Terminator Salvation_ The Official Movie Novelization - Alan Dean Foster [62]
Connor nodded patiently, confident that he had already anticipated every objection she might voice.
“If our scanners caught him broadcasting or receiving, it would instantly expose the charade. He had to be made to appear as human as possible or he never would have gotten as far as he did.” With your help. That was the unspoken addendum. “As to what ‘good’ setting off the mine did, that got him inside the base and close to me, didn’t it?”
Williams was still far from persuaded.
“That’s all it did.”
“Only because there must have been a misjudgment on Skynet’s part. Some of those landmines out there are newer models. Probably Skynet calculated that its creation could survive a blast well enough to sustain its programmed mission.”
“Then why didn’t it—why didn’t he—set himself off or something when you went in to interrogate him?”
Connor shrugged. “Landmine damaged the necessary pertinent circuits, or disrupted its programming. Like you just pointed out, it has been under a transmission lockdown ever since Kate opened it up. That includes internal transmissions. For all we know its been trying to explode itself ever since it regained functionality.
“That it hasn’t been able to do so by now tells me that it can’t, or like you said, it would already have done so. We’ll find out when we go in and locate the explosive, or gas cylinder, or whatever assassination module it’s hiding inside itself.” They turned a corner and he changed the subject.
“When you were flying cover for the civilians, or after you came down, did you see a teenage boy? About sixteen?”
Taken aback by the sudden shift in the line of discussion, she had to take a moment to reflect.
“I don’t know. Couldn’t say for sure. The survivors were taken off in a Transport. This Wright—he was the only survivor to get away.”
“Not ‘he,’” Connor corrected her once more. “’It’ was the only survivor, Blair. Makes you think, doesn’t it? Why did only ‘it’ manage to avoid being picked up by the Transporter? Don’t be naïve.”
Pausing, he turned on her.
“I’ve got work to do and not enough time in which to do it. Don’t pester me with any more simple-minded entreaties on behalf of a machine, no matter how good it is at whimpering. I’m glad you survived, no matter the circumstances. Good pilots are harder to come by these days than planes. Get over this nonsense, remember who and what you are, and do your job.” With that he strode out of the hallway and into the nearby briefing room.
“‘It’ saved my life, John.” The door was already closing behind him and it was likely he hadn’t heard. She stared at the unresponsive barrier for a moment longer before turning to her commander’s wife. “Kate, what’s going to happen to him? To Wright?”
The other woman didn’t hesitate.
“It’ll be disassembled.”
“You mean killed,” Williams countered flatly.
“Don’t anthropomorphize, soldier. Some Terminators look more like humans than others, but whether bipedal, wheeled, tracked, or faceless, inside they’re all the same—all bits and pieces of Skynet. It doesn’t matter if one looks like a berserk tank or your long-lost boyfriend—they all want you dead. To them we’re a fungus, a disease, a cancer that needs to be scrubbed out. Never forget that.” She looked back in the general direction of the sealed room where the prisoner was being held.
“Especially never forget it when dealing with something like that. The whole point of its design and programming is to make you forget. As to what’s going to happen to it, you know as well as I. It will be analyzed, by some of our best research people. Now that it’s been neutralized, it may have useful information on Skynet’s intentions. Information that could help our attack.”
Williams was shaking her head slowly.
“I’m sorry, Kate, but I’ve got to disagree with you, and with John. I know he’s not the enemy. I know that the individual called Marcus Wright is not the enemy. I’ve been shot at by the enemy. That’s not him. He saved me out there.