He raised his chin and turned his head. No wattles there. No wrinkles about his eyes, no touch of gray to his temple.

"Forty, I would say," Angelina said.

"Centuries?"

"Years."

"You are very kind. Well, as the millennia rolled by I amassed more money, more property. I could have easily assured my fortune by simply investing and letting the compound interest roll in. But that would have been very boring, and boredom is what I loathe the most. I have always sought excitement to lessen the burden of my years. In the process of growing rich I have bought, and now own, entire star systems. To add diversity to my portfolio I am presently in the process of acquiring a spiral galaxy; one never knows when one might need one. There are some black holes among my recent acquisitions. But I think I shall divest myself of them. Boring. Seen one black hole and you have seen them all."

He took the kerchief from his breast pocket, touched it lightly to his lips, returned it. One atom short of a molecule, I thought. I caught Angelina's eye and saw that she thought the same.

"But now I have a very troublesome problem that needs to be solved. I look for your aid in that quest."

"Three million a day," I said promptly, avarice beating down suspicion.

"Done," he said, stifling a yawn at the same time. "My problem is that I am systematically being robbed. Someone or some group-has been getting into my bank accounts. Right across the galaxy. Clearing them out. And if it so happens that I happen to own the bank—The Widows and Orphans Is' Interstellar Bank—why then the entire branch of the bank is cleaned out as well. This makes for bad customer relationships. From millions of clients with their billions of credits. As you might understand this is quite embarrassing for one in my position. You, gentleman Jim diGriz, must utilize all of your stainless steel talents to stop these thefts and to discover who is perpetrating them.