Sarah had been quiet since she'd first touched her grown, scarred son, but now she said, "John? Can't that wait for a minute?"
Someone else came over, her face creased with pain as she walked, favoring her right leg. She was a tall Hispanic woman. She addressed the younger John in what sounded like an affectionate voice. ''Hello and welcome." Did he know her? She looked familiar, but only slightly so. If he had ever known her, she must have beat very different. "I'm Juanita," she added, seeing his confusion. "You might remember me. You knew me when you were a child. Or I hope you did in your world." Her expression showed she was puzzling it out, maybe starting to wonder just when the two worlds might have deviated, how much common experience they shared.
"Juanita Salceda? I saw you last. . .maybe three weeks ago." John laughed. "You were just a kid, then. I guess you were twelve or so." For her age, and what she'd been through, she actually looked pretty good. But he could see she was hurting badly. She and Big John seemed to be close. They weren't touching, but they stood near each other with an easy familiarity.
"I know there's so few of us," Sarah said, "but the machine—the Terminator—told us everything. We can help you." She gestured toward Anton. "Our friends have experience with Skynet and its technology. They'll be worth a lot to you. You'll soon see."
Big John was silent, but then opened his arms to Sarah. "I don't know how this is supposed to work," he said. "In this world, you died. . .years ago, in Buenos Aires, fighting the machines."
"I'm not sure I want to know," she said.
"I think you have to know. You're a hero to my people: A martyr."
"No, that was a different Sarah. I don't know what she did."
"Mother, please. Let's not try to debate it. Please."
They embraced awkwardly. Just a few yards away, Danny Dyson said, "Son of a bitch. We've done it I think we're nearly there."
John went over to him and Jade, leaving his mother and his older self to puzzle out their relationship. "What is it?" he said, looking mainly to Jade.
"We have data," she said.
Jade was sprawled on the floor with one leg under her and the other stretched out in front, a portable screen beside it, and a keyboard balanced on her thigh. Her fingers danced over the keys, and she worked through masses of information, taking in entire screens of figures with just a glance. Now and then, she stopped to confer with Danny, who was sitting beside her on the floor.
John had hacked many computers himself, and recognized Jade as a master. Soon, a dozen of them were crowded around, watching her silently. Most of the other soldiers leaned in close. He knew some of these people, and some of them obviously felt they knew him. They had that look of waiting for a chance to walk up and greet him. There was Carlo Tejada—and Cecilia, too. He'd last seen their younger versions back in 1997. What about the rest of the Tejada family, he thought— Raoul, Gabriela, Guillermo? In his world, when he'd left it, they'd all been fine. How had their lives gone here?
He was on a shockingly steep learning curve. So much was the same in Skynet's World, but so much had been transformed from what he knew.
His older counterpart, Big John, also looked lost in admiration of Jade's abilities. He must be good with computers, too, John realized. After all, they'd been the same person until May 1994. By that time, John was already a capable hacker; Sarah had taught him a lot. and had seen that he'd learnt even more. As with everything else, she'd always found the best ways to teach him the skills that he needed.
"Since we arrived, there have been more distortions in the Earth's space-time field." Jade said.
"So?" Big John said.
"Skynet is still using space-time displacement equipment. It is sending Terminators on missions. I am trying to analyze the data. We can see where they are going and where they are being sent from."
As Jade worked through more data, hoping to locate Skynet, Anton prowled the huge space around them, checking the broken remains of endoskeletons. John followed him, unsure what else to do. He couldn't help Jade with her work. He was not sure what to say right now to Sarah, Juanita—or, especially, Big John. Amongst the wreckage, one intact laser rifle lay on the floor, near the corner furthest from the time vault. Anton picked up in one hand, feeling its surface with the other. He examined it from all angles. "Good," he said. "I like this weapon. It's similar to what I'm used to."
"What's it like in your world, Anton?"
The big Russian shrugged. "Like we discussed before."
