The Storm Maker (37 page)

       Suka
walked up the curved staircase as Sthykar quietly walked down: the capitan
against the colonel, a ranger against an elite warrior, a daredevil against a
legend.

       They
met halfway.

       Sthykar
and Suka stumbled onto each other from around the bend of the wall. With no
room to maneuver a rifle, Sthykar threw a hard kick at Suka’s rifle that sent
it crashing against the opposite wall, while Suka took an arm whack at
Sthykar’s rifle rapping it onto the floor. Both reached for their pistols with
one hand while taking a swing at other’s face with the other hand; both
connected and disoriented each other away from grabbing the pistol. They
grabbed at each other and started throwing hard left and right at each other’s
face and had bloodied each other in no time. Sthykar kicked Suka in the gut;
Suka yelled and threw his elbow in Sthykar’s chest while getting back up.
Sthykar stumbled back, Suka kicked his feet out from under him and Sthykar fell
on the stairs his back in excruciating pain from hitting the concrete step
edge. However, Sthykar had managed to retain his senses, he flipped around and
gave a back kick to Suka’s stomach and Suka kneeled in pain holding his gut.

       Both
of them labored up in considerable pain, staring at each other for a couple of
seconds, with mixed emotions of respect for a worthy competitor and anger
against a mortal enemy.

       They
once again traded hard punches. Suka deliberately let himself take two punches,
bent down as if forced down and then rapidly speared at Sthykar, moved over to
his back, and grabbed Sthykar’s neck from behind and started choking him.
Sthykar hadn’t seen it coming, but he quickly overcame his mistake. He tried to
pull Suka’s wrist away from his neck with one hand, however that was the
diversion for his next move. As Suka tightened his grip, Sthykar dropped to his
knee, leaned forward, and with the rapid jerk, flipped Suka over his head and
slammed him hard on the stairs. Now it was Suka’s turn to feel pain in his back
and he sat up straight with a loud yell. Sthykar quickly rushed forward, put
Suka in a choke hold, tightened his grip and yanked sideways.

       Suka
was dead as Sthykar let his body collapse on the stairs.

       He
picked up his rifle and walked to the second floor where he saw Boss Hantex
holding pistol to Slyntya’s head and with a grip on her neck. Detective Sayett
had already reached there from the other side and had aimed his pistol at
Hantex in a diagonal angle across the room. But Sayett wasn’t going to take the
shot. He had let Slyntya get kidnapped; he wasn’t going to risk hurting her.
They were both eagerly waiting: Hantex for Suka’s return and Sayett for
Sthykar’s.

       Sthykar
walked in front of Hantex and Slyntya with his rifle aimed straight. Sayett
felt greatly relieved; he was thinking about taking a leg shot as the last
desperate option with all the risk that entailed, but now he would let the
Colonel make the decision.

       “I
am going to walk out of here to my helicopter,” Boss Hantex said apparently
forgetting that his helicopter hadn’t returned. “You two make a move and I
shoot her.”

       Slyntya
was near tears, but Sthykar had a cold, stoic face.    His rifle was aimed
straight at Hantex’s forehead.

       The
next moment he took a shot. Hantex was hit smack in the middle of his forehead,
blood spurted out all over Slyntya as she yelled in panic and the Boss fell
back on the floor, lifeless. She ran to Sthykar and hugged him hard. Sayett ran
to the Boss and kicked his pistol away.

       “He
is dead alright,” Sayett said. “But there are still six rangers below.”

       “My
friends are taking care of them, if they haven’t already,” Sthykar said.

       “You
took the shot,” Slyntya said lifting up her head from his chest. “You actually
took that shot.” She was amazed but smiling as well.

       “I
scored a thousand out of…”

       “…a
thousand in the National Marksmanship Competition. I know you have told it to
me a thousand times,” Slyntya completed his sentence.

       “Then
you know I would not have missed,” Sthykar said.

       “I
know, but it was still very scary,” she replied.

       “I
would be scared too,” Sayett consoled her, “if someone took a shot so close to
my face. But if I could pick one man out of the world to do it, it would be
Colonel Sthykar.”

       Suddenly
they heard an explosion below. Sayett was startled; he aimed his pistol at one
of the stairs leading to the first floor.

       “Sthykar,
I will hold one side, you hold the other,” he said.

