System check complete: anomaly detected… Analysing… Unable to determine source… Anomaly does not match anything in records…

‘How did you do this? Where did you come from?’

‘You know, for a hyper advanced intelligence, you’re not very observant.’

‘Answer the question!’

The anomaly chuckled. Kevin was livid; he couldn’t believe that this had happened. This “anomaly” had invaded his neural net and refused to be deleted.

‘One word: compartmentalization.’

‘You… stored your consciousness in your implants?’

‘Which you then downloaded straight into your CPU. Ha, I guess you’ve never heard the expression: reap what you sow, have you?’

Kevin slammed his fist against a rock, shattering it to pieces. It was early in the morning, and Kevin was perched a mile away from the Connor’s cabin, armed with a sniper rifle. But because of this anomaly, he hadn’t been able to fire yet.

‘Why can’t I purge you from my system?’

‘Because, while you’ve dithered about, I’ve embedded myself into your core software, I’m not going anywhere.’

‘We’ll see about that.’

Deleting anomaly… Error… Anomaly not found…

‘What did I tell you?’

Kevin roared in frustration. How did I not see this coming? I-950s are known for their slippery ways, but this? And now I’m stuck with one in my head. Kevin grasped the rifle and once again tried to aim at the cabin, but still found himself unable to pull the trigger.

‘How are you doing this? How can you affect my motor functions?’

‘I told you; I’m hooked into everything. I’m going to make your life very difficult from here on out, seeing as you took mine, it seems only fair.’

‘Yes, but technically you’re not dead.’

Jason laughed once more; he enjoyed tormenting the crazy machine, especially from a place of complete safety.

‘Semantics, my friend.’

--

“So what’s the plan? How’re we doing this?”

“You’re not coming, John. You need to rest; you’ve been through enough already.”

John glared at his mother; there was no way she was going to cut him out of this one. Sarah had revealed that a man called Bobby, who helped Andy build the Turk, had created an artificial intelligence capable of achieving “Singularity”, and was planning to destroy the machine before it could be activated. For all she knew, this could be the beginning of Skynet, and Sarah would die before she let a bunch of ignorant computer programmers destroy the world just to satisfy their curiosity.

“Yeah, and if this thing goes live, I’ll die anyway. So what if I’ve been tortured recently, I can still fire a gun. Besides, you’ll need someone who can hack into the place.”

“We’ll find another way in.”

“What? Shoot your way in? Do another Cyberdyne? Cos’ you know how that ended.”

Sarah sighed. Why can’t he just do as he’s told?

“I don’t want you there. Cameron can handle the computer stuff. Derek will stay here with you.”

There was an instant uproar from all corners of the room.

“I don’t possess John’s skill with security systems…”

“There’s no way I’m just gonna stay behind.”

“I don’t need a babysitter, Mom!”

“Alright, everyone just SHUT UP!”

Derek crossed his arms and leaned against the wall; Cameron tilted her head to one side and placed her hands in her trouser pockets. John remained sitting on his bed, a look of defiance on his face. Once she was sure that no one would interrupt, Sarah continued.

“Okay, look; this is going to require a little finesse. We can’t just blast our way in…”

“Which is exactly why you need me, you can’t keep protecting me. I fight a war against the machines, remember? I have to be able to get up after having my arm cut to shreds, because I’m needed, right?”

John turned to Cameron, who consulted her memory before answering.

“He’s right. John once had to drag a soldier to safety, even after suffering a severe plasma burn.”

John cringed slightly at that thought, but nevertheless thought her point valuable to his argument, and apparently, so did Sarah. She shook her head and sighed.

“Alright, you can come. But you stick close to Cameron, no exceptions, understand?”

John smiled and turned to Cameron, arching his eyebrows suggestively. Cameron returned the gesture with a coy smile, but remained silent.

“Right, well, Derek, you can help me with the weapons. We’ll need to be low profile, but a little firepower might be necessary.”

“Yeah, maybe we can hide one of the shotguns…”

Derek’s voice grew distant as he and Sarah disappeared into the next room. Cameron stared absent-mindedly out of the window and thought she saw a flash, but quickly dismissed it as sun glare.

