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“So,” A the word out to aluys are probably on Io?”

“Yes,” Prax said

“Well shit, Doc Coulda just said so”

The thrust gravity was a full g but without the subtle Coriolis of Tycho Station Prax sat in his bunk, bent over his hand terminal There had been ti half starved and sick at heart were the only things that distracted hied The walls were still narrow and close The air recycler still clicked and hu isolated, Prax felt he was in the center of a vast network of people, all bent toward the same end that he was

MR MENG, I SAW THE REPORT ON YOU AND MY HEART AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU I’M SORRY I CAN’T SEND MONEY BECAUSE I’M ON BASIC, BUT I HAVE INCLUDED THE REPORT IN MY CHURCH NEWSLETTER I HOPE YOU CAN FIND YOUR DAUGHTER SAFE AND HEALTHY

Prax had coeneral ishers, and he’d considered trying to find a filter that could identify those es and reply automatically with the canned response He held off because he wasn’t sure hoell he could define the conditions set, and he didn’t want anyone to feel that their sentiranted And after all, he had no duties on the Rocinante

I’M WRITING YOU BECAUSE I MAY HAVE INFORMATION THAT WILL HELP WITH THE QUEST TO RECLAIM YOUR DAUGHTER SINCE I WAS VERY YOUNG, I HAVE HAD POWERFUL PREMONITIONS IN MY DREAMS, AND THREE DAYS BEFORE I SAW JAMES HOLDEN’S ARTICLE ABOUT YOU AND YOUR DAUGHTER, I SAW HER IN A DREAM SHE WAS ON LUNA IN A VERY SMALL PLACE WITHOUT LIGHT, AND SHE WAS SCARED I TRIED TO COMFORT HER, BUT I FEEL SURE NOW THAT YOU ARE MEANT TO FIND HER ON LUNA OR IN A NEARBY ORBIT

Prax didn’t respond to everything, of course

The journey to Io wouldn’t take much more time than the one to Tycho had Probably less, since they were unlikely to have the chaos of a stoay protoo bay this ti, it made his palm itch He knehere she was—or where she had been Every hour was bringing hi into his charitable account gave hiht knohere Carlos Merrian was and what he was doing

There were a few he’d set up conversations with, mostly video conversations sent back and forth He’d spoken with a security broker based out of Ceres Station, who’d run soenuinely nice rief counselor on Mars before he started to get an unco on him An entire school of children—at least a hundred of the in mixed Spanish and French in honor of Mei and her return

Intellectually, he knew that nothing had changed The chances were still very good that Mei was dead, or at least that he would never see her again But to have sohiht, that they hoped it would be all right, that they were pulling for hiroup reinforce co plant could be moved into a coh proximity, improve, even if soil and water were supplied separately Yes, it was chemicallyup fro to look deeply into your own, and saying what you wanted to believe was almost impossible to wholly disbelieve

It was selfish, and he knew that, but it was also addictive He’d stopped paying attention to the donations that were coh to fund the ship as far as Io Holden had given him an expense report and a detailed spreadsheet of costs, but Prax didn’t think Holden would cheat hi other than the total at the botto about money