The Storm Maker (8 page)

08/27/958

Chief
Detective Sayett took an exit from the national road and turned on a road
leading to Forrestvyk. It was a small town, slightly off the way from the main,
national road. The drive was very pleasant as the town was located in the
middle of a dense forest and there were tall trees on both sides of the road
with a little bit of snow on their leaves. Sayett drove through town and all
the way down the center street towards the far north end of the town.

       He
was going to meet the most powerful underworld don in the Starfire Nation:
Barryvk the Black Star. Black Star, which had been Barryvk’s nickname in his
younger days, he also adopted for his criminal syndicate which had operations
in smuggling, gambling, racketeering and extortion. Black Star was the largest
syndicate, and the only underworld syndicate in the Starfire Nation that had
more than a hundred gunmen working for it. Yet, most people were unaware that
it even existed. Starfire Nation had a very low crime rate and most people
would have been surprised to know that there was a criminal syndicate such as
Black Star in existence in their country.

       As
Sayett turned on the street leading to Barryvk’s home, he passed a tall
building which he knew was the headquarters of the local warrior class: the 543
^rd
Reserve Army. When Mr. Barryvk had built his home here a couple of decades ago,
there had been four armed attacks on his residence by gunmen of the rival
syndicates. All of them had failed, but the town had been shaken. After the
fourth attack, where more than twenty-five gunmen in cars shot it out with
Barryvk’s own gunmen; the warrior class decided to relocate its headquarters
from another town to the street leading to Barryvk’s home. Now at any time
there were two hundred men with automatic rifles at the headquarters. This had
stopped the attacks.

       As
Sayett passed the reserve army’s building, he considered letting them know that
he was going into Mr. Barryvk’s house, but then he decided against it and drove
on.

       At
the end of the street a circular, blue-colored cement wall, at least eight feet
tall, surrounded Mr. Barryvk’s house. In the middle of the wall was a black
gate made of thick steel bars spread at two-inch intervals and as tall as the
wall itself. Sayett knew that this gate could withstand a head on crash of a
big car. That was the purpose. It was guarded. Two men stood outside, one of
them, holding a shotgun was on the right side of the gate; the other guard on
the left side had nothing in his hand, but Sayett knew he would have a pistol
inside his coat. There were three men inside, two on the right with rifles and
the third on the left with a shotgun. Sayett drove to the gate and rolled down
his window as the unarmed man on the left walked up to him.

       “Who
are you and what do you want?” he asked Sayett.

       “I
am here to meet Mr. Barryvk,” Sayett replied. Then he took out his SPASI badge
and showed it to the man. The man extended his hand to see it and Sayett let
him have it. He looked at it keenly and then handed it back to Sayett.

       “Do
you have a Letter of Search, mister?” he asked.

       “No,”
Sayett said, “But tell Mr. Barryvk I am here for a friendly talk, nothing
concerning his business.”

       “Wait
here,” the man said and went to converse with the men inside the gate.

       Sayett
could not see but he could hear some words, apparently one of the men was
talking on the phone inside the gate. He looked at the other man with a shotgun
standing at the right of his car. He had lowered his shotgun somewhat and it
was pointed in the general direction of his car. Sayett smiled at him, but the
man stood there coldly staring at him. A couple of minutes later the first man
came over to Sayett.

       “Mr.
Barryvk will meet you,” he said and then turned to the other guards. “Let him
pass, Boss approves.”

       The
guards in the inside opened the huge gate, and Sayett slowly drove inside. A
guardhouse was to his right, where five other gunmen stood with rifles and
shotguns looking at his car. They were probably off-duty but had come out just
to size up their visitor, Sayett thought.. He drove straight to the big mansion
of Mr. Barryvk. A well-manicured lawn flanked the two lane road. The home
itself was painted light blue just like the outside wall, a bit surprising
given that these people called themselves the Black Star and Black was the
color of their uniform. Apparently not for the house.

