T2 - 01 - The New John Connor Chronicles - Dark Futures (36 page)

Anton had shot Monk's Honda to pieces, so the T-XA would need to find another car. Just now, though, it wasn't giving up. It ran after them, not gaining, but not falling behind, either, though Jade was doing 60 or
70 mph
through the suburban streets,
fanging
the Land Cruiser up and down slopes and around tight corners. Eventually, they found a straight stretch of downhill road, and Jade pulled ahead, flooring the accelerator. The car rocketed across an intersection, took a hard left... and they got the thing off their tail.

Danny probed at his wound where the bullet had hit him. It had gone straight through the muscle, just missing a kidney. He was already okay, just a bit drained from the shock and recuperation. He'd live.

Minutes later, there were police sirens. More trouble.

From the back seat, Sarah Connor said, "What the hell is going on?"

"We'll head straight for the Cyberdyne facility," Jade said.

"Hey," John said, looking round for police cars, "is someone going to explain all this?"

The T-XA got to Monk," Selena said. "It's reprogrammed her somehow, so she'll serve Skynet's interests. She was primed to attack us on sight, with all her strength, but she couldn't sustain the strain. Apart from her programming, she's not enhanced."

"All right, so now what? Can you fix her?"

"No, John," Jade said. "Her whole brain has been altered. Even if we had the technology, we wouldn't know where to start. The only consolation is that it may not go deep. Her mind is too important to Cyberdyne-the T-XA wouldn't want to tamper with it too much. The real Rosanna Monk might be in there somewhere."

"Hmm," Danny said skeptically. "We didn't see much sign of it when she answered her door."

"If she's not going to help us, why bring her along?" John said. "I know I wanted to do this, but we didn't need to, not if it's just alerted them."

"They were already on alert," Danny said. "They're no better off."

From the back, Monk groaned as she regained consciousness. She struggled with Selena and Anton, bumping against the rear seats. "This won't help you," she said fiercely, as they controlled her.

"Why not?" Anton said. "You want to tell us your plans? Maybe the building's layout?"

"Go to hell."

"That's where we came from," Selena said. "Believe me, it wasn't pretty."

Monk struggled again, but it was futile: the Specialists were far stronger.

"If she won't help us, she's useless," John said, trying to follow what was happening behind him.

"I wouldn't say that," Selena said. She passed over an electronic keycard and a computer disk. "Here, look what I found. Take care of these for me, will you?"

John took it. "Okay, now she's useless."

"No." Danny's voice had a touch of painful humor. "I wouldn't say that, either."

"Okaaaaaaaay..." Sarah said.

As they reached the fortress-like Cyberdyne building, two police cars came up behind, sirens blaring and lights flashing. A small army of police and Air Force cars was lined up out front, plus a fire truck and an ambulance. There were people running everywhere, taking up positions, guns raised. Two helicopters circled overhead. The building itself had the tiniest windows. Such as they were, they were in darkness. John had a bad feeling about this; it was like the gates of Mordor.

Jade steered straight through a boom gate and into the mass of parked vehicles. The cops and military flinched aside as she found a gap between a fire truck and a group of four police cars. Their Land Cruiser screeched to a halt in front of the building, and Jade threw her door open, not even switching off the engine.
 
There was another brief struggle in the back, then Anton got out, lugging his mini-gun and firing a burst without taking cover.
 
One of the helicopters flew in close, and he fired into the air to keep it back.

As John and Sarah got out, Selena passed the other
  
mini-gun to Jade, who added to the covering fire. Selena dragged out Monk, holding her round the throat from behind. She held a pistol at Monk's head. "Don't fire," she
  
shouted, "or the mad scientist gets it."
                               

"I'm not a mad scientist," Monk said, trying to fight back.

"That's what they all say," Sarah said, strapping on the
   
CAR-15.

"You weren't mad until now," John said. "It's not your fault."
                                                                             

Monk gave him a puzzled look.
                         
           

They got their gear together-guns, bandoliers of grenades, other ammo-and Danny ran for an unobtrusive
 
side door. He'd strapped an M-16 over his shoulder and carried a canvas bag full of explosives. Jade and An- ton continued to strafe the area with bursts of rapid fire, wrecking vehicles and keeping the cops down. Selena dragged Monk backward, still ready to shoot. Danny kicked the lock, once, twice, and they entered the dimly lit concrete and metal shaft of a fire escape. They were on its lowest floor, with stairs heading upwards for many stories. Danny ran up them, and the rest followed, Selena now pushing Monk in front of her.

Sarah caught up with Monk, getting right in her face. "What floors do we need? Where's your work on the
nanochip
?"

"Find out yourself," Monk said, aiming a swift blow at her temple and just grazing the front of her head as Sarah flicked out of reach, instinctively taking a karate stance.

"We might as well let her go," John said.

Anton shook his head. "Not yet."

They broke a door open on the fourth floor, acting at random, and found themselves in a central lobby with six elevators. An alarm went off, but John tried to ignore it. Like the fire escape, the lobby was dimly lit, but the offices surrounding the building's core, divided from them by thick glass walls, were in total darkness. Monk stumbled and fell, looking up at them from the carpeted floor with an expression of malice.

"What now?" Sarah said, shouting over the alarm, and glancing at Monk contemptuously. "If the Bride of Frankenstein won't help us, it looks like we'll have to trash the whole building."

Monk stood, angrily brushing herself down. "You're so full of hate, aren't you?" she shouted back.

Sarah looked incredulous. "I'm full of hate?"

"Human beings in general. We're no better than vermin. We're all programmed for destruction."

Selena muttered, "You're the one who's been programmed."

"Yes, I am now," Monk said bitterly. "I'm about the last person to deserve it."

