Trial By Fire

die.”

And then, with the chopper nearly to firing position, Barnes suddenly had the answer.

Maybe. Maybe the whole thing was complete insanity that would do nothing but get them killed a little faster.

But it was all he had.

“Here,” he said, shoving the G11 into Preston’s hands. Taking a deep breath, he left his partial concealment and stepped directly in front of the burning arrow.

And standing straight and tall, he threw his arms out to both sides.

“You want to stop me?” he murmured toward the sky, the way he’d snarled at Blair last night from outside the chopper. “Shoot me.”

And as Halverson swung the M240 onto his target, the vague figure down there stepped directly into the light and threw his arms out to both sides.

And suddenly that image, and the accompanying words, flashed up from Blair’s memory.

You want to stop me? Shoot me.

“Stop!” she snapped at Halverson, twitching the Blackhawk’s nose to throw off his aim. “Don’t shoot!”

“What are you doing?” Halverson snarled. “That’s Jik.”

“That’s Barnes and Preston,” Blair snarled back, resettling the helo’s nose and looking past Hope out the starboard door. The flaming arrow had come from somewhere over there...

And there he was. Another figure, standing beside a tree.

Waiting to enjoy the show as Blair cut down her own people.

“That’s Jik, over there,” she called back to Halverson. “Hang on—I’ll bring the helo around.”

But she didn’t. There was no need. Even before the words were completely out of her mouth, the starboard M240 unexpectedly roared to life, sending a long, violent stream of machinegun fire down at the shadowy figure below. Even as Blair caught her breath she saw the body jerk and spasm, then duck behind a tree and stumble out the other side. Another long burst of fire, and it crumpled to the ground.

The roar of the machinegun ended, and Blair raised her eyes from the motionless Theta to the girl hunched over the weapon.

And in the dim light she saw the tension lines in Hope’s young face. The grim set to the jaw, and the dark unyielding resolve in her eyes.

Hope Preston was no longer a girl. Not even a girl hardened by a tough forest life.

Hope Preston was a warrior.

And even amid all the death and misery of the post-Judgment Day world, Blair found a distant part of herself mourning the girl’s loss.

And suddenly, the perfect plan fell apart. Without warning, without reason, the sky opened up and began to rain death on him.

“No!” Jik shouted in fury and disbelief. He ducked sideways, trying to get to the shelter of the tree beside him. But it was too late. The heavy machinegun rounds had already hammered across his side, shredding skin and bursting blood vessels and shattering bone. His left leg collapsed beneath him, pitching him back out from behind the tree and into range of the guns again. For a moment the fire faltered, and then the stream of killing lead once again opened up full fury.

No! he tried to shout again. But his voice was gone, as was most of his throat. No! You can’t do this! I’m John Connor! I’m John Connor!

He was still trying vainly to scream that message to the distant traitors when his vision faded into eternal darkness.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“It isn’t often,” Connor said from the middle of the organized tangle of tubes and wires that encircled his bed, “that I get the chance to commend and chew out the same group of people for the same actions.”

Kyle carefully avoided looking at Callahan and Zac. With the tension of yesterday’s events behind them, and with a little catch-up on food and sleep, he could see things more clearly.

Clearly enough to see that Connor was right. On both counts.

“Let’s start with the chewing out,” Connor went on. “Any of you want to take a stab at that one and save me the trouble?”

Callahan cleared his throat self-consciously.

“We should never have gone down into the tunnel, sir,” he said. “Not without first reporting our find.”

“You shouldn’t all have gone down anyway,” Connor said, a little less severely. “Obviously, I wouldn’t have wanted you to abandon an injured teammate, either. But two of you could have gone down to help Yarrow while the third came back for help.”

“Yes, sir,” Callahan said.

“And not just for your own sakes, either,” Connor added. “If it hadn’t been for Star figuring out that something was wrong and pestering everyone until we pulled a hunting team and chopper back to look for you, we could have lost many more people to those T-700s. Including all of you.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Kyle saw Callahan wince.

“Yes, sir,” he said in a low voice. “We understand.”

“Actually, I don’t think you do,” Connor said, his voice still stern. “You have no idea what you wandered into down there. In fact, we’re still figuring it out. The search teams have already found one hangar-sized chamber at the far end of the tunnel, and they think there may be more.”

“Something that big survived the explosion?” Zac asked incredulously.

“Yes, and I suspect it was deliberately designed to do so,” Connor said. “Skynet had an impressive array of repair and refurbishment equipment down there, plus weapons, ammunition, and explosives. And, just for good measure, we also found the radio jammer that’s been making such a mess of our local communications.”

“And Terminators,” Kyle murmured.

“A lot of Terminators,” Connor confirmed grimly. “We’ve destroyed at least a hundred T-600s and T-700s already. And as I said, we haven’t even finished going through the whole place yet.”

“And you said it was designed to survive the attack?” Callahan asked.

“So it would seem,” Connor said. “Some kind of contingency redoubt, set up on the chance that the Resistance ever managed to launch a successful attack.” He gestured in the direction of the tunnel. “Interestingly enough, we nearly set up camp three kilometers that way, which would have put us almost directly above the main chamber. Luckily for us, we decided we liked this spot better.”

Kyle shuddered. All that equipment, all those weapons, all those Terminators... and once again Skynet had chosen to turn those resources directly against John Connor.

“That’s the other lesson you should take away from this,” Connor continued. “One of the two things in this world that you can depend on is Skynet’s single-minded determination. Short-term and long-term both.”

He gestured toward the three of them; and as he did so, the sternness faded from his face.

“Which brings me to the commendation part of this meeting,” he said. “I could give you a long speech about your bravery and resourcefulness, and what your own determination did for me and everyone else in the group. But since you already know those details, it would be pretty much a waste of time. So instead, I’ll just say thank you. And well done.”

Kyle swallowed hard, his last memory of Yarrow hovering in front of his eyes. He’d given his life for the others, just as Marcus Wright had died saving Kyle and Connor and all of Skynet’s other prisoners.

Kyle had nearly had to make that same sacrifice. Someday, he knew, he would have to do it for real. He could only hope he would meet his death as bravely as they had.

“Thank you, sir,” Callahan said for all of them “We’re glad we could be of service.”

“As I’m sure you’ll continue to be,” Connor said, eyeing each of them in turn. It seemed to Kyle that his gaze lingered a bit longer on him than on the other two, but that might have been his imagination. “And to that end,