Re: great-great uncle Cristoff’s lost property read the subject line. He didn’t want to be too specific. Privacy was the key. Using the mouse, he guided the cursor to the send button. He hadn’t been in touch with his family across the Atlantic for years, and back when they were in touch the contact had been infrequent. The email would come out of the blue. It concerned family legend. Would the others even care? There were cousins and uncles on the other side the sender had never met—several generations of them. But family legend lived in him, as it must in them. A gross injustice had been committed and he saw now that he had the means to right this wrong. He’d keep it brief. Let the others come to the same conclusion without feeling pushed. The email contained a link and then an opening salutation: I hope this email finds you all well. You’ll find this interesting. He imagined his missive twisting and turning in the cyber universe at the speed of light until it hit its destinations. He’d gotten the email addresses through a Google search of names and had no way of verifying if the addressees were who he thought they might be or not. He awaited an answer praying that at least one of the recipients would answer the email promptly. Then he could watch and wait for the opportunity to repossess what the family had lost three generations ago. A plan had taken hold.
Chapter 1