They'd talked about it back in Mexico, when they: first met the T-XA, how Skynet had been winning in 2036, when the Specialists were sent back to try to create a new timeline, a world where humanity would survive. "Well, what does it look like, for instance? Is it like this world—all gray sky and stone?"
"In that way, yes."
"Other ways?"
"Other ways, it's the same, but different. Skynet had a disadvantage in this world. In 1997, it can't have con-trolled very much. It must have had to build almost from the beginning. In my world, it was further advanced. It already ran the military and the defense factories. When Judgment Day came, Skynet was everywhere. Then again, have advantages, too, compared with this world's humans." He looked over at Jade, who was signaling to them.
John and Anton hurried back to her. "I've done it," Jade said, looking calm, but far from pleased. "Skynet's location is the Iberian Peninsula—in Spain." She glanced back at the screen. "I have a precise location for it-the center of the space-time distortions."
"The European zone," Big John said. "We need to talk to the local Resistance."
"Can they take out Skynet?" Sarah said. "Do they have those kinds of resources?"
Anton looked at her with a knowing smile. "They do now."
Jade knew that they could help these people. She and Anton could not refuse to give that help, knowing it could make all the difference to their world. Even if their lives were forfeit, they must do what they could to destroy this world's Skynet. There was also a selfish reason, if she'd needed another one.
In this world, Skynet had invented time travel, but had obviously not perfected it. Even the work that she'd done with Rosanna Monk in 2001 was more advanced then that. But it could change so quickly. If Skynet triumphed here, it would soon have no distractions—no war against the humans to concern it So what else might it do? As it refined its time-travel technology. would it look for other worlds, extinguishing human life in every reality? The Skynet of her own world had starter to think along those lines. They could not let Skynet triumph anywhere, in any reality they could identify.
Carefully, she converted her data into a precise latitude and longitude, and gave them to John Connor, the General Connor of this world.
"I'll radio Los Angeles," he said. "We have full details there of all Resistance forces and Skynet's main facilities."
"That location is near Madrid," Jade said.
"Yes, I know it is. And I can tell you now that the European Resistance has forces under the streets of Madrid Let me find out those details." He scowled to himself. "One way or another, we're going to get some payback.*
"Whatever you find out, Anton and I will assist you."
Anton was carrying a laser rifle that he'd found somewhere among the wreckage here. He straightarmed it getting a feel for its balance; just that gesture was enough to attract attention. "Will they have more of these in Madrid?"
General Connor said, "I expect so. We scavenge them from battles with the machines."
"I'll need two of them."
"I'm sure that can be arranged. Right now, I need to talk to some people. Anyone coming with me?"
"One of us should," Jade said. "Either me or Anton-There are some things we need to brief you on." When she thought about it, she was better placed than Anton having worked with the time vault more closely, both here and back in 2001. "I'll go with you. Anton and I can talk while I'm briefing you."
General Connor raised an eyebrow at that, not knowing about their cybernet
ic implants.
"There are quite a few things that you need to under-stand," Jade said.
"All right. Come with me, and we'll talk."
MADRID
Nicolas Escandell entered the Resistance headquarters through a heavy steel door designed to slow down a well-armed Terminator. Two guards saluted him, while their dogs sniffed at his hands and clothing, checking he was human. Once the dogs were satisfied, he walked to-ward the main radio unit, removing his own headset on the way. The radio operator, a dark-skinned French-woman, stood and saluted him, but he waved her down and spoke to her in Spanish. "What's this message from North America?"
He'd been on patrol, but they'd called him back here to speak to the Resistance in Los Angeles. Up above, at ground level and in the sky, a force of H-Ks and enoskeletons was moving in on them, trying to locate their small Resistance base. It was happening through-out Europe—maybe worldwide. Skynet was hitting back hard, with a frightening new confidence. This was a dangerous time for them all, a storm that they had to endure.
