The scruffy man in the interrogation room was none other than the one in the photograph with Cassia Grove – minus the long, ruffled hair, the frizzled beard, and the patched up jacket. Apart from those things, and a decidedly older look about him, this was the Aster Lockwood that Novus Atlantis had in their database. The one who looked very much unlike the Aster Lockwood lying in a hospital bed in the Central Heliopolis Hospital.

“He hasn’t said much yet, except that he’s the real Aster Lockwood and the man who we know as Aster Lockwood stole his identity with the help of Cassia Grove,” Captain Fox said. The two of them stood behind the one-way mirror, watching their guest as he waited in the interrogation room beyond. “I figure we’ll need to check on whether that’s true or not, so there’s a fingerprint scanner in there and you can run facial recognition with your Slate. But based on everything you’ve told me about Aster Lockwood and the anomalies in his profile and records, this man being the real Aster Lockwood might explain everything.”

“It would certainly explain why photographs of Aster Lockwood from before the date that he returned from Novus Atlantis are missing,” Laith mused, his hands planted firmly on his hips as he studied the man in the room beyond. “It would also explain Cassia’s not-so-romantic relationship with her husband,” he added. And why he’d called Cassia his partner, as if they were partners in crime.

“I’m going to go in there and start asking him some basic questions,” Laith said. “In the meantime, I want us to detain Grot Antrum for questioning. We need to investigate him some more.”

“Grot Antrum – the PATET Specialist, Grot Antrum?” Captain Olivia asked curiously. At least she was keeping up to date with his reports, though he considered that she probably didn’t have much choice in the matter, given that she was getting a lot of pressure herself to get this case closed and a killer apprehended. “Why?”

“Patina Grove told me he was the connection – the PATET Specialist that allowed them to steal Aster Lockwood’s identity,” Laith said. At her questioning expression, he clarified: “I spoke with her just before you called. She told me she met Aster Lockwood – the one sitting right there – and that he told her the same thing. Cassia Grove and her partner in crime – the person we now know as Aster Lockwood – attacked him, left him for dead, and then took his identity and escaped to Heliopolis.”

Captain Fox’s usual frown deepened. She looked tired, as if this case had worn her out as much as it had Laith, and he could only imagine what her meetings and calls to her superiors were like. “That’s fine,” she said. “I’ll have someone bring him in for questioning, too. Maybe your hunch was right, after all. All of this is bigger than we expected going in.”

☀️ ☀️ ☀️

“Mr. Lockwood,” Laith began, taking a seat across from the man and activating the recorder on his Slate. There was a camera here somewhere, and it recorded audio as well, but with all of the strange happenings with PATET, Laith wasn’t going to take any chances. As soon as he was finished with this interview, he was going to locate an unlinked storage device that he could save the case information on. He wasn’t going to lose any more evidence. “It is Mr. Lockwood, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” he said, his voice deep, his posture almost relaxed. “I guess it’s not every day someone walks in here and tells you their identity has been stolen,” he added with a half-smile. “Truth is, I couldn’t get in for a long time. I kept trying again and again and again at the gates, but none of the biometric scans would recognize me.”

Laith took a moment to study the man in front of him. This Aster Lockwood had a large build, a bristly beard, and his clothes had a worn look, as though he had been wearing the same outfit for years. He had all of the markers of someone who had been living rough, but he was in good condition, as far as Laith could tell. He didn’t smell bad – didn’t smell like anything, not that Laith could pick up on from across the table. His nails, when he placed his hands on the surface of the table, were trimmed and clean. This man – if his story was to be believed – was essentially telling Laith that he had been living in the Ruins – that dangerous lawless land – while trying to get back into Heliopolis.

“So how did you get in?” Laith asked.

“I just… kept trying,” he admitted with a shrug. “Earlier this morning, it let me in. For whatever reason, it just worked. Not quite sure what happened there, but I guess I got lucky.”

It just let him in? Laith wondered curiously. Was it possible…

“I’m going to scan your fingerprint, Mr. Lockwood, if you don’t mind,” he said. “I just need to check on something.”

All he had to go on at the moment was this man’s word that he was Aster Lockwood, and his word just wasn’t enough. Nevertheless, he had to admit that it did fit the narrative of what he’d learned so far. But here was this man, who, up until now, hadn’t been able to get back home because his identity had been stolen from him, and suddenly – in some wild coincidence – a handful of days before Cassia’s death, he meets with her mother and tells her everything, then happens to come home almost a week after the murder, ready to retake his life? Even the most lenient of investigators would agree that that was too wild a coincidence. And when it came to doing his job, Laith didn’t think of himself as being particularly lenient.

“Sure,” the bearded man said. “I figured you would need to make sure I am who I say I am. I’ve heard a lot about the man who’s been using my identity. Apparently, he started a company under the guise of being me – using my money, I assume – and did quite well for himself.”

Laith picked up the remote fingerprint scanner and placed it in front of the man on the table. “You’ve been keeping tabs on him?” he asked as the man pressed his thumb to the scanner and waited for a moment. A small green light turned on – the scan was complete.

