“Right,” Grimaldi said. “Come on.”
He sprinted back toward the hallway, his rifle bouncing across his back, the rest of the fire teams right behind him.
Orozco looked out through the archway, wondering belatedly if this was really the right decision. If the attack on the building’s rear was a feint, leaving the main entrance undefended this way could be the last mistake any of them ever made.
But he had no choice. If Skynet was hitting them in the rear with any significant force, it would take every gun and gunner Orozco had simply to stand against it. He would just have to hope that Barnes and his people could cover them up here.
The fire teams from the balcony were streaming down the stairway now, looking at Orozco for orders. Pointing them toward the building’s rear, he slung his Ml 6 over his shoulder, grabbed his last two pipe bombs, and hurried to join them.
Something was wrong.
Kate gazed out on the street below, trying to figure out what it was that had suddenly set off alarms in the back of her head. The two Terminators to the north were still retreating from their latest attack on the Moldavia, their miniguns silent and possibly dry. Simmons was encouraging their departure with deliberately placed shots, his rounds slamming into their heads and hip joints. A couple of T-600s a block farther north of the retreating machines were offering some cover fire, but their shots were sporadic and ineffective.
The gunfire coming from behind Kate, off to the west, was still going strong as Barnes and the others hammered the first wave of reserve T-600s that Skynet had sent into the battle. In contrast, the Terminators in the bus to the south hadn’t moved at all, and were only firing occasional shots, as if content with making sure there was no traffic on the street.
And then, suddenly, Kate had it. The Terminators to the west and north were firing, Barnes and Simmons were firing, and even farther to the west John and his squad were firing. Everyone who had a target to shoot at was doing so.
Except the people in the Moldavia.
And up until a minute ago they’d been firing down the street at Barnes’ target T-600s.
Why had they suddenly stopped?
“Hickabick, I need a sitrep at tee two and hole nine,” she said into her mike.
“Check,” Blair’s voice came back. “On my way.”
At the other end of the room, Simmons turned around, reaching up a hand to cover his mike.
“Trouble?” he asked.
“Orozco’s people have stopped firing,” Kate told him.
Simmons turned back to his peephole.
“Huh,” he said. “You’re right. I hadn’t even noticed.”
Overhead, the roar of an A-10 briefly drowned out the chattering of gunfire as Blair shot over the Moldavia.
“Tee two looks clear,” the pilot reported crisply. “Turning to hole nine.”
“Maybe they just ran out of ammo,” Simmons offered as he squeezed off a couple more rounds at the retreating T-600s.
“Maybe,” Kate said.
The front of the building looked all right, at least as far as Blair could see from the air. There were a couple of T-600s to the north firing at the building and Barnes’ squad, with two more retreating in that direction, plus the remnants of another group to the west that Barnes and Connor were hammering.
She also caught a glimpse of the foursome still hoping to sneak up on Connor from even farther to the west.
There was other movement, too, beside the staging area warehouse’s south wall. Shadowy figures—David and his demolition team—had come out of the drainage tunnel and were busily setting their explosives in preparation for the squad’s breach. From what Blair could see, it looked like Connor had decided to bring the whole wall down, and Blair made a mental note to try to get back in time for the show.
Massive explosions were always entertaining to watch, especially explosions involving Skynet property.
For another moment she held her course, studying the area. So far, the only T-600s that Skynet had sent against the Moldavia had been that first wave plus some reinforcements from the area around it, followed by the groups of six and four from the warehouse.
But that couldn’t be all of the T-600s that Skynet had in the area. Were the rest of them still on border patrol?
Blair hoped so. As long as Skynet held to the assumption that it could contain the area, Connor’s team would be able to take out the machines in twos and fours and sixes instead of having to face all of them at once in a single massed attack.
Of course, once Skynet realized its staging area had been breached, its strategy would undoubtedly change. And quickly.
Giving the area around the warehouse one final check, she swung back around the block, clearing the broken structures around the Moldavia and coming in along the service alley that ran behind the building.
And as she came within sight of the building’s rear, she felt her jaw drop in stunned disbelief.
Skynet’s reserve of Terminators weren’t standing idly by along the neighborhood’s borders, trying to keep everyone inside the kill zone. They were right here—twenty of them at least—single-mindedly pounding at the building’s back wall and ventilation structures, breaking their way inside.
“Hickabick,” she called tautly into her mike. “Double lobster at hole nine. Repeat: double lobster at hole nine.
“And they’re going in.”
“Oh, hell,” Tony Tantillo said.
“And then some,” Connor agreed grimly. A double lobster—ten to twenty T-600s—about to breach the Moldavia. And from the tone of Blair’s voice, he guessed the number was probably closer to twenty than ten. Skynet was throwing an incredible number of resources at the beleaguered building.
“Hickabick, are there any tee times still available?” he called into his mike.
There was a brief silence.
“Yes, but I was hoping to save the last one of the day for Curly,” she replied.
Connor’s eyes flicked toward the south. The last HK had fled several minutes ago and was nowhere in sight, but it would be back the minute Blair ran out of ammo. She couldn’t afford to be caught in that position. Neither could Connor and the breach teams, for that matter.
But the option was for them all to sit back and do nothing, and let Orozco and his people die.
“Tee time at hole nine,” he ordered. “Bring the whole set of clubs.”
“Check,” Blair said.
And with that, the die was cast.
“Barnes?” Connor called.
“I heard,” Barnes said. “Soon as we’re finished here, we’ll see about giving them some support.”
Connor frowned. Getting into the building from Barnes’ position would mean crossing a street that he’d thought Skynet was holding. Had the Terminators abandoned their positions there?
“What about Gulliver?”
“No change,” Kate’s voice put in.
“Yeah, but they gotta be running low on ammo,” Barnes said. “Don’t worry, we’ll make it.”
“Not until Gulliver’s neutralized,” Connor told him firmly. “There’s still that group at green eight, and I don’t want you running through a crossfire. As soon as we’re finished here, we’ll deal with it.”
Barnes muttered something.
“Make it snappy,” he said.
“Here they come,” Joey Tantillo murmured.