"Gabriela Tejada in Los Angeles wants to speak with you," the Frenchwoman said. "She said it's important— critical to the war."
Nicolas was skeptical about that. The Americans had launched a huge offensive that was meant to stop Skynet once and for all. They'd claimed to have destroyed it, but they'd clearly failed. Now the war computer had begun its own offensive—it must have been planning this. What could the Madrid base do in the face of that? It was too small: just sixty or seventy men, women, and children.
"Get back to her, and we'll talk," he said.
"Yes, sir. Calling now."
Within a minute, they had a radio link to Los Angeles. "Listen to me carefully," Gabriela said, after they ex changed codes. "You know that there were time travelers. That's how Sarah Connor predicted Judgment Day. Given that, I hope you won't doubt what I'm going to tell you. We've captured Skynet's time displacement equipment. It can also be used to displace objects in space. John Connor and eight others will appear at your base in exactly one hour. You must protect them, then do what John says. This is critical."
"You're confusing me, Gabriela. What do you mean it's critical?" Normally, they avoided this kind of long-distance radio communication, even with well established codes to identify themselves and methods such as calling each other back as confirmation. Skynet and the Terminators could imitate any human voice. They could probably intercept transmissions—and who knew whether Los Angeles had fallen to the machines in this new offensive? He'd called Gabriela this time, so he had to assume her voice was genuine, but he didn't like this situation at all.
"It's critical to hit back at Skynet," she said. "We need to use your base."
"Why Madrid? Why would Connor want to come here?"
Because yours is now the nearest base to Skynet. John will explain when he gets there. Just listen, and I'll tell you what you need to know. They have to travel naked so they'll be defenseless when they arrive. We're counting on you to clothe, protect and arm them. We know your capacities there, and we know they'll be stretched. But you can do what's required. The personnel we're sending will help you."
"Yeah, sure," Nicolas said. "It's a war zone here, Gabriela. You're telling me a bunch of naked people are going to come and help us attack Skynet? This is getting a bit fantastic, you know. Right now, we're being hunted ourselves."
"Just do it, soldier. We're all depending on you. You have an assault helicopter—is it operational?"
"It's a modified Sikorsky Black Hawk—it's opera-tional, but how do we fly it when the skies and the streets are alive with H-Ks? I've got two aerial H-Ks fly-ing around here right now. There's a land H-K backing it up, and about forty endos."
"We don't have any choice."
"Great. And that chopper is stored five miles from here. How am I supposed to get to it with all this going There was a prolonged sigh at the other end of the link. Then Gabriela said, "I'm sorry to drop this on your people, but it has to be done. Everything depends on it."
"Yeah, right." He had no choice, it seemed. Every-thing depends on it, they said. Well, it was time to plan quickly. He still had observers up there at street level, hiding away from the H-Ks, checking their activities. They'd do their best with this crazy scheme. "I'll do it," he said. "It doesn't mean I like it." "Here's how it's going to happen..."
COLORADO
Nine of them would enter the time vault. John tried not to think about the pain, and what might await them at the other end of the journey. He watched Big John making farewells, walking around, shaking hands, trying to looked relaxed. His people still had faith in him, despite the blows the Resistance had suffered today. Some at them offered jokes, or wanted to touch him. Others simply shook hands, solemnly, experiencing the moment
Jade had been refining the coordinates for their spatial displacement. They had to get as close to the Madrid base as they possibly could, not be flung across the city, easy fodder for marauding war machines. John sat beside her. "How's it going, Jade? Do you think we'll make it?"
"I don't know," she said, not looking up from the screen. "We have enough resources, but many things can go wrong. The first few minutes will be critical."
"I guess so."
"All we can do is prepare. Preparation above everything."
"I know." That's what he would do, he thought It must be what Big John had done, through all those years before and after Judgment Day—preparing to fight the machines. And Sarah, too, training herself and John, year after year, turning him into a leader. "So how close do you think you can get us?"
