Young John Connor begins building a network of contacts who will aid in preventing the rise of Skynet or, barring that, in the future war to come.

 

Notes from the Terminator chronology

 

This book opens three weeks after the end of Infiltrator in 2001 and ends in early 2003.

 

Story Summary

 

Shortly after the events of Infiltrator, John and Dieter make their way back to Dieter's estancia in Villa Hayes, Paraguay. Sarah's wounds are tended at the Fort Laurel hospital, under the watchful gaze of former FBI agent Jordan Dyson; she is later transferred back to Pescadero State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Meanwhile, Ron Labane's New Luddite movement is gaining traction and it even aids in the success of a viable third political party in the United States, the Eco Party, which begins to win seats in Congress.

 

Using the internet, John researches an online presence called Watcher and tracks it down to a brilliant, pretty, young MIT student named Wendy Dorset. He manages to recruit her to his cause, as well a number of her extremely intelligent friends at the school. He gives them the Terminator microchip recovered from a T-800 skull and they begin to secretly study it for ways of stopping or preventing Skynet in the future. John and Wendy also begin to fall in love. During this, Wendy is becoming a fan of Ron Labane's movement, despite John's misgivings. Dieter also uses some old contacts of his own to gain help for the cause.

 

After several months of good behavior (and data manipulation by the Infiltrators to get Sarah to lead them to John), Sarah is transferred to the minimum security Encinas Halfway House, where she is reunited with her former psychologist Dr. Silberman. Silberman has come to the realization that all of Sarah's crazy stories were true after what he witnessed in Judgment Day. When it becomes clear that the halfway house's new janitor is a Terminator (sent by the Infiltrators Clea and Alissa), Silberman helps Sarah to escape to Mexico. She eventually makes it back to Dieter's estancia in Paraguay to rejoin her son and friend.

 

While this is going on, Clea attempts to gain access to Cyberdyne as Serena had before her. But she is intercepted by government agents, who drug her and abscond with her to a top secret research base in Antarctica called Red Seal Base. There she joins other scientists working on the now government-owned Skynet project, which is essentially where she wants to be anyway.

 

In Cambridge, MA, Labane is betrayed by a few of his more extreme and violent followers, who feel he is sliding into a political and corporate mindset with his rapid success, and they murder him, framing Wendy for the crime. Wendy's friends manage to disguise her and provide a fake ID to allow her to flee to South America, where she is reunited with John. Thanks to their contacts, the group has learned of the existence of Red Seal Base and determine to implement a new plan: rather than destroying Skynet and starting the government's quest for a powerful computer system anew, they will stage a false bombing attempt on the base while actually uploading code written by Wendy which will block the sentience-inducing elements of Skynet's programming from ever being accessed, so the government can have its centralized computer control system without the danger of it gaining self-awareness.

 

After some ups and downs, John, Wendy, and Dieter sabotage and infiltrate the base, but are separated. As Wendy works to upload two discs of code into the system, Clea manipulates matters through both subtlety and violence to allow only the sentience-related code to go through, with the blockers left incomplete. Wendy's plan thus backfires, causing the birth of Skynet instead of preventing it.

 

In the course of the adventure, Clea kills Wendy, leaving John heartbroken. Dieter kills Clea and he, John, and the newly-recruited-to-the-cause Tricker make their way back to their waiting ship in the Antarctic waters. John and Dieter then return to Paraguay, where they find that Sarah has had a visit from Clea's sister Infiltrator, Alissa. But Sarah has taken care of the matter. However, Skynet now lives and realizes that only one thing in the world poses a risk to its self-preservation...humans. They must be terminated.

 

CONTINUED IN T2: THE FUTURE WAR

 

Didja Know?

 

The series of novels written by S. M. Stirling which are made up of Infiltrator, Rising Storm, and The Future War are collectively referred to as the T2 Trilogy.

 

   The author gives acknowledgement to the works of Harlan Ellison. Popular writer Harlan Ellison sued Orion Pictures after the 1984 release of the film The Terminator, claiming that it was based on his 1964 Outer Limits episode, "Soldier", about a soldier from the future who travels back in time and ultimately sacrifices his life fighting his future enemy in 1964 (the episode was itself based on Ellison's 1957 short story "Soldier from Tomorrow"). Orion Pictures reached a settlement with Ellison for an undisclosed amount of money and a credit ("Acknowledgement to the works of Harlan Ellison") in future releases of the film.

   The use of the word "works" in the acknowledgement implies multiple sources of inspiration written by Ellison. This may refer just to the Outer Limits episode and the original short story as mentioned above. But some observers have pointed out similarities to other Ellison stories within the film, such as "Demon With a Glass Hand" and "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream".

   James Cameron, writer and director of the first two Terminator films, has denied basing his original script on any of Ellison's works.

 

Didja Notice?

 

The prologue of the book basically recaps the events of Infiltrator, albeit from the future Skynet's point of view.

 

On page 1, Skynet is described as "pure thought, Descartes' ideal ghost in a machine." This likely refers to the well-known philosophical statement by French philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650), "I think, therefore I am." It also incorporates the phrase used by British philosopher Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) to describe Descartes' philosophy of mind-body dualism, the "ghost in the machine".

 

On page 3, Skynet, after analyzing the altering timeline that leads to the now, comes to the conclusion, There is no fate save that we make. Obviously, this echoes John Connor's words to Reese (and through him, Sarah), "There's no fate but what we make for ourselves."

 

On page 4, John and Dieter trek through the jungle of Rondonia. Rondonia is a state in Brazil.

 

On page 5, John muses on how he used to think of his foster parents, Todd and Janelle Voight, as the Bundys from Hell. The "Bundys" is likely a reference to the 1987-1997 television sitcom Married...with Children, which featured the dysfunctional family the Bundys.

