CH 7 A new house and a new life.
On the Air Force base near Palmdale, Major Franklin sat at the private conference room table with General Abram and the Air Force General of the base, General Wakefield. The greeted each other, then got down to business.
"I take it this is a top secret project?" General Wakefield asked as he eyed the other two men.
"Eyes and ears only," General Abram stated. "Major," he said with a nod.
Major Franklin passed General Wakefield pictures of people as he talked. "I'll go down the list. This is Catherine Weaver, or rather, an AI in a machine closely resembling her. The real Catherine Weaver died in a helicopter accident years ago. This ... machine has been running Zeita Corp, and taking care of Mrs. Weaver's daughter, Savannah. Savannah of course, will inherit Zeita corp. when she turns eighteen," he explained, showing him a picture of Savannah Weaver.
General Wakefield froned at the picture, then eyed him. "You're telling me we have a true AI?"
"Not just one," Franklin said, and passed him a picture of John Henry. "This is John Henry, an AI that Catherine Weaver, the AI, built to track down and destroy the Sky Net prototype. Apparently, the Sky Net prototype had a malfunction in it, and was going to start world war three. It was stopped by Mrs. Weaver's AI, and help from another place. It still exists, and so does the danger."
"There are two AI's, General Wakefield said with a nod.
"More. John Henry is being supported by this AI, Cameron Connor," Major Franklin said, and showed a picture of her. "Cameron and Catherine are the most advanced AI's. John Henry is learning at a fast pace, but Catherine and Cameron are our knowledge bases."
"How many AI's we got?" General Wakefield asked in surprise.
"There is another one you must be aware of, Cameron's child, Allison."
General Wakefield let out a snort, eyeing Franklin. "You are telling me one of your AI's has a child? Don't you mean a new model?"
"We have records of the birth," General Abram said firmly. "Cameron Connor is a cybernetic organism, fully female and capable of having children. She is also married to John Connor, who she is very protective of. She also has a processor in her metal head that runs her programs."
"That is extraordinary. How did you do this?" General Wakefield asked, shocked by the news.
"We didn't," Major Franklin said. "Cameron Conner and Catherine Weaver are from the future. They came back in time to stop Sky Net from destroying the world. The danger still exists, so we are supporting these AI's the best we can. Now, about this child. Allison is another story all together. Mrs. Connor allowed us to monitor the birth and her child. Allison will be going to school at Dietrich Academy. Tests show she is a genius, and also has some form of mental powers that are very strong. When I say strong, I mean ridiculously strong. We need your men to be able to recognize these people and offer assistance if needed."
General Wakefield rubbed his chin as he eyed Allison's photo. "She's an AI too?" he asked.
"No, Allison has a human brain and mostly human body, but her skeletal structure is made of a metal alloy which means she is a cyborg," Major Franklin explained. "How she got that combination, I can't say, other than that was how she was grown in Cameron's womb. Between us, the best thing I can say is be nice, and don't piss this kid off. Her mother can rip apart cars with her bare hands. This kid doesn't even have to touch them."
"There was an accident not long before we arrived," General Abram added. "Allison stepped out in front of a car we figured was traveling thirty five, forty miles an hour. Allison stopped the car dead, wrecking it. There was a three and a half foot gap between her and the car. It never touched her."
"Like I said, strong mental powers," Major Franklin stated.
"That's impossible," Wakefield stated.
"Apparently not for her," Major Franklin said.
"What we need, General," Abram said firmly "Is for your people to be able to recognize these folks, assist them if needed and ask no questions. We'll have a hot line set up. If anything happens with any of them, we need to know immediately."
Major Franklin passed Wakefield another picture. "This is the car that ran into Allison. Look at the front."
Wakefield looked at the picture and frowned. "This car hit a little girl?" he asked.
"Missed her by three feet, it hit whatever she did to stop it."
Wakefield eyed them. "This goes a step beyond," he said in a grave tone.
