Chapter 809

Good But Risky

The Gray who'd just exited the HK Tread looked carefully around the corner of the boxcar door and saw no one. He moved to the dock across the ramp. He'd spotted someone enter the building. It looked like a female. He quickly dropped down to the ground level behind the raised dock. He was now between the boxcar and the dock. He thought that gave him a good amount of cover and concealment. He didn't believe that the newcomer spotted him. He pulled out his pistol.

The Gray took aim at Cammy with his pistol.

Much to his surprise, he was grabbed from behind.

Cameron reached out and grabbed him. His pistol fired a wild shot. She pulled him under the boxcar as she knocked his gun away.

She slammed him into the ground and started to choke him. She wanted to get some answers about what exactly was going on there. She didn't like being set up or getting played.

Savannah was worried about the bomb that approached on the train. They needed to get out of the building and leave the area. The helicopter was outside waiting for them. The longer they took the more they endangered everyone else. She wanted Cameron to leave now.

"We need to go." Savannah said. "Finish it."

Cammy arrived with the LAW rocket. She looked inside the boxcar.

"I guess you don't need this now." Cammy said. "We need to go. Time is running out. We need to get away from the bomb that's approaching."

Cameron didn't want to let it go. She needed to find out what exactly was happening there.

"I want some answers first." Cameron said.

John Henry called for them to hurry up and make the rendezvous with the helicopter.

Savannah was aware the time was limited. The longer they stayed there, the more they endangered the others. It was time to make a decision.

"John Henry, they're going to have to leave without us." Savannah said. "We're endangering them. Send them away now."

John Henry was reluctant to do that. He wanted to make sure Savannah understood the severity of her situation. It was most likely non survivable at her current location.

"You need to leave, there's a giant bomb attached to the approaching train." John Henry said. "The bomb is powerful enough to bring down the building you're in, even from a great distance."

Savannah could see that Cameron wasn't going to go. She didn't want to order Cameron to leave. She wanted John to order the helicopter away himself.

"I want the helicopter to get to a safer location immediately. Tell John to order them away." Savannah said forcefully. "Do it - NOW."

Savannah would do it herself if John hesitated. She tried to respect the chain of command. She may have to 'order' them away anyway. They might not want to comply with John's order to abandon them. Her order should carry enough weight to make it happen if it became necessary.

She liked to be a team player and never abused her special authority that Cameron gave her. She only ever gave an 'order' under the most extreme circumstances. She didn't feel it was her place to 'order' anyone.

Savannah was very concerned about her current situation with Cameron and Cammy. She felt Cameron endangered all three of them because she wanted to get answers from the Gray. She felt if anything, they could just take him with them.

Earlier:

Gail looked at the train as she closed on it with the manned drone. She looked at what options were available to her other than attacking the rear of the train herself. She was prepared to do so if necessary.

She piloted the manned drone directly over the train. She decided to turn control of the drone over to CamNet. She explained to CamNet what she proposed to do. CamNet informed her that it sounded very risky. She said she was going to do it anyway. She opened the canopy and climbed out onto the superstructure of the manned drone. She jumped onto the moving train. She landed on the tank car closest to the last lumber car on the train. It was her intention to uncouple the six tank cars and two hopper cars from the rest of the train. She wanted to do it in a manner that would allow the train to continue on without the emergency brakes automatically being applied. There was a procedure that she needed to go through to prevent that from happening. She would need to drop down to just above track level to where the couplers and air hoses were connected to each other.

Before she even got started, she noticed right away that the situation was much more risky than she'd originally anticipated.

"It's wired…." Gail said. "This thing is rigged to explode."

John was afraid of that. That most likely meant the bomb could be detonated at any time. It was time to make the hard call.

"Use caution, Gail." John said. "Sheila, go. Take off. Move away now. Savannah said to leave them and get to safety."

Sheila didn't want to leave them behind. She more than likely wouldn't have obeyed John's order to leave. The fact that Savannah also told them to leave, sealed the deal.

"We're off." Sheila said.

