The Storm Maker (36 page)

       Suka
looked up at the tower as the firefight between the two remaining Rangers and
the advancing Starfirians continued. He realized he had to stop them from the
tower. There was considerable open ground between the maze and the tower. If he
and the Rangers were on the balcony, they could pick off anyone who tried to
storm the tower. Suka did not want to abandon the two Rangers, but he had no
choice. He would very likely get hit with a hail of bullets if he had no cover.
He had to secure the tower now or the entire plan would fail.

       “Cover
me,” Suka said and then added hesitatingly. “I will get reinforcements.” That
was a lie and Suka felt guilty for lying to and abandoning his own soldiers. As
the two Rangers provided cover fire, Suka darted from behind the maze bush,
sprinted down the road and rushed into the tower gate. He had not locked it on
his way out, but now he locked it from inside. He had sealed the fate of his
two Rangers, but that was unavoidable as he had to lock out the Starfirians.
The gate was made of solid wood supported by thick metal cover; it could not be
broken down with bullets or muscles. Suka paused for a few moments to catch his
breath and to attach a new, fully loaded magazine to his rifle. Then he ran to
the stairs on the right.

* * *

       “Boss
we have a problem,” a technician said to Hantex.

       “What
is it?” Hantex asked, “Is the hurricane not holding?”

       “Holding
beautifully at over one hundred and forty miles per hour wind speed now,” the
technician replied, “Trees must be flying.” Most everyone guffawed. Sayett and
Slyntya stayed quiet and Hantex looked annoyed.

       “Then
what is the problem?” Hantex asked.

       “Erratic
signals from the machines on the roof to the instruments here,” the technician
said. “Some kind of interference as if somebody is moving the wires around. It
can’t be the wind or the rain since we had specifically accounted for it in the
construction.”

       “Paratroopers!”
the Boss shouted. “I told Suka Manx it was them damn paratroopers. One or two
must have landed on my roof.” the Boss turned to the two Rangers standing near
to the stairs. “You two go to the roof and see what it is?”

       Rangers
nodded and started up the stairs to the door leading to the roof just when the
Boss yelled after them, “Do not shoot my machines! You are elite rangers so I
expect accurate shooting from you.”

       Sayett
was puzzled as well. He knew that Capitan Suka Manx was right; there was no way
any paratroopers could be dropped in the middle of such a storm. It was most
likely birds or loose screws. Sayett would have hoped it was the paratroopers,
but he knew better than that and thus did not feel any better.

       The
Rangers opened the door slowly, making as little noise as possible. But Sthykar
was alert on the roof. He was setting up the explosives, but thought he heard
something from the stairs to the left. He left the explosives there, moved to
take cover behind a machine and aimed his pistol in that direction. The two
Rangers slowly came onto the roof and turned around rapidly with their rifles
when they saw Sthykar from the corners of their eyes. But it was too late
because Sthykar had already aimed and fired two shots, and dropped both of them
dead. Their bodies tumbled down the stairs, hit the door open and further fell
to the third floor.

       “I
said Paratroopers!” the Boss yelled when he saw the bodies tumble down. “Hold
both sides!” he shouted at the remaining four Rangers who drew their rifles and
positioned themselves in front of the stairs leading to the doors to the roof

       Sayett
was delighted and stood up, but did not change his facial expression. This was
a miracle he thought to himself. He had a great admiration for the Starfirian
Elite Army, but if this were really the paratroopers, then they had outdone
themselves. He mentally prepared himself for action, but did not physically
give any indication. As soon as the paratroopers came storming down, he would
charge the Boss and take him down to the ground. Part of this was out of his
desire to hit back at the man that had caused so much trouble to him and was
responsible for the death of many of his guards in the two ambushes. However
part of it was also his detective character that wanted to capture the Boss
alive and get all the information out of him. The army would come in guns
blazing, they would not necessarily care about taking the chief villain alive;
but he was a detective and would try to do his job.

