069 The Inertia of the River of Fate?
Time unknown, Los Angeles.
"System, have you connected to the River of Fate? What time is it now? Something feels off." Marcus secretly contacted the System.
"Please wait..." the System replied.
Marcus didn't foolishly wait for the System's response. He observed his surroundings, including the clothing styles of passersby, the makes of cars, and the condition of buildings.
While observing, Marcus walked to a newsstand and picked up a newspaper. The date was April 1, 2007, April Fool's Day.
"April Fool's Day..." Marcus was speechless.
"Host, the system has obtained the temporal information from the River of Fate. The current time is indeed the time you obtained from the newspaper. Today is April Fool's Day," the System responded.
"Heh!" Marcus was too lazy to even comment.
Other people's systems are like getting legendary rewards at the start, instantly becoming the supreme being of the universe!
His system?
Garbage!
Marcus hailed a taxi on the roadside. He was headed to the FBI's Los Angeles field office. No matter the situation, his first step was to visit the FBI's Los Angeles office.
After all, his two previous entries into the Terminator world had both relied on the FBI's resources.
About fifteen minutes later, Marcus arrived at the FBI's Los Angeles field office. He surveyed the headquarters building. He had first visited here in 1983. Now, twenty-four years later, the headquarters had changed somewhat, but the X-Corridor remained.
At the FBI's Los Angeles office reception desk, a young female staff member politely inquired, "Hello, sir, how can I help you?"
Marcus glanced at her name tag. "Nora?"
"Yes, sir," Nora replied politely. She felt Marcus looked familiar, as if she had seen him somewhere before, but couldn't quite place him.
"Who is your current Special Agent in Charge?" Marcus asked directly.
Nora hesitated for a moment before replying, "Our SAC is Colin, Colin Serint."
"Where's Don?" Marcus frowned.
Could Don also be dead?
"SAC Don is..." Nora was interrupted by a gasp.
"Boss!" A slightly aged but excited voice rang out.
Marcus looked in the direction of the voice and saw a gray-haired African American man walking quickly towards them. Marcus tentatively asked, "Allen?"
"It's me, it's me, boss, you're finally back!" Allen said excitedly. He was already in his early fifties, but hadn't lost his enthusiastic personality.
Marcus patted Allen on the shoulder. "Alright, alright, I'm back. Calm down."
"Boss, come with me!" Allen called out, pulling Marcus towards the X corridor. After successfully passing through security, he led Marcus towards the elevator.
A moment later, Marcus, led by Allen, arrived at the SAC's office.
"Hey, Colin, look who's here!" Allen shouted.
Colin, who was working on administrative documents, heard Allen's shout and looked up, immediately seeing Marcus.
"Boss?" Colin jumped up. "Boss, you're finally back!"
Marcus nodded.
"Colin, tell the boss what's going on. I'll go get Harold," Allen said.
Colin nodded. "Okay."
After Allen left the office, Marcus asked, "What's the situation now?"
Colin sighed. "The problem is serious. Is that why the boss came back?"
Marcus shook his head. He didn't know the situation and couldn't answer casually.
Fortunately, Marcus had experience with strategic deception, and he quickly found a flawless excuse. "No, the reason I came back is that Skynet has suddenly become extremely powerful in the future, almost beyond our ability to resist, and the future of humanity is in grave danger."
"That's right!" Colin explained after hearing Marcus's explanation. "Sorry, Boss, we've run into a problem here, and it seems to have affected your future."
"What problem have you run into?" Marcus frowned. "I remember when I left, I had a complete plan in place, including how to identify Terminators and how to deal with them. How did you screw it up?"
Colin was very calm and collected, the kind of person who always maintains composure. Even now, as the FBI's Los Angeles SAC, he showed no anger in the face of Marcus's questioning.
"Sorry, Boss, this time it wasn't us who screwed it up; this time it was D.C. who dropped the ball," Colin replied.
"Did D.C. screw things up?" Marcus asked, puzzled. "What exactly happened?"
Colin explained, "After the Boss left, we followed the plan you laid out to target the Terminators, taking them down one after another. The Terminators simply couldn't counter our tactics."
"Between 1994 and 1996, we neutralized a total of 115 Terminators, and then the Terminators disappeared, as if Skynet had given up. We even thought the Boss had gone back to the future and destroyed Skynet, and that we'd enjoy peace from then on." Colin chuckled self-deprecatingly.
"The actual situation was that in January 1997, a Terminator T-800 secretly arrived in D.C. and was captured by the DoD, thus beginning classified research." Colin sighed after finishing.
The DoD is the U.S. Department of Defense, with enormous authority!
Marcus listened to Colin's explanation, and he paused, thinking this situation was somewhat similar to the events in Terminator 3.
"How did you find out?" Marcus countered.
"Because of an accident," Colin continued to explain. "Within the DoD, the Terminator T-800 research project was a closely guarded secret, known to very few people."
"But in April 2000, the DoD's internal network was hacked. The hackers discovered the Terminator T-800. One of the hackers was from Los Angeles; he happened to know we were working on the Terminator T-800, and then he hacked into our FBI Los Angeles office, obtaining certain information and ultimately exposing the DoD's classified research on the Terminator T-800." Colin recounted the situation.
Marcus nodded. "And then did you confront the DoD?"
"SAC Don protested, and the boss at D.C. headquarters also protested. We at the FBI strongly explained the threat level of the Terminator T-800, but the DoD continued to do as they pleased; they kept researching the Terminator T-800." Colin replied helplessly.
"What about Don?" Marcus pressed.
"In June 2000, SAC Don, through his connections at D.C. Headquarters, was transferred to DoD's 'One Star' project to serve as its supervisor," Colin responded.
Colin added, "The One Star project is essentially the Terminator T-800 research project. DoD is attempting to achieve global dominance through this research."
"Hahahaha!" Marcus laughed loudly. "Those idiots have lofty ambitions. The Terminator can indeed achieve global dominance, but that's Skynet's domination!"
"Boss, you mean DoD might create Skynet?" Colin asked.
"Might?" Marcus sneered. "DoD is currently researching the Terminator T-800, aren't they?"
"Yes," Colin replied.
"Then it's not a question of 'might' anymore!" Marcus sighed. "The question now is, how far has Skynet developed!"
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