The Storm Maker (19 page)

       “Assembling
a search team,” Montex looked up and said.

       “Come
up here. It is very important,” the Boss said.

       Montex
seemed puzzled and shrugged his shoulders.

       “Just
come up here,” the Boss yelled. “Let those men wait there for a few.”

       Montex
was angry and he rushed up the stairs to confront Hantex.

       “What
is so important, Boss?” he asked annoyed. “That rat is getting away.”

       “Fuck
that rat,” Boss Hantex said. “He will get lost in the maze and he sure isn’t
climbing that wall and the electrified barbwire.”

       Then
the Boss told him what the caller had said over the phone and Montex looked at
him seriously.

       “That
is definitely a more significant threat than this pencilhead,” Montex said.

       “Radio
the guards to shoot this scientist on sight,” Hantex said. “There are only four
openings to the maze on the outside. Have them watch all four.”

       “Will
do, and I am glad we have Capitan Suka out there dealing with these bigger
problems,” Montex said and headed back down.

       The
news delivered by the caller had disturbed Boss a lot more than this small
mishap with the scientist. He took out a cigar, lit it up and stared at all the
three moons, the red, the green and the blue. Hantex thought that somewhere out
there was a much bigger danger than a pencilhead scientist.

09/07/958

Sayett,
Slyntya and four SPASI guards caught an early morning plane to Southstar. They
flew from the SPASI’s own airport in the Capital on a SPASI plane. Normally the
SPASI detectives flew commercial, but having a Constellar along justified the
expense of flying their own plane. It was a medium-sized plane that could carry
around a hundred passengers but had been customized for the SPASI requirements.
The four guards were dressed in their regular uniform, King’s Red full-sleeve
shirts and side caps with gray pants, boots, and belts. They had their Rontvyk
Sub-Machine Guns with them. That gun, particular to SPASI only, was light and
maneuverable, and used pistol ammunition in twenty round magazines. Sayett, for
his part, was dressed in a King’s Red suit with gray pants. The detectives did
not wear any kind of hats, only the guards did. Slyntya was dressed in a purple
sweater, with black trousers and wore her hair loose and flowing below her
shoulders.

       “Sayett,
we are going far southwest aren’t we?” she asked.

       “We
are flying to Southstar—one of the twelve big cities,” Sayett said, “From there
we will drive to Coldwoods.”

       “Is
there no airport in that town?”

       “Actually
there is, but it is not a big town, I suspect that these people may be watching
the Coldwoods airport. That is why I decided against flying there directly.”

       “You
know what a coincidence it is,” she said, smiling. “Sthykar was going to fly
down to the far southwest region to buy hunting land.”

       “Well,
if we stumble into him, maybe the colonel can give us a hand on the raid,”
Sayett chuckled. “But seriously, that region is huge. Do you know what town he
went to?”

       “We
didn’t talk about that, but he gave me his friend’s phone number who bought
land there. He was the one who told Sthykar about it. I am going to call him
from the police station.”

       Sayett
nodded. He had never wanted to bring her along but did not want to disappoint
her either. He would have felt a lot better once Sthykar knew.

       They
did not speak much rest of the way. They had all gotten up early and took a nap
in the plane. The plane was modified with large, comfortable seats where a passenger
could recline and sleep. Their flight was five hours and they reached Southstar
where the SPASI pilots landed the plane on a remote runaway reserved for
government flights at an otherwise large and bustling airport.

       From
a large car a young man, a junior detective of the regional SPASI office,
walked over to them as they disembarked.

       “Chief
Detective Sayett?” he asked.

       “That’s
me,” Sayett said walking down the stairs. “Our car?”

       “Yes,
and I have filled up the tank.” He handed the key to Sayett who handed it over
to one of the guards.

       “Who
else knows about it?” Sayett asked.

       “Just
the chief detective of our office and me,” he said. “He told me only an hour
ago to deliver this car to you. I came straight from the office.”

       “Great.
Let’s not have anybody else hear of this,” Sayett said, opening the trunk of
the car. “So how are you getting back?”

       “Don’t
worry,” the junior detective said. “I am taking a taxi.”