 

Page 6 reveals that young John often thinks of his upcoming future self as the Great Military Leader Dickhead. Part of his reasoning seems to be that he sends his own father back in time to sire him and get killed.

 

On page 6, John tells Dieter, "Thinking about time travel makes my head hurt." This is a bit of a callback to the scene with John's protector Terminator in Judgment Day where he talks about time travel and his father and remarks, "...he hasn't even been born yet. Man, it messes with your head."

 

Hacking his way south through the jungle with Dieter on page 8, John ironically muses they'll hit Tierra del Fuego eventually. Tierra del Fuego is the archipelago off the tip of South America.

 

On page 8, John thinks, Well, you're all alone / when the bullet hits the bone. Most likely, he is thinking of lyrics from the 1982 song "Twilight Zone" by Golden Earring, though the actual lines in the song are "Soon you will come to know,
when the bullet hits the bone."

 

On page 11, John reflects on how his wounded mother had looked so small and helpless next to Miles Dyson the last time he saw her. Instead of Miles Dyson, it should read Jordan Dyson, Miles' brother, from events in Infiltrator.

 

On page 14, John says, "Mâo em cima!" in Portuguese. This means, "Hand him over!"

 

On page 15, John tries to think of something to say in Yamomani to the native Indian chief he and Dieter have just rescued. Yamomani are a South American indigenous tribe.

 

On page 16, the Indian chief mentions marabunda and Dieter, Rio Negro. Dieter explains it's an old movie reference, with marabunda meaning "army ants". Marabunda is a Spanish term for a large colony of army ants. The Rio Negro is a river in the Amazon. The movie Dieter is referring to is probably 1954's The Naked Jungle, about an attack of marabunda on a South American cocoa plantation on the Rio Negro.

 

On page 17, the Indian chief sends an Ifykoro guide with John and Dieter. I've been unable to confirm the meaning of "Ifykoro"; I assume it is the name of another South American indigenous tribe.

 

On page 18, John and Dieter enter Porto Velho, the capital of Rondonia, Brazil. Porto Velho is the actual capital of Rondonia.

 

John eats grilled pirarucu. Pirarucu are the largest freshwater fish of South America.

 

Dieter is searched for weapons at a modest palacete on page 18. Palacete is Portuguese for "palace".

 

On page 19, John thinks "bad sess" about Dieter not bringing a gift for the local crime lord, Lazaro Garmendia. "Bad sess" is essentially an old English term for "bad luck".

 

On page 20, Dieter muses that the pictures on the walls in Garmendia's office were of the sort one would find in a very expensive Rio cathouse. "Rio" is a reference to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

 

On page 23, Garmendia refers to John as menino. This is Portuguese for "boy".

 

On page 24, Garmendia refers to his underling as idiota. This is Portuguese for "idiot".

 

On page 28, Dieter performs a check of his estancia and its surveillance program and determines that nothing more sophisticated than the Eyeball Mark One had been deployed against it. "Eyeball Mark One" is a slang term (often used in the military) for a simple observation by the human eye.

 

On page 30, John learns that his mother is out of danger at the hospital and says, "Blaaahdddyaaa!" I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean, though he is clearly happy at the news.

 

On page 31, John seems to remark that the "original" history had Judgment Day happening "fifteen years ago". But since the current year is 2001, that makes his "fifteen years ago" reference approximately 1986! In The Terminator, in 1984, Reese said that a nuclear war would occur "a few years from now". Is this what John is referring to? If so, how is it that Judgment Day was pushed so much further back, to 1997 according to Judgment Day? It's possible that the timeline has been altered already by the time of Judgment Day, either by events in The Terminator or in stories appearing in licensed tie-ins to the Terminator franchise, causing Judgment Day not to occur until 1997.

 

Chapter 2, taking place shortly after the events at the end of Infiltrator, opens in early July.

 

On page 40, Labane ponders on whether he could convert his Luddite followers into fanatics, like Hitler's conversion of the German people to Nazism. This is, of course, a reference to the Nazi Party of 1920-1945 in Germany, led for most of that time by Adolf Hitler.

 

Page 41 describes Kipfer's office as bombproof and EMP-hardened. EMP stands for "electromagnetic pulse", which can be used to damage or destroy most types of unshielded electronic devices.

 

On page 45, Tricker thinks of his assignment to the military's new clone base of the Cyberdyne operation as America's secret Siberia. Siberia is a large, often harsh, thinly-populated region of Russia. In more general terms, "Siberia" has come to have the meaning of any isolated and undesirable post of assignment by one's superiors.

 

Kurt Viemeister is in Santa Monica working out on his Nautilus exercise machine on page 48. Santa Monica is a beachfront city adjacent to Los Angeles.

 

Page 51 states that the Pentagon loves Cyberdyne's idea for a completely automated weapons factory. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense.

 

On page 52, it is now November.

 

On page 52, Wendy Dorset's online code name for keeping an eye on the Luddites is Watcher. Ironically, Clea and Alissa refer to their new Terminator model as a Watcher as well.

 

Wendy is a student at MIT. MIT is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA.

 

On page 54, John is using the online code name AM, standing for Action Man.

 

On page 56, Sarah reflects that she has quit smoking. She gave it up in Infiltrator.

 

On page 57, while discussing the use, or lack thereof, of medical drugs, Sarah tells Dr. Ray that Dr. Silberman believed in "better living through chemistry." The phrase is a popular play on a DuPont advertising slogan. DuPont is a chemical company which enacted the advertising slogan "Better Things for Better Living...Through Chemistry" in 1935 and which stayed in place until 1982. The variation "Better Living Through Chemistry" was used by other products during that time to avoid copyright infringement, and actually became more well-known than the original, often as a sarcastic commentary on modern life and commercialism.

