Vengeance (The Kurgan War Book 4) Read Online Free PDF

cleaned in years. “Do you have any tools?” he asked the driver.
    The man nodded and hurried to grab his tools from the back of his truck.
    “What was written on the note?” Sheridan asked Cole.
    “I had a young Russian-speaking lady on the Sydney translate a message for me. It basically says give me a hand and I’ll give you some gold.”
    The driver returned with a grease-stained canvas bag full of tools and gave it to Cole.  
    “It’s a wonder this thing moves at all,” bemoaned Cole. “The rechargeable gel-pack batteries are at least twenty years old and the wiring looks like someone just threw it all together and hoped for the best.”
    “Can you fix it?” asked Sheridan, knowing precious little about the workings of a transport’s engine.
    Cole smiled. “Of course I can. It’ll take me perhaps half an hour to rewire the batteries and clean off the connections. After that, this thing will work like she should . . . for an antique.”
    True to his word, just over thirty minutes later the vehicle, with a loud splutter from its aged engine, started up. Sheridan and Cole jumped up into the cab with the driver. Cole handed the man one gold bar and another slip of paper with an address written on it.
    The driver read the note, nodded, placed the truck’s engine in gear, and drove off.
    Two hours later the truck pulled over at a rest stop on the side of the road. Sheridan looked around and saw nothing but woods. He asked Cole, “Are you sure this is the place?”
    Cole winked. “Positive.” He turned and looked at the driver. “Thanks and here is the other gold bar.”
    The man smiled at the two small golden bars in his hands.
    Cole nudged his friend. “Time to go.”
    They climbed out of the truck and stood on the side of the road watching as the vehicle drove off into the night.
    Sheridan looked around at the thick woods lining the roadway. “Unless your friend has an underground bunker hidden out here in these woods, I’d have to say that your directions are a little off.”  
    “Ye of little faith,” responded Cole. “Bribing people into helping us is one thing, trusting them is another. I had us deliberately dropped off at the wrong location just in case our greedy old army buddy decides to sell us out to the authorities.”
    Sheridan should have seen that one coming. There was a lot about Cole’s past that he didn’t know about. When they were done, he intended to have a long chat with his friend about his life before joining the Corps.
    “Come on,” said Cole as he began to stroll down the road. “Bodrov only lives a couple of klicks away. I hope he has some good nosh in his kitchen that he wants to part with, I’m starving.”

Chapter 4

    Admiral Takeshi Oshiro sat back in his comfortable blue leather chair and rubbed his tired eyes. It was only mid-afternoon, but the admiral was already feeling tired. Due to the mounting pressure of his job, he had not slept or eaten well in the past few months. His average workday now lasted well over eighteen hours a day. Although he was in his early sixties with snow-white hair and a neatly trimmed beard, he still managed to keep his body in good shape, exercising every day instead of eating over the lunch hour.
    His aide, Rear Admiral Sean Parker, sat across from him holding a tablet in his hands. Parker was a thin man with black hair and gray eyes. He had been Oshiro’s aide for the past two years and knew getting to the point, especially when the news was bad, was always appreciated. “Sir, the report from Eris is not good. Colonel Valens has reported that everyone there is dead. We’ll probably never learn what happened as the installation’s computers and security monitoring devices were all erased. Unfortunately, whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing.”
    “Does he suspect Kurgan saboteurs?”
    “Sir, he’s not sure. As of now there’s not enough evidence to say who is responsible.”
    Oshiro’s voice grew serious.