The Storm Maker (18 page)

       He
took a deep breath and then said, “Mr. Hantex Rut, for your vile actions and
for your devious plan for the future, I should shoot you. But you will be
brought to justice.”

       “Oh,
shut up…”

       “No.
You listen to me now,” the scientist cut him off. “Move away from the door or
else I will shoot. I am not joking.”

       “You
got only one bullet left in that,” Montex said. “I see five men dead and that’s
a Ranx pistol you are holding; its magazine holds only six rounds. I never
liked that, Starfirian pistols come with ten round magazines. But now I am
glad. So you see,” he calmly said to the scientist, “you can shoot only one of
us here. The remaining three will ensure that you are dead.”

       “But
I will shoot your boss, and I bet he doesn’t want that.” He turned to face
Hantex, “Do you?” He looked at all four of them for a second and then said
again, “Now move away from the door.”

       Hantex,
Montex and the two others moved away from the door while keeping their eyes on
him. The scientist slowly walked towards the door with the gun pointed at
Hantex. As soon as he reached the door, he sprinted down the hall to an open
door.

       Hantex
Rut yelled angrily, “Don’t you just stand there! Get at him! Hound him! Smoke
him!”

       Montex
and his men had readied their Ranx rifles and a half dozen other gunmen had now
arrived there after hearing the whole commotion. Montex said, “You do realize
this tower is surrounded by a maze. You wanted it built this way. Hard to find
a man in there let alone one with a gun.”

       “You
will realize my cleverness one day in having it built this way.”

       “Very
clever, Boss,” Montex said sarcastically. “You have now killed all of them.
What if they had deliberately screwed one of the parts or if they had made an
honest mistake and the machine stops working in the future?”

       Boss
Hantex slammed his fist on the palm of his other hand. “Look here Corporal
Montex, I am an industrialist. I have designed and constructed a great many
machines myself and I am the lead architect of this project. I needed these
scientists and engineers to build the project from scratch, but I have been
supervising every minute detail and have made sure everything will be functioning
properly. The machine is working now and it will continue working in the
future. Now take your men and get this bastard. If he gets out, our goose is
cooked.”

       Corporal
Montex was annoyed a bit at this arrogance, but he had signed up for the project
of his own free volition. He clenched his rifle and took the men that had
assembled there to find the scientist.

* * *

       Colonel
Sthykar took leave of Colonel Jontvyk, Dentar, Hayett and Karyett after
watching them set up on the ridge nearest to the compound. Earlier, they had
left behind Felptar, Muftar, Kartar and Nyk on the previous ridge. He told them
what he had told Felptar and Muftar, that if he said “Rats” on the radio, then
he was being pursued by hostiles and if he said “Wolf”, then he was coming back
alone. Sthykar walked alone from thereon. They had started as soon as the
evening had given way to night, and had reached the forest as soon as the sun
had hit the horizon. Now it was night. The three moons were glowing, but were
occasionally covered by clouds. Sthykar always wore rubber soled boots when
hunting to minimize the noise and he was slowly but steadily walking through
the trees and bushes towards the place they had stumbled upon earlier. Soon he
reached the wall.

       When
he came near the door of the wall, he knelt down and observed the guards with
his binoculars. Unfortunately the clouds had, at that very moment, covered up
the Red Moon—the brightest of the three. So he waited for a few minutes. When
the clouds gave way, under the faint moonlight he was able to make out two
guards on the outside, as well as two on the inside.

       Sthykar
started walking eastward while still in woods till he had put a sufficient
distance between himself and the guards. The wall itself curved and he couldn’t
be seen by the guards when he walked out of the woods and to the wall. He
checked all the arms and tools that he had brought along with him. He had his
ATR Rifle strapped across his back with the rifle sling, a pistol that was in
the holster attached to his belt on the left side of the waist, rifle and
pistol magazines attached to his belt, a compass, pliers, a rope on his right
shoulder, rubber gloves in his right pocket, a radio, binoculars, a hunting
knife, and he was holding a grappling hook in his left hand.

       He
took his rope and tied one end to the grappling hook. He pulled on it to make
sure the knot was strong, and then looked up. He swung the grappling hook a few
times till he sensed he had a good intuitive grasp of the power and direction
required. Then he flung it to the top of the wall. With a small noise, the hook
attached itself to the inner edge atop of the wall. Sthykar tugged on it a few
times to make sure it was holding strong and then started climbing. As a
mountain warrior, scaling a small wall was child’s play for him and he was
quickly at the top where he rolled over on his back under the first of the
three barbwires.

       First
he untied the rope from the hook, pulled it up and bundled it. Then he took out
his rubber gloves and put them on. Next he held the pliers with his teeth while
he grabbed the first barbwire with gloved hands and looked for an electric
wire. He sighted a small electric wire intertwined with the much thicker
barbwire. He could have just slipped under it, but he knew that coming back he
could be in a rush and thus it was better to secure his exit now. First he cut
off the electric wire with his pliers and then he cut off the barbwire. The
wires were held up by the poles on top of the wall located at regular distance
and hence they did not snap beyond the poles. Sthykar did not see a need to cut
off the second or the third barbwire as they were much further up. He then
turned on his shoulder and looked inside.

       First
he looked towards the direction of the big steel gate. There was nobody else
patrolling from inside besides the two inner guards near the gate. Long
guardhouses sat on each side of the gate, both of the same size; he estimated
approximately twenty rooms per house, however less than a quarter were lit,
presumably the rest of the guards were sleeping. Amazingly there was a big
round hedge maze that surrounded a three story tower; each of its floors was
considerably taller than a regular building’s floors, making the tower as tall
as a standard five story building. The tower itself was at a distance and the
light coming from it was faint, but Sthykar could see that it was lit on every
floor. The maze itself made up the largest portion of the interior of the
compound. There was open space of around twenty five feet between the wall and
the maze, but the maze itself stretched for what looked like a quarter or a
third of the mile. At this distance, especially at night it wasn’t possible to
tell whether there was anything between the maze and the tower.

