PRIMAL Fury (The PRIMAL Series) (38 page)

“Kurtz, you need to hurry the hell up.”

“Keep your pants on, I’m moving as fast as I can.” The long boom started to swing gracefully through the air.

“Bishop, we have police in pursuit. We need that evac ASAP
,
” Saneh said over the comms, breathing heavily as she ran up the stairs.

The boom slowed over them and there was a whir as the hook lowered. “You got to be shitting me,” Bishop said as he grasped the four webbing straps attached to the hook. Each strap had a carabiner attached to the end of it. “Where did you find this gear?” Bishop gave one of the lines a sharp pull; it looked strong.

“They use them on the worksite for safety,” said Kurtz. “Japanese standards are almost as high as German. They’ll hold.”

“They’d better.” Bishop hooked the carabiner through the loop on the back of Aleks’s armor, and checked it. The Russian returned the favor.

Saneh burst through the door onto the roof with Kenta in hot pursuit. Aleks and Bishop were ready. They hooked in the last two lines, gave them a few seconds to tighten their leg straps, which had been worn loose during the assault, and then Bishop radioed Kurtz.

“Lift off, fast as you can!”

The crane hummed, ripping them off the ground as it rotated. All four were pressed tightly together as they swung through the air.

“I don’t like this,” Kenta whispered.

“What’s wrong, comrade?” Aleks bellowed. “This is fun!”

“I can’t feel my…my manhood,” Kenta grunted.

All four of them laughed as they sailed through the air.

CHAPTER 71

RESIDENCE OF THE MORI-KAI OYABUN, HIMEJI

The Lexus LS600 flew up the mountain, its heavily armored chassis rolling on its suspension as it sped around the sweeping corners.

“My eyes are
still
stinging!” Masateru rubbed his bloodshot eyes with a wet face towel. He punched the headrest in front of him, startling Hideaki, who was driving.

The Mori-Kai lieutenant, along with Hideaki and Ryu, had returned to the apartments as soon as the Tokyo police had left. The local cops had been paid off and allowed them to inspect the site. It had been Masateru who had tripped the CS tear gas canister left in his dresser.

“Careful, Hideaki, you don’t want to add our deaths to their accomplishments.” Ryu gripped the door with one hand as the car sped around another corner.

Masateru shot him a cold look. “Hideaki will drive as fast as I tell him to.”

“Apologies,
waka-gashira
.”

Masateru’s bloodshot gaze lingered. “Now that we have a whole team of foreigners killing your Kissaki and their hirelings, your plan had better be ready.”

“Yes, sir, it is. You just need to place the bait.”

“I will do that tonight.”

The Lexus pulled up at a security checkpoint and Hideaki confirmed the identity of his two passengers with the armed guards. They drove through the gate and up the winding driveway through the sprawling estate.

“I’m going to see the
oyabun
; I’ll see you after,” said Masateru as the car came to a halt. He strode up the concrete steps and into the mansion’s foyer. A servant greeted him with a bow. “He will see you in his office.”

Masateru threw the man his jacket. “Have that laundered.” He stormed through the building to the office and knocked.

“Come in.”

He pushed the doors open. The head of the Mori-Kai was sitting on a sofa, a ceramic carafe of sake perched on the table with two matching cups.

“Masateru, come, sit, drink.”

The Mori-Kai’s second-in-command sat down opposite his master and lifted a cup of cold sake to his lips.

The
oyabun
watched as Masateru downed the cup. “Our minor irritation has become a festering wound.” He spoke slowly and deliberately. “The
gaijin
saved the
oyabun
and dealt us a painful blow.”

“Our raid against the Yamaguchi-gumi was not without success, even with the presence of the
gaijin
.”

“Success! How? The Yamaguchi dog lives.”

“Yes, but he has fled Kobe and we killed half of his
waka-gashira
. Now that he is in hiding, the Triads will support us.”

“And yet he strikes back, a raid into the very heart of our organization. We lost five of our most valuable women.”

“That was not the Yamaguchi. The foreigners have reinforcements.”

The
oyabun
slammed his fist down on the antique table, almost knocking over the sake. “How is it we know nothing about them? Who are they, Masateru? FBI, CIA? Why hasn’t your Interpol source given you a name?”

Masateru refilled his cup and downed it. “My source is dead, killed in a fire.”

“You think they killed him?”

“It is likely. But Rémi knew little about us; nothing he could tell them would be of any use.”

“They must be dealt with, Masateru. You have built me an army—use it to kill them.”

“I already have a plan. We will use the girl Karla to lure them into a trap.”

“You think the girl is at the center of their campaign?”

“I believe so.”

“Did her family hire these people?”

“Her family are simple peasants,
oyabun
. No, these people are something else. Their assaults on our business did, however, coincide with her recruitment, and they’ve followed her to Japan. I can’t explain it, but it’s too much to be a coincidence.”

“You have questioned the girl?”

“Yes, in detail. In the Ukraine she was put on board a helicopter with a team of operatives pretending to be Interpol agents. There were at least ten of them. The only ones she remembers clearly are a tall German and a large bearded Russian. These were the two who provided her security at the hospital.”

“The ones that your Kissaki tried to ambush but failed?”

“Yes,
oyabun
.”

“Germans, Russians, Americans, and yet we have no idea who they work for.”

“But we do know what they want and that can be used to our advantage. We will use the girl to lure them to a location of our choosing.”

“And then crush them with our army.”

“Exactly.”

The Mori-Kai leader leaned back on the sofa.

“The plan is ready,
oyabun
. It needs only your word.”

“It is given. Destroy the
gaijin
.”

