by Sid K
“That’s the pay phone down the street from Holryth’s?” Yucker asked, “I can see it from the window when I eat there.”
“Right, that is the one Lenax called from,” Avyk said, “but not to Ranx. The pay phone is owned by the Jakwyk Telephone Company and I called its owner Mr. Jakwyk. First he refused my request for information on that telephone call, but then I told him that if I get a Letter of Search from the court, then we are going to go through all the calls and eat up an entire day of his staff. Then he agreed to tell me and what he said was that there was not a single international call made from that pay phone on that day. Not one. Not to Ranx...not to any other country.”
“So where did he call?”
“Well, we didn’t have the exact time of Lenax’s call, but luckily on that night, in that half hour time interval only one call was made.” Avyk said now with a big smile, “to High Standards Timber Company at Coldwoods.”
“That is it!” Yucker slammed his fist on the table with grinning excitement. “But we are going to need that in writing from Mr. Jakwyk.”
“Fortunately, Jakwyk Telephone Company’s headquarters are in this city,” Avyk said, “and Mr. Jakwyk is sending over his personal driver right now with a written attestation of the call time and location.”
“Book him!” Yucker exclaimed.
Senior Detective Zurryvk and Lenax Tanx were relaxing in a small side lounge on one of the floors of the SPASI headquarters. Lenax was reading a newspaper while Zurryvk had slumped back on another sofa, his hands behind his head, eyes closed, but not asleep. Neither he nor the rest of the team had heard from Sayett and there was nothing to do till they had.
Chief Detective Avyk walked in with two burly detectives each standing an inch or two taller than six feet. “Mr. Lenax,” Avyk said to the sitting man. Lenax folded and put aside the newspaper and stood up.
“That is me,” Lenax said. Zurryvk opened his eyes and looked at Avyk.
“Take him away,” Avyk said. The two detectives walked behind Lenax, each grabbed an arm. They pushed him forward and walked him down the hallway.
Zurryvk jumped up. “Hey, you can’t do that! He is our state guest.”
“He is a foreign spy,” Avyk said to him.
“Avyk, you can pull rank on me, but not on the leader of my team.” Zurryvk said, “Do you know who it is? It is Sayett himself. I am going to call him right now.”
“Save yourself the trouble,” Avyk said. “My orders come from Chief Yucker.”
“What is this about?” Zurryvk was taken aback.
“Yucker will address your team in a few hours.” Avyk said. “Till then sit quiet and tell your team to do likewise.” Avyk walked out the detectives who were waiting with Lenax beside the elevator doors.
chapter 16 – the dogs of war
Sayett woke up with sudden alarm; he threw both of his arms back into the bed, flashed open his eyes, sat up straight in the bed like a spring and the first thought that came to his mind was to reach for his gun. But just as he was about to do that, he realized that there were multiple people looking down at him.
“How are you feeling, SPASI Man?” a uniformed man sitting on the chair next to his bed asked him with a smile.
“Much better. I am chief detective Sayett of SPASI. Colonel…” Sayett said.
“Colonel Myett,” he said, “I command the Reserve Army and this is one of the towns in my district. And this here,” Colonel turned to face a man in police uniform standing next to him, “is the police chief of this town. I brought ten of my boys, and he has four of his. Some of them are patrolling outside now. We came as soon as Forvyt telephoned us.”
The young man, Forvyt, was still standing in the door with his ATR, but was looking much more relaxed. There were also two warriors with their automatic ATR rifles standing in the room, as well as two policemen with repeating rifles.
“We found your car some distance up in the woods,” the police chief said, “as well as the car of four of your guards on the street along with their bodies. Terrible what happened to you and your men.”
“Actually, that’s not my car in the woods,” Sayett said., “I managed to grab one of theirs. Did you find any of their dead? I know we got some of them.”
“There was blood some distance from your car; that must have been theirs,” the police chief said. “No bodies. They took their dead.”
