Without Law 17, page 20
“You saved me,” she whispered.
“Of course,” I told her, then I lifted her chin. “Look at me. It’s okay. You’re okay.”
“I’m okay.” She nodded, but the episode had obviously upset her.
There was no time to worry about that at the moment, though. We had a mission to finish.
Only a moment later, Minji and I made it to the end of the deck, and we ran into the SEALs.
“Clear,” one of them said when he saw me.
“Clear,” I agreed.
The girls should have taken out their quadrants by now, too, and that would mean there would only be the Captain’s quarters left, just how we’d planned.
I didn’t hear anything over the radio, which was neither good nor bad, but it meant I couldn’t be sure who had finished and who hadn’t. I didn’t want to try and find out, either, just in case someone was in the process of sneaking around still.
Just then, I heard something behind me, and I turned around to see Tara and her crew making their way over to us.
“You all clear?” the platinum-blonde asked.
“All clear here,” I agreed with a nod. “Have you seen Anna or Paige?”
“No.” She shook her head. “We still need to take out the Captain.”
“I know,” I agreed.
I thought for a moment. I didn’t want to waste any time. We needed to get to the Captain and take him out as soon as possible.
“You all find somewhere to post yourselves,” I told the SEALs. “Tara and I will be right back.”
“Super stealthy undercover mission to take out the boss guy?” Tara asked with a grin.
“Exactly,” I chuckled.
“Here,” Tara said, and she handed Minji her radio. “We’ll radio when we’ve taken out the Captain. Keep this on you, but make sure you’re in a clear zone.”
“Okay.” Minji nodded and took the radio, then she clipped it to her belt.
“Let’s go,” I told Tara.
“Right behind you.” The platinum-blonde grinned back at me.
Tara and I pulled our weapons, then we quickly and quietly made our way through the hallways and down to the Captain’s quarters. Whoever was in there was in charge of this ship at the very least, and I knew there would be guards near it as well. We’d saved him for last because his chambers were so secluded.
The platinum-blonde and I made sure to keep our guns at the ready as we hurried down the hallway, but we didn’t come across any soldiers, at least not until we got to the hallway right by the Captain’s chamber.
There was a corner that led left, and down it would be where the Captain stayed on the vessel. Before we made the turn, though, I stopped and crouched down to listen. Tara stood beside me with her Mark 23 ready to shoot, and after a few seconds, I heard the familiar sound of the Korean language. There were definitely guards there, so I waited and listened more closely to the voices.
I counted only two, but I knew there could be more who weren’t talking.
I glanced over to Tara, and the platinum-blonde nodded back at me. She had her game face on, and I knew she understood what I was getting at, even without me having to explain.
Once she’d nodded back to me, then I tucked and rolled to the other side of the hallway, and at the same time, Tara leaned out and took a shot.
The two men were caught off guard, and while one fell to the floor, I readied my weapon and took down the other.
They went down quickly, but shooting from where we were at was our only option right then since the men were posted at the end of the hallway. Still, I was worried that them falling to the ground had alerted whoever was inside to our presence.
Since we couldn’t know for sure until we got in there, we had to be extra careful when we entered the room.
I nodded to Tara, and the platinum-blonde and I made our way down the hallway to the door at the far end. We stepped over the two dead men we’d just taken out, and we held our weapons at the ready while I slowly turned the door handle.
When I opened the door, I didn’t see anybody, but I knew someone had to be there. Those two men wouldn’t have been out there guarding the door for nothing.
My eyes narrowed as I slowly scanned the room. The room was larger than the other barracks on deck, and much nicer. There was a larger bed with white sheets and a green blanket on top, a small wardrobe to the right of it, and on the left there was a door that I assumed led to a bathroom.
I caught Tara’s eye and glanced over to the door.
The platinum-blonde nodded her understanding, and we carefully stepped over to the small wooden door.
Both of our weapons were raised, and I lifted my foot up and kicked the door in. The rickety wood split, and the older man inside attempted to fire his plasma weapon at us.
The plasma hit the wood and burned a hole in it, but he missed us, and before I could take the shot, Tara already had.
The Captain went down with a bullet hole to the head, and Tara turned to me and smiled before she blew on the end of her gun as if to put out a flame.
“You’re ridiculous,” I chuckled.
“Yeah, but you like it,” she told me with a smile.
“I do.” I nodded and leaned in to plant a kiss on her soft, cherry-red lips.
“Should we radio the others?” she asked.
“Yeah.” I nodded and pulled the walkie talkie up and pressed the speaker button. “Minji, can you hear us?”
Nobody answered for a second, and Tara locked eyes with me and her platinum-blonde eyebrows furrowed together with concern.
“I repeat, Minji, can you hear us?” I asked again.
“Loud and clear,” the Korean woman said after a few seconds, and both Tara and I breathed out audible sighs of relief.
“We’ve cleared the Captain’s quarters,” I informed her. “How are you all doing?”
“All is good here,” she said. “Anna and Paige are here, too.”
“Good.” I nodded.
