PRIMAL Vengeance

Chapter 22



The Bunker, Lascar Island



The watchkeeper stuck his head into the PRIMAL Director's office. "Boss, we've got Bishop on vidcon."

"Be right in. Can you grab Chua as well." Vance rose out of his chair and headed into the Bunker.

Despite being well after midnight, the operations center was bustling. PRIMAL had a number of missions running parallel to Bishop and Mirza's. Operatives were deployed in South East Asia and Europe on separate tasks, all of them requiring support.

Vance pulled up a chair in front of the video teleconference camera and a few seconds later Chua joined him. The slightly-built Chinese American had his usual energy drink in hand. Vance gave him a nod.

"OK, we're good to go," he said.

The watchkeeper took the call off hold and Bishop's face appeared on one of the main LED screens bolted to the Bunker's concrete walls.

"Evening, boss," said Bishop.

"Bishop, how ya doing, buddy?" asked Vance.

"All good. We'll have to keep this quick though; things are moving pretty fast at the moment," replied Bishop via his iPRIMAL.

"Is this linked to the UN vehicles?" asked Chua. The operations team was monitoring every UGS that the SFF fighters had planted around the border region. They conducted first line analysis on the information before sending it to the field operatives.

"Yep, we made our first contact today. Ambushed the Janjaweed chasing the UN vehicles. Twelve Janjaweed EKIA along with two vehicles destroyed. Nil SFF KIA although I estimate that over fifteen UN soldiers were killed," said Bishop.

"Poor f*ckers. At least you smacked up those Janjaweed bastards," said Vance.

"Good job, Aden," added Chua. "I just got the official UN report. They lost thirteen. According to them they were ambushed by a Janjaweed force while conducting a humanitarian assistance mission. Interestingly they reported your presence. Quote: 'unknown mercenaries supporting local fighters provided invaluable assistance.'"

"The SFF made a good account of themselves. A little shaky but overall far more capable than I anticipated. Which is why I've decided on the next course of action."

"Go on," said Vance.

"The UN were hit at an outlying village. We've IDed it as the current Janjaweed forward operating base. The element that followed them up was small but the initial force was estimated as at least a hundred fighters and fifteen to twenty vehicles."

"More of the ChiCom jeeps?" asked Chua.

"Yep, although they're down two as of today."

"So what are you thinking, Bish? Raid and Fade?" asked Vance.

"You know it. I want to hit 'em at dawn tomorrow. Smash as many of their vehicles as possible and bug out."

"You've only got forty men," said Chua.

"True, which is why we are planning on hitting them hard then withdrawing. Garang wants to assault the whole village and kill Sagrib. It's taken some convincing but he's agreed to just do the hit and run."

"Mission approved!" said Vance. "But if it all turns to cactus I want you and Mirza out of there fast. Harsh as it seems we can always raise another unit of freedom fighters."

"Roger."

Chua jumped in. "Aden, if you've got time I want to give you a heads up on the latest intel on the China side."

"Shoot."

"It is probable that the head of PETROCON, Han Zhu has sent one of his agents in to Sudan to equip and advise the Janjaweed. His assessed location is the PETROCON refinery at Abyei."

"That would explain the helo that smashed up Garang's boys."

"We don't have an ID on him yet, but I think he's going to be either MSS or PLA Second Department, seconded to PETROCON. I wouldn't be surprised if he was the same guy you met on the 'Tian Hai'."

"That f*cker was definitely a pro, whoever he was. He had Second Department written all over him," said Bishop. "Thanks for the heads up."

"That's about a wrap," said Vance. "If you need anything else just holler. Oh, and another thing, no crazy plans involving Dragonfly. That aircraft's worth a fortune and Tariq ain't gonna buy us a new one if you bang it up."

"No dramas. Mitch has made it pretty clear he's only flying logistics support on this one. Chua, I'm sending you the coordinates now. Any chance you can whistle us up some new imagery?"

"If there's anything recent you'll have it within the hour. If you can delay a few days I can see if we can schedule a pass with one of the Lascar flights."

"Negative, mate, we're punching in at first light. I've had a look at the stuff on the system; it's a few months old but it shows the general layout. We've come up with a basic plan. Nothing complex, but new shots would help."

"I'll get the team onto it now. Anything else?"

"No, that's it for intel support. Look, I've got to run. Mirza's knocked up a layout of the village and I want to take the teams through rehearsals. You guys got anything else for me?"

Vance and Chua shook their heads. The mission had advanced faster than they had anticipated. They would need to convene a planning meeting to make sure the overall mission had not changed.

"Get some sleep, Bish. You look like shit!" Vance added as they finished up the call.

"Cheers, boss. Love you too." He paused. "Hey, buddy, you're losing a bit of size. What's the problem? HQ got you pushing too many pencils?" asked Bishop in his best Schwarzenegger accent.

Vance flexed his arm and a massive bicep strained against the fabric of his shirt. "How about you wrap up this mission and get back island side so I can warm up on curls with what you max bench."

The PRIMAL operative laughed. "Will do. Bishop out!"