by Sid K
THE
STORM MAKER
SID K
Copyright © 2015 Sid K
This story is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, events, persons are fictional and product of author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places and events is purely coincidental.
Front Cover Image purchased from http://www.fausga.com/
Back Cover Image(S) used under license from Shutterstock.com
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1514841355
ISBN-13: 978-1514841358
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 – The PLOT
Chapter 2 – it’s all about the cash
chapter 3 – the smugglers
chapter 4 – colonel and constellar
chapter 5 – the bank robbery
chapter 6 – the colonel
chapter 7 – the black star
chapter 8 – gold harbor
chapter 9 – hitman and enforcer
chapter 10 – the house of banks
chapter 11 – the investigation
chapter 12 – the hunt
chapter 13 – the compound
chapter 14 – the ambush
chapter 15 – the scientist
chapter 16 – the dogs of war
chapter 17 – the firefight
chapter 18 – the rangers’ gambit
chapter 19 – the battleplan
chapter 20 – the clouds on the horizon
chapter 21 – the gathering storm
chapter 22 – into the eye of the storm
chapter 23 – the battle of tower
EPILOGUE: THE STORM PASSES
appendix
CHAPTER 1 – The PLOT
02/02/958
The car hurtled up the winding hill, the driver paying careful attention to the roadside to avoid running the car over the cliff. However that danger was moot, because a strong and wide steel bar cordoned off the road from the valley below. There was no traffic as it was a privately owned road on a privately owned hill. Meanwhile Vanx Uttr sat in the back seat lost in his own thoughts.
His presence had been requested by the owner of this hill who owned the fortress-like mansion atop. Although ‘requested’ would have been a nice way to put it, the man thought. Demanded would be a more appropriate description. No other man in the country could have made this demand.
This was a secret trip for the passenger. Usually he traveled with the entourage of at least two police cars, one in front and the other behind, and his own armed bodyguards as well. But this was to be a totally secret meeting and his host would not appreciate him bringing any security along with him, nor would he let them into his home.
The man took a cigar from the compartment on the back of the driver’s seat, lit it up and relaxed back in the seat. The elections were just nine months away and his host, as the biggest financier by far of his party, was sure to use that fact to extract great favors from him. Party Leader Vanx Uttr was the founder of the Ranx Rejuvenation Party, which held the largest number of seats in the Ranx Assembly and formed the government as the leading party in the alliance. Today he was going to meet the man who had made his party what it was.
His car finally reached the top of the hill and stopped in front of a steel gate, fifteen feet tall and wide enough for two cars to pass at once. Two armed guards stood outside. There were two flood lights on the top of the gate on either side. Both beams converged on the car as one of the guards walked up to it. Vanx rolled down his window and when the guard saw his face he saluted him, and said, ”Go ahead, sir; Boss is waiting for you.” He motioned for the other guard to open the gate.
As the car passed through the gate Vanx got a better view of the forty-odd room mansion that was built like an armed fortress from the olden days. But where the fortresses of the old were made out of rock, this was made of steel. Surrounding the gate on all the sides and enclosing the mansion was a ten-foot tall steel wall with flood lights spaced out in even distance. The road leading from the gate to the entrance was lined with trees on both sides, although they were not as visible now in the night.
Vanx’s driver pulled the car to in front of the entrance where an attendant opened the door for Vanx Uttr and led him into the house. Inside was a big hall with marble floors, chandeliers and paintings on all the walls. But his host was not here; the attendant led him to an elevator and left him there. Vanx knew where he had to go and pressed the button for the third floor. He saw his host when he exited into a smaller room.
Boss Hantex Rut was a fifty two year old man presently dressed in a finely tailored light blue suit and matching pants and wearing polished black shoes. He had a fluffy full head of white hair, a rectangular face and a chin that had started to sag a little. He was wearing square sunglasses and was smoking a cigar when Vanx walked into the room.
The room itself was divided in two parts, the right half of the room had a long dinner table but there were no chairs around it, as it had been converted into a planning desk by the boss. The boss was sitting on the side of the table in the only chair in the room. The left half of the room was completely empty but the left wall had a few pieces of expensive artwork hanging from them. The boss made no attempt to find a chair for Vanx.
“How is the party doing?” Boss Hantex asked.
“Same as usual,” Vanx replied as he walked up to Hantex and stood a few feet in front of him. He felt awkward standing there and facing Hantex as if he was just another one of his employees, but he realized that was probably how Hantex thought of him.
“Election time is coming,” Hantex said.
“Somehow I don’t think you have invited me here to talk about the elections,” Vanx said.
“Of course not,” Hantex said, “It’s about the deal we made a long time ago. I am calling in the favors.”
“So you are pretty sure that you are going to follow through with this plan of yours?” Vanx asked.
“Not the kind of man to weave empty webs in the air, am I,” Hantex said. “You should know this by now.”
