The Storm Maker (24 page)

       “I
agree, but I have to tell you that I have to inform Constellation about
Slyntya’s kidnapping soon—like tomorrow.”

       “I
understand, but do it in the evening,” Sayett said. “I will catch you from the
SPASI truck radio just before I order the attack. Leave for the Constellation
then, so by the time you reach there, we will have Slyntya and you will be able
to tell them about the rescue as well as the kidnapping.”

       “Alright,”
Yucker said.

       “Alright
then,” Sayett said and hung up the phone.

       “We
don’t have more than a handful of beds here,” Pylar said, “but you can take one
of them. We have blankets, though, for the rest.”

       “I
will sleep on the blankets with the guards,” Sayett said. “Don’t want to get
too comfortable before the big day. Let’s see the space.”

       Pylar
took Sayett to see the arrangements that he had made for the hundred guards
that had to be accommodated.

* * *

       “Why
aren’t we running?” Jalant asked Sthykar as they walked in the direction of
Relkyett’s cabin.

       “Whisper,
Whisper!” Sthykar said. “You don’t know who is listening in these woods.”

       “Alright,”
the scientist whispered.

       “I
don’t want us to get separated, you would be lost by yourself,” Sthykar said,
“Besides, my backup is not too far away now.”

       “What
do you mean by backup?”

       “Hunting
friends,” Sthykar said. “But no more talking. You can stay close behind me.

       They
kept walking in the night. Sthykar carefully placed his feet and avoided
branches, but the scientist was stepping on leaves and branches, making
crumbling noise with his shoes. However, there was nothing Sthykar could do
about it, besides carrying him again on his back.  Sthykar laughed quietly to
himself.

       Some
distance later, Sthykar stopped.      “I hear barking, dogs,” he said.

       “I
don’t hear…” Sthykar cut him off.

       “Keep
quiet,” Sthykar said, “it is faint but unmistakably dog barking and getting
closer. They must have some clothes or object with your scent on it, for the
dogs to track it.”

       “All
my clothes and materials are back there,” Jalant said. “When they bought us in,
they had us take off our shoes and kept them in the guardhouse and gave us new
ones.”

       “Clever
of them,” Sthykar said. “In case you ran, the dogs would have the scent from
the shoes to track you in the woods.”

       “Shall
we run to your backup now?” Jalant asked.

       “No,
the dogs are much faster We shoot the dogs and the dog trackers.”

       Even
in the dark Jalant’s face betrayed the fact that he was unnerved at the thought
of another shootout. Sthykar scouted for a suitable place to take a stand.
After a few moments, he found what he was looking for: two big tree trunks not
more than a few feet apart. More importantly, there was relatively open ground
just before them, mostly grass with a few trees with small trunks. That’s what
he wanted, an open space to have clear shots at the dogs. Sthykar motioned for
Jalant to come over to him.

       Sthykar
took out his pistol, flicked off the safety and handed it to Jalant. “This is a
Starfirian pistol. It has ten bullets. Take it and hide behind that tree.”
Sthykar pointed to the big tree on the left. “Keep it aimed low at the ground
and when the dogs come running, open fire, but only after I fire—not before.”

       “I
have never done this before…”

       “And
you won’t live to do this again if you don’t follow my orders,” Sthykar said as
he went to the big tree on the right and set his rifle in firing position. “My
rifle has longer range, so I will fire first. You hold fire till after that.”

       “How
do you know they will come from here?” Jalant asked.

       “Dogs
are dumb; they will run straight at us,” Sthykar said. “Now no more talking. I
hear barking getting closer. I can make out two distinct barks, two dogs. Get
ready.”

       Sthykar
had picked a tree that had the added advantage of having its trunk split in two
directions with space in between just wide enough to position his rifle in. He
switched his rifle to ‘single shot’ and waited.

       The
barking got closer and closer. All three moons were out on that night, but so
were the clouds. Now the red moon, then the green moon and then the blue moon
would shine their faint colorful light through the openings between the clouds.

