Fic - The Butterfly Effect 3/9
Jun. 15th, 2010 02:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cj2017Title: The Butterfly Effect (3/9)
Rating: Hard R: violence, sex, harsh language, you probably know the drill by now.
~ ~ ~
The Butterfly Effect 3/9
~ ~ ~
“Thanks.” Derek took hold of the coffee Sarah held out to him and shifted his legs over to make room for her to sit on the sofa. “John asleep?”
“I’m not sure.” She leaned her head back. Although she had slept, the nightmares made it feel like she hadn’t. “His room was quiet when I went past.”
Derek rubbed a hand across his unshaven jaw. “So what do we do now?”
“I don’t know,” she said, sounding slightly lost. “I was thinking about tidying the yard, or fixing up the garage.” Her voice burned with frustration. “That landmark is our only lead and I don’t know where else to look.” She was gripping her mug too tightly and bit back a gasp when the heat became too much.
He pushed himself into a sitting position, carefully prized the mug from her hand, and then set it down beside his own. The skin on her palm was reddened; he ran his fingers across it gently.
“So, we tidy the yard and fix up the garage.” He kept his own voice light. “John seemed to be onto something last night, and he still has the chip to run the new name through.”
She took a deep breath, let it out, and then curled her fingers around his. “Thanks.”
“Yeah.”
They both looked up when Cameron entered the room. She stopped short of the sofa and considered the two of them and the sheets strewn across the cushions.
“Perimeter is clear.” She hesitated, obviously something else on her mind. “I don’t understand,” she finally said.
“You don’t understand what?” Sarah hoped it wasn’t going to be a lengthy list.
The machine propped her assault rifle against the wall and took a step forward. “You are a couple, and all of my research indicates that couples share a bed.” A pause, and she tilted her head to one side. “Apparently that makes it easier for you to spoon.”
For the longest time there was no reaction until Sarah eventually gave a short and entirely humorless laugh and Derek swore beneath his breath.
Concerned that she had not phrased her question clearly enough, Cameron opened her mouth to explain further and then realized that perhaps lack of clarity wasn’t the problem after all. She looked at Sarah and then at Derek, studying their expressions carefully. Unable to establish whether they were amused or contemplating the quickest way in which to dismantle her, she surreptitiously picked up her rifle and made a rapid strategic decision to go back outside and double-check the perimeter.
~ ~ ~
“Two millimeters upwards.”
Sarah moved the plank of wood in accordance with Cameron’s instructions and waited patiently as the machine appraised the new level.
“That was three and a half.”
Muttering beneath her breath, Sarah nailed the plank into place regardless, ignoring Derek’s low laughter. True to their earlier conversation, they had worked on the garage all morning. It was now weatherproof and secure enough to hold their ammunition and those weapons that they hadn’t strategically positioned around the house.
“Mom!”
“Fuck!” Narrowly missing her thumb with the hammer, Sarah dropped the plank she was holding and whipped around to face the house. Derek and Cameron already had their guns drawn.
“Shit. Sorry. Everything’s okay.” John was standing in the kitchen doorway, his hands raised sheepishly. “I just,” he walked over towards them, his eyes bright with excitement. “I think I’ve got something.”
~ ~ ~
“I was on the forum when a P.M. flagged up.” John leaned back in his chair to give everyone a clear view of the lap-top screen.
“A P.M.?”
He smiled. He had forgotten his mother’s antipathy towards online acronyms. “A private message from another forum member.” He double-clicked the P.M. so it filled the screen. “I checked his profile. He was very active three years back when the Silver Needle thread was live, but he’s not posted since then, although I guess he still lurks.”
The message was short, and guarded in tone: I can help, if you’re interested, but not on the forum. Email?
“I gave him the address of one of my protected accounts. Not that he said a hell of a lot more when he wrote.” John took an uneasy breath. “He wants a meet.”
“No,” Sarah said instantly. “No way.”
“Mom…”
She cut him off. “It’s going to be Kaliba, John. They’ve hooked into the same forum and they’re waiting for you to take the bait.”
“I don’t think so, not this time. This guy is good with tech, but I’m better.” It wasn’t intended as a boast, it was just the truth. “I tracked his account to an address in Silver Lake. His name is Michael Kenton, he’s twenty, in his second year at Caltech. Spent last summer on a SURF placement researching alongside scientists from NASA. When he was fifteen he fractured his jaw in three places. Not married. No kids.”