“Building a big business is one thing,” Vanx said, walking to the table. “You are talking a covert war here.”
“You think the Sanguine Empire was built on peace?” Hantex asked. “If we are going to establish ourselves as the true heirs to Sanguine Empire we are going to have wage relentless war.”
“A war against the Starfire Nation?” Vanx said startled. “That was not part of our agreement. Do you realize we have roughly one-fifth of their military strength?”
“That is all taken care of,” Hantex said, “No one will know that the Ranx State is behind my project till it’s fully operational and the Starfire nation has been forced to surrender.”
“That depends on whether this super-weapon of yours can even work,” Vanx said.
“It is nearing completion,” Hantex said. “One more month and I will be ready to carry out my first test. I have spent the last two years and half of my wealth to see this project through and now it is bearing fruit.”
“Half of your wealth?” Vanx was amazed. He began pacing back and forth.
“But that is just between you and me,” Hantex said, “I want everyone to think I am still a billionaire.”
“But what do you want from me then?” Vanx asked. “Looks like you have everything under control and taken care of.”
“I need Ranx Rangers to provide protection for my project,” Hantex said. “And for some other work that I can’t disclose right now. Some of them may die though.”
“What?” Vanx was startled. “What in the world are you planning, fellow?”
“Do you think we can have a war and men won’t die?” Hantex asked. “But forget that, you give me what I need. When the p
roject goes live, it will need protection, at least initially when it will be vulnerable. And I need spies for that type of work as well. Give me Suka Manx and one thousand of his Ranx Rangers and give me one entire operational team of Eye of The Ranx.”
“That won’t do, Hantex; you cannot be serious,” Vanx said, “Our best soldiers as well as our spy team in your project? That would be enough cause for the Starfire Nation to declare war on us.”
“That is for the final stage of the project,” Vanx said. “It won’t be long now. We had agreed to this earlier and you can’t turn into a chicken now. I am already in talks with Suka Manx and he is on the same page.”
“What business do you have suborning the officers of the state?” Vanx asked angrily.
“Suka Manx is a patriot,” Hantex replied. “He would never agree to something that wasn’t in our country’s best interest. He also has guts, something your party seems to have lost.”
“Even if I agree, I will have to convince Mr. Tonex Jut,” Vanx said. “As the State Minister he is the only one with the authority to give the orders to both the army and the spy department.”
“Give me a break.” Hantex became agitated and leaned forward in his chair. “You are the party leader. If he refuses, throw his ass out on the street and install some more pliant stooge as the state minister.”
Vanx did not say anything to that.
“If you don’t want to see the Banker’s own bitches and bastards come to power next election, you will do as I tell you to,” Hantex said. “Otherwise, not only will I give you no more money, I will throw my hat behind the Banker. Our combined financial power will see your party eating the dust and winning only two seats as you did before I became your savior.”
“Alright,” Vanx said, “I will talk to the state minister.”
Vanx was miffed to receive an open threat, but he had no other option. The Banker was the richest man in Ranx Nation and bankroller of their rival the National Growth Party. The NGP had been in power for twenty years before the Ranx Rejuvenation Party had defeated it five years ago. RRP was formed twenty-two years ago, but in the elections held twenty and fifteen years back, it had won no more than two seats each time. Then Hantex had agreed to provide them with huge funding to allow it to go toe to toe with the NGP. It had then won thirty four seats ten years ago and ninety one seats five years ago, the last outcome finally allowed it to form the government with two minor parties.
Summary of Ranx Election Results: Last 25 Years
Total Seats: 225
Seats needed to form Government: 113
Party
National Growth Party [NGP]
Ranx Rejuvenation Party [RRP]
RRP Allies
Rest
25Yrs. Ago
130
-
-
95
20 Yrs. Ago
126
2
-
97
15 Yrs. Ago
129
2
-
94
10 Yrs. Ago
115
34
-
76
5 Yrs. Ago
78
91
26
30
There was one other dramatic option; he could have ‘The Boss,’ as Mr. Hantex was known, arrested for subversion. But that was dangerous; the Banker would smell opportunity and start making offers to other minor parties including his party’s allies; Hantex would do the same from the jail. Their combined offers of money could result in the fall of their government. He could not even put off the possibility that the Banker and the Boss could bribe the army generals to stage a coup. Vanx had to accept the Boss’ demand now and buy some time to think further.
“Pleased with you now,” Hantex said. “We will make history books.”
“I am curious,” Vanx said. “How did you come to know about the possibility of this super-weapon?”
“From the two Polar Powers themselves,” Hantex said smiling, “You do remember two years ago Starfire and Narducats were on the verge of their third war with the atomic weapons lurking in the background. Fortunately for them, they negotiated and climbed down from the war stance and they signed the Treaty of Wizardton.”
“I remember that. It was officially called the Starfire–Narducat Atomic Arms Control Treaty, signed in the town of Wizardton,” Vanx said. “We even had a whole meeting on that and an expert on international law explained the treaty to our party and government leaders.”
