Without Law 19, page 21
“I’m glad you think so, sir,” I said.
“I’d like to discuss it with you, actually,” he said. “We need to figure out our next move.”
“Pumpkin!” Tara’s dad called, and I turned to see him rush toward us.
“Daaaad,” Tara groaned, and she looked down and pulled into herself with embarrassment. “Oh, my god.”
“Oh, I’m so glad you’re okay,” he said, and he pulled her close to him and let out a deep breath. “I was worried sick.”
“It wasn’t even really a fight,” Tara scoffed and lightly pushed him away. “They didn’t even fight back.”
“They couldn’t,” Anna laughed as she joined the group.
“Oh, yes, the pilots told us about the plasma.” The General nodded. “Smart man, Tavish.”
“Just Tav sir, please,” I chuckled.
“I’ll call you whatever the hell you want after today,” he laughed.
“Good.” I smiled. “I’m ready to discuss our next moves whenever you are, sir.”
“Let’s go right now,” the General said. “No sense in wasting time.”
I nodded and followed the General. As he walked, he called out to the men who were in the war room before, and they all followed us as we made our way inside. The girls were right behind me, too, and once we were in the room, all eyes narrowed in on us.
“So,” Wilson said, and he grinned and leaned back in his chair. “What plan you got for us this time?”
I hadn’t expressly thought about a plan at that point, but I wasn’t going to let them down when they were looking at me so expectantly.
“We just took their planes,” I said. “Word of that is bound to travel fast.”
“Right,” Wilson agreed. “Which means we need to act faster.”
“That’s right.” I nodded. I think we should attack soon. Tomorrow, even.”
“Why not today?” Paige asked.
“Today?” the General asked.
“That’s not a bad idea,” I agreed. “The more time we give the NK troops in between our attacks, the more time they have to figure out our plan and prepare. If they find out we took the MiGs, they’re going to know we’re headed right for them.”
“At this point, they still might not know we have them,” Tara pointed out. “And if that’s the case, we should be able to fly over there and attack without them even being suspicious of us.”
“Right,” Tara’s father agreed. “They’ll think we're on their side.”
“At first, at least,” the platinum-blonde chuckled.
“As soon as the pilots feel ready to go, I think we should leave,” I said with a decisive nod. “The sooner we attack, the better.”
“I’ll defer to you on this one, Tav,” the General said, and something about the way he said my name still made it sound far too formal for my liking.
“Thank you, sir.” I smiled.
“What about the rest of us?” Bailey asked. “Shouldn’t we do something, too?”
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Paige said, and she walked up to the white board in the front of the room and spun it around so she could see the map.
The brunette looked over the area for a few minutes, then she walked over to her seat, pulled out a smaller map from her bag, and looked it over.
“What did you find?” Anna asked. “Is there someplace we can set up camp?”
“I think so.” Paige nodded, and she pointed to the map on the table in front of her. “If we go to this ridge here, we should be able to see down below. It’s not the tallest mountain ever, I’m not even sure I’d call it a mountain, but it should work for our purposes.”
“Perfect,” I said. “We can set up there. It looks like it’s a decent ways from the action, but we should still be able to shoot if we need to.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” The brunette nodded.
“Alright,” the general said. “It seems like it’s settled, then.”
“I suppose so.” I nodded. “We should be able to get going here soon, we just need to offload the jeeps.’
“Once that’s done, we can pick up the planes and head on over there,” Wilson said, and he stood up and grinned. “I gotta say, I’m ready to see this.”
“Do you think we can take out all the troops?” Bailey asked.
“Not all of them.” I shook my head. “Some of them are still posted at the border, and I’m sure there are a few other, smaller troops around, but taking out the majority of the men in Douglasville will give us a strong lead in this whole mess.”
“If we can take them out, these damn strikes with those huge weapons of theirs should stop, too,” the General said.
“Right,” I agreed. “It won’t be the final battle, but we’re getting close.”
“Let’s get this done, then.” He clapped and stood up. “Like you said, the longer we wait, the more time they have to prepare. And I don’t want to give them any more time than they’ve already had.”
“Yes, sir,” I said. “I’ll go speak to the pilots right now.”
“I’ll speak to everyone,” he told me. “Just get your team ready to go.”
“Yes, sir.” I nodded and led the girls back out to the hallway.
“So, we need to offload the jeeps and make sure all the weapons are loaded with plenty of ammunition to spare,” Paige said as we walked. “Douglasville is only about half an hour away, so it shouldn’t take us too long to get over there. I think we can be there in an hour if we hurry everything up.”
“Then that’s what we’ll shoot for,” I told her as we made our way back outside.
The General was right behind us, and he called everyone over to him so he could give them a rundown of the plan while the girls and I started offloading the jeeps.
We’d only managed to unload a few boxes when a group of guerilla warfare soldiers made their way into camp. They were all dirty as hell, and they looked like they’d been in the forest for days.
“General,” one of them said as they looked around at everyone standing around. “We have news.”
