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“Are you about to do so really stupid?” she asked

“I’ shot for the crihteous tone even as he said it

“Don’t,” Naoun on anyone”

“They have guns”

“Guns plural You have gun singular, which is why you will keep yours in your holster, or you’ll do this by yourself”

That’s the only way you ever do anything By yourself It was the kind of thing Detective Miller would have said For hiainst doing it that way

“Okay” Holden nodded, then resu his way to the front By the time he reached it, two people had becoray-haired port securitya white patch with the word supervisor printed on it and a tall, thin dark-skinned wo at each other while their respective groups looked on, shouting agreements and insults

“Just open the damn door and let us look!” yelled the wo she was repeating again and again

“You won’t get anything by yelling at ray-haired supervisor yelled back Beside hiuards held their shock sticks in white-knuckled grips and the corporate boys held their shotguns in a loose cradle that Holden found far

The wo when Holden pushed his way up to the supervisor, and stared at him instead

“Who …?” she said

Holden cli dock next to the supervisor The other guards waved their shock prods around a little, but no one jabbed his just narrowed their eyes and shifted their stances a bit Holden knew that their confusion about who he ould only last so long, and when they finally got past it, he was probably going to get uncomfortably intimate with one of those cattle prods, if not just blasted in the face with a shotgun Before that could happen, he thrust his hand out to the supervisor and said in a loud voice that would carry to the crowd, “Hi there, I’m Walter Philips, an OPA rep out of Tycho Station, and here as personal representative of Colonel Frederick Johnson”

The supervisor shook his hand like a ain and held their guns more firmly

“Mr Philips,” the supervisor said “The OPA has no authority …”

Holden ignored hi at

“Ma’a at the door, “has alh to feed the whole station for a week!”

The crowd reement at her back and shuffled forward a step or two