Terminator Salvation: From the Ashes by Timothy Zahn Page A

asked, putting the group’s new sense of determination into words.
    “Right now, the plan is for everyone to get some sleep,” John said. “Almost everyone, anyway.
    David and Tunney will organize sentry duty, and then the seniors and I will sit down for a strategy meeting.” His eyes swept the room one final time. “You behaved superbly tonight, and I want you to know how proud I am of every one of you. Go get some sleep, and by the time you wake up we should have a plan that’ll make the other local Resistance groups, Command, and Skynet sit up and take notice.”
    David did a half turn to face the group and gave a brisk nod.
    “Dismissed,” he said.
    Another low murmur of conversation started as the group began a general movement through the three doorways that led to the bunker’s various sleeping and living areas. As they did so, David and Tunney slipped into the departing crowd, each picking two soldiers and sending them off to the appointed sentry posts.
    Two minutes later, the only ones left in the room were John, Kate, Barnes, David, Tunney, and Blair.
    “Good pep talk, Connor,” David commented as they rearranged the handful of chairs into a circle. “Though may I suggest that the plan not make Skynet sit up and take too much notice?”
    John’s lip twitched in a half smile, and Kate felt her stomach tighten. If the others only knew how long Skynet had been taking notice of him.
    “We’ll see what we can do,” John said, turning to Blair. “Yoshi did make it through, didn’t he?”
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    “Yes, he’s fine,” Blair said. “He’s at the hangar helping Wince check out the Hogs.” Her nose wrinkled. “Afraid I took a little more damage than I’d hoped to.”
    “The important thing is that you got back alive,” John reminded her. “Bringing your planes back—in any shape—is an extra bonus.”
    “So what exactly did you have in mind?” Tunney asked.
    “There are a couple of possibilities,” John said. “One obvious target would be the Capistrano radar tower.”
    “Won’t be easy,” David warned. “There’s a reason Skynet built the damn thing so close to NukeZero—there isn’t a single scrap of cover for at least a klick around it. Not even bushes.”
    “Not to mention that the whole area’s still a little hot,” Tunney added.
    “Both excellent reasons why the tower hasn’t yet been taken down, and why Skynet might not expect us to go for it,” John said. “Kate, do we have any actual readings .on the radiation levels down there?”
    “I haven’t had an update since last summer,” she said. “By now, though, I would think that the worst danger would be long-term cancer risks.”
    Barnes snorted. “Like any of us is going to live long enough to worry about that.”
    “You never know,” John said. “Though that still leaves the lack of approach cover. Blair, you’ve flown around that general area. Anything of interest you noticed that someone on the ground might have missed?”
    “Not down there,” Blair said. “But I did notice something tonight that struck me as strange.”
    She described her final aerial battle, and the four darkened HKs that had allowed her to escape rather than join in the battle.
    “Interesting,” John said when she’d finished. “What did the ground around the warehouse look like? Would anyone at street level have been able to see the HKs?”
    Blair’s eyes unfocused a bit as she considered.
    “Not from street level, no,” she said. “Probably not even from the second or maybe even the third floor of anything nearby. There were heaps of rubble— big heaps—surrounding the place.
    More rubble than there should have been, now that I think about it.”
    “As if Skynet deliberately blew up all the nearby buildings so as to block the view?” John suggested.
    Barnes snorted again.
    “Or else they were just sitting there waiting for her to head back so they could follow her.”
    “No one followed me,” Blair insisted, sending a