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Avasarala reached for her hand terminal and opened a connection to Soren

“Ma’am?”

“When I said don’t hurry, I didn’tday off My tea?”

“Coot sidetracked I have a report for you thatif the tea’s cold,” she said, and dropped the channel

Putting any kind of real surveillance on Mao would probably be impossible Mao-Kski Mercantile would have its own communications arrays, its own encryption schemes, and several rival companies at least as well funded as the United Nations already bent on ferreting out corporate secrets But thereoff Venus and going to Mao-Kwik installations Ora tray with a cast-iron teapot and an earthenware cup with no handle He didn’t comment on the darkness, but walked carefully to her desk, set down the tray, poured out a s tea, and put his hand terminal on the desk beside it

“You could just sendcopy,” Avasarala said

“More dramatic this way, ”

She snorted and pointedly picked up the cup, blowing across the dark surface before she looked at the ter from outside Ganymede seven hours earlier and the identification code of the associated report The man in the picture had the stocky bones of an Earther, unkeood looks Avasarala frowned at the ie as she sipped her tea

“What happened to his face?” she asked

“The reporting officer suggested the beard was intended as a disguise”

She snorted

“Well, thank God he didn’t put on a pair of glasses, we ured it out What the fk is Ja on Ganymede?”

“It’s a relief ship Not the Rocinante”

“We have confiristration codes”

“The reporting officer did a visual inspection of the interior layout and checked the record when he got back Also, the crew didn’t include Holden’s usual pilot, so we assue,” Soren said He paused “There is a standing detain-on-sight for Holden”

Avasarala turned the lights back on The s becaain; the storm was pressed back outside

“Tell me we didn’t enforce it,” Avasarala said