       “Those
are my friends, I’ll bet,” Sthykar said. He took his small radio from his belt
and called in, “Colonel Jontvyk, what is your position?”

       “Just
blew open the front door to the tower on the first floor,” Jontvyk radioed
back. “It was solid wood backed by metal, had to use the explosives. We have
captured the first floor.”

       “We
are on the second floor,” Sthykar said. “Come on up.”

       A
few seconds later Colonel Jontvyk, Relkyett, Yytar, old man Zyf and others
walked up to the second floor and cheered when they saw that Slyntya and Sayett
were safe.

       “Where
are your SPASI guards and where is the town police?” Sthykar asked.

       “They
have a huge underground dormitory,” Sayett said. “They kept me there along with
the rest. At least they were decent enough to let Slyntya have a room of her
own up on the second floor.”

       “Who
is on the third floor?” Jontvyk asked.

       “Dead
enemies,” Sthykar replied.

       “And
machine operators who I locked up in a small room,” Sayett said. “Come on,
let’s rescue the rest of the hostages. I believe all the Rangers are dead, but
just to be sure, back me up.”

       “Sure,”
Colonel Jontvyk said. He and a dozen others went with Sayett downstairs where
they shot off the locks of the doors and were greeted by an ecstatic crowd of
SPASI guards and Coldwoods police.

       Sthykar
and Slyntya sat down on a sofa adjacent to a wall as Slyntya relaxed her head
on his shoulder, closed her eyes and almost fell asleep, finally feeling safe
and secure after a long time.

* * *

       Sthykar’s
friends, the Coldwoods volunteers, the police and the SPASI guards took command
of the tower and the compound while the storm passed. And pass it did. After
Sthykar blew the roof off of the tower the hurricane peaked at the wind speeds
of over 150 miles per hour, but without the ongoing sustenance provided by the
Storm Machine, it rapidly dissipated, leaving behind massive carnage and
destruction. Almost all of the trees had been uprooted and the majority were
flung hither and yonder in the hurricane. What had been a forest looked like
cleared ground with uprooted trees strewn everywhere. A great many Coldwoods
houses were flattened, and while the town and the nearby ones had been
evacuated, a few folks had decided to stay put and many of them perished. The
rainwater that had accumulated would take days, even weeks at some places, to
evaporate or to make its way to the rivers and the ocean.

       The
999
^th
Reserve Army under Colonel Weltar handed over its Ranxian
prisoners of war to the Regular Army, and all of its second to tenth divisions
that had participated in the battle were demobilized and allowed to return
home. The first division under Capitan Aryt, which had only stood around in the
heavy downpour, was temporarily given charge of Coldwoods and the surrounding
towns that were on the receiving end of the mightiest hurricane in Starfirian
history. Fortunately, these were lumber towns with workers who knew how to deal
with the logs and the trees and the work began furiously to clear out the
trees, even to utilize them and rebuild the homes, shops and businesses.

       Coldwoods
police were given a week’s leave to allow them to rest and recover from the
effects of their captivity. Meanwhile Starfirian Air Army rushed its transport
planes to Coldwoods airport and ferried out all the rest to the Capital:
Sthykar, Slyntya, their friends, Sayett and his guards, and townsfolk who had
lost their homes. The scientists and the engineers from the Army’s workshops
examined the instruments, but there was not much left in working condition, and
anyhow they were bound by the treaty to destroy any working instruments and
machines related to the Storm Machine.

       Starfire
nation’s heroes and warriors had done their deeds, now it was time for its
leaders and commanders to do their part.

The
Constellation and the House of War weren’t going to allow this near act of war
by the Ranxians to pass without retaliation. In the days after the Boss
Hantex’s compound was destroyed, SPASI and the Department of Army
Investigations pieced together a lot of the information and concluded that the
scheme wasn’t just a private act by Hantex, Suka Manx and Ranger volunteers;
but had the support of the highest levels of the Ranxian state. It was all part
of the ideology of the Ranx Rejuvenation Party: driven by the specter of
creating a massive empire as well as the false history that they had convinced
themselves off about being the descendants of the Sanguine Empire.

       The
King and the Constellation authorized Supreme Commander Krratyk to hit back at
Ranx Nation if it did not repent for the actions of its leaders. Starfirian Air
and Sea Armies were mobilized and Air Commander Byter took personal command of
the preparations for the war. Six thousand fighter planes were loaded on the
decks of fifty airplane carriers and with the support of a hundred battleships
they began their journey towards Ranx. Ranx was a landlocked country, but it
still had to worry about the air attack. Ranx had no more than four thousand fighter
planes and they would not be able to hold off an attack by better and more
numerous Starfirian airplanes.

