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

“That’s it?” Johnny asked. “It seems like anybody could work this thing.”

“They could.” I nodded. “But I need people who won’t fail under pressure, the firing of this is going to be the catalyst that starts the entire fight.”

“Right,” James, the dark-skinned man with dreadlocks, said with a nod. “We have to take out the MiGs before anything else. Otherwise, we’re toast.”

“Right,” I agreed.

“And not the good kind, am I right,” Paige laughed, then she looked around, but nobody else was laughing. “Oops. My bad.”

The brunette looked down, and she flushed slightly with embarrassment over her poorly-timed joke, but I couldn’t help but crack a small smile in response.

“Alright,” I continued. “I already went over this with Jeff and Ben since they’re working the howitzer, but like I already said, nobody else can fire until you do.”

“Unless there’s no MiG in the air,” Johnny said.

“That’s right,” I agreed. “I doubt that will happen, but that’s technically right.”

“What else?” James asked.

“You can’t fire until after all of the NK troops cross the first bridge,” I explained. “Otherwise the ones who aren’t across will see what’s going on, and they’ll be able to escape far more easily.”

“Don’t fire until all the troops are across the bridge,” Donna repeated with a nod.

“That’s right,” I agreed.

“How many shells do we have?” Joe asked. “And can we load more than one at a time.”

“Good questions,” I told him. I knew there was a reason I’d picked Joe for this job. “You absolutely can load more than one at a time. And we have a buncha shells for this girl.”

“That should be more than enough, right?” James asked. “You said they only have three MiGs left?”

“That’s right,” I agreed. “But you also need to remember that you’re going up against skilled pilots, so they could outmaneuver you once they realize they’re under fire. The weapon will do most of the work for you, but you need to time your shots well.”

“We got this.” Donna nodded, and her eyes narrowed slightly with determination.

“We can’t let the MiGs get too close to us, either,” I reminded them.

“I don’t think any of us wants that,” Johnny laughed, then his face grew more serious as he looked at me. “Thank you for giving us this task. We won’t let you down.”

“Yeah,” Donna agreed. “We know you and the girls need to be on the front lines calling the shots. We’ll handle this, don’t worry.”

“I appreciate that.” I smiled at the dark-haired woman. “I have confidence in you all.”

“Alright,” Paige said. “Let me show you how to load this thing now.”

I nodded to Paige, then I headed over to where the other girls were. The brunette was more than capable of showing the civilians how to load the weapon, and I wanted to make sure everything else was going smoothly.

As I walked across the open area toward Anna, Tara, and Bailey, I looked up at the sun. It had moved a few inches in the sky, and I held up my palm. There was about a hand and a half left until the sun disappeared behind the horizon and night hit, which was approximately an hour and a half.

That wasn’t much time at all in the grand scheme of things, but then I thought about all we’d managed to accomplish since we’d got that call this morning.

The girls and I had retrieved an ancient, but working, M51 skysweeper from the Norfolk Air Force Base, we’d blown up one small section of bridge, plus an entire section of interstate. On top of that, the civilians had put together plenty of cover for us, the howitzer was set up and ready to go, and we had the ship in the water waiting to take action.

All in all, I didn’t think it was a bad effort for the amount of time we’d had to put it together. Usually the girls and I would spend a few days on a plan like this, doing reconnaissance of the area, perfectly planning out every detail, and probably building our own cover. We barely had time to plan out the attack for today, let alone execute it, but somehow we’d managed.

I had to attribute at least part of that to my team and Hammer’s SEALs. This was a large group to get to work together so well on such short notice, but they’d all been skilled and confident enough to be able to pull off their part of the plan without extremely detailed instructions. We’d given them the general task of setting up cover and getting the howitzer ready to go, and they’d managed to do both.

I was always proud of my team, but today made me feel even more pride in them and what they’d accomplished.

“How’s things going over here?” I asked as I walked up to the girls.

“The cover all seems well-done,” Anna told me.

“And I found a place for my Barrett,” Bailey said, and she pointed about twenty feet away where another cover was set up. From where I stood, I could just barely see the butt end of her .50 cal weapon sticking out from behind the sandbags.

“Good.” I nodded. “It seems like everything’s on track.”

Even as I said the words, I realized something was missing. Hammer should be back by now, yet I hadn’t heard from him.

“What’s wrong?” Anna asked when she noticed my face change.

“I just realized we haven’t heard from Hammer in a little while,” I said.

“Oh, yeah.” Bailey frowned. “He should be back by now, right?”

“I would think so.” I nodded and grabbed the walkie from my hip. “Hammer, come in.”

The girls all looked at me seriously as we waited for the SEAL to respond.

A moment went by, and it was just radio silence.

“That doesn’t seem good,” Anna