“You got all that from one email address?” Derek sounded impressed.
“Yeah, uh,” John shrugged, his expression slightly guilty, “I kinda hacked his Social Security number as well.”
“He sounds frightened. Or paranoid.” Cameron was studying the email. “Probably both.”
“I’ll go,” Sarah finally said, but John was already shaking his head.
“He’s expecting me, mom. He already sounds like he’s running scared. Besides which, I can pass as a geek, you…” his voice trailed off and he winced. “Look, I say Twitter to you, what does it mean?”
Sarah frowned, her arms folded. She knew she was going to lose this one.
“Irritating birdsong,” she offered, having looked to Derek for assistance and received no help whatsoever.
“I rest my case.” John grinned, but in an instant his face was serious again. “I gave him the number of one of our pre-paid cells. He might not even call. I can go with Cameron, but,” he caught and held his mother’s gaze, “I am going, mom.”
Sarah drew in a deep breath and then let it out slowly. “Okay, but we’ll be right behind you.”
He knew the compromise was a reasonable one and he nodded. “I guess we just wait now.” He looked at the cellphone sitting beside the lap-top. It had only just been taken out of its packaging.
“Weapons check?” Derek was already halfway to the door.
“Yeah.” Sarah made as if to follow him but then hesitated, looking back at John. “So, what exactly is Twitter then?”
He laughed softly and shook his head. “Believe me, mom, you really don’t want to know.”
~ ~ ~
The phone rang in the middle of the afternoon. The voice on the end of the line sounded nervous as the caller confirmed that he was Michael and asked why John was so interested in a landmark that barely anybody knew about.
“Because I think something bad happened out there,” John said. He had expected the question and his answer was an educated guess. “And I think there’s a chance that worse could be coming.” Hoping to tap into his contact’s evidently suspicious nature, John kept his response intentionally vague. It was a tactic that worked to good effect.
“Downtown. Third Street Tunnel. Can you be there in two hours?”
They could if they broke every speed limit known to man, but John knew the lack of pre-warning would also make it difficult for anyone to track them.
“I’ll be there. Okay if my sister tags along?”
“I guess.” The words fell away. John could hear him breathing, fast and shallow beneath the crackle of poor reception, before he finally spoke again. “What’s your name?” His voice cracked, caught between fear and the hope that he might have found an ally.
“My name’s John,” John replied without hesitation. “I’ll see you in two hours.”
~ ~ ~
The phone call had lasted for less than three minutes. Ninety seconds into the conversation, Cain had reacted to an alert placed upon Michael’s cellphone number and effortlessly tapped into the call. As voice recognition software identified John Connor, urgent messages were simultaneously sent to the PDAs of four Kaliba team members, none of whom would have any difficulty meeting their two-hour deadline.
~ ~ ~
“You need the next exit.”
Derek nodded, swerved out a lane to overtake a truck and pulled back in just before the exit that Sarah had indicated. She hissed between her teeth at the close call but didn’t make any further comment. Four cars ahead of them, Cameron was treading the same fine line between driving legally and getting them downtown in time. Sarah watched the traffic build up on the freeway and shook her head as Derek was forced to drop his speed right down and crawl along.
“This is fucking stupid.” Her hand gripped the Glock that rested in her lap, her knuckles a ghostly white.
“It’s just road work. We’ll be clear in half a klick.”
“Not the traffic.” Her free hand thumped against the truck’s door. “This. Coming here.” Another thump. “No time to plan or recon.”
“Connor, you rarely do either of those things.” Although he kept his tone light, he glanced towards her. He was slightly concerned that, given her current mood, she might now be aiming the Glock in his direction, but she was staring out of the side window, her jaw set with tension. “You walk straight into dangerous shit all the time. So what’s different about this?”
“John,” she answered softly, without turning. “That’s what’s different. This time he’s the one walking into it.”
Angered enough to misjudge his speed, he sped up to the car in front and had to slam his brakes on inches from its bumper.
“So it’s fine for you to go get yourself all shot up? You both need to be careful, Sarah. You both fucking matter.”
She looked across at him then, and he was taken aback to see tears brimming in her eyes.
“John matters more,” she said desperately, as if she was suddenly terrified that he might have forgotten that.
