The Storm Maker

by Sid K

  He signaled to Ryft and Woker to hold their fire. Meanwhile, the colonel had fired the last of his twelve bullets, dropped the ATR and taken out his pistol. Sayett quietly walked up the stairs. Policemen had loaded their rifles and were in no danger of hitting Sayett, so they started shooting, while the colonel and his soldiers held their fire to avoid hitting him.

  Sayett waited just near the top of the steps. Then a few seconds later he heard the bank robber fire his rifle; that was the moment he had been waiting for. Sayett quickly crouched onto the first floor, turned his pistol towards the robber, and fired four shots into the man’s chest and stomach. He fell back on the floor. Sayett yelled for policemen to stop firing and he walked to the robber’s rifle and kicked it away.

  He suddenly realized that there could be more robbers hidden in the bank and aimed his pistol at the bank door. Ryft and Woker had rushed up the steps.

  “Pick up those Ranx rifles,” he said to them. “They are automatic.”

  Ryft and Woker grabbed the robbers’ rifles, took out the half empty magazines and attached new ones from the robbers’ belts. Colonel Vyptor and policemen had rushed up the stairs as well.

  “There could be more inside,” Sayett said.

  The colonel nodded. “Follow me.”

  But Sayett was already on the move and the first one in, kicking the glass door and pointing his pistol at the crowd inside. Ryft and Woker walked in right behind him with their rifles aimed. Vyptor and policemen walked in next. Many in the crowd screamed.

  “SPASI!” yelled Sayett to quiet down the crowd.

  “WARRIOR CLASS!” yelled Ryft and Woker from behind.

  Sayett almost laughed but kept a straight face. He then saw two dead bodies on the floor; one of them looked Ranxian and had a Ranx rifle clutched in his hand; the other one was a Starfirian and there was a shotgun next to him.

  “What happened here?” Sayett asked.

  One man came forward from the crowd; he was the most formally dressed man around and introduced himself. “I own this bank,” he said and pointed to the dead Starfirian on the ground. “Brave man. He was our guard. As soon as the bank robbers came in the door, he fired and dropped the first one dead, then they got him.”

  “Are there any more inside?” Sayett asked.

  “Yes.” The owner pointed to an open door to their left. “Seven of them went down that hallway to our bank vault.”

  “Seven!” Colonel Vyptor exclaimed and quickly rushed to the door. Ryft and Woker followed and positioned themselves on either side of the door.

  “Get all the people out except the owner,” Sayett said to the two policemen and then walked over to Colonel Vyptor and looked down the hallway.

  Stairs led down and into a room, but they could not see much from where they were. Meanwhile, the crowd of people was quickly rushed out the main door by the policemen.

  “Any other way out from down there?” Colonel Vyptor asked the owner.

  “None,” the owner said. “They haven’t come up, though.”

  “They are seven and have automatics,” said the colonel, “And only six of us, but we control the high ground.”

  “We have backup coming,” one of the policeman said, “We called our police chief on the radio, and he is coming personally.” Just as he finished, they heard police sirens in the distance.

  “It’s strangely quiet down there,” Sayett said., “Hey Ho!” he yelled. “SPASI has you surrounded with twenty guards, come out and live, or die down there.” They had no way of knowing their numbers so he might as well bluff.

  “We are here too,” Colonel Vyptor got in the act as well but forgot to mention who the ‘we’ would refer to, “and we have grenades. My boys are just rumbling to roll some of them down the stairs with no pin.”

  “Please,” the owner said. “Our money is in there and other valuables.”

  Colonel smiled and whispered to him, “Just joking like Sayett,” and then continued, “Although I wish we had brought some with us, I wouldn’t mind rolling one down to spook them fellas.”

  No reply came from down below. The police sirens got very close and soon they heard footsteps come up the bank stairs outside. Four policemen barged in with Lockyett rifles, followed by the chief of police and six more policemen.

