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

going to play this? When I’d thought about touching bases with the Boston troops, I hadn’t considered that they’d know anything about our situation. Since they sent that MiG, though, we couldn’t lie to them about the ships.

We couldn’t exactly tell the truth, either, but we needed to tell them something, and we needed to do it fast.

“Tell them the other two were taken out by the American resistance,” I said.

“Are you sure?” Minji asked, and a shocked look came over her face.

“I’m sure.” I nodded and glanced to Anna, who nodded back.

The redhead knew my plan already, I was sure of it. She was the most skilled when it came to planning attack or defensive maneuvers.

If we told the Boston troops we were down to one ship, then we could possibly get them to come to us for assistance. If we could manage that, then our plan to funnel them into one area would be off to a good start.

“Tell them the Americans got two of the ships, but we’ve got them cornered in Yorktown,” I added. “Tell them we’re requesting assistance.”

“Okay,” Minji said, and she licked her lips and brought the radio to her mouth.

After Minji spoke, she locked eyes with me as we waited for the reply. The beautiful Korean woman was doing well playing the fake maritime pilot. She kept her voice lowered when she spoke so it sounded more manly, and though I couldn’t understand what she was saying, her inflection seemed serious, which was exactly what we needed in that situation.

As long as the Boston troops came to our aid, we’d be able to funnel them into the right area and take them out. Of course, there was always the chance that they would only send a small group to assist us, or that they’d choose to bypass us altogether.

I doubted they’d do the latter, considering that’d be abandoning their fellow soldiers. However, I wouldn’t put it past them to only send a small group. If that was the case we’d have to take them out and then still try to beat the Boston troops down to Atlanta.

That wasn’t something I wanted to have to do.

We needed the entirety of the Boston troops to come to us, and that meant they’d need to think their fellow soldiers were in serious trouble.

The man on the other end still hadn’t responded, and though it had only been a minute or so, everyone was on edge.

“What’s taking so long?” Tara whispered.

“You know they can’t hear you, right?” Anna asked. “There’s no need to whisper.”

“It just seemed like a whisper situation.” Tara shrugged.

“Is it bad that they haven’t responded?” Bailey asked, and the blonde hippie girl bit her lip hard as she looked at me. “You think they know we’re lying?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t think they know. But I do have an idea.”

“What is it?” Anna asked, but a crackle came over the radio, and Minji listened and responded quickly.

“What did they say?” Paige asked, and she leaned in slightly as she stared at Minji.

“He just said to hold on, he’s talking to the Captain,” Minji explained.

“I guess that makes sense,” Anna said. “This guy’s probably not in charge, he’s just operating the radio.”

“Right.” Paige nodded. “He must need permission from the Captain to actually send out any help.”

“What if they don’t all come?” Bailey asked, and all the girls looked at me.

“Wait, would they do that?” Tara asked.

“Split up?” Anna asked rhetorically. “I don’t see why not. It would make sense for them. Shit, I didn’t even think about that.”

“I did,” I said. “We need to make them think this is urgent, otherwise they might just send a small group to assist us.”

“You mean assist their fake NK friends,” Tara corrected.

“Right.” I nodded.

“What do we do?” Bailey asked.

I thought about it for a moment. If we were going to make this seem urgent, then we needed to prove it, not just say it.

I would have thought that saying the Americans took out two ships would have been enough of a push to get them here quickly, but from the sounds of it, they were still unsure.

“We need to prove that assistance is needed,” I said, and I looked around at the group.

Rivers, Pike, and Hammer each had a plasma weapon on them, but they also had their SEAL issued P226 MK25. The .9mm pistol would be loud enough for my purposes, and I could use all three of them.

The girls all had their plasma weapons on them, and that was all Paige had. Bailey didn’t have her Barrett on her at the moment, but I knew she’d brought it on the ship. She never wanted to be caught unprepared.

Tara carried the H&K Mark 23 I’d found for her in the SEAL’s supply room, and Anna had her M9 under her arm.

“Hammer, Pike, Rivers, Tara, and Anna,” I said. “I need you all to go out on deck.”

“What?” Hammer asked, and his thick eyebrows pulled together. “What do you need us to do?”

“You’re going to shoot your weapons,” I explained. “Unload the whole fucking mag and make it sound good.”

“You want us to dump our mags?” Anna asked with a shake of her head. “Isn’t that a waste of bullets? What’s the idea here?”

“It’s not a waste if it gets us all of the Boston troops,” I said. “We just need it to sound like we’re under fire, then we’ll have Minji radio back in and request assistance again.”

“Oh, shit,” Tara said. “Good idea. Let’s go.”

“Yes, get out there,” I pushed. “I’ll give you the signal to fire.”

“Right.” Hammer nodded, and the group headed out of the command center and down to the deck just below.

They all lined up