PRIMAL Vengeance

Chapter 51



Building Site, Khartoum



The PETROCON helicopter hovered above the construction site. Below it, on the crane, a pair of Sudanese police officers were hauling a terrified young man up from where he was hanging. It took both of them to winch the portly individual the four meters from where he was hanging up onto the walkway that ran the length of the crane's arm. Once they had him secured, they waved the pilot down. The helicopter bumped its skids up against the crane's arm and all three men scrambled into the cabin.

Zhu was waiting with Yang when the chopper touched down on the tennis court in front of the Corinthian Hotel. Two police officers clad in their overalls and harnesses led the terrified youth from the aircraft. He was still visibly shaken by the experience.

Zhu greeted him with a hug and a broad smile. Then as he looked over the boy, the smile dropped and his grandfatherly features turned to fury.

"YANG, WHO IS THIS?" he screamed.

Yang was confused. "It's your son, Ping!"

"Do you think I'm stupid? This is not my son! They have made a fool of us. Find my son, Yang! FIND HIM NOW!"

Yang grabbed the chin of the young Chinese man and studied his face. The resemblance was uncanny: the same squinting eyes, the pig-like features. Even the build and the clothing was spot on. The veins bulged in Yang's neck as he clenched his jaw. The Americans had fooled him with his own trick. He lifted his radio and screamed into it, "All units converge on the market. Capture the American!"

The Chinese operative grabbed an assault rifle from a nearby guard and strode across to the helicopter. Wrenching back the side door, he sat on the floor of the aircraft, his feet braced against the skids.

The co-pilot handed him a headset and the blades beat faster as the aircraft generated lift. It rose up off the tennis court, clearing the fence before it turned towards the market.

Yang had the crew tune the radio to his command frequency so he could coordinate the ground forces. He pressed the transmit button on the headset's cable. "The American is to be captured at all costs. Anyone providing assistance to him is to be killed on sight."

On the ground his guards relayed the commands to the Sudanese security forces. Heavily armed police established roadblocks and security checkpoints at all the exits. Plain-clothed operatives swarmed into the market. The hunt was on.