at them again-its teeth extending beyond those of any normal dog, more like some carnosaur from the Mesozoic Era. John shot at it with the 12-gauge, making a deep wound on its surface. He chambered another round and fired again, denting the pseudo-dog like plasticine walloped by a steel hammer.
Macedo grabbed his wrist 'Run! Don't you want to live?'
Baxter had drawn a handgun and he started firing, perhaps ten times in a matter of seconds. The bullets did the pseudo-dog little harm as it reformed, but it stopped in its tracks under the hail of accurate fire, letting the humans get a few more yards ahead. Meanwhile, the pseudo-man and -woman components of the T-XA came after them, both of them fully recovered, the man firing the laser rifle. This time, the beam nailed Baxter, drilling through his torso and setting him alight.
'Robert!' Jade shouted, rushing back to catch his smoking body as it fell. She hefted him over her shoulder, running under his weight without seeming impeded.
'Is he still alive?' Sarah said. She drew the .45 from her waistband, glancing round for a target
'No, Ms. Connor,' Jade said as she ran. 'There are some things even we can't survive.'
'We can't let ourselves fall into the T-XA's hands, even when we're dead,' Dyson said grimly.
The T-XA was hot on their heels. They made it over the grass, to a concrete footpath that ran past a light industrial jungle. Another laser beam went past, as Macedo let go of John's arm and shot away the lock on a chain- link gate. They ran down the side of an ugly factory. The path led to another gate, which Macedo shot open like the first Beyond this was a narrow road alley between medium-rise buildings.
Macedo pushed John in the back. 'Just run as fast as you can.'
'We must be slowing you down,' Sarah said as they crossed the road, dodging traffic. She was starting to pant from the effort she was making, keeping up with these superhuman warriors. 'We're not enhanced like you.'
'Yes, but you're doing well. You must be very fit.'
'None of us can outrun that thing for long,' Panov said. 'Maybe Jade... But we've all got the same problem.'
It didn't look that way. The Specialists still seemed fresh, even those who'd been wounded. John was exhausted from the effort he'd made.
Dyson took them through a cross alley, then another one, which led to a much broader street. He turned right into this, then ran between two parked trucks. Behind them, the shaft of laser light stabbed out yet again, setting afire the canvas tarpaulin on one of the trucks. Under the streetlights, John noticed that Jade's arm had completely healed. She looked kind of drawn and shriveled into herself, but otherwise unhurt.
A police car came down the road, slamming to a halt Damn it, the cops were back on the job! One of them got out, calling 'Stop!' The Specialists ignored it, and ran across the road as the T-XA reached the curb, firing. It had almost caught them. The cop pulled out his gun and shot at the pseudo-man, which didn't even slow down. It fired back, punching a burning hole through the cop. But, as the T-XA stepped onto the roadway, a truck came round the corner, collecting the pseudo-man full-on.
That gave them some precious seconds.
On the other side of the road was a dagger-shaped skyscraper of blue glass, maybe forty stories high. Steps of polished white marble led up to a huge plaza that sur-rounded a glassed-in foyer on the building's ground floor, Dyson vaulted the steps, four at a time, the other Specialists following with no problem, even Jade in her high- heels, and carrying Baxter over her shoulder. John and Sarah were now struggling. They'd been sprinting at a rate they would never have expected they could manage. Using Sarah's assault rifle, Macedo shot out the lock of a glass door tucked away in one of the foyer's corners. Dyson kicked the door open so hard that it ripped the hinges partway out of the frame. As alarms sounded, they ran inside, finding themselves in a dimly-lit maze of elevator banks. The T-XA pseudo-dog reached the door, push-nig it open with its jaws. The pseudo-man and -woman were close behind.
John could see nowhere to run. They'd led themselves Into a trap.
CHAPTER TEN
SKYNET'S WORLD
ARGENTINA
THE YEARS AFTER JUDGMENT DAY
Raoul was holding back from the front line of action, but organizing his forces, shouting directions. His people took positions and fired, sighting through night vision devices. Many had RPG tubes, aimed at the enemy artillery and vehicles. They used their weapons carefully, mindful of the back blasts which made them so dangerous to their users. The T-800 headed towards the enemy emplacements, taking no notice when mortar shells landed near it, firing grenade after grenade with the M-79. John sized up the entire scene. Raoul's forces were everywhere, giving better than they got.
Whoever led the Rising Army of Liberation had seriously underestimated them. The commanders must not have expected such a numerous, well-armed force, much less the T-800, which never bothered to take cover, but merely advanced like an invulnerable juggernaut.
John did not know how long the battle had lasted— maybe half an hour, maybe much more—but the invaders eventually pulled out, leaving bodies, weapons, and vehicles behind. Raoul and his people continued to fire on the retreating trucks and Humvees, trying to destroy as much as they could, in case there was a next time.
They found one survivor in the wreckage of the chop-per crash, a short, stocky man dressed in military fatigues. He had long, greasy hair and a bushy beard. The T-800 bent the chopper's twisted metal to let him free. He crawled out, watching the guns trained on him from all sides. John, Sarah, Raoul and Gabriela Tejada, Franco Salceda, Willard Parnell, Rosa Suarez, and a dozen others were all on hand, ready to shoot if needed.
'Can you walk?' Sarah said in Spanish.
'I think so.' The man got to his feet slowly, moving with exaggerated pain. John saw that he was foxing.
He wore a sidearm but had no weapon in his hand. Remove your belt,' Sarah said. 'Don't go near the gun.' She had her rifle trained on his head. 'Don't even think about it.' He stared at her defiantly. She moved the merest fraction, and fired a shot an inch past his face. It lodged in the helicopter wreckage, as the man's eyes went wide. Again, she had the rifle trained on him. The next shot wouldn't miss. 'Don't test my patience, or you're dead.'
He started to unbuckle the belt.
'All right,' Sarah said. 'Who are you? Who were you with? What does he want?'
'Find out,' he said.
She moved forward half a step, bring the barrel even closer to him. His eyes watched it, scared and fascinated. 'What did I tell you?' Sarah said. 'Talk now, or you're dead meat.'
With exaggerated gentleness, the Terminator put down its grenade launcher, then stepped past Sarah and seized the man under the chin. Using one hand, it lifted him off his feet, so he was hanging by his neck. His legs moved, like trying to tread water. He struck the Terminator with a hard punch to the face, but it took no notice.
'Talk!' the Terminator said. 'Now.' It spoke in English, but the man must have understood. He spat in the Terminator's face.
It lowered him slightly, then threw him six feet through the air. He landed hard, and lay there, winded. But he still wore the gunbelt—he'd never finished removing it With a sudden movement, the Terminator was on him again, but he reached for his handgun and got off one shot. It struck the Terminator in the chest, not even slowing it.
'Wrong weapon,' the Terminator said.
It snatched the gun from the man's fingers, and pulled him to his feet. He tried to throw a roundhouse right, but this time the Terminator's hand struck like a snake, grabbing the man's fist out of the air...and crushing.
'Talk!'
The man sank to the ground with the pain.
'Let him go now,' Sarah said. 'I think he's ready to cooperate.' To the man, she said in Spanish: 'Forget about the Geneva Convention, my friend. We need to know everything.'
He gave his name as Alejandro Garcia. His boss was General Vasquez, a warlord based in Cordoba. He said that Vasquez would be back with a larger force,
