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They didn’t understand, but they didn’t need to The real e came five hours later It came on a public newsfeed, and it was delivered by Secretary-General Esteban Sorrento-Gillis The old etic at the saoverning body in the history of the hu health drinks
The whole crew had gathered by now—Amos, Naomi, Holden, Alex Even Prax They were sandwiched into the ops deck, their coiving the deck a feeling of barn heat All eyes were on the screen as the secretary-general took the podiuht to announce the iative committee Accusations have beenbody of the United Nations and its al steps in dealing with certain private contractors If these accusations are true, they must be addressed in the most expedient possible manner And if unfounded, theythese lies called to account
“I need not remind you all of the years I spent as a political prisoner”
“Oh fkthe outsider speech That ht now to bend space”
“I have dedicatedout corruption, and as long as I have this gavel, I shall continue to do so Our world and the solar system we all share must be assured that the United Nations honors the ethical, ether as a species”
On the feed, Esteban Sorrento-Gillis nodded, turned, and strode away in a claed questions, and the co over each other in all the political opinions of the spectru?”
“He said Errinwright is finished,” Avasarala said “If he had any influence left at all, that announcement would never have been ht was off the board All that left was Nguyen, Mao, Strickland or whoever he was, their half-controlled proto threat of Venus She let a long breath rattle through her throat and the spaces behind her nose
“Ladies and gentlemen,” she said, “I have just solved our smallest problem”
Chapter Forty-Six: Bobbie
One of Bobbie’s ot her orders to report to the 2nd Expeditionary Force Spec War training facility Force Recon The top of the heap for a Martian ground pounder In boot caeant He’d been wearing a suit of glea red power armor, and they’d watched him demonstrate its use in a variety of tactical situations At the end, he’d told them that the top four boots from her class would be transferred to the Spec War facility on the slopes of Hecates Tholus and trained to wear the ar unit in the solar system
She decided that meant her
Determined to win one of those four coveted slots, she’d thrown herself into her boot ca she had It turned out that was quite a lot Not only did she make it into the top four, she was nuin And then the letter ca, and it was all worth it She called her father and just screaot her to cal about, he screaer You’re one of the best now, baby, he’d said at the end, and the warmth those words put in her heart had never really faded
Even now, sitting on the gray metal deck in the dirty machine shop on a stolen Martian warship Even with all her mates torn into pieces and scattered across the frozen surface of Ganymede Even with her military status in limbo and her loyalty to her nation justifiably in question Even with all that, You’re one of the best now, baby made her smile She felt an ache to call her father and tell him what had happened They’d always been close, and when neither of her brothers had followed in his footsteps by choosing a thened the connection She knew he’d understand what it was costing her to turn her back on everything she held sacred to avenge her teaain
Even if theytheuyen and the dozen or more ships he controlled didn’t ied to stop whatever was happening in orbit around Io with the Rocinante intact, Holden was still planning to land and save Prax’s daughter
The monsters would be there
She knew it as surely as she’d ever known anything in her life Each night she dreaers and staring at her with its too-large glowing blue eyes, ready to finish what it had started all those un that grew out of her hand, and started shooting it as it ran toward her, black spiderwebs spilling from holes that closed like water She aloke before it reached her, but she kne the drea on the ice She also knew that when Holden led his team down to the laboratories on Io where thewith him The scene from her dream would play out in real life She knew it like she knew her father’s love She welcomed it
On the floor around her lay the pieces of her armor With weeks of travel on the way to Io, she had time to completely strip and refit it The Rocinante’s machine shop ell stocked, and the tools were of Martian make It was the perfect location The suit had seen a lot of use withouthonest with herself, the distraction was the payoff A suit of Martian reconnaissance armor was an incredibly co and reasse it wasn’t a trivial task It required full concentration Everyon it was anotherto kill her on Io
Sadly, that distraction was over now She’d finished with thethethe slow but persistent leak of fluid in the suit’s knee actuator It was ti of ritual A final cleansing before going out to meet death on the battlefield