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Martian ships whipped past on both sides as the Rocinante accelerated through the eting arrays and point defense cannons swiveling to track the but the Ring and infinite star-speckled black all around it

The plan ca horrible he’d always known and tried to forget The , and even if they avoided it, there would be others He couldn’t dodge forever He couldn’t surrender For all he knew, his weaponsat any second For athe way it did when so He was intensely aware of Naomi, pressed back in her couch Monica and Okju, their eyes ith fear and thrust Clip, his hand pressed aardly into the gel by his side Cohen’s slack jaw and pale face

“Huh,” Holden gurgled to hi his throat when he vocalized He signaled Alex to cut thrust, and the gravity dropped away again

“The Ring,” Holden said “Airavity came back with a slap, and Holden rotated his chair to his workstation and brought up the navigational console Watching the rapidly approaching orange dot out of the corner of his eye, he built a navigational package for Alex that would take the, then spin theerous deceleration burn just before they went in He could slide them in under the velocity cap that had stopped the Y Que and all the fast-ht by whatever was on the other side, and the Roci, going sloouldn’t The ship warned hi forces had a 3 percent chance to kill one of the crewa short burn

The e to Alex, half expecting hi Instead, the Roci accelerated for an endless twenty-sevenspin that lasted less than four seconds, and a deceleration burn that lasted four and a half le person on the ship unconscious

“Wake up,” Miller said in the darkness

The ship was in free fall Holden began coughing furiously as his lungs atte deceleration burn Miller floated beside hi at all Holden watched her until he could see the gentle rise and fall of her rib cage She was alive

“Doors and corners,” Miller said His voice was soft and rough “I tell you check your doors and corners, and you blow into theout Lucky sonofabitch Give you this, though, you’re consistent”

So about the way he spoke see his thoughts, the detective turned to look at him Smiled

“Are you here?” Holden asked His en loss “Are you real?”

“You’re not thinking straight Take your time Catch up There’s no hurry”

Holden pulled up the exterior ca exhale that al outside the ship, just over a hundred meters fro, its tail a furious white torch stretching nearly a kilo in space, motionless

Holden didn’t know if the h He suspected not More likely, they’d just wound up that close once they’d both stopped ine burning as it still fought to reach hio down his spine and his balls creep up into his belly Ten meters closer and they’d have been in proximity It would have detonated