 

At the start of Chapter 4, it is now January 2002.

 

On page 70, Tanya impales a card deck with a Bic pen.

 

On page 71, a nurse at Pescadero State Hospital is carrying a syringe full of neomorph. Neomorph is a brand name of morphine sulphate, more commonly referred to as simply morphine, used for sedation or the treatment of severe pain.

 

On page 72, Sector agent Pool implies that Dr. Ray's chances of being accepted to work at Glen Ellen Psychiatric Group will be greatly improved if he cooperates on the Sarah Connor case. Glen Ellen Psychiatric Group appears to be a fictional organization.

 

Page 78 begins in September 2002, when Sarah is transferred from Pescadero to the Encinas Halfway House in Los Angeles. This appears to be a fictional home.

 

The Encinas Halfway House is said to be built in the Spanish Mission style. This is an architecture type based on the Spanish missions built in California in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

 

Page 82 reveals that Sarah's reunion with Dr. Silberman has rekindled her nightmares of nuclear devastation (as previously seen in Judgment Day). It was revealed in Infiltrator that these nightmares had stopped until now.

 

On page 84, Clea wonders if she should just self-terminate and leave things in the hands of her sister Infiltrator, Alissa. This implies that Infiltrators, probably because they are mostly human, are capable of self-termination; in Judgment Day, the protector Terminator revealed that he was not capable of self-termination.

 

Page 87 confirms that John is 17 years old at this point, in September 2002. Page 137 goes on to confirm that he will be 18 in February; Judgment Day revealed that John was born on February 28, 1985.

 

On page 88, Jordan muses that Sarah could be released from the halfway house in as little as two months, which would make it less than 18 months since she helped blow up the Cyberdyne facility at Fort Laurel (as depicted in Infiltrator). This would place that event in about May 2001.

 

On page 91, Dieter reflects that Sarah is not exactly a Girl Scout. This refers to the Girl Scouts of the USA, a youth organization for girls ages 5-18, known for civic and social events in local communities.

 

A new sculpture by Vladimir Hill using the semi-liquid metal developed by Clea is to be placed in the plaza of Lincoln Center in New York City. Clea reflects that the material is carcinogenic. A carcinogen is a substance known to cause cancer.

 

Chapter 6 opens in October 2002.

 

On page 95, Labane shoots a television special in Oklahoma City. This is the capital of Oklahoma.

 

On page 100, a news anchor announces that the New Mexico nuclear waste accident has caused a 700% increase in background radiation in Albuquerque. Albuquerque is the most populous city in New Mexico.

 

While working on making more microchips in order to build more Terminators, Clea finds that microlithography is an enjoyable hobby. Microlithography is used in the manufacturing of microchips to pattern the tiny circuit routes on the chips.

 

At the beginning of Chapter 7, the tombstone on Victor Griego's grave confirms he died in 2001. Griego was dropped head first from a window forty feet above the ground by a Terminator in Infiltrator.

 

Page 110 mentions Berkeley and UCLA. These are both schools in the University of California system.

 

Dieter takes on the assumed name of Wulf Ingolfson while attempting to find work as a deckhand on a ship heading to the U.S. from Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina.

 

Thinking of the handsome, muscular Dieter, Vera Philmore exclaims to herself, "Ay, caramba!" This is a Spanish exclamation used to express surprise.

 

Aboard her ship the Love's Thrust on page 112, Dieter tells Vera he used to get day jobs on some of the yachts on the Côte d'Azur when he was a teenager. The Côte d'Azur is the French name for the Mediterranean coastline of France more often known in English as the French Riviera.

 

On page 113, Dieter tells Vera he's staying at the Sailor's Rest. This appears to be a fictional motel or flophouse.

 

At the beginning of Chapter 8, John takes a cab along Massachusetts Avenue along the Charles to arrive at MIT. MIT is located at 77 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, near the Charles River. John spies the huge dome of one of MIT's buildings long before arriving there; the dome is known as the Great Dome, on top of Building 10 of the campus.

 

On page 116, Wendy says "Ciao" to John. This is Italian for goodbye.

 

Chapter 9 takes place in Macapá, Brazil. This is the capital of the state of Amapá, Brazil.

 

On page 123, Dieter mentions a couple of crewmen on Vera's boat named Arnie and Joe. It's possible "Arnie" is intended as a reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is occasionally referred to by that nickname (in the novel, Arnie even says, "I'll be back," on page 130). It's also vaguely possible that "Joe" is a reference to Joe Morton, the actor who portrayed Miles Dyson in Judgment Day.

 

On page 124, Vera and Dieter light up a couple Cuban cigars. Since Dieter goes on to become the physical basis of the Model 101 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in The Future War, it's possible this cigar scene is a reference to Schwarzenegger's love for cigars in real life.

 

On page 125, Vera tells Dieter she recalls seeing him in society columns and Town & Country, an upper class society magazine published in the U.S.

 

On page 127, Dieter points out some old scars on his body from his Sector days, such as a bullet wound received in Beirut and a knife scar made by Abdul el-Rahman. Beirut is the capital of Lebanon and suffered through numerous gun battles, bombings, and terrorist actions during the Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990, which is probably when Dieter was there as a Sector agent and got shot. Abdul el-Rahman is not further identified in the book; possibly he was a terrorist Dieter encountered during an assignment in the Middle East.

 

This novel reveals that Dr. Silberman came to believe Sarah's rantings about Terminators and Judgment Day after his encounters with the T-800 and T-1000 at Pescadero in Judgment Day, losing his job there and needing psychiatric therapy himself. He becomes sympathetic and helpful to her while she is at the Encinas Halfway House and even helps her escape to Mexico.

 

Vera agrees to join Dieter's campaign to prevent Judgment Day while they are on her boat passing near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Puerto Vallarta is a resort city on the Pacific coastline of the Mexican state of Jalisco.

