The Innocent (A 'Finder' Fanfiction)

Shadow of Pluto - 28 - Maxim

At dinner, a Brodetto was served – an Italian fish stew. His father loved it, and it was one of the cook's masterpieces, but Maxim had never liked it very much. Yet even the wine, which had always been one of his favorites, left a bad taste on his tongue today.

While they sat and ate, they did not talk. They never did. Not until the servants had cleared the table. Then they exchanged some information on current businesses and deals, and talked about news from their world and about their plans. Tomorrow his father was to leave because the 'Steel Raven', his Yacht, needed to be taken to Ameglia in Italy for maintenance. It was a three-day trip.

Maxim listened as always very attentively, making notes in his mind, yet he knew that his father would never allow anyone to keep tabs on him for long. As soon as he had put the 'Steel Raven' into the hands of the Sanlorenzo shipyard, he would very likely disappear from the radar entirely until he himself chose to get in touch with his once-home in Dubrovnik. Where he'd spend his time until then, however, would remain a mystery.

"Does something occupy your mind?", his father asked so suddenly, that Maxim felt heat rush into his head. If redness was showing on his cheek, then hopefully the dimmed light and the distance between them at both endings of the table made it invisible to the other man.

"Uhm", he swallowed hard. "I keep thinking about Ryuichi. Whether he will play along?"

"That will not be much of your concern, will it? I told you that I will leave men here who are instructed on how to deal with him and with the boy."

"Yes", Maxim nodded. There was a drop of wine on the table. It must have spilled when he had gotten a refill, and now it was slowly drying away. Usually, he had asked one of the servants to remove it. But right now, he did not feel like it. He'd rather just watch it and how the light of the candles danced in it as if it was a tiny ruby.

"What about Alex?", he had wondered about the man for a while, yet had not found a moment to ask.

His father sipped on his wine without any haste, before he answered: "Well, as far as I know, he works for you?"

"And for you?"

"Yes, but that job is done. He will receive his payment via an informant I have placed for him to contact in Tokyo. That man will help him to grab up everything Ryuichi once had in businesses and contacts and possessions. It will still be a struggle for him to make that work, but none of that will be my or your concern. He will have any needed support from that informant and the people working for that man. Mind you, all of this has nothing to do with your own relationship with him. He is still working for you until one of you decides to end these relations. I do not have any interest in this."

Slowly Maxim nodded. When they had searched Alex' room the day before, it had seemed to him that he had planned of coming back, and probably he still would – even if only to get his belongings.

The thought of seeing him after all this was only helping to make an ill knot in his stomach grow. Alex had betrayed him, had played him. But the worst was that he didn't feel like the bastard deserved most of his anger. Most of it, he deserved himself.

His father now wiped his lips on the white, cloth napkin, then stood up. He walked along the table towards the exit, his heavy steps a low thunder on the parquet. Suddenly, he stopped, placing one hand on Maxim's shoulder, who felt himself tense beneath it. The knot in his stomach hurt and burned.

"Once I have left tomorrow, you will be able to send information to me the usual way, and I will answer if I feel the need to. But the quicker from now one will be through my men. They will let me know at once if Ryuichi is not doing a good job. They will be at the ready to punish him."