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

Those two were in charge of setting up the howitzer at the Navy Supply Center, and I wanted to make sure they hadn’t come across any issues.

“I’ve mostly been focused on everything going on here,” Johnny said.

“Of course,” I told him. “I’ll get in touch with them. Thanks.”

“Let me know if you need anything else,” Johnny told me.

“Sounds good,” I called as I hopped back in the jeep.

“Where are we going?” Anna asked as she climbed in the passenger’s side.

“We still need to blow the bridge,” Paige reminded me.

“I know.” I nodded. “We’re going to do that now, then we’ll check on Jeff and Ben and see how the howitzer setup is going.”

“I hope using the plasma fluid works,” Paige said, and she bit her lip.

“I don’t think it working is going to be the issue,” Anna said. “If anything, I’m afraid it will work too well.”

“You’re right,” the brunette agreed. “We’ll need to be extra careful with how much of the liquid we use.”

“It’ll be a good test of the cover everyone’s made,” Anna chuckled.

“That’s for sure,” Tara laughed. “Speaking of which, where are we going to be when we blow this puppy up? I am carrying life after all, and Anna and Paige aren’t exactly making me feel confident about this.”

“You’ll be alright,” I assured her. “I won’t let anything happen to you. We’ll be behind the jeep.”

“Alright,” the platinum-blonde agreed.

“Why don’t you stay here,” I told her. “Actually, all you girls can stay here. I’ll drop the fluid myself.”

“Are you sure you don’t want help?” Paige asked.

“It’ll go faster with more people,” Anna pointed out.

“You’re right,” I told the redhead. “You come with me. Bailey, Tara, Paige, get everyone ready for the explosion.”

“Alright.” Paige nodded.

I parked the jeep, then Anna and I walked over to the bridge and looked around.

“So, how are we doing this?” the redhead asked.

“Let’s start from the other side,” I said. “That way we won’t have to walk over any of the fluid on the way back.”

“Good idea,” she said as we started walking. “You and Paige were thinking about ten feet apart, right?”

“Right.” I nodded. “This is two lanes, so I think if you stay on one side, and I stay on the other, and we each put one drop every ten feet, that should be more than enough.”

“By more than enough, you mean…?” Anna raised an eyebrow at me.

“I think it will get the job done without blowing everyone to smithereens,” I chuckled. “Good enough?”

“Good enough.” She grinned.

We reached the far side of the bridge, and we each pulled out the pods from our plasma weapons, and l used my tanto blade to poke a small hole in the rubber piece at the end. I made sure to make the hole just barely large enough for a drop of liquid to get through, and once I made the hole, I tilted the small pods to test them out. A single drop escaped them after a second, so I figured that was good enough to get the job done. We didn’t want the liquid to come out too quickly since we needed such a small amount.

Anna walked over to the right side while I took the left, then we started to walk back down the bridge toward the small peninsula we were setting up as our attack point.

“So, what are the odds that Tara’s dad actually does run the military?” Anna asked with a playful smile as we walked.

We took careful steps and stopped at the same time to tilt the pod and allow a single drop to fall out onto the pavement. It was a tedious task, and I was grateful the redhead had decided to make it a little easier with her casual attitude.

“Pretty good, I’d say,” I laughed.

“Right?” Anna chuckled. “He definitely doesn’t fix phone lines, that’s for sure.”

“She seems incredibly confident that she’ll find him at some point,” I said with a small smile. “And part of me hopes she does.”

“Even though his first impression of you will be as the guy who knocked up his daughter?” Anna asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Even still,” I laughed. “If it will make Tara happy, then I’m willing to be the bad guy.”

“I don’t think you’d be the bad guy,” Anna said, and she looked down and shook her head. “Tara was right, I’m sure her dad will love you. I’m pretty sure anybody’s dad would love you.”

“Would yours?” I asked. This seemed to be a subject Anna had thought about, and I was curious about the conclusions she’d drawn.

“For sure.” The redhead smiled. “My dad was a pretty determined guy, I think he’d appreciate that about you.”

“Well, I hope I get to meet him one day, too,” I told her.

“Me, too,” Anna replied, and she stopped when I did to drop another dot of plasma fluid on the asphalt.

It didn’t take too much longer for us to reach the other side of the bridge, and once we were back on solid ground, we replaced the pods into our plasma guns and walked back over to the jeep.

The bustling group who’d been there when we arrived was gone, now everybody was hidden behind the sandbag covers in preparation for the blowing of the bridge.

“Alright,” I said as Anna and I met Tara, Paige, and Bailey on the far side of the jeep. “Is everyone ready?”

“All the civilians are behind cover,” Paige informed me.

“Right.” I nodded. “You guys might want to get down as well. This blast could shake the ground a little bit, and I don’t want anybody falling.”

Paige nodded, and the girls all crouched down onto the ground and situated themselves behind the jeep.

I grabbed my