"You moved to Villa Hayes," he pointed out.
"Yes, but that's still in Paraguay. And we visit Ciudad del Este at least once a year."
"Kids are amazingly resilient," Dieter observed.
"Maybe," Sarah said. "Or maybe that's just something adults say to make themselves feel better. Kinda like whistling in the dark."
"Well, you're the parent, I'm not," Dieter said.
The talk rambled all over the map from there and the long "drive seemed to last no time at all. When they pulled up to Sarah's house Dieter got out to open her
door for her.
I used to like it when guys did that for me, Sarah thought. Then it seemed to show a little extra caring. With Dieter it's probably Austrian formality. At least it might be if he was Austrian. It might also be that he likes intimidating people by standing over them.
He handed her out of the car and smiled down at her.
"Would you like to join us for dinner sometime soon?" Sarah asked, taking a step back and toward the portal.
"Yes," Dieter said as he shut the car door and stepped back himself. "Why don't you set it up with John and give me a call. I'll bring that dog I promised you."
His eyes glinted with amusement. He suspected that she thought her son might be watching them. John had left enough lights on to let them know he was still awake.
"I will," she said, smiling. "Thank you for a wonderful evening."
He nodded. "Good night," he said, going around to his side of the car.
"Good night." Sarah went up the steps and stood on the portal to wave as he drove off. Then she entered the house, turning off the outside light and locking the door.
"What, not even a goodnight kiss?"
Sarah turned and raised her brows. "Watching, were we?" she asked.
"Yeah, we were. How come you didn't kiss him?"
"Because I think I'm already getting to like him more than I probably should,"
she answered. "It makes me nervous."
"I thought maybe you didn't want him to think you were that kind of girl," John teased.
"If he ever finds out just what kind of girl I really am, I shudder to think what might happen," she said. "Any word yet?" She tipped her head toward the computer.
" Nada," John told her. "The silence is starting to freak me out."
"Me, too." She shrugged. "I'm going to bed."
"How was your date?" John asked. He backed up as she came toward him.
"It was nice." Sarah switched off the light behind her. "Very nice. I asked him to have dinner with us soon."
"Wow, the action intensifies."
Sarah smiled weakly. John watched her go on down the hall to her room.
"Mom," he said. Sarah turned to look at him inquiringly. "Should we leave? Is it time?"
"Maybe my instincts are blunted, John, but I honestly don't know. Let's give it another week and see how things shake out, okay?"
John shrugged. "Fine by me. I just wanted you to know that I'm with you, whatever happens."
She came back down the hall and hugged him.
"I love you, you know that?" she said, smiling up at him.
"I love you, too, Mom. Good night." He gave her a squeeze.
"G'night."
Dieter poured himself a brandy, then decided to check his messages before turning in.
Jeff had finally gotten back to him with a simple message that read: "Get back to me. RIGHT NOW!"
So he called, knowing it was brutally early in Vienna. It's brutally late here. And I'm not sure what I want to hear.
" fa," a sleep-muffled voice said.
"Jeff, it's me, Dieter. I just got your message. I'm sorry to call so early, but you said—"
"No, no, it's all right. Just a moment, I'm changing phones."
Dieter heard him speaking to his wife, asking her to hang up when he got on the other phone.
"Hi," she said.
"Hi," Dieter said. "I'm sorry to wake you up this early."
"S'all right," she said.
"Okay, honey," Jeff said, "you can hang up now."
"G'night," she said, and hung up.
"What was so important?" Dieter asked his friend.
"You've got to see this. Have you got your computer on?" Jeff asked.
"Yes."
"This will probably take forever to transmit, but I think I may know who that woman is," Jeff told him, his voice excited. "If I'm right then you, my friend, may be in line for a huge, and I do mean huge, reward. Is it coming up yet?"
Dieter felt a sudden chill at Jeffs words. On his screen a grainy picture was coming up; with every line that was transmitted he felt a little sicker. You couldn't tell anything yet, only about a fifth of the frame was filled.
"It is taking forever, can't you tell me what this is about?" he asked impatiently.
"Check your fax machine," Jeff said. "I sent some stuff over earlier. But this other thing you have to see to believe."
With a sigh Dieter put down the phone and went over to the fax machine. He picked a few sheets of paper out of the hopper and brought them back over to his desk. When he viewed them he saw that they were wanted posters. Sarah Connor, it said, an escaped mental patient wanted for the terrorist bombing of a California computer company named Cyberdyne, for kidnapping, and possibly for murder.
The other was for a boy of perhaps ten years, a bold-looking kid with a defiant expression on his young face. He was wanted as a suspect in the murder of his foster parents. John Connor, last seen with his mother Sarah and a mysterious man who was wanted for the murder of seventeen police officers as well as the shooting and wounding of scores of other cops. The picture that was supposed to identify this man was almost black.
"I've got it," Dieter said. "I can't make out the picture of the man, though."
Suzanne, he thought, could this be you?
She seemed so sane, so rational, such a good mother. And John? Could he have been a murderer—at only ten years of age? Dieter frowned. If there was one thing his work had taught him, it was that murderers took many forms. He'd seen any number of children quite capable of killing.
"That's what you've got to see, Dieter," Jeff said. "You're not going to believe this. How's it coming on your computer?"
Dieter looked up and his breath froze in his chest. He was looking at a picture of himself. "What the hell is this?" he demanded.
"This picture was taken by a police surveillance camera the night this guy
whacked seventeen police officers. At the time he was gunning for this Sarah Connor. He'd already killed two women with the same name that day. But the next time he was seen he was with Sarah Connor and her son; apparently he helped her to escape the asylum she was in and then he helped them to blow up this company. They kidnapped the head scientist and his family and made him help them do it."
"Jeff, that's me!"
"No, it's not. While this guy was blowing away those cops you were working in Amsterdam, helping to break up that arms-smuggling ring— you know, the one that was running Sarin gas? According to the records, while this guy was busy, you were interviewing Samuel Bloom at headquarters."
"It's an incredible resemblance," Dieter said, almost to himself. "Even /think it's me. I mean it's like a clone or something."
"I know," Jeff said, "wild, huh?" He waited for a moment. "What about the woman and the boy? Are they the ones?"
Dieter looked down at the curled posters. He shook his head. He wanted to know more and the only way he would find out was by getting them to trust him. "No,"
he said. "The woman's resemblance to this Sarah Connor is remarkable, but she's much too short. Sarah Connor is five-eight, but this woman is maybe five-four, if that. She doesn't even come up to my collarbone. And the boy has blond curly hair and blue eyes. The man disappeared, you said?"