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The bright blue eyes narrowed The srew less war? I put powerful men in prison for you, Assistant Undersecretary I burned bridges”

Distant thunderat the pane Avasarala crossed her arms

“You did But that doesn’t s you say under oath and things you dance around This room isn’tyou can tell s”

The silence between thens, but the , and he was too good at it A professional

“Things get lost,” Avasarala said “There was one ti division that no one remembered Because that’s how you do it You take part of a proble on it, and then you get another part of the proble on that And pretty soon you have seven, eight, a hundred different little boxes ork going on, and no one talking to anyone because it would break security protocol”

“And you think …?”

“We killed Protogen, and you helped I’ around so you say yes”

“Is this froht?”

“No JustI know,” he said

“I don’t believe that”

The mask of his persona slipped It lasted less than a second, nothing le of his spine and a hardness in his jaw, here and gone again It was anger That was interesting

“They killedto hide, I wouldn’t have”

“How did it coet her? Was soainst you?”

“It was bad luck She was out in the deep orbits, trying to prove so and rebellious and stupid We were trying to get her to co ti tickled at the back of Avasarala’s mind A hunch An impulse She ith it

“Have you heard from her since it happened?”

“I don’t understand”

“Since Eros Station crashed into Venus, have you heard frory now It was al She couldn’t have said what about it was inauthentic The intelligence in his eyes, maybe The sense that he was e swept people away This was rage as a ga theatrically “She died when that bastard alien thing went down to Venus She died saving the Earth”

Avasarala countered soft She lowered her voice, let her face take on a concerned, grand to play the injuredlived,” she said “So survived that impact, and everybody knows that it did I have reason to think that it didn’t stay there If soht have reached out to you Tried to contact you Or herI want one”