The Storm Maker (7 page)

       Sayett
waited just near the top of the steps. Then a few seconds later he heard the
bank robber fire his rifle; that was the moment he had been waiting for. Sayett
quickly crouched onto the first floor, turned his pistol towards the robber,
and fired four shots into the man’s chest and stomach. He fell back on the
floor. Sayett yelled for policemen to stop firing and he walked to the robber’s
rifle and kicked it away.

       He
suddenly realized that there could be more robbers hidden in the bank and aimed
his pistol at the bank door. Ryft and Woker had rushed up the steps.

       “Pick
up those Ranx rifles,” he said to them. “They are automatic.”

       Ryft
and Woker grabbed the robbers’ rifles, took out the half empty magazines and
attached new ones from the robbers’ belts. Colonel Vyptor and policemen had
rushed up the stairs as well.

       “There
could be more inside,” Sayett said.

       The
colonel nodded. “Follow me.”

       But
Sayett was already on the move and the first one in, kicking the glass door and
pointing his pistol at the crowd inside. Ryft and Woker walked in right behind
him with their rifles aimed. Vyptor and policemen walked in next. Many in the
crowd screamed.

       “SPASI!”
yelled Sayett to quiet down the crowd.

       “WARRIOR
CLASS!” yelled Ryft and Woker from behind.

       Sayett
almost laughed but kept a straight face. He then saw two dead bodies on the
floor; one of them looked Ranxian and had a Ranx rifle clutched in his hand;
the other one was a Starfirian and there was a shotgun next to him.

       “What
happened here?” Sayett asked.

       One
man came forward from the crowd; he was the most formally dressed man around
and introduced himself.        “I own this bank,” he said and pointed to the
dead Starfirian on the ground. “Brave man. He was our guard. As soon as the
bank robbers came in the door, he fired and dropped the first one dead, then
they got him.”

       “Are
there any more inside?” Sayett asked.

       “Yes.”
The owner pointed to an open door to their left. “Seven of them went down that
hallway to our bank vault.”

       “Seven!”
Colonel Vyptor exclaimed and quickly rushed to the door. Ryft and Woker
followed and positioned themselves on either side of the door.

       “Get
all the people out except the owner,” Sayett said to the two policemen and then
walked over to Colonel Vyptor and looked down the hallway.

       Stairs
led down and into a room, but they could not see much from where they were.
Meanwhile, the crowd of people was quickly rushed out the main door by the
policemen.

       “Any
other way out from down there?” Colonel Vyptor asked the owner.

       “None,”
the owner said. “They haven’t come up, though.”

       “They
are seven and have automatics,” said the colonel, “And only six of us, but we
control the high ground.”

       “We
have backup coming,” one of the policeman said, “We called our police chief on
the radio, and he is coming personally.” Just as he finished, they heard police
sirens in the distance.

       “It’s
strangely quiet down there,” Sayett said., “Hey Ho!” he yelled. “SPASI has you
surrounded with twenty guards, come out and live, or die down there.” They had
no way of knowing their numbers so he might as well bluff.

       “We
are here too,” Colonel Vyptor got in the act as well but forgot to mention who
the ‘we’ would refer to, “and we have grenades. My boys are just rumbling to
roll some of them down the stairs with no pin.”

       “Please,”
the owner said. “Our money is in there and other valuables.”

       Colonel
smiled and whispered to him, “Just joking like Sayett,” and then continued,
“Although I wish we had brought some with us, I wouldn’t mind rolling one down
to spook them fellas.”

       No
reply came from down below. The police sirens got very close and soon they
heard  footsteps come up the bank stairs outside. Four policemen barged in with
Lockyett rifles, followed by the chief of police and six more policemen.

       “Chief,”
Sayett said. “Chief Detective Sayett of SPASI.”

       “What
a coincidence, huh?” the chief said. “We were going to have a lunch meeting
today to discuss this very possibility and here we are.” He turned to the
colonel, “Thanks for providing my boys a hand.”

       “No
problem,” the colonel said. “Now what are we going to do with them down there.
Tell me you have some smoke grenades.”

