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“Okay, but what’s a ‘PDC network’?”

Holden tried not to frown He’d expected any nunorance hadn’t been one

“Point defense cannons If those destroyers fire torpedoes at us fro co theh that they can overwhelive it three days before they start”

“I see,” Avasarala said “And what’s your plan?”

Holden barked out a laugh with no humor in it “Plan? My plan is to die in a ball of superheated plasle fast-attack corvette, which is us, can successfully fight six light destroyers We aren’t in the saainst one, a lucky shot ainst six? No chance We die”

“I’ve read your file,” Avasarala said “You faced down a UN corvette during the Eros incident”

“Yeah, one corvette We were athe unar This isn’t even re”

“So what does the infamous James Holden do at his last stand?”

He was silent for a while

“He rats,” Holden said “We knohat’s going on We have all the pieces now Mao-Kwik, the proto We put all the data in a file and broadcast it to the universe They can still kill us if they want to, but we can e Keep it fro the whose ship you’re on”

“I’ive a fk that this is your ship? If I did, really, I was just being polite,” Avasarala said, giving hi to fk up the whole solar systeer fish to fry”

Holden counted to ten in his head and said, “Your idea is?”

“Send it to these two UN ad on her terminal His buzzed with the received file “Souther and Leniki Mostly Souther I don’t like Leniki, and he hasn’t been in the loop on this, but he’s a decent backup”

“You wantall of the vital information I have to a UN admiral”

Avasarala leaned back into her chair and rubbed her teertips Holden waited “I’m tired,” she said after a few moments “And I miss my husband It’s like an ache in ht now Do you knohat that’s like?”

“I know exactly what that ache feels like”

“So I want you to understand that I’ to terrandchildren Or ood thirty years left in reat-grandchild or two But instead, I’ to be killed by a liuyen”