{"product_id":"2940013667945","title":"Redemption Cairn","description":"Have you ever been flat broke, hungry as the very devil, and yet so down\u003cbr\u003eand out that you didn't even care? Looking back now, after a couple of\u003cbr\u003emonths, it's hard to put it into words, but I think the low point was\u003cbr\u003ethe evening old Captain Harris Henshaw dropped into my room--my room,\u003cbr\u003ethat is, until the twenty-four-hour notice to move or pay up expired.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere I sat, Jack Sands, ex-rocket pilot. Yeah, the same Jack Sands\u003cbr\u003eyou're thinking of, the one who cracked up the Gunderson Europa\u003cbr\u003eexpedition trying to land at Young's Field, Long Island, in March, 2110.\u003cbr\u003eJust a year and a half ago! It seemed like ten and a half. Five hundred\u003cbr\u003eidle days. Eighteen months of having your friends look the other way\u003cbr\u003ewhen you happened to pass on the street, partly because they're ashamed\u003cbr\u003eto nod to a pilot that's been tagged yellow, and partly because they\u003cbr\u003efeel maybe it's kinder to just let you drop out of sight peacefully.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI didn't even look up when a knock sounded on my door, because I knew it\u003cbr\u003ecould only be the landlady. \"Haven't got it,\" I growled. \"I've got a\u003cbr\u003eright to stay out my notice.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You got a right to make a damn fool of yourself,\" said Henshaw's voice.\u003cbr\u003e\"Why don't you tell your friends your address?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Harris!\" I yelled. It was \"Captain\" only aboard ship. Then I caught\u003cbr\u003emyself. \"What's the matter?\" I asked, grinning bitterly. \"Did you crack\u003cbr\u003eup, too? Coming to join me on the dust heap, eh?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Coming to offer you a job,\" he growled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Yeah? It must be a swell one, then. Carting sand to fill up the blast\u003cbr\u003epits on a field, huh? And I'm damn near hungry enough to take it--but\u003cbr\u003enot quite.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It's a piloting job,\" said Henshaw quietly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Who wants a pilot who's been smeared with yellow paint? What outfit\u003cbr\u003ewill trust its ships to a coward? Don't you know that Jack Sands is\u003cbr\u003etagged forever?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Shut up, Jack,\" he said briefly. \"I'm offering you the job as pilot\u003cbr\u003eunder me on Interplanetary's new Europa expedition.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI started to burn up then. You see, it was returning from Jupiter's\u003cbr\u003ethird moon, Europa, that I'd smashed up the Gunderson outfit, and now I\u003cbr\u003egot a wild idea that Henshaw was taunting me about that. \"By Heaven!\" I\u003cbr\u003escreeched. \"If you're trying to be funny--\"","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47175947387120,"sku":"2940013667945","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013667945_p0.jpg?v=1763584105","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013667945","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}