The Storm Maker (31 page)

       “We
do, but we have told him nothing,” Yucker said. “They will have tapped the
phone lines out of his house. We have done likewise with Ranx’s Representative
here, but so far we have heard mundane conversations.”

       “Should
we open talks with the Ranxian Nation?” the King asked. “And who are their
leaders?”

       “The
State Minister is the head of the Nation in Ranx,” Avyk said. “But the party
leader is as important because he appoints and can replace the state minister.”

       “We
should mobilize our air army and sea army first,” Commander Byter said. “That
way they will know that we are serious.”

       “I
believe we should do neither right now,” Krratyk said. “We don’t want to alert
Ranx that we are on to them if they are behind this. And we don’t want to
mobilize and intimidate them till we have hard evidence against them, because
if they are innocent they might refuse to help us if our airplane carriers are
rushing towards them.”

       “What
do you want the SPASI to do in the meanwhile?” Yucker asked.

       “Avyk,
you have done great,” Krratyk said. “Keep collecting more information on Ranx.
Yucker, have SPASI try to find out if there are other storm machines besides
the one in Coldwoods.”

       “Yes
Commander,” Yucker replied.

       Yucker
and Avyk picked up their folders, saluted the King and the Supreme Commander
and left the conference room.

* * *

       Colonel
Weltar of the reserve army stood on the northern side of a ridge with the map
of his district spread out on the front of his car. Along with him were four of
his capitans. Around him warriors with their ATR automatic rifles were
assembling for war. They were all dressed in the standard battle uniform:
King’s Red hat and shirt, with black boots, belt and pants. There were four
thousand of them spread across the bottom as well as the southern side of the
ridge. A big radio set in the passenger seat of Colonel’s car.

       “Capitan
Duftar,” Weltar said to the capitan standing to his right. “You will lead the
attack from here.” He pointed to a ridge on the map, three towns north of
Coldwoods. “This is the ridge we are standing on. You will have under your
command not only your fourth division, but the second and the third divisions as
well.”

       “Do
we go straight to the compound?” Capitan Duftar asked.

       “Storm
them right in,” Weltar said. “Alright Capitan Aryt, You and I are staying here
with your first division. I am keeping the thousand soldiers of your division
as reserve.”

       “Yes,
Colonel,” said Capitan Aryt, standing behind him slightly to his left.

       “Now,
look here,” Weltar said and pointed his finger to a road two towns east of
Coldwoods. “This is where the fifth, sixth and seventh divisions have
assembled. Capitan Haryett of sixth division will be leading the attack from
the east.” Then he moved his finger westward and stopped at a small mountain
range west of Coldwoods and said, “Our eighth, ninth and tenth have assembled
there; Capitan Jolvyt of tenth division will lead their attack from the west.”

       “Why
don’t we have an attack from the southern side?” Duftar asked.

       “Coldwoods
southern border stretches far and touches the district of another reserve
army—the last district before the polar region,” Weltar said. “If the culprits escape
there, the House of War will call upon the 1,000
^th
reserve to do the
mop up. More importantly, the mountain cliffs in between Coldwoods and the next
town to the south are nearly vertical. They would be fools to run that way.”

       “Do
we really need nine thousand soldiers?” Duftar asked. “Sure, they ambushed a
hundred SPASI guards, but so what?”

       “I
told the House of War same, that I could mop them up with a couple thousand
warriors,” Weltar said. “But they specifically ordered a full force attack.
Said something about elite Ranxian troops and some secret weapon that can
create storms.”

       “I
don’t believe it,” Aryt chuckled.

       “Well
maybe you want to tell that to the Supreme Commander,” Weltar laughed. “I doubt
he will be amused. Speaking of him, bring that radio over.”

       Aryt
took the radio from the car’s seat while Weltar moved the map aside to create
empty space on the front of the car. Aryt placed the radio and tuned it up to
the army frequency.

       “Colonel
Weltar to the House of War,” Weltar said.

       “Coming
in loud and clear, Colonel,” Supreme Commander Krratyk said.

       “Commander,
the 999
^th
reserve army is fully mobilized and ready now, ten
thousand troops and all the officers,” Weltar said. “We await your orders.”

       “Just
tell your soldiers to be careful,” Krratyk said. “We have Colonel Sthykar with
a few friends, as well as hostages there.”

       “Told
them before, but will remind once again before the attack,” Weltar said.

       “Alright
then, I order you to launch the attack,” Krratyk said.

       “Alright,”
Weltar said and turned off the radio. To his capitans he said, “We have the go,
now tune the radio to our frequency.”

       Aryt
turned the radio to local frequency for their army and Weltar spoke, “Capitans
of 999
^th
, this is Colonel Weltar, acknowledge Capitans Haryett and Jolvyt.”

       “Haryett
here,” Capitan Haryett said. “All troops assembled and ready to go.”

       “Jolvyt
ready as well,” Capitan Jolvyt said.

       “Alright,
listen up once more,” Weltar said. “We have Colonel Sthykar and a handful of
troops already infiltrating the place. We also have hostages to rescue,
including a Constellar. It will get chaotic near their compound, so be careful
who and where you shoot.”

       “Yes,
sir”

       “Yes,
sir”

       “Alright,
capitans, launch the attack,” Weltar said. “Thrash these sods good and hard.”

Weltar
turned off the radio and said to Duftar, “Take your troops in.” Duftar nodded
and saluted him and walked forward along with two more capitans to take command
of their troops.

       The
attack began a few minutes later, from the north Capitan Duftar, from the east
Capitan Haryett and from the west Capitan Jolvyt; each led three thousand
soldiers through the forests and mountains towards the Ranxians’ compound near
Coldwoods.