 

In Chapter 12, Dieter makes a visit to CalTech. This is the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, known for its strong sciences and engineering curriculum.

 

On page 156, Dieter gives his Ray-Ban sunglasses to a student at CalTech as part of a ruse.

 

Page 159 describes John and Wendy's budding romance, including a visit to Harvard Square in Cambridge. Harvard Square is a plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street, and John F. Kennedy Street, in the historice center of the city.

 

On page 160, Wendy insists she and John take the T to the airport to catch his flight. The T is a term often used by local residents for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) which runs public transportation in the Massachusetts Bay area, including Cambridge.

 

On page 161, the T lets John and Wendy off at the Logan stop. This is a reference to Logan International Airport in East Boston, where John will catch his flight out.

 

In Chapter 13, Dieter visits his old mentor, Doc Holmes at his cabin on the east side of Goose Lake, near the Oregon border. Goose lake is a real world alkaline glacial lake which overlaps the California-Oregon border.

 

On page 164, Doc holds a Walther P-38 pistol.

 

On page 165, Dieter reflects he still has things to learn and has not replaced Doc as the master, jokingly thinking that Doc has never made him walk on rice paper without tearing it or telling him to trust the Force. The "walk on rice paper" reference is to the opening credits of the 1972-1975 TV series Kung Fu, in which the master tells his student Kwai Chang Caine that when he can walk the length of a strip of rice paper and leave no trace, it will be time for him to leave. The Force is a reference to the Star Wars film franchise, particularly Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which Luke Skywalker learns the ways of the Force from his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi.

 

On page 168, Wang's name is mistakenly spelled "Whang".

 

In Chapter 13, Alissa and her Terminators stop at Duffy's Diner in Utah for sustenance. As far as I can tell, Duffy's Diner is a fictional establishment within that state.

 

On page 174, Radcliff muses that he is always prepared, just like the Boy Scouts he occasionally preyed upon. The motto of the Boy Scouts of America is "Be Prepared".

 

Chapter 14 begins in November 2002.

 

Sector agents Joe Consigli and Paul Delfino have set up their stakeout of Sarah at the IBC offices next to the Encinas Halfway House. It is never stated what IBC is meant to stand for.

 

On page 186, Sarah muses on how the halfway house has a lot of harmless Disney movies on video for the tenants to watch. Disney is the most profitable mass media corporation in the world and is particularly known for its family-friendly fare.

 

On page 188, Sarah admits to herself that she had once been insane, presumably referring to actions seen or mentioned in Judgment Day (though it seems she may be being a bit hard on herself).

 

Jordan meets Sarah and Dr. Silberman at the Café Verice on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. This appears to be a fictional establishment, though Sunset Boulevard is an actual main road in Los Angeles.

 

On page 191, Jordan contacts one of his friends over the phone and hears Jennifer Lopez music playing in the background. Jennifer Lopez is a popular Hispanic-American singer and actress.

 

Page 197 reveals that the abusive orderly named Douglas who was severely clobbered by Sarah at Pescadero State Hospital during her escape in Judgment Day, is now an alcoholic homeless man. He winds up encountering Dr. Silberman and Sarah as they leave Café Verice and Sarah is forced to clobber him unconscious again to stop his shouting as she and Silberman try to escape unnoticed from the restaurant.

 

Dr. Silberman drops Sarah off in Tijuana, Mexico. Tijuana is just over the U.S.-Mexican border from San Diego and is the largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California.

 

After arriving in Tijuana, Sarah acknowledges to herself that she is a gringa. "Gringa" is the Spanish feminine form of gringo, which refers to any English-speaking foreigner in Mexico. (Note, however, that Sarah does speak fluent Spanish as well, as seen in Judgment Day and many other stories set after the first Terminator film.)

 

Alissa acquires a Blackhawk helicopter from Turbine Transport for use in their preparations to ensure that Skynet is constructed and protected. This refers to the U.S. Army's Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter, in use since 1974. Turbine Transport appears to be a fictitious business.

 

On page 204, John's flight arrives at Phoenix International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona. This is a real world airport, more commonly known as Sky Harbor.

 

John thinks of the Brocks as a family of Green Berets or SEALs. The Green Berets are U.S. Army Special Forces personnel who conduct missions of unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, and counter-terrorism. The Navy SEALS are the United States Navy's Sea, Air, Land Teams, a special operations force. 

 

On page 204, John reflects on how he once raced 7-year old Suzette Brock in field stripping an FN Minimi and she almost beat him. The FN Minimi is a Belgian light machine gun.

 

Meeting at the Phoenix airport on page 205, John and Dieter exchange code phrases (presumably to ensure that Dieter is not actually a Model 101 Terminator!). John says, "A wet bird only flies at night," and Dieter responds, "You bet your bippy." The "wet bird" phrase is a play on a mock punch line used by comedian Jackie Vernon (1924-1987) in the 1960s. The phrase "You bet your bippy" or "You bet your sweet bippy" was a catchphrase used on the 1968-1973 sketch comedy TV show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

 

In Chapter 15, Clea and Alissa's Montana cabin is found to have been broken into and a few things stolen, including a Beretta 9mm pistol.

 

On page 209, the Terminator's speech-recognition software identifies the accent of the hunter he's confronting as originating within 20 kilometers of Newark, New Jersey. Newark is the most populous city in New Jersey.

 

On page 210, the Terminator identifies the hunter's rifle as an Arms Tech Ltd. TTR-700 sniper-weapon system, firing 7.62mm rounds. This is an actual rifle produced for U.S. military special operations purposes.

