Vacation on Union Station (EarthCent Ambassador Book 7) Read Online Free PDF Page A

business leaders were sitting. One protester held an old-fashioned megaphone and led the chants.
    “We want free elections,” the woman shouted.
    “We want free elections,” the protesters repeated dutifully.
    “No representation without participation,” proclaimed the leader.
    “No representation without participation,” the followers echoed.
    “Stryx go home!” she shouted.
    “Stryx go home?”
    The protesters repeated this last bit uncertainly, and a young man let his sign fall and raised a hand.
    “Yes, Jason?” the leader said through her megaphone. She was plainly unhappy with the interruption, but as an advocate of participatory government, she had encouraged her followers to ask questions at any time.
    “Aren’t the Stryx already home?” Jason asked. “I mean, they own the stations and all.”
    “That’s an excellent observation, young man,” Ambassador Oshi interjected before the protest leader could reply. “I’d be happy to address all of your questions if you’ll meet with me at the embassy later. Right now we’re in the middle of a meeting to raise funds for a children’s theatre.”
    “Oh, sorry,” the young man said. The other protesters let their signs droop and some of them looked rather abashed. “My little brother wants to be an actor. Can I do anything to help?”
    “Jason!” the leader shouted through her megaphone. “Don’t let the oppressors buy you off with their bread and circuses. Have you forgotten what I said in our meeting just twenty minutes ago?”
    “But now we’re interrupting their meeting, Amber,” protested a middle-age woman. The sign which she had allowed to slide to the floor read, “One sentient, one vote.”
    “Did anybody ask us for our input on this alleged theatre project?” Amber shouted back through her megaphone. “Who are they to decide for all of the humans living on the station?”
    “Do you have something against children’s theatre?” Jason asked.
    “It’s not about the damned children’s theatre!” Amber yelled, losing her temper. “It’s about self-determination and not living as slaves of the Stryx overlords.”
    “Are you feeling alright, Miss, er, Amber?” Ambassador Oshi inquired. He appeared to be genuinely concerned. “Waiter? Could you bring the young lady a glass of water?"
    Amber snarled at him, raised her megaphone to say something, and then changed her mind and marched off, head held high. The rest of the protesters melted away. The scene vanished and the hologram of the steering committee members seated around a virtual conference table returned.
    “Wow,” Belinda said. “That was really wild.”
    “I suspect those protesters had less time to prepare for their demonstration than I did for this meeting,” the Void Station ambassador observed.
    “Has anybody else experienced a similar outbreak of democracy?” the president asked with a crooked smile.
    “I did have an awkward meeting earlier this week with a local man who wanted to register his candidacy for the next ambassadorial election,” Ambassador Zerakova said. “I tried to explain to him that we don’t have elections, but it didn’t seem to sink in. He kept posing the same question in different ways until finally I sent him to dinner with my junior consul. It couldn’t have gone very well because she hasn’t been speaking to me for the last two days.”
    “Does the close timing of these incidents strike anybody else as suspicious?” Belinda asked. “Why don’t we get our Mr. Oxford’s opinion on all of this before we make any decisions? That is what we pay him for, after all.”
    “He’s waiting in my outer office, so we’ll skip the vote and invite him in now if there are no objections,” Kelly said. “Oh, and just in case you’ve forgotten, we don’t pay him. The intelligence agency supports itself by selling data and services to the business community.”
    “Could a police force be self-funding?” the president asked.
    “For