The Storm Maker (30 page)

       “Hope
we don’t have to repair,” Tulkar said.

       “Ready?”
Relkyett asked.

       “We
are the only four left,” Pelyett said. “Jontvyk took twenty-two with him. What
if we are ambushed?”

       “We
got Sthykar,” Relkyett grinned.

       “The
forest is too big, for them to spot four men.” Sthykar said, “Alright, let’s
go.”

       They
crossed the road and disappeared into the woods. Relkyett led the way towards
his helicopter-owning neighbor’s lot.

09/08/958

Two
Ranx Rangers escorted chief detective Sayett to the second floor and shoved him
inside a room. Slyntya turned around quickly when the door opened and gave a
relieved smile when she saw Sayett.

       “How
have you been, Slyntya?” Sayett asked.

       “Alright,”
she said. “They haven’t harmed me. Just locked me in this room and only come
inside to give me three meals a day. There is a bathroom attached as well.”

       Sayett
looked around the room, it looked much more comfortable than the cramped small
cells he and his guards were locked up in underground. There was a sofa, a
large bed, a table, a chair, nice lush carpet and a lace curtains on the window
looking out into the open.

       Sayett
walked over to the window and looked out. He saw the maze and the compound wall
and forest beyond that. He did not see any humans, but he remembered seeing
guards on the front gate on their way in—not visible from this room.

       “I
thought you had escaped into the woods,” Slyntya said, following him to the
window.

       “I
had, even got a big team of SPASI guards ready,” Sayett said, “but we were
ambushed again. We really underestimated them.”

       “What
do they want?” Slyntya asked.

       “I
think we are about to find out.” Sayett said. “The rangers who brought me here
said their boss wanted to talk to both of us at once.”

       “Did
you know Sthykar is here somewhere,” Slyntya said wide eyed. “I mean somewhere
in the southwest.”

       “Yes,
you told me,” Sayett said. “But this is quite a large region. We don’t have any
means to get a message to him.”

       They
heard faint footsteps walking down the stairs at a distance and hushed down.

       “Two
of my men brought the detective to lady constellar’s room,” Suka said. “Why did
you not want the town police chief brought there as well?”

       “Starfire
police chief is just a five year appointee by their government,” Boss Hantex
replied. “Just enforces the laws given to him, there is not much decision
making in his hand. It is not like Ranxian police chiefs who have a district
with multiple towns under them.”

       “Those
posts are in great demand in Ranx,” Suka said.

       “Don’t
have to tell me about it,” Hantex said. “When the Ranx Rejuvenation Party came
to power more than twenty senior policemen visited me, requesting me to put in
a word for them for the police chief posts. Now this Coldwoods police chief has
only seventeen policemen under him; the sergeants of my city commanded a bigger
force than that.”

       “Do
SPASI detectives have more power?” Suka asked.

       “Seems
like it because they have nationwide authority. Suka, you and the two guards
follow me into the room and keep an eye on that detective,” Hantex said.
Capitan Suka was alongside him and two guards with the Ranx rifles were behind
them.

       “Let
them stay outside,” Suka said. “I can handle the detective. Besides he is
unarmed and I have a pistol.”

       “That
damn scientist made a run for it,” Boss Hantex said. “This detective is a great
fighter you told me.”

       “That’s
why he won’t make a run for it,” Suka said. “The scientist didn’t know better,
but the detective is a seasoned veteran of fights, so he knows his chances of
escape are none. You don’t want to give an impression that you are afraid of
them.”

       “No,
definitely not. Why would I be afraid?” Hantex said, “You watch the detective,
the other one is a woman. I am not concerned about her.” He turned to the two
guards as they reached the door, “You two stay outside.”

       Hantex
opened the door and Capitan Suka walked in first followed by Hantex. Sayett and
Slyntya turned towards them from the window.

