"I really didn’t take that smart watch! Look at mine, it’s the newest model on the market, twice the price of that piece of junk. Why on earth would I take it?"
The female passenger who had been brought into the interrogation room slammed the table in frustration as she defended herself. The police told her to calm down; they were only following protocol, not accusing her of anything. The results of the investigation came back very quickly. This passenger had nothing whatsoever to do with Liam’s watch. She was released immediately afterward, and given a substantial sum in compensation on top of it.
Alexander stared at the enlarged photograph, at the young man’s hand dropping the watch into the woman’s handbag. He looked at it so long that his eyes began to sting.
He wanted to ask the police to trace the young man’s movements, but the clues stopped dead right there. Before stepping into the range of the security surveillance system, the young man had already changed his appearance in one of its blind spots. With the spaceport as crowded as it was, there was no further information to be found.
Alexander had no choice but to give up and board a ship home.
He walked into the house with exhaustion in his eyes. The sight of Elijah smiling brightly and coaxing Mrs. Hall sent a thick wave of disgust rising in the depths of them. He gave Mrs. Hall a slight nod in greeting and went straight to Mr. Hall’s study.
"Come in."
Alexander knocked, and Mr. Hall’s somewhat heavy voice came from inside. He went in and reported what he had found. Mr. Hall closed his eyes and said nothing at all. It was a while before he finally asked, quietly:
"He didn’t take anything with him?"
Alexander shook his head. "Not a single thing. Everything we bought for him he left behind, right down to his identity card..."
It was as though the Hall family were a maggot in his bones, and Liam wanted every last trace of them shaken loose.
Mr. Hall looked again at the figure of three billion silver stars on the balance notification. "Where do you think he would go?"
"Perhaps he’s gone back to his biological family. I’ll leave for there right now."
Mr. Hall raised a hand and stopped him, shaking his head. "Forget it. He doesn’t want anything to do with us anymore. Elijah is right. A man who can produce three billion silver stars has certainly found himself a new backer. It may well be that Alpha from that night..."
Alexander’s face turned a sickly green, green with fury. He wanted to open his mouth and blurt out exactly what Elijah was, but the words caught in his throat and stayed there. What good would saying it do now? What good would finding Liam do now? That they had hurt Liam was the truth, and that Liam had turned cold toward them was the truth as well.
Mr. Hall had no wish to say anything further and waved a hand to dismiss him. Alexander left the study, and when he came downstairs, Mrs. Hall and Elijah were no longer there. Elijah must have succeeded in coaxing her round.
A sudden dispiritedness came over Alexander. He boarded his ship at once to resume the business trip he had abandoned. Just before he left, however, he stopped in front of a bodyguard and held out his hand.
"That cufflink. Give it back to me. I’ll buy you another one."
The bodyguard, startled, hurried to take it off. "There’s really no need for that."
Alexander closed his hand around the cufflink and climbed aboard the ship. He opened the shopping app and ordered a replacement to be delivered to the bodyguard. That done, he sat looking at the cufflink in his palm for a long while, and then, slowly, fastened it onto his suit vest.
Ten days later, on planet Sirius.
Liam stood in front of the planet’s main headquarters with a blank face and utter confusion written all over it. He had come here to find the Martinez family, and people were telling him the planet had already changed owners.
A year ago, with no money to treat Benjamin Martinez’s illness, the Martinez siblings had been forced to sell the planet. As for where they went after the sale, the buyer had no idea at all.
"The young Mr. Martinez was treated at the central hospital on Altair, the capital planet of this system. You could try asking there. Who knows, they might still be around," the new owner told him.
Liam bowed his head in thanks and hurried off to Altair. Unfortunately, the two Martinez siblings had discharged themselves from the hospital half a year ago, and the trail broke off there. Liam sat back in a chair in the hospital waiting area, suddenly at a loss for what to do next.
Or perhaps he should simply let it go, live his own life and stop looking for them?
All sorts of thoughts went flashing through his mind, and then a spark of light struck. Liam smacked his forehead with a smack, cursing himself for letting worry throw him into such disarray.
He opened Sunflower at once, found the contact listed as LS, and sent a message: "One million. Within three days, get me detailed information on the Martinez siblings."
The reply came back fast: Received.
Liam left the hospital and took a room in a mid-range hotel. While he waited for news, he wandered around Altair.
Altair was clearly worthy of a planet belonging to an agriculture-specialized star system. The quantity of fresh vegetables and fruit Liam saw here was several times what he had seen on the Capital planet. It was a pity the prices were still so steep. Liam calculated that if he ate fresh produce every day, the billion-odd silver stars in his account would evaporate in under a month.
LS worked at a frightening speed. By the second day after taking the commission he had dug up the Martinez family down to their ancestral graves. As it turned out, the Martinez family still owned one more planet. But it sat far out in the meteor belt region, and while it did technically belong to the Polaris star system, it fell squarely into the category of places so remote that not even a ghost would bother to look at them.
That planet was agricultural too, but the Martinez family had abandoned it long ago, and it was on the verge of being confiscated by the government. After selling Sirius, the two Martinez siblings had burned through the money quickly. Benjamin’s illness had also eased considerably, so they moved out to that abandoned planet to live.
Liam’s older sister, Isabella, had put what money was left into improving the planet, hoping to grow something that would prove it still had practical value. Grow something they did, unfortunately, but the quality was appalling. At best it would keep them going for another year or so.
A year from now, if they still could not produce anything decent, the planet’s ownership rights would lapse. The planet would be formally seized by the government and turned into a refuse dump.
Liam stared at the words planet Cygnus on the screen, then sent LS the million as promised. He checked out of his room, walked through the market, and put in an order for a large quantity of supplies to be shipped to Cygnus. After that, Liam paid extra to hitch a ride on the transport company’s cargo ship.
There was no other way. Cygnus was too remote and ordinary ships never went out that far, so this was the only method Liam had of getting home.