“News?” Lopez asked, and his dark eyebrows furrowed together as he walked over to the group.
“It’s in Korean,” the man said, and he pulled a piece of paper from his back pocket.
“Minji,” I said, and I gestured for the Korean woman to follow me.
“This looks official,” the General said as he opened up the folded paper.
“We were able to take out a small group of NK soldiers traveling through the road you had us posted by,” the young man explained, and he wiped sweat from his brow. “These were on their commanding officer. We weren’t sure what they said, but the seal looks important.”
“It definitely seems to be.” Lopez nodded and squinted at the page.
“If I may,” Minji said with a small smile, and she held out her hand.
“Of course, of course,” the General said, and he handed her the paper.
“Oh, wow,” Minji breathed as she looked at the page.
“What?” Tara asked. “What is it?”
“Well, the seal,” Minji said, and she pointed to the red circle with some lettering in it on the top of the page. “It’s to indicate these orders are classified.”
“Who are they to?” I asked.
“More importantly, what do they say?” Tara added.
“Let me see.” Minji held up the page and looked it over again, and this time her eyes grew wider as her breaths grew more shallow, and her face turned white as a sheet.
“Minji.” Bailey frowned. “Are you alright?”
“I…” the Korean woman stuttered, and her dark-brown eyes locked on mine.
“What does it say?” Anna pushed.
“These were meant to be delivered to The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Minji said.
“Who’s that?” Tara asked, and she looked around quickly.
“The big boss,” the General said, and I was slightly taken aback by his juvenile explanation.
“Oh, right, right,” Tara said, and she looked back to Minji who was still paler than a ghost. “What the hell do they say, Minj?”
“They…” she started, then her dark eyebrows pulled together as she shook her head with bewilderment. “They say the plasma technology was found, not created.”
Chapter 13
“What the hell do you mean found?” Tara asked, and her = eyes locked on mine as her platinum-blonde eyebrows pulled together.
“I’m with Tara,” Anna said with a nod at her friend. “What the hell do you mean found?”
“Where?” Paige asked.
“Hold on, they found this shit?” Hammer asked with a gesture at the plasma gun on his hip.
“It seems so.” I nodded. “We thought it was something they’d been making for years.”
“How could they have just found it?” Tara asked.
“Yeah,” Bailey agreed, and a worry line appeared on her forehead as her brow furrowed. “It’s not a natural substance.”
“Hmmm,” Paige said, and she pursed her lips and looked at Minji. “Does it say anything else?”
“From the dates listed, it looks like it was found in a cave in the northern part of North Korea a couple of years before their attack on the United States,” she explained.
“That’s not very long.” Bailey frowned.
“It also says they secured South Korean, China, and Japan during the first six months of the first EMP salvo,” Minji added, and she bit her lip with concern. “I… I have a lot of family in South Korea. I’m not surprised by this news, but it…”
“What does this mean?” Anna asked.
“They found some sort of alien substance and figured out how to reproduce it,” the General suggested.
“Or they mined it,” Paige said.
“This doesn’t expressly say,”Minji sighed as she looked over the paper again.
“Whoa whoa whoa,” Tara said, and she held up her hands. “Nobody said anything about alien shit.”
“As if this wasn’t already enough of a sci-fi movie,” Anna scoffed and rolled her eyes.
“Alien here simply means foreign,” the General explained, but then he shook his head and looked down. “Though at this point, I’m not ruling anything out.”
“This is crazy,” Tara said.
“Tav, you were right,” Bailey said with sudden realization, and she looked at me with wide eyes.
“Right about what?” I asked.
“China and Japan,” Paige said, and she nodded at Bailey. “He was right.”
“Yeah, you said they probably took them out first,” Bailey added.
“It’s not something I’m exactly happy to be right about,” I said and let out a deep breath. “But at least this way we know what they’ve done so far.”
“That doesn’t tell us what their plan is now, though,” Anna said.
“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed. “But it gives us a good indication as to what their overall goal is.”
“What?” Bailey asked.
“World domination.” Tara shrugged.
“What?” the blonde asked, and she looked at Tara like she was crazy.
“As ridiculous as that explanation sounds,” the General sighed. “I believe it’s accurate. North Korea is the only country dumb enough to find alien technology and then use it to try and take over the world… and maybe succeed through sheer bullheaded tenacity. If China had found this, or Russia, or fuck, any other country, they would have figured out how to use the substance to dominate the world energy trade instead of going to war.”
“Well, shit,” Paige breathed.
“They started with Japan and China, then moved over to us,” I said. “They’ll head to the UK next if we don’t stop them.”
“Why wouldn’t they go after the UK first?” Tara asked.
“Yeah, and how come we didn’t know they took over China?” Paige asked. “It seems like that would have been world news.”
“They probably figured out some way to hide it,” the General said.
“Right.” I nodded. “And they came after us first because they know how dangerous the U.S. is. We’re the world’s greatest superpower. If you want to take over the world, you’ve got to take us down first.”
