They tried not to make a noise as they repacked their weapons and equipment. Once they'd finished, Danny drove off in the Ford to find an unobtrusive spot for it, not too far away, but far enough to prevent any obvious connection being made. John checked for any tire tracks they'd left behind, but it looked fine. Within a few minutes, Danny returned.
Jade drove them to Rosanna Monk's street, then followed the numbers on the houses. When they reached Monk's place, she turned into the driveway, letting the headlamps light it up, then backed out gently, just like anyone using a drive for a three-point turn. So far so good.
The house was a geometric structure-all cubes, rectangles, vertical lines-with green-tinted windows, set back on a long, upward-sloping block of land. Monk had parked a current model Honda CR-V in the drive. There were a few bare trees on the block and some sort of flower garden along the front. The lights were on inside and John saw no sign of any other vehicle, or a stake-out-but that meant very little. Even if the T-XA hadn't reached Monk herself, it must surely have gotten messages to the cops and the military. They'd be expecting an attack on Monk and/or the Cyberdyne facility. If the place was staked out, they'd hardly be advertising it.
'Let's not scare her,' Danny said from the front passenger seat. 'Sarah, Anton, you stay here-sorry, but you're the scariest guys on the team. Monk will recognize you, Sarah, you can count on that; I don't care how much you've changed. You stay here, too, John. You'll be safer with Jade in the truck.'
John started to protest, but realized it would be dumb. If they didn't all need to go in, it made sense not to involve un-enhanced humans. He could swallow his pride. What's more, if the T-XA was nearby, or any of its components, nowhere was safe. He could get killed here in the truck, or calling on Monk, or anywhere else. He guessed he was being brave enough, just being here.
'Okay,' he said. 'Send me a postcard.'
'Does she have a husband or anything?' Sarah said. 'Or kids?' John could see what was on her mind. Like him, she was remembering that night they'd paid their visit to Miles Dyson, and Sarah had almost shot Miles dead in front of his family.
'No,' Danny said. 'She's a notorious loner. If anyone's with her tonight, it'll be the T-XA or the cops.'
Anton passed weapons over from the back of the Toyota. Selena took a .45 with her, while Danny took John's 12-gauge.
'Good luck,' John said. 'I mean, break a leg.'
'Yeah,' Danny said. 'Thanks. You ready Selena?'
'Sure,' she said. Even Selena sounded scared. This was crunch time.
'All right,' Danny said. 'Let's go.'
As they approached the front of the house, a bright spotlight came on automatically beside the doorframe, and a pinpoint of red light appeared on an overhead security camera. Nothing else happened. Everything was silent and still, like the world was holding its breath. Danny rang the doorbell, and waited, ready to accelerate into action if need be. After a moment, a female voice said, Who is it?' She sounded nervous, but that could have been an act.
'Dr. Monk?' Danny said. 'Rosanna Monk?'
'Yes. Who are you?'
'I'm Miles Dyson's son. Can we come in?' 'You can't be Miles's son—he's only a kid. You don't sound like a kid.'
He altered his voice just slightly, matching recordings he'd heard of his father. Monk had worked with him; she'd recognize it '1 don't look like one, either.'
'I know. I checked you out.'
'Dr. Monk,' he said in his normal voice. 'I'm Danny Dyson. I'm from the future. I'm sure that doesn't surprise you.'
'Who's your friend?'
'Selena Macedo,' Selena said. 'I'm a combat Specialist, also from the future. We need to speak with you urgently. Can we please come in?'
The door opened, just an inch. Too easy, Danny thought. Monk knew about time travel, no doubt, but she shouldn't be this easy to convince. He subvocalized a message to the others, for Selena to go on alert, for Jade and Anton to ad—now!
He shouldered the door open, reached for his pistol, and rushed into the room. At the same time, Anton sub- vocalized back, 'Here goes, Danny.'
From outside came a long burst of high-velocity mini-gun fire, with the sound of metal and glass being chipped to pieces. Monk responded with superhuman energy, firing a 9mm. pistol and hitting Danny in the side as he rushed past. It hurt like hell, but it would heal up quickly.
That was all he needed to know. 'Out of here in one minute,' he subvocalized.
'Understood, Daniel,' Jade said.
Inside the room were two men with raised guns, one of them getting off shot after shot before the other could react at all.
Selena struggled with Monk-and it was an equal battle! Monk struck at her throat with extraordinary speed, using the barrel of her Beretta, then drove the fingers of her hand deep under her ribs. But Selena gripped her by the shoulders, absorbing the blows and throwing her around, slamming her into the wall—once, twice.
The fast-moving guy with the gun liquefied for half a second, gleaming like metal, then dropped the gun and transformed into a humanoid, but semi-feline, creature with teeth, claws, and impossibly long legs. It sprang at Danny like it came from a catapult.
Danny dodged aside, kicking it as it went past, but merely hurting his foot. He moved on the other guy, who must have been human, maybe just a cop, smashed the gun from his hand with one blow, then knocked him un- conscious with another. Monk passed out in Selena's arms as the werecat attacked them in another explosive movement. Danny fired the 12-gauge, hitting the werecat in mid-leap, and it crashed into the wall with a jolt, a silvery crater wound opening in its side.
Selena was out of there, carrying Monk, now unconscious and limp. Danny followed, with the werecat after him. Its claws raked down his back, and metal fingers seized his arm, but he pulled free.
Anton was in the drive, with his mini-gun. He caught the werecat in a hail of shredding fire, and it slowed down, essentially undamaged, but making little headway. Selena got in the back of the Toyota, throwing Monk in there brutally. Danny climbed in the front, as Jade revved the engine. Anton fired another burst, ran out of ammo, jumped in the back compartment, as Jade hammered down the accelerator and got them out of there with a loud squeal of rubber. Back there, in the Land Cruiser's rear space, it must be like the black hole of Calcutta, Danny thought. Three people crammed in with all those guns.
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
