Fortunes of War (Stellar Main Book 1) by Richard Tongue

Author:Richard Tongue [Tongue, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2018-09-14T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

“Tell me what happened,” Carter said, as the five of them crammed around the table in the crew room, Kruger ravenously wolfing down a plate of food. “All of it. How did you run across Fortuna?”

“Smith hired me.” He looked at Garcia, and asked, “Patrol?”

“I was,” Garcia said. “It’s a long story.” He paused, then said, “Wait a minute, I do know you. Didn’t you get busted for art theft, a few months back? Something about a break-in at the Museum of Earth on Thalassa.” Turning to Carter, he said, “It was a four-man gang, and…”

Raising his hands, Kruger replied, “Fine, yes, I did it. Look, do you know just how crappy the pay is for an art historian, especially one that usually specializes in primitive alien art? I kinda knew that going in, but it doesn’t help. Not when you’ve got bills to pay.” Looking ruefully at Carter, he said, “What I tried to do wouldn’t have hurt anyone. Just meant that a lot of schoolkids would have been a little less bored going through the museum. That’s all.”

“You were the planner, as I recall.”

“That’s what the prosecution said, anyway,” Kruger said. “I told them what to take, and I sat in the getaway car at the end. The morons got caught before they’d even made it to the right gallery. Triggered every alarm in the place. From how I heard it, the security guards must have thought they were being invaded.” Shaking his head, he said, “I called the cops right there and then.”

Raising an eyebrow, Wu asked, “You gave up on your friends that quickly?”

“They weren’t my friends. They approached me, sold themselves as some hot-shot criminal syndicate, said that there was no chance they’d get caught. That turned out to be a steaming pile of crap, so of course I sold them out. Got me a plea bargain that meant I didn’t do any jail time, but it did get me fired.” Shoveling down a chunk of pasta, he added, “It wasn’t much of a job, anyway. They had my class down as one of the easy ones, and the Dean made it quite clear that I didn’t need to put anything too taxing on the syllabus. Anything to make sure the little darlings don’t disappoint the fee-paying parents.”

“Academic life doesn’t seem to have suited you,” Carter said, barely suppressing a smile.

“Not what I got into the job for. I got sold a load of lies when I was a kid. Adventure among the stars, that sort of thing. With a side order of ‘get rich quick’ by making the discovery of a lifetime. When I finally worked out the truth, it was a little too late for me to change.” Taking a deep swig of juice, he added, “Though to be fair, I kinda like being an art archaeologist. Has a certain mystique.”

“Fortuna,” Carter said, sliding across another ration pack.

“Thanks,” he said, ripping it open, digging into the chocolate mousse inside. “Guess it shows that I ran out of rations last week.

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