first; that might help to hide sound and movement.
Sarah dragged herself up and hit the glass with its tiny hammer. She almost broke down and cried when the glass only cracked. She hadn't thought she was so weak.
The Infiltrator stopped dead as water exploded from the sprinklers above. There was nothing in its memory to explain this. What did it mean? Irrelevant, it decided. Something the enemy had done, though how or why it didn't know.
Perhaps the intention was to obscure its vision or hearing. Looking out into a world gone gray, the Infiltrator thought its enemy had succeeded better than it could know.
Dieter insisted on going through the door first, which John had no problem with.
He was wounded and therefore less able. John covered him, a gun in his left hand. There was a nasty, squeezing sensation in his head at the sight of the prone Terminator just outside the door.
Dieter shoved it with his foot, barely shaking it. Then his gun hand snapped up at the sound of a groan. Looking around, he saw Dyson sprawled in a heap by the elevator. He moved quickly over to him and John followed. He noticed a pool of blood beside the Terminator and looked around.
Von Rossbach knelt beside Dyson and gently turned him over. Jordan's eyes were open, but were as yet uncomprehending, and he groaned again.
Dieter tapped his cheek gently, whispering, 'Dyson. Wake up. Dyson.'
John crouched beside them, his back to the wall, eyes roving.
'Where's my mother?' he asked. 'What's going on?'
Jordan caught that and tried to answer, the words came out strangled and garbled and he frowned. He licked his lips and tried again.
'Another Terminator,' he said. 'My boss. Sarah shot her.' His eyes rolled toward Dieter and he shook his head slightly. 'She came back to life. She… it got the drop on your mother. They're out there somewhere.' He gestured weakly toward the semi dark cubicles.
John and Dieter both rose to their feet, looking outward. There was the distant sound of breaking glass and then the water came on.
'This way!' Dieter said, and plunged toward the sound.
Sarah was sitting beside the doorway on the rolling desk chair, her back to the wall, waiting for the Terminator to pass. In her hands was the fire ax; she hefted
it, holding it ready to strike.
The 1-950 moved slowly down the corridor. It wondered how long this rain effect would last. It was diminishing its effectiveness. It paced on, head turning, listening.
Sarah watched it pass, then leapt up and brought the ax down as hard as she could.
John and Dieter rounded the corner in time to see an ax flash up, then down. It was a moment before John realized that his mother had wielded it. He ran toward them. The bright head of what must be Jordan's Terminator boss turned and its hand flashed back. He screamed as he watched it plunge that hand deep into his mother's abdomen in a classic knife hand.
Sarah's eyes turned back into her head and she went down. The Terminator readied itself for a deathblow, moving slowly but powerfully.
Dieter crouched, holding his Browning Hi-Power in both hands, and fired. The blond head bucked and the Terminator dropped to its knees. John fired, less accurately with his left hand, and struck it on the shoulder. Slowly it fell, landing athwart his mother.
John ran toward them and with a strength he hadn't known he possessed grabbed the Terminator and flung it aside. He gathered Sarah up in his arm and weeping called to her.
'Mom!' he sobbed. 'MOM! Don't die, okay? Please, please, don't die!'
Dieter looked down on him, then turned to the female Terminator that was still moving weakly. He put his pistol against its head and fired several times.
John jumped and looked at him desperately.
Von Rossbach knelt beside them and checked Sarah over. The wound in her side was bad. Dieter had nothing on him suitable for making bandages, and neither had John. He glanced around and saw a scarf hanging from a coat rack in the cubicle before him. He grabbed it and bound it tightly around Sarah's abdomen.
Then he picked her up and carried her toward the stairs, John trotting anxiously beside him.
Jordan was sitting up, somewhat revived by the cold water pouring from the ceiling. He gasped when he saw Sarah Connor's limp form in von Rossbach's arms.
'Can you get up if John helps you?' Dieter asked.
'I'd better,' Jordan said.
He struggled to his feet and John slipped under his arm. They staggered a bit at first, then found a way to center their mutual weight. John pressed the elevator button.
'Not working,' Jordan said. 'I tried.'
Together they struggled toward the stairs and began the long journey upward.
Dieter noticed a change in Sarah's breathing and felt his heart contract. Then he
saw her eyelids lift and his heart did, too.
'It's me—Dieter,' he said softly. 'I've got you; you're going to be all right.'
Her eyes closed slowly and he had no idea if she'd heard him.
Even he was gasping for breath by the time they came to the top of the stairs.
Jordan, so breathless he was unable to speak, touched von Rossbach's arm and signaled him to wait. Frowning, Dieter complied.
'Three,' Dyson said, holding up three fingers.
Dieter's face lit as he comprehended the message. There had been three Terminators in Sacramento. Two, and their master, were destroyed. That left one unaccounted for. He gently lowered Sarah to the ground. She moaned and shifted a bit.
'Sarah,' he whispered. 'There's one more Terminator. I've got to take him out.'
'P-ocket,' she mumbled, and made a weak gesture.
He glanced down and saw the butt of the taser sticking out of her jeans.
'That ought to do it,' he whispered, smiling down at her.
He kissed her on the forehead, then lowered her head. John was there in an instant, sliding his arm under her. Their eyes met and Dieter nodded, then rose.
He was the only unmarked member of the team. This would be up to him.
Dieter cracked the metal door slightly to glance out into the reception area.
Without warning, a barrage of bullets erupted. Holes punched through the metal and von Rossbach lent his strength to get his wounded comrades out of the line of fire.
The firing stopped and they heard footsteps approach the door. Dieter readied the taser. The doorknob turned, slowly, quietly, then it stopped. The tension mounted as nothing happened.
The Terminator held the knob in position; it sent out a call to Serena and to its fellows and received no answer. It was unimaginable that humans could eliminate so many of its kind. Perhaps a fellow Terminator, badly damaged and unable to communicate, waited behind this barrier. Humans couldn't do it serious harm, it decided. It pushed open the door.
Dieter didn't even have to aim; he fired and the cords flashed out. Von Rossbach grabbed the Terminator's hair and yanked it forward into the stairwell, where the inevitable pyrotechnics wouldn't be visible from outside. Then he popped out the cartridge and put the taser in his jacket pocket.
He bent and lifted Sarah carefully. Even so, she made a soft sound of pain. Then he led them to the front doors. They got a good way from the building and took refuge in the deep shadows behind the concrete-and-metal Cyberdyne sign. He and John laid down their burdens, then turned back toward the building.