“We’re all clear,” Anna assured me.
“My section, too,” Paige added.
“I’m all clear, too,” Bailey piped up.
“I can’t believe you got the guys in the control room before we could!” Anna exclaimed.
“They were open,” Bailey said, and I could practically hear the shrug in her voice.
“Let’s do one final sweep to be sure,” I said.
“Shouldn’t we get to the control room to take out the other two ships?” Paige asked.
“We should,” I agreed. “But one final sweep isn’t going to deter us any great amount of time. Besides, nobody knows we’re here, and we need to be thorough.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Anna said, and I could hear the smile in her voice.
“Stay where you are,” I said. “We’ll meet you and then split up for the sweep.”
“Roger that,” Anna said.
I put the walkie talkie back on my hip, then Tara and I made our way back to the engine room below deck where we’d been earlier. We found all the girls there, along with the SEALs on their teams. My men had come back from their posts as well, so we were all together once more.
“Alright,” I said. “Everyone moves over one quadrant.”
“Which way?” Anna asked.
“Right,” I answered. “If you find someone, call me first.”
I didn’t want anybody to do a final sweep of their own area, just in case they got too confident. If anybody assumed a room was clear, just because they’d cleared it earlier, it could be big trouble for us.
“You don’t want us to take them out?” Paige asked.
“Not yet,” I said. “Maybe Minji can get something out of them.”
“Alright,” the brunette agreed.
If there was anybody left on the ship, we’d find them.
I instructed a couple of the SEALs to head back to shore and get Bailey, but after that, the girls and I parted ways again, except for Minji, who stayed on my team.
We headed to Anna’s quadrant to go through the area once more. The ship was huge, definitely the largest area we’d ever cleared, and I wasn’t about to let there be any chance we’d left somebody alive.
The SEALs split off from me as we got the area we needed to clear, but Minji stayed by my side. It was clear she was still slightly shaken from the attack earlier, and I didn’t mind having her closer to me.
I doubted there was anybody left on the ship, but just in case, I didn’t want a repeat of earlier.
The beautiful Korean woman and I walked the hallways slowly, with our guns at the ready just in case we ran into somebody. After a while, though, we’d cleared almost the whole area and found nothing.
“Tav,” Anna’s voice came in over the walkie.
I took the radio from my waist and held it up. “Yeah?”
“We got someone,” the redhead said.
Things had just gotten even more interesting.
Chapter 14
“Where are you?” I asked Anna.
“We’re in Paige’s quadrant,” the redhead answered. “Near the barracks.”
“We’ll be right there,” I said, and I hung the walkie talkie back on my hip.
“Are we going to interrogate him?” Minji asked.
“I’d like to.” I nodded. “Is that alright with you?”
It would put a hole in my plan if she said no, but if it wasn’t something she was comfortable with, then I couldn’t force her to participate.
“Of course,” she agreed. “I’d like to know why they’re doing this just as much as you.”
“I think it’s pretty clear why,” I said.
“It is?” she asked, and her brown eyebrows pulled together. “Why?”
“The United States is a super power when it comes to military and weaponry,” I said. “We’re also a huge country. And we’re known to throw our hat in the ring for those in need. If these assholes were trying to take over somewhere, they’d need to take us out first.”
“Where do you think they’re trying to take over?” Minji asked.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “Probably China, but I’m sure they’ve already managed that, and now they’re working their way toward taking us out.”
“Well, we can’t let that happen,” she said.
“No, we can’t,” I agreed.
Minji and I left the SEALs to finish the final sweep. The men were efficient, and they’d proven they hadn’t lost all their skills tonight. Their recon skills might have been rusty, but their special ops skills sure weren’t. They’d moved silently, taken out targets simply with one round, and maintained formation the entire time we’d been on the ship. I was proud to have worked with them, and to have led them for the evening.
It didn’t take us long to find Anna. The redhead was exactly where she said she’d be, near the barracks where the other ships still couldn’t see us. We couldn’t afford to risk them finding out one of their ships had been taken over. They’d blow it to smithereens in a heartbeat.
Paige and Tara were there, too, and the brunette paced back and forth and bit her lip.
“I swear, I cleared every room,” she said when she looked up and saw me.
“It’s okay,” I told her. “This isn’t your fault.”
“How can you say that?” she asked, and her full lips turned into a frown.
“He was probably running around trying to get away once he realized we were here,” I said. “There’s no telling what quadrant he was from.”
“Hey, don’t blame this on me,” Tara joked, but I flashed her a serious look, and her face softened. “He’s right, Paige. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
“Yeah, at least now we have a hostage,” Anna said with a grin.
“I guess that’s true.” Paige nodded.
“Let’s see what we can find out from him,” I said.
The man was in his late twenties or early thirties, though he could have been younger, but the obvious lines and wrinkles from smoking and poor diet weren’t doing him any favors. He had dark brown hair cut short, and small brown eyebrows to match. His eyes were dark, too, and his skin had a tan color to it. He wore a pair of dark green pants and a white shirt but no shoes or jacket, which told me he was probably in the barracks when we attacked.