"Way beyond. I take it we can count on you?"
"I'll get right on passing the word."
.
Dietrich Academy was a tall brick building with ivy growing up the sides and tall columns in the front. Set back from the road on a long tree lined drive, it looked more like a university than a kid's school.
Allison got out of the car in her new school uniform, white shirt and black string tie, medium blue jacket and plaid knee length skirt, the jacket bearing the symbol for the school, a 'DA' inside a 'U' shaped ivy vine embossed in red over the left breast pocket. She wore plain knee high white socks and brown shoes. Looking up at the tall columns of the entryway, Allison said, "This place is pretty."
"Come on, sweetie." John said and held one of her hands. Cameron held Allison's other hand. Like Allison, her parents wore nice, conservative clothes. John had a suit on, Cameron wore a simple, well taylored dress. The one thing they were not happy about was the school's 'no hats' rule. Allison's silver horns nstled in her long pink hair reflected in the sunshine. Only a blind man could possibly miss them.
"Well, let's see what happens," John mussed. At the top of the steps, he opened the door and ushered his girls in, Allison's horns clearly showing through her pink hair.
The receptionist was also in the school uniform. The bespectacled woman looked up as their footfalls sounded across the cavernous entryway.
"May I help you?" she asked pleasantly.
John motioned to Allison. "Allison Connor reporting to school. I'm John, her father, this is Cameron, her mother."
"Ah yes, Allison Connor," the woman repeated. "I see you already have your uniform, Miss Connor. Very good, dear." Leading closer, she asked, "Just what is that on your head, dear? You are aware adornments are not allowed."
"Those are my nubs," Allison said.
"For whatever reason, Allison was born with them. They don't come off," John explained.
"Interesting," the woman said. "Those go into her scalp?"
"They are part of her skull," Cameron stated.
"Very interesting," the woman said smoothly. "And I suppose there is brain matter inside them that may cause the possibility of brain damage, should surgery be attempted."
"Yes."
"I see." The woman pushed a button on her intercom. "Miss Jacob, Miss Connor has arrived with her parents. Shall I send them in?"
"Please do."
The woman motioned to the hallway beside her. "Second door on the left. Miss Jacobs is waiting for you."
John was gratefully surprised that the woman didn't make a big fuss over Allison's horns. Miss Jacobs, a light haired older woman was a bit more intrigued. The woman greeted them and offered them seats. She then inspected Allsion's head. She asked Allison tip her head, and studied the hard appendages.
"This does not look like bone," the woman said as she tapped it. "It appears to be some sort of metal."
"I got bones like Mommy," Allison told her.
"You mother has metal bones?" Miss Jacobs asked, looking over her glasses at Cameron.
"I'm a cyborg," Cameron stated.
Miss Jacobs nodded slightly. "Yes, that bit on the news a while back. And if you hadn't had that accident, no one would ever know," she concluded. "Be that as it may," she said returning to her desk. "The recommendation I received is that Allison is a very bright child. Mr. Connor, Mrs. Connor, our classrooms are geared to assist children in learning at their own pace. Unlike the quarterly and yearly tests most schools give, we give tests when a child completes each section of education. We have a boy here who is twelve years old and has just started tenth grade. There is a girl who is sixteen, and in her second year of college, chemical engineering. Some proceed very quickly, others tend to learn in spurts, covering a grade level in three months then enjoying sports and vacation for another six. How fast your child learns completely depends upon her. However, if she begins to fall behind in any grade, then we can do nothing else for her."
"Understood," Cameron said.
"Now, we do have dorm rooms available, but due to Allison's age, we would rather see her go home every night. Students are expected in class at eight sharp and the school day ends at three. Extracurricular activities, when Alison is ready for them, begin at three thirty. Again, when she is ready, whether or not Allison decides to participate is up to her. Questions?"
"Yes," John said, "You don't see to be bothered much by our ... unusual family. Many people freak out when they discover we're not normal."