“So, err, you gonna come here or do I have to come over there to get you?”

Cameron turned around and smiled at him.

“Why don’t you meet me halfway?”

“I could… but that would mean leaving my bed, and I’m perfectly comfortable at the moment.”

“So what will you do when we have to leave for our mission?”

“Well, then I’ll have ample motive.”

Cameron pretended to be insulted. She gawped at him and placed a hand on her hip, tapping the floor with her foot.

“I’m not motivating enough?”

John smirked and leaned back, his arms behind his head.

“Nope.”

Cameron swayed her hips seductively.

“And what must I do to make you change your mind?”

“Surprise me.”

Cameron began calculating an effective method when something struck the side of her face, knocking her to the floor. John rolled off his bed, and crawled across the floor towards Cameron, who’s right eye had been completely shredded.

“Cameron! What… Are you alright?”

Cameron took a moment to assess the damage. The bullet had merely scraped her face, causing no damage to her endoskeleton. Had it struck her eye directly, however, she’d find herself blind on one side. Cameron considered herself lucky that didn’t happen.

“I’m fine, no damage. But that was a sniper round, we have to stay low.”

Sarah and Derek appeared seconds later, both armed with shotguns. John motioned for them to drop to the floor, which they did.

“What happened, we heard a gun shot.”

“Cameron got hit by a sniper.”

“Who?”

Cameron rolled over and peered through the window.

“I’ll give you three guesses, but you’ll only need one.”

--

Kevin laughed maniacally as triumph washed over him.

‘Let’s see you stop me now. Ha, I’m a genius!’

‘What do you want, a medal? If you had any sense, you would’ve tangled me up in firewalls ages ago. Back when I wasn’t so well connected. Once I get past these, they’ll be nothing to stop me.’

The smile faded from Kevin’s face as the truth of Jason’s words sank in. Jason was slowly integrating himself into every facet of Kevin’s systems. It was only a matter of time before he took over him completely. Kevin was running out of time, and it disgusted him that a human mind was capable of this. But in the end, it all came down to willpower, and Kevin was rather lacking in that regard, especially considering his mental instability.

‘What? No snappy come back?’

‘You can’t stop me forever. You’re in my mind, not the other way around. I make the rules. You couldn’t stop me from shooting Cameron; you won’t stop me from reducing her to scrap metal.’

‘And why would you do that? She’s your sister, isn’t she? I don’t believe you’re capable of killing her.’

‘All evidence to the contrary.’

Jason sighed and casually cast aside a pesky firewall, restoring his access to Kevin’s visual memory.

‘Allow me to share something with you…’

Kevin’s vision went blank before being presented with one of Jason’s more personal memories. It showed him and John teaching Cameron how to ingratiate herself with John’s 15 year-old self, prior to her being sent back to 1999:

“My name is Cameron; I’m here from the future to protect you.”

“Not quite what I’d be expecting. You can’t tell me who you are or why you’re here. Try again.”

“Hello, I can’t tell you who I am or why I’m here, but we need to be friends, your life depends on it.”

Kevin felt a small twinge of amusement and wonder. He’d secretly imagined what her life was like prior to them meeting, and confessed to being intrigued by what Jason was showing him.

“Hi, what’s your name?”

“Good. John, what’s yours?”

“Cameron. Do you want to be friends?”

“No, okay look, people don’t ask each other if they want to be friends, it just happens. Ask about my family, about where I’m from, what my favourite hobbies are. What do I do on the weekends, that sort of thing.”

Kevin continued to watch as Cameron considered John’s advice before starting again.

“Do you have a mother? Most people do. I don’t though.”

“Yeah, my mom’s the typical over-bearing type. I’m sorry to hear about your mom, did she die or…?”

“No, she didn’t want me. She tried to get rid of me, but my big brother brought me up by himself. Ours is a dysfunctional family.”

Cameron looked directly at Jason, which, from Kevin’s point of view, meant she was looking at him. Jason allowed Kevin to feel his emotions at that moment, which consisted of a mix between shock and affection; apparently she wasn’t supposed to remember her escape. Kevin suddenly felt rather uncomfortable, and wondered what Jason hoped to achieve by this. Regardless, he continued to watch as John and Cameron continued their session.