       “They
are still down there?” the police chief asked and then sent a couple of
policemen outside to bring smoke grenades.

       “They
might be gone like rats,” Sayett said. He turned to the owner. “Any water
passageways under that vault?”

       “We
would never build our vault on top of a water passage,” the owner said, “We
take our precautions.”

       “SPASI
isn’t the only one with some know-how of the methods of the crooks,” the chief
laughed. “The House of Banks explicitly forbids building bank vaults on top of
any underground utility passages.”

       “Nevertheless,”
Sayett said, “In a few of the earlier bank robberies, they have escaped through
a dug out passage they had earlier built and connected to utility passageways.”

       As
they were talking, the two policemen returned with six smoke grenades, which
the colonel, Ryft and Woker quickly proceeded to toss down the stairs. The room
down was filled with smoke, but no voice or sound came up.        The smoke
caused coughing and brought tears to the eyes, but nothing happened down there.
Slowly the smoke cleared away.

       “They
had no masks,” the owner volunteered after a while.

       “That’s
it,” Sayett said. “I say they escaped.” He drew his pistol again.

       “Fuck
it,” the Colonel said, “Let’s storm them. Let’s go boys.”

       Ryft
and Woker walked down the stairs carefully with their rifles ready; the colonel
walked behind them and Sayett behind him, both with their pistols drawn. Then
half a dozen policemen followed.

       They
came upon an empty room, an open vault door and a big hole in the ground.

       “Rats!”
Sayett yelled, “Unbelievable. I said, Rats!”

       “Guess
you were right,” the chief said .

       “Let’s
see where that leads,” Sayett said. He looked into the hole and then lowered
himself. Vyptor, Ryft and Woker followed him as did six policemen. The chief
stayed behind as the owner came down and shook his head.

       “How
much did you lose?” the chief asked the owner.

       “More
than two million stars,” the owner said with a sigh.

       Meanwhile
Sayett, Colonel Vyptor and the rest were tracing the robbers’ path underground.
As Sayett had predicted, the dug out passage eventually connected to a water
utility passage and they walked a few more minutes and then came out of an open
door with a broken lock onto a street, to the amazement of people nearby.

       “Where
is this place?” Sayett asked.

       “This
is two streets from the bank,” one of the local policemen said and pointed to
the tall, wide building behind them. “The bank is right behind this building.”

Sayett
and the policemen asked around and a few people had seen the bank robbers
coming out. They had seen, not men holding guns, but men dressed in water
utility company uniforms carrying large bags who got in two cars parked on the
street and took off.

       Sayett,
Vyptor and his two soldiers along with three policemen walked back to the bank,
they left three policemen behind to get official statements from the witnesses.

       Back
in the bank, the police chief and the owner had gone up to the main lobby and
were conversing as the police were taking away the four dead bodies.

       “Well?”
the chief looked at them.

       “They
came out on the other side,” Sayett said.

       “Shall
I scramble some cars?” the chief asked.

       “Forget
about it,” Sayett said, “They will be long gone by now, probably already on the
national road.”

       “Are
we still meeting for lunch?” chief asked hesitatingly.

       “Never
mind,” Sayett said, “I appreciate the offer, but these robbers don’t strike the
same town twice, so I would be using up the time I would rather use for my
investigation. I am going back to Capital.”

       “Glad
we could be of help,” Colonel Vyptor said. “Take care SPASI Man,” he said and
laughed.

       “Great,”
Sayett said laughing.

       Sayett
walked out and waved goodbye to Ryft and Woker who stood there with grins on
their faces. They were young men and had the adventure of a lifetime. He
remembered the feeling after his first real fight. He smiled as he walked up
the street to the coffee shop where he had parked his car. He got in, drove
back up the road and soon hit the national road where he switched into high
gear and roared away.

Colonel
Sthykar got off the plane and walked down the mobile stairway with two bags in
his hands, one of which was a duffel bag holding his hunting rifles, and the
other was a suitcase with his clothes. The small airport building had a railing
surrounding the runaway, and a few people were standing at one opening waving
at the incoming passengers. Sthykar walked over there and looked at the
different people standing around.

       “Anybody
here Mr. Belvyk?” he asked to no one in particular.