* * *

       Corporal
Montex rushed up the stairs to the third floor of the tower. In the big central
room, Boss Hantex and Capitan Suka Manx were leaning over a round table with a
map spread across; its edges dangled off of the table. They straightened up and
looked at Montex as he rushed in with panting breath.

       “Boss,
Suka, my men who were tapping the phone lines heard a lot of calls from the
headquarters of the local warrior class go out to thousands of homes,” Montex
said, “They are assembling an attack.”

       “We
already know; those men told me,” Suka said. “What do you think we are doing here?”

       Montex
looked over the map; Suka placed his index and middle fingers and his thumb on
it and formed a triangle with Coldwoods in the center.

       “I
took one look at this map a year ago and said if we were attacked by troops,
this is where they would attack from,” Suka said keeping his three fingers on
the map. “The ridge in the north three towns over, this big road to our east
and these mountains in the west. Happens that is where they are assembling and
planning to launch an attack from.” He turned to Hantex and smiled, “Aren’t you
glad I already positioned our soldiers? You wanted to hold them in our tower
till we got their locations confirmed. It would have been too late and we
wouldn’t have gotten good locations to fight off the invasion from.”

       “Alright,
so I was wrong, I will give you that,” Hantex said. “You are Ranx’s best
soldiers, you know your tactics.”

       “So
do the Starfirians,” Suka replied. “That’s why I could predict their moves in
advance.”

       “Tell
me about our positions,” Montex said.

       Suka
changed the locations of his fingers on the map.   “Three hundred Ranx Rangers
in front of each of the invading fronts,” Suka said, “All have fortified higher
ground. Corporal Montex, I want you to take personal command of our troops in
the north.”

       “Higher
ground or not,” Montex said, “we can only delay them; we can’t fight them off
with the ratio ten-to-one against us. Not even Ranx Rangers can do that.”

       “You
don’t worry about that Corporal,” Hantex said. “Delay is exactly what we want.
Soon I shall start the storm machine and then no ratio can overcome the fury of
wind and water.”

       Montex
saluted both of them and took their leave to follow his orders. Suka and Hantex
watched him go, then once again leaned over the map and examined their
situation further.

* * *

       Suka
brought Sayett from down below while Hantex directed Slyntya to follow him.
They took two of them to a room on the third floor where a photographer had set
up a tripod against a wall facing an open window with blue sky outside. Boss
directed Slyntya to stand in front of the window as the photographer took a
photo, and then they did likewise with Sayett.

       “I
want to give your government the reassurance that you are unharmed,” Hantex
said. “I don’t want them to try anything foolish.”

       “Are
you sure about that?” Sayett said. “You think our government would hold off an
attack just because of a detective and a Constellar? We are not big time
players in Starfirian politics.”

       “I
am not worried about the attack; that is what my weapon Storm Maker is for,”
Hantex said. “It is time to give you a look. Suka, let’s take them upstairs.”

       The
photographer took his negatives to the dark room to develop them while Hantex
walked up the stairs to the roof, followed by Sayett and Slyntya with Suka at
their backs.

       Hantex
opened the door with the key and they were on the rooftop. It was a round and
flat roof but filled to the brim with man-sized machines, instruments, radars,
antennas and wires.

       “Now
don’t you try any sabotage,” Hantex chuckled. “I have built fail safe features
and duplicates, triplicates in them.”

       “And
I will shoot to kill if you try to break anything,” Suka said tapping his
pistol at his side.

       “That
is, if they don’t get electrocuted first,” Hantex laughed. “Suka you are fast,
but the electricity is faster.”

       “Yeah,”
Suka guffawed.

       Sayett
and Slyntya did not say anything while Hantex and Suka were having a bit of
humor at their expense. They were looking at this with confusion. Sayett had
learned accounting before becoming a detective; he knew nothing about the
technical matters. Slyntya was a scientist, but this was a field that she did
not even know existed, machines she did not even think possible to create. They
walked around the maze of machines and the jumble of wires but said nothing.

       “Enough,”
Hantex said, “Let’s go down.”

       “Let’s
go,” Suka said and directed Sayett and Slyntya to walk down the stairs to the
third floor again. He pointed them into the central room.

       A
man sat to the side with a typewriter; two armed guards stood next to him. When
he saw Hantex, he handed him two copies of a draft he had typed out.

       “Here
it is,” Hantex said and handed one each to Slyntya and Sayett. “Sign them,” he
pointed to the pens on the central table. “This indicates you have seen my
machine and you believe that my intention and my abilities to seize power are
real.”

       Slyntya
started reading, but Sayett just walked over to the table, took the pen and
signed off on the paper. Slyntya walked over to him, picked up a pen and
whispered, “You didn’t read it?”

       Sayett
laughed. “Meaningless. These have no legal status,” he whispered. “Our
understanding of it doesn’t matter. He just wants to show our government that
he is serious.”

       Then
Slyntya signed off on it. Suka took the papers from them and then Hantex held
out a tape recorder and had both Sayett and Slyntya describe what they had seen
and what the Boss’s intentions were.

       “Take
the woman Constellar to her room,” Hantex commanded the two guards, and they
escorted her to her room on the second floor below.

       “I
didn’t want to say it in front of her,” Hantex said, “but if your army somehow
manages to win—which I don’t believe they will—but if by some miracle they do,
then they will end up destroying this compound and this tower, and all of you
Starfirians will die with us Ranxians as well.”

       “Let
her go, at least,” Sayett said. “I am a detective—have been in deadly
shootouts, barely escaping—”