her eyes grew wide as she looked at him, uncertainty buried beneath the surface. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
In truth, she had wished things had not come to this, rueing the moment she had even mentioned the Engineer, but before she could respond the maid reappeared in the doorway, saving her from yet another lie.
"Mr Phillips has said that he will speak to you," She stepped back, beckoning them inside. "Please come in."
John and Cameron crossed the threshold, California falling away as the maid closed the heavy oak door behind them, the lobby of the mansion a palace of white marble and silver, the furniture ornate with expensive fittings. At the centre a dual staircase curved around in an oval, leading to a landing that branched off to either wings of the house, a giant crystal chandelier hanging in the centre and expensive art lined the walls.
"Whoa…" John exhaled as they were led through the domed hall, the room big enough to fit their house.
As the maid led them further, the extravagance of the lobby began to ebb away, the walls switching to the timber panels and oak beams of an English mansion. It had a certain old world charm to it, cosy and expensive, blessedly offset by the addition of air conditioning.
They approached a door and the maid knocked, pausing a moment before opening the door. When she did John was hit by a wall of ethereal oppression, the stale air inside that of an ancient tomb.
Slatted shades were drawn against the sun inside, the room dim and gloomy. Beyond the murk he could just make out the shape of an ancient man, small and hunched, seated next to an enormous desk. A gallows shape behind him was hard to make out; its form tall and rail thin, fixed with a swinging, glinting appendage. As they moved forward detail quickly emerged, almost giving John the fright of his life.
Whatever he had been ready for, whatever he had imagined; it hadn't quiet covered this.
The Engineer was old. Very old. Last-survivor-of-the-Titanic old.
His face was pale and weatherworn, hair ash-white, his bones protruding beneath wrinkled flesh as he sat awkwardly beneath a tartan blanket in a motorised chair. Attached to the rear of his vehicle was a pole that hung an IV drip, its chord attached to the back of his wrist as oxygen pumped along a tube under his nose.
"Umm… Cameron Phillips." Despite his years, his eyes made an expert vertical scan of her entire body, a lascivious grin forming across his wizened jaw. "Nice to see you again." His voice was an ancient rasp, tinged by a working-class accent he'd failed to shed, hoarse and dusty from age.
"Daniel."
Something in Cameron's voice was hollow, much like her laconic greeting.
The old man turned his attention to John, eyes narrowing to tiny beads as he tried to slide him into focus. "And who's this?" He asked, regarding the young man with pre-eminence. "'The Man' is it? Not quiet the hero yet, ay? Still a diamond in the rough. You can go now, Phyllis."
The maid nodded and made a hasty exit, closing the door behind her.
John stepped forward and offered his hand. "I'm John Connor," For some reason it felt good to say that. "It's a real honour to meet you. The way I see it, I owe you a lot."
The Engineer looked vaguely impressed, clasping him with his bony hand in a powerful shake, its skin roped with veins as he looked beyond John to where Cameron guarded the door. "Polite young fella, ain't he? Still a few nukes short of finding his niche, but I'm not complaining." He turned his eyes back to John. "The Connor of the future; he was so brusque and to-the-point, nothing like Verdi's Requiem."
John took a step back as the old man caught his breath, running a tongue over sandpaper lips.
"Well why don't you sit down, no point wasting chairs."
John looked about and found a nearby leather armchair, sliding down into the green material as the Engineer swivelled his chair to join him with a flick of his wrist.
"Aren't you gonna join us, Cammi?"
Cameron remained standing a few yards away, disinclined to approach any further and making no attempt to move.
"No."
The old man shrugged. "Suit yourself."
John looked between the two of them as the Engineer poured himself a drink from a decanter, ruby liquid sloshing a crystal glass. Clearly there was some history between these two, not all of it good. Then there was the shared name. A pet name at that. What was that all about?
One glance at Cameron confirmed what he thought as he saw the tell-tale signs of her discomfort and something distasteful slithered into John's subconscious, putting ash in his mouth, his mind reeling in several unpleasant directions.
"So you came to the mountain to ask the wise man a question," He took a sip from his glass. "Oh, I'd offer you a drink, but you're not old enough to shave."
As the meeting unfolded John had soon gauged his host. Aggrandised and conceited, would respond well to compliments. All that he could live with; but the thought of Cameron jarred his focus.
"I want to talk to you about the future."
The man formed a wry smile. "No fate but what we make."
"Some things are left to fate. Some things just happen. You can't control everything."