“Well, as much as I could, given I was in Novus Atlantis and the Ruins surrounding the city for the past few years,” he said. “But big events are heard of no matter where you are. Greenland Farm is, I think, quite the big event. Imagine my surprise when I realized that the person at the helm of one of the most impressive farms was none other than Aster Lockwood himself!”

Laith checked the fingerprint against PATET’s database. It came up with a match for Aster Lockwood. Even the picture that was now there was that of the man sitting before him now, not of the man in the hospital. It had been changed. Why now? What did that mean about the man in the hospital?

“Bad enough that they’d tried to kill me. But it really chafed, you know, having someone else walking around making pretend they were you, using all of your wealth and belongings,” Lockwood admitted, continuing on, oblivious to Laith’s surprise. “It wasn’t fair. My inheritance. My hard-earned money. My work. My good name. All of it taken by some nullius filius with nothing better to do than blackguard himself to the stop.” He huffed, his cheeks taking on a red tinge. Leaning back in his chair, his shoulders drooped and he gave Laith a sheepish smile. “It’s understandable, I think, that I am still very emotional about it all.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Yes, Mr. Lockwood,” Laith replied. “I can understand how terrible this ordeal must have been for you. If you don’t mind, however, I would like to ask you some questions about how this all happened to you. I’d appreciate it if you answer them as openly and honestly as possible.”

Aster Lockwood gestured with his hands, as if to say, Go on.

“First, I’d like to ask you to once again recount your story,” Laith said. “Tell me everything from the beginning.”

Aster Lockwood entwined his fingers leaning forward on his elbows. “Alright,” he said, his tone collected as he thought back. “I suppose it started right here in Heliopolis. I was studying at the Agricultural University of Heliopolis. Agriculture – especially vertical farming methods – have been an area of interest for me for a very long time. I was interested, at the time, in studying the subject and maybe working in one of the big farms. The university is located near the Farms, and I’d drive by there every time on my way to classes, and I’d imagine working there, sitting in one of those offices, growing a range of beautiful plants to help feed people and create medicines and dyes and cosmetics and so much more. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my life, really.”

He sighed sadly, shaking his head as he remembered. “Anyway. I met Cassia Grove when she was a second-year inter-urban student at AUH, working on her F.M.,” he continued. “We had a few courses together, and we worked on the same team a couple of times. I remember really, really liking her. She was cool, funny, and smart. We hung out often, and as far as I could tell, we were both interested in each other. She graduated and went back to Novus Atlantis, and I knew that I wanted to keep in touch with her and see her again. So, when I was finished with my studies, I took a job at the Novus Atlantis branch of Emerald Farm.”

“You went to Novus Atlantis with the hopes of meeting Cassia Grove again?” Laith inquired.

“Yes and no,” Aster Lockwood replied. “I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t part of it – maybe a big part of it – but it was also just a great opportunity for me. I wanted to work in the Farms and this was a good chance for me to do just that. Get some training, do some work, explore another city, and then come back home to Heliopolis and use my experience to do good here. That the job required a Heliopolitan citizen to relocate to Novus Atlantis made it so that the competition for the position would be less fierce, and the fact that Cassia was in Novus Atlantis working at Emerald Farm...” He shrugged and gave him a small smile. “It was a pretty good opportunity every which way I tried to look at it.”

“I see,” Laith said, nodding in understanding. Everything seemed to check out, but there was something about the ease with which Aster Lockwood spoke, the confidence with which he moved, that made Laith uncomfortable. It was incongruous, imbalanced, like something just off-center. He couldn’t place his finger on what it was, exactly, because he was too busy trying to keep up with the man’s story. “So, you went to work in Novus Atlantis. What happened then?”

“I went there, got settled in, started working, and met Cassia again,” he said. “We hit it off – again – so we spent a lot of time together. I got to know some of her entourage. Her colleagues, her friends, that sort of thing. She told me about her family and how her dad used to be a criminal, so I guess I really should have seen it all coming, but I was so taken by her that I let everything slide in one ear and out the other. She knew some people in the Ruins, so we sometimes spent time out there. Novus Atlantis borders are less secure than we’re led to believe, and that’s coming from someone who thought they weren’t all that secure to begin with. It was thrilling, though.”

“You spent time in the Ruins?” Laith asked flatly. “Did you not feel endangered at all?”

“Not really,” Aster Lockwood replied. “Not after the first few times. The people she knew seemed good enough. I mean, I’m pretty sure some of them were criminals, but they didn’t bother me at all. They didn’t let anything happen to us.” He shrugged. “Besides, the people out there are pretty normal, all things considered. People living in run-down homes just trying to get by. Families. Communities. I came to the conclusion that they were really only dangerous when it came to the few of them that went out and stole, attacked, hijacked. Everyone else I met was quite… average.”

“Average,” Laith echoed, recalling his own close call with the Rinvestigator. I don’t know anything about how people in the Ruins live, Laith reminded himself. They must have some kind of society, some kind of community structure out there. It’s obvious that there would be families – children, normal people trying to get along. “Alright, then. Go on, please, Mr. Lockwood.”

