“No problem. You might want to thank Sanchez too.”
“Nah.”
He shrugged and took another sip. “Tyler was really worried about you.”
“Mm.”
“He’d like to see you sometime. The three of us could grab lunch, maybe? On me, of course.”
I bit back the obnoxious comment that swelled up. It was going to be a doozy too. Instead, I heard myself say, “Yeah, okay.”
He clearly didn’t expect that answer. “Really? Because—wait, really?”
“Yeah.” I looked at him and nodded. “Yeah. We can do that.”
“Wow,” he said. “G-Great! Hey, you want to bring that Svoboda guy?”
“Svobo? Why would I bring him?”
“You two are an item, right? He’s clearly crazy about you, and you seemed a little—”
“No! I mean…it’s not like that.”
“Oh. You’re just friends, then?”
“Uh…”
Dale smirked. “I see.”
We drank quietly for a moment. Then he said, “You’re totally going to bang that guy.”
“Oh, shut up!”
“A thousand slugs says you two get freaky within a month.”
I glared at him. He glared back.
“Well?” he said.
I finished off my pint. “No bet.”
“Ha!”
Dear Kelvin,
Sorry for the slow response. I’m sure you’ve read all about the chloroform leak in the news. People around here call it “The Nap.” There were no deaths or serious injuries, but I’m shooting you an email just to confirm I’m okay.
I did spend three minutes sizzling on the lunar surface without a spacesuit. That kind of sucked (no vacuum pun intended). Also, everyone knows I was responsible for the Nap.
Which leads me to my next problem: I’m broke. Again. Long story short, the city took most of my money to bitch-slap me for my indiscretions. Unfortunately, I hadn’t transferred your share of our profits this month, so I’m going to have to owe you. I’ll pay you off the moment I can, you have my word.
I have some legwork for you: There’s a guy named “Jin Chu” (might be an alias) headed back to Earth right now. He claimed to be from Hong Kong and that’s probably true. He works for a Chinese materials research company. I don’t know which one.
He got sent home from Artemis for being naughty. They shipped him out a few days ago, so he must be aboard the Gordon. That means you’ve got four days before he arrives at KSC. Hire a detective or whatever to find out where he works. We need that company’s name.
Because Kelvin, old buddy, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. That company is about to make billions. I’m going to invest as much as I can in it and I suggest you do the same. Long story—I’ll send you a more detailed email later.
&