The Storm Maker (23 page)

       “Well,
we didn’t have the exact time of Lenax’s call, but luckily on that night, in
that half hour time interval only one call was made.” Avyk said now with a big
smile, “to High Standards Timber Company at Coldwoods.”

       “That
is it!” Yucker slammed his fist on the table with grinning excitement. “But we
are going to need that in writing from Mr. Jakwyk.”

       “Fortunately,
Jakwyk Telephone Company’s headquarters are in this city,” Avyk said, “and Mr.
Jakwyk is sending over his personal driver right now with a written attestation
of the call time and location.”

       “Book
him!” Yucker exclaimed.

       Senior
Detective Zurryvk and Lenax Tanx were relaxing in a small side lounge on one of
the floors of the SPASI headquarters. Lenax was reading a newspaper while
Zurryvk had slumped back on another sofa, his hands behind his head, eyes
closed, but not asleep. Neither he nor the rest of the team had heard from
Sayett and there was nothing to do till they had.

Chief
Detective Avyk walked in with two burly detectives each standing an inch or two
taller than six feet.      “Mr. Lenax,” Avyk said to the sitting man. Lenax
folded and put aside the newspaper and stood up.

       “That
is me,” Lenax said. Zurryvk opened his eyes and looked at Avyk.

       “Take
him away,” Avyk said. The two detectives walked behind Lenax, each grabbed an
arm. They pushed him forward and walked him down the hallway.

       Zurryvk
jumped up. “Hey, you can’t do that! He is our state guest.”

       “He
is a foreign spy,” Avyk said to him.

       “Avyk,
you can pull rank on me, but not on the leader of my team.” Zurryvk said, “Do
you know who it is? It is Sayett himself. I am going to call him right now.”

       “Save
yourself the trouble,” Avyk said. “My orders come from Chief Yucker.”

       “What
is this about?” Zurryvk was taken aback.

       “Yucker
will address your team in a few hours.” Avyk said. “Till then sit quiet and
tell your team to do likewise.” Avyk walked out the detectives who were waiting
with Lenax beside the elevator doors.

Sayett
woke up with sudden alarm; he threw both of his arms back into the bed, flashed
open his eyes, sat up straight in the bed like a spring and the first thought
that came to his mind was to reach for his gun. But just as he was about to do
that, he realized that there were multiple people looking down at him.

       “How
are you feeling, SPASI Man?” a uniformed man sitting on the chair next to his
bed asked him with a smile.

       “Much
better. I am chief detective Sayett of SPASI. Colonel…” Sayett said.

       “Colonel
Myett,” he said, “I command the Reserve Army and this is one of the towns in my
district. And this here,” Colonel turned to face a man in police uniform
standing next to him, “is the police chief of this town. I brought ten of my
boys, and he has four of his. Some of them are patrolling outside now. We came
as soon as Forvyt telephoned us.”

       The
young man, Forvyt, was still standing in the door with his ATR, but was looking
much more relaxed. There were also two warriors with their automatic ATR rifles
standing in the room, as well as two policemen with repeating rifles.

       “We
found your car some distance up in the woods,” the police chief said, “as well
as the car of four of your guards on the street along with their bodies.
Terrible what happened to you and your men.”

       “Actually,
that’s not my car in the woods,” Sayett said., “I managed to grab one of
theirs. Did you find any of their dead? I know we got some of them.”

       “There
was blood some distance from your car; that must have been theirs,” the police
chief said. “No bodies. They took their dead.”

       “Have
you told anybody about this, Chief?” Sayett asked.

       “Not
yet,” he replied. “I wanted to wait to hear from you. I can alert all the
nearby police chiefs right from here.”

       “Chief,
please do not do that,” Sayett said. “Those men are trained soldiers with
automatic firepower. If some town patrol car engages them, it will end badly
for the police.”

       “Well,
SPASI man Sayett, I can put together ten thousand warriors with automatic
rifles,” Colonel Myett said,. “Would you like me to do that?”

       “Appreciate,
but please let us handle it, Colonel,” Sayett said. “If you start calling your
warriors, they will go deep underground. I would rather let them believe that
they have some time, so that I can catch them at their place when I raid it.”

       “Sure,
Sayett,” Colonel Myett said. “it’s a SPASI case, but ask us for any help.”

       “There
is one matter,” Sayett said, turning to the police chief. “Can you send the
dead SPASI guards back to the Capital without the news of this event getting
out?”