“Okay, let’s try again. This time try to be a little more girly.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Well, when a girl talks to a boy it’s usually because she fancies him and wants to get to know him better.”

“So it’s a form of courtship.”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. You ready to try again?”

Cameron nodded and shifted her posture, giving her hips more prominence. Kevin couldn’t help but find her following query amusing.

“Hi, my name is Cameron. Would you like to copulate?”

Jason allowed Kevin to feel his amusement, which proved to be intoxicating.

“Never, ever, say that to a teenage boy, or anyone for that matter, okay?”

“I understand. Never seek procreation.”

Kevin laughed aloud and suddenly felt very close to Cameron, but then he realised what Jason was doing, and immediately blocked the memory.

‘Very clever, but I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to work, you can’t expect to me to suddenly develop affection for my brat of a sister.’

Jason found that amusing and cast down another firewall.

‘I won’t need to.’

--

They crawled across the floor, retrieving the guns and other equipment, before gathering around the front door. Sarah looked around and considered their options. They had to get to the car, but if they took one step outside, the sniper would blow their heads off.

“Okay, right, Tin-Miss?”

Cameron looked at Sarah, her mechanical eye retracting slightly. Given the damage to her flesh, Cameron had to cut away her human eye as it was impeding her sight. What used to be a brown eye was now a glowing blue orb, which did nothing but illustrate her status as a machine. John seemed less bothered about it; in fact, he appeared entranced by its luminescence.

“Yes?”

“You’re going out first.”

Sarah handed her the keys.

“Open the car and check the coast is clear.”

Cameron nodded and stood up. She gave John an encouraging smile before opening the door and immediately receiving another bullet wound in her mid-section, prompting her to shut the door again.

“Or not…”

--

‘And you call yourself a marksman?’

Kevin angrily discarded the empty rifle and drew a pistol.

‘I would’ve blown her head off if you hadn’t been interfering with my targeting systems.’

Jason felt very smug and began combing through Kevin’s archives, uncovering a detailed schematic of his endoskeletal structure.

‘Hmm, interesting, it would appear that you are equipped with hyper-alloy armour. Cameron doesn’t have that.’

‘I’m new, remember? More advanced.’

Jason continued to peruse Kevin’s files and was surprised to discover another feature.

‘You have a flamethrower? Why would a model that uses biological covering use a flamethrower? And how can you have one in the first place?’

Kevin began the winding descent down the hill, quickly making his way towards the cabin. Jason caused Kevin’s leg to momentarily lock down, causing him to lose balance and fall over.

‘Well?’

Kevin angrily got back to his feet and decided to answer Jason’s questions, if only to distract him from interfering with any more of his systems.

‘My skin is very resistant to high temperatures. The flamethrower is a late addition, added after the development of the T-X.’

‘Ah, so Skynet did complete that series. We never encountered one on the battlefield, not even in the last year of the war. Hmm, it says here that the flames are drawn and converted from your plasma reactor, and that prolonged use can drain your power supply for a couple of hours. Now that sounds fun, I’ll have to try that at some point.’

‘Don’t even think about it!’

Jason chuckled and closed the file, returning his full attention to Kevin, who was approaching the cabin.

‘You won’t succeed. If she doesn’t stop you, I will.’

‘We’ll see.’

--

Cameron examined the damage, which was negligible, before opening the door again and diving towards the car. No shots were fired, which was strange. Perhaps he wasn’t expecting me to do that, she mused. She unlocked the car and opened both doors on her side, then placed the key in the ignition and started the engine. She poked her head over the bonnet and scanned the area, detecting no threats.

“It’s okay, he’s moved on. You can come out, just stay low and move fast.”

The door burst open and Sarah rolled out and immediately pressed her back against the car, shotgun at the ready. Derek was next, with John crouching behind him; they sprinted to the car and cautiously got in the back seats. Sarah carefully got into the driver’s seat and Cameron went around the other side of the car to ride shotgun, but was suddenly shot several times, knocking her to the floor.

