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“Ah,” Bobbie said

“Oh,” Cotyar said a moment later

“Yes,” Avasarala said “When that happens, I will declare this an illegal seizure of et me this ship”

Chapter Thirty-One: Prax

With every day that passed, the question came closer: What was the next step? It didn’t feel all that different fro lists as a way of telling hi for Mei He was looking for Strickland Or the mysterious woman in the video Or whoever had built the secret lab In that sense, he was much better off than he had been before

On the other hand, he had been searching Ganymede Now the field had expanded to include everywhere

The lag time to Earth—or Luna, actually, since Persis-Strokes Security Consultants was based in orbit rather than down the planet’s gravity as a little over twenty minutes It made actual conversation essentially impossible, so in practice, the hatchet-faced wo a series of proeted to what Prax wanted to hear

“We have an intelligence-sharing relationship with Pinkwater, which is presently the security coest physical and operational presence in the outer planets,” she said “We also have joint-action contracts with Al Abbiq and Star Helix With those, we can take ih our partners, on literally any station or planet in the system”

Prax nodded to himself That was exactly what he needed Someone with eyes everywhere, with contacts everywhere So a release,” the wo fee, but on’t be charging your accounts for anything ation you’re willing to be liable for Once we have that in hand, I will send you a detailed proposal with an itemized spreadsheet and we can decide the scope of work that works best for you”

“Thank you,” Prax said He pulled up the docuned off, and returned it It would be twenty ht before it reached Luna Twentyin between?

It was a start He could feel good about that, at least

The ship was quiet in a way that felt like anticipation, but Prax didn’t know exactly what of The arrival at Tycho Station, but beyond that, he wasn’t sure Leaving his bunk behind, he went through the ealley and up the ladder toward the ops center and then the pilot’s station The s froh-definition screens that filled 270 degrees of vision with starlight, the distant sun, and the approaching mass of Tycho Station, the oasis in the vast emptiness

“Hey there, Doc,” Alex said from the pilot’s couch “Coht”