Miss Jacobs cast him a smirk and said, "Mr. Connor, I have seen many things in my time here. From what I've gathered, Allison is some kind of hybrid. She is still a child, and still has the right to have the best education she can get. We are here to provide that. We also do not share information with anyone other than the parents. I would assume you are wanting to avoid any ... reporter problems. "
"We are," John agreed.
"What about other parents," Cameron asked. "At her last school, people were afraid of Allison."
"Fear comes from ignorance," Miss Jacobs stated. "There are no ignorant people here. Allison may be asked questions. Our students are very inquisitive, but it is the thirst for knowledge that drives them, not meanness."
"Are you OK with that, Allison?"' Cameron asked.
Allison nodded. "I got questions too, but not right now," she said.
"Very good, let me show you to Allison's classroom."
.
Greg had put out his piece to the Sun, who had quickly eaten it up. Seeing every house on the gated community for sale, he'd gone house hunting. Playing a rich guy looking for the 'perfect place', he toured the houses with the real estate agent looking for clues. Through off hand questions, he found out the agent knew nothing of the previous owners. She was under the impression these were all new houses. He could see work had been done on them here and there. In the basement of one house, the outlines of new sheet rock tried to hide what looked like cable runs. Another house had freshly cemented basement walls, when not many other houses had basements around here. Someone had covered up the fact a lot more had been going on here that plain homes.
Greg got back to his office after his trip, coming up empty. He knew something had been going on there, and suspected that accident had caused them to pull up stakes before anyone asked the wrong question to the wrong people.
His phone rang. He scooped it up. "Greg,"
A static filled voice, sounding like a computer or someone deliberately hiding their voice spoke. "You are investigating the Connors?"
Greg perked up. "Maybe, do you have something?"
"Money. I want them investigated. I want to find the pink haired child. I will pay handsomely."
"Really?'" Greg asked with a grin. "And just what would 'handsomely' be? A few thousand?"
"Think bigger. I will give two million for expenses. Five when you give me a verifiable address."
"Wow, so, why do you want this girl that bad?" Greg asked.
"Same as you, I want to know what she is. Will you accept?"
"There's a lot more mystery that just the girl," Greg stated. "What do you know about her mother, Mrs. Connor?"
"Do you accept?"
"All right, I accept, now what about Mrs. Connor?"
"Get on your laptop, open your bank account."
Greg paused. "So you can steal me blind?" he asked.
"You only have three thousand, six hundred ninety two dollars and fifteen cents. Not worth the effort," the voice said.
Greg raised an eyebrow and logged into his account. "OK, so you've already hacked my account. Good work, thief."
"Do you have your balance up?"
"I'm looking at it."
"Look at it ... now."
Greg's eyebrows rose up as two million ticked into his account. "Merry Christmas. OK, so you're legit. What about Mrs. Connor?"
"The one you know as Mrs. Connor is actually a terminator designed to kill human beings. Designation TOK 714. Armored with a coltan endoskeleton, the unit is highly resistant to small arms. Only 50 caliber and above has a chance at piercing the armor. The CPU is capable of perfectly imitating a human to allow it to go undetected. This unit is very proficient in infiltrating and eliminating the target by hand or with a weapon..."
Greg sat intently listening to what seemed impossible. Then again, he'd had enough evidence put together to prove Mrs. Cameron Connor was not what she appeared to be. He still had one burning question. How did an armored, android assassin manage to bear a child?
.
Allison walked into her wood paneled classroom. The classroom wasn't very large, the deskswere arrainged five by five with an open area on the back containing a few couches and tables. Of the twenty five desks, only a spattering of six desks were taken by students. Allison waved to Gloria, her teacher. "Hola, seniora!" Allison said happily.
"It's seniorita," Gloria said, grinning back at Allison. "Senior means man, Seniora is a married woman, seniorita is an unmarried lady," she explained.