 

After killing the two hunters in the woods, the Terminator attempts to cast suspicion for the murders elsewhere by carving into their chests, PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), is an animal rights organization; the group is not generally associated with violent actions, though it has been known to break the law to free or remove animals from labs or other facilities it deems cruel.

 

On page 210, the Terminator wears a Band-Aid on its nose to cover up the steel exposed by the ripped flesh. Band-Aid is a brand name of adhesive bandages.

 

Portions of chapters 15 and 16 take place at the Big Bee Diner on Route 85 in New Mexico. Big Bee Diner appears to be a fictional establishment. Route 85 runs mostly north-south along Interstate 25 the length of the state.

 

At the Big Bee Diner, Waylon and Luke watch the reality TV series Crimefighters. This appears to have been a fictional reference, though the description of it sounds as if it was inspired by the television news/crime program America's Most Wanted, which ran 1988-2012 and presented real life cases of wanted criminal suspects.

 

On page 213, Dieter asks the gun runners for several different types of illegal weapons, including LAWs; the ones he lists are all real world weapons. LAW is an acronym for Light Anti-tank Weapon.

 

On page 216, a Sector agent in Los Alamos is sent to investigate the Crimefighters tip from the Big Bee Diner. Los Alamos is an actual town in New Mexico.

 

On page 222, a Quickmart manager reports a break-in by someone who stole only baby food (a Terminator stole it to provide sustenance for its flesh sheath). The store name of Quickmart is probably intended as fictitious by the author, though there are variations of the name in use by local convenience stores and small chains in several states.

 

The Terminator on the Quickmart security tape is wearing a gimmee cap. A gimmee cap is a free hat given away by businesses, organizations, and baseball teams, usually with a logo on the front.

 

On page 232, a Sector agent reports over his radio that John is carrying a CAR-15. A CAR-15 is a Colt variant of the M16.

 

On page 236, the Sector agents who bust in on Dieter's arms deal are carrying FN-90 submachine guns. This is a reference to the FN P90, manufactured by the Belgian company FN Herstal.

 

Realizing that there is still a Skynet Infiltrator at large in the present on page 243, even after having killed Serena Burns (in Infiltrator), John thinks irreverently, There are always two, a master and an apprentice… This is a reference to the quote by Yoda in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, "Always two there are, no more, no less. A master and an apprentice," in regards to Sith Lords.

 

On page 244, a Sector agent blasts into a Terminator with a battle shotgun and as the robot falls, John estimates it will take it at least 15 seconds to reboot, John having listened carefully to "Uncle Bob" as he explained the T-101s (actually T-800s) weaknesses. This must have happened off screen during the events of Judgment Day. This also explains how, in Infiltrator, Sarah knew that her several shots from an M-16 would put a Terminator down for about a minute or so to reboot.

 

On page 248, Dieter compares the battered and rotting Terminator approaching to Romero's living dead. This is a reference to the zombies of the Living Dead film series directed by George Romero.

 

Also on page 248, Dieter fires a LAW at the Terminator, sending a 66mm shaped-charged warhead into its face. The 66-caliber designation of the warhead suggests that the type of LAW he wields is an M72 series.

 

On page 251, Sully can tell that Dieter is upset because his Tyrolean accent had become more noticeable. In Infiltrator, it is implied that Dieter is from the Austrian state of Tyrol.

 

Chapter 17 opens in December 2002.

 

On page 252, John tries to tell Dieter they could just sail from Porto Velho to the Rio Paraguay. The Rio Paraguay is an actual river in the country of Paraguay.

 

To sneak onto Garmendia's estate on page 257, John rubs Vaseline along the rim of a drain pipe opening on the property in order to squeeze through. Vaseline is a brand of petroleum jelly.

 

On page 259, John is grateful nothing lethal bit him as he was crawling through a ventilation duct, pondering it's not something you could always count on on the borders of Amazonia. Amazonia is another name for the Amazon rainforest.

 

On page 261, Dieter tells Garmendia his cook makes excellent café com leite. Café com leite is Portuguese for "coffee with milk".

 

Page 261 explains that Garmendia's palacete is a former rubber baron's mansion when "red rubber" had been very profitable around the turn of the 20th Century. "Red rubber" refers to the price paid in blood by the Indio slaves that harvested it from the South American jungle. A similar situation occurred in Africa as well.

 

On page 263, Dieter thinks of a particularly large member of Garmendia's thugs as the Jolly Green Giant and, later, as a Neanderthal. The Jolly Green Giant is the corporate mascot of Green Giant vegetables, while Neanderthals, of course, are an extinct species (or possibly subspecies) of humans.

 

Also on page 263, Garmendia calls Dieter bastardo and one of his thugs idiota. These are Spanish for "bastard" and "idiot" respectively.

 

Page 264 describes Garmendia's thugs having suspicious bulges (guns) under their guayabera shirts. Guayabera shirts are a popular shirt style in Central and South America, often featuring four pockets on the front.

 

Finally reunited with John on page 266, Sarah asks, "So what's your story?" She asked this same question of "Uncle Bob" after escaping from Pescadero in Judgment Day.

 

On page 267, John discovers a micro-Uzi in a carrying basket strapped to his mother's moped. The general Uzi line of weapons was designed by Israeli Captain Uziel Gal in the late 1940s and named after him. Uzis currently come in three sizes, the standard Uzi, the scaled down Mini-Uzi, and the even smaller Micro-Uzi. John also finds a stun grenade in the basket. Stun grenades are non-lethal grenades that produce a blinding flash of light and loud noise, designed to disorient enemy combatants.

 

On page 268, Sarah retorts to John's call to go faster, "We're on a moped, for God's sake, not a chopped Harley!" "Harley" refers to Harley-Davidson, an American manufacturer of heavyweight motorcycles. "Chopped" refers to the practice of removing unnecessary parts on a heavy motorcycle to make it lighter and faster.

