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

Minji said, and she looked up at me with eyes glassy from being near tears.

“It’s okay,” I told her softly. “We’ll get it back.”

“I’m sorry,” she sniffled, and she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I mean, I knew… I figured they’d taken it over, but just to see it declared so officially.”

“It’s sad,” Paige agreed. “But it’s good we found these.”

“It is.” I nodded. “What else do they say?”

“Right,” Minji said, and she took a deep breath and went to continue reading.

“Wait,” Paige said suddenly. “Should we call the girls down here? Don’t you think they should hear this?”

“You’re right,” I told her, and I grabbed my walkie from my waist and held it up to my mouth. “Anna, come in.”

“Anna’s still sick,” Bailey answered after a few seconds. “I don’t think she can talk.”

“Alright,” I said. “Grab her and Tara and meet us down in the hold.”

“Is everything okay?” Bailey asked.

“It’s fine,” I assured her. “There’s just something I want you to hear.”

“We’ll be right there,” the sniper promised. “Do I have to say over and out?”

“That’s okay,” I chuckled. “Just get down here.”

“Okay,” the blonde replied.

“I really appreciate you doing this for us,” I told Minji after I hung my walkie back on my hip.

“It’s my job,” she told me with a soft smile.

“Yeah, but you could have had any job you wanted,” I told her. “And you chose this one. I respect that. And I appreciate that you stayed to help out when a lot of soldiers fled once shit hit the fan. You’re very brave.”

“Oh, I… Thank you,” Minji nodded.

“Of course,” I told her. I’d meant what I said, and I felt like she could use a reminder of why she did this. Having to read those documents wasn’t going to be the easiest thing for her, I knew that, so I thought I’d try to help however I could.

After a few minutes, Tara came down the ladder to where we were at, and Bailey was right behind her.

Once Bailey was down, she stopped to help Anna, who was clearly still seasick.

The redhead breathed through her mouth, and her eyes were heavy as she walked over to us with her arm over Bailey’s shoulder.

“What’s going on?” Tara asked.

“Hammer gave us some documents to look through earlier,” I explained. “Minji translated them, and they have orders that detail the NKs’ plan.”

“Oh, shit,” the platinum-blonde said, and she sat down cross-legged on the floor. “What do they say?”

“Do they detail the whole plan?” Anna asked through labored breaths. “Or just from their current position?”

“We haven’t got that far,” Paige answered. “We wanted to call you all down here before we read any more.”

“Well, let’s get to it, then,” Tara said, and she bounced up and down slightly. “Once we know what these fuckers have planned, then we can totally take them all out super easy.”

“I wouldn’t say super easy,” I chuckled. “We still have to do all the work.”

“Yeah, but knowing what your opponent’s plan is?” Tara asked rhetorically. “That’s gold right there.”

The platinum-blonde wasn’t wrong. The details in these orders would be a huge advantage for us.

“Alright,” I said, and I turned to Minji. “Let’s hear it.”

“Like I said before,” the Korean woman started. “It says they’ve secured the west coast, as well as the plains.”

“Jesus,” Anna breathed, and her eyes were wide when they caught mine.

I smiled softly at the redhead, then I nodded to Minji to keep going. It was difficult to hear, I knew. The United States was the most powerful country in the world, and to think the majority of it had been taken over, that was unimaginable. But, we needed to hear it.

“It appears that’s where most of the troops were,” Minji said, and her eyes narrowed as she scanned the document. “They must have invaded from the west and planned to move east, but they’ve met resistance.”

“Where at?” Paige asked quickly.

“It says at the Appalachian Foothills north of Atlanta,” Minji read, then she looked up at me. “Aren’t Rangers trained in Georgia?”

“They are.” I nodded.

“If the majority of the troops came from the west, then the guys we took out here and the ones in Boston must be reinforcements, yeah?” Anna asked as she took a seat on the floor next to Tara.

“It refers to them as expeditionary forces,” Minji said.

“What does that mean?” Tara asked.

“It can mean a lot of different things,” I explained. “But it’s always a group sent to accomplish a specific task on foreign soil.”

“So what was their task?” Bailey asked.

“They were probably sent to take out as much of the eastern shore as they could,” I said. “That way they could surround the American troops in Georgia.”

“You thought they’d met resistance down south somewhere,” Bailey said. “You were right.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. I didn’t want to be right, but at least we had confirmation of where our boys were.

“What else does it say?” Tara asked.

“Oh, here,” Minji said, and she pointed to the paper even though nobody else could read it. “It says the expeditionary forces were to take Washington D.C., then make their way down to Georgia to assist with the attack on the American resistance.”

“That means these orders are at least fairly recent, right?” Anna asked. “So, the American resistance still has to be there, right?”

“The Boston troops were moving out.” Paige nodded. “I’d say the orders still stand.”

“Which means we have to take out the Boston troops as soon as we get the chance,” I said. “Then we need to make our way to Atlanta. That’s where the real war is.”

“If we can get all these plasma weapons to the American troops already there, I bet