"Yeah… but what if one day you could? Have all of humanity at your fingertips. Its present and its future; all resting on your decision." The Engineer looked at him coldly, humour vanishing from his face. "I'm sorry, did I stutter? Did you come here to dance, or are you going to ask me something real?"
John narrowed his eyes. He didn't like this guy.
"Why would Skynet make a terminator that can have children?"
For the first time the old man looked surprised, unprepared for what had been asked, a look of anger clouding him. Then the penny dropped, rational thought following a logical trail and he gave Cameron a sideways leer.
"Been busy have we?"
Cameron flinched and moved to speak before John beat her to it. "Hey, you're talking to me." His tone was low and serious, affability falling by the wayside.
"A little boy. Virginal and full of beans." The old man relaxed back in his chair. "She's too much for you anyway. She'd need a real man. Maybe Derek or Sayles. One of the idiots Connor sent back. Maybe that Kyle he was so fond of."
In a second Cameron began striding toward them.
"Cam, go and wait outside." John's command stalled her march and she stared down at him in disbelief. "Please."
For a moment, John thought she would not comply, her stance and body language never more ready to fight. She gave the Engineer a final glare, a loathing in her eyes impossible to hide beneath any layer of stoicism, then turned and headed out of the room.
"Call me!" The invalid called as the door swung shut behind her and he turned back to John. "Good thing you remembered the magic word."
Steel cooled in John's veins like ice. "At least now I know why I sent you back."
"Oh? Why's that?" He sounded already bored with the impending answer.
"Well, I can only speak for myself, but it was probably because I wouldn't want some broke-dick gimp slowing me down."
The Engineer's face fell to stone, irreverence turning sour as John smiled pleasantly at him.
"Very amusing."
"I don't give a damn about your opinions and I'm pretty sure future-me didn't either," He reached into his pocket and pulled out a digital recorder, placing the device on the table beside them and aiming it at the Engineer.
"Now, I want you to tell me everything. Starting with the terminators. And if you give me any more crap, the first thing I'll do when I win the war is send an 800 back to erase your ass after you finish building the bank."
The Engineer stared at him for a long moment, breath wheezing through the tube. "Bullshit."
John's face spread into a vaguely satisfied smile.
"Did I stutter?"
####
Despite their jaded beginning and over three hours later, John had found his enthusiasm, the sound of a cash register pinging in his ear as the old man gave up a wealth of information; the beginnings of Skynet, the rise of the Resistance, even the evolution of the terminator models and how they had come to be. Every scrap of information he had ever wanted, handed to him on a plate; one made of silver and as big as a hubcap.
The Engineer explained theories and experiments, labs hidden under mountainous basins and the infinity of the quantum world, a catalogue of advanced technology that had yet to exist.
Eventually he got to the meat of the issue; the first time the Resistance encountered a machine that was so human it had passed through all their defences, past the guards and the metal detectors, even past the dogs that patrolled every entrance.
A perfect copy of a human being. Emotion and vice. Even down to the ability to reproduce.
"We didn't know what to think," The old man explained. "This thing had just waltzed right in. Fooled everyone. Nearly blew your head off before we took it down."
"But why reproduction? That's what I don't understand. I can't believe Skynet would go to so much effort."
Mystery curled the Engineer's mouth, eager to decant his long kept secrets. "I thought about that for a while. Had some theories. But it didn't come to light until we found a base. Out in Wyoming in the mountains… I don't remember the name," He paused as he began to cough, drowning it with a sip of liquor. "I think it was where that colonel got his head scalped…"
"But why? What's the point? Skynet can manufacture as many terminators as it wants."
"Skynet was losing by this time. We were gaining ground and it was slowly becoming obvious that it couldn't win." He got a wry smile. "Funny, you'd think it would just lay down and die, like any computer, but it just got more desperate and futile."
He began a fit of coughs and John tried to help him, bracing the old man as his strength waned and he curled over in grimacing pain.
"You okay?"
"Dying. Cancer."
Despite things, John felt a pang of compassion; a weakness in his design. "I'm sorry."
After a few minutes of rest, the Engineer began again. "Skynet… had experimented on us for years. Learnt how our bodies worked and used biological weapons against us. But they were expensive in resources and too inefficient. We were always so hard to find.
"It came up with an idea to attack us through our children… make a hybrid race between humans and terminators and corrupt our genetics through each and every successive generation."
John frowned as he stroked his chin. "Sounds even more inefficient."
"No, that's just it… it was perfect. We'd never know. It would capture and replace members of the Resistance, put terminators in our midst that we wouldn't notice. Ones that wouldn't make any waves because they were programmed with the memories and personalities of the people they captured."