       The
barking increased. Sthykar heard footsteps behind the dogs, but he had to
concentrate on the dogs first.

       The
dog trackers realized that their dogs had started barking excitedly and deduced
that their prey was close. They let loose these dogs of war.

       Dogs
ran straight towards the trees where Sthykar and Jalant hid. Sthykar could take
the shot now, but he knew Jalant wouldn’t make it at that distance, definitely
not in the dark. The barking dogs came closer and closer. Sthykar fired one
shot and one dog was blasted.

       Jalant
startled and jumped, stepped out slightly from behind the tree and started
firing his pistol at the remaining dog. His first two shots missed. The dog was
getting closer. Jalant panicked; he completely gave up the cover of the tree
and started taking one shot after other at the second dog. He hit the dog on
the seventh shot, but fired one more even after the dog had gone silent.

       Suddenly
there was a continuous burst of automatic fire aimed at the scientist. Jalant
screamed as he was hit with multiple bullets, fell back and died on the spot.

       Sthykar
aimed at the sound of the incoming fire and let loose one round from his rifle.
Another shout and a thud of a body falling to the ground.

       Sthykar
glanced Jalant’s fallen body. Poor man, he thought. If he had kept his calm and
had not come out in the open, he would have lived. Sthykar could have shot the
second dog as well, but the scientist had no battle sense, had lost it
completely and paid dearly for it.

       Sthykar
looked out front into the woods again. He had shot one dog tracker, but two
dogs almost always meant two trackers. Someone else was lurking in the woods,
patiently waiting.

       Sthykar
had taken only single-bullet shots. It was very hard for even an expert
marksman to place a sudden sound at a particular location. But if two shots
were fired in succession, a sharp ear could guess where the sound came from.
Thus, Sthykar believed he was still invisible to the second dog tracker; just
like that man was invisible to Sthykar.

       Sthykar
switched his rifle to full-auto mode. At the first sound he was going to empty
half or even a full magazine.

       A
few long moments passed.

       There
was no sound, but Sthykar could sense in his gut that someone out there.
Sthykar made no sound either. Kneeling absolutely still, his finger on the
trigger, his eyes scanned across the length of his peripheral vision and his
ears were alert for the faintest of sounds.

       Perhaps
the man was crawling around to flank him. But Sthykar remembered there were too
many leaves and twigs on the ground; even an experienced crawler would make a
faint noise in this silentest of the nights.

       Sthykar
decided to make a play. He took his grappling hook from his belt using his left
hand and threw it over his head to about fifteen feet to his right side.

       The
hook hit the ground hard.

       Instantly
a barrage of shots came into that location. A few bullets even ricocheted off
of the steel hook, making a clanking sound.

       Sthykar
had the man now; he turned his rifle at the direction of the firing sound,
squeezed the trigger and held it for the next few seconds till the entire
magazine was empty. He heard a couple of shouts and then a sound of someone
tumbling over a branch and falling.

       The
man was good, Sthykar thought. He had managed to hit the hook, but he wasn’t
elite. Knowing what sound to shoot at and what to ignore was as much a part of
becoming a sharpshooter as hitting the target just by its sound.

       Sthykar
threw away his empty magazine and attached a new one. He slowly walked out from
behind the tree and leaned over at Jalant’s body. The scientist was dead, had
been the moment he had fallen. Sthykar closed his eyes, gave him an army salute
and then started running towards Colonel Jontvyk’s position.

09/08/958

Sayett
got up early that day. A handful of guards were talking and walking about. They
saluted him when they saw him, and he acknowledged them. There was still an
hour remaining till the general alarm would ring for everyone. There were only
a few washing facilities in the office and it would get crowded when all the
guards got up. Sayett brushed his teeth, shaved and took a quick shower. He
dressed and went out of the building to a nearby restaurant for breakfast.
Sayett wanted some quiet time to think about these events and the raid they
were going on.

