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If his early suspicion was correct and Fred actually had bartered using the protomolecule as currency or, worse, as a weapon, Holden would kill him He knew that like he knew his own name, and he feared it That it would be a capital offense and would alet him burned down on the spot was actually less important than the fact that it would be the final proof that Naoht to leave That he’d turned into theJust another Detective Miller, dispensing frontier justice froun But whenever he pictured the scene, Fred’s aduilt and heartfelt appeal forhi the sort of man ould make a different choice, but he couldn’t actually re, and Fred had nothing to do with the tragedy on Gany, and he had just been too stubborn to see it He ize for that with sufficient humility to win her back Stupidity was usually a lesser cri God with the alien supervirus, that was eneral It was an unpleasant thought that the truth that would be worst for humanity was the one that would be best for him Intellectually, he kneouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice himself or his happiness to save everyone else But that didn’t stop the tiny voice at the back of his head that said, Fuck everyone else, I wanthalf remembered pushed up from his subconscious and he wrote MORE COFFEE FILTERS on his list of needed supplies
The wall panel behind him chimed an alert half a second before his hand terminal buzzed to let hi permission to board He tapped the screen to switch to the airlock’s outer door ca in the corridor Saray coveralls he re Alex said so her tools With the intercom off, it was a silent movie
Holden tapped the intercouys” Another tap cycled the outer airlock doors open Sam waved at the camera and stepped inside
A few ed open, and the ladder-lift whined its way down Sa her tools onto theHolden a quick hug “You getting irl?” Alex said
“Not this tied bulkheads in the engineering bay to her “Boo bay, burned a hole there and threw some shrapnel into the power junction there”
Sa way around, or your reactor kno to duck”
“How long, you think?”
“Bulkhead’s si into her ter her front teeth with its corner “We can bring a patch in through the cargo bay in a single piece Makes the job a lot easier Power junction takes longer, but not a lot Say four days if I getlike a s “We also have a dao bay door that will either have to be fixed or replaced And our cargo bay airlock is kind of messed up”
“Couplethings out of her toolbox “Mind if I start taking souest”
“Been watching the news a lot?” Sa heads on the wall ht?”
“Yeah,” Alex said “Pretty much”
“But it’s only Gany I haven’t quite figured out yet”
“Naoht now,” Sa Holden felt his face go still and tried to fight against it, forcing himself to smile
“Oh Cool”
“She won’t talk about it, but if I find out you did so this on your dick,” she said, holding up a torque wrench Alex laughed nervously for a second, then trailed off and just looked uncomfortable