Terminator Salvation

aiming again.

“Other shoulder. Spin him the other way.” Her second shot reversed the direction of Wright’s rotation.

Barnes finally smiled. “Okay, pilot, you’ve convinced me you can shoot a target that’s close in. Now why don’t we make it a little harder?” Moving to the relevant instruments and before Williams could object, he activated the release on the suspension mechanism.

Still bound in heavy metal links, Wright plummeted to the bottom of the silo and in a rattle of chains crashed to the concrete floor far below. It was a fall that would have killed any man. It should have killed Wright. Instead, he climbed slowly to his feet, shook his head, and tilted it back to stare up at Barnes and Williams.

The lieutenant saw how the hybrid had survived, sniffed disdainfully, and turned to leave.

“Keep an eye on it, all right? I don’t know what Connor wants, but I doubt it’ll take long.” He nodded downward. “Let’s see how many dents you can put in it at this distance before I get back.”

Once Barnes had departed, Williams became pensive, as if she was waiting for something. Then she hurriedly put aside the gun.

Looking up again, Wright saw something plunging toward him and managed to stumble aside. The object landed with a soft thud close to where he had been standing. A quick glance revealed it to be Williams’ travel pack. As he stared at it, the sound of lightly clinking chain caused him to raise his gaze a second time.

Utilizing a basic loop ascender, she was heading down the chain toward him at a speed that would have had most people screaming or covering their eyes. Braking with the ascender, she touched down lightly.

Without offering a word in greeting she moved quickly to the lumpy pack. From its depths she hauled out several articles of clothing that were unceremoniously tossed aside. As he was trying to make sense of this, she found and fired up a compact cutting torch. It wasn’t very big nor was its flame particularly long, but it was plenty hot enough to cut through the chains that bound him.

How did he know that?

He had little time to wonder at his apparent ability to precisely gauge temperature before she brought the blue-white flame close and began working on the steel posts that had been driven through his wrists to secure him to the chain. He couldn’t see her eyes behind the pair of heavy-duty sunglasses she was wearing, but there was no mistaking her familiar grin or the sardonic tone in her voice.

“I’m guessing this doesn’t hurt.”

He wanted the flame—so close to his skin—to burn. He wanted the glowing metal to sting, to send shivers of agony running through his nerves and up his arm and down his spine. But all he felt was a mild warmth. The contradiction between what he was seeing and what he was feeling verged on the otherworldly.

“Guess not,” he muttered.

Cut through, half of the bolt securing one hand fell to the floor, allowing him to shake off the chain. He looked on impassively as she went to work with the cutter on his other hand. Gazing down at the one that was now free, he clearly saw a black streak where the skin had been scorched. It was already starting to heal. He felt nothing.

And not only in his unchained hand.

Connor sat alone in his private quarters listening to his mother.

“...you sent Kyle Reese back to protect me. Together, your father and I terminated the machine that was sent to kill me. In the future, I suspect more machines will arrive. Advanced models in many disguises, with an intellect far superior to that of humans. They’ll use anything in their power to deceive you. Do not trust it, John. Never forget what they are. Machines. They only have one objective: to kill you....”

How many times had he played back her recordings; memorizing every word, drawing on her advice, and learning how best to fight back against the machines. The recordings were a part of him now, just as she would always be a part of him. Despite his age, despite his experience and his maturity, he wished she could be with him. It was not only the knowledge she imparted. He missed her confidence, her assurance that come what may humanity would triumph and Skynet would be defeated.

It was a belief that had been sorely tested lately.

And now this—this thing had appeared in their midst. This insane hybrid of human and machine, insisting even in the face of incontestable evidence to the contrary that it was a man. Clinging resolutely to a claim mocked by its own guts. If it had not been sent to kill him, then what possible purpose could it have?

The more Connor thought about it, the greater his certainty that it needed to be destroyed at the next opportunity. Whatever it thought of itself, it was self-evidently a creature of Skynet. Whatever it might have done for Blair Williams, plainly no further good could come of allowing it to continue to exist. Many capabilities could be ascribed to Skynet, but until the advent of the creature that called itself “Marcus Wright” it had never been credited with subtlety.

It was a dangerous development; one less easily countered with bombs and bullets.

He was still playing the recording when Kate walked in. She listened for a moment, then nodded in the direction of the player.

“Your mother was a strong woman.”

Leaning forward, Connor switched off the recording. It didn’t matter that she had interrupted him. He knew every word by heart anyway.

“There’s nothing there.”

Kate eyed him closely.

“What’s going on inside that head of yours, John Connor?”

He turned to her. “That thing in there, in the security silo. I thought I knew our enemy. But that makes me feel like I know nothing. I looked into its eyes. It absolutely believes everything that it says. It believes it’s human. And