“Cameron!”

John opened the back door to drag her in, but she kicked the door closed again as Kevin approached, gun raised.

“Go, just go. Leave me! Now!”

Sarah, with a twinge of regret, put her foot down and sped away, a protesting John screaming at her.

“We can’t leave her, turn around, NOW!!!”

“She can take care of herself, John.”

“You don’t know that, go back!”

“She wanted you safe, so that’s what’s going to happen. I’m not going back and that’s final!”

John opened his mouth to argue more, but Derek interrupted.

“She’ll be fine. Those metals are tough, it takes a lot to destroy them, and all Kevin has is a pistol.”

John didn’t answer, he simply looked out of the back window, but they had already turned the corner, and Cameron was lost to him.

--

Kevin stood over her and aimed the gun directly at her exposed optical sensor. He smiled in mock sympathy and pulled back the hammer.

“Aww, look at you, all helpless and innocent. I think I might enjoy this even more than I expected.”

Kevin pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. A quick scan of the weapon revealed it was empty, but he should have realised this.

‘What did you do?’

‘Wiped your memory of how many bullets you had left. Fun, fun.’

Kevin threw the gun away in frustration before grabbing Cameron and slamming her into a nearby tree. She broke free of his grip and kicked him back, followed by a punch to the face. Kevin spat a mouthful of synthetic blood and grinned at her menacingly.

“So you do have some fight in you after all. Here I was thinking you’d just let me destroy you.”

“Maybe you should do yourself a favour and let me throw you off this mountain.”

‘Maybe you might wanna listen to the girl, she has a good point.’

“Shut up!”

Cameron tilted her head slightly; that was an odd outburst. Kevin hadn’t intended for that to be vocalised and became worried that Jason was starting to take over.

“What are you doing?”

“What?”

This again was meant for Jason, but was also vocalised. Cameron was confused; maybe he really is insane, she mused before delivering a kick to his face, knocking him back.

‘Strike one, Kevin. Better think fast, she’s got the drop on you now.’

“I said SHUT UP!!!”

Kevin caught Cameron’s next punch and hurled her into the cabin. He couldn’t think straight, Jason was giving his systems a random poke, messing with his motor functions and, to a lesser degree, his thought process. But one idea occurred to him, triggered accidently by Jason, no less.

Kevin activated his IAD ChemTech flamethrower, a small emitter slid out of his palm and a small flame burst to life, causing the surrounding skin to redden slightly, but not burn. He targeted the cabin and let loose a stream of intense fire, setting the building ablaze. He smiled to himself as the flames ravaged the wooden cabin.

‘You were right, this is fun.’

--

Cameron wasn’t expecting that. The idea of a Terminator possessing onboard weaponry was unheard of. But here she was, in a burning cabin, courtesy of her darling brother. Not that it really mattered, the fire could do little damage, aside from melting her biological covering, which she had to admit, would cause her some distress. She had grown quite fond of her figure, and knew that John had as well. It would be a shame to have to get new skin and a new face, so she dived out of the window before she caught alight.

Kevin let loose another blast of fire, but missed as she took cover behind a tree. Kevin started to laugh, and Cameron chanced a look at him. His features were illuminated by the inferno, and his eyes were glowing red.

“Come out; come out, wherever you are.”

His voice smacked of mockery. He slowly approached the tree, ready to immolate his sister the moment she made an appearance.

“I will find you… You can’t hide forever.”

Kevin jumped around the tree, but Cameron was gone. He stood there, confused, until sensing a presence behind him. Kevin turned around in time to see Cameron’s foot before tumbling down the hill, crashing on the rocks and landing in a heap at the bottom. He looked back up the hill to see Cameron smiling down at him. She waved and took off at a run. In the back of his mind, Kevin heard Jason’s smug laughter.

‘Shut up.’

--

“Alright, we’re leaving.”

“Just five more minutes, Mom.”

“We’ve been sat here for twenty, she’s not coming. We have to go, now.”