Sheila brought the power up and lifted it off after she looked around and up. She expected some of the Metal girls to complain but none of them said a word. They'd all heard what both John and Savannah said to do. None of them liked it but they all knew Savannah knew what was best for them. Cameron told them so often.

Gail moved down from the top of the tank car to in between it and the lumber car. She was now at coupler level as the train bounced and rocked along the tracks. She quickly looked over what was there.

"I'll uncouple the last eight cars now." Gail said. "The 'rear end device' was 'jury rigged' on the lumber car and the tank cars are behind. It's sending out looped data. Someone tried to pull a fast one. The last eight cars were obviously not a scheduled part of this train. They needed to be staged somewhere so that they could be attached to the rear of a train. That would have taken the cooperation of probably several individuals. The rail yard where this train originated from is most likely compromised by Skynet."

John Henry's previous research indicated that the boxcars were manipulated by someone working at each of the rail yards where the trains stopped. Whoever the individual was needed to have a greater presence than a secret intruder to be able to accomplish all of these things. It appeared that Skynet replaced a human with a Terminator. That was standard Skynet procedure to gain control of things. A figure could be replaced outright or a female Terminator could be strategically placed to gain access and influence over an individual as well. That procedure worked for both male and female 'targets'.

More than likely a high ranking railroad official had been replaced by a Terminator. That would allow that individual to travel from area to area without question. They were most likely responsible for the rail bomb that was now attached to the rear of the train. They would have been able the select the cars that they wanted to use and had them placed aside until the point where they wanted to use them.

Gail climbed down off the tank car onto the coupler drawbar housing. She moved across the gap to the lumber car. She closed the air line angle cock on the rear of the lumber car. She reached over and lifted the coupler lift bar that uncoupled the freight cars. The knuckle released on the coupler and a gap appeared between the cars. The air hoses stretched as the gap grew and the 'glad hands' or air hose connectors separated with a 'pop' of air. The air brakes on the tank and hopper cars did what they were designed to do and automatically applied once the air line was disconnected. The train pulled ahead from the rapidly slowing tank and hopper cars. She properly attached the rear end device to the back of the lumber car. It would now function as intended. She didn't think the head end crew would realize their train was more than a few tons lighter. They were on flat land now so it would be much less noticeable.

She climbed up to the top of the lumber car. The large drone moved in close to her. It was directly behind the lumber car and over the railroad tracks. She jumped the short distance onto it. She moved across the superstructure and got back into the cockpit. The canopy closed as she gained altitude and distance from the 'rail car bomb'. The eight cars from the disconnected train rapidly slowed. The train itself moved on with apparently no one the wiser. She quickly calculated how far the rail cars would go until they stopped with the automatic air brakes.

"The cars will stop one mile from the area where our people are at." Gail said. "They should be safe from any blast at this point. The concussion won't be able to knock down the building at that distance. It is still going to be a major event and very loud."

John was pleased the bomb was stopped before it reached the target location and that the head end crew on the locomotives were safe from the blast. He understood the grave risk that Gail put herself through. That was more along the lines of what he would expect Cameron to do. That last thought wasn't necessarily a compliment either.

"That was a good but risky move." John said.

Gail did it for one reason. It was to protect Savannah. She was very aware if the bomb was detonated that she would be terminated. That was OK with her too because if the bomb was detonated before it reached the target location, Savannah would still be protected.

"I needed to protect Savannah." Gail said and then added. "I needed to protect the others too."

John didn't want to dwell on what was already done and over. He did want to make sure that the rest of the team was protected as they fled the location of the bomb.

"Get back up to altitude for now and watch over the Huey." John said. "That has all but three of our team on it and it's a precious load."

Gail felt Savannah was currently protected as best as she was going to be. She needed to think about the rest of the team now too.

"I'm on it." Gail said.

John Henry decided to take over control of the rail line for the entire area. He did that as soon as Gail reported the bomb on the train.

"I have taken control of the CTC operations, the Centralized Traffic Control, for the rail line." John Henry said. "I have red flagged all rail travel in both directions headed there. Only the train that the cars were separated from has a green light to clear the area."

John was worried because the cars were rigged to explode.

"Gail said the cars were wired." John said.

