"Probably is," I said carelessly. "But it can wait, whatever it is."
And it did. I opened it after we'd ordered at the spaceport restaurant. I should have waited until after I'd eaten, but I couldn't know that until I read:
SPACER TRANSPORTING GLADIATOR EARTH-MARS FOR INTER-PLANETARY GAMES LOST. YOU HAVE BEEN APPOINTED EMERGENCY REPLACEMENT REPRESENTING EARTH. GOOD LUCK.
I gulped. If you don't know all about the Interplanetary Meet which is held every decade, then maybe you don't know why I gulped. If you do, you do. It's tough enough being a gladiator on Terra but at least you have a chance of coming out alive; you've even got a chance of winning. But at the Interplanetary Meet! Who ever heard of a Terran coming out in one piece? Not to speak of winning.
Sure, I'm a gladiator, but I've always been strictly a second rater; in fact, some of the sports writers call me a third rater. Anyway, I've always worked in the smaller meets where the gladiators, even when they lose, usually get off with their lives. In the small town stuff, they don't kill expensive gladiators, if they can help it.
My head was doing double flips trying to figure out some way of making myself scarce, when Suzi said, "What is it, Jak?"
Like a fool, I handed the message to her and she and Alger read it together.
Suzi's eyes widened and she started to say something, worriedly, but Alger stuck out his hand and said, "Congratulations, Jak. I knew you had great things in you. Now they'll be coming out.... Er.... That is, just think, one of the three gladiators representing Terra. What an honor!"
I was sunk.
The Interplanetary Meet was just three days off and I had three days to live.