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Her sobs intensified, shifted The vo started She knew fro, she watched the bodybuilder’s chest heaving for air through his ruined throat, but he was already gone The sht her breath, wiping the back of her hand against her lips Her sinuses ached, and she didn’t know if it was frolands that lay in that tender flesh It didn’tat the door was more desperate now She could make out the voice of the fat man by the door No more time She took the plastic envelope and shoved it in her pocket Melba Alzbeta Koh crawled out theand dropped to the street She stank There was blood on her hands She was treht hurt, and she used the shadows of her hands to hide from it In this part of Baltimore, a thousand people could see her and not have seen anything The blanket of anonyed and enforced also protected her

She’d be okay She’d made it The last tool was in place, and all she had to do was get to her hotel, drink so to put her electrolytes back in balance, and sleep a little And then, in a few days, report for duty on the Cerisier and begin her long journey out to the edge of the solar syste down the street, avoiding people’s eyes, the dozen blocks to her rooer But she would do it She would do whatever had to be done

She had been Clarissa Melpomene Mao Her family had controlled the fates of cities, colonies, and planets And now Father sat in an anony with anyone besides his lawyer, living out his days in disgrace Herherself to death The siblings—the ones that were still alive—had scattered to whatever shelter they could find from the hatred of torlds Once, her faht and blood, and now they’d been made to seem like villains They’d been destroyed

She could h It hadn’t been easy, and it wouldn’t be now Sohts, the sacrifices felt almost unbearable, but she would do it She could make them all see the injustice in what James Holden had done to her family She would expose him Humiliate him

And then she would destroy him

Chapter Four: Anna

A

nnushka Volovodov, Pastor Anna to her congregation on Europa—or Reverend Doctor Volovodov to people she didn’t like—was sitting in the high-backed leather chair in her office when the wife beater arrived

“Nicholas,” she said, trying to put as e “Thank you for taking the time”

“Nick,” he said, then sat on one of the metal chairs in front of her desk The ave the roo, with her in the position of judge It hy she never sat behind the desk whenwith one of her parishioners There was a co the back wall that wasBut every now and then, the air of authority the big chair and heavy desk gave her was useful

Like now

“Nick,” she said, then pressed her fingertips together and rested her chin on theed, looking away like a schoolboy caught cheating on an exam He was a tall ot from hard physical labor Anna kneorked in surface construction Here on Europa, thatdays in a heavy vacuuh as nails Nick had the attitude of a man who kne he looked to others, and used his air of physical competence to intimidate

Anna smiled at him It won’t work on me

“She wouldn’t tell et her to lift her shirt I didn’t need to see the bruises, I knew they’d be there But I did need pictures”