by Greg Cox
He smirked. “Better get settled in, General. This could be a long voyage.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
2018
“Any luck?”
“Not yet!” Molly hollered. She could hear Geir stomping about on the roof of the shack, trying to get the new satellite dish working. She stabbed the keyboard of her laptop, trying to make the link, but kept getting error messages. She sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the fire. A portable generator chugged outside.
“Hurry! Our window is shrinking!”
“I know, I know!” he shouted back. She didn’t envy him traipsing around atop the icy roof; she was going to feel really guilty if he slipped and broke his neck. But she desperately needed to get hold of Command before she proceeded with Operation Ravenwing.
Geir whacked something into place overhead.
“How’s it now?”
She held her breath and hit the ENTER key again. To her relief, the computer found the signal at last. Streaming video and audio filled the monitor, while 512bit asymmetric-key encryption kept the line secure from Skynet’s scrutiny, at least in theory. Audio/visual chatter decoys helped mask the transmission.
Molly whooped exuberantly.
“You did it!”
“Thank God!”
The window on the screen revealed the slightly blurry features of... General Dmitri Losenko, late of the Russian Fleet. His gaunt, haggard face made him look considerably older than his fifty-some years. A vintage wool peacoat, with a Cyrillic insignia that betrayed his roots, was draped over his bony shoulders. A creased cloth forage cap rested atop his skull. A smile lifted his thin lips as a webcam transmitted her own voice and image to Command’s undisclosed location. She glimpsed solid steel bulkheads in the background. Molly felt a surge of excitement. This was the first time she had ever made contact with Command directly.
“Ah, Ranger Kookesh!” he greeted her. “We meet at last.” Fifteen years in the Resistance—where English was the lingua franca—still had not dispelled his thick Russian accent. “I was starting to fear that something had gone amiss.”
Molly didn’t know exactly where Command was lurking these days, but communications to and from their hidden base were tightly controlled, taking place only according to Command’s timetable.
“Just some technical difficulties at our end,” she apologized. “Hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”
“Not at all,” Losenko replied. “I regret that we have never spoken before. Your efforts in the north are greatly appreciated.”
Tell that to the rest of the big brass, Molly thought. Losenko was the first high-ranking member of Command to ever give her the time of day. She’d heard through the grapevine that the old Russian warhorse had taken a special interest in the Alaskan Resistance. Molly wondered why.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’ve been looking forward to this meeting, too.”
“My condolences on your recent reverses,” he answered. His gnarled face reminded her of an old Siberian spruce. Command had already been briefed regarding the pipeline disaster and the attack on the mill town. The genuine sympathy in his voice came across despite the scratchy audio. “I know how hard it is to lose people under your command.”
Molly didn’t want anyone’s pity.
“Could have been worse.” A casual shrug belied the sorrow and anger she still felt. “But I don’t want to waste time hashing over a couple of minor setbacks. I have bigger fish to fry.”
“Such as?”
She quickly filled him in on her plans for the Skynet Express.
“It’s doable,” she concluded. “But we could definitely use some logistical assistance, and air support.” They had lost too many people and supplies to that damned T-600. “And reinforcements would improve our odds substantially.”
A pained expression—one she knew only too well— came over Losenko’s face. Molly knew what he was going to say even before he opened his mouth.
“I would like to promise you our full support, but our resources are strained as well. The war is approaching a crucial juncture, especially on the Californian front.” Video tiling momentarily distorted his image. Static punctuated his refusal. “I’m not certain we can spare the manpower or the materiel.”
So what else is new? Molly chewed her lip in frustration. The Lower 48 always seemed to take priority over her own operations. She wondered if Command was losing faith in her cell, especially after her recent losses.
It’s not fair, she thought angrily. The fact that they’re sending Terminators after us proves that we’re getting on Skynet’s silicon nerves. That’s gotta count for something.
“Forget reinforcements, then,” she pressed. “How about just the air support? Skynet’s got an HK and Aerostats escorting the train. All we’ve got is one fucking plane!”