       They
loaded their luggage in the trunk and got in the large car. It was a three seat
car, larger than the far more common two seat ones. Two guards got in the front
seat and two in the back with Sayett and Slyntya in the middle seat. They drove
away from airport and onto the national road that would eventually lead to
Coldwoods. It was nearing afternoon but they decided to drive at least a couple
of hours before stopping at some inn for lunch.

       “This
road looks so empty,” Slyntya said. “Nothing but fields and woods, no homes, we
barely pass a car.”

       “This
is as remote as it gets,” Sayett said. “From Coldwoods, we could hike into the
South Polar Region. That’s how far south we have come.” Then Sayett asked the
driver, “Hey, did you bring the road map along with you?”

       “No
worries, Colonel Sayett,” the driver said, “I do have it. But it’s just this
road we have to follow; it will lead us right into Coldwoods.”

       “Great,”
Sayett said. Then he took out and examined the
Letter of Search
he had
gotten from the judge in the Capital Court. He wanted to reach the town before
sundown; otherwise the town police chief might drag his feet on a night time
raid. He, too, would have preferred to raid in the daytime, but he wasn’t going
to waste any time. It could get chaotic at night, though. He knew the small
town police did not have flood lights or night raid training.

       They
had driven more than an hour now. The surroundings had become even sparser than
before. Slyntya sitting on the right side was staring out the window lost in
thoughts. Sayett sitting to her left looked out his window at a car that was
trying to overtake them.

       “Bastard!”
the driver muttered loudly.

       “What
is going on?” Sayett asked.

       “Sorry,
madam,” the guard quickly said to Slyntya and then pointed at the windshield
with his finger. “This car overtook me a minute ago and now he is slowing down.
And the car to our side won’t speed up either.”

       Sayett
looked front and out of his left window. The driver was right. Then he noticed
the rearview mirror and he turned around as did the guards sitting behind him.
There was a third car almost tailgating them.

       “Boys,”
Sayett said, “this doesn’t look right. Be ready for anything.”

       The
three guards clenched their sub-machine guns and started looking out the
windows. Sayett had rolled down his window, studying the car driving parallel
to them in the left lane, while he slid his right arm under his suit to his
pistol. Slyntya appeared confused but not yet concerned.

       Then
the window of the car rolled down and a rifle barrel protruded.

       “Break!
Break NOW!” Sayett yelled and simultaneously pulled out his pistol, aimed out
the window and fired two shots at the man behind the rifle. The man was hit in
the face and his rifle fell out. That very moment the SPASI driver braked hard
and they were all thrown forward. The driver behind was surprised and hit their
bumper giving them another shock. The car to the side braked as well and
managed to stop parallel to them, the car in the front realized a second too
late and its driver turned around the car, but stopped three car lengths from
them.

       “Everyone
get out from the right,” Sayett ordered. “Take cover behind the doors.”

       The
guards in the front and back exited quickly with their submachine guns and took
cover behind the front and the back doors respectively. Slyntya was scared and
slowly got out; Sayett followed right behind her with his pistol drawn. Then he
closed the middle door. The car behind them had reversed for a slight distance
and armed men had poured out of it as well as from the car in front. The SPASI
Guards opened up and let loose repeat fire into those two cars as those gunmen
took cover behind their own open car doors. Then they returned fire, their
bullets splattering on the SPASI car.

       “Automatic
fire,” one SPASI guard said.

       “Ranx
rifles,” Sayett replied. He turned to Slyntya, who was sitting down on the road
with her back to the middle door and her hands covering her ears.

       “Don’t
get up, Slyntya,” Sayett said. She did not say anything so he repeated himself
loudly. This time she just nodded while still covering her ears with her hands.

As
the guards were shooting it out with the gunmen, Sayett took stock of their
situation. There were four men each in those three cars, one of whom he had
already killed, leaving a still formidable eleven with automatic rifles. They
were surrounded from three sides and on their right was open grassland for
about two hundred meters before the woods began. Sayett knew there was no way
they could run all the way to the trees without getting mowed down by the
bullets.