       At
first sight Sayett figured that it was perhaps a forty bedroom house with many
other rooms for recreation and entertainment. Mr. Barryvk always kept twenty to
thirty gunmen to guard his residence and the guard house appeared to have no
more than five rooms. Moreover, people from his syndicate and guests with their
own bodyguards came to stay as well. The house itself appeared more like an old
school fortress than a decorated mansion. It was four stories tall, but there
were no windows on the bottom floor and only one door leading inside, guarded
by a couple of riflemen. Above the door was a tall opening on the third floor
and, sure enough, a gunman with rifle stood up there. Sayett parked his car
right outside the door and got out. He looked up to where a handful of other
gunmen stared down at him from the porches on the second, third and fourth
floors. Clearly, the house was designed to provide protection against an armed
charge.

       At
the door, one of the gunmen opened it and said, “Mr. Barryvk is waiting for you
in the main living room; make a right and go down the hallway.”

       Sayett
nodded and walked inside. Strangely there was a shiny black wall facing him and
a narrow corridor to either side. One man on each end with automatic rifles and
sufficient ammunition could hold off tens of attackers indefinitely. Sayett
laughed, they had left no stone unturned in fortifying Mr. Barryvk’s residence.
He had no doubt that Black Star had automatic rifles as well, but they were too
smart to keep them on their boss’s premises; perhaps hidden in safe houses out
in the country and in forest cabins. He walked to the right and as the corridor
ended he turned left into a large room with a marble floor and paintings on
each side wall. Another room connected to it without any walls in between the
two. This room was carpeted and had sofas and big chairs arranged for visitors.
A large dining table stood to the left of sofas and there were a couple of
doors, one leading back to an inner yard and one on the right perhaps to the
kitchen.

       Sayett
walked into this room and an old man got up from the middle sofa and gave him a
wide gaping smile. He had only two teeth on the top and half dozen on the
bottom and this gave his smile a sly appearance.

       “Mr.
Barryvk, I am Chief Detective Sayett of SPASI,” Sayett said.

       “Haven’t
seen you before,” Mr. Barryvk said.

       “I
don’t work on the syndicates, haven’t for years,” Sayett said, “I wasn’t
bluffing to your man just to meet you when I said I wasn’t here with regards to
your business.”

       “Well,
come take a seat,” Barryvk said and sat down himself.

       Sayett
sat on the sofa to the right of where Barryvk was sitting. He unfastened his
suit buttons and sat up straight. Barryvk, on the other hand, put one of his
legs on the other and relaxed back into the cushion. He was a seventy-four
years old man, had lost most of his teeth and almost all of his hair. Frail and
lanky, with a smile that was more grandfatherly than sinister, it would have
been hard to believe that this was the don of the most powerful underworld
syndicate in the Starfire Nation. But he was.

       He
wore a black sweater over black trousers and black leather shoes. This was
unusual and had to do with his personal history. Starfirian men did not wear
sweaters; they wore either full sleeve shirts or coats for colder times.
Sweaters were worn in the Karx Nation with milder winters; that was where
Barryvk had cut his teeth as a hit man in his youth and gotten his reputation.

       “Well,
what will you have?” Barryvk asked with his usual smile. “Whiskey? Ale? Rum?”

       “Nothing,
thank you,” Sayett said, “Let’s just talk.”

       “Don’t
worry I am not going to drop a pill in your drink,” Barryvk said and burst out
laughing.

       “Not
funny,” Sayett said, although he smiled a bit but kept his head down and looked
at the floor. “My headquarters knows I am here, and so do the boys up the road
of the 543
^rd
Reserve Army.” Neither fact was true, but Barryvk had
no reason to believe it not to be.

       “At
least have cold water.” Barryvk said.

       “Alright,”
Sayett  assented; he looked Barryvk in the face and smiled.

       Barryvk
snapped his fingers and a man walked out of the door behind Sayett. Sayett was
startled for a second and he realized he should have sat on the opposite sofa
to watch the two doors; nevertheless it was just a well-dressed house staffer.

       “Get
our guest a glass of water with ice,” Barryvk said. The man nodded and walked
back into the kitchen.

