smile. If only she were a blonde, she'd be a perfect Aryan.
Yes, definitely, things were looking up.
Meg Horton, secretary to Roger Colvin, CEO of Cyberdyne, sighed as she looked at the tower of mail on her desk. It seemed the stack got bigger every day.
Taking her seat, she began sorting the mail into separate piles. Most of it was junk, and could be disposed of without opening. But one large envelope had a note written on the front.
Inside was a stack of brochures from the Utah Tourist Bureau. Meg frowned, checking the address o>n the envelope. It was indeed addressed to Roger Colvin.
The boss must be thinking of going skiing. Or turning Mormon. She added the material to the personal pile to go directly to his office and discarded the envelope.
Inside the envelope were several insectlike machines. As soon as the envelope hit the wastebasket they emerged and climbed out, dropping to the floor and scurrying to the nearest dark corner as they'd been programmed to do.
In Utah, the Terminator that had been assigned to monitor the bugs' progress took over their function, ordering one to remain below the secretary's desk while directing the others to various positions around the perimeter of the room to give the Terminator a broad view of the office.
It saw that the gap between the door to the CEO's office and the thick carpet inside was too small for the bug to slip through; the T-101 continued searching.
In the ceiling there appeared to be a ventilator cover. That would be optimal placement. Once they were in the ventilation system, the bugs would have access to the whole building.
Soon it had one of the bugs stationed in Colvin's office and had sent the others off to explore and map the whole facility. Then it alerted the I-950 that the bugs were safely implanted. It arranged for their input to be recorded, then turned to other tasks.
Paul Warren looked up from the screen at his friend—the CEO of Cyberdyne—
his face split by a delighted grin.
'I can't believe these numbers!' he said.
Roger Colvin grinned back at him. 'Neither can I.'
Their automated factories were a complete success, not one breakdown in their pilot plant in over a year. Production clicked along 24/7 at a fraction of the cost of a human-run production line. Granted, it would take a while to amortize the capital costs, but with a guaranteed market like the Pentagon, that was a sucker bet. Best of all: No employees equaled no unions and no support infrastructure
for people, and all this minimized environmental impact—not that the environmentalists appreciated that.
The intercom on Colvin's desk gave a warning chirp.
'Mr. Colvin,' Roger's secretary said, 'there's a Mr. Pool here to see you.'
'Just Pool,' a voice said.
'Sir!' they heard the secretary snap.
The office door opened and a tall, rather nondescript man of middle age entered.
Behind him Colvin's secretary hovered, looking outraged.
'It's all right, Meg,' Roger told her; he looked at Warren, then back at the intruder. 'You must be the new guy,' he said wearily.
'Pool,' the man said, nodding in agreement.
'Just Pool?' Warren asked with more than a touch of sarcasm.
'Yes.' Pool sat down without waiting for an invitation and opened his briefcase.
'You might like to take a look at this,' he said, handing Colvin a CD.
The CEO took it, his eyes never leaving Pool's. The government liaison nodded once. 'Sure,' Colvin said, and replaced the one he'd been running. When he accessed the disc it showed a recording, obviously made with a high-end video camera, of what at first appeared to be one of their automated factories.
'Wait a minute,' he said, leaning forward. He tapped a few keys and the picture
froze. 'Paul, take a look at this.' He swung the monitor around.
'Hey!' the president said after a moment's study. 'What's going on here? That isn't ours!'
'You guys building your own now?' Colvin asked coldly.
Pool looked back at him for a moment, then switched his glance to the president.
'No,' he said. 'But unfortunately the situation is out of control. Factories like these are sprouting up all over, especially in the third world. Many of them,'
Pool continued with careful emphasis, 'are making munitions.'
'NATO. They're like… spy central. What are you doing about it?'
'Unfortunately there's very little we can do at this point.' Pool closed his briefcase. 'We know you're not involved,' he continued, 'because we've investigated. Thus far we haven't been able to pin it down, but you're right, unfortunately—it's more likely to be one of our 'friends' at NATO than anyone else.'
'We're losing money here…' Warren began.
'You could always
Colvin sat back in his chair, genuinely shocked. They'd lost their exclusive
contract. All their research and development, all their expansion plans, were just so much wasted time and money. They'd borne the start-up costs and someone else was walking off with the profit.
'How?' Warren demanded. 'How did this happen? And how long has it been going on?'
'Almost from the beginning,' Pool said. 'That's why we assumed you two had something to do with it. Or at least someone in your organization. But we've found no corroborating evidence of that.' He sounded regretful.
Colvin grunted like a man kicked in the stomach. The only thing they had going for them now was their contract with the government. He covered his eyes with one hand. 'Where the hell is Sarah Connor?' he suddenly blurted. 'This is certainly a Connor-sized disaster.'
If he hadn't been looking directly at Pool he would have missed the moment when the agent froze.
'What?' the CEO snapped.
'Mr. Colvin?' Pool asked politely.
Colvin glanced at Warren, then back at Pool. He sat up straight, almost certain he could feel himself going pale. 'Well?' he asked, his voice hoarse. 'Where is she?'
Pool sat still for a moment, then he said, 'We don't know, actually.'
The announcement threw both executives into motion. Warren flung himself up and walked to the window, his back to the room. Colvin rose and, placing his hands on his desk, leaned forward slowly. 'You what?' he asked quietly, one eyebrow raised.
Warren turned back to them. 'Could she… ?' He waved a hand helplessly.
'Have leaked the information?' Pool asked. 'No. Definitely not. We knew where she was when the problem began.'
Colvin dropped back into his chair. 'Could she have… associates?' he asked.
Pool shook his head. 'Unlikely. Connor has always been a lone wolf. The degree and speed of this proliferation argue for some sort of organization. Frankly, gentlemen, we're completely out of ideas, which is why we decided to consult you.'
'Oh, that's flattering.' Colvin sneered. 'The question is who benefits, and how?'
'Yeah,' Warren said. He shrugged, then sat down himself. 'If someone was blowing the factories up, I'd blame the Luddites. But I don't see how making this technology universally available fits in with their obsession.'