For a brief moment she regretted swearing at him, then she remembered that Losenko was supposed to have been a sailor in the old Russian Navy. Surely he’d heard worse.
“Planes and helicopters are in short supply,” he stressed. “We lost several Warthogs in an engagement over San Diego last week.” The durable fighter planes were one of the backbones of the Resistance. “We need to choose our battles carefully.”
Molly didn’t want to beg, so she tried bribery instead.
“What about all the uranium ore? Don’t tell me the Resistance couldn’t use some of that stuff.” Rumor had it that Command had a nuclear sub or two prowling offshore. “And wouldn’t you like to keep it out of Skynet’s greedy clutches?”
“You make a good case,” Losenko conceded, and the pained expression was replaced by a thoughtful one. “Indeed, another Resistance cell recently managed to disrupt a Skynet mining operation in Niger, albeit at considerable cost.” Molly wondered if he was talking about people or equipment, or both. “Yet the benefits were clear. So let me take up your proposal with Command.”
Molly scowled.
“You mean with Ashdown, don’t you?” She had never met “Old Ironsides,” but she’d already decided that he was an obstinate prick who didn’t take civilian militias like hers seriously. Never mind that they’d been fighting the good fight for more than a decade now.
Maybe if I’d been a Marine—and not a forest ranger— Ashdown wouldn’t treat us like morons who can’t tell one end of an HK from the other.
“You know he’s just going to give me the brush-off,” she continued.
“Not necessarily,” Losenko equivocated, blindly defending his superior officer. “I’m certain General Ashdown will give your request due consideration. It’s only that he has the larger picture to address.”
“And we’re just small potatoes, off in the middle of frozen nowhere.” Molly didn’t hide her bitterness. She wished that Losenko was the top dog at Command, not Ashdown. “Yeah, yeah. I get that.”
Losenko did not take offense at her sour tone, perhaps because he appreciated the strain she was under.
“I will talk to Command,” he promised again. “But I can make no guarantees.” The transmission began to break up. He glanced off-screen. Some sort of siren blared in the background. “I’m afraid we must cut this visit short. We will speak again, though.” He saluted her from far away. “Take care, my friend, and stay warm up there.”
“You too.” Molly didn’t want Losenko to think that she blamed him for Ashdown’s pigheadedness, so she saluted him back. “Talk to you soon.”
The video window closed, leaving her without the answer she wanted—and no real expectation that it would be forthcoming.
“Fuck.” She slammed down the lid of the laptop with more force than was necessary. A phantom toe ached like hell, adding to her bad mood. Talk about a waste of time.
“Whoa there!” A gust of cold air invaded the shack as Geir came in from outdoors. He brushed the snow from his jacket and stomped his boots on the welcome mat. “Don’t be too hard on that thing. It’s not like we can get another one at Radio Shack.”
Molly watched with a twi
nge of irritation as he tracked wet slush into the room. He should have done a better job of brushing off outside. Then again, at least he’d gotten the satellite dish working on time. So she reeled it in.
“Good point.”
He nodded at the closed laptop.
“So how did your pow-wow with the bigwigs go?”
She snorted in disgust.
“How do you think?”
After fifteen years aboard the Wilmington, Losenko could have—and had—navigated its cramped corridors in the dark. He had almost forgotten the feel of grass or dirt beneath his feet, or what dry land looked like. The confined spaces of the sub, where nothing was ever more than a few meters in front of his eyes, had given him a bad case of myopia, impairing his ability to view things at a distance. He had become a true denizen of the deep, swimming silently beneath the waves to avoid the mechanized predators that were prowling the surface.
Sometimes he envied the vast open wilderness people like Molly Kookesh called home. For all its dangers and deprivations, at least she could see the sky more frequently than once in a while.
The Gorshkov had been roomy by comparison. He missed her, even after all of the intervening years.
