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Kaya frowned. We stood like that for several moments, him aghast, Kaya confused, and me watching for possible danger.
The shaken man finally stepped back. "Forgive me, sorry. We have to get you off the street." He waved us both in and directed us into his sunroom. "Um, please have a seat. Would you like tea?"
I declined, but Kaya just kept staring at him as if waiting for him to grow horns. "You called me Dove. Why?"
He looked like he wanted to flee, but forced himself to say, "Dove was your mother's designation."
Kaya frowned. "So you knew her?"
Altair nodded. "Yes. She was my friend. But I haven't seen her in over twenty years. Likely there's a good reason for that."
I sat forward even as Kaya stared at him, studying his face. "You knew her. She needed help."
"I know. L-let me get tea."
He returned with tea and biscuits, and it didn't seem to improve Kaya's disbelief anymore as she sat staring at him.
I tried to get the conversation moving as that feeling of unease from outside still plagued me. "Mr. Altair…"
"Oh please, call me Martin. After all, we are family."
Kaya frowned. "Are we?"
"Your mother was very dear to me. Like the daughter I never had. She saved my life."
"How so?"
"It was decades ago now, but I had been commissioned to make something. I consider myself an artisan. Some people like to call me a lock picker, but I solve and create puzzles. If you're here, you know that I did work for Antonio Igno. He was obsessed with puzzles. The unsolvable ones, the unbreakable ones. During a party he had at the Casino de Monte Carlo in Monaco, he requested that I make him a box. Something that couldn't be opened. And then whenhecouldn't open it, he tried to kill me."
Kaya sat on the edge of the soft velvet couch, leaning forward to hear more of the story. Eager for every snippet of her mother.
"Your mother stepped between the two of us and made him swear that if she could open it he would have to let me go. Much to my surprise, she did. I'm not sure how. It would require extreme mathematical talents and an excellent understanding of physics. Igno was so fascinated with her that he did let me go, but I'm aware he and his men have probably been watching me ever since she disappeared."
Kaya swallowed hard. "Can you tell me anything about her? I just… I have been looking for her since then."
Martin smiled. "Your mother loved you. And I know you don't remember, but I used to teach you about solving puzzles when you were small. You could do a standard Rubik’s Cube in less than a minute. It was astonishing really."
Kaya frowned. "I don't remember that."
"Ah, but you wouldn't. You were only a wee thing. As you got older, your mother couldn't come and visit me anymore. She was afraid he would remember our connection, and that would put me, you, and her in grave danger. If you’re here looking for me,I assume that means she didn't survive over the years, which is a real shame."
I leaned forward, squeezing Kaya's knee to provide some kind of support. "We have a question, in some of the papers her mother left behind, we found some clues that led us to find a puzzle box.” I showed him a photo. “The design is yours, yes?"
Martin pulled spectacles out of the pocket of his cardigan and perched them on the edge of his nose. "Ah, yes. That's Dove's. I made that box for her."
"Then you know how to open it?" Kaya asked.
Martin's eyes went wide. "No, my dear. But I’d venture a guess that you do."
She frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Your mother helped me design that. She had exacting specifications, but I didn’t build the locking mechanism. She wanted to add that herself. I built the frame, the logistics, the slide mechanisms to open it when it did finally unlatch, but I didn't build the lock or the key."
Kaya's shoulders sagged and she leaned back further on the couch. "So you don't know how to open it?"
"No, unfortunately, I don't. Where did you find it?"
"She hid it in a desk drawer in a home I'd never been to. But all the information to get where I was supposed to go was in her papers."