“Have you told anybody about this, Chief?” Sayett asked.
“Not yet,” he replied. “I wanted to wait to hear from you. I can alert all the nearby police chiefs right from here.”
“Chief, please do not do that,” Sayett said. “Those men are trained soldiers with automatic firepower. If some town patrol car engages them, it will end badly for the police.”
“Well, SPASI man Sayett, I can put together ten thousand warriors with automatic rifles,” Colonel Myett said,. “Would you like me to do that?”
“Appreciate, but please let us handle it, Colonel,” Sayett said. “If you start calling your warriors, they will go deep underground. I would rather let them believe that they have some time, so that I can catch them at their place when I raid it.”
“Sure, Sayett,” Colonel Myett said. “it’s a SPASI case, but ask us for any help.”
“There is one matter,” Sayett said, turning to the police chief. “Can you send the dead SPASI guards back to the Capital without the news of this event getting out?”
“Will do that,” the police chief said. “I am required to file reports of any shootouts in the town to the House of Police. The newspapers in Capital will have access to it one day after it gets there. But I will delay sending the report for a few days.”
“Grateful,” Sayett replied. He examined his wrist; it was feeling better and the pain was much less. He got up from the bed and the colonel and the police chief walked back into the living room to give him space.
“Colonel, can two of your warriors drop me off at my Southstar office?” Sayett asked.
“No problem,” the Colonel said, and then turned to Forvyt, “I am going to leave Nytar and Byft here for a couple of days to back up you and your father in case some of those gunmen come around looking.”
“Sure,” Forvyt nodded and opened the door for them to exit. Sayett, the colonel and the police chief walked outside.
A couple of other policemen and eight other warriors patrolled the outside and five cars were parked in front of the house. Colonel Myett ordered two of the warriors to driver duty for Sayett, and Sayett got in a car. Soon he was on the same road, riding back to where he had come from earlier in the day. He did not think that the gunmen would know of his plans or try to ambush him again but he felt better having two warriors with him, and also felt comfortable as a passenger in the back seat.
* * *
“Cut out one of those bullets,” Corporal Montex ordered his men as they stood around the four dead guards.
Eight gunmen had come with him and they looked at each other, but none of them took any action. Corporal Montex then took out his own knife.
“They are dead. Cut me out one bullet,” Montex said again and held up the knife. His men hesitated to take it. These were elite soldiers of the Ranx army, Montex thought, even had been in a battle and killed foes, but this task of cutting out a bullet from one of their fellow soldiers made them queasy.
“Fine, I will do it,” Montex said. He leaned over a soldier that had taken multiple shots, drove his knife down near a bullet hole and levered up a bullet that he then pulled out with his fingers and held it in between his thumb and index finger in front of all for the rest of them to see.
“Now what have we here?” Montex said, “why, it’s rifle ammunition.”
The soldiers leaned closer to look and those who knew it were shocked.
“Me too,” Montex said at their reaction. “How does a Ranx pistol end up firing a standard Starfire ATR rifle bullet?”
“He must have grabbed one on his way out,” one of the soldiers of
fered with a stutter.
“There is not a single, damn Starfire ATR rifle in this whole compound,” Montex said. “And I don’t believe a pencilhead can make three shots, three kills, not in a thousand years in broad daylight, and no way in the dark.”
“It must be those Starfire hunters that the gate guards told the Boss about.” one of them said, “They must have broken in somehow and met up with him…who was he?”
“Some scientist, a pencilhead. What does that matter,” Montex said. “So you are saying that the hunters scaled the wall and met up with this scientist huh? Apparently, they must have set up the meeting in advance and wrote it up in their schedule.”
The soldier who had given the suggestion was embarrassed as Montex stared at him. “I don’t know,” he said, “I was just…”
“Hunting rifles fire different bullets,” another soldier said.
“Forget it,” Montex said and then took out his radio and yelled, “Tryox, pick up the damn radio.”