 

On page 271, Sarah thinks of Garmendia's men as Keystone Kops. This refers to the Keystone Cops, a bungling police force in short, silent comedy films produced by the Keystone Film Company from 1912-1917.

 

On page 272, John gives Sarah his balisong to cut Dieter's bonds of sisal twine. "Balisong" is another name for a butterfly knife. "Sisal" refers to a species of Agave plant whose fibers are commonly used to make twine.

 

On page 278, Clea refers to the F-101 flying wing stealth plane. But she is in error. The F-101 was a standard supersonic jet fighter in use by the U.S. military from 1957-1982. Clea presumably meant the B-2 stealth bomber flying wing, in use since 1988. She is correct in stating that the plane has a computerized flight control system that makes constant minute adjustments without human input to maintain the plane's stability in the air.

 

Page 288 reveals that the U.S. has a secret military underground research base in Antarctica called Red Seal Base, despite international treaty prohibiting any nation from using the continent for military activities. The Antarctic Treaty of 1959 has been signed by 49 countries and does prohibit military activities along with mining, nuclear testing, and nuclear waste disposal.

 

Clea and a couple other scientists are delivered to Red Seal Base by an Osprey tilt rotor. This is a reference to the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey aircraft used mostly by the U.S. Marines and Air Force.

 

The Red Seal guards are armed with Ingram machine pistols. These are probably Ingram MAC-11s, designed by Gordon Ingram for Military Armament Corporation (MAC) in the 1970s.

 

Page 292 describes the cafeteria at Red Seal Base as smelling like a medium-priced restaurant like Applebee's.

 

On page 293, Clea identifies Kurt Viemeister's accent as originating within 50 kilometers of Vienna, but not actually in Vienna. Vienna is the capital of Austria, Viemeister's homeland.

 

On page 297, Cyberdyne receives a large envelope for CEO Roger Colvin allegedly from the Utah Tourist Bureau (it turns out to be packed with small, insect-like robots sent by one of Clea's Terminators). The Utah Tourist Bureau appears to be a fictional organization, the state's actual tourism department being called the Utah Office of Tourism. Seeing the Utah package, Colvin's secretary wonders if he's turning Mormon; this is a reference to the Mormon religion, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based out of Salt Lake City, Utah.

 

On page 299, Pool reveals to Colvin and Warren that a number of automated munitions factories, similar to the prototype one currently being run by Cyberdyne, have sprouted up throughout the world, possibly built by the U.S.'s own NATO allies. NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance of most of the western world's democratic nations.

 

On page 300, Pool mentions the Balkans. These are the nations of the Balkan peninsula of southeast Europe.

 

On page 302, Alissa wonders why she has not heard from her co-Infiltrator, Clea, lately, musing it would essentially take being buried in a Faraday cage to silence her and make her undetectable. A Faraday cage is made of conducting material which prevents the transmission of electrical fields to objects within, or transmission out. In Infiltrator, John used a Faraday cage to store a severed Terminator head for study while preventing it from sending any messages out to its cohorts.

 

On page 309, Clea remarks to Tricker that they don't call Montana Big Sky Country for nothing. Big Sky Country is an unofficial nickname for the state.

 

On page 312, Wendy writes to John that she and about 100 other MIT students attended a taping of Ron Labane's New Day TV show. Labane's show is, of course, fictional, but a couple of talk/news shows by that name have been introduced at different times since this novel was written.

 

When John mentions he'd rather go to Paris than Antarctica, Dieter remarks, "...we'll always have Paris." This is a famous line from the 1942 film Casablanca, said by Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman.

 

When Dieter expresses some hesitation in John and Sarah's latest plan for tripping up the birth of Skynet on page 330, the two look at him "as if he'd suddenly broken out into a Broadway show tune." Broadway is a road running through the New York borough of Manhattan and is world famous as a center of the theatrical arts; the name of the road, Broadway, has become synonymous with the theatrical productions originating there.

 

On page 331, Dieter invites Vera to Ushuaia. Ushuaia is the capital of Tierra del Fuego.

 

At the beginning of Chapter 21, Labane listens to the song "Dreamboat Annie" in his car. This is a 1976 song by the rock group Heart.

 

In this timeline it appears that by December 2002 the U.S. finally has a successful third political party, the Eco Party, due in large part to the popularity of Ron Labane's speeches, books, and TV show.

 

On page 333, Labane is heading for a speaking engagement in Amherst at U. Mass. This refers to the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts.

 

On page 334, Labane tells MacMillan that he's speaking at U. Mass. because he doesn't want to get the reputation of only speaking to the Ivy League. The Ivy League is a system of private universities in the northeastern United States; the U. Mass. system is a public school.

 

Page 334 mentions that Eco Party leader Sebastion MacMillan made Dress for Success required reading among everyone in a position of authority in the party. Dress for Success is a bestselling 1975 book by John T. Molloy about the concept of power dressing to impress others and move ahead in life.

 

In Chapter 21, Labane meets with some radical environmentalists who use aliases with forboding connotations in place of their real identities. Among them are Sauron, Balewitch, Maleficent, Dog Soldier, Death, Hate, and Orc. Several of these are pop culture references: Sauron is the antagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's epic 1954 fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings; Maleficent is the antagonist from the 1959 Walt Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty; Dog Soldier may be a reference to a warrior band of Cheyenne Indians in the 1800s; an Orc is a race of brutish, goblin-like creatures in the aforementioned The Lord of the Rings.

 

On page 339, Labane thinks of the Buddhist teachings of the power of silence. Buddhism is a nontheistic religion centered in Asia.

 

On page 342, Labane drives along Route 91 in Massachusetts on his way to Amherst. This refers to U.S. Interstate 91 which runs from New Haven, Connecticut to Derby Line, Vermont at the Canadian border.

