Page 202 (1/2)
The aze on her own, she sobered
“That thing that killed your friends?” Avasarala said while theher in the eye “It wasn’t one of mine”
Draper’s inhalation was sharp It was like Avasarala had touched a wound Which made sense, because she had Draper’s jaorked for a second
“It wasn’t one of ours either”
“Well At least we’ve got that settled”
“It won’t do any good, though They won’t do anything They won’t talk about anything They don’t care You know that? They don’t care what happened as long as they all protect their careers andway None of the was or where it came from”
The bar around the dance was now only the secondat the bar
“I care,” Avasarala said “As a reat deal of latitude in finding out what that thing was”
It wasn’t entirely true She’d been given a huge budget to implicate or rule out Venus But it was close, and it was the right frame for what she wanted
“Really?” Draper said “So what are you going to do?”
“First thing, I’ to hire you I need a liaison with the Martian military That should be you Can you handle it?”
No one at the bar was talking to anybody now The rooht have been ehter An older ne walked by, drawn by the quiet spectacle without knohat it was
“I’m a Martian Marine,” Draper said “Martian You’re UN Earth We aren’t even citizens of the same planet You can’t hire me”
“My name’s Chrisjen Avasarala Ask around”
They were silent for a moment
“I’m Bobbie,” Draper said
“Nice to meet you, Bobbie Come work for me”
“Can I think about it?”
“Of course,” Avasarala said, and had her ter as when you’re done thinking, you come work for me”
At the VIP apartments, Avasarala tuned the syste to just then If he wasn’t already asleep She fought back the urge to call hietinto her hand ter she longed to , hot shower She didn’t drink alcohol often Usually she didn’t like how it dulled her ive her brain the little extra jazz it needed to see connections
Draper kept her connected to Mars, even if not to the day-by-day slog of the negotiations That was a good start There would be other connections too Foster, in data services, could be brought in She’d need to start routing h him Build a relationship It wouldn’t do tohis new best friend just because he happened to be s-attached cupcakes first Then the hook Who else could she—