Page 3 (2/2)

In the unbroken darkness, the exterior high-speed ca out a thousand fra else

Chapter One: Holden

W

hen he’d been a boy back on Earth, living under the open blue of sky, one of his raines Seeing her pale and sweating with pain had been hard, but the halo sympto the house or working through contracts for her law practice and then her left hand would start to clench, curling against itself until the veins and tendons seemed to creak with the strain Next her eyes lost their focus, pupils dilating until her blue eyes had gone black It was like watching soht this time, she’d die from it

He’d been six at the tiraines unnerved hiood The fear had becoe off the terror, andtrapped The assault could come at any ti, even if it was only a little bit

It felt like being haunted

“The house alins,” Holden shouted

He and the crew—Alex, Ae of Ceres’ itized voices of the slot h to drown out most casual conversation The few frequencies they weren’t doh-pitched clatter of the pachinkoon one of the casino’s three stages All of it added up to a wall of sound that left Holden’s guts vibrating and his ears ringing

“What?” Amos yelled back at him

“In the end, the house alins!”

Amos stared down at an enor and dividing the tables At a glance, Holden guessed they’d won so like fifteen thousand Ceres new yen in just the last hour It made an impressive stack If they could quit now, they’d be ahead But, of course, they wouldn’t quit now

“Okay,” A”

If his creanted to lose a few thousand bucks blowing off steam at the blackjack tables, as he to interfere? The truth was it wouldn’t even put a dent in the payout from their most recent contract, and that was only one of three contracts they’d co to be a very flush year

Holden hadto quit his job as the OPA’s bagman and become an independent contractor wasn’t one of thele as a freelance courier and escort ship, the Rocinante had taken seven jobs, and all of the the ship bow to stern She’d had a tough couple of years, and she’d needed some love

When that was done and they still had eneral account than they knehat to do with, Holden had asked for a creish list Naomi had paid to have a bulkhead in their quarters cut out to join the two rooh for two people and plenty of room to walk around it Alex had pointed out the difficulty in buying new rade torpedoes for the ship, and had requested a keel-ive them more punch than the point defense cannons, and its only as A a stopover on Callisto, buying therades When Holden pointed out that the Roci was already capable of accelerating fast enough to kill her crew and asked why they’d need to upgrade her, Amos had replied, “Because this shit is awesome” Holden had just nodded and siddy rush of spending, they had enough to pay themselves salaries that were five times what they’d made on the Canterbury and keep the ship in water, air, and fuel pellets for the next decade