“There’s really not much else to say about that particular period of my life,” he said, pushing away from the table and leaning back, crossing his arms. “We spent a lot of time together. Mostly just the two of us, sometimes with her friends. I personally didn’t get to know them very well, but I was happy enough to just be with Cassia. Every day, I fell a little harder. And then towards the end, when I was about to leave, something seemed to switch inside her. The last few days in particular, she was very… skittish. Distracted. We’d hang out together, but she wouldn’t really be there, if you know what I mean. Something was on her mind. And, like the lovesick fool I was, I thought she was worried about me leaving and forgetting all about her. I promised her that wouldn’t happen. But, as it turned out, that wasn’t what was distracting her.”

He huffed out, a half-laugh, half-scoff, and shook his head. “Looking back, I was a certified idiot to let it get as far as it did. After the attack, I thought about it day and night and realized that Cassia had always used me. I had money – an inheritance left to me by an estranged grandfather and the last remaining kin I had. So, I was a wealthy young man with no family or anyone to recognize that I was gone. Nobody back home asking after me or checking in on me. Even my friends had been all but dropped after I’d gotten to know Cassia at AUH. She’d monopolized me, exploited my generosity, and I had been too wrapped up in her to see it at the time. What a stupid little fool I was,” he said bitterly.

Laith almost felt bad for him. Almost. There was still something just a tad bit off – something that sent alarm bells ringing in his mind, though he still couldn’t put his finger on what that thing was. He focused on directing the man’s recollection to the attack. “Tell me more about the attack itself,” he said. “How did that go down?”

“We were hanging out one last time the night before I was scheduled to return to Heliopolis,” he said. His eyes narrowed, looking out over Laith’s shoulder as he recalled. “It was just me and her for some time, and then one of her friends – and also a colleague, if memory serves – showed up. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to have someone infringing on my last evening with Cassia before leaving, but he invited us out to the Ruins and Cassia said yes, so of course, I went along. We were twenty minutes into the Ruins when they attacked me. The man – I forget his name – he held me down while Cassia took my Slate. Then he stabbed me with a switchblade, right around the shoulder area – lousy aim, but I’m certainly not complaining,” he added with a humourless chuckle.

“I bled a lot, and was so shocked and worried when they left me out in the Ruins to die that I ended up passing out,” he admitted, shrugging. “But I was lucky.” To illustrate his point, Aster Lockwood pulled down the collar of his shirt to reveal one small horizontal scar a couple of inches below his right collar bone. “They didn’t hit anything vital, so I came around a while later and managed to get myself back to Novus Atlantis to head back home. I was going to get some medical attention once I was safely back in Heliopolis. Even without my Slate, I knew that biometric security scans would let the airport know who I really was and I’d be back home before I knew it. The only problem was, by that time, my identity was already gone.”

“How did you know that?” Laith asked.

“I went to the airport. The airport security interfaces with PATET databases when it comes to Heliopolis-bound flights, so it became very clear as I tried to get through the gate to board my plane that my identity was no longer recognized. I thought it was a glitch or some other kind of error, so I got someone to try and help me out, and they told me that Aster Lockwood was already on board the plane, and that my identity wasn’t on PATET’s records. When I insisted that something was wrong, they called security.”

He exhaled loudly and leaned forward again, elbows on the table. “So, I got some help at the nearest free clinic. They patched me up and sent me on my way. I had nothing. Nobody to turn to. I couldn’t stay in Novus Atlantis because I didn’t have any documentation, any permits, anything that could let me stay. I didn’t even make it to the Heliopolitan embassy before authorities tracked me down – someone from the airport apparently let them know someone was attempting identity fraud. They grabbed me and deported me, of all things!”

“Deported you to the Ruins?” Laith guessed. He wondered if his doubt was obvious in his voice. Was he meant to believe that Novus Atlantis authorities wouldn’t at the very least take the time to look into a possible case of identity fraud – that they would just get rid of a guy who, up until that point, had been living in Novus Atlantis for two years and could get someone to vouch for his identity? That they wouldn’t then contact Heliopolis authorities and get the whole thing straightened out?

No, something is definitely not adding up about this guy’s story.

“Why would the Novus Atlantis police deport you?” Laith asked. “I assume you tried to explain the situation to them.”

“I did, but their databases didn’t recognize me, either,” Lockwood claimed, not missing a beat. “In their eyes, I was just an unknown man without an ID. That meant I was probably some troublemaker from the Ruins, so that’s where they sent me.”

That’s what it was that was bothering Laith about this man’s story, he realized. He never missed a beat. He knew it inside out, like someone who’d rehearsed it time and again. And his eyes… Laith couldn’t shake the thought that he knew the story wasn’t airtight, knew it didn’t stand up to scrutiny, but he told it with the confidence of someone who also knew that there was nothing anybody could do about it. And that made Laith suspect the man’s sincerity.

This was the second Aster Lockwood that made his internal alarms go off. The second Aster Lockwood that made him believe that he wasn’t who he said he was.

So, the question now was: Is this the real Aster Lockwood? And, if so, what isn’t he telling me?