       He
turned to Slyntya and whispered in her ear, “As soon as they come down from the
roof, hit the ground face down. Bullets will be flying everywhere. Nod and
whisper back to me what I said.”

       “Hit
the ground face down,” Slyntya nodded, whispered and then added. “Sthykar has
told me this before. I was just thinking about that.”

       “Be
ready; it will happen quickly,” Sayett added, then stayed silent while the
tension built up in the room. The Rangers closely watched the doors, the
technicians furiously worked the panels and the Boss examined the whole room in
anticipation.

       Meanwhile
Sthykar did not know whether the Rangers that had come up to the roof were on a
routine patrol or they had heard noise on the roof. That was unlikely, as he
had taken great care to move as silently as possible and the roof was solid
concrete. Even if he had stomped on it with his combat boots the sound would
not have carried downstairs. He also didn’t know if there was anybody currently
present in the room just below. Maybe there was nobody to see the dead bodies
stumble down, or maybe they were rounding up more Rangers to storm the roof. He
picked up his rifle while considering his future course of action. He could
radio Pelyett to come down and fly him away to Jontvyk, Relkyett and the rest
with his work being done here. Now he only had to light the fuse for the
explosives and the storm machine would be destroyed. Second option was to take
the risk and move down to look for Slyntya. There were only three floors but he
did not know how many Rangers there were inside. He hoped most would have been
sent out to stop his friends.

       Whatever
decision he made, he had to make it fast. He could have held off any incoming
Rangers from one side with his rifle. But holding off two points of entry, on
opposite side of each other, was significantly harder task for just one person.
Sthykar carefully walked the edge to of the roof and looked over the concrete
parapet. The third floor had large windows. This gave him an idea. Sthykar tied
the rope to his chest and the other end to a strong machine that was bolted to
the ground and was welded to other heavy pieces of metal. Sthykar stepped over
the parapet, clutched his rifle with his right hand, the rope with his left,
pressed both feet against the wall and started lowering himself slowly.

       As
his feet reached the top edge of the window he stopped for a moment. He had to
act fast now, get a view of the room and then rapidly pull himself up if
anybody was in there. Sthykar let himself drop a few feet and then stopped with
his feet positioned against the large window and he stared inside the central
control room. Sthykar was shocked to see the whole operation before his eyes.
He saw that Slyntya and Sayett were there, too, with a suited man standing near
to them, two armed Rangers on the two doors and a multitude of operations staff
working at the machines. He grasped all of this in less than five seconds when
a technician spotted him and yelled.

       He
was close to the left staircase where two Rangers were standing. When they
heard the scream they turned around to look at the window. Sthykar fired his
rifle with one hand shattering the glass and dropping both of the rangers dead
before they could aim and fire. The next moment he let his rifle hang by its
sling, clutched the rope with both hands and rapidly climbed back up to the
roof. The two Rangers on the other side came running towards the window.

       Sthykar
had seen the room and he had seen the other two Rangers come running towards
him. They would do the obvious and take the left staircase up; if he ran fast
he could beat them to the other side. Sthykar got on the roof, untied the knot
rapidly, lit the explosive’s fuse and then ran to the opposite stairs.

       “Go
get him,” the boss yelled at the two Rangers and as expected they ran up the
left staircase to the roof where they saw Sthykar run down from the other end,
and ran back down as well. Sthykar and the Rangers both jumped steps to beat
each other to the third floor.

       Meanwhile
Sayett’s plan had been ruined. He had caught a glimpse of the man outside the
window and was almost certain that it was Sthykar and that delighted him, but
the Boss had moved away from him and closer to the window. When Sayett took a
few steps towards the Boss, he found a pistol pointed his way.

       “Who
told you to move around, standstill or I will drop you,” the Boss said and
walked back to Slyntya while Sayett stood half a room away.