He found Ashdown in the officers’ wardroom, which had long ago been converted into the Resistance’s command center. A conference table was piled high with read-outs and reports. Jury-rigged monitors and communications gear encrusted the bulkheads like barnacles. The flickering screens glowed like St. Elmo’s Fire. The patchwork appearance of the equipment, cobbled together as it was from whatever mismatched scraps of hardware they could procure, testified to the arduous conditions under which they had been forced to sail all this time. Unable to return to port for routine maintenance, the Wilmington often seemed as though it was held together by sweat, spit, and sheer cussedness.
Just like the rest of us, the Russian general mused.
“Losenko,” Ashdown greeted him curtly. They had known each other too long now to bother with pleasantries. As ever, the senior officer was poring over the latest reports from the front.
Losenko sometimes wondered if the other man ever slept. Time and trouble had aged the general beyond his years. His hairline had receded out of existence, leaving only a tonsure of graying brown fuzz around his balding dome. Sedentary living beneath the sea had thickened his waist. The onerous burden of command had etched deep lines into his face, which bore a perennial scowl. Gray hairs had also infiltrated his mustache and beard. A crescent-shaped scar near his left eye was a lasting souvenir of their narrow escape from the Galapagos, so many years ago. Rumpled green military fatigues showed signs of wear. Tarnished dog tags dangled around his neck.
“Good morning, General,” Losenko replied, and he gestured at the reports. “Good news or bad?”
“The usual mix of both,” Ashdown grumbled. “Here’s the most promising development.” He thrust a folder at Losenko. “General Olsen’s forces in California managed to knock down two enemy radar towers, in Riverside and Pasadena. That leaves just the one in Capistrano to cover that entire territory.” He snorted in satisfaction. “Let’s see the machines try to triangulate with just one tower. That should take some of the heat off our pilots for a while.”
Skynet would rebuild the towers soon enough, but Losenko had learned to savor any victory against the machines, no matter how temporary. He flipped through the folder. Aerial photos of the collapsed towers lifted his spirits.
“That is good news.”
“Damn right it is.” Ashdown took a swig of hot coffee to sustain his energy. He looked up from his work. “So how’s your new Eskimo girlfriend?”
Losenko objected to the general’s dismissive tone, and he made no secret of it.
“Kookesh and her Resistance cell are a significant asset.” In many ways, the combative young woman reminded him of Grushka, not to mention the late Corporal Ortega. “In fact, she has an ambitious operation in mind, one for which she is requesting back-up to carry out.”
“What kind of operation?” Ashdown asked dubiously.
Losenko outlined Kookesh’s plans regarding the uranium shipments.
“If she succeeded, she would do significant damage to Skynet’s supply lines and manufacturing abilities.”
“No dice.” Ashdown shook his head. “She’s got balls, I’ll give her that, but we can’t afford to waste time and resources on a sideshow. Not when we’ve got more important objectives to keep our eyes on.”
Losenko wasn’t surprised by the general’s response, but felt obliged to argue further on Kookesh’s behalf. He owed the scrappy Alaskan survivors that much. The mushroom clouds infested his dreams less often now, but they had never truly gone away. Small wonder he wanted to give the people of Alaska every chance to take back their land after enduring so much death and devastation.
“And what would those objectives be?” he countered.
Ashdown lowered his voice. He glanced around to ensure they were alone.
“We may have a lead on our magic bullet.”
Losenko knew exactly what he meant. A surge of excitement quickened his pulse. “The code?”
For months now, they had been pursuing unconfirmed reports that there was a secret code hidden in the shortwave transmitters the machines used to communicate with one another. A coded signal that allowed for direct control of their CPUs. In theory, that code could be used to shut down Skynet long enough to defeat the enemy once and for all—if such a signal truly existed.
“You bet.” Ashdown pulled a flash-drive unit from the pocket of his jacket. “An intelligence raid on an old Cyberdyne R&D lab uncovered evidence that their programmers really did build a backdoor into Skynet’s neural network, concealed under the primary shortwave channel. Now we just need to get our hands on that code, and we can end this war for good.”
