Harry Harrison -10 -The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus v1.0 28
February 2001
'Set a thief to catch a thief' goes the old saying.
And when you are the richest man in the Universe and someone is
systematically robbing your various banks blind you'd better set the best
thief ever to catch your thief. After all, even at four million credits a
day plus expenses, you can afford him. Enter Slippery Jim DiGriz.
And that's how it all began for Slippery Jim and his wife, the ever deadly
Angelina; persuaded from a life of stockmarket dabbling and picnicking by
the hover tanks, hard cash and outright flattery of undoubtedly the richest
and probably the oldest man alive; Imperetrix Von KaserCzarski.
It would have seemed rude to not take the job and after barely four weeks
(at four million a day) of watching the latest in computers (courtesy of son
James) sift through the available evidence Jim has his first lead Each time
one of Kaiser Czarski's banks is robbed there is a circus in town.
And as Jim knows full well, you don't find out about a circus by going to
it. You join
it. . .
Harry Harrison has entertained, amused and captivated the readers of science
fiction for more than a quarter of a century with the adventures of the
Stainless Steel Rat. And now the universe's most loveable master thief and
con artist is about to find out that life is a three ring circus.
The Stainless Steel Rat
Joins the Circus
CHAPTER 1
"I'm exhausted,' Angelina said. "All this hammering away on a hot computer
keyboard."
"Productive hammering, my love," I said, pushing away my own keyboard,
yawning and stretching until my joints cracked. "In a little under two hours
we have made more than two hundred thousand credits through insider dealing
in the stock exchange. Some might believe it illegal-but very profitable. I
prefer to see it as a public service. To keep the money circulating, to
lower the level of unemployment. . ."
