Page 230 (1/2)

“I’ into it,” Soren said “It looks like there really was a Roberta Draper, but she died on Ganymede with the other h the report Records of back-channel steganographic ed Bobbie and a known Martian operative on Luna beginning the day that Avasarala had recruited her Avasarala waited for the fear to squeeze her chest, the sense of betrayal They didn’t co in new infor for her body to react It kept not happening

“We looked into this why?” she asked

“It was a hunch,” Soren said “It was just the way she carried herself when she wasn’t around you She was a little too … slick, I guess She just didn’t seeht So I took the initiative I said it was fro idiot for inviting ato do,” Soren said “If you’re looking for ways to reward ood service, I do accept bonuses and pro bet you do,” Avasarala said

He waited, leaning a little forward on his toes Waiting for her to give the order to have Bobbie arrested and sub As euphe the h-value intelligence agent planted in the heart of the UN would know things that were invaluable

So, Avasarala thought, why a to this?

She reached out to the screen, paused, pulled back her hand, frowning

“Ma’a, and the least expected Soren bit at the inside of his bottom lip It was a tiny movement, almost invisible Like a tell at a poker table And as she saw it, Avasarala knew

There was no thinking it out, no reasoning, no struggle or second-guessing It was all simply there, clear in her mind as if she had always known it, complete and perfect Soren was nervous because the report she was looking at wouldn’t hold up to rigorous scrutiny

It wouldn’t hold up because it was a fake

It was a fake because Soren orking for soetting to Avasarala’s desk Nguyen had re-created his little fleet without her knowing it because Soren was the one watching the data traffic So This was so that had been prepared for since well before Ganyone pear-shaped The monster on Ganyht

He had let her deuyen, let her take Bobbie onto her staff All of it, so that she wouldn’t get suspicious

This wasn’t a shard of Venus that had escaped; it was a military project A weapon that Earth wanted in order to break its rivals before the alien project on Venus finished whatever it was doing Someone—probably Mao-Kski—had retained a sample of the protomolecule in some separate and firewalled lab, weaponized it, and opened bidding

The attack on Ganymede had been on one hand a proof of concept assault, on the other a crippling blow to the outer planets’ food supply The OPA had never been on the list of bidders And then Nguyen had gone to the Jovian systeoods, James Holden and his pet botanist had walked in on soured out they were about to lose the trade

Avasarala wondered how iven Jules-Pierre Mao to outbid Mars It would have had to be et its first protoht had kept her out of the loop because whatever he was going to do with it, she wasn’t going to like it And she was one of the only people in the solar systeht have been able to stop him

She wondered whether she still was

“Thank you, Soren,” she said “I appreciate this Do we knohere she is?”

“She’s looking for you,” Soren said, and a sly sed at his lips “She may be under the impression that you’re asleep It is pretty late”