 

In Amherst, Labane stays at the Victorian Inn. This appears to be a fictional establishment, though there is an inn called the Allen House Victorian Inn in the city.

 

The author uses the name Joe a lot in this novel! One of Vera's deckhands is named Joe; there's a Sector agent named Joe Consigli; almost a Joe is Red Seal Base scientist Joel Gibson; Dog Soldier uses the alternate alias "Joe" to lure Wendy to Labane's hotel room; and Wendy gives the injured John the alias Joe when she is forced to take him to Red Seal Base for shelter. And Joe Cady was an employee of Aadvanced Security in Infiltrator.

 

On page 350, Wendy's friend Diana refers to her as Sleeping Beauty as she wakes her up to catch her bus home, referring to the character in the classic tale first published by Charles Perrault in 1697.

 

On page 353, Wendy and Diana enter a Burger King at the bus station. Wendy decides not to have a Whopper while she's there; the Whopper is the chain's signature burger.

 

On page 355, Diana tells the police officer questioning them that Wendy got food poisoning the day before and was "yawning in Technicolor" all night. "Yawning in Technicolor" is a slang phrase for "vomiting". Technicolor is a process of shooting and processing motion picture film to make color movies.

 

On page 357, Yam tells Wendy they're supposed to meet Snog at the Coop. The Coop is the book store (actually two) on the MIT campus.

 

In Sao Paulo, Wendy rents a car from Hertz. She pays for it with Snog's sister's purloined Visa card.

 

On page 362, Wendy mentions the Massachusetts DMV. The DMV is the Department of Motor Vehicles, run by every state in the U.S. (sometimes under a slightly different name).

 

In Sao Paulo, Wendy exchanges her U.S. money for Brazilian currency and also buys some guaranies for when she enters Paraguay. The guarani is the Paraguayan unit of currency and is presumably named for the Guarani people and language native to Paraguay.

 

When Clea tells Viemeister she is going outside with Kushner and Locke for some seal research on page 365, he responds, "I didn't even know you were interested in pinnipeds." In scientific classification, Pinniped is the clade name of seals and walruses.

 

On page 366, Clea tries to reassure the jealous Viemeister about her intentions with Kushner and Locke, pointing out that "Kushner is a potato with legs and Locke looks like the mummy of Ramses the Second walking." Ramses the Second was the pharaoh of Egypt from 1279–1213 BC. His mummy his on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

 

Outside Red Seal Base, Clea injects several wild leopard seals with microscopic machines that adhere to the animals' brains, allowing her a modicum of control over them. Leopard seals are, in fact, native to the Antarctic. The microscopic machines constructed by Clea with the limited technological resources at her disposal in 2002 are somewhat similar to the nanobots injected by the T-XA (Terminator - eXperimental Autonomous) in Dark Futures.

 

On page 368, Locke is wearing a balaclava. A balaclava is similar to a ski mask. The term derives from their use during the Crimean War's Battle of Balaclava in 1854.

 

In Chapter 22, Wendy takes Route 9 through Paraguay to Villa Hayes to meet with John at the Von Rossbach estancia. This is an actual highway in Paraguay which does pass through Villa Hayes.

 

On page 375, Wendy reflects that John sometimes seemed to describe the estancia as Dogpatch and sometimes as the Ponderosa. Dogpatch is the fictional backwater hick town in Al Capp's 1934–1977 comic strip Li'l Abner. The Ponderosa is the sprawling fictional ranch of the 1959-1973 TV western series Bonanza.

 

On pages 395-396, Wendy explains to John that she'd wanted a horse when she was a little girl until her dad explained mucking out, at which point she made do with Bryer's figures and glossy calendars. She is referring to Breyer Horses, a line of realistic horse models.

 

On page 396, Sarah asks Dieter if he had some Dulcinea in his life when he entered the spy field. Dulcinea was the love figure for the knight-errant Don Quixote in Miguel de Cervantes' early 17th Century novel Don Quixote.

 

On page 405, Vera's ship the Love's Thrust is in the Raging Fifties. "Raging Fifties" refers to the westerly gales on the ocean within the range of the 50s latitudes.

 

On page 407, Dieter remarks to Vera that John is 18, implying that this section of the book takes place after John's birthday on February 28, 2003.

 

On page 409, John thinks of his pairing with Wendy and his mother's with Dieter could work out as a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) were a popular English writing duo of operattas (comic operas) in the 19th Century.

 

On page 412, Dieter calls one of the deckhands dummkopf. This is a German term for "fool".

 

On page 413, a Sno-Cat is unloaded from the Love's Thrust onto a raft. The Tucker Sno-Cat is a family of tracked snow vehicles often used in Antarctic exploration.

 

Also on page 413, John is surprised that Vera managed to find a pink anorak to wear. An anorak is a coat with a hood, similar to a parka; the word derives from the Greenlandic language of Greenland.

 

On page 414, John and the others climb onto a Zodiac for the journey from the Love's Thrust to the Antarctic shore. Zodiac refers to the French company The Zodiac Group, which makes many products but is best known for their inflatable watercraft.

 

On page 415, a group of penguins is referred to as a herd, of seals as a pod, and seal babies as pups. The last two terms are accurate, but a grouping of penguins is generally referred to as a colony or rookery.

 

On pages 415-416 a few members of John's landing party are dive-bombed by skua gulls. Skuas are, in fact, known to engage in this behavior, usually to drive predators away from their nests.

 

On page 420, Wendy thinks of the wind-sculpted shapes of the snow and ice around her as like something out of a monochrome Salvador Dalí painting. Dalí (1904-1989) was a Spanish artist known particularly for his surrealist paintings.