       Sthykar
thought, one thing was sure, this was no lumber operation. There were no log
stacks, no mill, and no woodchip heaps. The lumber mill story was a front for
something more sinister. He definitely had to investigate.

       He
threw down his grappling hook a certain distance off to his left, then jumped
down straight and landed on his feet. He walked over and picked up his hook,
tied it to the back of his belt and walked alongside the maze away from the
gate till he came upon an opening and entered inside.

       He
walked a couple of steps then stopped. He didn’t want to get lost in the maze,
however he remembered some tricks for finding the way out of the maze that he
had read as a kid when solving maze puzzles. One of them was to always walk
along the right hedge wall and to always make a right turn in the opening. It
was a long and tedious method but got one out of the maze eventually. The hedge
walls themselves were around eight feet tall. If he got lost, he could climb
over them, one after another; however that would be tiring and would be his
last resort.

       He
cautiously made his way inside, following the above mentioned trick. He had
taken out his pistol now and was holding it in his right hand. The distances
inside the maze did not require the rifle. After tiptoeing his way for a while
in a silent night with only the faint light from the tower at the distance, he
finally heard some noise. He stopped, then quickly positioned himself with his
back to the hedge wall right next to an opening in a particularly dark spot.

       The
noise became clearer in a short while. He was hearing footsteps, fortunately of
only one man. Sthykar slowly moved as close to the opening as possible without
revealing himself to the other side. The footsteps got closer.

       Then
Sthykar saw the shape of a pistol and a hand holding it come out of the
opening. He quickly switched his own pistol to his left hand, waited a moment
for the man to emerge from the opening and then whacked the pistol holding
wrist with a hard chop of his right hand.

       The
pistol dropped to the ground and Sthykar sprang into action. He put his right
palm on the mouth of the man from behind and pushed inward. At the same time,
he kneed the man’s left knee throwing him off balance and then pulled him back
away from the opening. He shoved his own pistol into the man’s lower back.

       “Make
a noise and you are dead,” Sthykar said. “I got ten rounds full.”

       The
man’s body was shaking with fear and he was trying to regain his balance

       “Take
it easy,” Sthykar said. “I need to ask you some questions, but you don’t shout
or go for that pistol or I shoot right away. Shake your head if you understand
and agree.”

       The
man shook his head and Sthykar slowly released him from his palm grip. The man
took a few deep breaths and regained proper balance after Sthykar pulled back
his knee. Sthykar quickly walked over and grabbed the fallen pistol. The man
was standing there, not making a move, as if frozen in fear.

       Sthykar
examined the pistol. He took out the magazine and saw only one bullet.

       “Six
round magazine,” Sthykar chuckled. “This is a junk quality foreign pistol. By
the way, when did you fire five other rounds, because I heard nothing and there
is no silencer either.” Sthykar looked at him and then laughed. “Or do you not
reload till all of your bullets are gone?”

       “You
speak Starfirian,” the man finally spoke hesitatingly.

      
“
You
don’t expect me to speak Ranxian do you?” Sthykar said as he put the magazine
back inside the pistol and tucked it inside his belt. “So what are you clowns
up to here? This isn’t a lumber mill. What is going on?” Sthykar aimed his own
pistol towards the man.

       “You
are not a Ranxian...you are not one of them,” he said. “You are from outside,
aren’t you?”

       “One
of who…Wait a minute, I recognize your accent. It’s Karaln,” he said.

       The
man slowly walked closer to Sthykar, puzzled. His hands were still slightly
shaking, but the rest of him had stabilized now. “That is correct. I am a
scientist from Karaln Nation. But how would you know that?”

       “My
wife is from Karaln Nation,” Sthykar said, “But if what you say is right, how
are you mixed up with these armed Ranxians?”

       “They
kidnapped me and I have been their hostage for over a year now,” the man said.
“It is a long story.”

       “Well,
if it is a long story, it will have to wait,” Sthykar said. “Are they looking
for you?”

       The
man nodded.

       “Then
we have to get out of here and get the police,” Sthykar said. “Turn around and
follow the path I tell you. I will be right behind.”

       “You
are not the police? I was hoping you were.”

       “Just
a hunter,” Sthykar said. He did not want to disclose his true identity just yet
till he had figured out what was really going on here. He did not know if he
could trust the man. Yet, he was a Karalnar amongst the Ranxians; he didn’t
look tough like the guards and he was carrying a pistol with only one bullet in
it. No guard or gunman would do that. However, Sthykar did not completely trust
the man.

* *
*

       Corporal
Montex stood outside the front gate of the tower, assembling a search team. The
maze was too big for a half dozen men to comb through it for just one escapee
even in daylight. Most of his gunmen had been sleeping in the underground
barracks built under the tower and maze. When he woke them, most came out
yawning and scratching their heads, some in their nightdress and some without
their rifles. Montex yelled at them to go back, get dressed and get armed.

       Meanwhile
Boss Hantex Rut had received a phone call. He was already mad that the
scientist had gotten away. As the scientist had run down one staircase, the gunmen
from the floor below had run up the other staircase; they completely missed
each other and that gave the scientist an empty first floor for him to rush out
of through a window and into the maze. Now the Boss was even more alarmed by
what the caller had told him. He rushed to the balcony of the second floor and
yelled down below. “Montex! Corporal Montex!”