<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;">He gave her a smile that never left his face while she spoke and when she asked her question it even widened some more.<br/><span style="color: #FF8000"><br/>"You mean, am I looking for a woman, who is so stubborn to risk her death instead of listening to someone who knows better? For a woman who makes obscene gestures when she gets complimented? For a woman who crosses her arms like a contact barrier whenever she feels that someone else got the upper hand? For a woman who can't accept defeat? Or do you mean am I looking for a beautiful, young woman with a sharp mind, a true heart and good humor? With the additional benefit, that she is absolute eye-candy? The jury is still out on this one, but I can tell you I like you. It is a pity that you are on the wrong side - right now."</span><br/><br/>He got serious again after this little banter.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"Speaking hypothetically, if I would really knock at your door one day or ask you to knock at mine and speaking hypothetically too, you knew what I did, you understood why I did it, but you couldn't find any hard proof for it, as I didn't allow you to find one. And you quit MP, because after this job you weren't any longer sure, that you fought for the right thing. And I would tell you that I feel too young to retire and that there is a dream I want to make true - nothing illegal, but maybe a little dirt necessary to start it, would you consider to help me with it?"</span><br/><br/>Peter had no masterplan how to deal with Alice. But he was pretty sure that once she got the taste of the job and what UE had made out of it AND she would have double-checked the results of his work, that her intention to bring him down would waiver. Peter didn't feel like a thief. Sure he sold stolen goods. But only because most of them he couldn't buy legally. If he could, he would. Most of the food and drugs he bought on regular channels. Just shipping them to the planets was illegal. He had big plans for the future, proper business plans that would make his father proud, if he would have known that his son was behind them. But the name Peter Halvardson would never surface in those businesses.<br/><br/>There was only one thing standing between him and those plans. Alice.</div>