       “I
take it you are that Constellar woman,” Hantex said to her. He turned to
Sayett. “And you are the chief detective who wanted to negotiate with my
corporal?”

       “I
am, and are you the general?” Sayett asked.

       Suka
Manx let loose a loud rip roaring laughter. Hantex shook his head.

       “I
am a businessman,” Hantex said. “He is the Capitan of the troops. He is the
highest ranking officer and the second in command after me.”

       “I
am Constellar Slyntya,” Slyntya said. “I can negotiate on behalf of our
government. What do you want to negotiate?”

       “Your
surrender of your government to my authority.” Hantex shot back with laughter,

       Sayett
chuckled but quickly stopped. He did not want to make them angry when they held
the upper hand. “Forgive me, but you expect our entire nation to just
surrender?”

       “I
know I sound like a madman,” Hantex said with a smile, “but wait till you hear
what I have planned. A Storm Machine that can create hurricanes and storms to
knock out entire armies. I will give you two a look at the machine later. I
just came here to tell you what your role is going to be. You are going to sign
a paper acknowledging my demands and we will make a tape recording of both of
you attesting to my ability here. That will be delivered to your government
along with photos of each of you to show that you are in good condition.”

       “There
is no machine like that,” Slyntya said.

       Hantex
looked at Sayett with a grin and said. “Tell her; you must know state secrets.”

       “Well,
actually there might be,” Sayett said looking grimly at Slyntya. “Both Starfire
army and Narducat Empire experimented with storm making machines. We both
stopped further progress under a treaty, but the device is theoretically
possible.”

       “Not
just theoretically, you fool, but practically, right here, right now,” Hantex
shouted with joy. “Now our photographer is getting the dark room ready. We will
be back in an hour. Suka, take the detective back for now. I don’t want them
plotting anything.”

       Hantex
exited the room. Suka stayed back and spoke when the boss had left, “Detective,
come with me.”

       Sayett
nodded to Slyntya and walked out of the room followed by Suka who ordered the
two guards to escort him down below the tower while he caught up with Hantex on
the third floor.

* * *

       SPASI
Chief Yucker returned to the House of War and walked into the central
conference room along with one of his detectives in tow. Along with Supreme
Commander Krratyk, Commanders Byter and Tybett, the King himself had arrived
and was sitting in his royal seat at the head of the table. Supreme Commander,
whose chair was right next to King’s at the head of the table, was standing
with a book in his hand.

       “King,
Supreme Commander,” Chief Yucker greeted both of them. The official decorum
called for the Head of a House to be saluted, but the House of War had two
heads—King and Supreme Commander—and each had to be acknowledged and greeted by
an entrant.

       Supreme
Commander Krratyk closed the book around his finger as a bookmark and held it
up for Yucker and said, “Our book report on the Storm Machines runs more than a
thousand pages—heavy technical details; I can’t understand much of it and have
called for our arms workshops to send someone who does.”

       “This
is Chief Detective Avyk Wyt, head of SPASI’s spying and counter-spying
division, which is tasked with keeping tabs on the foreign powers,” Yucker
said, “He has been working around the clock to produce a preliminary picture of
Ranx politics. He is ready to give the first overview.”

       “Let’s
get to that then,” Supreme Commander said taking his seat and looking at the
King who concurred.

       “My
division is responsible for spying on the foreign countries,” Avyk said,
“Unfortunately; we have focused our attention on either the major powers like
Karx, Napp and Otto or on our historical enemies, the seven southern countries;
and then Sayett’s Counter-Imperial Division spies on the Narducat Empire. We
don’t have any spies in Ranx; they have never been hostile to us, nor we to
them. Thus my information comes from eclectic collection of sources, but I
won’t bore you with details.”

       “Oh
no, on the contrary, even the smallest detail could be important,” Krratyk
said. “Please don’t leave anything out.”