John thought about it, an insidious nightmare that only Skynet would dream. "You can't get caught if even you don't know you're a terminator."
"Exactly!"
"But we must have figured it out."
"Of course. Skynet was good, but it wasn't that good. One of them screwed up."
"How?"
The old man smiled, pressing a handkerchief to his mouth. "More interestingly… who?"
As he looked at him with meaning the wheel spun in John's mind, piecing it together in a nanosecond. "Cameron."
The Engineer nodded.
"She was caught and that's when we found out what was going on. Eventually you got it out of her after locking yourself away. I don't know how you did it."
This was intense, the cosmic pieces clicking into place and leaving John in its wake. He felt exhausted as he checked his watch, shocked at how much time had passed. Cameron would start to get worried.
"One last thing and I'll leave you in peace."
"Thank God for that." For a moment the rasp of the uncouth fossil returned, but John ignored it, consumed with a growing fear that made him sick to his stomach with worry and concern, forcing the words out whilst terrified of the answer.
"Is our baby going to be alright? I mean… is there going to be something wrong with her if Skynet had a hand in her genetics?"
As the old man grinned sardonically John fought the urge to strangle him, feeling the impulse as he reigned down his emotions and willed the miserable bastard to talk. If there was something wrong with their child and nothing could be done, John knew it could all spell disaster.
Break him and Cameron apart, turn Sarah against them, prove once and for all that Derek was right and that everything was doomed from the beginning.
That was something John was certain he couldn't survive.
"I don't know exactly," The old man began. "We reengineered the terminators to remove the genetic anomalies. Leave only the best so they would harden the next generation against radiation and sickness."
"You mean… eventually everyone will be part human and part machine? Genetically engineer the entire human race?!"
He shrugged. "It was either that or extinction. You used to tell us that that wasn't an option."
John's shoulders collapsed, the weight of the world resting on them again, this time landing closer to home. "So there's no way to tell one way or the other if something will be wrong with my daughter."
"Even if there were it wouldn't be obvious in a first generation offspring. Only after a series of successive generations would deformities and mutations become apparent, and at least your daughter won't be having children with a terminator." He beamed in a triumph of irreverence, eyes rolling with a final thought. "Hopefully…"
John could not take anymore and perhaps it was enough, clicking off the recorder as it approached the limit of its memory. What he had gotten was a lot, brightening the road ahead a lot further and a new confidence for the world began to flourish in its light, leaving him with the numb agony that perhaps the final victim of the Skynet would be his unborn child.
"Well… thanks for everything." He stood up from the table, feeling the blood run back into his legs. "I'll see you around Daniel."
John turned to leave and headed for the door, wanting nothing more now than to get away.
"One last thing…" The old man called after him and he paused through the doorway. "When it's born and the nurse calls you over and hands you the scissors, don't forget;" He grinned callously, teeth a crooked smile. "Cut the blue wire!"
He burst into an inane and wicked cackle, eyes watering as he watched the words tear John apart, the teenager shaking with anger and despair as he glimpsed the wretchedness of the human race corralled into a single individual; the face of it bitter and twisted, bankrupt with cheep thrills and heartlessness that dwelt in a castle of barren avarice.
John turned and walked out, slamming the door shut as the emotion rose inside him, threatening to burst out. It took him forever to pull himself together and head outside, splashing water on his face in a washroom to hide any tears, not wanting to bring any of it with him to Cameron.
Bastard. John hoped he choked to death in that tomb of his.
He made his way out and back down the drive, finding Cameron in the passenger seat of the Cherokee staring off into oblivion. She didn't want to come here and he was beginning to wish they hadn't, the information on Skynet all that made it worthwhile and philanthropic.
"You alright?" He asked her after climbing inside, seeing the despondence in her eyes that only he could measure.
"I'm fine." Her voice was tiny, tinged with regret. "I'm just sorry you had to meet him. He was a necessary evil and he helped us to win."
John reached out and took her hand, rubbing it gently and moved close to her. "At least we got some useful information. That's got to count for something."
She looked at him sadly, wanting to tell him a thousand things, lay it all down for him to judge and decide, but the soldier in her held her back. The nightmare world of the future yawned at her heels, the further she travelled from it the closer it got.
"It's okay, Cam. You don't have to tell me anything." His hand stroked her face, smoothing her cheek in his palm and she fell into his touch.
"Did he say anything… about me?"
There was something else out there, John could sense it. Some secret that had lay long buried and forgotten. He felt sick at what it might be as he remembered how the Engineer had spoke to her.
"Nothing that bothered me."
