Without Law 18 Eric Vall (reading well TXT) 📖

seriously. “The NK troops are coming down Colonial Parkway.”

The battle had officially begun.

Chapter 13

“Roger that,” I said into the walkie. “Hold your position.”

“Yes, sir,” Ben replied, and I hung the walkie back on my hip.

“We have visual confirmation,” I called out. “Everyone hold steady and get prepared. The troops will be here in a few minutes.”

Small sounds filled the air as everyone adjusted themselves at once.

The girls and I all flipped around and crouched behind the bags so we could see out to the road, too, and Bailey adjusted herself so she had her Barrett already lined up and her finger just an inch away from the trigger.

I had my new H&K MP5 ready to go, and I double checked it before I positioned myself so I was lined up to shoot.

After a few minutes, we still hadn’t seen anything, but it was too tense of a situation to do anything but hold our breaths and wait.

If Ben and Jeff had seen them, then the troops would be here soon. The Navy Supply Center was only a couple miles up the road, but I also had to take into account how slow moving the troops would be. They had some large trucks with them, plus some smaller vehicles, not to mention they were towing the MiGs. A troop like that can only go as fast as their slowest vehicle, so I just had to be patient, no matter how long every second seemed.

For a moment, all I could hear was Anna’s shallow breathing next to me, but then a familiar sound filled the air, and it got closer and closer.

“Shit,” I muttered, and I looked up to the sky.

Through the tree branches above us, I could see the MiG as it flew overhead and out to the water. We were right, the NK troops were using the plane as a scout, which meant the pilot had to have seen the ship in the water.

“Tav, come in,” Minji’s panicked voice came through the walkie on my hip.

“What’s wrong?” I asked quietly as I quickly pulled the device up to my lips.

“We got a radio call,” she explained. “The NK troops want to know why we’re in the water here and not further south at Yorktown.”

“Tell them what we practiced earlier,” I instructed. “Say you followed the resistance up here, but you lost them, and you’re no longer sure where they’re at.”

“Okay,” the Korean woman replied, and a moment later the speaker crackled with her voice once more. “I said what you told me to. They said they’re nearby, and they’ll be here soon.”

“Good,” I told her. “Now, hold your position. This is going to work.”

“Right,” Minji agreed, and I turned the volume on the walkie down as low as possible and hung it from my hip again.

The NK troops had bought it again, and they were playing right into our trap. Once they got to the bridge, it’d all be over for them. It didn’t matter if the NK troops knew the ship was here as long as they believed it was filled with NK soldiers. Part of me couldn’t believe they didn’t have any suspicion that something was wrong, but the other part knew they wouldn’t expect an American to be able to speak fluent Korean and trick them the way we were currently.

The sound of the MiG filled the air once more, and I watched as it circled around the ship, then it headed north again.

“Where is it going?” Paige whispered.

“It’s just trying to stay moving,” I explained. “It will be back.”

“It better be back soon,” Tara muttered.

I knew the MiG would continue to fly around the area, the only issue was when it returned. As long as it was within firing range after the ground troops made their way across the bridge, then we were in the clear. If it wasn’t, though, then we could be in deep shit.

The pilot was obviously able to communicate with the troops below, and if the ground troops realized the bridge was blown, they’d alert the MiG and start moving out.

Honestly, I was surprised the MiG pilot hadn’t alerted the ground troops that their path was blocked. The MiG flying ahead of the rest of them wasn’t exactly in the plan, and the pilot had to have seen that the bridge was blown.

Then again, even if he had told them, the ship was here, and that was where they were headed, so maybe they didn’t care if the bridge was blown, they just wanted to get as close to the ship as possible to offer their assistance.

My mind raced as I waited for the NK troops to come into sight. I could still hear the faint sounds of the MiG, so I knew it was circling around the area.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and my adrenaline kicked into high gear when I finally saw the first of the ground troops. There were two smaller vehicles side by side coming down the road toward us.

Behind them were another two, and another two. I couldn’t see how many exactly, but I could see that the larger vehicles, including the ones towing the other two MiGs, were at the end of the line.

The smaller vehicles were like the ones we’d dealt with before in Boston, and they were all equipped with a couple of small tankers full of plasma liquid attached to the large plasma guns hooked to the top of their vehicles.

Hammer was right, this group had some serious firepower, which was why we’d be shooting at them with bullets instead of plasma. I figured the NK troops didn’t expect their enemies to have plasma guns, too, which meant they didn’t care about having an excess of the liquid on them at all times.