“I know, Sarah.” He heard her release her breath in a shudder. “I know that.”
She looked away again but her posture relaxed slightly and her grip on her gun eased.
“Turn right at the lights.”
He nodded once and pushed down on the gas.
~ ~ ~
Having apparently watched too many clichéd spy movies, Michael was distinguishing himself on the sidewalk at the eastern end of the tunnel by being the only person attempting to appear inconspicuous. A slight figure wearing a baseball cap pulled low, his eyes widened with fear when Cameron pulled alongside him. Three seconds later a body scan had confirmed that he wasn’t armed, and she pushed open the side door.
“Get in.”
He shook his head, edging away from the truck, but he hesitated when he looked beyond her to the passenger seat. A flicker of something unreadable passed across his face.
“You’re John?”
“Yes. You need to get in. We can’t really talk here.”
Michael glanced quickly over his shoulder before nodding and climbing into the back seat. “Three blocks west, there’s a café. The owner’s a friend of mine.”
“Go.” John nodded at Cameron and she pulled smoothly out into the traffic. In the rearview mirror, John watched Michael pull his jacket closer around himself and huddle into the seat. Without the cap obscuring his face he looked younger than twenty, but his eyes were wary, the skin beneath them deeply bruised with sleeplessness, and he had already evaluated every possible means of exiting the truck.
“You hungry?” John asked carefully. He watched Michael shrug and then nod slowly. “Good, because I’m buying.”
The faintest flicker of a smile crossed Michael’s face and he sat up slightly. “Kelly does really great pie.” There was a trace of an accent but John couldn’t place it.
“Okay then.” John smiled broadly. Despite the circumstances he was, as usual, ravenous. “Pie sounds good to me.”
~ ~ ~
The café was obviously a popular choice in the late afternoon sun. After a short wait, Cameron’s unflinching scrutiny was enough to force a young couple to abandon their half-finished drinks and leave a table that was perfectly positioned in the far corner of the sidewalk terrace.
“Are we safe here?” Michael poured three sugars into his coffee and stirred it rapidly. “Being out in the open, that’s good, right?”
“Yeah, that’s good.” John gave Cameron a look warning her not to mention the fact that machines wouldn’t give a damn about witnesses or innocents getting caught in the cross-fire.
“Zach and me, we’ve not had any problems for two and a half years now. I don’t know why the fuck I’m doing this.” The cup hit the saucer with a clang as Michael’s hand shook. “I just want to know what happened to them.”
“What happened to who?” John asked quietly, being careful not to push. The young man in front of him seemed to be on the verge of bolting, and John knew he was going to have to tread very lightly. “Look, we’re not gonna hurt you. We want to try and help, but we can’t do that if you don’t talk to us.”
Michael’s response was interrupted by a waitress setting down two generous slices of cherry pie. John’s reassurance and the familiarity of his surroundings seemed to steel his nerve and he hunched closer to the table. “Three years back, a couple of friends of ours from the forum were out camping close to Silver Needle. There’d been some reports of weird shit happening in that area. We’d been looking into it for a few months.”
“Weird shit?”
“Yeah, weird shit.” Michael drew a zigzag with his spoon. “Electrical disturbances, blue lightning when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. You couldn’t navigate in the area because something fucked up the magnet in your compass.”
“You went out there yourself?”
He nodded. “Once. We saw the lightning, but only from a distance. It all seemed to focus on one point. By the time we got closer, there was nothing but a burnt-out hollow left in the ground.”
“A hollow like this?” Cameron ignored John’s yelp of disgust as she took his spoon, shook the half-eaten spoonful back onto his plate and turned the concave surface towards Michael.
“Yeah, just like that. How did you…?”
“What happened to your friends?” John interrupted before Cameron began to explain the finer points of time travel, and he watched as all the color drained from Michael’s face.
“They died.” He dropped his spoon and pushed his plate away. “They were beaten and shot and left for the coyotes. The police had to use dental records to ID them. They were found on the roadside ten miles away from Silver Needle, but we all knew they’d been moved and dumped there.” He was breathing heavily, trying to get all the details out in a rush, because that meant he didn’t have to think about what he was actually saying. “Stuff was missing: cameras, cellphones, money. The police said it was a car-jacking. They never charged anyone and the case just went cold.”
“You think they saw something they shouldn’t have.” John was already shaping a theory as to what had happened.