       For
the first time after a great many years Sayett had that feeling in his stomach,
that combination of excitement and anxiety, which made him eagerly anticipate
the coming action, as well as wish that it did not have to be this way. The
raid itself wasn’t the problem for him, he had been in many shootouts in his
long work life as a national detective. It was Slyntya; more than a Constellar,
she was the wife of a great friend and he felt personally responsible for her.
Ensuring her safety was the highest priority. He wished Colonel Sthykar was
with them to lead the raid, nevertheless he knew that this was the course of
action the colonel would have prescribed. As Sthykar had told him once, ‘when
in doubt, attack’ and that is exactly what Sayett was determined to do.

       Sayett
finished his omelet and coffee and walked back to the SPASI office. As he
entered the top floor, a couple of junior detectives were giving out the
general alarm by walking amongst the sleeping guards while ringing alarm clocks
as loudly as possible.

       “Send
them into the parking lot as they get ready,” Sayett said to the detectives.
“Nobody lingers around here.”

       Sayett
then went back down into the parking lot. A few SPASI guards had already
arrived and he sent them out to bring back the trucks they had parked in the
streets the previous night. As the clock ticked towards 9 AM guards started
hurrying down, ready in their uniforms and with their submachine guns. At
quarter to nine, all of the SPASI guards had congregated in the parking lot.

       “Listen
up,” Sayett shouted over their conversations. “Everybody in the trucks, now! We
leave at nine sharp. I will explain the mission and the location on our truck
radio intercom.”

       The
guards rushed to the trucks and within five minutes all of them were inside.
Sayett got into the first truck along with a SPASI guard who was the driver.

       “We
will be in the lead,” Sayett said to him.

       “I
like that. Where to?” the driver asked.

       Sayett
took the radio transmitter for trucks’ intercom from the dashboard and spoke in
it. “Guards, some of you might have heard the rumors of a SPASI team getting
ambushed and four of our fellow SPASI men getting killed. Well, that is true
and that was my team. Four of my SPASI guards were shot and we are going to get
those bastards who did it.”

       Sayett
waited a moment; he heard some murmur from behind in his own truck. He let the
fact sink in and then spoke again.

       “Now
you will be yearning for revenge but we cannot be rash here,” Sayett said. “I
want justice more than anyone else because I was there; I saw them die close to
me. But during the skirmish, a Constellar was kidnapped. Getting her back is
our highest priority and we cannot risk injury to her due to any recklessness
on our part caused by the rage. So I expect that all of us will carry out the
raid in a cold and disciplined manner.”

       The
driver nodded. There were no voices from radio. Sayett hoped that determination
would replace anger. He did not say anything further as he looked at his
wristwatch for the next few minutes. Just a few seconds before nine o’clock he
spoke again.       “Alright, to Coldwoods.”

       The
driver turned the key in the ignition and with a loud roar, the engine came to
life as did the engines of the trucks behind them. His truck exited the parking
lot and headed to the national road, followed closely by the rest of the
trucks.

* * *

       Colonel
Sthykar ran through the woods at a moderate pace. He did not want to alarm his
friends at the ridge by coming in charging. As he was running, he heard very
faint noise of running footsteps behind him. Apparently the shooting back there
had attracted the attention of more gunmen. They were coming after him, but
were behind by a significant distance. Sthykar took out his radio and said
‘Rats’ over it. The message was received by Colonel Jontvyk on the other end.

       “Alright,
Sthykar is coming in,” he said to Dentar, Hayett and Karyett.

       “Is
he being followed?” Hayett asked.

       “Seems
like it. He said ‘rats’.”

       “Let’s
get ready,” Karyett said.

       They
had taken up the position on the ridge a few feet from each other, but now they
moved further apart. Jontvyk put his ATR on the top of the hill and squinted
down into the dark. Dentar, Hayett and Karyett readied their hunting rifles as
well. All of them looked at the woods with keen intent. The light from the
moons was not sufficient for them to make out anything but all of them were
excellent marksmen who could shoot at the sound. About ten to fifteen minutes
passed without much happening.

