Birth of the Steel Rat. The Steel Rat Joins the Army

Who among the fans of Harry Harrison doesn't know the Steel Rat?! Jim di Griz, also known as the Steel Rat, earned this nickname for his extraordinary luck. A great rogue and swindler, he knows how to come out unscathed... from any situation, no matter how hopeless it may seem at first. Even when he is cornered and forced to cooperate with the space security service, you don't quite understand whether the Steel Rat is working for himself or for his new masters. And the whole story began like this: Jim di Griz, not yet the Steel Rat, but just a simple seventeen-year-old boy from a godforsaken backwater planet, decided to turn to crime. But the distance between "deciding" and "becoming" is no less than from Earth to the center of the Galaxy. So, he needs to find a mentor who will help him reach professional heights. For Jim, that mentor becomes the great Elephant, a legend of the criminal world. He is the one who will turn the former scamp into the Steel Rat, and for him, the teacher, when he becomes the victim of the cunning Captain Hart, Jim di Griz will join the army to take revenge for this villainy...