“I know they did.” Michael brought his cellphone out of his pocket and pressed a sequence of keys. “The night they died, they sent this to me.”
The image was blurred and grainy, but the naked man crouched in the glowing blue sphere had looked directly at the camera as it was taken.
“A week later, our house was broken into and our dog had her neck snapped.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “We didn’t know what to do. We ran. The forum closed down every mention of Silver Needle and no-one ever spoke about it. Not until you posted.” He looked down at the image on his cellphone. “You know what this is, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
John wondered if Kaliba was directing everything that it brought through the TDE to that one area. That would make it easier for them to download information from the machines, a task that would be even more vital for them now that most of their data had been destroyed by the virus at Deacon. It would mean that a facility housing the relevant technology had to be close by, which would explain why Kaliba had gone to such lengths to protect the site.
Cameron took the cellphone, turning its screen towards Michael. “We need to know where this happened.”
He swallowed hard but nodded. “It’s difficult to find on a map,” he said apologetically. “All I have are the coordinates for the landmark, if that’ll help.”
She smiled brightly and handed his phone back. “Yes, that would be very helpful.”
“I can get you them by tonight.” A faint blush colored his cheeks. “I didn’t bring them. I didn’t know if I could trust you.”
“Tonight’s fine.” John tried to keep the impatience from his voice. “I’ll give you another phone number, or you could email them to the same account as before.”
Michael dropped a five-dollar bill onto his plate and stood up. “I hope you find what you’re looking for,” he said, “and I hope you find out what happened to my friends.”
John nodded to Cameron, who scanned the sidewalk carefully as she moved. “Can we give you a ride home?”
“No, I’m good, there’s a bus due any minute.” He shook John’s hand firmly. “Be careful.” He hesitated as if there was something else that he wanted to say, but he seemed to check himself and headed out onto the sidewalk instead. He set off at a half-jog and the bustle of late commuters in the fading daylight soon took him out of sight.
John pulled his cellphone from his pocket as it began to ring. He punched in his half of the code and spoke first.
“Everything’s fine, mom.”
“I know,” Sarah tried for nonchalant but the tremor underlying her words betrayed her. “Did you get the location?”
“No. Well, kinda. He’s sending coordinates to us when he gets home.”
“Okay. You setting off now?”
He looked longingly at his largely-untouched slice of pie. “Uh, can you give me a couple of minutes?”
~ ~ ~
The city’s innate mistrust of its citizens made it far easier than it should have been. Having infiltrated the closed-circuit cameras monitoring the roads and sidewalks, Cain observed John Connor leaving the café and fed details of his route through to the PDAs of two of its operatives. That meant that the operatives had no cause to rush. It also meant that by the time they were ready to intercept Connor’s truck they were aware that Connor was travelling with back-up. But then that was only to be expected.
~ ~ ~
TBC…
~ ~ ~
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
I love you, you know I do,
Date: 2010-06-16 12:08 am (UTC)...Why must you do these things to me. D':
Re: I love you, you know I do,
Date: 2010-06-16 12:35 pm (UTC)Re: I love you, you know I do,
Date: 2010-06-16 10:14 pm (UTC)BUT BUT!!! FIRST COUPLE OF PARTS MEANS "UP TO FOUR"!
IT'S A RUUUUUUUUUUULE!!!! *SOBS*
The machine propped her assault rifle against the wall and took a step forward. “You are a couple, and all of my research indicates that couples share a bed.” A pause, and she tilted her head to one side. “Apparently that makes it easier for you to spoon.”
I half-expected Sarah to ignore Derek in order to give Cameron a very patient, sympathy-laden explanation of nuanced human behavior, but then I remembered that this isn't a Camerah fic. :P XD
“Fuck!” Narrowly missing her thumb with the hammer, Sarah dropped the plank she was holding and whipped around to face the house. Derek and Cameron already had their guns drawn.
Family Connor. PLZ NEVER CHANGE. <3<3<33333
“Irritating birdsong,” she offered, having looked to Derek for assistance and received no help whatsoever.
Oh, Sarah... Of course you would find it irritating. XD
But, you know, I could totally see Sarah trolling discussion boards... LOL!