He tucked the drive back into his pocket for safekeeping.
“That’s what we need to focus on, not some guerilla maneuvers way up in the frozen north.”
In his excitement over the code, Losenko had almost forgotten about Kookesh’s operation. He felt a twinge of guilt for allowing himself to be distracted.
“But surely we can spare something to offer them support?” he persisted. “Maybe a single Chinook or Blackhawk?”
“Forget it.” Ashdown wasn’t budging. “Look, Dmitri, I know the whole Alaska thing gets under your skin. And I don’t blame you for that.” It was unusual for him to allude to their mutual tragedy—they had not discussed Ashdown’s son since that tense encounter on Santa Cruz, fifteen years ago. “But this is no time to let your personal issues get in the way. Alaska isn’t where the action is, not in the long run.”
“That’s not what this is about,” Losenko insisted, although he wasn’t entirely sure that was true. “What about those rumors that Skynet is developing even more advanced models of Terminators?” The T-600s were bad enough; Losenko didn’t even want to think about what the next generation of Terminators might be like. “That Alaskan uranium very likely might be intended for some kind of new fuel cell.”
Ashdown wasn’t convinced.
“We find that code, any new models will never go on-line.”
“And if we don’t?” the Russian persisted.
“Failure is not an option, Losenko.” He went back to his reports, indicating that the matter was closed. “You should know that by now.”
***
“You are not alone,” John Connor said. “None of us are. At this very moment, all around the world, from South America to the Yukon, from Asia to Australia, Resistance cells are fighting to reclaim our future from the machines. It may seem as if we’re scattered, divided, existing only in tiny enclaves, cut off from each other. But that’s just what Skynet wants you to think....”
Losenko and Ivanov listened to Connor’s latest broadcast from the stateroom they shared aboard the Wilmington. The radio shack had downloaded the transmission while the sub had been at periscope depth, at the same time Losenko ha
d been conversing with Molly Kookesh. Bootleg copies were already circulating among the crew. Ashdown allowed the practice because it was good for morale.
Connor’s raspy voice emanated from the miniature MP3 player that was resting on a footlocker that sat between the two men.
“The truth is that we are all connected,” Connor continued. “Whether you know it or not. Every human being who survives another day foils Skynet’s vision of a world empty of humanity. Every blow struck against the machines helps us all—and hastens the day we can finally declare victory over cold, unfeeling metal. That day will come, I promise you, thanks to battles being waged and won in distant places you’ve never heard of.
“You are not alone.
“We are not alone.
“And, together, we will win this war.
“This is John Connor. If you can hear this, you are the Resistance.”
The message dissolved into static. Losenko leaned forward to switch off the player.
“I would like to meet this man someday.”
As Ashdown had predicted years ago, Connor had finally surfaced and enlisted in the Resistance. He was currently assigned to a Tech Comm unit based in the Greater Los Angeles Area, under the command of General Olsen. Connor’s unit had an impressive record. Losenko assumed he had taken part in the destruction of the radar towers.
Apparently, he was much more than just talk.
“He speaks well,” Ivanov granted. “For an American.”
Fifteen years serving in the Resistance had mellowed Ivanov to a degree. Although he still blamed the Americans for Skynet and Judgment Day, he could no longer deny who mankind’s true enemy was. Even he had been forced to put aside his grudge for the time being, although in private he sometimes spoke of charging Ashdown with crimes against humanity, if and when the machines were finally defeated.
Losenko had never mentioned this to the general.
Connor’s words echoed in the older man’s brain.
“Every blow struck against the machines helps us all....”
He thought of Molly Kookesh, whose plight he had outlined to Ivanov before they sat down to listen to the broadcast. Fighting her own war against Skynet, away in the wilderness. He wasn’t looking forward to informing her of Ashdown’s decision. Knowing her reputation, she would doubtless attempt her assault on the uranium train anyway, with or without reinforcements.
