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

to match, and another had a burn wound on the back of his hands, most likely from where he’d tried to shield his face from the blast.

Rivers returned after a moment, and he and a couple of the other SEALs tied up the NK soldiers while Minji made her way to shore and over to me.

“Hey,” she said quietly as she walked up to me. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” I assured her, and I looked her over quickly. “You look good, too.”

“I’m uninjured,” she said with a smile, then she glanced behind her at the men being tied up. “What do you want me to do?”

“I need you to translate again,” I told her. “I want to know what information they have about the troops down south.”

“At the foothills of the Appalachians.” Minji nodded.

“Right,” I agreed. “And I want you to be nice at first, these men surrendered, so we need them to think that means something to us.”

“Does it?” the Korean woman asked, and her eyes narrowed on me slightly.

“That depends on their answers,” I said cooly.

“What do you want me to ask first?” Minji asked.

“Ask them their names,” I said after a moment. If I wanted them to give us information, then they needed to think their surrender meant they’d be getting out of this alive.

“Alright,” she agreed, and she turned around and walked over to the men.

Rivers and the other SEALs had tied the NK soldiers’ hands behind their backs and placed them on their knees for interrogation.

Minji walked over to them and began to speak in Korean, but they didn’t seem wholly focused on her, instead, they each eyed me suspiciously.

Their focus was split, and they weren’t about to answer Minji’s question until I introduced myself, so I figured it was time to do so.

I stepped forward and put my hand on Minji’s shoulder to stop her from speaking. The man on his knees in front of her had his eyes on me the whole time I walked up, and they remained on me then, too. His brown eyes narrowed on me, and I could tell he didn’t trust me.

“What’s your name?” I asked the man, and my gaze didn’t leave his as Minji stood next to me and translated the question.

“Young-chul,” the man said after Minji spoke, but his eyes never left mine.

“Young-chul.” I nodded. “I have a few questions for you.”

Minji translated, but the man didn’t respond, instead, he shook his head.

“He surrendered,” Tara said from the sidelines. “What the fuck is he doing?”

“Just because he surrendered doesn’t mean he has to give us information,” Paige said. “It just means we can basically take him as a prisoner of war.”

“Doesn’t that mean we can just torture him to get information?” Tara asked.

“I don’t think that’s exactly how that works,” Paige remarked.

“Ask him how many troops there are in Atlanta,” I told Minji.

“Right.” The Korean woman spoke to the man, but once again, he refused to speak, he simply shook his head.

“Tell him he can either tell me now and save his own ass, or he can tell me after I kill one of his friends here,” I said, and I smiled slightly at the soldier just to add to the asshole effect.

Minji repeated what I said, and for a split second I saw fear flash through the soldier’s eyes as his body instinctively tensed before he could stop himself.

The soldier’s eyes narrowed on me even more as he thought about what he was going to do here.

Finally, the man spoke to Minji.

His voice was low, and his face had relaxed some with defeat.

“He says they have three divisions,” Minji said, and I could hear her voice shake slightly as she spoke.

That was about what I had anticipated, but still, hearing the number sent a chill down my spine. I couldn’t let the soldier see that, though, so I kept my composure as I continued to stare him down.

“And their weapons?” I asked.

“What about them?” Minji pushed. “Do you want me to ask how many or what they are?”

“Both,” I told her. “Just say ‘tell me about your weapons’.”

“Alright,” the Korean woman agreed, and she translated to the soldier.

The man sighed and turned to look at Minji. It seemed he was done with our staring contest now that he’d decided to give up the rest of his army to save his own ass.

“He says they modified weapons like the ones their troop had, except larger and more of them,” Minji said.

“Like what?” I asked, and Minji translated again.

“They have tanks,” Minji said as the man talked. “With plasma cannons hooked to the top of them. And helicopters and MiGs with plasma cannons, too.”

Shit.

“What else do they have?” I asked.

“He says they have large tankers,” Minji said. “A virtually unlimited supply of plasma liquid, and he says they were working on other weapons, but he doesn’t know what they are.”

“Doesn’t know, or won’t tell me?” I asked.

Minji translated to the man, and his eyes flashed wide for a second before he turned to me with narrowed eyes and spoke quickly in Korean.

“He claims that he doesn’t know,” Minji said.

“Do you believe him?” I asked her.

“I do.” The Korean woman nodded.

“Alright.” I nodded back. If Minji believed him, then I would, too, at least for the moment.

If they had other weapons this guy didn't even know about, though, then we were in for a serious fight once we got down there. The tanks and helicopters would be bad enough, but with how innovative these sonsabitches were, there was no telling what other sorts of weapons they might have created to try and take us down.

They’d already created plasma that was volatile enough to cause massive