"I take it he wasn't a particularly good student?" I said, trying to hide my grin.
"Oh, on the contrary, he was one of the brightest students we've ever had here. That's much of why the faculty and administration were willing to overlook the... um, less social aspects of his character. He was at the head of his class while he was here, and everyone assumed a bright future for him. I'm not sure he was aware of it, but long before he was slated to graduate, there was a raging debate going on about him among the faculty. One side felt that every effort should be made to secure him a position with the institute as an instructor after he graduated. The other felt that with his arrogant distaste for inferiors, placing him in constant contact with students would... well, let's just say they felt his temperament would be better suited to private practice, and the school could benefit best by simply accepting his financial contributions as an alumni... preferably mailed from far away."
I was enthralled by this new insight into Aahz's background. However, I could not help but note there was some thing that didn't seem to fit with the record keeper's oration. "Excuse me," I said, "but didn't I hear you tell Gretta to look in the dropout file for Aahz's records? If he was doing so well, why didn't he graduate?" The Pervect heaved a great sigh, a look of genuine pain on his face.
"His family lost their money in a series of bad investments. With his financial support cut off, he dropped out of school... left quietly in the middle of a semester even though his tuition had been paid in full for the entire term. We offered him a scholarship so that he could complete his education... there was even a special meeting held specifically to get the necessary approvals so he wouldn't be kept dangling until the scholarship board would normally convene. He wouldn't accept it, though. It's a shame, really. He had such potential."
"That doesn't sound like the Aahz I know," I frowned. "I've never known him to refuse money. Usually, he wouldn't even wait for it to be offered... not nailing it down would be considered enough of an invitation for him to help himself. Did he give any reason for not accepting the scholarship?"
"No, but it was easy enough to understand at the time. His family had been quite well off, you see, and he had lorded his wealth over the less fortunate as much or more than he had harassed them with his superior abilities. I think he left school because he couldn't bear to face his old cronies, much less his old victims, in his new cash poor condition. Basically, he was too proud to be a scholarship student after having established himself as a campus aristocrat. Aahzmandius may not refuse money, but I think you'll find he has an aversion to charity... or anything that might be construed as such."
It all made sense. The portrait he was painting of Aahz, or as he was known here, Aahzmandius, seemed to confirm the Butterfly's analysis of my old mentor's financial habits. If he had suffered from embarrassment and seen his plans for the future ruined because of careless money management, it stood to reason that he would respond by becoming ultra conservative if not flat out miserly when it came to accumulating and protecting our cache of hard cash.
"Ah! Here we are."
I was pulled out of my musings by the record keeper's exclamation at Gretta's return. I felt my anticipation rise as he took the offered folder and began perusing its contents. For the first time since arriving on Perv, I was going to have a solid lead on how to find Aahz. Then I noticed he was frowning.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Skeeve," the record keeper said, glancing up from the folder. "It seems we don't have a current address for your associate. The note here says Traveling.' I guess that, realizing his financial situation, we haven't been as diligent about keeping track of him as we've been with our other alumni."
I fought against a wave of disappointment, unwilling to believe that after everything I had been through, this was going to turn out to be another dead end. "Didn't he have a school or business or something? I met one of his apprentices once."
The Pervect shook his head.
"No. That we would have known about. He may have been willing to instruct a few close friends or relatives... that's not uncommon for someone who's studied here. But I think I can say for sure that he hasn't been doing any formal teaching here or on any other dimension. We would have heard, if for no other reason than his students would have contacted us to confirm his credentials." Now that he mentioned it, I did recall that Rupert, the apprentice I had met, had specifically been introduced as Aahz's nephew. Overcome with a feeling of hopelessness, I almost missed what the record keeper said next. "Speaking of relatives. We do have an address for his next of kin... in this case, his mother. Perhaps if you spoke to her, you might find out his current whereabouts."
Chapter Eighteen:
" ‘M' is for the many things she taught me..."
—OEDIPUS
THE SEARCH FOR the address the record keeper had given me led us onto some of the dimension's side streets which made up the residential areas. Though at first Perv seems to be composed entirely of businesses, there is also a thriving neighborhood community just a few steps off the main business and transportation drags.
I'll admit to not being thrilled by the neighborhood Aahz's mother lived in once we found it. Not that it looked particularly rough or dirty... at least no dirtier than the rest of the dimension. It's just that it was... well, shabby. The buildings and streets were so run-down that I found it depressing to think anyone, much less the mother of a friend of mine, would live there.
"I'll wait for you here on the street," Pookie announced as I emerged from the taxi.
I looked at her, surprised.
"Aren't you coming in?"
"I figure it's more important to guard your escape route," she said. "I don't think there's any danger inside, unless the place falls down when you knock on the door... and I couldn't help there anyway. Why? Are you expecting more trouble than you can handle from one old lady?"
Since I didn't have a snappy retort for that, I proceeded up the porch steps to the door. There was a list of names with a row of buttons beside them. I found the name of Aahz's mother with no difficulty, and pressed the button next to it.
A few moments later, a voice suddenly rasped from the wall next to my elbow.
"Who is it?"
It only took a few seconds for me to figure out that it was some kind of speaker system.
"It's... I'ma friend of your son, Aahz... Aahzmandius, that is. I was wondering if I might talk to you for a few moments?"
There was a long pause before the reply came back. "I suppose if you're already here I might as well talk to you. Come right up."
There was a sudden raucous buzzing at the door. I waited patiently, and in a few moments it stopped. I continued waiting.
"Are you still down there?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Why?"
"Excuse me?"
"Why didn't you open the door and come in when I buzzed you through?"
"Oh, is that what that was? I'm sorry, I didn't know. Could you... buzz me through again?"
"What's the matter, haven't you ever seen a remote lock before?"
I suppose it was meant as a rhetorical question, but my annoyance at being embarrassed prompted me to answer. "As a matter of fact, I haven't. I'm just visiting this dimension. We don't have anything like it back on Klah." There was a long silence, long enough for me to wonder if it had been a mistake to admit I was from off-dimension. The buzzer went off, somehow catching me unaware again even though I had been expecting it.