       “Alright,”
Avyk said. “We had only the basic profile on Ranx nation and its politics in
SPASI files, mostly concerning its military strength. So I thought who would be
the best source for more and I realized that any of our companies that export
there would have done significant research on them. So I got the list from our
trade board of Starfire’s top exporters to Ranx and called the company on the
top of that list, a car company that sells one particular type of car very well
there. I asked its owner to give us all the research they have on Ranx and told
him that SPASI owes him a big favor that he can cash in the future. Then I had
my junior detectives go through old newspapers, magazines, travel and tourism
guides, history books to piece together a picture of Ranx politics. Here is
what I have.”

       “Avyk
wait a minute,” Yucker said. “Wouldn’t it be better to wait for the other
commanders to arrive?”

       “I
have sent them away in different parts of the country,” Krratyk said. “I don’t
know if this storm machine works or it is just in Coldwoods. They could have
built more than one and if the Capital comes under a storm and we can’t contact
our armies, I want army officers with highest level of decision making
authority available to deal with the problem. They are on radio contact with
the House, though.”

       “I
will begin then,” Avyk said. “There is this political outfit called Ranx
Rejuvenation Party that came to power in Ranx for the first time a while back.
Their ideology calls for the restoration of the old Sanguine Empire with Ranx
Nation serving in place as the new empire that will reunite under its rule all
the former lands of the old empire. Since the Ranx Nation is the location of
the old, destroyed city of Sangunira, the imperial Capital of the Sanguine
Empire, they consider themselves the inheritors of that imperial tradition.”

       “Shouldn’t
they build the storm machine in Ranx then?” Commander Tybett asked.

       “Here
is where it gets interesting as well as dangerous for us,” Avyk said. “They not
only want to rebuild the Sanguine Empire, they want to avenge those who brought
its downfall—that was our greatest hero, King Starryvk. Their party literature
doesn’t openly call for war on our country, but they do denounce us in the
harshest terms.”

       “That
is ridiculous,” the King said. “That was over six hundred years ago. They can’t
mean to hold grudges from that far back.”

       “Not
to mention that it was the Sanguine Empire which picked the fight with our
ancestors, not the other way around,” Commander Byter said. “The Empire sent an
army, which our forefathers promptly thrashed, then they decided to go on the
attack.”

       “I
have to remind everyone, this is our conjecture,” Avyk said. “Ranx might not be
involved.”

       “I
highly doubt that,” Yucker said. “We are a much bigger country, but SPASI would
definitely know if some of our countrymen were hatching nutter schemes like
that.”

       “That
is mine and my team’s opinion as well,” Avyk said, “but I need to mention that
we don’t have hard, material evidence to link this current activity in
Coldwoods with the Ranx State.”

       “Let
us go on the reasonable assumption that they are involved,” Krratyk said. “But
in no way is the Ranx Nation a successor state of Sanguine Empire; there were
multiple states and countries in that region in the centuries after the
downfall of the old empire.”

       “It
gets worse,” Avyk said. “I called a few historians at our universities who
specialize in that region. These nutters of the Ranx Rejuvenation Party are
cooking up mythologies. Not just the state, but the Ranxian people are not the
descendants of the people who used to live there during the time of the
Sanguine Empire. After the empire’s collapse, many invading hordes, migrants,
merchants, travelers and such settled down over the centuries. Tribes from
nearby and sometimes far away as well settled there. They are definitely not
the descendants of old empire’s ruling class, whether army or administrative;
perhaps a few Ranxians trace some ancestry to the common people of that time,
but I doubt that it is more than a minor fraction.”

       “Do
you think the Ranx Rejuvenation Party is peddling this nonsense as a front to
justify their imperial ambitions?” Krratyk asked. “Or are they really insane as
their ideas mark them out to be?”

       “Can’t
say which one it is,” Avyk said. “Chief Yucker has dispatched a few spies to
Ranx. But it will take them a while to get settled there and start getting
information.”

       “Do
we have a King’s Representative in Ranx?” the King asked.