       “Will
do that,” the police chief said. “I am required to file reports of any
shootouts in the town to the House of Police. The newspapers in Capital will
have access to it one day after it gets there. But I will delay sending the
report for a few days.”

       “Grateful,”
Sayett replied. He examined his wrist; it was feeling better and the pain was
much less. He got up from the bed and the colonel and the police chief walked
back into the living room to give him space.

       “Colonel,
can two of your warriors drop me off at my Southstar office?” Sayett asked.

       “No
problem,” the Colonel said, and then turned to Forvyt, “I am going to leave
Nytar and Byft here for a couple of days to back up you and your father in case
some of those gunmen come around looking.”

       “Sure,”
Forvyt nodded and opened the door for them to exit. Sayett, the colonel and the
police chief walked outside.

A
couple of other policemen and eight other warriors patrolled the outside and
five cars were parked in front of the house. Colonel Myett ordered two of the
warriors to driver duty for Sayett, and Sayett got in a car. Soon he was on the
same road, riding back to where he had come from earlier in the day. He did not
think that the gunmen would know of his plans or try to ambush him again but he
felt better having two warriors with him, and also felt comfortable as a
passenger in the back seat.

* * *

       “Cut
out one of those bullets,” Corporal Montex ordered his men as they stood around
the four dead guards.

       Eight
gunmen had come with him and they looked at each other, but none of them took
any action. Corporal Montex then took out his own knife.

       “They
are dead. Cut me out one bullet,” Montex said again and held up the knife. His
men hesitated to take it. These were elite soldiers of the Ranx army, Montex
thought, even had been in a battle and killed foes, but this task of cutting
out a bullet from one of their fellow soldiers made them queasy.

       “Fine,
I will do it,” Montex said. He leaned over a soldier that had taken multiple
shots, drove his knife down near a bullet hole and levered up a bullet that he
then pulled out with his fingers and held it in between his thumb and index
finger in front of all for the rest of them to see.

       “Now
what have we here?” Montex said, “why, it’s rifle ammunition.”

       The
soldiers leaned closer to look and those who knew it were shocked.

       “Me
too,” Montex said at their reaction. “How does a Ranx pistol end up firing a
standard Starfire ATR rifle bullet?”

       “He
must have grabbed one on his way out,” one of the soldiers offered with a
stutter.

       “There
is not a single, damn Starfire ATR rifle in this whole compound,” Montex said.
“And I don’t believe a pencilhead can make three shots, three kills, not in a
thousand years in broad daylight, and no way in the dark.”

       “It
must be those Starfire hunters that the gate guards told the Boss about.” one
of them said, “They must have broken in somehow and met up with him…who was
he?”

       “Some
scientist, a pencilhead. What does that matter,” Montex said. “So you are
saying that the hunters scaled the wall and met up with this scientist huh? Apparently,
they must have set up the meeting in advance and wrote it up in their
schedule.”

       The
soldier who had given the suggestion was embarrassed as Montex stared at him.
“I don’t know,” he said, “I was just…”

       “Hunting
rifles fire different bullets,” another soldier said.

       “Forget
it,” Montex said and then took out his radio and yelled, “Tryox, pick up the
damn radio.”

       A
few seconds later a voice answered.

       “Corporal
Montex,” Tryox said, “we heard gunshots.”

       “That
bastard pencilhead, strangely with one pistol and one bullet shot four of our
men,” Montex said. “Don’t ask how because I don’t know, damn it.”

       “We
will be ready for him at the gate,” Tryox said.

       “Are
you stupid?” Montex said annoyed. “Are you stupid or are you stupid? It is not
him, it is them and they are probably over the damn wall by now.”

       Tryox
did not say anything.

       “You
have two dogs with you; send them out on their trail,” Montex said. “I am
sending eight soldiers; they will catch up with the dog trackers.”

       “Alright.
I will send out both of my dog trackers.” Tryox said.

       Montex
shut off his radio and turned to his soldiers. “Go. Go out there and find the
scientist and whoever is with him.”

       “You
are not coming with us, Corporal?” one of them asked.

       Montex
put both of his hands on his hips and looked him in the face, “Are you scared?
Scared of the dark?” Montex then looked at the rest of them, “Now that Capitan
Suka is not here, I have to deal directly with that blockhead boss of ours. He
has no knowledge of war or combat, yet gives orders like a general.” Montex
walked away from them towards the central road leading to the tower.

