She looked at John. He was still gazing down at the map, but she knew he could feel her eyes on him. They couldn’t just abandon those people to sudden, violent death. Not if there was any way they could stop it.
Blair was obviously thinking along the same lines.
“If we could get hold of a Maverick, I’m pretty sure I could get in there and deliver it before they could stop me,” she offered. “No staging area, no slaughter.”
“At least until Skynet rebuilds it,” John said, his voice thoughtful.
“It would at least buy the people some breathing space,” Blair pointed out.
“Yeah, but Skynet won’t try playing possum twice in a row,” Tunney warned. “Next time it’ll be ready for you.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Blair said calmly. “I don’t know what kind of anti-aircraft setup the place has, but if I get in close enough it won’t have time to lock up either me
“Be an interesting race, anyway,” Tunney said. “Unfortunately, we’re a little short of Mavericks at the moment. Unless we can pry one loose from Command, I’d say you’re probably out of luck.”
“There might be a simpler way,” David said, running a finger diagonally across the map. “It looks to me like one of the old drainage tunnels cuts under the parking area around the warehouse.
We’ll have to check, but if it actually goes under the building itself, maybe we can blow the place without Williams having to risk herself or her A-10.”
“Skynet’s bound to have plugged it already,” Barnes said sourly.
David shrugged.
“Maybe. No way to know until we’ve checked it out.”
“We can’t destroy the staging area,” John said. “Not if we want Command to take us seriously.”
Kate frowned, replaying his words in her mind, convinced she must have heard him wrong.
“They won’t take us seriously if we
“Of course not.” John gave her a tight yet oddly mischievous smile. “What we really need to do is capture it. Intact.”
Blair’s mouth dropped open half an inch.
David and Tunney exchanged startled glances.
Barnes just stayed Barnes.
“Excuse me?” David asked carefully.
“Skynet has a pattern in these operations,” John said. “First thing it does is put out a ring of T-600s to seal off the kill zone. Then, once it’s dark, it sends more T-600s through the neighborhood, usually with some HKs providing air support, and starts the slaughter. As the Terminators run out of ammunition they return to the staging area to reload, then head out again for a second wave, and so on.”
“And you’re suggesting Skynet might carelessly leave the lunch wagon unlocked while all the T-600s are out enjoying the picnic?” Tunney suggested.
“Why not?” John asked. “The first clue most people have that an attack is even coming is when the HKs lift and the miniguns start firing, and by then there’s no time for anything but trying to escape or survive. As far as I know, this is the first time anyone’s ever known in advance where Skynet’s setting up shop.”
“Of course, we don’t know
“Which is why we need to get started right away,” John said. “Barnes, what’s the status on Fallback Two?”
“It’s mostly ready,” Barnes said. He looked at Blair. “We don’t have a good hangar setup yet, though.”
“You want me to go hunting for something tomorrow?” Blair asked.
“Either you or Yoshi—you can sort it out between yourselves,” John said. “Make sure that whichever of you goes takes along an escort, just in case. We’ll work out the details after everyone’s had some sleep, but I’m thinking now that we keep the infiltration team to about twenty.”
“That few?” David questioned, frowning.
“Any more than that and we’ll leave the bunker and the rest of our people unprotected,” John pointed out. “Besides, this whole thing hinges on surprise. If twenty of us can’t pull it off, doubling the number isn’t likely to make much of a difference.”
“I suppose,” David said. Kate could tell he wasn’t convinced, but his voice and expression nevertheless showed his willingness to follow John’s lead. “May I suggest that we go in as Resistance recruiters?”
“Good idea,” John said. “Who knows? We might even find a few people who are ready to stop being victims and help us take the fight to Skynet. I’m thinking we’ll go in two groups of ten, with me taking one group and Barnes taking the other. Once we’ve scouted the territory a bit, we’ll regroup, compare notes, and set up a temp base as our launch point.”
“Can I choose my own ten men?” Barnes asked.
Tunney cleared his throat.
“You know, Barnes, it really isn’t our job to clear the streets of every brain-scrambled gang of punks that’s out there.”
“It is if they get in our way,” Barnes said, his voice going flat and dangerous. Barnes had grown up in one of L.A.’s worst gang areas, Kate knew, and his hatred of them had never faded. “Besides, sometimes they’ve got spare ammo and other stuff.” He looked back at John. “I get to choose my men?”
“Knock yourself out,” John told him as he started folding up the map again. “Only you can’t have your brother,” he added. “I’ll be leaving him in command of the group here.”
“Will you want Yoshi and me as part of the attack?” Blair asked.
“I definitely
“Oh, they’ll be ready,” Blair promised, her tone the exact same level of flat and dangerous that Barnes had just used.
Kate suppressed a smile. Blair and Barnes didn’t always get along, not because they were opposites, but because they had far too many of the same hard-ass traits in common.
“Then we’re adjourned,” John told them as he stood up. “Get some sleep, and I’ll see you back here in six hours. And don’t forget to make sure the sentries get rotated.”
John was silent as he and Kate walked down the long corridor to their new quarters. Kate, for her part, was content to allow him his moment of quiet. Particularly since she knew that it wasn’t going to last.
They reached their room, a slightly bigger space than they’d had at the previous bunker, but with oddly angled walls and a rather lumpy floor. There was no door, either, just a curtain that could be pulled across the opening for minimal privacy. Together, she and John took off their weapons belts and pouches and outer jackets, keeping on enough clothing to push back the cold night air. Kate finished first and climbed beneath the sleeping mat’s covers, trying to figure out how exactly she was going to broach the subject she and John needed to discuss.
Wasted effort, as it turned out. John knew her as well as she knew him. He climbed onto the mat and pressed himself against her side, one arm draped lovingly and protectively over her, his breath warm against her cheek.
“Let me guess,” he whispered. “You want to go with my infiltration team.”
“It’s not that I want to go,” she whispered back. “It’s that I
“Because we need a medic?” He shook his head. “We can’t risk you, Kate.”
“It’s not just that,” Kate said. “It’s that…John, I’ve seen how they look at me. Seen how they treat me. They respect me, yes, but as a surgeon and medic.”
“Nothing wrong with that.”
“Yes, but I’m also supposed to be one of their leaders,” Kate said. “You and the others call me that, and I sit in on your meetings. But I never actually lead.”
“Neither does Williams,” John pointed out. “No one’s thrown her out of a meeting yet.”
“It’s not the same,” Kate said, hearing a hint of desperation creeping into her voice and ruthlessly forcing it back. She needed to convince him, not manipulate him. “I don’t ever share the same risks they do. They respect me, John, but they wouldn’t follow me. Not the way they follow you.”
