Read Online PRIMAL Vengeance (3) by Jack Silkstone - Free Book Online Page A

modified Il-76 transport aircraft that the PRIMAL team called The Pain Train. The giant airframe was a surveillance platform, transporter, signals intelligence collector and when required, a gunship. Parked with its nose under the wing of the hulking jet was a Gulfstream business jet. Saneh noted that a number of PRIMAL's latest aircraft were not in the hangar. It was possible they had already been positioned in Abu Dhabi.
           She stopped the buggy at the back of the hangar, in front of a large service elevator. The pair swiped their access cards and rode the lift down. It stopped on the first floor.
           "Make sure you come see me once you're done." Saneh gave Bishop a kiss on the cheek before exiting the lift into the accommodation level.
           "You still going to be wearing those pants?" Bishop quipped, clamping his fingers over his nose.
           "Just for you, soldier boy." Saneh laughed as the doors closed.
           Bishop stepped out of the lift on the third floor, swiped his way through a secure access point and entered the Bunker.
           The actual operations room was almost empty. A few of the staff were sitting in front of their terminals but the primary display screens were all blank. He glanced over at the intelligence team, two analysts were hard at work.
           "Chua and Vance are in the big man's office," the watchkeeper said without looking up from a book he was reading. Clearly there was nothing going on at the moment.
           "Cheers, Tom." Bishop walked across the operations floor to the staff offices. He knocked on the one that boldly declared 'The Boss'.
           "Come in!" Vance, the Director of Operations, bellowed.
           Bishop pushed the door open and stepped into the spartan office. Vance was not one for covering his walls in memorabilia and all that 'crap' as he eloquently described it.
           "Bish, how ya doin', buddy?" Vance jumped up from behind his desk and pumped Bishop's arm vigorously. The former CIA operative was an ox of a man, built like Mike Tyson complete with shaved head and biceps like coconuts.
           "Yeah, I'm OK. Healed up pretty good." Bishop's run-in with the Chinese operative on the 'Tian Hai' had left him battered. He had spent an entire day in the PRIMAL medical bay undergoing a thorough exam by the resident doctor.
           "Hey, Chua," Bishop acknowledged PRIMAL's Chief of Intelligence sitting across the room.
           "Aden," responded Chen Chua.
           "So, what's the go, guys? Things kicking off in Africa?"
           "You picked it, buddy," said Vance. "Chua, fill Bish in on the details."
           "Right away." Chua took a sip from a can of energy drink then activated the LED screen on the wall of the office. A screen saver of Sports Illustrated models was replaced with a map of Eastern Africa.
           Bishop could not help but smile as the map exploded with graphics. Animated icons highlighted important locations, recent activity appearing with call outs denoting the key stakeholders. Chua was a master of all things geeky; the former US Army intelligence officer loved technology. Technology and energy drinks. The Chinese American downed them like he was a college kid knocking back beers in Cancun.
           "Considering your last mission, sinking the freighter, I'm going to jump straight in to the new stuff. OK?" the intel officer asked.
           Bishop gave Chua a nod.
           "In the past week we've been getting a lot of reports from the disputed Abyei district between South Sudan and Sudan actual."
           "Disputed? I thought South Sudan won control of the area through UN run elections? What is there to dispute?" asked Bishop.
           "Khartoum is ignoring the result of the referendum. They're calling the election a sham and as a result they've been increasing their clandestine militia capability in the oil-rich region. I did