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

“And since this is a blitz attack, that will probably be the only one in the air when they get here,” Ben said, and I could practically hear the smile in his voice.

“Right,” I agreed. “I just wanted to give you guys the heads up.”

“Thanks,” Ben said. “We’re ready to blow the bridge once everyone’s across and the plane is down.”

“I look forward to it,” I told him, and I hung the walkie back on my hip.

The familiar sound of one of our jeeps filled my ears then, and I looked down the road to see two of them headed toward us. It was Hammer and the rest of the SEALs, and he pulled in and parked his jeep in the grove of trees near ours.

“Anna,” I said. “Go tell the group with the Skysweeper what we just found out. I’m going to talk to Hammer.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Anna said.

The redhead walked over to where the large weapon was hidden among the trees while I met Hammer near the jeeps.

“That was quick,” I said as I approached the SEAL.

“We weren’t too far away,” he explained. “But I had my radio on silent there for a while, so I didn’t hear the first time you called.”

“I understand,” I told him.

“So, where do you want us?” he asked.

I quickly did a head count of the SEALs. There were fifteen of them altogether.

“Keep five of your men here,” I told him, “and send the rest to the ship. There’s only a few guys over there right now. They could use the backup.”

“Sounds good,” he agreed. “We’ll get into position with your men.”

“Alright.” I nodded.

Hammer divided his men and sent a few of them to the ship while the others stayed on shore with us. The civilians had the sandbag covers all ready to go, and while everyone hunkered down for the attack, I did one final sweep of the area.

I looked up to the sky and saw there was only about an hour left of daylight which meant the NK troops could arrive at any second. I wanted to make sure everything was absolutely perfect.

The first group I checked on was the four people we’d assigned to the M51 Skysweeper. They had the machine loaded and ready to go, and they all seemed ready and confident, so I moved on to the next area. There were six sandbag covers set up, and I inspected each one to make sure they were fully operational.

The sandbags wouldn’t do a whole lot against the plasma weapons the NK troops had, but hopefully they wouldn’t need to. If this blitz attack worked, then the soldiers wouldn’t have enough time to respond with blasts of their own. I figured the howitzer blast would take out quite a few of them when it crumbled the bridge, and the rest of the soldiers would be left to the team surrounding the peninsula.

We’d have the advantage, though, and we could start firing as soon as the howitzer took out the bridge. The soldiers would be totally caught off guard, and even if they were able to find some cover, we’d have them surrounded on all sides.

That was one reason I’d had Hammer send some of his SEALs over to the ship. That way, if the NK soldiers tried to hide on the other side of their vehicles, there would be guys on the boat ready to take them out. I didn’t want these assholes to have anywhere to go.

Sometimes, it felt like I planned out every detail too perfectly, but that was the way it had to be. I had to make sure all my bases were covered. I’d learned that a long time ago when I’d first joined the military. There was no such thing as a fuck up or an accident on the battlefield. There was only life and death.

One wrong move, or a failure to plan ahead, could easily result in a bullet to the skull, or even somewhere less deadly, which only meant death would be a drawn out process instead of a quick one.

Paige was the only medic we had with us, and most of the time she was busy fighting. If someone got injured, there wasn’t anybody to rush to their aid. Even in the battles I’d been in overseas, there was only so much a field medic could do on the spot.

And nowadays, what one could do was even more limited, not only because Paige didn’t have all the knowledge of a trained medic, either, but because we didn’t have access to a helicopter and surgeons if something went really wrong.

Any wound, no matter how small, could be deadly, which meant I couldn’t allow anyone to receive even so much as a scratch. These men and women had chosen to follow me, and I wasn’t going to let them down.

Even the SEALs had made the conscious decision to allow me to step in as their leader. When the Captain said he was retiring, they could have easily left, or refused to follow my orders, but they didn’t. Instead, these men who barely knew me congratulated me and saluted me as their leader.

I was going to do whatever it took to lead them to victory.

After I inspected all of the sandbag covers, checked on the Skysweeper, and made sure Hammer and the SEALs were in position on the ship, there was nothing else for me to do except wait.

The position of the sun told me that only twenty minutes or so had passed since I last checked, but it felt like much longer than that. The anticipation of waiting for the Boston troops was killing me.

I made my way over to where the girls were posted up behind one of the sandbags.

Bailey had her Barrett laid out