This is a gentle look at human and canine infiltration techniques. It's got some violence and non-violence as well . If you like dogs and martial arts this might be for you.
Derek Reese was watching CNN News. Yoshi had taken Cameron and John to their first martial arts class. She was going to sit and watch them training. Derek had got the whole house to himself. For the first time, in as long as he could remember, he was actually on his own.
There were in for two hours of training, so Yoshi taken a Scientific American along to read in the class . Derek had glanced through the magazine ( geek-book ) in the kitchen just before she left. One article jumped out at him.
Co-workers at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris have carried out an experimental tour de force by catching an individual photon in a box, detecting it in a way that leaves it in the box and then detecting it again. The result is the first demonstration of a "quantum nondemolition" (QND) measurement on a single particle.
He might be a Tech-grunt, but Derek knew his basic history. He'd thought about this and as there was no one else around, he spoke his thoughts out loud
"Yeh, you lot go right ahead , a few short years from now geeks like you will be getting rich faster than anyone can spend it . You'll be working out how to make all those neat little neural nets, and chips, and overnight, we become obsolete , nuked , bombed out, barcoded, chipped and shipped . How about that , hey Jadey?"
Jadey climbed up on the sofa and curled up against Derek with her back pressed into his side.
He stoked the fur on her flank and picked at a piece of grass stem tangled in the hairs under her hind leg . She rolled on her back so he could stroke her tummy.
On The News a Column of Russian Tanks tanks were advancing . The commentator explained "Russian forces were taking control of a strategic ridge within artillery range of the Chechen capital Grozny after mounting an intense tank and artillery barrage against Chechen fighters ."
Five thousand humans had died in that offensive, murdered by their fellow human beings, today.
Derek , shook his head,
", You know these idiots, they never learnt a damn thing, until it was all too late. Judgement Day ,Jadey, at least you didn't get to see that. " Jadey opened one eye and sighed. She wanted to go out On Patrol. She rolled over , sat up and yawned When she did she displayed two rows of perfect Coltan based, Polynamel coated white teeth . Then she flopped down again.
Derek looked Jadey over . She was a perfect , seamless simulacra of ' dog' . At a rational level he knew she required a shielded power cell to run her optics and she'd been kitted- out with a sprung Coltan frame jaw , powered from the same source . Jadey's teeth had polynammel coating which shatters painlessly if she bites too hard into anything, particularly Metal. The white breaks away to reveal rows of razor sharp, serrated Coltan. Her jaw can exert unthinkable sheer force. The Polynammel re-grows again afterwards. The difference, he thought, between Cameron and Jadey is, Cameron knows what she is, Jadey hasn't first idea she isn't a normal dog. Derek can live with that. None of this was ever Jadey's 'fault'.
He felt the lightweight Coltan armour that formed her rib cage, "Hey you know what you are"- he rubbed her head "you're a walking tank with fur. You know that girlie? " Then he went back to stroking her tummy. He tells Jadey stuff when no one else is around. And you should know , Jadey's saved his life on more than one occasion.
With one eye still open , Jadey imaged her new Patrol , She was running through the night, through long rows of pine with Cameron. She was telling Jadey she was a such good girl, she didn't break a single cobweb. Maybe If she dozed a while it would seem like Cameron would be back sooner. She closed her eye and felt the Derek's hand stoking her fur.
A little later Jadey's back legs twitched, and she growled in her sleep: Maybe one night , Cameron would take her out on her old Patrol again . Out to that place miles from base where there are no trees , only desert. There she and Cameron could track Sniper Grey's . They would find one, Cameron would ( sometimes) snap its neck , or punch clean through it, before methodically tearing off its head and limbs . She'd pull out and deactivate the neural interface and tracking devices. They'd conceal the torso of the Sniper- Grey under the sand . Cameron would then scatter a trail of broken body parts to set up the next Kill Zone. On later patrols Jadey could locate them again for Cameron, they would both return, dig up the rotting carcass, and cover themselves to disguise their scent . These were, Jadey's favourite Patrols of all : that's when the just two of them went out into the night, hunting down Sniper-Greys and ReconT600 Metal.
in 1999 Jadey couldn't understand why there were now so many trees, so much grass and where her big desert had gone. It didn't matter, 'her' Cameron would be back , soon.
"...18 and 19" John Connor pressed up, his arm muscles wobbled and burned, his back shook and he looked down at droplets of his own sweat on the varnished floorboards. The floor of the gym reeked of years of dried sweat , , old rank boxing gloves and shin guards. In the background the higher ranking fighters were pounding bags, shadowing in mirrors, flowing combinations of punches and kicks were hitting air, there was the click -click and whoosh of a fast, controlled skipping ropes. He'd learnt tonight, a well co-ordinated Kickboxer could easily keep 200 skips per minute , more than three a second. Learning to skip he'd managed thirty seven before the beginners minute was up and the trainer told them to get down on the floor and begin circuit and stretching.
"Keep your back straight John , hold it there, and come on now big push make it to twenty, now that's good! Class roll over. Sit ups and one and two, come on ."Ten unranked students rolled onto their backs and stared at the ceiling waiting for count.
Cameron found herself posed with a completely new set of problems. She had taken in a litre of electrolyte so she seemed to be sweating. At Fifteen press-ups she had stopped pushing up and taken her weight on her knees. She'd blown her hair out of her eyes from the corner of her lip and made a "this is hard "expression to the girl-partner in front of her who was also resting up. She knew the girl's name becase it was on the gold necklace she'd taken off before training.