  “Chief,” Sayett said. “Chief Detective Sayett of SPASI.”

  “What a coincidence, huh?” the chief said. “We were going to have a lunch meeting today to discuss this very possibility and here we are.” He turned to the colonel, “Thanks for providing my boys a hand.”

  “No problem,” the colonel said. “Now what are we going to do with them down there. Tell me you have some smoke grenades.”

  “They are still down there?” the police chief asked and then sent a couple of policemen outside to bring smoke grenades.

  “They might be gone like rats,” Sayett said. He turned to the owner. “Any water passageways under that vault?”

  “We would never build our vault on top of a water passage,” the owner said, “We take our precautions.”

  “SPASI isn’t the only one with some know-how of the methods of the crooks,” the chief laughed. “The House of Banks explicitly forbids building bank vaults on top of any underground utility passages.”

  “Nevertheless,” Sayett said, “In a few of the earlier bank robberies, they have escaped through a dug out passage they had earlier built and connected to utility passageways.”

  As they were talking, the two policemen returned with six smoke grenades, which the colonel, Ryft and Woker quickly proceeded to toss down the stairs. The room down was filled with smoke, but no voice or sound came up. The smoke caused coughing and brought tears to the eyes, but nothing happened down there. Slowly the smoke cleared away.

  “They had no masks,” the owner volunteered after a while.

  “That’s it,” Sayett said. “I say they escaped.” He drew his pistol again.

  “Fuck it,” the Colonel said, “Let’s storm them. Let’s go boys.”

  Ryft and Woker walked down the stairs carefully with their rifles ready; the colonel walked behind them and Sayett behind him, both with their pistols drawn. Then half a dozen policemen followed.

  They came upon an empty room, an open vault door and a big hole in the ground.

  “Rats!” Sayett yelled, “Unbelievable. I said, Rats!”

  “Guess you were right,” the chief said .

  “Let’s see where that leads,” Sayett said. He looked into the hole and then lowered himself. Vyptor, Ryft and Woker followed him as did six policemen. The chief stayed behind as the owner came down and shook his head.

  “How much did you lose?” the chief asked the owner.

  “More than two million stars,” the owner said with a sigh.

  Meanwhile Sayett, Colonel Vyptor and the rest were tracing the robbers’ path underground. As Sayett had predicted, the dug out passage eventually connected to a water utility passage and they walked a few more minutes and then came out of an open door with a broken lock onto a street, to the amazement of people nearby.

  “Where is this place?” Sayett asked.

  “This is two streets from the bank,” one of the local policemen said and pointed to the tall, wide building behind them. “The bank is right behind this building.”

  Sayett and the policemen asked around and a few people had seen the bank robbers coming out. They had seen, not men holding guns, but men dressed in water utility company uniforms carrying large bags who got in two cars parked on the street and took off.

  Sayett, Vyptor and his two soldiers along with three policemen walked back to the bank, they left three policemen behind to get official statements from the witnesses.

  Back in the bank, the police chief and the owner had gone up to the main lobby and were conversing as the police were taking away the four dead bodies.

  “Well?” the chief looked at them.

  “They came out on the other side,” Sayett said.

  �
�Shall I scramble some cars?” the chief asked.

  “Forget about it,” Sayett said, “They will be long gone by now, probably already on the national road.”

  “Are we still meeting for lunch?” chief asked hesitatingly.

  “Never mind,” Sayett said, “I appreciate the offer, but these robbers don’t strike the same town twice, so I would be using up the time I would rather use for my investigation. I am going back to Capital.”

  “Glad we could be of help,” Colonel Vyptor said. “Take care SPASI Man,” he said and laughed.

  “Great,” Sayett said laughing.