       “That’s
me,” said a man in his early fifties, wearing a light blue suit and a dark blue
hat on dark blue trousers. “Colonel…”

       “Don’t
mention it,” Sthykar said. Everyone in the Starfire Nation knew his name, and
he did not want to get distracted talking to the people.

       “Sure,”
Belvyk said nodding, “C’mon. My car is right off the road.”

       Sthykar
followed him to where the regular road began. Belvyk had parked his car just
off of it in the grass. It was a shiny black, open air car with long
rectangular front, tall and clean windshield and cream colored leather seats.
Sthykar put his bags on the back seat and got in the front. Belvyk started the
car, made a U-Turn on the road and they were off.

       “Thanks
for picking me up,” Sthykar said as he sat back. He took a cigar from his front
pocket and lit it up.

       “I
provide personal service to my clients,” Belvyk said, “One of the benefits of
working out in the country.”

       “You
don’t get a lot of buyers, do you?” Sthykar asked.

       “Intermittently,”
he replied. “But I deal in big lots, one sale a month keeps my household
running.”

       Belvyk
turned his car onto a side road. Tall trees abundantly lined both sides of the
narrow country road. Water drops fell off the dark green leaves at irregular
interval from the rain clouds that had just passed by. It was lonely on the
road, with the noise of the cars and the airport far behind. Birds sang in the
distance and a few insects traversed the length and width of the tree branches.

       “What
do folks do for a living out here?” Sthykar asked.

       “Not
much besides logging and fishing,” Belvyk replied. “Folks here have huge land
grants from centuries ago and many have lived generation after generation on
the same ancestral land.”

       Mr.
Belvyk brought the car to an abrupt halt with his breaks sending out a shriek
over the hills. He did not bother to pull the car off the road because hardly
anyone ever came this way; there was not a single vehicle in sight for miles on
both sides of the road. Both of them got out  and Sthykar leaned into the
backseat and grabbed his binoculars so he could take in the 360 degree view of
the surroundings. The land salesman leaned against the front of his car and
grinned.

       “Well…”
Belvyk said and waited for Sthykar to answer.

       But
Sthykar was too busy examining the landscape with his binoculars and after a
few minutes put them aside on the car seat.

       “Colonel
Sthykar, all this pristine natural landscape totals ten thousand acres in all,”
Belvyk said, “And all of it could be yours for asking.”

       “Looks
great so far,” Sthykar replied, “I already saw some game running around in the
woods—looks like a good place for big game hunting.”

       “Definitely.
Is that your primary purpose for buying the land?”

       “Indeed,
but I am also buying as an investment and a quiet place to vacation with my
wife,” Sthykar said.

       “You
won’t be disappointed in either of that. A lot of quality timber grows on this
land, and a lot of big game grazes here. You won’t find any unwelcome intrusion
either, big lot sizes keep people from wandering onto each other’s land
uninvited.”

       “Let’s
drive up some more,” Sthykar said. “Would like to see more of this plot.”

       “Sure.”
They got in the car, and as they drove further up, the road’s elevation
increased. They kept going higher up in the mountains.

       “Let
me ask you a question, Colonel?” Belvyk said, “Why are you buying a land all
the way out here?”

       “My
friend bought a plot just next to this one,” Sthykar said. “He told me they
were selling large plots of land and to get in on the opportunity. You don’t
get this large size of land near where I live for a price a Colonel’s salary
could afford.”

       “What’s
the name of this friend of yours?” Belvyk asked keenly.

       “Relkyett
Wuryt,” Sthykar said, “He was a Capitan in the Mountain Army under my command.”

       “Well,
I sold him that plot three months ago,” Belvyk said smiling, “Ask him if he is
satisfied with the fair price I got him.”

       “I
am sure you will get me a fair price too,” Sthykar said, “You sell a lot of the
land around here?

       “All
of it,” he said, “Although that is not saying much. Most of the land here is
ancestral land protected under the King Starryvk’s law. This parcel of land is
one of the few here that was available for market sale.”

       “Relkyett
bought two thousand acres from you,” Sthykar said, “If you sell me that much, I
will buy right now.”

