Vicky Peterwald: Survivor (Vicky Peterwald Series Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

screens. “I’m nothing. But I’m also a Grand Duchess. I can keep being nothing, or I can be the tiny grain of sand that causes an oyster to produce a pearl.”
    “I understand the oyster considers that grain of sand an irritant,” Mannie said.
    “I don’t doubt that,” Vicky said.
    “Let me get this straight,” said the elder woman who wanted to wait until things blew over. “Are you rebelling against your father?”
    “That is not my intention at this time. I pray it will never be my intention,” Vicky said with all the sincerity she could manage. She really meant the words. However, getting enough sincerity around anything a Peterwald said was always a problem.
    The man with the frilly shirt was up from his desk and leaning into the camera so that his face filled the screen. “Areyou trying to tell me that a Peterwald is doing something good for altruistic reasons?”
    “Yes,” Vicky said back as blandly as she could.
    “There’s got to be a first time for anything, folks,” Mannie said. “Remember, people, I was there when she signed the first city charter. Her neck may not have been on the line, but a good bit of her skin was in the game.”
    He came to stand beside Vicky and stared hard into her eyes. “I don’t know where she’ll be coming from next month, and surely not next year, but right now, I really do think we have a Peterwald in our lap who cares about starving people and parents who look at their children and the stew pot. And vice versa.”
    Mannie leaned back against his desk. “Where’s the Navy in all this?”
    “They loaned me a shuttle to come down here to talk to you,” Vicky said without flinching.
    “A shuttle that damn near fell out of the sky,” one mayor said.
    “I didn’t have any trouble flying it,” Gerrit lied through a smile.
    Vicky really owed him tonight.
    “We’ve got a lot of out-of-work ships drifting around behind the station,” Mannie pointed out. “We’re harvesting a bumper crop. We can afford to risk some of it to help these other planets, and we
do
need that crystal.”
    The consensus was building, slowly, with every nod.
    Vicky kept her mouth shut and let the mayors of St. Petersburg talk themselves into what they knew was a good thing. But a good thing that only she could offer them a chance to grab for. She felt a strange feeling, sitting in silence while all those around her struggled to meet some high bar they thought she’d set.
    Dad always bragged about what he’d done, what butt he’d kicked in this or that meeting. Vicky found herself kicking no butt and not really doing much of anything. Still, around her,
because of her
, things were being done that neither they nor she thought possible.
    This was a change from everything she’d ever known, ever even thought feasible.
    But there was more going on. Somewhere deep inside her, something was happening. That dirty, naked savage, willing to do anything for a morsel of food was changing, metamorphosing into something entirely different. Vicky was none too sure just what the changed her would be like, but she kind of liked it.
    For maybe the first time in my life, I feel good about something I’m involved in, and I really like it.

CHAPTER 7
    A N hour later, Mannie ticked off their action plan on his fingers.
    “We will send a trade delegation to Presov to see about swapping food for crystal. We’ll include industrial agents not only to check out the quality of the crystal but also to see what goods and services, parts and supplies they need. Maybe we’ll carry some of what they likely need with us as well,” he said, half to himself.
    “Considering the quality of civil discourse no doubt now existent on Presov, we’ll need a cruiser to protect our merchant hulls and a Marine detachment to protect our negotiators. Possibly our food and supplies as well,” Mannie said, glancing at Vicky.
    She replied with a confident smile she didn’t feel.
    On the screens, eight people nodded.