A few seconds later a voice answered.
“Corporal Montex,” Tryox said, “we heard gunshots.”
“That bastard pencilhead, strangely with one pistol and one bullet shot four of our men,” Montex said. “Don’t ask how because I don’t know, damn it.”
“We will be ready for him at the gate,” Tryox said.
“Are you stupid?” Montex said annoyed. “Are you stupid or are you stupid? It is not him, it is them and they are probably over the damn wall by now.”
Tryox did not say anything.
“You have two dogs with you; send them out on their trail,” Montex said. “I am sending eight soldiers; they will catch up with the dog trackers.”
“Alright. I will send out both of my dog trackers.” Tryox said.
Montex shut off his radio and turned to his soldiers. “Go. Go out there and find the scientist and whoever is with him.”
“You are not coming with us, Corporal?” one of them asked.
Montex put both of his hands on his hips and looked him in the face, “Are you scared? Scared of the dark?” Montex then looked at the rest of them, “Now that Capitan Suka is not here, I have to deal directly with that blockhead boss of ours. He has no knowledge of war or combat, yet gives orders like a general.” Montex walked away from them towards the central road leading to the tower.
* * *
Sayett’s car rolled in the port city of Southstar in the the first hour of evening. Southstar was one of the two big cities on the western coast of the Starfire nation along with Gold Harbor much further up north. A city of approximately four million and three hundred thousand people, it was the hub of trade and commerce of the southeastern part of the country. A large port as well as an industrial center, it was also a major base of the sea army, although the army port was located in the northern outskirts of the city, some distance from both the city center and the commercial port. There were also a large number of shipbuilders—both commercial and military—and submarine builders located all along the coast. It was the largest shipbuilding center and second largest one for the submarine construction.
At one time it was also notorious as the locale of big time smuggling operations. That was the time Sayett had first come here early in his work life with the SPASI, as a junior detective just learning the tricks of the detective trade. SPASI had shut down most of the smuggling syndicates for good and Sayett had played a major role in those operations, earning great credit for his work file from the then chief detective of Southstar. There was still some smuggling going on, but the SPASI had cut back on its staff and its focus, leaving a much smaller office to deal with the remaining smugglers.
The warriors drove Sayett right into the heart of the city. The SPASI office was located on the top four floors of a twenty-story office building. As a matter of policy SPASI always bought the top floors in buildings that it did not own outright. Sayett saw that some SPASI guards had already arrived and were congregating in the building’s parking lot. The trucks to take them on the raid were parked in the lot. The car stopped on the side of the road just outside the entrance to the parking lot and Sayett got out.
“Grateful to you,” Sayett said. “Convey my thanks to Colonel Myett.”
“Will do. You take care SPASI man,” the driver said. He waved, made a quick U-turn on the road and sped off.
Sayett walked across the parking lot towards the building and a few guards. “What’s the count so far?” Sayett asked.
“Thirty six,” one guard answered. “Are you Sayett?”
“Am,” Sayett said. He clapped a couple of times to get all of their attention. “We are not having an open air cookout here, fellas. Now, if someone is watching us at this very moment, they would know we are planning a raid. All of you standing around outside are giving away our intentions. Everyone inside the building.”
The guards saluted and nodded and went into the building.
“And somebody tell the drivers to take those trucks and park them out on the streets,” Sayett said., “Distribute them in front of the different buildings. They are a clue, too.”
The SPASI guards who drivers ran to the trucks. Sayett then went inside, and took an elevator to the topmost floor. Four SPASI guards patrolled the elevator lobby. Sayett showed his identification card and his badge, and had a guard take him straight to the office of Chief Detective Pylar. Pylar was not in his office, but they found him in a corner conference room where he was talking on the phone. Two junior detectives, including the one who had delivered the car to Sayett earlier, were standing near him.