  Sayett walked out and waved goodbye to Ryft and Woker who stood there with grins on their faces. They were young men and had the adventure of a lifetime. He remembered the feeling after his first real fight. He smiled as he walked up the street to the coffee shop where he had parked his car. He got in, drove back up the road and soon hit the national road where he switched into high gear and roared away.

  chapter 6 – the colonel

  Colonel Sthykar got off the plane and walked down the mobile stairway with two bags in his hands, one of which was a duffel bag holding his hunting rifles, and the other was a suitcase with his clothes. The small airport building had a railing surrounding the runaway, and a few people were standing at one opening waving at the incoming passengers. Sthykar walked over there and looked at the different people standing around.

  “Anybody here Mr. Belvyk?” he asked to no one in particular.

  “That’s me,” said a man in his early fifties, wearing a light blue suit and a dark blue hat on dark blue trousers. “Colonel…”

  “Don’t mention it,” Sthykar said. Everyone in the Starfire Nation knew his name, and he did not want to get distracted talking to the people.

  “Sure,” Belvyk said nodding, “C’mon. My car is right off the road.”

  Sthykar followed him to where the regular road began. Belvyk had parked his car just off of it in the grass. It was a shiny black, open air car with long rectangular front, tall and clean windshield and cream colored leather seats. Sthykar put his bags on the back seat and got in the front. Belvyk started the car, made a U-Turn on the road and they were off.

  “Thanks for picking me up,” Sthykar said as he sat back. He took a cigar from his front pocket and lit it up.

  “I provide personal service to my clients,” Belvyk said, “One of the benefits of working out in the country.”

  “You don’t get a lot of buyers, do you?” Sthykar asked.

  “Intermittently,” he replied. “But I deal in big lots, one sale a month keeps my household running.”

  Belvyk turned his car onto a side road. Tall trees abundantly lined both sides of the narrow country road. Water drops fell off the dark green leaves at irregular interval from the rain clouds that had just passed by. It was lonely on the road, with the noise of the cars and the airport far behind. Birds sang in the distance and a few insects traversed the length and width of the tree branches.

  “What do folks do for a living out here?” Sthykar asked.

  “Not much besides logging and fishing,” Belvyk replied. “Folks here have huge land grants from centuries ago and many have lived generation after generation on the same ancestral land.”

  Mr. Belvyk brought the car to an abrupt halt with his breaks sending out a shriek over the hills. He did not bother to pull the car off the road because hardly anyone ever came this way; there was not a single vehicle in sight for miles on both sides of the road. Both of them got out and Sthykar leaned into the backseat and grabbed his binoculars so he could take in the 360 degree view of the surroundings. The land salesman leaned against the front of his car and grinned.

  “Well…” Belvyk said and waited for Sthykar to answer.

  But Sthykar was too busy examining the landscape with his binoculars and after a few minutes put them aside on the car seat.

  “Colonel Sthykar, all this pristine natural landscape totals ten thousand acres in all,” Belvyk said, “And all of it could be yours for asking.”

  “Looks great so far,” Sthykar replied, “I already saw some game running around in the woods—looks like a good place for big game hunting.”

  “Definitely. Is that your primary purpose for buying the land?”

  “Indeed, but I am also buying as an investment and a quiet place to vacation with my wife,” Sthykar said.

  “You won’t be disappointed in either of that. A lot of quality timber grows on this land, and a lot of big game grazes here. You won’t find any unwelcome intrusion either, big lot sizes keep people from wandering onto each other’s land uninvited.”

  “Let’s drive up some more,” Sthykar said. “Would like to see more of this plot.”

  “Sure.” They got in the car, and as they drove further up, the road’s elevation increased. They kept going higher up in the mountains.

  “Let me ask you a question, Colonel?” Belvyk said, “Why are you buying a land all the way out here?”

  “My friend bought a plot just next to this one,” Sthykar said. “He told me they were selling large plots of land and to get in on the opportunity. You don’t get this large size of land near where I live for a price a Colonel’s salary could afford.”

  “What’s the name of this friend of yours?” Belvyk asked keenly.

