Terminator Salvation: Trial by Fire (33 page)

“Barnes,” Preston said, the name a sigh of resignation.

Barnes squeezed his hand around the grip of the G11. The chopper was nearly to firing position now. Five more seconds, maybe six, and they would be dead.

He had exactly that long to come up with some way to stop Williams. Any way that he could.

“Almost there,” Halverson called tensely. “Come on, come on.”

“Easy,” Blair said, frowning out the side door as the Blackhawk continued to turn back toward firing position. She could see the figure down there now, just visible in the flickering light from Preston’s fire arrow. He was standing still, possibly hoping the hunters wouldn’t spot him. There was a flicker of movement a meter to his side—

“Hold it,” Blair said, leaning toward the door. Was that a second figure hunkered down in the bushes? “I see someone else.”

“Oh,
damn
,” Halverson snarled. “I
knew
it. He got one of the T-700s working. Come on, come
on
—we’re almost there.”

Blair bit hard at her lip. Yes, that could indeed be a T-700 down there. It could also be a T-600, or even another Theta they hadn’t yet accounted for.

It could also be a human being.

But it
had
to have been Preston who had fired that arrow. Preston had a bow, and there was no reason she could think of why Jik would have bothered to pick one up.

And if that was Jik down there, he had every reason to position his reconstructed T-700 under just enough cover to masquerade as another person in hopes of throwing Blair off track.

She huffed out a breath. It wasn’t perfect, but it made more sense than any other theory.

And until and unless she got some solid reason to think otherwise, she would just have to go with it.

* * *

“We’re going to die, aren’t we?” Preston murmured. “They’re going to shoot us down, and we’re going to 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.

“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, effective immediately, the three of you are being transferred to Barnes’s shock force. You’ll be trained as a fireteam, with the goal of eventually being integrated into Echo platoon.”

Kyle felt his eyes widen. A
fireteam
assignment? Already?

“I—yes, sir,” Callahan said, sounding as surprised as Kyle felt. “But I thought...” He stopped.

“You thought there was a longer evaluation period,” Connor finished for him. “Normally, there is. But yesterday the three of you went through the fire together. Some people don’t survive that kind of challenge. Those who do come out stronger.”

Connor gestured toward them. “I said a minute ago that Skynet’s determination was one of the two things you could count on in this world. The other is the courage and trustworthiness of your teammates. You’ve already become that kind of team. All we’re going to do is make it better.”

“Thank you, sir,” Callahan said. “We won’t let you down.”

“I know you won’t.” Connor smiled. “Now, go get some more rest. Barnes could be back at any time. And as I’m sure Reese will tell you, he can be a
very
demanding man to work for.”

It had been a long day, with a short and tense night before it, and by the time Blair finally woke up she found she’d slept for nearly nine hours.

Barnes hadn’t slept as long, she discovered as she emerged from Preston’s house. Neither, apparently, had anyone else in town. Aside from Preston and Hope, the rest of Baker’s Hollow had already gathered their most vital belongings and disappeared, melting into the woods, heading God only knew where as quickly as they could.

Preston and Hope had stayed behind to say good-bye. So, to Blair’s surprise, had Halverson.

And as they all said their farewells, Blair noted the subtle but real change had taken place in the three of them and their relationships.

Preston had gained an edge of quiet steel, his leadership no longer based solely on compromise and cooperation but now with a dose of confidence and gut-level belief in himself and his decisions. Halverson, in contrast, had toned down some of his brashness, with perhaps a grudging new respect for Preston.

And both men were just a little bit afraid of Hope.

The walk back to the Blackhawk was very quiet. Barnes never said a word along the way, and for her part Blair was still too tired and drained to feel like talking.

Certainly not with a man who still hated her.

They were in the air, heading over the mountains toward San Francisco, when Barnes finally spoke.

“You figure they blame us for what happened?” he asked.

Blair nodded. “Probably.”

“Yeah,” Barnes said. “‘Course, there wouldn’t be anyone left to do any blaming if we hadn’t showed up. Sooner or later, Jik and the others would have killed them.”

“I know,” Blair said. “I think Preston and the others do too, down deep.”

“Maybe.”

For a moment Barnes was silent.

“You made a fool of me, you know.”

Blair frowned at the sudden change of subject. “What?”

“Back at the camp, before the San Francisco attack,” he said. “When you gave me that phony order from Connor so that you could help Wright escape.”

“That wasn’t my intention,” Blair replied carefully. Even to her own ears it sounded pretty weak.

It obviously did to Barnes, too.

“Doesn’t matter whether you meant it or not,” he said. “You still made me look like a fool.” He paused again. “But you were right.”

Blair threw a frown at him.

“About what?”

“Wright,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about it, and about the Thetas here. Valentine didn’t want to do what Skynet wanted, but she still did it. Oxley seemed to really like the power he had. Jik—I don’t know what the hell Jik was thinking.”

“I think he really believed he was John Connor,” Blair said.

“Could be,” Barnes said. “You see what I’m saying. None of them, not even Valentine, could break the programming. Not without an arrow in the back of the head.”

“They couldn’t break from Skynet,” Blair murmured as she saw where Barnes was going with this. “But Marcus did.”

“Marcus did,” Barnes acknowledged. “He broke his programming, saved Connor’s life, and helped us get all those prisoners out so we could blow the place.”

“Yes, he did all that,” Blair said, a fresh lump forming in her throat. “But that was all him. What did you mean that I was right?”

Barnes snorted. “You were right about
him
,” he growled. “You saw something—damned if I know what—that told you he could be trusted. If you hadn’t seen that and done something about it—” He shook his head. “I don’t know how it would have turned out. But probably a hell of a lot worse.”