Masateru rose from his seat. “It will be done,
oyabun
.” He made for the door.

“Masateru.”

He stopped. “Yes,
oyabun
?”

“Keep one of them alive. I want to know who hired them. My preference would be the woman.”

The Mori-Kai
waka-gashira
nodded and left the room. There was much work to be done.

CHAPTER 72

YAMAGUCHI-GUMI SAFE HOUSE, KOBE

“Way to go, team, you handed the Mori-Kai a damn good ass-kicking in the last twenty-four hours!” Vance’s bald head filled the screen of the laptop.

The computer was on an equipment case, the team sitting around it, except for Kenta, who was out checking in with other Yamaguchi.

“Thanks, but it doesn’t feel like much of a win,” said Bishop. “The Yamaguchi are all but out of the fight and we still haven’t found Karla or the head of the Mori-Kai.”

“Yeah, well, I think that’s about to change. Chua’s gonna brief you on the latest intel.”

Vance’s face was replaced with that of PRIMAL’s chief of intelligence.

“Thanks, Vance. Good to see you all, great work so far. I know intel’s a bit light, but I think that’s about to change with—”

“Just tell us what you’ve got,” Kurtz cut in.

Bishop looked at Kurtz, then Chua, and shrugged.

“OK, I’ll get to it.” Chua looked a little taken aback. “I had one of my people give Kalista, that’s Karla’s older sister, a follow-up call a few days ago on behalf of Interpol. She gave us her e-mail address and we’ve been monitoring it ever since. A little under an hour ago she received mail from her sister.”

“So now you know where Karla is, yes?” asked Kurtz.

“No, the IP address was scrambled. We didn’t get a location.”

“What did she say?” asked Saneh.

“That’s the clincher; she asked for Kurtz’s number. We think she’s going to call him for help.”

“Really?” said Bishop. “She’s only been in Japan a few days and the super-secret Mori-Kai let her surf the web and fire off some e-mails? And now she’s got herself a phone to call Kurtz?”

Chua nodded. “It would seem so.”

“It’s got to be a trap,” Bishop stated. “All just a little too convenient, don’t you think?”

“I agree,” Vance cut in offscreen. “But even if it’s a trap, we may be able to use it to turn up some intel.”

“I concur,” continued Chua, “we’ve e-mailed her a European number for Kurtz and routed it through to his iPRIMAL. When the call comes in we’re going to use NSA assets to locate the source.”

“What if it’s a landline?” Saneh asked.

“Then we’ll use more conventional means. Either way, we’ll find it. Flash has already made all the necessary arrangements.”

“And what do I say to her?” Kurtz asked. “Sorry we let you get sold into sex slavery?”

“No, we need you to elicit as much information from her as you can. Get her to describe her situation, how many guards, what her surroundings look like. Anything that might be useful.”

Kurtz nodded, torn between hope and sharing Bishop’s cynicism.

“Is there any other new intel from your other sources?” Bishop asked.

“No, unfortunately not. These guys are running some of the tightest OPSEC I’ve seen. Every attempt Flash and the team have made to pull apart their communications network has failed. Every device we’ve exploited has led to a dead end.”

“So we sit and wait for a phone call that may or may not come.”

“That’s why we call it the waiting game, Bish.” Vance’s face replaced Chua’s on the screen. “You’ve also got Kenta’s boys out scouring the streets, right?”

“Yeah, but that’s not going to be effective in tracking down Karla. The MK aren’t going to be taking her out shopping anytime soon.”

“So Karla calling is probably our best shot all round,” said Vance.

Bishop nodded. “It would seem so.”

“Yeah, well, I better let you get back to battle prep. You’ve done some good work, people. Get some rest while you can.”

“Thanks, Vance,” said Bishop as he ended the call. He turned to the group. “Vance is right. We’ve got an opportunity here. Yeah, it might be a trap, but we’ll play along. And we’ll make them regret it. Now, if Karla does call, we need to be able to move fast, so get your gear prepped and then get some sleep.” He turned to Kurtz. “Mate, can I have a minute?”

“Sure.” He followed Bishop across to a corner of the room.

Saneh and Aleks watched from where they were sitting.

“If this is about the crane, I had no control over that problem,” said Kurtz.

“This isn’t about the crane; you did a good job getting us out of there. This is about me needing to know you’re not going to fuck this up.”

Kurtz’s face turned crimson. “No, I’m not going to fuck this up. It is our last chance to recover Karla. I would not risk that!”

“This is exactly what I’m talking about, Kurtz. I know how much it hurt to lose Aurelia, OK? And I realize that you feel obligated to save Karla. But you got to get your mind off the goddamn woman and back on the mission. Karla is an objective, she is not the endgame. Taking down the Mori-Kai is.”

“We all have our own priorities, Aden.”

“Not on my team, we don’t. Get with the program or get out.”

The two men stared at each other.

“Do not screw this up.” Bishop left the German standing in the corner and returned to his equipment.

Saneh sat down on the trunk next to him. “Aden, you need to go easier on Kurtz.”

“He’s an operator, not a child.”

“No, he’s a man. A man who’s faced significant trauma. A man with wounds that need to heal.”

“This isn’t a rehab clinic. We’re a covert team running high-risk ops. He needs to focus on the mission, not the girl.”

“You and your missions, Aden. What do they matter if you don’t look after your own? You need to stop being a mindless machine and give him a break.” Saneh stormed off and disappeared up the stairs.

“Women, comrade,” said Aleks with a light pat on Bishop’s shoulder. “The ruin of every good man.”

“Don’t I know it.”