When the trainer said sit-us Cameron whispered, "this is so harsh. "
Cameron and Chrisse did five sit ups and fell on their backs.
" I came with my boyfriend "Cameron explained, " I've done some dance but nothing like this . If it gets any worse I swear to god he's doing ballet next week."
Chrisse looked over at John struggling on sit up on sixteen. No one would take John for a fighter unless they knew him, so Chrisse said, "he's cute."
Then she asked, "Who's the slow guy?"
Cameron tilted her head . She looked around. There was an boy, maybe the same age as them . He had an orange sash but he didn't seem to operate at the same level as the other boxers. Then Cameron noticed his eyes. He was Downs Syndrome.
Cameron said nothing. All humans appear relatively physically slow, and few could keep pace with her mentally , so the difference between most humans and the Down's Syndrome boy was negligible. She genuinely couldn't comprehend the nature of the question. When the sit-ups finished, to change the subject , Cameron looked up at the ceiling and groaned. They had been informed it was crunches next.
They class have must have seen release of Fight Club, because at the end of circuit and streaching the trainer shouted "the rule of this class is", and the class replied "if you train here everyone must spar". It was light contact for beginners , as well.
Yoshi put down her scientific journal and began watching with interest. If Cameron could do this it would be one peak moment of Yoshi's work. Under her breath Yoshi whispered: " Come on Cameron, come on now, show me what you can do." It was halfway to being a prayer.
Cameron made eye contact , and indicated she wanted to spar with the Downs boy, Steven. Cameron looked exactly like a well trained ballet student in a Kickboxing class for her first time. No fighting technique, the ability to move with grace and purpose, ineffectual stylised aggression. Steven, put a few combinations together, and if you really knew what you were looking for Cameron presented targets for him to hit. He punched out a combination, which wasn't aimed to hurt her in any way , it lightly contacted on her shoulder. She made couple of high balletic kicks and allowed him time to step to the side . She smiled, then threw a soft , slow cross so he could move, out of the way. The trainer shouted, "Stevie, keep moving,if you stand still that's when you get hit, Nice cross Cameron, but keep that head down, keep your gloves up."
John was sparring with Jake , one of the high ranked fighters. He was going really easy on John, but to John kicks and punches were real enough. Right now John had so much adrenaline flowing through him he wouldn't feel them. They would bruise lightly and tone muscle. They felt like cushioned blasts of compressed air and when a big turning kick contacted with John the breath was knocked out of his lungs . The experienced fighter was using as little energy as possible, he had John going round in this big circle. He kept him moving all the time. The trained fighter was teaching John , moving you around like this is how an efficient r fighter will work you out, burn your energy and wear you down, then pick you off.
Last round it was Cameron's turn with Jake. They touched gloves and Jake danced waay from her. He was letting Cameron make the ineffectual ballet style kicks at him . Jake stepped in, threw a flurry of light punches, each one lightly contacted with their targets - her shoulders and ribs, a gentle one landed on her forehead. The idea is to teach, not to hurt. That's when Cameron became aware of what she had to do. Without him realising , she moved him into a position where his anatomy and musculature automatically wound him up to throw a straight punching right cross. She turned her face to the exact point of contact , and waited what seemed like a long time for the glove to contact...
... with the bridge of her nose.
Yoshi got up, and put her hands to her mouth to disguise what she was really feeling. This was exceptional.
Cameron bent over with head down gloves below her knees. The class stopped and the trainer came over and put his hand on her shoulder. Jake did the same.
"Are you Ok? Come on, look up ."
Cameron looked up . A thin string of blood and snot dangled from her nose. She wiped it on her sleeve and
examined it , then she nodded Jake. "I'm Ok". She put her gloves up and the trainer patted her on the back. Cameron carried on sparring with Jake another twenty five seconds until the trainer called time.
At the end of the session, Jake came over and patted her on the back, and the high ranking fighters nodded at John and Cameron, they'd both shown guts . The door to acceptance in their club was now open to them.
Jadey jumped down off the sofa, and Derek woke up with a start. They'd both been snoring. When he opened his eyes it was still 1999- He let out a sigh of relief. The front door was opening and they were coming in. Derek began brushing traces dog hair of the sofa with his hand . Jadey wasn't really allowed on there . She'd, sneaked back to the kitchen to make it appear she'd been in her basket all evening.
Cameron came straight into the living room. She glanced at the space next to him, and then at him, and maybe she'd given him him the faintest smile before she turned and walked to the hall . She knew Derek Reese, self professed detester of all things Metal related, had just spent his quiet evening in, watching TV, fussing and grooming her Coltan-organic hybrid Search and Destroy Attack dog.
Derek, she reflected was complicated, no , in colloquial terms , he was just 'freakin weird at times'.
"John, John" Cameron shouted up the stairs from the hall, "don't you even think about it", Cameron was climbing the stairs, " I spend three minutes in that shower and you take up to half an hour in there."
"So?"
"So, that was the point at which you lost the debate and why I get first shower."
"I didn't loose the debate, it's on hold"
"Well you don't hold it in my shower- Connor , don't you even dare go near that bathroom door"
There was laughter, and it sounded like towel had been flicked and contacted with a human back. Derek heard John's retreating footsteps on the landing and his bedroom door closing.
They'd been bickering over this point for hours during the week. The pair of them seemed to enjoy it.