“Do you think he’ll talk?” Anna asked.
“Maybe.” I shrugged. “We’ll try.”
“I love how nonchalant you are about torturing this guy right now,” Tara said with a grin. “It’s kinda hot.”
I turned around and smiled at the platinum-blonde, but I didn’t want to give our prisoner the wrong idea, so I kept my comments to myself.
“Minji,” I said, and the Korean woman came to stand by me. “Ask him his name.”
“His name?” she asked, and her eyebrows pulled together. “Are you sure that’s what you want to know?”
“Trust me,” I told her, and I nodded to the man.
Minji still looked hesitant, but she turned to the man and said something in Korean. He didn’t respond, though, instead he looked over and glared in my direction, then he spat something in Korean and turned away.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“Um, he…” Minji started, but she bit her lip.
“Spit it out, Minj,” Tara said, and she gave her a nickname as if they were old friends.
“He called you an American pig,” she said.
“Tell him he can either tell me what I want to know, or he can die slowly and painfully,” I said.
Minji turned back to the man and said something in Korean while gesturing to me at the same time. I just glared at the man as he pretended not to listen to Minji.
He could either accept what she was saying as the truth, or he could figure it out the hard way. The choice was up to him.
The soldier refused to reply, and Minji looked at me and shook her head, then she turned back to the man in an attempt to urge him to listen.
I held up my hand to stop her, though, and she backed away as I walked over to where the man was tied to a chair.
I pulled my tanto blade from my hip and flipped it in my hand.
The man sneered in response, and I could see the nasty, terrible yellow blocks that were his smoke-stained teeth. I smiled in response and slammed the knife down into his hand.
Even if he didn’t want to talk, he couldn’t stop himself from screaming out in pain just then, and I thought a little bit of pain might help him change his mind when it came to talking.
“Ask him who his commanding officer is,” I told Minji.
The Korean woman nodded and did as I requested, but the man gritted his teeth and looked up at me. He shook his head and sneered again, but then I ripped the blade out of his hand, and he cried out once more.
I could tell he was holding back tears, but at that point, I wasn’t sure he was going to break.
He was strong-willed, it seemed, but I still had a few tricks up my sleeve, though.
“Ask him where his other forces are,” I instructed Minji. “Tell him I’m growing impatient.”
Minji nodded again, and she once again leaned down to try and talk to the man, but this time he yelled something and spit at her.
Minji backed away quickly, and I felt my body get hot with anger.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“He called me a traitor from the south,” she whispered, then she shook her head slightly. “I’ll try again.”
“No.” I shook my head. “He clearly doesn’t want to play nice with us.’
“What are you going to do?” Minji asked.
“I’m going to deliver on my promise,” I said, and I stabbed my tanto blade right into the guy’s crotch.
The man gasped, then let out a blood-curdling scream of pain before tears started to run down his cheeks. He yelled some things in Korean that I figured were probably curses, but I just yanked my knife out of his manhood and wiped the blood off on his leg before I put it back in its sheath.
“Oh, my,” Minji gasped.
“Fuck, yeah,” Tara laughed. “See, didn’t that feel good?”
“Not entirely,” I chuckled. “But I promised a slow, agonizing death, and I couldn’t think of a better one than that.”
“Liar,” Tara teased. “It feels amazing.”
“Have you done this before?” Minji asked Tara with wide eyes.
“A time or two.” The platinum-blonde smiled and shrugged, but Minji just stared back in horror.
It was obvious that the man wasn’t going to cooperate, so there wasn’t any reason to keep him around at that point. We had other things to do, and since we already had their ship, I had no doubt we’d be able to find some more information aboard. It would have been nice to have gotten some information out of the guy, but it wasn’t necessary, and I wasn’t going to waste my time trying.
“Rivers,” I said to the SEAL near the doorway. “Stay with him.”
“My pleasure,” the man replied with a grin.
“Girls,” I said. “Come with me. We need to get the missiles set up so we can take out the other ships.”
“Finally, the fun part begins,” Tara said, and she bounded over to me.
“You don’t consider what we just did to be the fun part?” Paige chuckled.
“Not exactly,” Tara said.
“Hey!” Bailey called out as she made her way over to us on one of the rafts.
“Hey!” I shouted back to her.
She paddled over to the ladder, started to climb up, and when she got to the top, I took her hand and hoisted her up onto the deck.
“You guys were awesome,” the blonde hippie said.
“You stole my thunder,” Anna laughed. “You took out the guys in the control room.”
“Sorry,” Bailey said. “I figured it was the least I could do.”
“They were good shots,” the redhead said.
“Aren’t they always with Bailey?” Tara asked.
“Fair enough,” Anna laughed.
“We’re headed down to get the missiles set up,” I said.
“Right,” Bailey agreed. “Let’s go.”
“You totally missed the torture,” Tara said as we walked.
“I heard Anna say something over the radio about how she found somebody.” Bailey frowned. “What did he say?”