“Apparently not well enough,” Hantex chuckled, “It was more than twenty-three thousand pages long and it talked about limiting the number of atomic weapons and the verification and communication and it went on and on about all sorts of technical details. I read that whole thing. Page by page with a pen in my hand. And I struck gold. Despite the name, the treaty wasn’t just about the atomics, it also included many other issues that they had negotiated and agreed on. One of them was the advanced arms section—speculative weapons that scientists in either country were experimenting with. The most exciting amongst them were the Storm Weapons. Oh sure, they buried that deep inside the treaty, I don’t remember the exact page, but somewhere between page fifteen hundred and eighteen hundred was the discussion on that, in the most vague and ambiguous terms. Both had agreed to stop further experiments and developments. I decided to pick up where they left off, and I have been busy working on that for the past two years.”
“Well, I don’t know what to say,” Vanx said.
“You just talk to your man and get me what I have asked for,” Hantex said, “And I shall make our country the Imperial Ruler of the whole world; what Sanguine and Narducat Empires could not do, we will do.”
With that Hantex banged his fist on the table jolting Vanx. Vanx promised the boss what he had asked for and took his leave. As he sat in his car going down the mountain, he started to think about his party’s past that was intricately connected to the whole affair.
“Back home, sir?” the driver asked as they left the mansion behind.
“No. Take me to Ranx Assembly; I have to talk to Tonex urgently.”
The driver nodded and kept driving. Vanx thought back to the time when he had founded his party. Vanx used to work for a marketing company, writing speeches for both the politicians as well as the business leaders. His speeches were greatly in demand and one day he realized that he could use his talent for his own gain.
It had always irritated Vanx—amongst many others in the Ranx Nation—that their country once contained the seat of the world’s largest and most powerful empire and yet today Ranx was a mediocre nation in all matters. The Sangria was the capital city of the old Sanguine Empire and while it was now in ruins and reduced to a tourist and archaeological attraction, it still inspired awe and nostalgia in the hearts of many a Ranx nationalists.
Thus, he founded the Ranx Rejuvenation Party and gathered a few like-minded folks into it with the explicit goal of turning the Ranx Nation into an imperial power and of reviving the spirit of conquest that the old imperial city represented. There was, however, just one problem; most people were not interested in such a grand notion nor did they have moneyed backers. Their countrymen were too concerned with the petty concerns of daily living.
Then it all changed when Boss Hantex decided to back them up in exchange for a deal. Boss was the most exceptional businessman in the Ranx nation and this was not disputed. He had started on the bottom with loans from friends and family to buy a small steel mill and had then built up the largest industrial firm in their country with focus on steel, coal and electric power.
There was, however, another man, Banker Jupex Kot, or just the Banker, as he was called, who controlled 37% of the shares of the largest bank and bankrolled the ruling National Growth Party. He had pushed them to pass laws that favored his large bank, especially one law that put a ceiling on bond market debt issuance and mandated that companies had to go to the banks
for large capital debt. The law was ostensibly passed to protect the investors, but it really favored the Banker. There were a few small banks, but only Banker Jupex’s bank could meet the needs of large companies and he had the final say in credit approvals. Thus, all the big businessmen bowed before him and deferred to him.
But not Boss; he told Vanx and his party leaders, that he didn’t give a damn about their historical-imperial dreams, but that he would bankroll them if they would break the back of the Banker after coming in power. They were going nowhere and had nothing to lose, so they accepted the deal.
After a pitched political battle lasting a decade, which the newspapers called the Boss-Banker War, RRP had won, come to power and repealed the debt ceiling for bond issuance. Furthermore, they banned large banks from buying debts of industrial companies, essentially breaking the back of the Banker as the biggest power broker in the commercial world.
But a strange switch in the interest of Boss and RRP leaders had occurred during this time. As a full-time member Boss received the regular party newspaper as well as other literature. After the RRP victory, his business became large enough that it no longer made big capital investments; he could finance small expansions from retained earnings and Boss lost interest in fighting the Banker or even in the daily operations of his business. He started reading about the old Sanguine Empire and started dreaming of recreating it with Ranx Nation as the imperial power center.
RRP leaders had moved in the exact opposite direction. As they had come to power and had to run the government they had become very involved in important mundane tasks such as collecting taxes, financing the administration and keeping the country going. They had also realized how weak their nation was compared to the top powers; Ranx Nation wasn’t even in the top ten countries of the world in military or commercial power. They had all but abandoned the imperial dream.
Now the Boss had rekindled that dream on his own. Vanx decided that he would provide Boss with whatever support he needed—after all, he had dreamed the same dream once. The party had no other choice; Boss was determined to go ahead and without him they could not win the next or any elections thereafter. Banker and the National Growth Party were chomping at them hard. If Boss’s plot failed the RPP could wash their hands of it completely, and if it worked they had won the world.