Reaching to a tray behind him, John pulled out a map and spread it out on the narrow table beside the radio.
“Show us where it is,” he said.
Blair stepped over and studied the faded paper as the others got up and gathered around her and John.
“The buildings where I dropped the HK are here,” she said slowly, pointing at a spot on the map.
“So the warehouse is… here.”
“Mm,” John murmured. “What do we know about that area?”
“Not much,” David said. “I don’t think there are any organized Resistance cells anywhere nearby.”
“Except us,” Kate said in a low voice.
“And we’re not all that close,” Tunney noted, leaning over the map. “There could be quite a group of civilians there, though. Looks like there were at least two major strip malls with grocery stores in the area, plus I think this thing here on the edge of the neighborhood was a warehouse outlet store.”
“Lots of packaged food and other supplies, in other words,” David added.
“In theory, anyway,” Tunney agreed. “If enough of it survived Judgment Day, there could be, oh, anywhere from 400 to maybe even a thousand people living in the sixteen blocks around Skynet’s new staging area.”
Kate winced. Up to a thousand people, all of them struggling day in and day out, fighting hard just to survive.
And Skynet was going to send in its HKs and T-600 Terminators and simply wipe them all out.
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 or the missile.”
“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 do destroy it?” she asked.
“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 when the attack will happen,” Tunney pointed out.
“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 want you,” John said wryly. “Whether I get to have you or not will depend on how fast Wince can get your planes put back together.”
“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.