  “Relkyett Wuryt,” Sthykar said, “He was a Capitan in the Mountain Army under my command.”

  “Well, I sold him that plot three months ago,” Belvyk said smiling, “Ask him if he is satisfied with the fair price I got him.”

  “I am sure you will get me a fair price too,” Sthykar said, “You sell a lot of the land around here?

  “All of it,” he said, “Although that is not saying much. Most of the land here is ancestral land protected under the King Starryvk’s law. This parcel of land is one of the few here that was available for market sale.”

  “Relkyett bought two thousand acres from you,” Sthykar said, “If you sell me that much, I will buy right now.”

  “Unfortunately I can’t,” Belvyk said, “Trust me, if I could, I would, I get more fees from more sales,” he smiled, “but the owners of the land don’t want to sell lots under ten thousand acres anymore.”

  “Why is that?” Sthykar asked.

  “Quite a story,” Belvyk said. “If you are done looking, we can drive back to my office and I will fill in the backstory.” Belvyk wanted to get Sthykar back into his office as he finished his sales pitch so that he could quickly pull out the papers and get with the sale before Sthykar changed his mind.

  “Alright, let’s go,” Sthykar said.

  Belvyk turned the car around and hit the gas, rushing back down the same road on which they had arrived.

  “I have this total land parcel of one million acres to sell for the owners, Janvyk Timber Company, whose stockholders are the founder’s family,” Belvyk began. Sthykar relaxed back into his seat taking in the beautiful view of the mountains and the trees. “Janvyk the elder, the founder of the company, who put all this land together was the richest man in this area,” Belvyk continued. “The current owners are his grandchildren. However they do not share his love of timber business and don’t want to come live out in the back country to manage the operations. About six months ago, the company was in some financial difficulty, so they have finally decided to sell off the assets and live off of the income from investing the sales proceeds in the big cities.”

  “Is there a lumber mill on one of the plots?” Sthykar asked, “I don’t want lumberjacks wandering over into my property.”

  “There is a mill, but it is in the town. It is the biggest employer in the town. They will cut lumber and then haul it there. The new mill owners have said they will even manage lumber operations on anyone’s land and send them a monthly royalty check.”

  “Well that’s certainly something to consider for the future. But for now all I want is land for hunting and for quiet family vacation, so why not two thousand acre lots anymore?”<
br />
  “So, like I said there are these one million acres,” Belvyk continued, “and for each lot the family members have to negotiate the sale price with a potential buyer. They wanted to sell it in one-hundred thousand acre lots, but I argued them down to ten thousand acres—told them they would be waiting for months to find buyers for that large a plot. As it is, that is already a hundred lots to negotiate for, they don’t want even more on their plate. Now they agreed to sell the first five lots in two thousand acre parcels just to test the market and the prices, but that was three months ago; no more.”

  “Relkyett got lucky, he bought at the right time,” Sthykar said.

  “Indeed, a timber investor bought two of those lots, a retired couple bought another one, and the fifth lot was bought by a company whose business I don’t know.”

  “Alright, I will buy ten thousand acres,” Sthykar said, “I doubt I will buy land again after this.”

  “I am sure you can earn good income from timber here, and build up your acres just like the old man Janvyk He accumulated ten acres at a time when he started out.”

  “Oh it’s not about the money,” Sthykar laughed. “My wife is a city girl, doesn’t like mountains and jungles much. Our next purchase will be a home in a big city if she has her way.”

  “Which she probably will.” Belvyk chuckled.

  “Ha ha,” Sthykar laughed, “Anyways, how fast can I take ownership?”

  “As soon as you and the family can agree on the price, I will give you the land title.” Belvyk said, “I will call them on the phone from my office. They have given me the authority to sign off on the sale on their behalf.”

  “Alright,” Sthykar said. “Mr. Belvyk, could you drop me off at my friend Relkyett’s land plot afterwards. That was my main reason to come here; a few of us friends are having a hunting party.”