The Storm Maker by Sid K Page B

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