       “Howdy,
friends,” Sthykar startled them from behind. Jontvyk turned around fast; Hayett
and Karyett almost twitched. Dentar, for his part, swung his rifle around in
panic at hearing a voice from the behind.

       “Sthykar…”
Jontvyk said. “How did you get to our backs.”

       “Didn’t
want to be in your line of fire,” Sthykar said lying down besides Jontvyk and
placing his ATR on the ground. “I flanked you.”

       “We
knew you were coming,” Karyett laughed. “We weren’t going to open up on you.”

       “You
move like a ghost,” Hayett said. “In all my time in the Jungle Army, I never
knew anyone who moved through a forest that swiftly yet silent.”

       “Let’s
get ready,” Sthykar said. “I was hearing faint of footsteps. I left them behind
but they will catch up.”

       “So
what is going on in that compound?” Jontvyk asked.

       “Some
big villainy, if a man I stumbled upon is to be believed.” He quickly
summarized for them what scientist Jalant had told him about the machine that
the Ranxians had constructed, its alleged capabilities and their plans.

       “I
can’t believe a weapon like that exists,” Dentar said.

       “Regardless,”
Sthykar said. “This is a criminal organization that we have stumbled upon. They
are armed, they are ready to commit murder and they already have.”

       “Want
to call our backup here?” Jontvyk asked. “Muftar, Felptar and the rest are at
the ridge behind us.”

       “Not
unless we need them. I doubt more than a dozen are coming after me, and Muftar
and company will be our saviors if we get flanked from both sides.”” Sthykar
said, “

       The
running footsteps got closer.

       “Fire
when you hear them near the bottom of the hill,” Sthykar whispered. “Colonel
Jontvyk and I will hold while you three take your shots first. With your single
shot hunting rifles one shot is all that you will be able get off before bedlam
breaks out.”

       “We
are ready,” Dentar said.

       Then
they waited.

The
eight Ranx gunmen sent by Montex had stopped running now. They were puzzled by
not hearing Sthykar’s footsteps anymore.

       “Do
you think that other man is hiding?” one of them asked.

       “Let’s
go some more and then turn back,” another said, “We have to carry the dead bodies
back to the compound.”

       They
kept walking as the talked—right into the trap that Sthykar had set for them.
In a few minutes they were stepping through the woods towards the hill on which
Sthykar and his friends were waiting. One of them stepped on a stack of dry
leaves and crunched them under his boots.

       Dentar
and Hayett opened up with their hunting rifles at the very same moment and at
that very same person. Karyett fired second taking out a second gunman. Then
Jontvyk let loose with his ATR on full auto, gunning down a third man.

       Sthykar
was tracking the sound of two different sets of footsteps. He shot at the first
sound with a single shot, hitting the target right in his chest. Then he
quickly flipped his ATR to auto and unloaded most of his magazine into the
location of the second sound; a body fell to the ground.

       Then
as Sthykar had predicted it was pandemonium in the jungle. The three remaining
Ranxian gunmen panicked and fired their rifles every which way. Sthykar and
Jontvyk attached new magazines and let loose in the general direction of the
firing sound. Karyett, Dentar and Hayett also loaded bullets into their rifles
and fired off to add to their perceived strength. No one could see anything
except for some rifle flashes; and the shots rang out in the forest as the
bullets ricocheted off the tree trunks.

       The
three Ranxian gunmen didn’t bother to reload and retreated as fast as they
could. Sthykar and friends waited a few moments till their sounds went silent
in the distance.

       “Colonel,
let’s go back to the cabin before they get backup,” Jontvyk said.

       “Right,”
Sthykar said. “We will pick up Muftar and company along the way.”

       Rifles
clutched in their hands, they descended the hill.