Spoils of the Game Read Online Free Page A

publishers of reading books for elementary school students. There were many good ideas, and now with her death, Austin had hoped that others would complete her work.

    The second file was thicker, with the title “Rescue.” Austin opened the file carefully. The contents were more serious, with no cartoons. Austin and Susan often had talked about her concern that a significant number of European paintings were dying from neglect in old church basements or in small museums that did not have the money to preserve or protect them. The contents of this file were not as well defined as the first. The problem was stated, and the file included notes from meetings she had had all over Europe, but the solutions were still a little vague. The second file also contained a lot of photos that Susan had taken during her travels to Europe and many photos of people she had met at the Louvre. Her smile was so infectious. When she was in a photo, the smiles of others seemed bigger and brighter. Austin studied the photos carefully. Seeing his wife’s pictures brought conflicting emotions of love and sorrow. He recognized some of the other faces. Some he knew well, and some had been passing introductions, and the more he studied the pictures, the more he remembered the particular personalities. There was Andre Vassar, the head of the Louvre, and Claude Badeau, whom Susan never really had trusted. In a few pictures was Madeline Rousseau, a woman that Susan had really liked and respected. Susan always had believed that Rousseau was one of those people behind the curtain who really ran the Louvre. It was interesting to Austin that in the four pictures where Madeline could be seen, her appearance was strikingly different, and he had to work to confirm that it was really her. This attractive woman had a sense of style and fashion so common with French women, and her underlying good looks perhaps gave her a lot to work with.

    Austin completed looking through the file and perhaps had the same frustration that his wife had had. He closed the file and carefully put it back in the same location.

    At about eight that night, he became hungry and foraged through the kitchen for anything to eat. Austin did not have the time to shop for food or make something from scratch. The standing order with his housekeeper, Louise, was simple: keep the refrigerator full, and throw out the old stuff. The problem Austin had was that he did not know what she had provided, and that often resulted in a refrigerator safari.

    Dinner was lasagna, chocolate pudding, and beer, followed by TV and a nap. When he finally got to bed, his head was spinning with thoughts. The questions were simple. What would it take to complete the two projects on Susan’s desk? Austin knew that a little effort and money would do it. Pierre, the Museum Mouse, in the hands of some good publishing types, should be a done deal. The rescue mission for dying art was another question. The file had a lot of good ideas and even some outlines, but it still was missing a lot of information. It appeared to be more of a project management issue than an art project. It was the type of thing that Austin was good at, but he didn’t know the European art world and he didn’t know a thing about fixing art. How difficult can it be? he thought to himself.

    The issue was not whether he could do it, but rather whether he could get away from Clay Medical. Over the weekend the idea of completing Susan’s projects lingered in his head. On Monday morning Austin called a meeting of some of his key people. No one knew the agenda, and no one could have guessed. There were five people in the room before Austin showed up. Carl Thomson sat to the right of Austin’s chair. Carl had been with the company for almost as long as Austin, and as senior vice president, he knew every detail of the company’s finances and operations. The four other men ran R&D, engineering, operations, and finance.

    Austin entered the conference