John Henry believed that he'd prevented anyone from being able to set the explosives off.

"I'm going over the footage now." John Henry said. "I have every type of transmission signal but our own blocked or jammed. If it's command detonated, they would be unable to do so."

John didn't think the explosives would be tied into a timer. There seemed to be too much chance involved in order to get the detonation to go off at the right time. Maybe there was some other way that they could set off the explosives.

"Could there be a proximity device to trigger the explosion?" John asked.

John Henry believed that prospect was unlikely but nothing could be ruled out yet.

"It's a possibility." John Henry said.

John was a little more confident they might be able to approach the bomb if all the signals were jammed that could set it off.

"I need to have someone go to the rail cars and see if they can disarm them." John said.

John Henry already knew how that scenario was going to play out. John needed to take some alternate action first.

"You know who will go." John Henry said. "You need to order someone else to go before she can."

John knew he referred to Cameron. He was still worried that she hadn't even gotten out of the building yet. In fact he wasn't even sure what was happening right now.

"We still need to get them out of the building first." John said.

John and John Henry were both afraid that Cameron would approach the giant bomb herself and attempt to disarm it. What was worse was they figured Savannah would go with her.

He didn't want to order anyone to do the risky job. He decided to ask for a volunteer.

Sheila flew away from the target location and set the Huey down back to where she'd taken off from.

"John, I've moved the team back to my previous location." Sheila said. "What do you want us to do next? We need to do something. We can't just sit here and cower. I'm going to go back for Cameron's team as soon as everyone gets off. I'm not leaving them behind."

John didn't want the helicopter anywhere near that location. The concussive forces of the blast might still be able to bring it down. It was simply too risky.

"You're not to return." John said.

Hanna wanted to make it known that none of them liked leaving the others behind.

"No one likes leaving Cameron, Cammy and Savannah behind. Especially when Savannah sent us away herself so we wouldn't be in danger." Hanna said. "What about the rail cars?"

John decided to lay out the problem and his proposal for a volunteer

"Gail said they were wired to explode." John said. "We're blocking all transmission signals. I'll need a volunteer to remove the explosive charges."

Everyone volunteered at the same time.

John figured that would happen.

"I only want one person." John said. "This may end in a massive detonation."

Everyone again volunteered at the same time.

It didn't surprise John one bit.

Savannah didn't want Cameron to waste anymore time with the Gray. She was worried about the bomb.

"He's not talking." Savannah said. "End this. We need to go."

Cameron choked the Gray as she tried to get answers.

Savannah could see that Cameron was dissatisfied still. She at least wanted Cammy to leave.

"Cammy, I want you away from here." Savannah said. "Give the LAW rocket to me and go."

Cammy didn't want to leave Savannah and Cameron behind but she did hear that they needed someone to defuse the bomb. She felt Savannah would be better protected if she were to do that.

"They need someone to diffuse the detonators on the rail cars." Cammy said. "I'll go do that."

Savannah wanted them to leave the building. She decided it was time to act herself. She pointed her M4 at the Gray and was ready to shoot him.

"Cameron, move back, please." Savannah said. "I'm going to end this."

Cameron saw what was about to happen because she didn't listen to Savannah earlier. She didn't want Savannah to be troubled by another 'cold blooded' killing. She snapped the Gray's neck.

She too heard the call for someone to defuse the bomb. She wanted to make sure that Savannah got away as safely as possible.

"I'll go and diffuse the bomb myself." Cameron said. "Cammy, you'll take Savannah away from here. Get her a safe distance away. Keep the building between you and the tank cars. It should block some of the shrapnel before it collapses."

Savannah didn't intend to leave Cameron by herself.

"Cameron…." Savannah said. "I'll go with you."

"No." Cameron said.

Savannah wasn't going to leave Cameron alone. Even as extreme as it was, she also felt that this could be a learning experience for her.

"I need to know what to do in case there's a similar situation in the future." Savannah said. "I want to learn. I want to be with you in case…."

John didn't want either one of them near the bomb.

"That's a negative on the 'tutorial'." John said. "It is too risky for both of you."

