“It’s correct. Have you a document anywhere transferring ownership?”
“I’m in favor of that. May I ask how much you paid for it?”
Kimberley hesitated.
Alex nodded. And I knew the look in his eyes. He’d researched it and she was well over the line. “Okay. I’d have preferred to arrange things so you didn’t lose any money, but that’s obviously not going to work. Our lawyer will be in touch.”
“I’m sorry to inform you, but the chess set won’t command anything like what you paid for it.”
“We’ll go to four hundred. That’s our top figure.”
“I tell you what: we’ll go with five. That’s it.”
Alex sent the payment. Several days later we got a call from Gabe. As he liked to phrase it, he was back in town. Though in fact he was standing in the Starlight Hotel, on Skydeck.
“How’d the project go?” said Alex. “Did you find anything?”
“And—?”
“
Charlotte’s chess set arrived that afternoon. We opened the package, took out the board, removed a plastene box, opened it, and examined the pieces. Aside from the slight difference in the design, the set was ordinary. Until Alex showed me the date engraved on the underside of the board. With Charlotte’s first name. “It was her tenth birthday,” he said.
“I’m surprised she didn’t get a set with more glitter. Pieces designed like people in pressure suits or something. If you want to get a kid excited about a game, you have to do better than conventional pieces.”
“I think her mom was expecting her to do exactly what she did: grow into a serious chess player.”
“What’s that got to do with the set?”
“You don’t play chess, do you, Chase?”
“Actually, I do.”
“Ever compete in a tournament?”
“No. Not that I can recall.”
“People who play the game seriously won’t stand for anyone changing the way the pieces look. Do that, substitute guys in space suits or whatever, and everything changes. Don’t ask me why. But you don’t see the board the right way if you’re playing with cones or mythical beasts or whatever. I suspect Charlotte’s mom understood that.”
“Alex, where are we headed with this?”
“Nowhere, I guess. Charlotte was an extraordinary woman. She graduated from Andiquar and earned her master’s in physics two years later. Del Housman became her mentor. One of the top physicists in the Confederacy.”
“He must have been impressed by her.”
“One way or another, yes. It cost her.” Housman had been responsible for getting her the Octavia assignment. Alex cleared his throat. “Chase, would you call Olivia and let her know the package has arrived? Find out if she wants it shipped.”
Ordinarily I’d have passed the call to Jacob, but in that case I couldn’t resist being the person to deliver the news. I moved the set into the conference room, placed it in the middle of the table, and opened the curtains, exposing it to sunlight. I took the pieces out of the box, set them up, and made the call.
An AI answered:
It was more like ten seconds. She blinked on and was about to say something when her eyes locked on the set. A huge smile took her over. And finally she looked up at me. she said.
“You’re welcome. Alex was glad he was able to help.”
“It’s five hundred markers plus fifty. Our commission.”
Olivia had sparkling green eyes and auburn hair, and it was easy to see where Charlotte had gotten her looks. “That’s a surprise. I thought they’d want a lot more. When can I get it?”
“Your call. We can ship it this afternoon. Or you can pick it up yourself.”
“I’ll be there in an hour.”
She and Gabe arrived almost simultaneously. Alex picked him up at the spaceport and was helping him with his luggage as Olivia’s skimmer descended into the parking area.
I was standing at the front door when it opened for them. They were trading introductions, and Olivia seemed especially pleased to discover Gabe knew more about her daughter than simply that she’d been a victim in the Octavia incident. “Yes,” she said, “that was her. She was smart. She’d have had a brilliant career as a physicist if—” It was as far as she got before waving it away.
Charlotte might have been the most celebrated member of the Octavia team. And it was not only because she looked so good. She’d done a few interviews, and I guess everybody had been struck by her animation. She’d obviously been enthusiastic about the assignment and thought of Octavia as the opportunity of a lifetime. With a little luck, she said, they were going to open a door into another universe. She’d piloted the shuttle that had gone out in the shadow of the black hole to look for the pods fired into the disrupted time-space continuum by the cannon. It became fairly obvious why Olivia Hill had contacted us about her daughter’s lost chess set. “Her passion for the game,” she told me that afternoon, “stayed with me. In a way it’s kept her alive.”
Though Housman gave her no particular attention in his prizewinning account, Charlotte had been largely responsible for their success, because after months of getting no results, she’d gone deeper than theory suggested and came back with the pods.
We helped Gabe inside with his bags. Then Alex led Olivia into the conference room while I accompanied Gabe to his apartment. He asked what Charlotte Hill’s mother was doing here. I explained and he was obviously pleased. “Good for Alex,” he said.
After Gabe got settled, I returned to the conference room. Alex and Olivia were seated at the table, admiring the set. Olivia was fondling one of the white knights. She put it down, removed the other pieces, and put them back in the box. Then she lifted the board so she could inspect the date on its underside. “Excellent,” she said. “Beautiful. Now, you said five hundred fifty?”
Gabe walked in the door and closed it quietly behind him.
“It’s yours,” said Alex. The display of generosity was unusual. He could be benevolent on occasion, but not normally where business transactions were concerned. Rainbow Enterprises for him was strictly an accounting operation.
“No, no,” she said. “You can’t do that.”
“It’s not a problem.” Alex directed her attention toward Gabe. “Gabe, by the way, is my uncle, and he taught me early that I should not accept money from beautiful women.” Gabe managed to keep his surprise hidden.
Olivia delivered an alluring smile that let us know she had doubts about the story. “I can’t believe I actually got it back. I haven’t seen it for about fifteen years. Charlotte took it with her when she moved out of the house.”
“I’m glad we were able to help,” Alex said.