Chapter Two

The Situation Worsens

Ellison could admit to himself that he was nervous. Meeting a CIA assassin that was from Black Briar went against a lot of things he believed in. Those assassins or assets tended to break the law to do their tasks, including the laws of their own country and the limits of the organization that sent them. They were assassins after all; none of them would have been welcomed with open arms, hence more espionage and illegal activities. The other portion involved that they killed and murdered without hesitation or regret. Such wanton killing was against the foundations of his religious beliefs. One of the Ten Commandments was Thou Shalt Not Kill. These men did it for a living, and were condoned for it.

And if his gut instinct was right, whoever the CIA sent could cause serious trouble for John. However, John didn't need any more trouble than he could afford. Ellison thought there was more on John's shoulder than a man should bear; now the government was sending elite assassins after him. Ellison had to throw off the assassin somehow. He could try to make the Connors sound intimidating; he doubted the person could be intimidated. But if Ellison could make his briefing to the CIA man sound vague and strange enough, then perhaps he could give them time, delude the trail so that the assassin would have a harder time finding them. He had to make himself seem like an enemy of the Connors as well.

From where he sat at the table with his folders, Ellison watched the door open. It sent chills down his spine, and it seemed as though the door opened slowly; he must have started having an adrenaline rush. The first person to enter was a woman. She had blond hair that came down to her shoulders, a worn dark green felt coat, and a look that was searching and knowing. Whoever she was, she was intelligent. The woman didn't have the deadly look in her eye that marked her as a killer, but even if she was passive she was a threat in other ways. The second person that entered behind her was a man, and he caught Ellison's full attention.

The man was dressed simply in a gray shirt and black jacket. The way he moved was unassuming and yet it wasn't at the same time. But what stood out the most to Ellison was his face. He recognized that face, from countless news shows, missing person queries, and at one point the CIA's Most Wanted. The face was cold, blank, ruthless, intelligent, and a death sentence. Ellison felt a chill go down his spine. This man was Jason Bourne, David Webb—the renegade assassin from Black Briar who had taken the entire program on and won. The CIA hadn't just sent anyone; they had sent their best piece, their elite, their queen, their ultimate tool.

The situation for the Connors became much worse in Ellison's eyes. He had gone over some of the files the FBI had on Jason Bourne when he had been having a slow day. They had made his jaw drop and doing double takes on the street. He had appeared all over the globe and then vanished without a trace. It was said Bourne could stand right behind a man before he realized that Bourne was there, or that Bourne could hit a target from a mile down the street. Ellison had seen some of the facts; he believed a majority of them. Few people had the caliber and potential for such skill and chaos. The only thing Ellison thought could be more terrifying would be the return of the machine called Skynet.

Jason Bourne and the woman sat down across from Ellison. "Are you James Ellison?" Bourne asked.

"I am," Ellison replied. He tried to feign ignorance. "You are the CIA's contacts?"

"This is Nicky Parsons," Bourne introduced. "My name is Jason Bourne." He said it coolly, without trouble; he did not fear his own name. Ellison needed to do anything he could now to give the Connor's even a spare minute. "What's the background on the target?"

Ellison cleared his throat. "The target is teenager John Connor: white male with dark hair. He's about sixteen or seventeen." He opened the first folder and placed down a picture of John from the bank. "At first it was believed he was a victim of events, but lately it's been thought that he is masterminding the cell's operations."

"Who are these?" Nicky asked, pointing to the two women in the photograph.

"This is Sarah Connor, John's mother. She is responsible for the destruction of multiple corporations as well as the murder of Miles Dyson. Originally she was the only terrorist, but her son has proven much cleverer at the game," Ellison answered. "The other girl is Cameron Phillips. Other than that we don't know much about her. She has no history that we can find." There was good reason for that.

"Any others?" Bourne asked. Ellison saw an opportunity to give the Connors an advantage and worked on keep his voice flat and even.