The phone call had lasted for less than three minutes. Ninety seconds into the conversation, Cain had reacted to an alert placed upon Michael’s cellphone number and effortlessly tapped into the call. As voice recognition software identified John Connor, urgent messages were simultaneously sent to the PDAs of four Kaliba team members, none of whom would have any difficulty meeting their two-hour deadline.
Hey, CAIN? Can you please just catch a virus and die? You have a negative effect on my medical bills. XOXO, Me.
“So it’s fine for you to go get yourself all shot up? You both need to be careful, Sarah. You both fucking matter.”
She looked across at him then, and he was taken aback to see tears brimming in her eyes.
“John matters more,” she said desperately, as if she was suddenly terrified that he might have forgotten that.
I kind of expected there to be more fireworks over this, either towards Derek for suggesting that Sarah is needlessly playing fire with her own life or towards Sarah because she pretty much dissed Derek's entire sentiment. Not sure why.
In any case, the tension in that car seems dangerously high... which probably won't help things when Kaliba crashes their party....
“Are we safe here?” Michael poured three sugars into his coffee and stirred it rapidly. “Being out in the open, that’s good, right?”
“Yeah, that’s good.” John gave Cameron a look warning her not to mention the fact that machines wouldn’t give a damn about witnesses or innocents getting caught in the cross-fire.
♥!!!!!!
He looked longingly at his largely-untouched slice of pie. “Uh, can you give me a couple of minutes?”
^That^ immediately followed by the end to this chapter was JUST. PLAIN. KILLER.
*whimpers*
Re: I love you, you know I do,
Date: 2010-06-17 11:46 am (UTC)IT'S A RUUUUUUUUUUULE!!!! *SOBS*
Hmm, I'm pretty sure it means two. I'm know you do things differently over there but I'm one half of a "couple" and there's only two of us in it ;-)
I half-expected Sarah to ignore Derek in order to give Cameron a very patient, sympathy-laden explanation of nuanced human behavior, but then I remembered that this isn't a Camerah fic. :P XD
LMAO. No, there will be no falling madly in bed with the machine. And there will be absolutely no "raven-haired" women in this fic either. I made it a rule!
Family Connor. PLZ NEVER CHANGE. <3<3<33333
Heh. Connor family DIY: now with added explosives ;-) I love tweaking the ordinary just that little bit to give it the Connor-edge!
I kind of expected there to be more fireworks over this, either towards Derek for suggesting that Sarah is needlessly playing fire with her own life or towards Sarah because she pretty much dissed Derek's entire sentiment. Not sure why.
Yeah, that one's on a slow burn. Not the time nor the place really for that talk. I just wanted to sew the seed.
^That^ immediately followed by the end to this chapter was JUST. PLAIN. KILLER.
Hey, gotta let the lad have his cherry pie (that's me totally projecting my pie-faves on John!) and there will be more along later today. Promise :-)
Re: I love you, you know I do,
Date: 2010-06-17 09:08 pm (UTC)DAAAAMN. U GOT ME THAR. D:
And there will be absolutely no "raven-haired" women in this fic either. I made it a rule!
L.M.F.A.O!
Yeah, that one's on a slow burn. Not the time nor the place really for that talk. I just wanted to sew the seed.
And it has been SOWN. *Mr. Burns finger dance*...
Hey, gotta let the lad have his cherry pie (that's me totally projecting my pie-faves on John!) and there will be more along later today. Promise :-)
OK, fine. I love you again. :P
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-28 07:57 pm (UTC)Well, I'll let you imagine what my reactions to cliffhangers are. ;P
"Twitter". hehehe. "Irritating birdsong" hehehe.
Twitter is fun although Sarah is clueless. ;P
Hmmm... the eastern side of the Third Street tunnel.
Heehee, I have a story for you now... I was walking past the eastern side of the real-life 3rd St tunnel one day and decided to tweet the picture. I'll send it too you if your curious, it's still on my phone.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-29 07:15 am (UTC)LOL. Spoilsport ;-)
Twitter is fun although Sarah is clueless. ;P
I suspect John might have been channelling my own disdain for Twitter there! There are just some times you need to step away from the computer and enjoy being disconnected...
I'll send it too you if your curious, it's still on my phone.
Let me guess, it either ends in a river, a railtrack or a shark! And there's no sidewalk ;-) I did actually find some pics online (cos I wanted to use the rendezvous point from BTR and had no clue what it looked like) I'm sure I found a pic of the east side but please, send me your piccie!