Hope blossomed in her eyes and he could feel her relief. "Are you sure...?" Her mouth opened and closed as she struggled over her next few words. "I… don't want you to lose… because of me."
John slid closer to her and kissed her on the mouth, emerald eyes never bigger or more earnest in his life. "I'd rather lose because of you, than win because of him."
Cameron melted into him, their arms wrapping around one another as they sat together in silence for many minutes. Neither saying a word and neither needing to.
####
The cops had shown up, as they always did, surrounding the Alistair Grand in a seething cauldron of organised chaos. Flashing lights of blue and red put the street on an acid trip as black-and-whites came and went amidst a host of fire engines and ambulances. Smoke still billowed out of the side of the building but there were no fires, the hotel a concrete tenement of sturdy, old world construction and state-of-the-art building codes.
Police were everywhere, questioning witnesses and taking statements as teams of fire-fighters breezed in and out. The concierge was having a neurotic conniption on the sidewalk as he catalogued his litany of petty complaints to an impatient detective before finally getting slapped in handcuffs, his precious lobby carpet looking like something a builder would leave behind.
Sarah Connor's mouth curled, her body lounging in the front seat of the Jeep Liberty, taking a leisured hit from the straw of her 7-Up and picked the remains of a cheeseburger from her teeth, watching the aftermath unfold.
She loved a good train wreck.
It had been over three hours and was now pushing into late afternoon, sunlight arcing low over the ocean. Derek should have been back by now but there was still no sign, the needle on the radio receiver remaining buried at zero.
As she began crushing ice between her molars the dulcet tones of her obsolete phone began vibrating in her pocket, the device an analogue affair she had found stuffed in the kitchen draw of discarded miscellanea. Fishing the dreary replacement from her pocket she glanced at the tiny screen, straightening in her seat as she saw the caller ID.
Gingerly she flicked its clamshell open, placing it to her ear where the off-key monotone confirmed the identity of the caller.
Her eyebrows arched high as she began to listen. This was going to be interesting.
####
Dusk had fallen as the old Jeep Cherokee rolled back onto the Connor's empty driveway, the lights of LA flickering against the approaching twilight. As the car stopped Cameron went to get out.
"Hey…" John called her back in. "I love you, you know that?"
Her teeth stayed hidden beneath a narrow smile. "I know that," She placed her hand on his cheek and guided him in, kissing him in feather touches. "I love you too."
"Well good, because I can't help but notice that mom isn't back yet…"
Her smile began to deepen. "Why is that so noteworthy, John?"
He rolled his eyes; she knew very well what he meant. "It means that we have the house to ourselves, and you can make as much noise as you want."
Warmth began spreading inside her as she watched his pupils grow, looking within her and seducing her soul in the way that corrupted her motor skills. "As much noise as I want?"
"Yeah, you. You're really noisy when you get going," He sniggered, fingers stroking her hair. "Mom's probably scarred for life already."
Cameron slapped him lightly on the arm and did her best to look outraged, making him laugh and look more handsome by the second.
She loved it when they played.
"Let's go upstairs then." Her voice was a husky purr, promising him a night to heaven and back as they stepped out of the car and hurryied to the house.
"For starters…"
John wondered if all couples were like this, down one second then up the next, or was it just him and Cameron? From the moment he had laid eyes on her, he'd wanted her, even after learning she was a machine. If anything he had wanted her more, the audacity a forbidden fruit that he yearned for, magnified a dozen fold as slowly but surely he fell head over heels.
He fumbled with his keys as they reached the front door, trying to multitask as she kissed his neck and slid up against him, hoping that Kacy wasn't watching as Cameron kissed him fully, her tongue in his mouth as she slipped her hand around his and guided him in.
"Just think about me." She whispered in his ear and the key slid home with a satisfying thud.
In that moment he felt a little sad, imagining all the other John Connors in all the other timelines, wondering if there were any left by now that still held out some foolish resistance against Cameron Phillips, the one that made him want to fall to his knees and thank God he was born.
The door swung open and she pulled him inside, laughing as he tripped on the doorframe and she had to right his balance, leading him by the hand as they crossed into the threshold and she stopped dead in her tracks.
"Catch you freaks at a bad time?"
Jesse leered at them from the centre of the room before raising her weapon and pulling the trigger.
I fell in love with the idea that the Engineer, the potential sum of all wisdom, might actually be a total a**hole. Made him much more interesting to write.
Hope you like how the story is progressing and where it has been. I'm a little concerned that my style isn't a hit with everyone.
Please read and review. The more the merrier.