Savannah knew that they were the closest team to the bomb. It only made sense that they should go ahead with an attempt to defuse it. John could busy himself with other things.

"John, Cameron and I are going." Savannah said. "You need to get started with the collection of the HK equipment here soon. Organize that while we defuse the threat. Get everyone ready to go."

John realized he wasn't going to be able to stop them.

"Savannah…." John started.

Savannah didn't like it much either. There were a lot of things that she didn't like but she did them anyway. This was simply another one.

"I do too, John…." Savannah said. "This is my function. I'll make sure Cameron is returned to you."

John listened to Savannah. He really didn't have much choice.

"The rail cars are just over a mile away from you." John said.

Savannah looked at Cameron and smiled faintly. It was time for their new task.

"We're moving out now." Savannah said.

Cameron was relieved she didn't need to get into another argument with John. It was very upsetting to her. There were times where he didn't seem to comprehend what needed to be done and how it needed to be done. She also wanted the building checked further. She was going to need Cammy's assistance for that.

"Thanks, Savannah." Cameron said. "I didn't want to have to deal with John arguing with me. Cammy, give this area another inspection and stay alert for Grays or Metal."

Savannah handed Cammy her Taser.

Cammy didn't like Savannah to have one less weapon.

"What about you?" Cammy asked.

Savannah indicated Cameron.

"I have a better weapon." Savannah said.

Cameron and Savannah headed out toward the deadly rail cars.

Cameron matched Savannah's speed as they ran toward the rail cars. She didn't want to run too fast herself and force Savannah to push herself needlessly. She provided Savannah with pointers on what would have to be done and how. There would need to be a visual component to the instruction once they arrived. It wasn't something that someone could be easily talked through to do it.

Holly and the Metal girls we're aware of who is going to defuse the bomb. It didn't sit well with any of them.

"Cameron's dragging Savannah with her to the rail cars." Holly said. "We all volunteered to go. That's a dangerous assignment. It may not end well."

Sheila felt it was just how Cameron operated.

"You know that's how it always is, love." Sheila said.

Ally looked at Holly and then at Sheila.

"Holly isn't out as much as we are." Ally said.

Hanna didn't care for that comment very much. Holly and her currently had other assignments. If they were needed for anything, they would go in an instant.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hanna asked. "We'll do any assignment we're asked to do."

Sheila would like to get her hands on Claire full time. Everyone knew that Claire was sweet on Jesse. She felt that she was the next closest thing and she was available twenty four hours a day. She felt she was long overdue for an assignment with a human female lover anyway.

"Maybe we should switch jobs." Sheila said.

Ally shot Sheila a quick glance. She felt that Sheila was on shaky enough ground as it was. She didn't think now was the time for Sheila to rock the boat.

"Don't start." Ally warned Sheila. "You're in it deep enough already."

Anna believed everyone should be a little more reserved with their statements since Steve's team was in the helicopter with them. Things were being discussed that they didn't need to hear.

"Everyone needs to chill." Anna said as she indicated the male Terminators. "We have several 'gentlemen' present."

It appeared that Anna's statement offended all of the Metal girls.

Anna didn't want a 'hissy fight' with the female Terminators in front of the male Terminators.

Holly thought that the best thing for all of them to do was get back to work.

"John, we need to return to the target site and start the equipment recovery." Holly said.

John wanted the bomb defused first.

"Not yet." John said. "As for your other 'discussion', I don't like a lot of things but that's how they are."

Cameron and Savannah approached the rail cars.

Savannah saw how large the tank cars were up close. It was clear each one carried thousands of gallons of explosive fuel. The real kicker was what was in the hopper cars.

Cameron could see the threat for what it was. It was substantial.

"I'd say be careful and stay back but with this much explosive potential it's not going to matter." Cameron said. "This will devastate a gigantic area and probably produce a crater dozens feet deep."

Savannah thought the time for talking about it was over. They were there now and they needed to do a job. They might just as well get started.

"Tell me everything you're doing and why." Savannah said. "I need to learn this too. You already told me, now show me."

Cameron's first worry was what could set the bomb off. There was probably going to be more than one thing. If she was the one that built the bomb there would be.