* * *

       Sayett’s
car rolled in the port city of Southstar in the the first hour of evening.
Southstar was one of the two big cities on the western coast of the Starfire
nation along with Gold Harbor much further up north. A city of approximately
four million and three hundred thousand people, it was the hub of trade and
commerce of the southeastern part of the country. A large port as well as an
industrial center, it was also a major base of the sea army, although the army
port was located in the northern outskirts of the city, some distance from both
the city center and the commercial port. There were also a large number of
shipbuilders—both commercial and military—and submarine builders located all
along the coast. It was the largest shipbuilding center and second largest one
for the submarine construction.

       At
one time it was also notorious as the locale of big time smuggling operations.
That was the time Sayett had first come here early in his work life with the
SPASI, as a junior detective just learning the tricks of the detective trade.
SPASI had shut down most of the smuggling syndicates for good and Sayett had
played a major role in those operations, earning great credit for his work file
from the then chief detective of Southstar. There was still some smuggling
going on, but the SPASI had cut back on its staff and its focus, leaving a much
smaller office to deal with the remaining smugglers.

       The
warriors drove Sayett right into the heart of the city. The SPASI office was
located on the top four floors of a twenty-story office building. As a matter
of policy SPASI always bought the top floors in buildings that it did not own
outright. Sayett saw that some SPASI guards had already arrived and were
congregating in the building’s parking lot. The trucks to take them on the raid
were parked in the lot. The car stopped on the side of the road just outside
the entrance to the parking lot and Sayett got out.

       “Grateful
to you,” Sayett said. “Convey my thanks to Colonel Myett.”

       “Will
do. You take care SPASI man,” the driver said. He waved, made a quick U-turn on
the road and sped off.

       Sayett
walked across the parking lot towards the building and a few guards.     “What’s
the count so far?” Sayett asked.

       “Thirty
six,” one guard answered. “Are you Sayett?”

       “Am,”
Sayett said. He clapped a couple of times to get all of their attention. “We
are not having an open air cookout here, fellas. Now, if someone is watching us
at this very moment, they would know we are planning a raid. All of you
standing around outside are giving away our intentions. Everyone inside the
building.”

       The
guards saluted and nodded and went into the building.

       “And
somebody tell the drivers to take those trucks and park them out on the
streets,” Sayett said., “Distribute them in front of the different buildings.
They are a clue, too.”

       The
SPASI guards who drivers ran to the trucks. Sayett then went inside, and took
an elevator to the topmost floor. Four SPASI guards patrolled the elevator
lobby. Sayett showed his identification card and his badge, and had a guard
take him straight to the office of Chief Detective Pylar. Pylar was not in his
office, but they found him in a corner conference room where he was talking on
the phone. Two junior detectives, including the one who had delivered the car
to Sayett earlier, were standing near him.

       “Oh,
wait,” Pylar said sighting Sayett, “Sayett has just reached.”        He took
the phone away from his ear and said, “Chief Yucker is on the phone. He has
good news for you. Here...” Pylar held out the receiver to Sayett who eagerly
took it and put it to his ear.

       “Chief
Yucker, Sayett here, just reached Southstar. “Pylar tells me that you have some
good news.”

       “Yes
I do,” Yucker said from the other end. “We found your man— the spy inside your
team. It was Lenax Tanx, the Eye of Ranx man as you had suspected.”

       “Is
he inside the headquarters?” Sayett asked.

       “I
took him in the custody. Now hear this,” Yucker said. “He made a phone call to
Coldwoods, to that lumber company that you suspect as the headquarters for the
bank robberies, on the very night you told your team about your plans for the
raid.”

       “Great,”
Sayett said, “but do we have evidence of it?”

       “I
am holding in my hands right now a written attestation from the owner of the
Jakwyk Telephone Company whose pay phone Lenax called from,” Yucker said.

       “Great,”
Sayett said. “Now hopefully tomorrow we will get Slyntya back.”

       “The
last of the guards should be there by midnight.” Yucker said, “When are you
heading out?”

       “Tomorrow
morning,” Sayett said. “I don’t want a night time raid by sleepless guards; I
can’t be reckless since Slyntya is involved. For that matter, our guards aren’t
the soldiers of the elite army, either, to handle that kind of night time
jungle operation.”