Four
..When I returned to Setzer’s place, I was surprised to find him reading. He lay back casually on his drab couch, legs slung over the side. There was a bored look on his face, so at least I knew he wasn’t enjoying himself very much. The thought of Setzer enjoying a book made me feel kind of weird. Sort of like the feeling that comes over you when you realize that your grandparents have had sex. It’s something everybody or almost everybody does, but when you consider that they’d do it, it just seems wrong.
.. “Don’t look like much of a reader,” I said, to which he started ever so slightly. His composure was regained admirably fast. I continued, “I got some information on the property. Turns out, Shinra owns it legit. That is, legit in the eyes of the law, anyhow.”
..He rested his book down on the couch, printed page down and spine bent. I wondered if he knew that could damage a book. I doubted he cared. He gave me a weird look. Then he sighed. “I don’t believe the property owner would have sold the land to the Shinra. He always said how much he hated major corporations.”
.. “You mean Mr. Aiden, right?”
.. “Huh?” He looked confused. This could be interesting.
.. “Aiden,” I repeated. “The guy who sold the Shinra the land was named ‘M. Aiden.’”
..Now Setzer looked fairly troubled. “That’s not the name of my friend, Face. The guy who should own the property is named ‘Smith’. About as generic a last name as they come. You sure the land was sold by someone named ‘Aiden’, Face?”
.. “Positive.” Probably. “Did this Smith guy have any family? Perhaps a daughter?”
.. “No. He lives alone. Never married. Why ask?”
.. “Well,” I said. “If he’s an older guy, there’s a chance he could have just died. Then any children he may have had could have gotten their hands on the land and sold it to the highest bidder. But I guess we can rule that one out.”
..Setzer looked a bit off. “Right. Like I said, he had no relatives.”
.. “There anyone else he could have been close to? Any other friends?”
..He shook his head, still obviously agitated. “There was just me. …Though… I think I heard him talking about getting a new girlfriend a few months back. Some blonde. Mid-thirties—or about half his age. He was real proud of himself. I’ll admit, I was kind of proud of him, too.”
.. “He ever tell you what this lady was called?”
.. “No.”
.. “Mmm.”
..I sat there, grinding out some ideas in my head. That information was fairly useless, but could well be important later as far as I knew. I filed it away into a “maybe” pile. OK, then. I had a piece of land that Setzer wanted but Shinra had. It should have belonged to a good friend of Setzer’s, but it really belonged to a third party that was neither Setzer or his friend, who sold the land to the Shinra for reasons unknown. Now the link was missing, and I had no leads to finding where this M. Aiden could be found. I was left with little option but to investigate Setzer’s friend. I asked him where he lived.
.. “Just a few miles out of town and to the southwest. I’d be happy to show you there.” He started to get up from his couch, but I held up a hand to stop him. He gave me a somewhat offended look.
.. “No thanks,” I said. “I think I can find the place myself. And I think you’d get in the way more than anything.” He was about to start in on me, but I still had my hand outstretched, so I waved it a little. “Listen,” I said. “If I wanted help playing poker or combating a world-destroying lunatic, you’d be the first person I’d look up. You have your job, and I have mine. Believe me, I think I’d have a much easier time if I had more freedom to move as I will. I’ll keep you completely updated on anything that I think is important.” There was more than one white lie here. In reality, I had some suspicions that might not sit well with Setzer. I was also a fairly decent poker player already.
..We stood off there for a few minutes, but eventually, he eased himself back into his resting position and waved his hand off at me. “Whatever,” he said. “Just be sure to tell him I sent you, and fill him in on what’s going on. He’d be more receptive if he knew I was behind your investigation, and he’ll probably be very interested in hearing his land has been sold.”
.. “Right. Will do.” I would have moved to leave the house, but my feet were fairly tired already. I was not used to having to do so much legwork on a case. I was more than a little out of shape. To make it seem like I had a purpose for being there, I asked him, “What are you reading?”
..He picked up the book by the spine and turned it so he could look idly at the cover. “Oh, this? Just something I picked up in the local store. Sometimes I take a book with me, so I have something to do when I’ve piloted for too long.”
.. “You don’t strike me as the type who’d get sick of flying.”
.. “I don’t,” he explained. “But if you pilot for too long, the sky has a way of hypnotizing you. It’s very dangerous and can happen even to the best pilots. So I take a few hours off here and there.”
.. “Ah.”
.. “Anyhow, this is supposedly a book of true tall tales, if you’d believe that. Sort of like a collection of stories that deal with the weirder sides of magic or politics or other sciences no one really understands.” He flipped through some pages idly, but kept a thumb on the spot he was in. “There’s some really crazy stuff in here. Have you ever heard of the Queen of Tunlan?”
.. “Never even heard of the country.”
..This surprised him. “You’re kidding right? No? Well, you really have to go there, one day. It’s a beautiful little island. Of course, all the locals communicate by music, of all things, so it might be good to have an interpreter handy.”
.. “You mean a critic?” I was having a good run of one-liners that day. I should really have written some of them down.
.. “Very funny. Anyhow, this queen was invaded by these demons, yeah? They were just like any other little things that make their living on your insides, except they were demons. Well, them just being there made her get really fat. Just like that. There wasn’t anything special behind it, aside from the fact that there were demons inside her and they made her fat. No tricks. It was just their presence. Anyhow—and this is where it gets really weird—this band of heroes get together, and actually shrink themselves until they can crawl into the queen and battle the demons. They win, too. When the smoke clears, the Queen is her right weight again, even when the heroes were still inside her. It was just the demons.”
.. “Weird,” I said. I couldn’t see what else to say, as it really was pretty damn strange.
.. “Isn’t it, though?” He said. “I’ve seen and read some pretty weird things, but this one just stood out, you know?”
..We looked at each other for a few moments. I guessed that he was done talking about his story, and I really didn’t have anything else to say on the matter. My feet were feeling better now, though, so I nodded to Setzer as my way of excusing myself. I began a slow tread southwestward.



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