"No; just those three," Ellison lied. Bourne examined the photograph more; he was probably putting the images to memory.

Nicky stared at the photograph for a shorter time before sweeping a lock behind her ear. "What's their motive?" she asked.

Here was where he could try to disorient them. Ellison began. "Sarah Connor believes that one day robots will rebel against mankind and begin trying to exterminate us. She claims that the father of her child was a soldier from the future sent back to protect her. She was placed in an asylum for a time, but she didn't show any improvement. She escaped with the help of her son, a child at the time, and another man who had murdered a police precinct several years earlier."

"Did she show any other symptoms or medical conditions?" Nicky interrupted. Ellison was thrown off guard. This Nicky Parsons must have some sort of psychology degree.

"No," he admitted. "After escaping, they murdered Miles Dyson and destroyed his corporation. Then they vanished. Occasionally they were found but escaped; the man that had been with them was never seen. It's assumed that he is dead. Then eight years ago, John and Sarah Connor were seen at this bank," Ellison tapped the photo "with Cameron Phillips. They destroyed the bank and it was assumed they killed themselves in the explosion. No trace of them was found for eight years. Then they began to appear in reports out of the blue."

"What's their goal?" Bourne questioned.

"We don't know."

"You were on their case before they vanished eight years ago," Bourne continued. "Do you suspect where they vanished to?"

"Into hiding is our only guess," Ellison said. Which they had, just eight years later.

"They've been seen lately then."

"If the reports are true."

"They haven't aged?"

"Not at all. They're the same they were eight years ago," Ellison confirmed. John was still sixteen, and if his mother was telling the truth about to marry Cameron.

That didn't seem to faze Bourne. "Have you run into them since they reappeared?" Bourne asked. Ellison focused on keeping his voice cool again.

"No," he lied. Bourne continued to ask a few more questions, as did Nicky, and then Bourne stood up, nodded, and left. Nicky Parsons followed him. Ellison sighed and leaned back in his chair, covering his eyes with a hand. The meeting had been more stressful than he expected. He needed to warn the Connors about who was on their trail; if they hadn't known about Black Briar, then they needed to know about Jason Bourne.

Outside the room in the hall, Bourne's body language shifted as he turned towards Nicky. Nicky gave a bare nod. "Then you caught it too," Bourne muttered.

"He was lying," Nicky agreed. "He's seen them lately."

*****

"Oh shit," Derek grumbled, hanging up his cell phone. Sarah glared at him. He glared back; now was not the time for lectures about language. He decided not to speak but turned on the TV and tuned it to a news station. They listened for a while before Sarah swore as well. Derek was grateful that Fred, Mark, and Jack were partial to watching TV. Otherwise they would have missed this, and then it would have been game over. "I think I know whodunit," Derek said. Sarah ignored him; John needed to see what was being reported. She called for him.

John came rushing out of his room, recognizing his mother's tone of voice. Not surprising to Sarah, Cameron was with him. When wasn't Cameron with John anymore? Very important private times came to Sarah's mind; they had better not be together during those. If she so much as caught hint that Cameron sat on the toilet and waited for John to shower, she would kill Cameron and snip John. "What?" John asked in a surly teenager tone. He had been either doing something or hadn't felt like coming out; it was probably a combination of both.

"We have trouble," Sarah said, folding her arms. John looked to the TV for an answer. His tell showed for a moment before he swore as well. He turned up the volume to hear.

"…The final confirmation of casualties is not still not fully accounted at this time," the reporter was saying, "but officials aren't declaring any survivors. Camera footage from the scene has been erased, further adding to the mystery of the terrorist group responsible. An FBI source has stated that the level of thoroughness was unprecedented, although fingerprints apparently have been found at the scene.

"Nobody has claimed responsibility for the theft which is another anomaly for the mystery group. However officials assure us that whoever did do this won't be able to remain hidden long, since the means of transporting and concealing a missile of this size are unconventional. The National Guard has been called in as have a large amount of FBI and SWAT teams. We can expect security at checkpoints and airports to increase until the situation is resolved and the missile is secured or destroyed. Back to you Bob."

