Post by Leif Chelio on Apr 14, 2010 3:58:05 GMT -6
It was three a.m. outside, but in Leif's office, it might as well have been mid-afternoon. It wasn't like you could tell the time of day in the Below. It was always dark down here, always slightly off-orange from all the sodium vapour lamps. No point in running on a clock when the difference between day and night was that perhaps it was a bit quieter at night. And he liked the quiet. Better than then screaming and yelling, and occasional gunshots, though there was enough of that at night.
But it was hard to tell in Leif's office. Because stepping into his office was like stepping into another world.
It was huge, larger than any office he'd seen in all the Terran movies on detectives. But he needed a place that was his home and a place of business, and he'd solve two well-paying cases in quick succession when he first arrived on Terra. In the Inbetween, it would have netted him a small office with room for a desk and maybe a few chairs. In the Below, he'd gotten what had once been an office belonging to a dozen or so people, most of which had worked at desks in curious little mazes. The Realtor called them 'cubicles' and said that before Terra had grown as high as it did, that office workers used to be this close to the ground. Of course, they had all gone a long long time ago, and now it was just a large empty room, too big for most businesses, and too expensive for most families.
He bought it without a moment's hesitation, scrapped the strange remains of the cubicles, and build the office that Leif had always craved. Dirt had been easy enough to get his hands on, and plant seeds and saplings had been sent from home by his parents, who didn't understand what Leif was doing but supported his attempts. And after a lot of hard work and a little elbow grease and the sudden realization that his plants needed sunlamps when they seemed to almost die on him, Leif had managed to transform his office into a strange little garden. He kept a patch clear in the middle for his customers to walk down, and only bothered keeping the grass green and well manicured around his desk. Elsewhere it grew wild among the flowers and vegetables and small fruit bushes that never seemed to produce much.
Leif had abandoned his chair a while ago, choosing instead to sit crosslegged on the grass. A cup of cold tea was sitting beside him, forgotten about half an hour ago when he finally managed to get on Anna's trail. His hat was beside the tea, also equally forgotten.
The orphanage records had been shoddy at best. Most of them had been incomplete, including Alex's. If he hadn't been told Anna was Alex's sister, the records wouldn't have revealed that tidbit of information. Alex wasn't even shown as having left the orphanage. Instead, his records had just gone without any update for years. Anna's at least had been closed with the final note being that she had been adopted. Like all orphanages, there was almost no information on who had adopted her. They were well off, and they were a married couple, but that was all. Not even a last name.
A search for Annabelle Riggs brought up two thousand, three hundred and forty two records. A basic sorting algorithmic had knocked out anyone too old or too young, anyone other than white, and anyone other than human. From there he'd tried other searches to narrow the results, going by what little he knew about the girl. It was a pity Alex didn't have any photos of her, otherwise that would have made this easier. As it was, he tried running the photo anyway, telling the computer to only match half of the facial features, and to bring those with the most similarity to the front.
That had brought him down to only a hundred Anna Riggs, a number that had dropped to 35 when he cross-referenced parents and temporarily eliminated those who looked dissimilar from their children. He'd started comparing the results side by side with Alex, sorting them by likeness. And now Leif was left with ten girls, all in the proper age range, all looking similar to Alex, and all looking different than their parents. He pulled up their addresses, quickly mapping them out. They were spread out over the planet. Messages would have to go to those furthest away with the hope that they would answer back.
As for the other three, those living nearby, Leif would pay them a visit in person. Not that a message wouldn't do, but he found it paid to do the legwork. Clients liked it when you did legwork. It made them feel like they were getting their money's worth.
"Well then." He told his padd, ears flicking a little with excitement. "Anna Riggs, florist. I'll be seeing you tomorrow, if I can find you. Don't go anywhere."
But it was hard to tell in Leif's office. Because stepping into his office was like stepping into another world.
It was huge, larger than any office he'd seen in all the Terran movies on detectives. But he needed a place that was his home and a place of business, and he'd solve two well-paying cases in quick succession when he first arrived on Terra. In the Inbetween, it would have netted him a small office with room for a desk and maybe a few chairs. In the Below, he'd gotten what had once been an office belonging to a dozen or so people, most of which had worked at desks in curious little mazes. The Realtor called them 'cubicles' and said that before Terra had grown as high as it did, that office workers used to be this close to the ground. Of course, they had all gone a long long time ago, and now it was just a large empty room, too big for most businesses, and too expensive for most families.
He bought it without a moment's hesitation, scrapped the strange remains of the cubicles, and build the office that Leif had always craved. Dirt had been easy enough to get his hands on, and plant seeds and saplings had been sent from home by his parents, who didn't understand what Leif was doing but supported his attempts. And after a lot of hard work and a little elbow grease and the sudden realization that his plants needed sunlamps when they seemed to almost die on him, Leif had managed to transform his office into a strange little garden. He kept a patch clear in the middle for his customers to walk down, and only bothered keeping the grass green and well manicured around his desk. Elsewhere it grew wild among the flowers and vegetables and small fruit bushes that never seemed to produce much.
Leif had abandoned his chair a while ago, choosing instead to sit crosslegged on the grass. A cup of cold tea was sitting beside him, forgotten about half an hour ago when he finally managed to get on Anna's trail. His hat was beside the tea, also equally forgotten.
The orphanage records had been shoddy at best. Most of them had been incomplete, including Alex's. If he hadn't been told Anna was Alex's sister, the records wouldn't have revealed that tidbit of information. Alex wasn't even shown as having left the orphanage. Instead, his records had just gone without any update for years. Anna's at least had been closed with the final note being that she had been adopted. Like all orphanages, there was almost no information on who had adopted her. They were well off, and they were a married couple, but that was all. Not even a last name.
A search for Annabelle Riggs brought up two thousand, three hundred and forty two records. A basic sorting algorithmic had knocked out anyone too old or too young, anyone other than white, and anyone other than human. From there he'd tried other searches to narrow the results, going by what little he knew about the girl. It was a pity Alex didn't have any photos of her, otherwise that would have made this easier. As it was, he tried running the photo anyway, telling the computer to only match half of the facial features, and to bring those with the most similarity to the front.
That had brought him down to only a hundred Anna Riggs, a number that had dropped to 35 when he cross-referenced parents and temporarily eliminated those who looked dissimilar from their children. He'd started comparing the results side by side with Alex, sorting them by likeness. And now Leif was left with ten girls, all in the proper age range, all looking similar to Alex, and all looking different than their parents. He pulled up their addresses, quickly mapping them out. They were spread out over the planet. Messages would have to go to those furthest away with the hope that they would answer back.
As for the other three, those living nearby, Leif would pay them a visit in person. Not that a message wouldn't do, but he found it paid to do the legwork. Clients liked it when you did legwork. It made them feel like they were getting their money's worth.
"Well then." He told his padd, ears flicking a little with excitement. "Anna Riggs, florist. I'll be seeing you tomorrow, if I can find you. Don't go anywhere."