       “Mr.
Barryvk…” Sayett said and then waited for a few moments to let the words hang
in the air and then spoke slowly and deliberately, “Now SPASI has taken it easy
on you because we would rather use our resources to deal with enemy spies and
saboteurs. And for that you promised us to keep violence away—especially the
armed kind—from the civilians.” He  waited a few moments again and then shook
his head. “What is going on here?”

       “We
have kept our end of the bargain,” Barryvk said and leaned forward with a
serious expression. “What is troubling you?”

       The
house staffer brought an icy glass of water, which Sayett drank with a few
gulps. He set the glass down on the table in front of him.

       “Mr.
Barryvk…” Sayett looked up at the ceiling for a couple of moments, “Assault on
banks with automatic rifles, death of policemen, guards and even a few
bystanders.” Sayett looked at him now. “These are not what constitute
discretion in my book.”

       “Now
you just wait a minute,” Barryvk frowned and moved forward on the sofa, sitting
just on the edge, “I know exactly what you are referring to. We had nothing to
do with those bank robberies; the newspapers even said that they were foreign
saboteurs. We don’t hire foreigners in Black Star, and we don’t kill policemen
and civilians. And damn I would risk it all for the amount of money that is
pocket change to me.” He gave a firm nod and sat back into the sofa again.

       “Mr.
Barryvk, I did not point my finger at you,” Sayett said. “Otherwise I would be
here with a hundred SPASI guards, but I find it hard to believe you would let a
new yahoo syndicate walk into Starfire underworld and carry on so brashly. You
know things, you hear things, things that even SPASI doesn’t hear. All I ask is
that you let us hear a little bit about these new fellas on the block.”

       “Well,
I am myself angry at these bastards...walking into our country, openly stirring
up trouble like that. If I knew who these rat fellas were, I would send my
toughest man, Shotgun Syk, with a few good sharpshooters to put them into their
place—twelve feet under snow.”

       Twelve
feet under snow. Sayett smiled at the famous historical expression. He had also
never believed Black Star had anything to do with the bank robberies, but now
he had gotten Barryvk angry at them for bringing attention to him. This could
have beneficial results.

       “Mr.
Barryvk, please let us handle them,” Sayett asked, “If you hear any rumblings
below ground, call SPASI and ask for me, Sayett,” he said. “If any of your boys
have gotten in trouble recently, I have great pull in SPASI as an old timer
Chief Detective.”

       “I
have been asking around myself just out of curiosity,” Barryvk said, “But now I
am definitely going to try to get something for you,” he said.

       “Well
that’s all I ask,” Sayett said and got up.

       Barryvk
also got up and said, “Let me walk you to your car.” They did not speak further
and walked side by side to the door and outside. The guards standing outside
stiffened up seeing their boss. Sayett walked over to his car and opened the
door.

       “I
will try to have something for you in a week,” Barryvk said.

       “Appreciate,”
Sayett said with a smile. He got into the car.

       “Take
care SPASI Man,” Mr. Barryvk said with his big grin on his face.

       Sayett
nodded, then started his engine and drove off towards the gates. The guards had
already opened them and Sayett turned right on the road and then sped off
towards the national road.

       It
was true, what he had told Mr. Barryvk about SPASI having taken a hands off
approach to him these last few years. SPASI and the Starfirian leaders had
decided that imperial spies of the Narducat Empire were the biggest danger to
their country and had to get SPASI’s top priority. Keeping with this SPASI had
concentrated its resources and its best detectives on the Counter-Imperial and
Counter-Spying Divisions. Mr. Barryvk furthermore was a wily, cunning and
formidable opponent. A patient man, he waited for the right moment for the
opportunity, he listened to his lawyers, carefully planned his operations and
put as much distance between the lower ranks of the grunts and the gunmen and
the Black Star leadership with him at the top. Collecting enough evidence to
convict Mr. Barryvk and his top cohorts in a court would have required SPASI to
devote a large amount of time and resources that it couldn’t afford to right
now. SPASI figured, Mr. Barryvk was about to croak anytime now—he was seventy
four and the average life years for a Starfirian man were seventy two—so might
as well wait out till he croaked.