Infiltrator

horse, Linda, as well.

Looking over, she saw that he had a hitch attached to his car.

'Would you mind getting the trailer set up while John and I police the area here?' she asked.

'Police… ?' Dieter looked confused.

'We have to break that up into unrecognizable pieces,' she explained, pointing to the defunct Terminator. 'Then we'll burn the house down around it.'

'You might want to hurry, then,' Dieter said with a nod toward the house. 'It looks like the fire in the living room is taking hold.'

'Shit!' Sarah said. 'John, get our stuff out of there. I'll take care of this.'

' We'll take care of this,' Dieter amended. He noticed that John put the dog down and jogged toward the house without a word. Good training, he thought, impressed by the young man's discipline. It was as if the faces of the people he'd first met were peeling away like masks, and beneath were… well, people pretty much like these, ready to fight or run for their lives at any moment.

Without asking, Sarah reached over, unbuckled, and pulled off Dieter's belt, yanking it from around his waist in one smooth move, startling him. Then she knelt and put it through Harold's collar, making a leash, which she then handed to Dieter.

Von Rossbach laughed. 'I'll just put him in the car,' he said, and led the puppy away. He looked over his shoulder. 'I'll be back.'

Sarah nodded absently. She went over to the woodpile and picked up the ax, then turned to the Terminator's severed legs, still jittering strangely on the ground.

'Damn,' she said softly, and lofted the ax.

By the time Dieter returned she had the feet and lower legs separated and was working on the hips. He had brought a crowbar from the tool kit he kept in his trunk and a massive pair of bolt cutters. He placed his foot on one of the lower-leg pieces and began to work the crowbar, wrenching until it came apart.

The flesh and blood made it a gruesome task, despite the metal clearly visible beneath. He fought down his disgust and kept doggedly working the pieces apart. If Sarah could do it, so could he.

John came out in a few minutes and dropped a couple of cases. He was wearing a huge backpack; he swung it down to the ground with a grunt and then picked up the separated pieces of the Terminator, trotting back into the house with them.

Sarah looked up as he went in, her face grim. She evaluated the progress of the fire and redoubled her efforts at chopping the Terminator apart.

'Here,' Dieter said, reaching for the ax. 'I think I'll make more progress on that than you can. Why don't you start with the bolt cutters.'

She nodded and handed it over without a word. He was right, and they had the fire to consider; time for discussion was a luxury. John came out and gathered a second load. He was back in a much shorter time.

'We'll have to throw the rest in,' he said, shouting over the roar of the fire.

Sarah just nodded and kept on with her work. John hefted the crowbar and went looking for the head. He slid one end of the bar into an eye socket and lifted it up to examine it. Two rounds had gone completely through the skull and the components rattled around inside; some mangled pieces fell out through the holes. The problem with this thing was that it was a very solid piece of workmanship. Breaking it up was going to be a stone bitch.

'I think you'll get further using this,' Dieter said from beside him.

He offered the ax and John took it. He checked the edge and found it very chipped and dull. He gave von Rossbach a lopsided smile.

'Maybe so, but not much further.'

'There's a trick to it,' Dieter said. 'Put it down and I'll show you.'

John lowered the head to the ground and worked the crowbar out of they eye socket. Then he made an inviting gesture and stood back.

Von Rossbach lifted the ax, the muscles on his arms bulging, and brought it

down lightly, just touching the Terminator's skull, lifted it again, and brought it down, as though making sure of his aim. John watched him attentively as Dieter brought the ax up a final time and brought it down with an unstoppable, irresistible strength that split the metal as though it were made of foil. He raised the ax again and split it crosswise, breaking the teeth into unrecognizable white splinters.

Then together they pried the remaining shreds of metal apart. John gathered up the escaped plastic bits and components from inside the skull, using part of the head as a bowl to hold them. Then he got as close to the burning house as he could and flung it into the flames like a Frisbee.

Dieter looked around; there was nothing left but a few bloodstains on the ground, and the bacteria and ants and monsoon rains would take care of those.

He shuddered, feeling slightly nauseous for a second.

'Reaction,' Sarah said from beside him.

He looked down at her. The fake glasses were gone and he could see her eyes clearly for once, ' fa,' he said. 'I could use a comforting hug.' He opened his big arms and turned toward her.

Sarah looked at him in disbelief, momentarily disgusted at the thought of hugging what she'd just torn apart. Then she looked at his very human eyes and smiled, then laughed. 'Of course,' she said, and stepped into his arms. 'We Connors provide full-service disasters.'

She put her own arms around him and rested her cheek against his solid chest.

One hand patted his back, making circles, then patting, the way she had with

John when he was a baby. Dieter rested his check against her hair and she felt, rather than heard, him sigh.

We've been attacked by a Terminator, my house is burning down, and we have to flee Paraguay. But this is rather nice, she thought. Dieter's big hands began to imitate her own, gentle circles and pats. Am I going into shock? After a moment she decided she wasn't. After a longer moment she decided to let go of von Rossbach and stand alone. But she didn't. Instead she closed her eyes and sighed.

Von Rossbach moved his head to look down at the woman in his arms. He stroked her hair and Sarah lifted her head to look up at him. She lowered her eyes, smiling slightly.

'Comforted?' she asked.

'Oh, yes,' he said.

'Guys?' John said.

They both moved apart as though he'd thrown water on them.

'Yeah,' Sarah said, nodding. 'You will take Linda?' she said to von Rossbach.

'Linda?'

'The horse,' John explained with elaborate patience.

'Of course,' Dieter said. 'You two can come to my place so that we can make plans.'

'I don't think so,' Sarah said. 'I think it's best we disappear now.' She turned away. 'I'll get Linda into the trailer.'

He grabbed her arm and she spun, yanking her arm from his grip.

'I want to help,' Dieter said, willing her to believe him. Feral as she seemed to be going that belief was going to come hard. 'You can't just go off half-cocked.

You need to plan this and I have the resources to help you.'

'Dieter,' John cut in, keeping a wary eye on both of them, 'I know you mean well, but you do realize that they probably found us because of you.'

Von Rossbach's head snapped around to look at him. 'You do realize that don't you?'

'I told no one,' Dieter insisted. 'I denied everything to my colleagues. They didn't find you through me, I swear it.'