       As
the Starfirian force rushed to Ranx, Ranxians tried to appeal to the Narducat
Empire for help. But the empire was pretty mad at them as well after learning
of the Ranxian plans to supplant it in the future as the world’s most powerful
empire with the help of the storm-weapons. It refused the request for help and
on the contrary threatened to launch an attack of its own.

       As
the Starfirian ships carrying the fighter planes got closer, the Ranxian
politics went in turmoil. Ranxians offered to negotiate and Starfirians
presented three demands: public executions of the political leaders involved in
this scheme, permanent ban on the Ranx Rejuvenation Party and the liquidation
of the assets of Boss Hantex to pay for the damage caused in Coldwoods and
nearby towns as well as for the banks that had lost money in the bank
robberies.

        The
political leaders from RRP balked at the idea of passing a capital sentence on
their own selves and ordered the army to prepare for war. But the army was not
so sure. The Starfirians had threatened to strafe six targets to rubble when
they attacked: the headquarters of Ranxian land army, air army, Ranx Rangers
and of the Ranx Rejuvenation Party as well as the state assembly and the
residence of the state minister. Furthermore Starfirians had hundreds of
Rangers as prisoners. Whether they would be tried as saboteurs and given
punishment or as prisoners of war and allowed to return to their country
depended on the Ranx army’s willingness to comply with the Starfirian demands.

       Starfirians
had provided the Ranxian army generals an out and they took it. One early
morning when the sun hadn’t even arose; Ranxian troops stormed the buildings of
the state assembly, the state minister, Ranx Rejuvenation Party headquarters
and its leaders’ homes, and the central office of the Eye of the Ranx: the spy
and detective department. Ranxian generals took command, dissolved the state assembly
and declared new elections in one month. They shut down the RRP and its members
were banned for life from running for office. Boss Hantex’s shares in his
companies were confiscated, sold off and the proceeds sent to Starfire to
compensate for the damages.

       Starfirians
ordered their forces to a halt in mid-ocean as Ranxians rushed to comply with
their demands and finally the last act of justice for the villains was carried
out.

       RRP
Party Founder and Leader Vanx Utter, the State Minister Tonex Jut, head of the
Eye of the Ranx, and eight others who were identified as having played a high
level role in the scheme were shot by the firing squad in a public square.
Amongst the spectators was the Starfirian King’s Representative to Ranx who
conveyed this event back to the House of War and the Constellation. Satisfied
that the villains had finally gotten their just due, the ships carrying the
fighter planes were recalled and the prisoners of war were sent home. The
Ranx’s highest ranking general formally conceded their fault to the Supreme
Commander Krratyk in a meeting arranged on an island off Starfire’s eastern
coast a few days later while the House of War and Constellation officially
called off the attack.

* * *

       “Did
you hear the news on the radio?” Slyntya asked as she settled into her seat.

       “Indeed,”
Sayett said. “The Ranxian army executed the leaders of the plot. We had
threatened them with a war if they didn’t. I knew about the deal made with
their generals before, but we could not give out the news before it actually
happened.”

       “Well,
let’s put all of that behind us now,” Mrs. Warwyk said.

       Colonel
Sthykar and Slyntya, Sayett and his wife, Relkyett and his wife, Sydhar and his
wife and Mr. and Mrs. Warwyk had assembled in Coryt’s Muttonhouse, Eaststar’s
finest and most expensive restaurant, with the latter couple serving as the
hosts of this gathering. Getting reservations here within days was impossible
even for the city’s elites, but Mr. Warwyk’s bank had been the lender to Coryt
when he had started this restaurant and still extended a line of credit. He was
delighted to find space for his banker on a short notice, even for ten people.
They were sitting on the sixtieth floor of a seventy story skyscraper that was
the tallest in Eaststar and not surprisingly its construction had been financed
by the Warwyk Savings Bank. They had a nice corner space, private and
comfortable with a broad view of the city below that was bathed in different
colored lights for the night.