The screen changed back to another reporter at a desk in a newsroom. "Thanks Phil," Bob said. "For those of you just tuning in a nuclear missile has been stolen from a US military storage facility. The Def Com level has been raised to 2 and will likely rise to 3 in the near future. People are advised to stay in their homes as much as possible and businesses are being asked to close. Also, the military is conducting searches for information in nearby homes; homeowners are being asked to cooperate to help catch the cell responsible. The map shows the areas and homes in the vicinity of the missile silo. In the mean time your news station will be here to keep you updated as this crisis continues…"

"I'll bet you anything that Skynet or any of its metals had something to do with this, not some terrorist group," Derek said. John agreed with Derek on that point.

"So we can assume Skynet is going back to square one and just trying to start Judgment Day," John said.

"Square two," Cameron corrected. "Square one was killing you." John didn't answer back. He didn't want to hurt Cameron's feelings by saying something rude, but that kind of comment was really not necessary at the moment. What they needed was a way to track the missile.

"The shape doesn't matter, Tin Miss," Sarah countered. At least his mother could speak her mind. John wouldn't if it meant Cameron was injured, even emotionally. "How would Skynet start a war with a stolen nuke?"

"By detonating it in a country with an adequate amount of nuclear weapons," Cameron answered. "The highest probability of success is blaming another nation for the detonation. This will bring more nuclear systems online, as well as creating funding for an artificial intelligence to control them."

"But if everyone knows the nuke's stolen," Derek asked, pointing at the screen, "Won't they figure that terrorists did it?"

"Not if the leads point to agents of another nation," John answered for Cameron. He could see how it all went together in his head. No matter what country was bombed, US military would build Skynet to either protect their nukes or to use them on another target. Skynet would come into production and use nukes on everyone. They needed to find and destroy the nuke, fast. "Do you know how to find it?" John asked.

"My power source is nuclear. I can scan for nuclear weapons and energy sources," Cameron answered.

"But you can only do it in a certain range," Sarah concluded.

"That's correct."

"How big of one?"

"Seven thousand yard radius."

"Great," Derek complained. "Now all we need to do is run back and forth across the whole world until our nuke detector goes Bing." Sarah punched his shoulder as warning, but what Derek was saying matched what they were all thinking. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack. They needed to narrow the range down.

"Mom," John called. "Can't Ellison give us leads until we figure out how to find a missing nuclear missile?"

"He can feed us what the FBI knows at least," Sarah agreed. "He said he would call or visit after his meeting's over. If he doesn't know about this already, he will soon."

*****

Across from FBI headquarters, Nicky sat at the bus stop, listening to an iPod. She kept her face down towards the screen but her attention across the street. Two blocks away, Bourne was waiting in their car for Nicky's signal. The doors opened, and somebody else left the building. Ellison still hadn't left yet. Bourne had expected him to leave within half an hour of their meeting. It was twenty-eight minutes since. Nicky knew Ellison had to come out soon; she had gathered a good amount of information on his personality by meeting him; and Bourne was rarely wrong when it came to the deadly and precarious game of espionage.

As the song she was listening to ended, Ellison exited the building. Nicky did nothing, but paused her iPod and reached for her phone in her pocket. She turned it on; only one headphone was connected to the iPod. The other was a no-hands set. Ellison looked around before getting into his car. Bourne picked up the phone to answer her. "He's leaving," Nicky reported.

"Call Paz," Bourne said. "Have him follow Ellison. I'll follow Paz's signal."

"Be careful," Nicky warned. Bourne hung up, and she called Paz. He was waiting in a rental car with a signaling device for Bourne to track. Nicky watched as Ellison drove away. Half a minute later, Paz drove by. Another half minute passed before Bourne stopped by. He stopped long enough for her to climb in, and then they headed after Paz's signal.