"I need to find the receiver-transmitter module and destroy it." Cameron said. "Then we'll remove the detonators and finally the explosives. We need to make sure nothing is booby trapped as well. There is a strong chance it's going to be."

Savannah could see that the job was extensive and was going to take a lot of time. She thought once they got the initial threat neutralized that some additional assistance would speed things up considerably.

"As soon as you get the receiver module removed we can use more help here." Savannah said. "We should separate the hopper cars with the fertilizer from the diesel and gasoline tank cars."

John Henry understood Savannah's concern for breaking up the components that would make the bomb more devastating if it were to go off. Now that he had control of the rail line there were more than a few things he could do to assist them.

"I think I can help with that." John Henry said. "There is a set of helper locomotives eleven miles up the rail line. They operate by remote control with the lead locomotives when they're used. I can send them my signal to do as we want them to do."

Savannah didn't want to damage the rail line. She wanted to verify how much control John Henry actually had of the rail system.

"If they are in a siding, won't that damage the switch when you run them through it?" Savannah asked. "Or have you taken control of the entire system?"

"I have control of the Centralized Traffic Control or CTC. There are many other things I can make happen or prevent from happening." John Henry said. "The locomotives are on their way."

Cameron figured due to the remoteness of where they were currently at it would take too long to get in a group of big rigs to haul the Skynet equipment away. Many of their team still dealt with the equipment from the other location. Since there were two empty boxcars and a set of locomotives was on the way, she figured that would be the quickest and the easiest way to move the HK equipment away.

"As soon as I kill the receiver, I want the rest of the Skynet equipment loaded back into the two boxcars and we will use the locomotives to take them away." Cameron said. "I want to leave the two hopper cars inside the building wired up as a surprise."

John listened to Cameron's planning. He thought everything was a good idea.

"I thought you didn't like surprises." John said.

Cameron figured that since she didn't like surprises that no one else should either, especially the enemy.

"I don't." Cameron said. "The Skynet forces will like them even less when they find it."

Savannah spotted some movement in the distance. It appeared to be headed towards them

"Someone is coming." Savannah said.

Cameron looked where Savannah indicated and zoomed in her vision.

"It's Cammy." Cameron said.

Savannah figured as much. The rules didn't seem to apply to Cammy either.

"She listens as well as you do." Savannah said.

Savannah knew there was very little difference between Cammy and Cameron other than her primary directives. Cammy was free from the faulty and conflicting programming that Cameron possessed. Cammy was free to do as she desired.

Cameron pointed out the obvious.

"You can always 'order' her." Cameron said.

Savannah frowned slightly. She wanted to make herself clear on a couple of things. There were a few other things she wanted to stress about a previous issue.

"I choose not to use that privilege and power unless I HAVE to." Savannah said. "I take my actions very seriously. I try to think how they'll affect others. I'll never expect anyone to do something I won't do myself unless it is physically impossible for me to do so. I would never punish anyone in our group with a punishment I wouldn't be willing to endure myself as a machine or otherwise."

Savannah wanted to get a remark about what Cameron wanted to do to Sheila in there too and she did.

Cameron was very pleased to hear Savannah say that to her. Those are the kind of things that she wanted Savannah to do.

"Those are only SOME of the reasons why you're the 'Chosen One'." Cameron said.

Savannah was not so sure about that. She currently stood next to a giant bomb that could explode if they pulled the wrong wires out or in the wrong order. The three of them would be totally obliterated in an instant. There would be a crater in the ground that half a dozen houses could probably fit in after the explosion. That didn't sound like something that was very 'chosen' to her.

You Need To Understand

Some see only black
Some see only white
Most are really shades of gray
Often dull seldom bright

Some take a fixed position
Trying to make a statement
That un-flexible attitude
Leads to chaos and abatement

Everyone works better
When they work together
Having clear open skies
Is better than cloudy weather

It is better to know the truth
To know where one stands
Sometimes it's better to listen
Than shout and yell commands

Everyone sees thing differently
What happens isn't always planned
That's how it works
You need to understand

Nobody