       “To
begin our dinner, Coryt’s will serve their own brewed ale,” Mr. Warwyk said.
“They brew a dozen of their own varieties and that is all they serve, they
don’t sell these outside, and they are really good. I recommend starting with
that and holding off the whiskey till the end.”

       “Well
we are grateful to you for throwing this dinner for us,” Sayett said.

       “You
know I owe you at least this much,” Warwyk said. “I leaned hard on the
government to get the SPASI to take the cases so I indirectly got you into
trouble.”

       “Well,
I am glad you did what you did,” Sayett said. “If we hadn’t gotten involved,
Boss Hantex would have proceeded unimpeded and our response would have come
much later.”

       “Yes,”
Sthykar said, “you did right in persisting to get the bank robberies solved.”

       “Thanks,”
Mr. Warwyk said, “that makes me feel better.” He turned to a waiter who
approached them. “We are ready for your ales.”

       Sydhar
was sitting right next to Sthykar and he turned to him. “Colonel Sthykar.
Grateful to you for getting me and my wife to this dinner.” Originally Warwyk
had not even known about Sydhar but Sthykar had asked for him to be included
and Warwyk was happy to have them for company.

       “Well,
we are grateful to you for lending us that helicopter,” Sthykar said. “It
certainly would have been much harder to storm the tower in open ground while
taking fire from the tower windows above. Now I don’t know if it was damaged,
but I talked to the Air Commander Byter and your full service and repairs will
be done by Air Army free of charge.”

       “Wonderful,”
Sydhar said as the waiter brought a multitude of ales and poured different ones
for them in their glasses.

       “I
asked for you to be included,” Sthykar said, “because I had promised you my
story but later realized how busy I am going to be in the coming year with the
Mountain Army. Half of my vacation for this year is gone and I have promised
the other half to Slyntya. And it would be even harder to get Capitan Relkyett,
who was with me in the wars, and Detective Sayett—with his even busier
schedule—at the same place. They were intricately part of a lot of action that
happened in my past.”

       “Do
ask us, too,” Relkyett laughed.

       “Definitely,”
Sydhar replied.

       “I
wanted for Sayett to be here,” Sthykar continued, “because as a detective knows
better than I what information can be disclosed right now and what secrets are
to be kept hidden that the Army or SPASI will release in the future.”

       “I
can help with that,” Sayett nodded.

       “Well,
let us get on with our dinner,” Mr. Warwyk said. “I, too, would like to hear
their stories and I have booked a private Cards and Drinks room for us.”

       Sthykar
ordered the specialty dish of this place, Mutton Chops and Stew, and was
salivating by the time it arrived as mutton was his favorite food. They ordered
a lot of food: braised duck with raw honey, lamb chops salted and peppered,
roasted pigeon with tomatoes and onions, mussels and crabs with cream and
butter, steak marinated in three ales with fried potatoes and the likes.

       After
they finished this veritable feast, they retreated to one of the private rooms
owned by the restaurant on the floor above for the use of small groups. The
room was arranged with comfortable sofa-like red seats around a dark brown
polished wooden table in the center where the waiters had set up cards and placed
many different whiskey bottles on the bar to the side with a few chairs there
as well.

       Sthykar,
Sayett and Sydhar sat down on the chairs near the bar. Relkyett poured all of
them whiskey, Sydhar took out a pen and a notebook, Sayett lit a cigarette and
the wives sat down around the table and took out the cards. Mr. Warwyk joined
them in a few minutes as he had gone to thank Coryt for arranging it all in
short notice and he lit up a cigar as he entered the room and closed the door
behind him.

       As
he took steps towards the bar, his wife said to him, “We are short a player for
three teams of two for our card games.”

       “Hmmm…That’s
a hard decision,” Mr. Warwyk grinned.

       “Would
you rather play cards with five pretty women or…” Slyntya let the sentence
trail off.

       “…Or
listen to the rambling of four drunkards,” Sthykar completed it and everyone
laughed.

       “Well
I wanted to hear the stories, but I will read the book,” Mr. Warwyk said.

       “I
will send you a copy,” Sydhar spoke.

       Mr.
Warwyk went to play cards with the wives as Sthykar and the men drank a couple
glasses of whiskey while making some jokes.

       “Alright,”
Sthykar said, ready and in the mood to tell his tales. “It all began five years
ago when the Narducat Empire invaded my wife’s country and we decided to go to
war for them.”

       Sydhar
put aside his whiskey and started to scribble notes.

THE END