       “Unfortunately
I can’t,” Belvyk said, “Trust me, if I could, I would, I get more fees from
more sales,” he smiled, “but the owners of the land don’t want to sell lots
under ten thousand acres anymore.”

       “Why
is that?” Sthykar asked.

       “Quite
a story,” Belvyk said. “If you are done looking, we can drive back to my office
and I will fill in the backstory.” Belvyk wanted to get Sthykar back into his
office as he finished his sales pitch so that he could quickly pull out the
papers and get with the sale before Sthykar changed his mind.

       “Alright,
let’s go,” Sthykar said.

       Belvyk
turned the car around and hit the gas, rushing back down the same road on which
they had arrived.

       “I
have this total land parcel of one million acres to sell for the owners, Janvyk
Timber Company, whose stockholders are the founder’s family,” Belvyk began.
Sthykar relaxed back into his seat taking in the beautiful view of the
mountains and the trees. “Janvyk the elder, the founder of the company, who put
all this land together was the richest man in this area,” Belvyk continued.
“The current owners are his grandchildren. However they do not share his love
of timber business and don’t want to come live out in the back country to
manage the operations. About six months ago, the company was in some financial
difficulty, so they have finally decided to sell off the assets and live off of
the income from investing the sales proceeds in the big cities.”

       “Is
there a lumber mill on one of the plots?” Sthykar asked, “I don’t want
lumberjacks wandering over into my property.”

       “There
is a mill, but it is in the town. It is the biggest employer in the town. They
will cut lumber and then haul it there. The new mill owners have said they will
even manage lumber operations on anyone’s land and send them a monthly royalty
check.”

       “Well
that’s certainly something to consider for the future. But for now all I want
is land for hunting and for quiet family vacation, so why not two thousand acre
lots anymore?”

       “So,
like I said there are these one million acres,” Belvyk continued, “and for each
lot the family members have to negotiate the sale price with a potential buyer.
They wanted to sell it in one-hundred thousand acre lots, but I argued them
down to ten thousand acres—told them they would be waiting for months to find
buyers for that large a plot. As it is, that is already a hundred lots to
negotiate for, they don’t want even more on their plate. Now they agreed to
sell the first five lots in two thousand acre parcels just to test the market
and the prices, but that was three months ago; no more.”

       “Relkyett
got lucky, he bought at the right time,” Sthykar said.

       “Indeed,
a timber investor bought two of those lots, a retired couple bought another
one, and the fifth lot was bought by a company whose business I don’t know.”

       “Alright,
I will buy ten thousand acres,” Sthykar said, “I doubt I will buy land again
after this.”

       “I
am sure you can earn good income from timber here, and build up your acres just
like the old man Janvyk He accumulated ten acres at a time when he started
out.”

       “Oh
it’s not about the money,” Sthykar laughed. “My wife is a city girl, doesn’t
like mountains and jungles much. Our next purchase will be a home in a big city
if she has her way.”

       “Which
she probably will.” Belvyk chuckled.

       “Ha
ha,” Sthykar laughed, “Anyways, how fast can I take ownership?”

       “As
soon as you and the family can agree on the price, I will give you the land
title.” Belvyk said, “I will call them on the phone from my office. They have
given me the authority to sign off on the sale on their behalf.”

       “Alright,”
Sthykar said. “Mr. Belvyk, could you drop me off at my friend Relkyett’s land
plot afterwards. That was my main reason to come here; a few of us friends are
having a hunting party.”

       “Sure,
I will drop you off,” Belvyk said, “I have nothing to do at the office except
call prospects around the country.”

       “Is
that how you got Relkyett?”

       “Oh
yeah,” Belvyk said, “I know that the men who have been in the mountain army
develop attachment to the mountains and the mountain living. I knew Mr.
Relkyett from a friend of a friend, so I got his number and gave him a call.”

       “Well
you got that right about the love of mountains in the hearts of us mountain
warriors,” Sthykar said.

       They
did not speak much afterwards as Belvyk turned their car back on the main road.
They passed the airstrip where Sthykar had landed and drove on to the town
where the land salesman kept his office.