An array of motion detectors and security cameras was ranged around the low ceiling. Whenever they moved, the cameras swiveled.

"There must be floor plans," John said, "or staff lists that'll tell us something. We can try these offices."

Anton stood over Monk, trying to intimidate her. "We know there's a basement where you're working with time travel. That's in the reports we've read. Is that where you keep the nanoprocessor?"

I told you where to go," Monk said heatedly.

Jade muttered a curse. She lowered her mini-gun and blurred into action, forcing open a door, then finding light switches inside the office area. Selena picked up the mini-gun, and they followed Jade, checking offices and workstations. John could see okay with the lights on, but they'd advertised their whereabouts. Then again, with all those cameras, they were already being watched, no matter what they did. He saw a staff list pinned to a board behind a workstation. It showed Monk's telephone extension and that she worked on the sixth floor.

"All right," he said, waving it around, shouting over the alarm. "This might help."

Monk laughed.

"What? You mean the
nanoprocessor’s
not near your office?" When she was silent, John wondered what he could get out of her. For all his skills at social engineering, she was too smart to trick. Maybe he could reason with her. If she was as ultra-rational as her public image, perhaps they could work together and beat her programming. "Rosanna, you haven't always thought that, have you? You haven't always hated human beings, or thought we were vermin. I mean, you didn't wake up thinking it yesterday. You didn't, did you? It's just something Skynet has made you believe."

"That doesn't mean it's wrong," Monk shot back.

"No, but you wouldn't believe it otherwise."

This time, Monk hesitated. "It's not even something I believe—more a feeling. Sure, I didn't feel that way yesterday. It still doesn't mean I'm wrong now."

"Maybe it does. It's not something rational. It's just a feeling that's been injected into you from outside. It's nothing to do with you, or with us, either. You can disown the feeling. It doesn't make any sense. Can't you see that?"

Jade said to her, "Maybe you should think about it."

Monk shrugged. "You're not so smart."

The door slammed open and the pseudo-man walked in with its laser rifle. John ducked for cover as the light beam stabbed past him.

"Come here, Rosanna," the pseudo-man said, and Monk stepped towards it, hesitating for just an instant.

Sarah dived after her, and managed to tap her ankle, tripping her up. For a moment, as Monk flew through the air, the pseudo-man could not fire without hitting her. As soon as she touched the floor, Jade and Anton opened up with a hail of bullets from their mini-guns, and the pseudo-man was slowly forced back by the metal storm, as a myriad of crater wounds opened and instantly closed.

"Run," Selena said. "This way." She pointed round a corner to another row of workstations and offices. Jade and Anton were out of ammunition and they left the mini-guns behind.

John seized Monk by the wrist. "You're with us," he said. "I don't care what you think. You're still on the human side."

She scratched at his face as they ran. "Let me go!"

"All right, then!" He released her, and she ran to the pseudo-man as it rounded the corner. In that second, John aimed the 12-gauge. As the pseudo-man swept Monk aside with its left arm, John fired, blasting the hand that held the laser rifle. The hand snapped off at the wrist, and the laser rifle went flying. Selena had seen it, and she accelerated almost into the pseudo-man's arms, catching the weapon like a bridal bouquet, then tossing with both hands to Anton, who made a good catch.

At that moment, four things happened:

—the alarm stopped sounding.
                              

—the pseudo-man 's left arm morphed, stabbing out as a long
swordlike
shaft, three inches thick, and pierced straight through Selena's chest, then out her back.
        

—its shot-off right hand liquefied and scurried back to the pseudo-man in a mouse-shaped puddle.
                  

—"More company!'" Danny said, as a dozen well-armed military guards broke in from two directions—a rapid-response team armed with assault rifles.

The guards took in what they saw—the T-XA holding up Selena like a gaffed fish—and did a double take, lowering their weapons.

"What the hell is that?" one of them said, a stocky Asian guy.

From the stump of the pseudo-man's right wrist, another blade stabbed out, filament-thin, penetrating Selena's skull.

"No!" Jade shouted

Anton opened fire with the laser rifle, drilling a red-glowing hole in the pseudo-man's chest. For several seconds, it didn't respond, then it withdrew the blades from Selena, letting her drop. It stood motionless, unfathomable.

"Out of here-now!" Danny said, pulling on Anton's arm. "There's nothing we can do for Selena. It's too late."

"My God," Sarah said. "We can't leave her." Anton fired again, steadily, training the laser rifle over the pseudo-man's surface, trying to burn it away.

"Come on," Danny said. "Everybody out!" He ran past the guards, who made no attempt to stop him. "That means everyone," he said to them. "Get out of here if you want to live." He headed to the nearest set of the glass doors that surrounded the elevator lobby.

"Wait," Monk said.

"What?" Sarah said. "Not you, Dr. Strangelove?"

"Where's the AI lab, then?" Danny said shaking her by the shoulders. "Or wherever you've got the
nanoware
?"

Monk shook her head, distraught. "I can't tell you that."

"Well, what use are you?"

Monk seemed to be seething with rage, but she said nothing. There was something she wanted to say, but couldn't get out.

No time to worry about that, she'd have to work it out for herself. John grabbed the guard who'd spoken. "Do you know where it is?"

"Twelfth floor."

"Come on!" Danny manhandled Monk ahead of him. "Run!" As they reached the lobby, the pseudo-man finally moved, coming after them. It lashed out with sword-blades growing all over its body, cutting down the guards. One blade slashed across Anton's chest, opening him to the bone, but John got another clear shot with the 12-gauge. The pseudo-man staggered back with a big crater wound. Hurt or not, Anton opened up again with the laser rifle, drilling it between the eyes. Sarah had pressed the button for the elevator, and the doors opened a second later. Most of them got in there and the door started to shut-not quickly enough!