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The sht And more than that, the person Holden wanted to believe he still ould never consider leaving even a couy who’d taken a wound for him He forced himself to take three deep, slow breaths Prax knelt by A to apologize for yelling at her

“Alex is on his way,” she replied, her voice tight but not accusing “He’s a few hours out Running the blockade won’t be easy, but he thinks he’s got an angle Where is he putting down?”

Holden found hi before he realized he’d made the decision “Tell hi her to soet there”

He pulled the -key for the Somnambulist out of a pocket on his harness and tossed it to Wendell “This will get you on the ship you’re taking Consider it a down payment for services rendered”

Wendell nodded and tucked the key away, then went back to his injured

“Can he be carried?” Holden asked A not to think about the fact that he would have left the man to die a minute before

“No choice, Cap”

“Then somebody pick him up,” Holden said “No, not you, Amos I need you back on point”

“I got him,” Wendell said “I can’t shoot for shit with this hand busted”

“Prax Help hi the hell out of here”

They h the base Back past the ly, the ones they hadn’t Back past Katoa’s saze drifted toward the body, but Holden grabbed his jacket and shoved him toward the hatch

“It’s still not Mei,” he said “Slow us down and I leave you”

The threat made him feel like an ass thethe scientist’s lost little girl had stopped being the priority the instant they found the black fila honest with hi there when they found his daughter twisted into afrom orifices she hadn’t been born with, the black threads crawling from hertheir exit rushed over to help carry the injuredasked Prax handed the wounded man off to him without a word and then slid in place behind Paula as she scanned the hallways ahead with heron the trip in took on a sinister feel on the way back out The frosted texture that had reminded Holden of spiderhen he’d co Their pulsing had to be caused by adrenalineoff Jupiter onto the surface of Ganyht rerow here, with Jupiter endlessly supplying the energy? Eros had becoly powerful once the proto that could accelerate at incredible speeds without inertia Soe the very atmosphere and chemical composition of Venus And that ith just over a million human hosts and a thousand trillion tons of rocky

Ganynitude more mass than Eros What could the ancient alien weapon do with such bounty?