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“Quiet,” Holden said, but there was no malice in it “Stay off the channel, please”

Bobbie let the rational, thinking part of her mind listen to the back-and-forth She had no use for that part of her brain right now The part of her ets and fire torpedoes at the now

She didn’t kno many torpedoes she’d fired when there was an enorht and the camera display blacked out for a second When it came back, one of the UN destroyers was torn in two, the rapidly separating pieces of hull spinning away froas cloud and s out of the shattered ship would be UN sailors Bobbie ignored that The lizard rejoiced

The destruction of the first UN ship tipped the scales, and within ed or destroyed A UN captain sent out a distress call and inaled surrender

Bobbie looked at her display Three UN ships destroyed Three heavily daed The Martians had lost two destroyers, and one of their cruisers was badly daed The Rocinante had three bullet wounds that had let all her air out, but no other dae

They’d won

“Holy shit,” Alex said “Captain, we have got to get one of these”

It took Bobbie a ratitude of the UN govern to the Martian coovern to Io to blow up some more ships and maybe stop the apocalypse Want to come with?”

Bobbie opened a private channel to Avasarala

“We’re all traitors now”

“Ha!” the old lady said “Only if we lose”

Chapter Forty-Four: Holden

Froe to the Rocinante was barely noticeable The three point defense cannon rounds fired by one of the UN destroyers had hit her just forward of the sick bay and, after a short diagonal trip through the ship, exited through thethe way, one of theh three cabins in the crew deck

Holden had expected the little botanist to be a wreck, especially after his crack about soiling himself But when Holden had checked on him after the battle, he’d been surprised by the nonchalant shrug the scientist had given

“It was very startling,” was all he’d said

It would be easy to write it off as shell shock The kidnapping of his daughter, followed byon Ganymede as the social structure collapsed Easy to see Prax’s calm as the precursor to a complete mental and emotional breakdown God knew the man had lost control of himself half a dozen times, and most of them inconvenient But Holden suspected there was a lot more to Prax than that There was a relentless forward ht knock hiain, but unless he was dead, he’d just keep getting up and shuffling ahead toward his goal Holden thought he had probably been a very good scientist Thrilled by s until he got to where he needed to be