"Hola, Seniorita!" Allison said, correcting herself. "And guess what, Gloria? Mommy can speak all kinds of languages too! We studied Spanish last night."
"That makes it easier to study," Gloria agreed. Holding up an envelope, she said, "Make sure your parents get this. This is your graduation from Kindergarten and First grade."
Allison ran up to the desk and put the envelope in her backpack. "Do you have my assignments today?"
"Right here." Gloria said and showed her a paper. "Now pay close attention, besides adding and subtracting, this has the multiplication tables on it. If you want, we can go over it before you begin."
Allison looked at the paper. Tipping her head slightly, she mussed, "OK, wait... I think I see. Multiplying is adding one number, the times of the other number. That means two times four is eight?"
"Very good!" Gloria told her. "So three times three is.."
Allison paused a second, then said, "Nine!"
"Outstanding! I think you got it."
"Hey, Allison," a blond haired boy said as he looked up from his paper. Pointing to her, he said, "Mucho hermosa muchacha!"
Allison tipped her head slightly. "Very pretty ... what?" she asked.
"Very pretty girl," he said with a slight blush.
"Thank you, Byron!" Allison said happily.
A few seats awal, a nine year old pig tailed brunette named Becky rolled her eyes. "Byron, stop flirting with Allison. You're seven. She's only five."
Byron frowned at her. "In fifteen years, it won't make any difference," he countered.
Lifting her nose up, Becky said, "Statistically, you won't even know her in fifteen years."
Turning around to her, Byron said, "We do not go by normal statistics. Besides, Allison is Christmas tree-cute."
"Christmas tree cute?"
"Yeah!" Byron said, beaming Allison a smile. "Her pink hair and those shiny nubs remind me of a Christmas tree. Allison really brightens up the room whenever she comes in."
"So are you going to hang ornaments off her?" a boy in the back asked.
"No, I'm just saying it's nice to see her," Byron said defensively.
Allison sat down at her desk blushing. Christmas-tree cute. She giggled at that. Working through her paper, she got another piece of paper and figured the multiplication and worked out her problems. After studying the multiplication tables, she figured them much faster. She turned that paper in and got another from the teacher. This one was dual numbers to multiply and a guide in how to get started. Still seeing the tables in her mind, she worked through the problems, the last two being triple numbers.
After multiplication was division, and a bit messier. Not all the numbers came out even. There were remainders, and when she got that, she studied about tenths of numbers.
Lunch time came. Allison had a snack and took a nap in the back of the room on one of the comfortable couches. After her nap to rest her brain, Allison woke up with Becky staring at her.
Pointing to Allison's head, Becky asked, "Do you got a bigger brain? Is that why your skull sticks out like that?"
"Ummm, could be. The doctor said I do," Allison said and stretched before she got up.
"And you must have a lot of minerals in your body too," Becky mussed. "That's why your bone things are shiny."
Allison nodded. "Yeah, I got Mommy's bones. I have to eat a lot of metal salt to keep growing up healthy."
Becky pointed a finger at her and mussed, "I think you're like this because of Darwin's evolution theory. He says people and animals change over time, so something in your mom made her have metal bones, so you got them, and the ones sticking up on your head besides."
"Evolution theory?" Allison asked.
"Right, you see, we all started out as sea creatures, but due to changing conditions, animals had to evolve. They changed to fit their environment. The ones who couldn't change, died out. That means in the future, more and more people are going to be like you, and less and less will have the bones we got now."
"That is, if the mutation that Allison has is beneficial," The brown haired boy named Dan said. The tallest in the room, the eleven year old added, "That is a very interesting mutation, by the way. I bet you're strong, aren't you, Allison?"
Allison shrugged and said, "I guess."
"Why would she be stronger than normal, Dan?" Becky asked.
Dan lifted and hand and said, "Simple! I doubt all those extra minerals just go to her bones. Bones connect to ligaments that connect to muscle. I bet Allison can lift a lot more than anyone else."
