An Evil Hour - 02 by Russell Blackford

Author:Russell Blackford [Blackford, Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-03-11T00:00:00+00:00

PART FOUR

SKYNET'S

WORLD

CHAPTER

NINE

COLORADO JULY 2029

Juanita Salceda was still a beautiful woman: tall and athletic, with dark hair, white teeth, and strong features. John had known her so long now. He remembered her as a child, as a skinny teenager, as a fierce warrior in her twenties. Had he always loved her? It felt like it had been forever. They'd become so close, over the years, yet never in the way John would have wanted—if his world had allowed time for love and softness.

He watched her fondly as she spoke about the war, the campaign, leaning over a table of trestles and boards in John's tent, tracing routes with her finger, jabbing at strategic points near Skynet's mountain.

"Juanita," he said.

His tone stopped her. "John? What's wrong?"

Facing her, he put both hands out to take hers. "Please. Tomorrow." He faltered. "Please be very careful. Too many people have died..."

So many of the people they loved most had fallen to the machines. Worst had been the day in 2012 when John and Juanita had fought side by side in the shattered streets of Buenos Aires, the day that Sarah had died, and with her Paco Salceda, the youngest of Enrique's kids. In that same battle, the T-800 Terminator that had protected John so well since 1994 had been destroyed by laser cannon from one of Skynet's Centurion gun-pods. And so many others. . .all the Resistance families had lost loved ones: husbands, wives, lovers; sons, daughters; brothers and sisters. After Sarah, other leaders had died: Fernando Alvez, GuillermoTejada, Howard Bellow.

John's close friend, Juanita's older brother Franco, had died in Los Angeles, just two years before. It was a terrible roll call of death. It had been almost too much.

Juanita stepped into his arms. She held him tightly, just for a moment, then stepped away. "I know," she said. "I'll be careful. You, too."

Tomorrow they would break through Skynet's defense grid, then penetrate its mountain fortress. He had to send his father back in time. A terrible anticipation rolled in his stomach, tearing him. He wondered if they'd truly end it tomorrow. What other tricks might Skynet have in store?

"Get some sleep, John," Juanita said finally. "There's a long day ahead of us."

"Juanita..."

"Yes...?"

He couldn't say it—not in so many words. "Just take care.

After she'd left, he made some notes in the faded yellow exercise book that he'd kept for over two decades, the same one he'd used to interrogate the T-800, back in 2006. It had many of his private thoughts, expressed in a cryptic shorthand. He knew some passages by heart.

Tonight, he did no more than underline some sentences, then consult a checklist toward the end.

Not everything had turned out as he'd planned that day in Argentina. They'd met the first hordes of killer machines with tactical nuclear weapons, but their enemy had come in greater numbers than John had thought, wave after wave of them. Still, John and his soldiers had fought back: they'd attacked factories and supply lines; freed the prisoners in the camps; recruited soldiers and given them hope.

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