She entered some final data, then put down the keyboard. "We have a precise location in the city. I think we can get within a one-mile radius. Maybe better. I could run that distance in less than three minutes if needed. But this will not be easy."
He gave a smile. "You're not a great optimist, are you Jade?"
She regarded him frankly, in return. "No, John, I am not. For many people, optimism is good. It helps them accomplish things. But that is not for me. I don't think that way, or need any optimism. I look at reality precisely, and I prepare for it. That is best."
"Well, for you maybe..."
That is all I mean. If you want to be friends with me, you have to understand. For me, many things are not the same. My mind is different from yours."
"Yeah, okay. I can live with it."
"I hope you can, John." Her eyes seemed to search his. "Not many people can. Not in my world. . .and I doubt that yours is different."
"Or this one," John offered.
"Yes, or this one." She looked away from him to sur-vey the room, watching Big John in action. "I could never lead like him," she said. "I don't have his touch with. . .ordinary people. It's not that I wouldn't want to."
He felt on thin ice here. He could see what she meant, that she didn't look down on others—but she was so superior to them, saw things so much more clearly. It must make it hard to relate. "Well," he said. "You've got your own sort of role. You take over at all the right times, when we need you to. Maybe some others are better for the times in between—like Big John, there."
For a change, her smile looked really pleased. "Is that what you call him?"
He shrugged, and smiled back. "I have to call him something, don't I?"
"Come on, John, we must get ready." She stood in a beautiful, fluid movement, then offered him a hand up. He took it gratefully, and they joined the group of people who were going with them.
They made some last arrangements, then it was time to go. Some leaders would have to stay here, to keep control of the army. At any rate, some were wounded already—they could not be asked to make the vast journey in space, then fight a last-ditch battle. Someone who understood the time vault needed to stay just in case they needed it any further.
Danny Dyson, Cecilia Tejada, and Juanita Salceda assumed joint command here, in Big John's absence. He shook hands with each of them. "Wish us luck," he said, holding Juanita's hand in both of his.
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"Come back to us, John—and all of you," she said.
Jade removed her clothing at the door of the time vault, then entered it first. The others followed, first Anton, then Big John, Sarah, and Carlo; John, then Eve, and finally two of the best young warriors from the Resistance, Neal Crawford, and Xavier Tenez. Crawford was a tall, raw-boned guy, maybe about twenty, with light brown hair. Tenez was younger, but broad across the shoulders, with a wiry athleticism. They both looked keen and intelligent. John figured they'd be fine to work with on the mission.
For the second time in one subjective day, he waited to be displaced in space-time. This vault was slightly larger than the one that Rosanna had constructed in his own world, in the basement of the Cyberdyne research site. Some of the equipment tucked into the corners looked strange, subtly different from any human design. In all, however, it was frighteningly familiar, so like what he'd seen before. There mustn't be too many ways to de-sign something like this. He remembered the pain, and be braced himself for the worst.
Danny closed the huge door, and now they were alone, sealed off from the rest of the world.
"Watch out for the first few seconds," Jade said with the calm voice of someone explaining a point about cooking, or growing roses. "If we survive that long, we have a real chance."
"Is that the good news?" Big John replied.
Then came the white light.
MADRID
Two miles away to the northeast, an aerial H-K's lights swept the shattered streets of the city, looking for human prey. There was another, three miles to the west. The machines hunted with visual light cameras, infrared scopes, and a vast array of other sensors. Nicolas kept down behind a broken stone wall, about three feet high, crawling on his belly and knees as he scanned for any disturbance, using nightvision devices. Now and then, a radio report came through his headset as a second team kept its eyes out for General Connor and his people.
There were four of them in this team, checking the area north of the Resistance base. They shivered, even in the heavy fabric of their gray uniforms. "One minute to go," Varley said on his left, speaking in her halting Spanish. She was a thirty-year-old woman from what had once been England.
T2 - 02 - The New John Connor Chronicles - An Evil Hour Page 26