"No unauthorized experiments with other students, Dan," Gloria warned from the front.
"I wasn't planning on it," Dan called back. "I'm just thinking." Turning to Allison he asked, "Am I right?"
"Daddy says I have to be careful with Gramma, so yeah," Allison replied.
"See! My theory is correct!" Dan said proudly.
"So that means Allison is heavier, she probably can't swim. She'd sink to the bottom," Becky mussed. Looking at Allison, she warned, "Don't go swimming."
The way she said it made Allison giggle. She really liked this school.
.
It took Greg a couple weeks to figure out even which direction the entire community had fled in. Charlie watched the pre-school for a while, it was obvious they weren't going back there. While Charlie did that and searched for news, Greg walked around the empty community and found a freshly made dirt road with truck tracks. Heavy truck tracks that sank in the softer spots. The road met another road, the highway was close by.
Seeing the Army was behind this, Greg started looking at military posts. Since they retreated quickly, he assumed they would set up at one nearby to keep unwanted visitors out. He got a map and traced the highway in both directions. They was plenty of naval and Air force bases, and a lot of housing for the military.
Greg contacted a few of his sources and promised a two thousand dollar reward to whoever was able to spot the pink haired girl and show him where she was. With pink hair, he figured the girl would be easy to find. He also distributed the mug shots he got from the old paper. If he could find even the area they lived in, he'd be able to narrow down the search.
For how simple it sounded, Greg knew he was in for a long search. He'd blown through almost the whole first million tracking down a punk girl, then a stripper who was far too old to be this girl. Another LA denizen was a high school girl. Three others in LA he dismissed, he doubted the Connors had stayed in LA. He had no phone numbers, no address, no credit card numbers. Even the credit bureau had nothing on them. It was like they disappeared off the face of the Earth.
Stumbling upon the name 'Baum' he found Cameron's picture in a high school year book, that lead quickly trailed out to nothing. Weeks passed into months, he found himself no closer to his goal.
A call from his benefactor gave him an extra injection of cash, and the reward was boosted up to six million.
"Money is no object. Find her." the static filled psudo voice told him.
After a few more months of nothing, Greg got a call. Someone had seen a small pink haired child about five years old leaving an Air Force base. Greg was on it immediately, driving out to Palmdale where this sighting was. Once the man was paid, he led Greg to another man who was a vendor at the Air Force base.
The man was older and inhabited a ice cream truck. Greg went up to the window and offered him a smile. "Hi, I was told you seen someone. Small girl, pink hair?" he asked as he held up the cash.
"Two thousand?"
"Right here, so, did you see her?"
The old man took the money. "Yeah, I saw her. Pretty as ya please. Her Dad bought cones. The girl was bare headed and in a blue school uniform. You know that girl's an alien, right?"
Greg frown at him and asked, "What makes you say that?"
The man tapped his head. "People don't got horns. She does. Kinda silver, almost like they're metal. Dad drives a newer black jeep. You gonna print this?"
"Not until I get all the facts," Greg said as he took notes. "This was on the Air Force base? What day?"
"Last week, Thursday. I was sitting in the commissary lot, they pulled in. The Dad got out, got ice cream, then headed off towards the ball fields. I remember cause the girl looked so different. Only time I seen 'em."
"That uniform, you said it was blue. Light, dark? Did she have a skirt on?"
"Medium blue, I think, she was sitting in shadow. She had a skirt on, I could see her knees. Long white socks too."
"You've been a big help, thanks," Greg said, and handed him one of his cards. "If you see them again, I'd appreciate a call."
Greg left to go look up school uniforms.
School uniforms were hardly ever used in the more resent times. The only ones to use them were a few upper class schools, religious schools and the better colleges. Searching for such a simple thing, he thought would be easy. Unfortunately, digging out the right uniform for each school he could think of was another hard task. He forgot the colleges and focused on grade schools.