 

Also on page 420, Wendy observes how she, John, and Dieter are dressed all in white and riding a white snowmobile through the snow and ice of Antarctica and she thinks, It's Ghost Troop! This may be meant simply as a term she's made up for them due to their being a white-on-white force. It's vaguely possible though that she is making an ironic reference to the alleged civilian group of former military and others referred to by that name which attempts to shine a spotlight on suspicious aspects of U.S. antiterrorism policy and propaganda.

 

On page 422, part of the group's food rations are PowerBars. PowerBar is a brand of energy bar.

 

On page 427, due to the storm and sabotage, Tricker is told by the base commander to coordinate the Red Seal Base evacuation with his counterpart at McMurdo. McMurdo Station is a real world U.S. research station on Ross Island in the McMurdo Sound of Antarctica. It was founded in 1956 and is the largest community on the continent.

 

On page 432, Dieter thinks of his Antarctic environment as a sunny night. During the six months of Antarctica's spring and summer (October-March), the sun does not set in the region due to the continent's position at the southern pole and Earth's axial tilt.

 

Page 441 reveals that John still feels a sharp pang whenever he thinks of the protector Terminator called Uncle Bob who sacrificed himself at the end of Judgment Day.

 

On page 443, John tells Wendy that Dieter is dead and feels like he's "spoken a toad." I'm not familiar with this phrase, but a web search finds it used in a couple other places. Presumably, in the same way a loathsome person might be called a toad, "speaking a toad" may be saying something loathsome or unwelcome.

 

John ends up with a scarred face when one of Clea's machine-controlled seals attacks him and bites his face. Wendy is forced to stitch him up in an amateur manner. It seems likely that, in this timeline anyway, this is how John gained the facial scars seen in the 2029 scenes of Judgment Day.

 

On page 448, his situation at an Antarctic research base with Clea begins to remind Tricker of an old movie called The Thing.

 

On page 452, as Tricker sees Wendy approaching on the snowmobile with the injured John, he thinks the girl's presence in Antarctica must be some vestigial remnant of Affirmative Action. In the U.S., Affirmative Action is a federal directive signed into law in the 1960s designed to favor the hiring of minorities within federal organizations who had traditionally been discriminated against for jobs.

 

On page 456, Tricker locks Wendy and John inside the guest quarters he's provided them, with a lock that is already installed on the outside of the doors of all sleeping quarters at the base in case someone gets cabin fever. Cabin fever is the popular term for the condition of someone suffering from a claustrophobic reaction to being confined to a small space with nothing to do for an extended amount of time. Such people may feel the need to leave their confines by force if prevented from doing so.

 

When Dieter awakens from his fall into the crevasse on page 459, he realizes that the blubber of the two dead seals between which he's been sandwiched helped to prevent him from losing too much heat and becoming a Popsicle. Popsicle is a brand of ice pop.

 

On page 470, John finds a Sig-Sauer 9mm in Tricker's hut. SIG Sauer is a German manufacturer of firearms. John also handles a SIG Sauer in the novelization of Judgment Day and in Times of Trouble.

 

On page 476, Tricker starts to realize that Clea Bennet looks like a disguised version of the dead Serena Burns. He muses that the difference in hair color is easily handled by Lady Clairol. Lady Clairol was a line of hair color products for women made by Clairol.

 

On page 478, Dieter tells the bound Tricker that he's going to look for John and Wendy, saying, "Surely you want me to find them," and Tricker woozily thinks, Don't call me Shirley. This is a reference to a similar exchange between two characters in the hit 1980 comedy film Airplane!

 

On page 479, Tricker begins to think that Red Seal Base is turning into Grand Central Station. Grand Central Station is a railroad terminal in Manhattan, popularly known as one of the busiest commuter stations in the world.

 

On page 487, Tricker remarks to Dieter, "When Ferris admitted that he had a guest that he'd sent away before said guest could be questioned after Cyberdyne blew up, I naturally asked him some probing questions about you." This is a reference to events in the previous novel, Infiltrator, though the character spoken of here was named Ferri, not Ferris. It's possible to excuse this as Tricker simply misremembering the name since there is no indication that he personally knew the man before the aforementioned incident brought them briefly into contact.

 

On page 494, Dieter says, "Chill out, Bennet." This likely an intentional callback by the author to the "Uncle Bob" Terminator's line "Chill out, dickwad," in Judgment Day.

 

Wendy's plan to prevent the Skynet system from gaining sentience backfires on her and her Connor allies. She uses information gleaned from the recovered T-800 nanochip to find aspects of the programming that help to make Skynet sentient and then writes her own code to be introduced into the nascent Skynet system at Red Seal Base that will block the system from using or implementing those aspects that will lead to sentience. But Clea figures out her plan and allows only the "sentience code" to be uploaded, not the blockers, thus bringing Skynet to life in 2003.

 

When Alissa arrives at the Von Rossbach estancia on page 499, Epifanio thinks, The second beautiful young Yanqui girl in a month! Yanqui is the Spanish spelling of "yankee", a term used by citizens of other countries to refer to Americans.

 

On page 502, Alissa begins to wonder if Skynet is actually afraid of the Connors and even afraid to confront them.

 

On page 503, Epifanio says, "De nada." This is Spanish for "It's nothing."

 

On page 504, Alissa muses that the way the Connors kept bouncing back from seeming defeat reminded her of the advertisement of "a synthetic rabbit with a chemical energy-storage device." This is a reference to the Energizer battery ads featuring the Energizer Bunny mascot.

 

On page 507, Sarah thinks of Alissa's severely damaged face still having the graceful calm of a Boticelli angel. This refers to the many paintings featuring angels produced by Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Boticelli (1445-1510).

 

Also on page 507, the term "Velcro" is capitalized, as the word is actually a brand name.

 

Page 509 reveals that the Infiltrator Alissa was wearing Nike shoes at the time of her death.

 

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