'All right,' John said, figuring this out. 'So this time it's you trying to change the future-not Skynet?'
Danny sighed. 'That's more or less right. It's more complicated than that. In the world where I came from, my mother died in 2007, at the same time as you. Later on, I found out she was right. It's just that she didn't succeed.'
“Tarissa tries to help us out?' John said. That's right.' Danny sounded haunted. 'I was nineteen at the time. I didn't believe her. If I had, I might have died as well.'
'So you're going to save her, doing this?'
'No,' Anton said firmly. 'That's the tragedy of it, John. Whatever we do, no one ever gets saved.'
They changed cars again half an hour later, picking out a 1960s Chevrolet sedan with big rear fins. It was still pretty conspicuous, once someone reported it missing, bit it was easy to steal. By the time it was reported, they would be far away, in yet another vehicle.
Sarah sat up front this time, squeezed between Danny, when he got in, and Jade, in the driver's seat. Jade smashed the ignition mechanism with a blow of her fist and started the car.
'Wow!' John said from the back, seated just behind her. 'You sure you're human, Jade? I've never seen anyone human do that.'
'There's always a first time, John.'
He didn't know what to make of that. She had a way of talking that was gentle and sad, as if she'd seen and understood stuff the rest of them could only imagine. As the car pulled out of its parking spot, John craned forward to talk to her. 'I mean, I've seen a Terminator do it, but not a human being.'
'That's what I thought you meant.'
'Yeah. Uh, don't take it the wrong way. I'm not trying to compare you to a Terminator.' Back in 1994, when the T-800 was protecting him, it had stolen cars that way. If Jade could do it, too, no wonder she kept stealing cars so quickly-and that she could do so much else.
'I'm not offended,' Jade said. 'And I think you'll find that stealing cars is the least of my talents.' Though it was obviously a little joke, she didn't laugh. 'We're all biologically human, but we've been upgraded.'
'Jade gets sensitive about this,' Macedo said. 'She's the most enhanced member of the team.'
Jade shrugged as they passed a big Mercedes tourist bus. 'I'm the youngest, so I'm the most enhanced. Judgment Day came just after I was born, so the technology doesn't get any better than this.' She wasn't boasting. It sounded more like she saw it as tragic.
'You mean there was no chance to develop it further?' he said.
'Exactly.'
'But Danny was born back in, I don't know, 1990 or something.'
'1988,' Danny said.
'Right, so you can't have been enhanced then. We didn't have that kind of technology back in the '80s—we still don't.'
'There are different kinds of enhancement,' Anton said. 'The rest of us have had somatic cell engineering at different points in our lives, but Jade is different. She's re-engineered through and through, from before she was born. Every cell of her is more efficient than you or me, or any of us.'
'Just don't pick on her,' Danny said. 'She'll make you regret it.'
'I could do without all the attention,' Jade said.
Danny glanced over at her. 'Sorry, Jade. I know you're not a curiosity piece. You're one of us. You're the best.'
'Thank you, Daniel.'
'Hey, Jade, I'm sorry, too,' John said. 'I didn't mean to offend you.'
He was figuring out something else. Jade looked at least twenty, maybe a bit older. But she said she was born not long before Judgment Day. Let's see, he thought. If Judgment Day was 2021 and these people came from 2036, she must be only fifteen or sixteen. That didn't add up.
'No offense taken, John,' she said. 'You need to know about us. Daniel is right—I was what they called one of the 'ultrabrights' in the years leading up to Judgment Day. I was re-engineered very deeply. For example, I'm almost immortal-I won't age any further.'
'How old
For the first time, she laughed. 'In years actually lived, sixteen. But I was designed to grow up fast, then stop. Socially, intellectually, and biologically, I'm much older. Then again, if you want to measure my age from when I was born until now, I'm about minus eighteen.'
'Most of us are pretty young if you do it that way,' Selena said with a sardonic laugh. 'I'm still not born. Danny and Anton are teenagers.'
Jade ignored this. 'Selena, Daniel, and Anton...and Robert... were re-engineered, too. Their bones and muscles are stronger than ordinary humans'. We all have microscopic nanoware implants in our blood vessels to protect us from disease and heal our injuries.'
John had read something about that kind of technology. 'Millions of them, right?'
'Correct. Our senses have been upgraded with implants and our reflexes upgraded with cybernetic rewiring. We're all connected electronically to subvocalize to each other. I may be the 'best,' as Daniel puts it so nicely, but they can all do what I can I do.'
'Very modest, Jade,' Selena said. 'If only it were true.' She sounded almost biting, but then she laughed good-naturedly and Jade joined in with it.
None of them seemed to resent Jade-quite the oppo-site-but her sensitivity amused them. She was a super-woman among supermen and -women, and she seemed to feel like the odd one out, or like the others were all watching her, even though they appeared to like her. In fact, the way Danny looked at her, maybe he was in love. Or maybe it was more a fatherly feeling, or something. It would be pretty creepy if a guy his age thought Jade was hot and wanted to start dating her, or something.
Or maybe John felt jealous. He hoped he wasn't falling in love himself. Anyway, he knew what it was like to feel isolated, so he warmed towards her. Yes, maybe they could be friends when this was over.
Jade was the same age as him. Other teenagers of either sex usually struck him as very young, considering what he'd been through, and the sort of teaching he'd had right from the start. But when he looked at Jade, he didn't see a teenager; rather, she was an amazing young woman with incredible abilities. He realized he'd met someone way out of his league.
When John had first seen Danny, back at El Juicio, he'd thought of Miles Dyson, Danny's father. They looked very much alike. But Danny must be a lot older than Miles was when John had met him back in 1994. So his aging processes must also be slowed down, or at least the medical science they'd used had blunted the effect of time. John couldn't really be sure how old any of them were. Selena looked about thirty, but who could say?
Throughout the conversation, Sarah had been silent, as if she was biting her tongue. She might have an issue with all this high tech stuff. John hoped not, because these people seemed pretty cool. And, however enhanced they were by technology, there was no doubt which side they were on. They were for humanity, not Skynet and the Terminators.
About an hour later, as it started getting light, they filled the Chevy's tank at a big PEMEX gas station, drawing on John's reserve of cash. By now, the Mexican police would have made a connection between the night's traffic carnage, and other terrible events, and the Lawes family cyber cafe. Even if they couldn't piece together that Deborah and David Lawes were actually Sarah and John Connor, it was dangerous to use a credit card and create electronic footprints. Worse, their carefully established identities were now pretty much useless.
The station had a store and a diner attached. 'John,' Danny said. 'We're going to need all the nutrients we can get. How about you do that job?'
That figured. A teenager might look less conspicuous buying a whole lot of junk food. He got a dozen burgers to take away, three giant bottles of Gatorade, a half-gallon carton of ice cream and all the multi-vitamin pills he could find. Anton wolfed down most of it, but Selena and Jade took a good share. They seemed to be famished.
John went back for more. He shrugged at the guy behind the counter at the diner. 'My friends are pretty hungry,' he said.
The station had a few racks of clothes and accessories for tourists: T-shirts; cheap, locally made jeans; sunglasses; and an assortment of bags, hats, and eyeshades. Sarah bought a few items for the Specialists to make
