<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #80BFFF"><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;">Peter Halvardson</span><br/><span style="font-size: 120%; line-height: 116%;">'The Viking'</span></span></div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: justify;">Peter swallowed the beef he chewed on and then looked at her with an amused face. This was all very tricky. He could tell her the truth, but it would be like admitting that he actually got his hands in this business. And so far he was accused of a lot, but they never could pin him on anything.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"Alice, you know that I can't answer that question. I would admit that all the accusations are true. But I answer you anyway, but in a neutral way. I hope some way down this road we are going together, we know each other good enough, to speak open about these topics without fearing that the other will use them one way or another. But actually I am not trusting you - enough. In principle you can answer the question by yourself. But I help you..."</span><br/><br/>He took something out of his lunch pack and once he tasted it his eyes went wide and he grabbed another one.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"Oh, damn. Mango. I haven't tasted that for I don't know how long. Ah, sorry, back to the topic. How often in your professional life have you come up on situations looking set in stone and once you investigated you found out, that the first impression was wrong? I don't say that your files are wrong, probably they are not complete, but they are put together from one point of view. And sorry to say that, you have to be neck-deep in the shit to know how it smells. You are now in this shithole and I am pretty sure that you are intelligent enough to look behind the scene. All this black-market thing has two sides. Always and everywhere. One is the illegal activities you have to undergo to get the supply and the money you extract from it. That is the dark side. The other side is the need for these goods. You don't create the need, the need is there. An unfulfilled need, but a need out of reasons. To make your life easier, to survive, to avoid death, whatever. You can go to any planet, Alice and ask the people who use the black market if they think that the one supplying the goods is a criminal for taking a lot of money away from them. And I guarantee, that in most cases you would earn a look telling you that you must be crazy to think that way. Those people see the benefit of the goods they get and how their life would be without those goods. They don't have to buy them, but they ask for it and they buy them out of free will."</span><br/><br/>He took another thing out of his lunchpack and he groaned eating it.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"Damn, those military folks know what a hard working man needs. Let's take those lunchpacks as an example. You had the pleasure to taste the wonderful food the company supplies us. Did you like it? I doubt it, nobody likes it. I bought these lunchpacks on the black market. They aren't cheap, but I guess you admit, that it is food that tastes like food and that it makes this shift easier to endure. Now, the guy supplying it, is he some Samaritean? No, of course not, he is not giving it away for free. But can I condemn him for it? He has to buy those things too, he is risking his life by doing so, is some moderate payback for the risk not awarded? I would say yes."</span><br/><br/>He let his eyes roam again over her body. She was a woman like he always pictured a woman to be. Damn, she was perfect. <br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"I know that I can't convince you. But maybe this damn planet can. I wouldn't be surprised, if you are so stubborn and focused to survive it playing it by the rules, that you will really get a taste of the desperation that gets to you when all the power leaves your body and you only want to die to end this torture. But once you reach that sole, then all the little helpers look like salvation. Then you run to the black market dealer and you want more and more drugs. And then you will realise that on this planet the black market works differently. That you can't buy as many drugs as you like. That you get only sold enough to work as you should. By far not enough to blow out your brain. And then you will start to wonder why that bastard of black market dealer does this? Isn't he after your money? Why does he want you to stop destroying yourself? And once I have you at this point, Alice, then we are very close to have an open talk..."</span></div>