       “I
got one,” the SPASI driver said excitedly as he pointed his finger to the car
in the front., “Their driver no less.”

       Sayett
patted him on the back and joined in the fight. The gunmen in the car on the
left had been firing away but to no avail as SPASI car’s windows were
bulletproof. However their car had tilted over to that side indicating both the
left tires had been shot out. Sayett clutched his pistol, looked through the
middle window at the three gunmen in that car. One of them was revealing
himself, almost standing up fully. Sayett indicated for Slyntya to move forward
and then quickly opened the middle door and fired seven rounds in quick
succession. The middle window on the other side was already open and the first
couple bullets shattered the other car’s windows; the rest hit the standing
gunman in the torso and he fell backwards. Immediately the two remaining gunmen
ducked while Sayett closed the middle door again.

       Sayett
changed his pistol magazine and his mind raced to analyze the battle. He
realized it was futile to shoot it out with the car to their left. They could
never reach it anyhow. They had to reach one of the cars to have a chance at
getaway. Their own tires were shot out and its position left no way out. The
car behind them was closer, however the space in between was in the crossfire
of gunmen in the car to their left. That left only the car in front. It was
somewhat far, but the distance meant if they made it, they could speed away.

       As
Sayett was mulling these thoughts, one of the guards in the back tumbled over
and fell at him. Slyntya shrieked on seeing the blood splatter from the dead
guard’s face. Sayett crawled to the back door and fired two shots at the car
behind.

       “What
happened?” he asked the remaining guard.

       “One
of those men is a real crack shot,” the guard replied, firing his own
submachine gun, “I got lucky a few seconds back when he hit my gun.”

       “Narrow
save,” Sayett said. “Alright, now you just fire couple of bullets every now and
then to keep them from moving.”

       Sayett
crawled back to the front door where the two SPASI guards were engaged in a
pitched battle with the three gunmen.

       “We
have to try to take that car,” Sayett told them. “We can’t possibly kill all of
them and our bulletproof glass won’t hold for long against rifle ammo.”

       “What
should we do?” one guard asked.

       “Time
to take some risks,” Sayett said. He grabbed his pistol in both hands and then
rolled to the very edge of the road out of the door’s protection. He fired as
many rounds as fast as he could hitting one of the gunmen and then rolled back.

       “Two
down, two to go,” Sayett said.

       He
had used up his backup pistol magazine, but more were in the car. He opened the
middle door and crawled in to get more magazines.

       Meanwhile
the two front SPASI guards were now aggressively shooting it out, revealing
their faces, getting better shots at the enemy, but giving better targets to
the enemy as well.

Sayett
crawled out with three more magazines and inserted one in his pistol and put
the remaining two in his inner coat pocket. As he closed the middle door the
lone guard holding the back door yelled, “Alright!”

       “Did
you get that crackshot?” Sayett asked. “He is probably their team leader.”

       “No,
but I got one, definitely dead,” the guard said.

       “You
just hold that position, no risks,” Sayett replied and crawled to the front
door.

       The
two guards had ducked down and were waiting for him.

       “Fresh
magazine, boys,” Sayett said. “This is it. This round we nail those two
bastards for good.”

       Both
of them changed their magazines inserting fresh ones of twenty rounds. Sayett
moved to the center of them.

       “When
we get up, we don’t stop firing and duck down again till we are out,” Sayett
said. Both of them determinedly nodded.

       “Now!”
Sayett said after a few seconds. All three of them got on a knee, looked over
the door and fired away with their pistols and submachine guns. For a second
the two gunmen were taken aback, but they stood their ground and fired back. Tens
of bullets flew within the next few seconds and when the firing stopped only
Sayett was still breathing. Both of the SPASI guards had taken hits to their
faces; the two remaining gunmen in the front car were knocked out cold. Sayett
sighed for a couple of seconds, but he had no time to waste. He had emptied his
pistol; as he inserted the second magazine, he turned to Slyntya who was still
sitting with her back to the car, still in shock, but her hands clutching one
of the dead SPASI guards.

       “I
am going to get that car,” he said to her, “be ready to get in it.”