The inspector brought them into one of the buildings adjacent to the landing pads.
Inside, it looked like some sort of maintenance center, where several flyers were being repaired by dirty, oil-covered technicians. He gestured to the party to follow him toward a small sitting area in the corner of the expansive room.
"Hey you," the inspector called to a worker hunkering down nearby. "Call Wil for me. Tell him some guests want to meet him," he ordered. The worker then stopped whatever he was doing and headed toward another part of the building.
"Who's Wil?" Milanor immediately asked.
"The one who knows the person you're looking for. Well, sit down and relax for a bit. He'll get here soon," he urged them.
When they were all comfortably sat down, the inspector broached a subject. "Now, am I correct that you lots got something to do with the cruiser landing in East Port earlier?"
"Huh? How do you know that?"
"Oh, don't be so flabbergasted by that, Alter. Where do you think this place is? A ship like yours coming here was as rare as a gamma-ray burst bearing down on us.
"I immediately heard a rumor from the traffic controllers on break that a shiny, luxurious, high-tech superyacht was coming down on the east. And looking at you…" he squinted his eyes and looked across the three of them sitting in front of him.
"Well? Let's just it was quite obvious. That shuttle you got there is pretty nice too, isn't it?" he paused. "So where do you come from? What's your business here?"
"Uh, you know…"
Unlike the people they met here up until now, this man was pretty interested in them. Too inquisitive, if Milanor might give an opinion.
"Captain, it doesn't seem it would be too much problem telling him about our objective," Miledi suggested from beside him.
"You think so…?" he responded in a low voice. "What do you think, Naya?"
Since she was their current employer, it seemed appropriate to consult her first. So he asked the other girl on his opposite side.
"What'd you think is best? Up to you."
Naya had intended to leave all decisions to him, it looked like.
"Umm, so, Inspector… The truth is…" Milanor proceeded to tell him about their main objective here in Qwattor.
"Hoh… A missing person, eh?" After he explained it all to him, the inspector reacted with that sentence while twirling his mustache like before. It seemed that was his habit.
"Do you know anything about her, Inspector?" Milanor asked though he didn't expect anything from it.
"Of course not. You got some great confidence in yourself if you could think it's possible to find someone who disappeared six years ago here, of all places."
"As long as it's not confirmed—" he suddenly stopped. What he was about to say was something he himself didn't truly believe in.
It was not just about this job. About Naya and the professor. No, it was also something Milanor personally had trouble with.
But though that was the case, if he didn't deny what the inspector said, it felt like they wouldn't get the information they needed.
"What? You want to say something? I'm going to save you the trouble and—"
"Na, Inspector! You called for me!?"
A loud male voice interrupted before he could finish. Someone who looked like one of the mechanics here showed up and approached them.
He was a young man, probably around Milanor's age or a bit older, with unkempt brown hair and a breezy face. He might be quite good-looking if only his appearance weren't such a mess.
A tough-looking overall, thick black boots (or maybe it was just covered with soot), and heavy-duty gloves. It was pretty obvious he was tinkering with machines daily.
"Ja, Wilfred. You're finally here," the inspector greeted him. The mechanic produced a handkerchief from somewhere and wiped his hands after taking off his gloves.
"Is something wrong? You have customers for me?" he asked.
"Nein. Well, or perhaps something like that. They got some questions that maybe you can answer."
"Hmm? What does that mean?"
"Inspector, who is he?" Milanor finally asked.
"His name's Wilfred. He might know the person you're looking for, so if anybody here could give you some answers he's the fittest for the job." The inspector stood up after saying that. "My break's about to end so I got to go. Figured you'll be in the right hand. Well, if you need me for something else, just find me by asking around. Okay, tschüss!"
He left them and went to another room, presumably to continue his work.
Now it was just them and this new guy who was presumably called upon by the inspector only for him to immediately left as he arrived. Milanor wasn't sure about that treatment.
"Uh, nice to meet you. Are you one of the technicians here?" he started.
"Yeah, that's right. I was working on this 83-year-old Schnellfracht mini-freighter with an engine that just won't start no matter what. I heard him calling for me and so I rushed here," the young man explained.
"We're not interrupting your work, are we? It looks like you're quite busy. If so, we don't mind if we wait until you're done or something."
"Ahaha, it's fine, it's fine. I was about just done with my shift soon, who cares with a little early finish? Nobody expects punctuality in this place, anyway," he jovially reassured. "So, what's wrong?"
"You see, we came here from far away to look for someone. We were told that a certain captain we could find in this port might know abo—"
"Wait, no, don't tell me…" the young man cut him off. He went wide-eyed as if he had some big realization and began to look Milanor up and down carefully. "These fancy clothes… D-Do you know of the supership that landed on the east port this morning!?"
'This again?'
It was one of the drawbacks of flaunting luxury in an area of poverty.