“Yes, you’re very clever,” Grimaldi said. “So again: now what?”
“We take those who’ve decided to go with us and we leave.” Kate looked around the group.
“Anyone else?” she called.
The lobby remained silent.
“Looks like you’ve already got all the rash fools we had,” Grimaldi said bitterly. “So get out.”
He raised his voice. “And all the rest of you can get back to your jobs. The circus is over.”
A few of the residents glanced uncertainly at each other.
“You heard me,” Grimaldi snapped. “Back to your jobs. We work together, or we die together.”
Still silently, the crowd began to disperse. A minute later only Orozco, Grimaldi and his men, and the Resistance team and their four new recruits remained in the lobby.
Grimaldi’s eyes had never left Kate Connor since the residents began their exit, Orozco noted, and he could tell there was considerably more that the chief wanted to say. But as the last of his people disappeared down the hallways and up the staircase, he merely gave Kate a curt nod and strode off across the lobby toward his office. His men followed, trailing after him like sullen sheep.
“Keep an eye on the doors and staircases,” Barnes ordered as Tunney set aside the confiscated weapons and he and the others started collecting their own from the cache by the door.
“What about you, Sergeant?” Kate added.
Orozco frowned at her.
“What about me?”
“Are you coming with us?”
Orozco felt his lip twist.
“Is this standard Resistance procedure, Ms. Connor?” he asked. “You come into an area a few days ahead of the Terminators, and glean out all the best and the brightest?”
The lines in Kate’s face seemed to deepen.
“Would you rather we stayed away and let everyone die?” she countered.
“That depends,” Orozco said.
“On…?”
“On whether or not Chief Grimaldi’s right,” Orozco said bluntly. “On whether or not you’re the flame that draws the damn Terminator moths in the first place.”
Kate shook her head.
“You know better than that,” she said. “Skynet’s purpose is to destroy humanity. All of humanity. Yes, it keeps track of our activities, but hardly to the point of sending Terminators trailing along behind us to punish the locals for talking with us.”
Orozco felt his stomach tighten.
“I suppose not,” he conceded.
“I understand how you feel, though,” Kate added. “It would be easier to be able to blame someone for what was happening. If you could see some kind of direct cause-and-effect at work.
But that’s not how things are. Skynet’s not so much an opponent as it is a force of nature.”
“Like a hurricane,” Orozco said. “You don’t try to reason with a hurricane. You try to figure out where it’s going, and get out of its way.”
“Exactly,” Kate said, a sudden fierce edge to her voice. “Except that unlike a hurricane, Skynet can be defeated. And it will be, if enough people are willing to take a stand against it.”
“Which gets back to her question,” Barnes said. “You coming with us?”
For a long moment Orozco was tempted. Very tempted.
Grimaldi and his friends didn’t really appreciate all the work he had put into making the Ashes as safe as it was.
Nor did they have any understanding of the true situation they were in. In fact, they seemed to almost pride themselves on their ignorance of the danger Skynet posed. There would definitely be poetic justice in letting them find out the hard way.
But Grimaldi didn’t speak for everyone in the Ashes. And the rest of the people didn’t deserve to die just because the chief had a double helping of boneheadedness.
“You know I can’t do that,” he said.
“I suppose not,” Kate agreed, her voice heavy with regret. “But we needed to ask.”
She nodded at him, then gestured the others toward the archway.
“How soon?” Orozco asked.
Kate paused mid-turn. “We think you’ve got until tomorrow night,” she said.
Less than two days. “Any suggestions?” Orozco asked, forcing his voice to stay calm.
“Explosives are always a good place to start,” Tunney said. “T-600s have electromagnetic cores built into strategic joints so that they can reassemble themselves if you blow off their arms or legs.
Blow them far enough off, though, and that trick won’t work anymore.”
“Do you have access to explosives?” Kate asked. “We might be able to spare you some.”
“I have some,” Orozco assured her. “And the makings for quite a few more.”
“Good,” Tunney said, glancing around the lobby. “You could also consider rigging a few booby-traps. There’s a lot of heavy stonework in here, especially this archway and the stone facing above it. Collapse a wall on a Terminator, and even if you don’t destroy it you’ll put it out of action for awhile.”
“Of course, blowing up walls could also bring the whole building down on top of us,” Orozco pointed out.
“There is that,” Tunney conceded. “I notice you also have a fair number of guns, which is good.
How many of them are large caliber—9mm, .45, or bigger?”
“A fair number,” Orozco said. “Unfortunately, a lot of our armament is smaller than that.”
“Those won’t do much against Terminators,” Kate said grimly.
“But if you can get in enough head shots with the larger rounds, the T-600s will usually go down,” Tunney said. “You can also go for the joints—if you can cripple them, they aren’t as much trouble.” He pursed his lips. “Of course, if Skynet throws in more than a couple of HKs, life will get trickier.”
“Your other choice is to run,” Kate said. “Collect everyone you can, collect everything you can, and get out.”
“And go where?” Orozco countered. “Is there any place that’s safe from Skynet?”
Kate’s lip twitched.
“No,” she admitted.
“Then there’s not much point in running, is there?” Orozco said.
Barnes snorted contemptuously.
“Or you could just roll over and die,” he growled. “Guess that’s up to you.”
“I wish it was up to me,” Orozco said ruefully. “Unfortunately, it isn’t.”
From behind him came the sound of an opening door, and he turned to see Grimaldi’s men filing out of the chief’s office. Apparently the skull session—or chewing out—was over. A couple of the men glowered at Orozco and Kate as they all headed together across the lobby and into the hallway that ran along the north side of the building.
“Excuse me a moment,” Orozco said, and he headed after them.
Halfway across the lobby, as he circled the old fountain, he glanced back over his shoulder to discover that Kate and her people had quietly disappeared.
He caught up with the nearest of the men, Wadleigh, halfway down the hallway.
“What are you doing?” Orozco asked him.
“What do you think?” Wadleigh retorted. “We’re going to find Connor’s back door and plug it.”
“Go ahead and find it,” Orozco said. “But don’t plug it. Not yet.”
Wadleigh snorted. “Sorry, Orozco, but the chief gave orders.” He turned away.
Orozco caught his arm and turned him back around.
“Find the door,” he repeated, enunciating each word carefully and distinctly, “but don’t plug it.
Put a bar across it if you want, or pile a few bricks on it that can be quickly removed. But don’t plug it.”
Wadleigh started to speak, took another look at Orozco’s face, and nodded silently. Orozco held his arm another moment, then released it. Wadleigh turned and continued down the hallway, hurrying but trying not to look like it.