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

let’s get this thing hooked up and head over to the attack point,” the redhead said.

“How are we going to hook it up?” Tara asked.

“I’m going to have to pull the jeep over here,” I told her. “But we’re still going to have to attach it ourselves.”

“You said these things are pretty heavy, yeah?” Bailey asked, and she bit her lip. “You think we’ll be able to lift it enough to get it hooked on right?”

“We’re going to have to,” I said with a determined nod.

The girls nodded at me, and I headed back over to the jeep and jumped in the driver’s seat.

The tires of the jeep sank into the grass as I drove over to the gazebo and backed up into it. Anna gestured me back further, and just when I thought I couldn’t go any further without hitting the Skysweeper, she held up a hand to stop me.

“Alright,” I said as I hopped out, and I rubbed my hands together and smiled. “Who’s ready for some heavy lifting?”

“Normally, I’d play the pregnancy card here, but there’s some serious shit going on today, so let’s fuckin’ do this,” Tara said, and she leaned down and grabbed hold of the Skysweeper.

“Everybody grab on,” I instructed.

The girls and I gripped onto the triangular pieces of metal that stuck out from the front of the gun, and on my count we lifted. I could hear the girls struggle, and I let out a few grunts myself as we tried to move the damn thing. It was heavier than I had even thought, and after a few seconds I called it.

“Holy shit,” Tara breathed.

“Right,” Anna panted. “What does this thing weigh? Like a million tons?”

“Around ten-thousand pounds, I’d say,” I told her. “So only about four or five tons, but it’s still a lot. Luckily, we have some leverage here so we aren’t having to lift all of that, but it’s still going to be heavy.”

“All we have to do is get the trailer hitch into position, right?” Bailey asked.

Anna had me back up so the jeep tow hitch was as close to the trailer coupler as possible, but we still had to lift the coupler and move it maybe three or four inches so it connected to the pintle mount system. It was an incredibly small distance, but it felt like a thousand miles with how heavy the Skysweeper was.

“That’s it.” I confirmed, and I looked around at the girls. “Are you ready to give it another try?”

We needed to get this thing hooked up as soon as possible. I knew it was a struggle for them, and even for me, but we had to keep pushing since we were so pressed for time. We could take a break once we’d taken out the Boston troops, but until then we had to give it everything we had.

“Let’s do this,” Anna said, and she took a wide stance and bent down to grab hold of the metal once more.

Paige nodded and gripped her section next to mine, and Tara and Bailey each grabbed a section by Anna.

“Alright.” I nodded. “One, two, three!”

I clenched my jaw as I flexed my muscles and pulled up with all the strength I had. I could hear the girls’ ragged breaths and groans as they put all their effort into lifting the ancient anti aircraft weapon.

After a few seconds, I felt something give, and I looked down to see we’d gotten it off the ground.

“Okay, forward!” I called, and the girls and I all yanked the trailer as far forward as we could. We only managed a couple of inches, but I was able to use my strength to guide it to where it needed to be, and once it was in position, the pintle system engaged in place with a loud clank.

“Oh, thank fuck,” Anna breathed, and she wiped some sweat from her brow.

“Hop in,” I told the girls, and I leaned down to check the connection.

Once that was done, I got back in the driver’s seat with the girls and started up the jeep. As I adjusted my rearview mirror so I could see the Skysweeper better, Paige caught my eye and smiled.

I smiled back, put the jeep in drive, and pressed on the gas.

There was a split second where we didn’t move at all, and I felt Anna’s eyes jump over to me.

“Uh, Tav,” the redhead said.

“Hold on,” I muttered, and I pressed harder on the gas.

We lurched forward, and the jeep bounced a little bit as it came down from the concrete floor of the gazebo onto the grass, but the Skysweeper was coming along behind us, and that was all that mattered at the moment.

The gun was ancient, and only one of them worked, but that was enough to get us air superiority against the MiGs, especially if they didn’t see it coming. As long as we could surprise the Boston troops, we’d be able to take them out without too much danger to our group.

I fully expected the NK troops to try and fight back, but the hope was that if they were caught off guard, then they wouldn’t have time to react.

I let out a sigh of relief as I pulled the jeep back into the parking lot of the commissary, then back onto the main drag of the Air Force Base.

There were maybe three and a half hours left until the NK troops arrived, and we still had to blow the bridge near the attack point and make sure everything else was set up.

I knew my crew, and I figured they’d at least managed to get the howitzer set up, but I wasn’t sure what else they might have accomplished in the time it took us to get to the base and get