Without Law 18 by Eric Vall (most difficult books to read .txt) 📗

works,” Paige said. “But I think you’re forgetting that Anna gets sea sick.”

“Oh, shit, that’s right,” Tara chuckled, and she turned to look at Anna. “That’s what you get for making fun of me.”

“You know you’ll probably get sick, too, right?” Anna teased right back.

“Yeah, but at least mine leads to a cute little baby at the end,” Tara said. “Yours just ends with a bad taste in your mouth.”

“Yeah, but you have to wait nine months for that baby,” Anna said with a cocky smile. “So at the end of the day we’ll both only have a bad taste in our mouths, huh?”

“Whatev,” Tara said, and she rolled her eyes. “I hope you puke your brains out. Then you can see what I’m dealing with.”

“Alright, ladies,” I laughed. “No puking your brains out. Now, go get ready to go. We’ll head out in ten.”

“Sounds good,” Anna agreed.

I headed back to the tent with the girls and quickly gathered my weapons and put them in place, then I found the rest of my group and split them up. Half were to come to the ship with me, the other half were to assist Hammer’s men in patrols.

Even though we’d taken out the majority of the enemy forces, and even some of the leftover foot soldiers, I didn’t trust there to not be any more left. Patrols were always necessary, no matter how safe it might seem.

Once everyone had their orders for the day, I headed over to the jeeps to get them ready. I refueled each of them, and I even added some fuel to the preppers’ truck. They’d insisted on driving it here, and it had made the journey, which almost surprised me. The thing was ancient, but in a post EMP world, I supposed ancient was better than brand new.

It wasn’t long before the girls met me over by the jeeps, and they looked beautiful as always.

Anna’s red hair was pulled back into a ponytail, she had on a pair of dark-green athletic pants, black sneakers, and a black jogging hoodie.

Paige wore dark-blue skinny jeans, hiking boots, and a tight-fitting zip up sweatshirt that showed off her perfect figure. Her long brown hair was down around her shoulders, and it hung down her back in a cascade of chestnut waves, but I saw a hair tie on her wrist, so I knew that wouldn’t last too long.

Bailey had on a pair of dark-green cargo pants, her green Chuck Taylors, a black hoodie, and her gray beanie. Her shoulder-length blonde hair poked out the sides of her hat and framed her face in the most adorable way.

And last, but not least, was Tara, who wore a pair of tight-fitting jeans, hiking boots, and a gray tank top that showed off her cleavage, with a dark-green zip up hoodie overtop of it. The piece de resistance, though, was a genuine Naval Captain hat that sat atop her pretty platinum-blonde head.

“Where did you get that?” I laughed and reached out to touch the black bill of the hat.

“I borrowed it from the Captain,” Tara replied with a grin, and she turned to the right, then left, and struck a pose. “You like it?”

“You went all the way inside and found the Captain just so you could ask to borrow his hat?” I asked with an amused smile.

“You act like you’re surprised,” she said as she adjusted the hat. “I wanted the whole experience, you know.”

“I don’t know if it’s a pregnancy thing, or if you were this weird before,” Anna chuckled and rolled her eyes.

“Definitely weird before,” Paige snickered.

“You guys are just jealous because I’m the only one with the hat,” Tara sniffed.

“Yup, that’s it,” Anna said with mock seriousness. “You hit the nail on the head.”

“It looks good,” I said with a smile. “Now, are we all ready?”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Tara said, and she held up two fingers in a salute.

“You know you have on the Captain’s hat, right?” Paige asked.

“Whatev.” Tara rolled her eyes and opened the door to the jeep. “Now I’m not going to let any of you wear it while you take your turn driving.”

“I think you steer a ship, not drive it,” Paige said, and she pursed her lips in thought.

“You steer a car while you’re driving it, don’t you?” Tara asked pointedly.

“Get in the car,” I laughed and shook my head.

The sun was high in the sky as our small convoy made its way over to the water. We parked the jeeps and took turns using the inflatable rafts to get out to the ship.

Once everyone was on board I met Hammer and Minji in the command center so we could get started. There were two other SEALs there who I recognized from a couple of days before. They were the ones who’d originally helped Minji navigate the ship to where it was now.

One of them I thought was named Pike. He was tall, with short brown hair, blue eyes, and a mean five o’clock shadow.

The other, I recalled, was Smith. He looked similar to his companion, but his five o’clock shadow was a full blown beard, and his eyes were brown instead of blue.

“Tav, you remember Smith and Pike,” Hammer said with a gesture toward the men.

“Of course.” I nodded. “Let’s get this started.”

“Right,” Pike said, and he flipped a couple of switches on the large dashboard, but then his eyes narrowed in on something, and he turned back to Hammer. “You all took this to the ambush point and back yesterday, right?”

“That’s right.” Hammer nodded. “Why?”

“There’s no fuel missing,” the man said, and he pursed his lips. “By all rights there should be at least a small amount gone.”

“Could it be malfunctioning?” Paige asked.

“I don’t think so.” Pike shook his head.