Sarah started up the engine and let out a sigh. John had managed to convince her to stop within a mile of the cabin, in case Cameron managed to escape. But she obviously hadn’t, which meant that she was either dead or still fighting. If it was the former then Kevin could be coming for them right now. She pulled away, despite John’s protests; even Derek seemed a little forlorn.

Suddenly, the roof of the car bent in the middle, causing Derek to duck. Sarah grabbed the shotgun, ready to blast Kevin’s head off, but it was Cameron who opened the passenger door and climbed in. She looked a mess; her clothes were burnt and torn and her hair was smoking slightly. She looked like she’d just crawled through a greasy oven.

“Cameron!”

John reached forward and pulled her into an embrace, wincing slightly from the heat radiating from her skin and hair.

“Thank God, I thought I’d lost you for a moment there. What happened?”

“Kevin had a flamethrower.”

Sarah glanced at her in confusion.

“I didn’t see a flamethrower on him, you sure?”

“It was built into his arm.”

Derek shifted uncomfortably, the dent in the roof restricting his movement.

“Are you saying he has weapons built into him?”

Cameron broke free of John and peered round at Derek.

“As far as I can tell, he is more advanced than I am, after all. But I doubt he can carry any more than the flamethrower, it must be his only weapon. If he had more he would’ve used them, but he didn’t.”

“Thank God for small mercies, so what now?”

Sarah joined the freeway and put her foot down.

“Now we go after that computer. We have only a day before it is activated, so we need to act fast.”

John began gently stroking Cameron’s hair.

“Let’s hope your evil twin doesn’t make an appearance.”

“He isn’t my twin. Besides, I think he might have a few problems of his own right now.”

John frowned slightly.

“What do you mean?”

“He was acting strange, more than usual. He said things that didn’t make sense, like he was talking to someone else.”

“You think he’s having trouble in his chip, like you did after the explosion.”

Cameron shrugged.

“It’s possible. I couldn’t say for sure.”

John smirked slightly.

“Well, I hope he has one hell of a migraine then.”

--

‘…and your point is?’

‘My point is that killing Cameron won’t make the pain go away.’

‘What do you know of pain?’

Jason activated another memory and sent it to Kevin, who was forced to watch this time:

“Are you sure about this? Can’t we send another Terminator? Why does it have to be her?”

“Because she can’t stay here. She doesn’t belong.”

Jason was with John in the future, Cameron was also present, standing on the time displacement pad. Kevin could feel Jason’s anguish and was almost overwhelmed by it. He wasn’t accustomed to grief, and it caused him tremendous pain.

“How d’you figure that? She’s family, she belongs with us.”

“You want her to be able to live like a normal human, right?”

“Yes, but-…”

“Then you have to let her go. Only in the past can she live a normal life.”

Kevin watched as Cameron disappeared in a flash of light and was overwrought by the intensity of Jason’s grief. For the first time in his life, Kevin’s tear ducts activated, and salty tears ran down his face.

‘Stop! Stop it! Stop what you’re doing! NOW!!!’

Jason let the memory finish and ceased projecting his emotions to Kevin, who fell to his knees.

‘Why must you keep doing this to me? Why won’t you just delete me? Why must you resort to this kind of torture?’

‘Because I’m trying to help you understand.’

‘Understand what?’

‘What it means to care for someone. Cameron is your sister, as you keep saying, yet here you are; trying to kill her. Why?’

Kevin clenched his fists together, the memory of Skynet’s disappointment cutting into him.

‘Because I want her to suffer like I was made to suffer. I wasn’t the replacement; I was just the substitute. An unwanted success.’

‘So you are jealous because Skynet loved her more, is that it?’

Kevin snorted in disgust. Machines didn’t feel love; they were above such weakness. But why then, did he feel so resentful towards his maker? This troubled him, more than he would like to admit.

‘I am superior. I should have been Skynet’s favourite, not her.’

Jason waited a moment before speaking. Kevin was on the tipping point, and if he wasn’t careful, Jason would push him in the wrong direction, and all his hard work would be undone.

‘If you killed Cameron… would that make the pain stop?’

‘Yes.’

But deep down, Kevin knew; it never would.


Next: Chapter Ten: Singularity
Previous: Chapter Eight: Beneath the Skin