The next day, Eagle went out to confirm the legends. He was mostly interested in two things: Stella Mars, the mysterious flower, and Kingman, the person who supposedly had a large reward for it. He asked all the right people, whom he found in the more remote and shady places of the Metro, and, with a reasonable amount of persuasion, they willingly told him many useful things.
Yes, there was a mysterious flower in the Museum's Garden, according to an old Maundible named Ernest, who revealed this information shortly before he dove into his soup. The flower was inaccessible and heavily guarded at all hours of the day and night, he went on, with his spoon in his mouth, as Eagle nodded impatiently, because he already knew that from another informant, a giant green slug named Vincent. (Vincent also told him, while turning a bowl of live roaches mixed with spaghetti in his hands, that Kingman was a very strange man, a complete recluse who was almost impossible to reach by any civilized means: he lived on the top of a very tall cliff and rarely met with visitors, especially strangers and reporters.)
"But tell me," Eagle asked his other informant, "why does he really want the Stella Mars? What's so great about it, anyway?"
The small old Maundible smiled guilelessly and nodded to Eagle, pointing at his dish, which was now empty. Eagle called over the waiter, and the dish was promptly refilled with some kind of dark green soup. The Maundible named Ernest beamed.
"What a strange question," he finally said, wiping the remains of the soup from his face.
"Why?" asked Eagle, shifting impatiently in place. "Why is it a strange question?"
"You really don't know?" The old Maundible's deeply recessed face wrinkled into a smile. "The Stella Mars is enchanted. It will give a long and happy life to whoever possesses it." He tapped on the table with his spoon. "Mark my words, Beaknose, it's not a legend, and it's not a lie: that flower is alien, and it has life giving powers. It came from Otherplanet, although it was never supposed to. In fact, somebody told me long ago that it was stolen by the Braqonieris, but they fell to Earth, and that's how the seed of the Stella Mars ended up on that spot, for that is where their spaceship had crashed."
"Hmm," pondered Eagle, "is that really so? Or are you making it all up?"
"No, no, Beaknose! That's why Kingman wants it. He is the wealthiest man on several incorporated planets, but he is deeply unhappy. He tried to buy the Stella Mars, but it's not for sale. He will pay anything to have it." Here the Maundible finished his soup with a final and rather protracted slurp.
"Why is he so unhappy, anyway?" wondered Eagle.
"No one knows," replied the Maundible, reaching for the towel. "Thank you for the soup," he added, and got up.
Eagle sat for some time alone at the table, staring at the little green spherical lamp at its center, and occasionally pecking at stray breadcrumbs scattered on the tablecloth. He was thinking of how to get inside the Garden of the Templomuseum, and also about what Otherplanet was.