“Oh, wait,” Pylar said sighting Sayett, “Sayett has just reached.” He took the phone away from his ear and said, “Chief Yucker is on the phone. He has good news for you. Here...” Pylar held out the receiver to Sayett who eagerly took it and put it to his ear.
“Chief Yucker, Sayett here, just reached Southstar. “Pylar tells me that you have some good news.”
“Yes I do,” Yucker said from the other end. “We found your man— the spy inside your team. It was Lenax Tanx, the Eye of Ranx man as you had suspected.”
“Is he inside the headquarters?” Sayett asked.
“I took him in the custody. Now hear this,” Yucker said. “He made a phone call to Coldwoods, to that lumber company that you suspect as the headquarters for the bank robberies, on the very night you told your team about your plans for the raid.”
“Great,” Sayett said, “but do we have evidence of it?”
“I am holding in my hands right now a written attestation from the owner of the Jakwyk Telephone Company whose pay phone Lenax called from,” Yucker said.
“Great,” Sayett said. “Now hopefully tomorrow we will get Slyntya back.”
“The last of the guards should be there by midnight.” Yucker said, “When are you heading out?”
“Tomorrow morning,” Sayett said. “I don’t want a night time raid by sleepless guards; I can’t be reckless since Slyntya is involved. For that matter, our guards aren’t the soldiers of the elite army, either, to handle that kind of night time jungle operation.”
“I agree, but I have to tell you that I have to inform Constellation about Slyntya’s kidnapping soon—like tomorrow.”
“I understand, but do it in the evening,” Sayett said. “I will catch you from the SPASI truck radio just before I order the attack. Leave for the Constellation then, so by the time you reach there, we will have Slyntya and you will be able to tell them about the rescue as well as the kidnapping.”
“Alright,” Yucker said.
“Alright then,” Sayett said and hung up the phone.
“We don’t have more than a handful of beds here,” Pylar said, “but you can take one of them. We have blankets, though, for the rest.”
“I will sleep on the blankets with the guards,” Sayett said. “Don’t want to get too comfortable before the big day. Let’s see the space.”
Pylar took Sayett to see the arrangements that he had made for the hundred guards that
had to be accommodated.
* * *
“Why aren’t we running?” Jalant asked Sthykar as they walked in the direction of Relkyett’s cabin.
“Whisper, Whisper!” Sthykar said. “You don’t know who is listening in these woods.”
“Alright,” the scientist whispered.
“I don’t want us to get separated, you would be lost by yourself,” Sthykar said, “Besides, my backup is not too far away now.”
“What do you mean by backup?”
“Hunting friends,” Sthykar said. “But no more talking. You can stay close behind me.
They kept walking in the night. Sthykar carefully placed his feet and avoided branches, but the scientist was stepping on leaves and branches, making crumbling noise with his shoes. However, there was nothing Sthykar could do about it, besides carrying him again on his back. Sthykar laughed quietly to himself.
Some distance later, Sthykar stopped. “I hear barking, dogs,” he said.
“I don’t hear…” Sthykar cut him off.
“Keep quiet,” Sthykar said, “it is faint but unmistakably dog barking and getting closer. They must have some clothes or object with your scent on it, for the dogs to track it.”
“All my clothes and materials are back there,” Jalant said. “When they bought us in, they had us take off our shoes and kept them in the guardhouse and gave us new ones.”
“Clever of them,” Sthykar said. “In case you ran, the dogs would have the scent from the shoes to track you in the woods.”
“Shall we run to your backup now?” Jalant asked.
“No, the dogs are much faster We shoot the dogs and the dog trackers.”
Even in the dark Jalant’s face betrayed the fact that he was unnerved at the thought of another shootout. Sthykar scouted for a suitable place to take a stand. After a few moments, he found what he was looking for: two big tree trunks not more than a few feet apart. More importantly, there was relatively open ground just before them, mostly grass with a few trees with small trunks. That’s what he wanted, an open space to have clear shots at the dogs. Sthykar motioned for Jalant to come over to him.