       “Come
with me,” Boss Hantex said to Slyntya. He motioned for her with his pistol to
follow him to the stairs at the back of the room, which led down to the second
floor. Slyntya was scared of the pistol pointed at her and followed the Boss
just when Sthykar burst onto the third floor.

       “Sthykar!”
Slyntya screamed.

       Hantex
quickly stepped behind her, put his left arm around her neck and pointed his
pistol with his right hand to her forehead.

       Sthykar
looked at her, but he had no clear shot at the man who was hiding behind her.
Rangers would be in the room in no time. He ducked behind a desk and aimed his
rifle at the stairs on the opposite side of the room. Sayett and everyone else
in the room hit the floor in anticipation of bullets flying. The very next
second the Rangers ran down onto the third floor. Sthykar opened fire on them
and the Rangers were hit, but they had pulled their triggers as well and their
bullets flew all over the room. The next moment a massive explosion rocked the
roof and the whole tower, shaking the walls and the floors, shattering some
windows, short-circuiting the wires in the instrument panels.

       During
all this, Hantex had dragged Slyntya down the stairs to the second floor.

       Sthykar
rushed to examine the fallen Rangers. They were dead. Sayett stood up from the
floor and Sthykar tossed him his pistol.

       “Sayett,
take care of this staff,” Sthykar said. “I am going to rescue Slyntya.”

       Sthykar
ran towards the stairs where the Boss had taken Slyntya, slowed down, held up
his rifle and slowly descended one step at a time.

       Sayett
rounded up the dozen or so technicians and herded them into a side room and
locked the door from outside. Then he started down the other stairs to the
second floor, slowly taking each step, his pistol aimed forward. He knew there
were half a dozen Rangers in the underground dorms holding his guards and
policemen as prisoners. They had to get the Boss before he alerted them.

       Suka
Manx came running up to the second floor at the same time as the Boss had
reached there with Slyntya.

       “What’s
going on?” Suka asked. “I heard gunshots and a big explosion.”

       “There
is a paratrooper up there. I had told you but you didn’t believe me,” Boss
Hantex said while still holding Slyntya in the hostage position with his pistol
pointed to her head.

       “How
many paratroopers?” Suka was bewildered that any paratroopers could land right
on the top of the tower.

       “One,”
Hantex said.

       “One
paratrooper against six Rangers. Why did you run here?”

       “Because,
you fool, he shot all of them,” Hantex said.

       “I
don’t believe that,” Suka replied.

       “Believe
and what’s more, she seems to know him.” Hantex said.

       “No,”
Slyntya replied, afraid that he would hurt her in retaliation.

       “How
can she know a random soldier?” Suka asked.

       “She
yelled Sthykar—that’s a Starfirian name,” Hantex said.

       “Sthykar!”
Suka almost jumped. “
The
Colonel Sthykar?” He looked at Slyntya.

       “I
saw him in an army parade once,” Slyntya lied. If they found out that she was
his wife, they would have a great leverage over him. Sthykar had taught her to
falsify her identity in situations like this, better to avoid giving any
information that your enemy could use against you.

       “Why,
of course,” Suka Manx said. He seemed to believe her. “A great many Starfirians
would know Colonel Sthykar, just like a great many Ranxians know Capitan Suka
Manx.”

       Boss
laughed. “Well then go stop him, great Capitan Suka Manx; prove yourself.”

       Suka
was annoyed by the sarcasm, but he clutched his Ranx rifle and slowly
approached the stairs leading to the third floor. For the first time in his
life he was going against a man that was a bigger war hero than himself.
Capitan Suka Manx and two thousand of his Ranx Rangers had been parachuted
behind enemy lines and they had destroyed a force twice that size and secured a
key bridge that allowed the main part of their army to cross the river into the
enemy territory and seize it. That is what had made his name and reputation in
the Ranx Nation. But Colonel Sthykar’s had invaded the mighty Narducat Empire
itself and forced it into negotiation with his singular action.