“That makes sense,” Anna said. “We’ve got a huge military.”
“The largest military in the world,” Paige said. “And nukes.”
“Yeah, I think a lot of people forget how large we are,” Bailey said. “The United States is massive. Can’t the entire UK fit inside Texas?”
“And then some,” I said. “Texas is about three sizes larger than the UK.”
“Fuck,” Anna said with a shake of her head. “No wonder they’re not concerned about taking the UK yet, it’s going to be cake for them. Especially after we’re gone, they won’t have anybody to come to their aid then.”
“Exactly,” I said. “They knew the U.S. wouldn’t hesitate to jump in for our allies, and there’s no way they’d stand a chance against us, not on a level playing field. They had to try and take out any advantages we had with the EMP and launch an ambush attack. That’s the only reason they got as far as they did.”
“So, we’re not just the only thing standing in the way of them taking over the UK,” Paige said. “We’re pretty much the only thing standing in the way of them taking over the entire world.”
“That’s right.” I nodded.
“And right now that’s exactly what we have to do,” the General said, and he took the note from Minji, folded it back up, and put it in his jacket pocket. “We’ve got to take out those bastards before they figure out we have their MiGs. We can figure everything else out afterward.”
“The General is right,” I said with a nod. “We should finish getting ready.”
Everyone nodded and got back to work, but it was clear there was a new weight piled onto the group. We all worked quietly to unload the jeeps, then reload them with plenty of artillery in case we needed it. With the amount of MiGs we had, I didn’t think it would be an issue, I doubted we would need to intervene. However, I wasn’t going to show up empty-handed, that was for sure.
It didn’t take us long to get everything offloaded and reloaded, and once the jeeps were ready, I made my way inside to find the General in the war room.
The door was open, and he sat at the desk with his head in his hand as he looked at the paper the boys had brought back just earlier.
“Sir?” I asked and then rapped on the door. “Everything’s ready to go.”
“Oh, Tav,” he said, looked up, and then let out a deep breath. “Good, good. I presume you’re taking your team and the SEALs again?”
“That’s correct, sir.” I nodded. “I don’t see a reason to take everyone. We’re backup at this point.”
“Right,” he agreed. “Best not to put our men in danger unnecessarily.”
“Yeah,” I said and then looked at the General closely. He was clearly upset, but I wasn’t sure what to make of it. “Sir, if you don’t mind my asking, are you alright?”
“Observant, this one,” he joked and leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “In all my years of service, I’ve never seen orders like this. This whole situation is absolutely crazy to me. It’s unimaginable, and I never thought I’d be here leading the fight against it. I just can’t fathom that this is happening.”
“I completely understand, sir.” I nodded. “This is strange to me as well. But if it’s any consolation, I think you’re doing a great job.”
“Thanks.” He smiled. “Not as good as you, though.”
“You’ve managed to keep the NK troops at bay and keep our men alive,” I said seriously. “That’s no small feat. You should be proud of yourself.”
“Thank you, son,” he said, licked his lips, and then picked up the paper only to hold it out and shake it at me. “Can you believe this shit? They found that damn plasma liquid in a fucking cave. Had it been any other country, there probably wouldn’t have been a war.”
“Like you said, it would have been a trade war if China or Russia found it,” I said. “It’s hard to imagine how it could have been worse, but that scenario might have ended up more tragic for our people twenty or thirty years from now.”
“I suppose we make the best of it we can.” The General stood up, folded the paper back up, and slipped it in his pocket. “I’d like to tag along if that’s alright with you.”
“Oh, of course, sir.” I shook my head with surprise.
It wasn’t often the man in charge asked to accompany someone on a mission, and I was honestly surprised to hear him do so. He was the leader of this whole operation, and while putting himself in danger wasn’t the smartest thing to do, I understood where he was coming from.
He’d been here giving orders for a long time, and he needed a taste of the action. He needed to know this was happening and the war would be over soon enough. I wasn’t going to stand in his way of that, not when I needed it myself.
The General and I made our way back outside and found the girls, SEALs, and pilots all gathered around the jeeps.
I didn’t say a word, instead, I just nodded to my crew and hopped in the jeep. Everyone dispersed quietly and got into their own vehicles, and I pulled out onto the main road with the SEALs behind me.
The pilots trailed off as they made their way to the airport, so it was just the SEALs and the General and Sergeant Wilson in their old military truck behind us as we made the drive to the overlook spot Paige had picked out for us.
“Sooooo, are we going to talk about how the General is tagging along?” Paige asked.
“If you want,” I chuckled.
“I thought that was weird, too,” Anna said. “Why did he decide to come?”
“I think he just wants to see these assholes go down,” I said.
“Yeah, if I stayed inside giving orders all the time, I’d want to get out, too,” Tara said.
“Fair enough.” Anna nodded.
“I think everyone was upset about those orders the soldiers found, too,” Bailey added.
“Definitely,” Paige agreed. “You could feel how tense it was after that.”
“Hopefully our victory today will ease some of that,” I said.
